All Shall be Judged from the Book of Life

Revelations 20:12-13

"And I saw the ^adead, small and great, ^bstand before God; and the ^cbooks were opened: and another book was opened, which is the ^dbook of life: and the dead were ^ejudged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their ^fworks.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and ^adeath and^bhell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works."

These scriptures tell us that all of us will be judged from the Book of Life. Our eternal future will be according to the things written there. What will be found in that book?

The book will contain our works. Not what we do for a living but what we do with the life that is given to us. How much good do you do in the world? How do you handle life's trials?

See, Jesus came and payed the price for our sins, all we have to do is repent of the things we do wrong and promise to never do them again, and don't do them again. Because Jesus already paid the ultimate price then we can be forgiven when we make wrong choices and stay on track. The scriptures tell us he remembers them no more.

What comes next is what is in the book, obedience. We need to be obedient to the commandments which are given to us by God. Part of that obedience is to love our brother (everyone) and do good things for them.  There are so many good charitable organizations in the world, so there are many opportunities to to be helpful. Those are things that could be written in the book.

When  you see a need to be helpful and produce good and you do them, those are things that could be written in the book. Taking care of one another and our planet, including the inhabitants that reside on them are good things we could find in the book. All things will be brought to our remembrance on judgement day.

What about the bad stuff, will they be found in the book? Good question, I think they will be only if we do not repent of those things. 

As righteous women we need to repent of the bad choices and put them behind us, God will. Then we need to get out there and do what ever good we can do to help build the Kingdom of God and help our brother along the path of life. We can all climb the ladder together and work to be saints of God. These are the things we want to find in the Book of Life. These are the things that will be our rewards in Heaven.

Jesus Said to Forgive Everyone

Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-11

"Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to ^aforgive one another; for he that ^bforgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
 I, the Lord, will ^aforgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to ^bforgive all men.

And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God ^ajudge between me and thee, and ^breward thee according to thy ^cdeeds."

I remember a story of a woman who went through a drive through at McDonalds and ordered coffee. She ended up spilling the coffee on herself and causing severe burns. She in turn took it out on McDonalds because the coffee was extremely hot and sued them, and won. 

I have always been amazed at that story because, 1) she blamed them for selling her coffee that was too hot, like we don't know that coffee is meant to be hot, and 2) she won the case receiving millions of dollars. I felt bad for her but coffee is meant to be hot.

Accidents happen, life happens; it doesn't mean we are to sue our brother for accidental things that happen to us. We need to have a forgiving heart for all trespasses  What happens to us when we choose not to forgive?

Our countenance stops shining, we become more bitter and angry at life. We find blame in others, and in God. It is easy to feel that way, too. But it is a horrible feeling. There are some good examples out there of people who have been able to forgive a trespass and found peace in their trials; trials such as drunk drivers taking the lives of family members. That's not an easy one to forgive but it can happen and bring you peace as well.

If a employee of McDonald's accidentally spills coffee on someone then there could be a reason to sue and get help for medical costs. But, this lady caused the accident herself and should not have won the case. Now, it seems at every turn there is a warning sign about every little thing that "could" happen to you on every packaging label of just about every product. Amazing!

As righteous women we should have a forgiving heart for all people. The scriptures teach us to forgive and God will take care of the justice. I do hope this woman has forgiveness in her heart for McDonald's after all of this. Forgiveness is a key to happiness.

Spirit of Contention

3 Nephi 11:29 - "For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another."

I can be pretty stubborn when I want to be but that is the key, I have to want to be, or...I find that when I dwell on an issue for a while I can get a little upset real easy. But I have been working on that weakness for a little while now, however, I think I still need to work on this.

Recently, we got a new Bishop, who I like a lot. He is a very good man and comes from an awesome family. But recently I found we had a difference of opinion in something concerning my son. Over the past two years I have been a volunteer at the Family History Library on the same nights my son has his youth meeting. Our routine has been that he would wait for me to pick him up when I was done but our new Bishop didn't like that he would be staying alone at the church so he took him home that night.

At first it bothered me then I let it fester until I was angry. I allowed myself to get caught up in the spirit of contention. It began to bother me so much that I couldn't sleep well that night. I had to pray for help to shake the feelings of anger. I didn't like the way I felt, nevertheless I wanted to be right about this.

The next morning I had calmed down and could see the error of my ways. I realized that he knew I was a single mom trying to serve the Lord through family history so he was probably doing something nice for me by taking my son home. I appreciate his kindness and had to ask for forgiveness for my thoughts and actions.

We can ruin relationships with people when  we allow things to fester inside of us. When we feel anger towards another person we are allowing Satan to influence our emotions even more. Righteous women have to work hard to avoid anger because we cannot be an example of our Savior Jesus Christ if we cause others to feel anger towards us. Self control of our angers and frustrations is a good tool to avoid Satan's promptings.

I have prayed for self control for certain things in my life, this certainly needs to be one of those things. The spirit of contention has ruined many people's lives. But we have a good example in Jesus Christ and we, as righteous women, should all be striving to follow in His footsteps. We can't love our brother if we feel the spirit of contention in our lives.

Second Article of Faith

The Second Article of Faith in the belief of the Mormons is: "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression."

What this means is that we will not be punished for the choices Adam made in the Garden of Eden. We can only pay the price of our own sins. I'm not sure why people would think that we would be punished for anyone else's sins or transgressions.

Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

Actually, we need to be grateful to Adam and Eve for their choices in the Garden of Eden. By choosing to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they were able to put God's plan into play. His plan was for His children to come to earth, to receive a body, and learn to live our lives the way our Heavenly Father wanted us to so we can return back to him someday with honor. We cannot prove ourselves unless we live in a world where everyone has choices and where we pay the price for that agency. Now we can show Heavenly Father that we love him and that we are willing to live our lives as He commands us to. Commandments are laws that we are required to live in order to know true happiness while living in this world. If we choose not to live them then there are consequences that can hurt us or will not allow us to return to live with Him.

Because of the choices made in the Garden of Eden we needed a Savior to help us return home and that Savior is Jesus Christ. But I will talk about that in the next Article of Faith post. But here is scripture to help understand part of the Plan of Salvation regarding Adam and Eve's role in the Plan of Salvation.

1 Cor. 15: 22, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Part of the Plan of Salvation help 

As I have studied more about Adam and Eve I have come to love them and appreciate their understanding of the choice they made that gives us the opportunity to prove ourselves worthy to live with our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for them and their wisdom. And now I can have that same wisdom as I continue to learn and grow here in this world.

Going to the House of the Lord

Years ago I set a goal to go to the temple once a month. I kept that goal for a long time. Those of you who are Mormon know you have to live your life within certain standards in order to enter into the most sacred place on the earth. When you live these standards then you are worthy to enter into the House of the Lord.

Every time I attended the temple I had wonderful experiences. I never walked away without learning something new. I formed a question in my mind and I would learn the answer then or later through scripture study. I loved attending the temple.

But last year I experienced a test and did not pass it. I had some unexpected expenses that I choose to pay and not keep up with my tithing to God. I missed some months and convinced myself that I would make it up before year end but I just kept getting behind.

Needless to say, at tithing settlement I could not pay the difference which made me less than a 100% tithe payer. As I confessed this to the Bishop he asked me not to attend the temple for awhile, my heart was sad.

My temple recommend was due to expire in February so we set the goal to be 100 % for 3 months. After that I would meet with the Bishop again. I was successful with getting back on track; however, he told me that the Stake President would probably want me to be back on track after 4 -5 months so I have to wait until April before I can renew my recommend and attend the temple again.

My heart aches to return because I have so much work to do for my ancestry as well as my thirst for more knowledge. I will never make that mistake again. I love the temple and the feeling of the Spirit while I am there. I know that wonderful things happen in there.

I also know that the work for my ancestry depends on me and if I do not live my life worthy then I can not help them. Who else do they have? There may be others out there doing the work but it is my responsibility to do this for my family; I can't let then down. So...from this day forward I will live my life so that I may be able to enter the temple knowing my life and the life of my loved ones, who have left this earth already, will truly be blessed as I do so.

Forgiveness is a Hard Thing to do

Everyone of us has had the need for forgiveness in our lives whether we were the forgiver or the one needing to be forgiven. Some offenses are extreme and seem justified in not forgiving, while others are minor and easy to forgive, but do we?

One time, many years ago, I had a friend that I really liked. I learned a lot of things from her. She did something one day that made me upset so I went to someone else to complain, she overheard me saying something about it but I did not see her standing there. She was mad when I called her the next time and I begged her to tell me why. Finally, after several calls, she told me why. I was so upset with myself for offending her. She was my friend and you don't treat friends like that.

I begged her to forgive me but she couldn't at that time. It took awhile for her to get past my selfish act, it really was a petty thing for me to ruin a friendship over. I should have come to her to complain instead of someone else. The change in our friendship was my fault, I still ache over my stupidity. She has forgiven me but I'm not sure I have forgiven me; I am working on it.

This wasn't a small matter but it was something that wasn't as big as things that can't be given back, like life. How do we forgive someone when life is taken from us? Why does God require us to forgive all things?

Over the years I have discovered that I have two choices, I could live with an unforgiving heart and keep the pain forever, or I could forgive and be free from the pain. It's hard to explain the release you feel when you have truly forgiven someone of a terrible injustice. I haven't lost someone to murder but I have lost a child to something that was supposed to protect her, an immunization shot. Who do I blame for this? It took a while to get over, I even got made at God but I was given the peace in my life once I started the forgiveness process.

I believe we are commanded to forgive everyone because it helps us to be free from the chains of sorrow that hold us down and never let us move on in our lives. Having an unforgiving heart is like an illness that slowly kills you. There is a cure for it but sometimes it takes a long time to heal. But we have to have a positive state of mind in order to heal. 

We have the control over whether or not we forgive or don't, but it is a release from grief that helps us to heal. So God, in his wisdom, has told us to forgive knowing that we can begin that healing process. It has to come from us, no one else can do it for us.

It's not easy but deciding to heal is the only way we can find forgiveness and move on. We will not forget what things are done to us or someone we love, once things are said they will always be there and that is probably why I can't forget easily the wrong I did to my friend. But I do feel good about conquering the negative feelings of hate and anger that Satan plants in our hearts from wrong doings, I have the control for things in my heart, not him. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who commands us to do things that seem hard but in reality is for our good.

May this Nation heal from the wrong doings that are done against us and those we love, everyday. May there be peace in our hearts so we can offer that peace in the world.