Love and Peace
No, I'm not a hippie... though I'm pretty sure that title may make me sound like one =)
Before I begin, let me just apologize in advance for any typos. Zoe is deathly allergic to being on the floor while I'm on the couch, so she is currently alternating between laying on both of my arms as I type, violently playing with her tug rope right by me (bumping into me every other word), and giving my laptop puppy kisses. The result? Lots and lots of typos.
Now... without any further ado, I give you the musings of my mind.
I've challenged myself, you see. I have daily goals to accomplish so that I don't waist my entire day being a couch potato and watching 4 movies in a row. That'd be not so good. One of my goals is to spend at least 30 minutes a day studying the scriptures. I like to write down my thoughts when I study so that I can look back on them later. And copy them down to my blog.
I flipped open my scriptures, looking for a good topic to study. I came across St John 13:34-35 first. It reads:
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye
are my disciples."
If you just broke out into song while reading that scripture, you're not alone.
In the footnotes, I found it interesting that each time it says "love" in that scripture, it's referring to a different kind of love. The first time, the footnote simply suggests "love". The second time, it mentions "love within family" and the third time, it says "fellow shipping."
Food for thought. Read the scripture again while thinking of those different kinds of love. Does it make a difference? It certainly added depth I had never noticed before, that's for sure!
I glanced to the other page, and got caught up in St John 14:27:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Now, a few things struck me about this scripture. Of course, you will probably get something completely different out of it whenever YOU read it, but that's half the fun. Just nod and smile as you read my ramblings. =]
The footnotes give us the idea of "contentment; peace" for the word 'peace' in the sentence, "My peace I give unto you". I thought that was really cool! So to plug that word in, it would read like this:
"Peace I leave with you, my [contentment] I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Dude. For me, once I do that, the scripture takes on a whole new meaning! The Lord blesses us with contentment. We might not have the world understand why or believe that we truly are content. Take, for example, that a woman staying home to raise a family instead of pursuing a career might seem like something the world would scoff at. They would think that there is no way that she could really be content. But she is! And all because the Lord has left His peace with her.
Another thing that really stood out to me as I read that scripture today is when the Lord said "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid". I've read this verse a gazillion times during the course of my life, but this is the first time that I ever gave thought to His choice of words. If we "let" something happen, that implies that if we don't make a conscious effort to stop it, it will happen naturally. So when the Savior said "let not", He was basically saying, "Jessica, everyone has feelings of doubt and fear. Everyone has troubles. But I'm asking you to trust me and work at disregarding those feelings when they appear." He's teaching all of us that we're not alone. We all have problems in our lives, and we all wish they would go away. We don't need to worry about them, though. If we turn our lives over to the Lord, Jesus Christ, we will be strengthened. We need not let our hearts become afraid or troubled.
2 Kings 6:16--
"Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."
Joshua 1:9--
"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou
goest."
Dare I ask... Can it get any better than that?!? Nah. I don't think so. It seems to me that we all get caught up in the day-to-day of life that we forget the literal application of the gospel. Jesus Christ is literally the Son of God, and He literally came to earth. He lived a perfect life, performed many miracles, sacrificed his very life for our sins and pains, and he literally rose again after being crucified so that we can live with him forever. And since he rose again, he lives even now. And he loves us more than we can possibly comprehend.
Literally.
Does that change how you think about your day?
Before I begin, let me just apologize in advance for any typos. Zoe is deathly allergic to being on the floor while I'm on the couch, so she is currently alternating between laying on both of my arms as I type, violently playing with her tug rope right by me (bumping into me every other word), and giving my laptop puppy kisses. The result? Lots and lots of typos.
Now... without any further ado, I give you the musings of my mind.
I've challenged myself, you see. I have daily goals to accomplish so that I don't waist my entire day being a couch potato and watching 4 movies in a row. That'd be not so good. One of my goals is to spend at least 30 minutes a day studying the scriptures. I like to write down my thoughts when I study so that I can look back on them later. And copy them down to my blog.
I flipped open my scriptures, looking for a good topic to study. I came across St John 13:34-35 first. It reads:
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye
are my disciples."
If you just broke out into song while reading that scripture, you're not alone.
In the footnotes, I found it interesting that each time it says "love" in that scripture, it's referring to a different kind of love. The first time, the footnote simply suggests "love". The second time, it mentions "love within family" and the third time, it says "fellow shipping."
Food for thought. Read the scripture again while thinking of those different kinds of love. Does it make a difference? It certainly added depth I had never noticed before, that's for sure!
I glanced to the other page, and got caught up in St John 14:27:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Now, a few things struck me about this scripture. Of course, you will probably get something completely different out of it whenever YOU read it, but that's half the fun. Just nod and smile as you read my ramblings. =]
The footnotes give us the idea of "contentment; peace" for the word 'peace' in the sentence, "My peace I give unto you". I thought that was really cool! So to plug that word in, it would read like this:
"Peace I leave with you, my [contentment] I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Dude. For me, once I do that, the scripture takes on a whole new meaning! The Lord blesses us with contentment. We might not have the world understand why or believe that we truly are content. Take, for example, that a woman staying home to raise a family instead of pursuing a career might seem like something the world would scoff at. They would think that there is no way that she could really be content. But she is! And all because the Lord has left His peace with her.
Another thing that really stood out to me as I read that scripture today is when the Lord said "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid". I've read this verse a gazillion times during the course of my life, but this is the first time that I ever gave thought to His choice of words. If we "let" something happen, that implies that if we don't make a conscious effort to stop it, it will happen naturally. So when the Savior said "let not", He was basically saying, "Jessica, everyone has feelings of doubt and fear. Everyone has troubles. But I'm asking you to trust me and work at disregarding those feelings when they appear." He's teaching all of us that we're not alone. We all have problems in our lives, and we all wish they would go away. We don't need to worry about them, though. If we turn our lives over to the Lord, Jesus Christ, we will be strengthened. We need not let our hearts become afraid or troubled.
2 Kings 6:16--
"Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."
Joshua 1:9--
"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou
goest."
Dare I ask... Can it get any better than that?!? Nah. I don't think so. It seems to me that we all get caught up in the day-to-day of life that we forget the literal application of the gospel. Jesus Christ is literally the Son of God, and He literally came to earth. He lived a perfect life, performed many miracles, sacrificed his very life for our sins and pains, and he literally rose again after being crucified so that we can live with him forever. And since he rose again, he lives even now. And he loves us more than we can possibly comprehend.
Literally.
Does that change how you think about your day?
Comments
Post a Comment