CHARACTER

Therefore, whoso hearth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock—

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand—

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
3 Nephi 14:24-27 Hearth and doeth. One thing to listen, next and greater- to obey whatever we heard in our heart to do!

Last night, well now that I am typing this so late, Thursday night--we had an amazing RS meeting. We had a great presentation on pornography and what to do when you are dating and married. 53 girls end up being there for the presentation--it was great valuable information.

Thomas (a great guy in my ward that did the presentation) was answering a question on how does a girl know the guy is off of pornography and won't go back to the habit... Thomas then shared a PROFOUND thought on the verses above.

Two "men" built houses. They could be identical houses. But it is not until the storm and the rain comes that we find the character of that man. It is not before, but when the storms come whether we see if he built on a foundation in the sand or on a rock. Our character is not truly tested or shown until we see how we stand through a storm.

Beautiful truth Thomas! Thank you!

I love the picture above. Believe it or not, Dad is the 4th one over starting from the left. We all went to lavender days and Dad with Young Living, help narrate this cute little western show.

Character--the stuff we are made up of. When others are watching, but more importantly who we are in the quite chambers of our soul when only we see/know and of course God sees/knows.

Mom and Nyk have challenge me to a Book of Mormon read in 30 days. I must admit, I am someone that will pick apart one chapter in three or four days. So reading eight or nine chapters in one day is a bit different ;) But I have felt that I needed to take the challenge.

The past few weeks I have been deeply impressed/pondering over murmuring. More clear than ever--murmuring is a faith killer and a fear builder. Murmuring causes worry and doubt. Murmuring demonstrates our lack of understanding, our pride in the fact that our humility is low and murmuring just makes you grumpy--and effects those around you.

Certainly a test of my character would be to see if I handle the storms of my life without murmuring or complaint.

Recently I had some pretty profound revelation over a close friend and I have pondered how it is possible to come to pass-- my weakness temps to control me in the fact when I get a revelation that I don't understand or see possible, I follow through, yes, but sometimes with a stink attitude. Often I am a murmurer.

I have not mentioned the specific details of the revelation to anyone for I am bound and determined to not murmur on this particular insight. God will make away, and this I put my faith in the bank with.

(I hope to not murmur anymore-EVER. This is amazingly easier said than done.)

As I was studying 1 Nephi 17 before this 30 day challenge and now again with the start of the challange, I had a thought. Lamen and Lemual are just laying bad into Nephi. They were mad about being in the wilderness and leaving all the things behind in Jerusalem.

My impression--at the beginning of their complaining session they mention "...and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions." This comment is towards the start of their complaining. No offense to guys, but I just don't see them being that sensitive to their wife's conditions without a little prompting. Sure in a complaint list maybe the wife's hardships take up the 10th or 11th slot on the list--but with Lamen and Lemual, they bring up their wives issue early in their murmuring session. The thought came to me that their wives must have been complaining to them (their husbands) quite a bit--and perhaps it was the wives complaining that triggered/influenced the husbands to to go and get grumpy with Nephi. !! I have seen this happen with couples many times. Take a chill man, and put a constantly complaining wife behind him and your guy now has negative things come out of his mouth.

The rest of their complaints I am sure were part of their own personal complaints, but the impression for me was that they were being partly the way their were because of of the influence of their wives over them.

When this impression came I immediately did not want to EVER be caught influencing my husband to be grumpy because of my "murmurings" at home. The scriptures say why Lamen and Lemual murdered? "...they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them." (1 Nephi 2:12).

Well there you have it. Your Character of what you are built on (sand or rock) won't be fully tested and I should say exposed until a storm hits you. (And the scripture says, the rains descended on the wise and the foolish). That is when you can choose to murmur or trust. To submit or rebel. To rejoice instead of curse and sing instead of complain.

I was moved by these words from Elder Richard G. Scott in the April 2009 conference--

Fourteen years ago the Lord took my wife beyond the veil. I love her with all my heart, but I have never complained because I know it was His will. I have never asked why but rather what is it that He wants me to learn from this experience. I believe that is a good way to face the unpleasant things in our lives, not complaining but thanking the Lord for the trust He places in us when He gives us the opportunity to overcome difficulties.

We had the blessing of having children. A daughter, the first child, continues to be an enormous blessing in our lives. A couple of years later a son we named Richard was born. A few years later a daughter was born. She died after living only a few minutes.

Our son, Richard, was born with a heart defect. We were told that unless that could be cured, there was little probability that he would live more than two or three years. This was so long ago that techniques now used to repair such defects were unknown. We had the blessing of having a place where doctors agreed to attempt to perform the needed surgery. The surgery had to be done while his little heart was beating.

The surgery was performed just six weeks after the birth and death of our baby daughter. When the operation finished, the principal surgeon came in and said it was a success. And we thought, “How wonderful! Our son will have a strong body, be able to run and walk and grow!” We expressed deep gratitude to the Lord. Then about 10 minutes later, the same doctor came in with an ashen face and told us, “Your son has died.” Apparently the shock of the operation was more than his little body could endure.

Later, during the night, I embraced my wife and said to her, “We do not need to worry, because our children were born in the covenant. We have the assurance that we will have them with us in the future. Now we have a reason to live extremely well. We have a son and a daughter who have qualified to go to the celestial kingdom because they died before the age of eight.” That knowledge has given us great comfort. We rejoice in the knowledge that all seven of our children are sealed to us for time and all eternity.

That trial has not been a problem for either of us because, when we live righteously and have received the ordinances of the temple, everything else is in the hands of the Lord. We can do the best we can, but the final outcome is up to Him. We should never complain, when we are living worthily, about what happens in our lives.

Fourteen years ago the Lord decided it was not necessary for my wife to live any longer on the earth, and He took her to the other side of the veil. I confess that there are times when it is difficult not to be able to turn and talk to her, but I do not complain. The Lord has allowed me, at important moments in my life, to feel her influence through the veil.

So what is in my character? What makes me up--most importantly when no one is watching or seeing. What am I doing with my time. Am I a complainer/murmurer. Am I choosing to know God's dealings with me. My stance/actions when a storm hits is the best way to view who I really am.

For whoever this is for--may God bless you to overcome whatever storm you are facing.