Gethsemane

            Though they may not be my favorite single scripture, the most inspirational scriptures for me are those describing the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. These scriptures mean more to me, personally, than even the scriptures describing his death. During the Savior’s time in the Garden, I find my connection to Him. Here I see him as human, like me. Here I see him suffering like me, only more so. Here I see him alone, like I have often felt. Here I see him exercise great faith and devotion, something that I wish I could do. In the Garden, Christ is me and comes through it like I wish I could. 

            Though Christ knew that he had to feel everything that each of us would go through, all of the pain, suffering, sorrow, grief…everything, he did not wish to be alone. Upon arriving in the Garden, He asks his disciples to watch with him. As He suffers through the sins of the world, he is left alone. His friends are asleep when he needs them most. He wakes them and tells them to “watch and pray”. Again, He doesn’t want to be left alone. As Christ continues with the atonement, the apostles doze off. He wakes them a third time, again prompting them to “watch and pray” and, again they sleep while He suffers.

            During some of His most difficult times, Christ’s closest followers, those he trusted most, left him. He knows what it is to suffer alone. For that reason we are never alone. He knows what we are dealing with and how it feels to go it by oneself. He truly knows what is going on. He will always understand what each of us is going through.

            During the time that the disciples were asleep, Christ suffered, so much so that He sweat blood. This pain is immense. Whatever I am going through is going to be something that I can get through because I know that He got through it and so much more. I also know that it is okay to not want to go through it. Christ didn’t. He asked three times to “let this cup pass from [him]”. Even a perfect man who knew his purpose had feelings of his own. Feelings are not a sin. It’s okay to be upset by trials. It’s okay to want to not have to deal with them. It’s okay to be sad. It’s human.

            The challenge comes when we realize that having feelings can’t interfere with doing what we need to do. Christ didn’t want to suffer. He knew it would be hard, even excruciating. However, when faced with the knowledge that this was what needed to be done and that He was the only one who was able to do it, He followed the will of the Lord. He loves us and His Father. He wanted all of us to be happy and to be able to return to the Father. So we must respond.

            When we are faced with trials that we would rather not have, we should pray to have them lifted (if it be the will of the Lord) but we should also pray to have the strength to endure those trials that are our to endure. Not all of our trials will be lifted. How else would we grow? As Christ did, we must say “Nevertheless, thy will be done.” Often, these trials will be the hardest trials of our lives. Often they will hurt, but with the strength of the Lord we can overcome.

            I said that I can see myself in Christ in the garden. What I mean by this is that I see parallels with my life and His time there. I have had so many trials that I then would have wished away, most recently the loss of my husband. I have prayed so hard for those trials to be lifted, but they weren’t. I did, however, come to learn to ask for the strength to do what I needed to, regardless of whether the trial was lifted or not. From Christ in the Garden I have learned that it is okay to be sorrowful about the trials that I have but I also have to face that I have them and I have to keep moving forward with what I know is right. I have to have faith that I am doing something worthwhile. It’s taken me a while, but I know I am.

           I’m not always the most faithful in my trials. I’m not the first person to fall into prayer during trouble, but I wish I was. While I have found some lessons in these scriptures, I still need to use them. I need to practice the faith that Christ showed. I need to follow the example that He set for me in my trials. That’s the only way that I can make it through.

That’s the only way that you can make it through.

Love One Another

While my last post discussed the importance of love in obedience, this time I would like to talk about how our love sets us apart as disciples of Christ. In John 13:34-35, Christ teaches that men will know us as disciples of Christ through our treatment of other people. This brings up the question “what does my treatment of others say about my devotion to Christ?” 

This question is something that I think on often, especially with regards to my family relationships. Am I acting, as a parent, the way that Christ would act toward my children? Have I shown my parents proper respect for their authority? Have I been Christlike in my dealings with friends and strangers? We are given so many chances to show our discipleship each day!

Treating others in line with how Christ would treat them requires us to humble ourselves and to set aside our fallen prejudices. We cannot see others as children of God, with eternal potential, if we are too busy seeing them as a screw-up, a drama queen, a jerk or a tightwad. In order to love others as Christ does, we must see them as Christ does. Christ knows each of us. He knows our potential. He knows our struggles. He knows how hard we are fighting depression or how tough it is to not yell at children. He know that life is complicated and that sometimes we do things that we regret. 

He loves us anyway!

            He also knows that hearts can be changed, that thoughts can be overcome. He knows that addictions can be fought and conquered. He wants us to see that too. We need to stop seeing the flaws in others and see their lives the way Christ see them, with love, faith, and hope. As we do this, others will see His love through us. We will be His hands in the lives of others, acting for him in his physical absence. 

            Disciples of a cause are followers of that cause. They pursue and spread it. Christ is not here for us to physically follow but He has marked the path for us. He has left detailed directions of the way that He took and the way that we should go. With those kinds of directions, we will never be lost and will always know where we should be going. Stopping to see the divinity in others makes us see the divinity in Christ. As we do, others will see His divinity in us.

The First Commandment

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

     When we think of the word “commandment” we often think of the Ten Commandments. There is, however, something that is greater than these. As Christ taught in Matthew chapter 22, the greater commandment is to love the Lord and to love others with all of our heart, soul, and mind. That’s a very complete kind of love.

     Why is that the greatest commandment? When we put the love of God, Christ, and Heavenly Father’s children as our first priority for obedience in our lives the other commandments fall into place. Would we disrespect the Sabbath if we loved the Lord? Would we steal, kill, or envy if we really wanted others to he happy and successful in life? We couldn’t. The actions that we are told to abandon in the Ten Commandments are in direct opposition to act of love.

     Think about those that are physically present in your life. Do you love them? If so, would you steal from them? Would you put someone else before them? Probably not. Our love binds us to a person and makes it so that we want their happiness. If we love God and His happiness in achieved through our obedience then our love brings our obedience. This is why the commandment to love is greater than the Ten. Through love, perfect obedience can happen.

Spirituality

People believe spirituality to be simply a belief in God’s existences. If you believe, then you are spiritual. In reality that is just the beginning. True spirituality is having an eternal perspective. Those with this perspective have an understanding that their lives are part of a larger picture, and eternal scheme. Paul taught this principle more than once in his ministry.

“We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 5:5-6)

Those that are eternally minded have a more positive view of their lives. They still experience hardship. They still have pain. The difference is that they see their experiences as passing and manageable because of the power and plan of God.

I taught this principle to a friend of mine once. At the time, my husband was undergoing his third round of chemotherapy. It was not helping him to enter remission but was simply buying him time until we could get the transplant that he needed. This day, my friend watched my two boys so that I could visit with my husband in the hospital. When I went to pick them up, we began talking about how things were going with his treatment. She told me that her family was praying each day that my husband would recover. I replied that her prayers were greatly appreciated and that we were still hoping that that would be the case. I then told her that regardless of whether he recovered or not, the will of the Lord would be done and we would make it through it. 

I had thought little about that exchange until months later, after my husband’s death. In church one day, that same friend came up to me and mentioned that day to me. She said that my words had stayed with her and have reminded her of our purpose here. They had helped her to find peace in my husband’s death, something that seemed unfair in her eyes.

Our spirituality helps us to weather the storms that come our way. An eternal perspective gives us the hope that these trials are for a short time. It helps us to find a reason to keep moving forward, in the hopes of better things to come.

The Second Coming

Many have heard of the circumstances that will precede the second coming of Christ. It fills us will fear and dread. How will we survive such events! There is hope for us, hope that can give us peace as these events unfold.

First, the words about the second coming were written for us that we may know what to expect. It's as if we have been given the questions to the final before we have to take it. We know what's coming. We know what to look for. We haven't been left in the dark to figure it out.

It also should give us hope that "yet [his] words shall not pass away, but all shall be fulfilled"(JS-Matt 1:35). This doesn't mean only those tragic events, but all of his words, even those that say that He will not leave us. We have been told that Christ has prepared a way that we may accomplish all that we are asked to in this life (1 Ne 3:7). Why would He help us to the last days and then leave us to our own devices? He wouldn't! He loves us and wants us to succeed. We will be given all that we need to make it through those times.

That time before the second coming will be hard. Our faith will be tested. Many will be lead away by false prophets and false christs. We will have to be diligent and faithful. We will have to be prepared for "of that day, and hour, no one knoweth; no, not the angels of God in heaven, but my Father only" (JS-Matt 1:40). But when He comes, it will be glorious. "For the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (JS-Matt 1:37). In that day we will celebrate. We will have stood faithful and will see Him come again.

Marriage for Time or Eternity

            Many people feel that marriage here is marriage forever, that their marriages will still be in full force in the hereafter, even though their vows say “until death do us part”. Christ offers a similar perspective. In Matthew 22:30 Christ teaches, “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Meaning that there will be no marriages performed after the resurrection.

            Further clarification of this principle is offered through modern revelation in D&C 132:14-16. 

“Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me nor by my word, and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world.

Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory.

For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever.”

These verses help to show us the connection between “until death do us part” and Matthew 22:30. From them we learn that marriages where the covenant is for time in this world only have no binding power after that time; the marriage is broken with no chance to marry again after this life. Such is the law. There is however an alternative.

            It is obvious, through study, that this is not the only option before us for in 1 Peter 3:7 we learn that husband and wife are “heirs together of the grace of life” and from 1 Corinthians 11:11 that “neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” These additional verses definitely sound like marriage that can surpass time on this earth. Such marriage has also been clarified through modern revelation. 

“And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood…it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.” (D&C 132:19)

Marriages covenanted for eternity, sealed by the Holy Ghost and performed by someone with the authority to do so will be in full force after the resurrection. These marriages are not for time only. There is not “death do us part”. There is forever.