What Would Jesus Do?

Reading: "Think on Christ", Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, April 1984, and Mosiah 4:29-30 & D&C 6:36

Continuing today the theme of how to focus on Christ, I read an article today by Ezra Taft Benson on how to keep Christ in our thoughts all the time. He stated that since our thoughts determine what we become, it is important that we keep our thoughts Christlike.

If thoughts make us what we are, and we are to be like Christ, then we must think Christlike thoughts.

There are many scriptures that talk about thoughts, as well. I was especially affected by Mosiah 4:29-30 and D&C 6:36. Clearly, what we think is important. While it is very hard or impossible to control what thoughts pop into our head, we can control what thoughts we dwell on. The less credence we give to bad thoughts, and the more we surround ourselves with good things, the less bad thoughts will pop up.

President Benson then shared a story of people who chose to ask "What would Jesus do?" each time they had to make a decision. In each person's life asking this question had bigger consequences than they expected, resulting in the person becoming much more Christlike. It helped me realize that while "WWJD" has become somewhat cliche, the spirit behind the sentiment is one that should still be important to all of us.

One thing I have learned in trying to "control" one's own thoughts, is that the harder you try NOT to think about something, the more you think about it. So, if one has a bad thought come into their mind and the person reacts by shouting in their head, "STOP THINKING ABOUT _____ RIGHT NOW!" they will never get rid of that thought. They will only make themselves feel much, much worse and perhaps they will wonder what is wrong with them that they cannot stop thinking such awful thoughts. However, if we try to remove a bad thought by simply replacing it with a good thought, such as a hymn or the question, "What would Jesus do?" then we will be much more successful. The less time and effort you spend on the bad thought, the better.

So, today, I am going to try applying what President Benson suggested and ask myself, "What would Jesus do?" each time I make a choice. I am really not sure what to expect, and the more cynical part of me thinks not much, but if anything of interest does happen I'll share it with you tomorrow.

Do you have any ideas on how to keep your thoughts Christlike? Or, do you have an experience where pondering on "What would Jesus do" made a difference in your life?

Remembering What God Has Done For Us

Reading: "O Remember, Remember", President Henry B. Eyring, Liahona, Nov 2007

So, continuing today on the theme of focusing on Christ I chose to read Elder' Eyring's article about remembering what God has done for us. In the article Elder Eyring shares how as a parent he kept a journal recording the things that God had done for his family each day. Then he gave copies of that journal to his children when they were grown. That journal is an inspiration to his whole family today.

He then talks about how easy it is for us to forget how blessed we are by God. We forget when we are prosperous because everything seems so common place. We forget when we are suffering because we are so consumed by how bad things are we forget to see what is good. Throughout all of the history of the Earth mankind has struggled to remember God's goodness.

The key to remembering the Savior in our daily lives, he says, is in having the Holy Ghost to be with us. The Holy Ghost will help us to remember times throughout our lives that God helped us. We must then strive to be worthy of the Holy Ghost's presence.

Elder Eyring then challenges us to pray for help in seeing God's hand in our daily lives and then "preserve that memory" for us and for future generations.

I know that this is definitely a good thing to do. Just yesterday, as I was writing in my journal about my scripture study, I realized that focusing on Christ means focusing on his teachings. For some reason I got the idea that focusing on Christ meant thinking about his person, his appearance, his personality, and his opinions. After all, if I were going to "focus" on someone I know, that is what I would focus on.

However, we don't really know those things about Christ. What we do know is what he taught, and that is what is most important. When we learn Christ's teachings, then we learn about who he is and we learn to love him. When we focus on Christ, it means we seek to learn and exemplify all that he taught. What a great insight, and I would not have gained it had I not taken the time to write down my scripture study experience.

What has God done for you lately that you maybe haven't noticed up until now? And/or, do you have any good ideas on ways to preserve that experience for future remembering?

Questions and Answers, Liahona, December 2001, 25

Last Sunday in Relief Society we had a lesson on "loving life and learning." During the lesson we discussed at length how to love life and learning. During this discussion someone shared an insight that I have been thinking about since.

She shared a story of a friend who was not enjoying her mission. Her friend was disturbed by how unhappy she was and talked to her mission president about how to become happier. Her mission president told her to stop worrying so much about being happy and to focus on the Savior. Once the missionary did this, she did not have any more problems with happiness for the rest of her mission.

This story resonated with me because I often find the harder I try to make myself be happy, the worse I feel. It makes sense that focusing outward on the Savior would make one happier than just trying to be happy.

So, then, how do I focus on the Savior? I searched lds.org and found in Questions and Answers many answers to the question "How can I keep my thoughts centered on Jesus Christ during my daily activities?"

Answers they gave included:

• Strive to be obedient
• Pray
• Study the scriptures
• Serve
• Attend the temple and other Church meetings

I also enjoyed reading church member's stories about how they focus on Jesus Christ throughout the day. It helped me to realize that I definitely could do much better about focusing on the Savior as I go through my daily activities.

So, I am going to resolve to think more about the Savior as I go through my day. I'm going to especially try to find ways to be more Christlike as I attend to my daily things. Perhaps I could be a little more patient with my husband? Perhaps I could think about the deeper meaning of a problem rather than just complain?

What do you do to keep your thoughts focused on the Savior throughout the day? Or, what do you plan to do to get better at this important key to happiness?

New Study Plan

I'm sorry for the big gap in posts. I've been thinking seriously about how I want to approach my scripture study and how I can really gain the most from it.

There are three things I wish to accomplish from my scripture study:

1 - Motivate myself to change
2 - Gain factual knowledge
3 - Gain faith in the gospel

I have realized that my current study plan is mostly focused on number 2, and numbers 1 and 3 are only a by-product. I would like to change my study plan so it helps me achieve all three goals.

After pondering it, I've decided my scripture study needs to include the following things to help me achieve all three by products from my scripture study.

1- Invite the spirit
2- A quiet environment
3- Beginning with a prayer
4- Focusing on personal application
5- Writing down what I have learned
6- A humble, teachable attitude
7- A regular time each day to study
8- Flexibility so I can work around family needs
9- Quantifying what I have learned such that I could share it with others

So, from now on my entries are going to be very different. Rather than sticking with the lesson plan from Doctrines of the Gospel, I am going to find something to read each day that pertains to things going on now in my life. This could include any of the standard works, general conference addresses, articles from church magazines, or books on church doctrine.

I will then write up a semi-personal application to share on this blog. If someday I actually have anyone reading this blog, I'd love to encourage comments and discussion based on the entries.

So, we'll see where it goes from here...

Chapter 9: The Atonement of Jesus Christ, C: Only Jesus Christ possessed the qualifications and attributes necessary to perfrom an infinite atonement

The Savior was the only one who could perform the atonement because of his unique traits. First, he was the Only Begotten son of the father, meaning he had power over his body that we do not have. This allowed him to suffer the pain of the atonement when another would have died or been succumbed by the pain.

Wherefore, the Almighty God gave his Only Begotten Son, as it is written in those scriptures which have been given of him.
D&C 20:21

Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit - and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.
D&C 19:18

Behold, they believed in Christ and worshiped the Father in his name, and also we worship the Father in his name. And for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him; and for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness, even as it was accounted unto Abraham in the wilderness to be obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac, which is a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son.
Jacob 4:5

The Savior was completely sinless. He was a perfect sacrifice because he had no sin in him. This is not because he had it easy or didn't go through the same, but rather he went through everything yet still remained clean.

And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
1 John 3:5

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15

Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him--Saying: Father, behold the suffering and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold, the blood of thy Son was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified. Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.
D&C 45:3-5

Some superior agency was needed to elevate [fallen man] above his low and degraded position. This superior agency was the Son of God, who had not, as man had, violated a law of His Father, but was yet one with His Fatherk, possessing His glory, His power, His authority, His dominion.
John Taylor, The Mediation and Atonement, 145

Christ had power over death. He was able to hold on to his life or let it go. When he suffered and died for us, it was entirely by his active choice.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.
John 5:26

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
John 10:17-18

Chapter 9: The Atonement of Jesus Christ, B: Because we are fallen, we have need of an Atonement.

We have to have a Savior. We needed to fall to learn good from bad, but we need to be saved to return to God's presence and to continue progressing. Without the Savior's atonement, we would be subjects of the devil for the rest of eternity, endlessly miserable and unhappy.

For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. Wherefore it must needs be an infinite atonement - save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an engel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness. O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monter, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual deah, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
2 Nephi 9:6-12

And now, behold, I will testify unto you of myself that thse things are true. Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it. For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are haredened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.
Alma 34:8-9

All have sinned. Each person is therefore unclean to the extent which he has sinned, and because of that uncleanness is banished from the presence of the Lord so long as the effect of his own wrongdoing is upon him.
Since we suffer this spiritual death as a result of our own trangressions, we cannot claim deliverance therfrom as a matter of justice. Neither has any man the power within himself alone to make restitution so complete that he can be wholly cleansed from the effect of his own wrongdoing. If men are to be freed from the results of their own trangressions and brough back into the presence of God, they must be the benficiaries of some expedient beyond themselves which will free them from the effect of their own sins. For this purpose was the atonement of Jesus Christ conceived and executed.
This was the world's supreme act of charity, performed by Jesus out of his great love for us. He not only thereby met the demands of the law of justice - which would have left us forever marred by the effects of our own trangressions - but made effective the law of mercy, through which all men may be cleansed from their own sins.
Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, April 1982, 9

To atone is to ransom, reconcile, expiate, redeem, reclaim, absolve, propitiate, make amends, pay the penalty. Thus the atonement of Christ is designed to ransom men from the effect of the fall of Adam in that both spiritual and temporal death are conquered; their lasting effect is nullified. The spiritual death of the fall is replaced by the spiritual life of the atonement, in that all who believe and obey the gospel law gain spiritual or eternal life - life in the presence of God where those who enjoy it are alive to things of righteosness or things of the Spirit. The temporal death of the fall is replaced by the state of immortality which comes because of the atonement and resurrection of our Lord. The body and spirit which separated, incident to what men call the natural death, are reunited in immortality, in an inseperable connection that never again will permit the mortal body to see corruption.
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 62

Chapter 9: The Atonement of Jesus Christ, A: God Governs the Universe By Law

There are laws by which this life is governed. These are God's laws pertaining to sin and righteousness. These laws are necessary for us to be happy. Without laws there would be no punishment, but there also would be no reward and we would be neither happy nor sad, just neutral.

There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated - and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.
D&C 130:20-21

For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.
D&C 132:5

And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. ANd if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor hapiness there be no punishment no misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, enither to act no to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.
2 Nephi 2:13

Sin is the transgression of the law. Everybody in this earth life sins. Thus, we all are fallen and in need of a Savior.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
1 John 3:4

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it no, to him it is sin.
James 4:17

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23

For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.
Alma 34:9

It is necessary that there be a punishment for sin. If there are laws, and there is no punishment for breaking those laws, then the laws aren't really there. Without laws, we are all lost.

Now repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should be, affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was as eternal also as the life of the soul. Now, how could a man repent except he should sin? How could he sin if there was no law? How could there be a law save there was a punishment? . . . But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.
Alma 42:16-17, 22

But if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I.
D&C 19:17