When the Lord Commands

Elder Carlson tells the story about two fishermen, who after catching a number of fish are told they can't take them all back on the plane, it will be too heavy.  They convince the pilot with a little bonus money to take them anyway.  They crash not far from the take off site, no one was hurt, but one asked the other, what happened, and the other replied, "We crashed on takeoff-about a hundred yards from where we crashed last year"
Sometimes we too take shortcuts, or think the rules don't apply to us.  I found myself thinking how often, i will do the same thing, get the same consequence and wonder "what happened" just like the fisherman.   I have been trying to be better at reading my scriptures, however, sometimes it is easy to say, I read yesterday, i will be fine- or I will read double tomorrow.  I try to find a shortcut.  But then, like this last week, I look back over my week and wonder why it felt so crazy and like I didn't get anything of significance done.  I crashed and burned last week, and then when i asked myself "what happened" I realized I had shortcutted on my scripture reading.

Elder Carlton says there are three reasons that we do this-

1) We think it doesn't apply to us- We had this experience prior with building this house and starting investing with our lot.  The counsel was, pay down you house, stay out of debt.  We instead leveraged the money we had- thinking we were working towards paying down our house.  But I remember thinking, and probably being prompted to repent,  that we were putting the prophets counsel at naught and felt like it didn't apply to us, that was for other people...right? WE knew what we were doing.....  Well where are we now financially- even further behind. Crash and burn.

2) We feel the commandment isn't important.  Who are we to decide what the big commandments are and the small commandments are.  They are all important.   If for no other reason than to express and show our obedience.  It is by obedience to the small things that we learn to be truly obedient.

3) We feel the commandment is too hard.  Sometimes it is hard, but like Nephi, if we go and do the thing that the Lord commands, he will prepare a way for us to accomplish it. He has PROMISED us is help and his blessing if we are obedient.  I have had a number of friends that felt paying tithing was too hard, but when they did it they were amazed at how the money stretched.  My time, when I give my time to reading my scriptures, I am truly amazed at how much I can accomplish in a day!  He blesses us for our obedience.

He had a quote at the end that I really like and wanted to share- he says "Obedience to the Lord's commandments provides us confidence in our chosen path, qualifies us for his guidance and direction as we pursue our efforts, and offers us the potential to become like our Savior, Jesus Christ, and return to our Father's presence."  Those are some great blessings.  I particularly like how it "qualifies" us for guidance and direction as we pursue our efforts.  Who doesn't want that?
A.C.T.Think about what commandments are "hard" or that I think are maybe not as important, or maybe is there any that I feel don't apply to me?  List them and then work harder to overcome those attitudes.


Return and Report:  One of the commandments I think I need to work on, is the word of wisdom. Not concerned about the don'ts, but rather, AM I following it to the best of my ability, by listening to the spirit of the law and taking care of my body so I can give more to the kingdom and the Lord's service.  I am really going to try to focus on taking better care of what I eat this week to make sure it is line with the word of wisdom and the promptings and commandments, I personally receive.  So next month when i get on the scales I don't wonder "what happened"