FHE: Murmur Not

Many of our family discussions come from the Old Testament because that is what I am teaching this year in gospel doctrine.  I am so intrigued by Moses' life from the time he was a young rescued baby to the time he leads the Israelites in the wilderness.  There are so many stories and important teachings throughout his life.  I have taken advantage of these by teaching them to my children.  They became captivated with the old Ten Commandment movie (which we stretched out over a couple weeks as we read).  We have continued telling them about the journey to the promised land.

The children of Israel were continually blessed by the Lord from their escape out of bondage, through the crossing of the Red Sea (on dry ground), to the manna from heaven, the pillar of fire by night and cloud by day, the water from a rock, and more.  The miracles performed on their behalf are abundant, it's just astonishing.  But now that they are out of Egypt I still hear a lot of murmuring from them.  It almost happens instantly that they are complaining about bitter water, and then no food, etc.

Take a look in the Bible.

Exodus 16:  8 "...for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your ^amurmurings are not against us, but ^bagainst the Lord."

It just seems to be endless.  Then they murmur about  only having manna to eat and wishing that they had food like they did back in Egypt.  Holy cow!  They also come so close to the promise land and even send 12 scouts to bring a report back about the land.  Because of their lack of faith and murmuring (except Joshua and Caleb) they now will wander for 40 years.

Oh they had come so close to the promise land in only 40 days to only turn it down.  Do they not understand that they are turning down the Lord?  With the Lord all things can be done, as they have been shown through all the miracles.

So my question is why do we murmur?  

I found a great talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell from the October 1989 General Conference.  It answers all my questions and gives more light on this subject (link here).

"Murmuring comes easy to the natural man."

"A basic cause of murmuring is that too many of us seem to expect that life will flow ever smoothly, featuring an unbroken chain of green lights with empty parking places just in front of our destinations!"

"Those of deep faith do not murmur."

"If our lips are closed to murmuring, then our eyes can be opened."

Stand with Faith in the Truth

I don't even know how to describe my thoughts at this time.  I am going to be very vague because I don't want to get into the details of the aggravating circumstance.  I will only say that I have learned over the past year the importance of listening to the Spirit.  The Spirit will always speak the truth and can also warn of dangers ahead.  I have experienced this first hand in a very real way.

I have also had my eyes opened to the works of darkness and evil.  From this on-going experience, Paul and I have learned to stand in truth with more courage and faith.  I like this quote from Mark Twain, he says, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear."  I am proud to be married to a man who stands for truth and righteousness, even when his own name may be smeared by others.  As Paul is fond of quoting: "Never walk by anything that is wrong."  When he sees something wrong, he says something.

Dr. Keith Ablow explains two lessons of truth. First he says, "Truth is priceless, and anything that encapsulates it becomes priceless as well."  Second, "only complete truth stands the test of time.  Anything less will eventually turn from priceless to worthless and people discover that they were deceived."
 
Today I was sitting in Sunday School class with heavy thoughts on my mind as we discussed the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes.  These excerpts from Matthew chapter 5 hit home for me today:

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake"....Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely....whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"...love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

How is this done?  I know that it is through the atonement of Christ that this can happen.  But when it is really there in your face it seems so difficult.  How do you love your enemies?  I mean real enemies that would delight in seeing you ruined in any way possible.


The teacher then shared this quote from Joseph Smith that gives me the strength to carry on.  "I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women -- all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty, who will give me dominion over all and every one of them, when their refuge of lies shall fail, and their hiding place shall be destroyed, while these smooth-polished stones with which I come in contact become marred" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 304).

I know that my trials are small in comparison to what Joseph was up against.  From his experience and testimony, I know that this is our opportunity to grow and to be polished.   I know that through Him all things are possible.  I will never waiver in my testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ.   I will continue to be a voice of truth and righteousness, an example of faith and courage, and a mother of God as I strive to live my life as He would have me do.

Long Night

After my eventful day, I settled into bed at a reasonable time of 9:40pm because I was totally exhausted. Paul had rented a movie but I didn't want to stay up late because I felt a cold coming on and my voice was horse. I downed some water with an airborne tablet hoping that would help.

However, after laying in bed for a couple hours and not being able to fall asleep (I tried reading, relaxing, deep breathing, etc) I decided to get up and do something. So I watched the movie Paul rented from midnight to 2am. Then I returned to bed and layed there another 1 1/2 hours. The problem I've been having is that my heart races and it won't slow down to let me relax or fall asleep. This has been a "new thing" that popped up the week that Paul was out of town and I was experiencing some heartache over strained family relationships. During my physical (that same week) the nurse noticed this irregularity in my heart beat and even did an EKG on me. I was hoping that it would just go away because I felt it was stressed induced- but it hasn't yet.

Last night after my restlessness, I finally leaned over and woke Paul up at 3:30 am. I asked him for a priesthood blessing. I felt bad waking him up during the wee hours of the morning but knew that I needed his help. He then gave me a powerful blessing and gave me insight in where I need to go to receive that peace that I need. I am so thankful for Paul's love and patience with me and I'm thankful for the priesthood power that he holds. I was finally able to fall asleep around 4 am and sleep for four hours. I know I need to apply the power of forgiveness and atonement in my life so that I can feel more peace and love for myself and others.

This is a quote that I came across last night, "We do not realize that our ability to love ourselves and others, and our ability to feel God's love, are all connected. If one of these relationships suffers, they all suffer. Likewise, we cannot heal one of these relationships without experiencing intimacy in the others..." (Forgiveness: The Healing Gift We Give Ourselves, Cheryl Carson pg. 71)

Let Me Choose My Flavor

I picked up Olivia early from school because she threw up at recess. So we stopped at Albertsons to buy her a 7up soda, actually a no-name brand cheap store soda. I inserted my coins into the machine and instantly out came a cola soda. It didn't even give me time to punch the button and choose my own flavor! Wow! If it would have been a different flavor I would have probably just walked away. But with no more coins to try again, we walked into the store and explained the problem. She gave me back my money and out we went to try again - but this time it wouldn't let me buy any soda! So back into the store we went where they graciously gave us a chilled Sprite in exchange. Thank you Albertons, you are my store!

This soda incident had me thinking about choices. It seems that these days our choices are trying to be taken from us because others think they know better than we do. The people said "no" to the bailout and we got a massive bailout, the people are saying"no" to the health care bill and they still want to push it through. We must be free to choose, even if it's just a soda!