Refuge From The Storm

I'm in a bit of a quote mood tonight.  I should be finishing up preparations for girls camp and our trip to see my nephew sealed in the temple, but I find myself sitting here.  I have gotten quite a bit done - more than I ever have at this point, so a little time spent on my small plates isn't such a bad thing, right?

Today was my normal day to be at the temple, but I had too much to do and I worked twice last week, so I took the better route and did the things my family needed instead.  It about killed me though.  I also knew that I would be in the temple for a sealing in a few short days so I was not neglecting my time in the temple.  I am actually pretty excited to witness a live sealing since I have been present for so many deceased ones.  We'll see what fun things I think about while I'm there....

I didn't leave myself enough time to read my BOM this morning in addition to my Doctrine and Covenants study, so while waiting for a load of laundry to finish up, I took out my hard copy (that I'm using to mark up everything about pride) and read.  I came across this scripture:

2 Nephi 14: 6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and a covert from storm and from rain.

I'm not sure why it hit me the way that it did, because I always think of the temple (tabernacle) a shadow from the heat.  That's why I spend so much time there.  It feels like home.  The more I attend, the more I learn and subsequently the more I begin to yearn for home.  You know, like when you got sent off to summer camp as a kid and you got homesick.  I feel like I'm at this rotten summer camp and I want to go home- not in a worrisome way, but a longing no less.

In the next chapter it is talking about the Lord's vineyard and the apostasy of man.  I particularly liked:

2 Nephi 15:23 Who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

The world is so upside-down right now and the righteousness is being taken away from the righteous bit by bit with increased intolerance for religion and those who practice it.  We need now more than ever our tabernacle.

Last years mutual theme was "stand in holy places."  I kinda like to think of it a bit differently.  Make every place you stand a tabernacle.  I remembered while reading the first scripture about the shadow from the heat that I had read another similar scripture a couple of years ago that stuck with me, it is also by Isaiah like the 2 previous, only this time it is found in Isaiah.

Isaiah 25:4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

We are living in perilous times.  We can be a shadow from the heat for those around us, for our family, for our friends, for our neighbors ( the Lord's definition of neighbor -"who is my neighbor") We can have the courage to make standing up for truth and righteousness a priority - a wall against the storm.  When we are witnessing an injustice, we can be the one to stand against it.  When someone is feeling shy about showing their devotion to God, we can show ours.  We need to be helping those in spiritual distress.  That is where real peace and true hope lie.  After all, it's what we signed up for when we came to earth.

I read a great article today about the parting council we must have received before we made our journey here.  It is something that I've always thought about.  I kinda viewed it more as receiving mission papers that self destructed upon our departure, but this writer sees it more of a sit down one on one blessing from our loving Father.  I loved it.  He encouraged everyone to pray to know what council we were given and it will be revealed to us.  I'm going to try it.  I love experiments - especially ones that involve the gospel.  I also remembered that I should be praying to know what my children's missions are here on earth (who they were born to be) so that I can be a better parent to them.  - this reminds me of a talk by President Eyring where he did something similar for his children and then made a plaque for each of them about their gifts, sound familiar?

How do we become this person who is a refuge from the storm?  How do we go about receiving an answer about what our purpose is here?  How do we strengthen our knowledge of spiritual matters?  Well, I also read in my studying this morning something said by Spencer W Kimball:

“If I can only make clear this one thing, it will give us a basis on which to build. Man cannot discover God or his ways by mere mental processes. One must be governed by the laws which control the realm into which he is delving. To become a plumber, one must study the laws which govern plumbing. He must know stresses and strains, temperatures at which pipes will freeze, laws which govern steam, hot water, expansion, contraction, and so forth. One might know much about plumbing and be a complete failure in training children or getting along with men. One might be the best of bookkeepers and yet not know anything of electricity. One might know much about buying and selling groceries and be absolutely ignorant of bridge building.

“One might be a great authority on the hydrogen bomb and yet know nothing of banking. One might be a noted theologian and yet be wholly untrained in watchmaking. One might be the author of the law of relativity and yet know nothing of the Creator who originated every law. I repeat, these are not matters of opinion. They are absolute truths. These truths are available to every soul.

Any intelligent man may learn what he wants to learn. He may acquire knowledge in any field, though it requires much thought and effort. It takes more than a decade to get a high school diploma; it takes an additional four years for most people to get a college degree; it takes nearly a quarter-century to become a great physician. Why, oh, why do people think they can fathom the most complex spiritual depths without the necessary experimental and laboratory work accompanied by compliance with the laws that govern it? Absurd it is, but you will frequently find popular personalities, who seem never to have lived a single law of God, discoursing in interviews on religion. How ridiculous for such persons to attempt to outline for the world a way of life!” (“Absolute Truth,” Ensign, Sept. 1978, pp. 3–5.) (Section 93 "Truth Is Knowledge of Things …")

I am enjoying this process of discovering God and his ways.  It takes real work and commitment.  You can't undertake such a process and come away unchanged.  I would say that I have got my experimental laboratory in full swing and I am working hard to be in compliance with the laws that govern spiritual matters.  

Here's a the great spark of hope for being in "compliance" or being perfect (I also came across this today while sitting in a pedicure chair getting the dead skin chiseled off my feet) I was reading (who else) Elder Bednar and "Power to Become," He was quoting Harold B Lee - speaking of perfection:

“Would you suppose the Savior was suggesting a goal that was not possible of attainment and thus mock us in our efforts to live to attain that perfectness? It is impossible for us here in mortality to come to that state of perfection of which the Master spoke, but in this life we lay the foundation on which we will build in eternity; therefore, we must make sure that our foundation is laid on truth, righteousness, and faith. In order for us to reach that goal we must keep God’s commandments and be true to the end of our lives here, and then beyond the grave continue in righteousness and knowledge until we become as our Father in Heaven. In wonderful revelations the Lord has told us that those ‘who overcome by faith and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true . . . they are they who are the Church of the Firstborn . . . into whose hands the Father hath given all things. They are they who are priests and kings who have received of his fulness and of his glory’ (D. & C. 76:53–56). ‘Every person who has this hope in him, purifieth himself even as God is pure’ (1 John 3:3). “Apparently the Apostle Paul thought this was a true doctrine for we find him declaring to members of the Church in his day: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God’ (Philippians 2:5–6). He furthermore pointed to the course by which perfection comes. Speaking of Jesus, he said, ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him’ (Hebrews 5:8–9)” (Harold B. Lee, Decisions for Successful Living, 40–41).”

Does that quote not give great hope?  I mean, seriously!  I am loving the journey to laying the foundation to build my eternity.  I look forward with a longing to have my interview with my Father in Heaven to report on my mission.  I look forward to meeting all my relatives whom I've done saving ordinances for.  I look forward to meeting friends with limitations in this life finally freed.  I look forward to being freed from the limitations of the flesh. It will be a glorious and joyful reunion.  In the meantime I can work on making myself a tabernacle - becoming sanctified thru the atonement - to make myself 'set apart for sacred use' - so that I can be a light - a shadow from the heat- being a 'example of the believers- my biggest influencing power being that in my own home (which has also been made a tabernacle)

I guess I had a big reading day - the kind where all knowledge converged into 1 central them.  Pretty darn cool.  Now- it's off to do worldly things - because I live in the world.