Would You Give Up Your Life For Your Beliefs?

Last week I was in an institute class and we were talking about how the last days would get to the point where people would be begging for Jesus to come again.  I thought then about the Middle East and how they are without a doubt already begging and pleading for him to come and for all of this to end.

I watched something that changed me today.  ISIS has put a video out there of them killing numerous Christians.  This video is almost a half hour long.  This video has been edited and published for all to see.  Have any of you watched it?  They want you to see it.  They don't care about what they are doing.  They are trying to bring on Armageddon because that is what they believe their purpose is.  I will admit I watched about 1 second of this graphic horrific video.  That was all I needed to see.  It made me stop in my tracks.  It changed me.  These people all are being slaughtered because they believe in Jesus Christ.  These men love their Savior so much that they are willing to be marched to their torturous death because they love Him so much.  They are not denying their God when they know their life is about to end.

We all have said we would die for certain things.  Would we really?  Do you dare to even watch a second of the awful, evil people...monsters these creatures are?  This is the same thing Hitler did.  Americans sat back and did nothing or turned a blind eye then.  We are doing the same thing!  Stalin starved his own people to death and we did nothing.  I know these men have wives and children who are screaming to their Lord to come and save them from this horror.  Do all of us in the whole world have to feel this pain and beg for Him to return for it to happen?  He will come as a thief in the night. Is anyone in America ready?  Is anyone paying attention?  Does it matter?

Do we need to wait for this to happen on our own soil to care?  Then again what can we do?  We are a half a world away.  What could non-Europeans have done during the holocaust?  I guess what we can do is be aware of it and be willing to hide people if they need to be hidden.  We need to pray for them and pray to help us to know what to do and how to help.  We need to let the world know what is happening so no one is blind-sighted by what may very well come to our own soils.  We need to know who we stand with and what we stand for before it all comes to a climax.

What would we do if our feet were put to the fire ourselves?  What if our children were going to be taken from us because we wouldn't deny our God.  We need to be prepared both spiritually and temporally so we know what we will do if it comes to that.  Put yourself in the shoes of the Coptic Christians in the Middle East and feel what you think it would feel like.  We need to have compassion for these people and pray that this will stop.  God wins in the end, we know that but we also know there will be suffering before he wins.  How are you going to react?  Whose side are you on?

Will you dare to prepare for the times ahead?  Heavenly Father will let you know in your personal lives what you can do to help, what you can do to be ready for whatever may come.  Ask Him.

Humility

I am the first to admit I struggle with humility.  I struggle with the definition of humility and what it really means to be humble.  The google dictionary defines it as "a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness.  I actually have a problem with that definition.  "A low view of one’s own importance.  This is where my questions and confusion come in.   I have never understood how the scriptures say, "Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you." All the while saying, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.  How and where does Humility come into play. I don't think humility is saying I'm ugly I'm stupid I'm no better than dirt but then again sometimes I think it is.  But is it humble to say I am of great worth because I am created by God. I am beautiful.  

I believe maybe the answer lies in the fact that our bodies are flawed and worth nothing and like the dust of the earth, but our soul is what is worth everything to the Lord.  Matt Walsh, a well known blogger and writer for "The Blaze" recorded a podcast about beauty.  The type of beauty the "Dove" campaign talks about.  This led him to the subject of self esteem.   He made a good point in the fact that in biblical times when people were mostly pretty religious the idea of "self love" or "self-esteem" didn't even exist. It wasn't until we became secular that this concept came up.  Jesus said "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Why was that the message then and now we hear so much about building yourself up?  Is it the fact that back then somehow we all thought of ourselves as the greatest of them all? There was much more pride then as opposed to now? Is it also pride that Satan now has started telling us that we aren't worth anything that we are ugly. Women especially fall into that pit more than men I think.  That dumb "One Direction" song "you don't know you're beautiful and that's what makes you beautiful." We have told ourselves as a society that it is cool to think we are ugly?

My husband and I talked about this and the subject of worth.  He said, "There really isn't anything tangible that has true value for all things are temporal and will not continue indefinitely unless refined by the spirit to an eternal state. Therefore temporal things only have the value that we (temporal people) place on them. So if I measure my value by any of these temporal things (be it how pretty I look, how well I do my calling, how many times I went to the temple last month, etc.) then I will be building my foundation of worth upon sandy soil. It is only through a correct understanding and proper application of who I truly am that I can build my personal worth upon an eternal bedrock that will never change or decay.

I think he is right. So what are some of your tips to becoming humble? Again I don't like the google definition of thinking "low" of yourself but maybe as long as you just have an awareness that you are dust of the earth and will return to dust but that your soul is loved and created by a perfect being. You are worth loving. You are worth a great deal, more than anything, in the sight of God. You are of great worth. I think that will help me to feel God's love more and to feel of my worth but also put me on the path to being humble before the Lord as well.

I'm learning just like everyone else so help me on my journey as we go through this together and dare to prepare.

Writing Until I Can Write

I know I haven't posted on here very much.  I know I'm not a great writer. I know I don't have all the answers or even most of the answers.  I know I'm not even close to being very smart. I am maybe average or below even.  I know I don't have much time on my hands with six kids under ten, homeschooling some of them, and planning to move within the next two months. 

 All that being said something I saw changed me today.  For the past few days I have been thinking I want to be a better writer.  I want to do something to make a difference even if it is to one person as I know we all do.  Pres. Uchtdorf said, "We each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before."  Other than children I feel compelled to do this or create this blog and develop it into something more.

I do not know if it will turn into anything.  What I do know, is that I have things to say.  I want to put my thoughts on paper.  I don't presume anyone will care what I have to say, not even my posterity, but I feel the desire and need to do this.  So join me if you want while we determine if I dare to prepare.