'love at home' by amber white worth found here
you GUYS,
remember last time i did this and i was like, oh guys, i miss you but we've only been quarantined for two weeks and it'll be over soon?
welcome, week 8. i miss you so much i am probably going to hug you with way too much enthusiasm when i see you again. i mean I'm a bit of an extrovert and when i see my mail carrier i'm like OH HELLO HOW ARE YOU HOWS THE FAMILY WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THESE DAYS??? and he's like, ummmm, ma'am? do i know you?
the answer is no. he doesn't.
let's start with the obvious: quarantine. weird, right? you know what this feels like to me? a loss of control. options being taken from me. opportunities being dropped right as i got them in sight. every week i feel like there is one more thing i am erasing from my calendar. a trip to new york (i have never been!), a music festival, a workshop i was going to teach, a race i was going to run. i had a graduation this may. and several of you had graduations this june. graduation nights. proms. opportunities to build for an impressive year for your last year of high school. summer jobs. camps. experiences. travel. summer school (okay, so no one is going to really miss that. mine starts in the middle of june and i'm fine if that takes a long time to get here). HOWEVER, this will not result in anything VITAL being truly lost. it may feel like loss, but sometimes loss is really just opportunity. let this be an opportunity. let this polish you into the person god wants you to be.
in mosiah 7, ammon (not the son of mosiah, but another dude--he's described as being "a strong and mighty man") takes 15 guys in to the wilderness to find out what happened to some of their relatives who went a different way when the family split up (remember how everybody split up when lehi died?). and they find them! they walk straight into their city and the king arrests them because he doesn't trust them. ammon and his men are brought before him and the king asks them who they are and what they want and ammon tells him, "hey! we were looking for you!". the king is so relieved. he'd actually sent some men out before to find them, but they got lost and all they found was the remnants of an another civilization and their records, which they'd brought home with them. the king, limhi, is thrilled because his people have been forced to pay a tribute to the lamanites that comes to about half of everything they grow or make. king limhi tells ammon that they would rather be slaves to the nephites than pay tribute to the king of the lamanites. he gathers his people together and he tells them (in chapter 7 verse 19) that they can rejoice! and put their trust in god because he is their god and he delivers his children and until he delivers them, he provides for them.
my friends, you are god's children and he will provide for you until he delivers you. just as he fed the children of israel in the desert, just as king limhi's people always had just enough to pay tribute to the king of the lamanites and then feed themselves, he will feed you. you might be seeing opportunities and accomplishments and the fruit of your hard work pass you by, and this might feel like you're being left behind or missing out or losing something important, but this is not the end of your story. king limhi and his people watched themselves lose again and again every year when the lamanites came and took all of their hard work away from them, and humiliated them by making them pay tribute to their king, but this was not the end of their story. they were god's children and after a time (when the time was right) the lord sent ammon and his fifteen strong men to king limhi and his people to set them free and bring them to a new land with a good king and a good people to become a part of.
"but if ye will turn to the lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with a ll diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage." (mosiah 7:33)
this week let's practice turning to the lord and putting our trust in him.
i'm so grateful for the sundays we have spent together. i am so grateful to have a god to belong to, to have opportunities to practice faith and trust, for a gospel that gives me opportunities to find joy and happiness even when i'm quarantined. do good, my friends, and have faith.
love,
sister h
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