"Whither Thou Goest, I Will Go"

(I am in love with this picture)

I love the story of Ruth. Who doesn't? She went through so much and stayed strong through the whole thing and was blessed for it in the end.

What was the situation in the land of Judah when Ruth and Naomi lived?

Judah was a fairly peaceful place. There was not a whole lot of fighting going on there like there was in areas surrounding it. It was a land of agriculture but it was prone to experience drought from time to time. Such was the case at this time. There was drought and famine in the land which caused Naomi and her husband and two sons to travel to Moab.

List the trials Ruth faced in Ruth 1.

-Her husband died (verse 5)
-She leaves her family to live with Naomi (verse 16-17)
-They had nothing when they arrived in Bethlehem (verse 21)

Choose one trial that is like one you have faced and briefly describe it.

I have also had to leave my family. I was born and raised in Minnesota. I left to come to school here in Idaho, got married and have stayed in Idaho. It was harder when I got married than when I went to school because while I was still single I knew that I would be home for months at a time on my off semester. Getting married was different, I was now going to be establishing my new life with my husband and because of work would be stayed in Idaho for an undetermined amount of time, only being able to visit home for a week or two out of the year. It was very hard. I can imagine it was very hard for Ruth as well.

Explain what you think motivated Ruth to go with Naomi. In what ways would it have been hard for Ruth to go with Naomi?

I think Ruth was motivated by empathy. She knew Naomi was all alone, no husbands and no children. She would have been going back to her home land but she probably did not have anyone to take care of her in her old age. I'm sure Ruth understood how it must have felt to be alone and did not wish that for Naomi. I'm sure it was a hard decision. She was leaving her family and traveling to a land she did not know. Facing uncertainty is not easy for anyone.

Why was Boaz so impressed with Ruth?

Boaz was very impressed with all that Ruth had done for Naomi. He was impressed that she would leave her family and home to live with Naomi and take care of her. (Ruth 2:11)

Explain what you can learn about facing your challenges from the examples in this chapter.

If we face our challenges head on, relying on the Lord after all we can do, we will be blessed. Ruth did what she had to do. She stayed with her mother-in-law and she did what she needed to do to get them food and she was blessed for it. Boaz saw all that she had done and made life a little easier for her.

Ruth is truly an amazing example. She sacrificed so much, and not only did she sacrifice it but she did it willingly. I have seen the same outcome that Ruth had in my own life. In high school, I sacrificed a lot of sleep to attend early morning seminary and was blessed a hundred times over for it. I did better in my performance at school and I was blessed with the Spirit while at school to protect me from all the filth I was surrounded by. I, too, got married and left my home and family. I and my family have been blessed so much for that. My husband has a wonderful job, I am able to attend a wonderful school, we live in an awesome ward and we have been blessed with so so so much more. I know that as we sacrifice things in our life, the Lord will bless us a hundred times over.

"Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve"

I have loved reading the book of Joshua. Joshua is a prophet that I never really knew about. I have loved learning about him. He did a lot of really awesome things for the children of Israel. He helped them get to the promised land and conquer all of their enemies. One thing I thought fascinating about the true power Joshua had is found in chapter 10. The Israelites are battling the Amorites and Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stand still. As the student manual pointed out, it was actually the earth that stood still as we know that the sun doesn't move. It is easy to see that and think that it totally contradicts science so the Bible couldn't possibly be true. But it is! Heavenly Father controls the laws of nature. He can change them as He wishes. And, how would you explain all that is supposed to happen during the second coming?

The Israelites fought against a lot of different nations. By reading the chapter headings of chapters 7-22, here are the outcomes:

Failures
-Defeated by people of Ai


Successes
-They defeat Ai
-Gibeonites are made servants to Israel
-Defeat Amorites and their allies
-Conquer many cities and nations
-Conquer two kings on east of Jordan and 31 on west
-All the tribes receive their inheritances
-The Lord fulfills his promises and the Israelites are able to rest.

In the final two chapters of Joshua, Joshua gives his final address to the children of Israel before his death. He spends most of his talk encouraging the Israelites to serve the Lord. Based on the list above, I think he chose this topic to confirm to the children of Israel that they can accomplish great things with the Lord on their side. And it is true. We CAN accomplish great things with the Lord on our side. We can accomplish the impossible, for nothing is impossible for the Lord. I know that as we strive to follow the Lord, He will be on our side and fight for us every step of the way through this life.

Obedience Brings Blessings; Disobedience Brings Curses

I think everyone can say that the main thing to be learned from the children of Israel is the importance of obedience. At the beginning of Deuteronomy 10, we get a sense of just how important the commandments are to the Lord. Moses is commanded to keep the tablets with the Ten Commandments in the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was of great importance and was kept in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. The Ten Commandments were so important that they needed to be kept safe. From the JST for Deut. 10:2 and in Doctrine and Covenants 84, we see that the children of Israel denied themselves of the everlasting covenant of the priesthood, Melchezidek priesthood because of their disobedience.

There are several scriptures in Deuteronomy that talks about loving God and keeping his commandments. We also read in Matthew 22 that the first great commandment is to love God. This is very interesting if you think about it. Love is an emotion. Can we be commanded to have a certain emotion? My answer to that is yes. As we follow the commandments and draw closer to God, we learn to love Him. We see all that He has done for us and so begin to love Him. So when we are commanded to love God, we are being commanded to follow Him.

Why is there such an emphasis on obedience? Because Heavenly Father wants to bless us and for us to be happy (Mosiah 2:41, D&C 130:20-21). Heavenly Father can only bless us when we deserve it, when we follow His commandments. He is a merciful God that only wants our happiness, which can only come through obedience.

What do we receive when we are obedient? Deut 28:1-14 gives us the answer:

-We will be set high above nations
-We will be overtaken with blessings
-Our work and homes will be blessed with abundance
-Enemies will be smitten
-Everything our hands touch will be blessed
-People will see that we are called of God
-We will have plenty of goods

Pretty cool, huh?? Now, what are the consequences for disobedience? The rest of chapter 28 lists them:

-We will be overtaken with curses
-Everything we touch will be cursed
-We will have all manner of sickness
-Our enemies will smite us
-We will be cursed with famine
-Our hard work will be in vain
-We will be given things but will not be able to enjoy them
-And the list goes on....

Helaman 12:3 states that the Lord punishes disobedient people so that they will remember Him. The Lord is a very merciful Lord. In Mosiah 26, it says that as many times as we repent, He will forgive us. In Ezekiel 18, He says that He would rather the wicked repent and live than stay wicked and die. And this is evident all through the scripture. Every time He destroys a wicked nation, He allows them the chance to repent beforehand. He lives to bless us. He does not want to punish us but He has to if we do not follow the commandments. Our God is a very merciful God that loves us eternally.

The Brazen Serpent

Most know the story of the children of Israel and the fiery serpents. Fiery serpents were sent to them as punishment and they were commanded to look upon a brazen serpent and they would live. There is a lot more to this story than what appears in Numbers.

What did they do to receive this punishment? They murmured, or complained. They spoke out against God and Moses (Numbers 21: 4-9). They were sick and tired of wandering around in the desert with nothing but manna to eat. For most of us looking back on this, it is hard to believe that the children of Israel could forget all that the Lord had done for them. The Lord miraculously gave them manna to eat and then it wasn't enough. He brought them out of bondage in Egypt and then they wanted to go back. These, along with many other things had the Lord done for them only to have the Israelites turn their backs on Him. People of today (including myself) are often like this. We turn to the Lord during good times and then complain when things get bad. We think, "Why me?" forgetting all that the Lord has done for us in times past. We do this not realizing that He can make those hard times better if we will just turn to Him.

There is some very interesting symbolism found in this story. Throughout this class, I have found that so many stories represent Christ in ways that I had not realized before. This is one of those stories. The Book of Mormon gives us better insight into this story. In Alma 33:18-22 and Helaman 8:13-16, it states that the brazen serpent that Moses lifted up is in similitude to the Savior. In Helaman, it states that just as the serpent was lifted up, so shall Jesus Christ be lifted up on the cross. And just as the Israelites were saved as they looked upon the serpent, so shall we be saved as we look to the Savior with faith that we will be healed.

How does one "look" to Christ for healing? By having faith in His Atonement. By going to Him in reverence and prayer. By reading His word and living it to the best of our ability. How can we be healed? The pains of sins can be washed away. We can be made clean again through the Atonement. I we can receive comfort and healing in times of trial.

There are simple things we can do in the Gospel to heal us. My number one thing would be to read the scriptures. This brings us closer to the Savior and provides great healing during hard times. Prayer, sincere prayer, is also at the top. As we sincerely converse with our Savior and Heavenly Father, we will receive great healing as well. Other things we can do is take the sacrament every week, attend the temple, serve others, and so on.

I would like to end by testifying that I have seen and felt the healing effects of the Atonement in my life. At a time of great trial, when my family was falling apart, I turned to and "looked" to the Savior for comfort and support. And I received it. The wounds that I received through that time have been healed through the Atonement. I know that the Savior loves me and all of us. I know that His Atonement is real and that He can heal us as we look to Him.

Clean vs. Unclean

So our reading this week came from Leviticus. There are several chapters that lists lots of dos and don'ts. One of those lists being a list of meats they can and cannot eat. So here it is:

Clean Meats
-Anything with a parted hoof, clovenfooted and cheweth cud
-All kinds of Fish (those with fins and sales)
-Locust
-Beetle
-Grasshopper

Unclean Meats
-Camel
-Coney
-Hare
-Swine
-Things living in the water without scales and fins
-Eagle
-Ossifrage
-Ospray
-Vulture
-Kite
-Raven
-Owl
-Night Hawk-Cuckow
-Hawk
-Cormorant
-Great Owl
-Swan
-Pelican
-Gier Eagle
-Stork
-Heron
-Lapwing
-Bat
-Weasel
-Mouse
-Tortoise
-Ferret
-Chameleon
-Lizard
-Snail
-Mole

Pretty interesting list. Why such a detailed list? There are two general reasons, health and sanitation and obedience. A lot of the unclean animals listed, like swine, more easily contract diseases. Living in a time where their sanitation abilities were limited, Heavenly Father wanted to keep them safe. (Interesting fact: there were certain things that missionaries in my husband's mission could not eat, pig being one of them. It was meant to protect the missionaries from diseases that their bodies were not built to fend off. I thought it interesting that this still goes on in certain forms today) There other reason was to test the children of Israel. The Lord wanted to see how obedient they would be. The Institute Manual put it perfectly, "By voluntarily abstaining from certain foods or by cooking them in a special way, one made a daily, personal commitment to act in one's faith."

Although it is not so strict, the Lord has provided His children today with a list of good and bad things for us to eat. We call it the Word of Wisdom. Here's a list (found in Doctrine and Covenants 89: 5-17):

Good
-Herbs
-Fruit and vegetables
-Meat, used sparingly
-All grains

Bad
-Alcohol
-Tobacco
-Hot Drinks (meaning coffee and tea. Most members believe that herbal tea and hot chocolate are fine but some stay away from hot drinks all together)

The reason we have the Word of Wisdom today is to keep our bodies clean. As it says in 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20, our bodies are temples. They are used to house our spirits. Both our spirits and our bodies are gifts from our Heavenly Father. And we must be holy to return to our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the Word of Wisdom. I am grateful that I have never taken a sip of alcohol or coffee or taken any type of mind altering drug. I have seen the addictions that have come from these things and I have seen the devastation that has come from that. My own family has been greatly affected by these things and I am grateful for the protection I have received from not partaking. There are always ways I can be better. The Word of Wisdom encompasses the health of our bodies in general, including working out and eating healthy. This is a goal that I have had that I have put off for too long. I am 21 years, overweight and I have high blood pressure. It is time for me to get my butt in gear! I am striving to be more careful about the foods that I eat and have been trying to muster up the motivation to work out more so that I can have a clean, healthy body for my spirit to reside. I know that as I do that, I will be blessed.