Sheep

Before my mission I loved filling my time with reading books. Since being a missionary I don't have as much time to read and my options of what to read have been seriously cut down. But I have found a new love of reading conference talks. Which are always wonderful! The other day I read, "Establishing a Christ-Centered Home" by Richard J. Maynes. I found the following wonderful poem that I wanted to share with everyone.

’Twas a sheep not a lamb

That strayed away in the parable Jesus told,

A grown-up sheep that strayed away

From the ninety and nine in the fold.

And why for the sheep should we seek

And earnestly hope and pray?

Because there is danger when sheep go wrong:

They lead the lambs astray.

Lambs will follow the sheep, you know,

Wherever the sheep may stray.

When sheep go wrong,

It won’t take long till the lambs are as wrong as they.

And so with the sheep we earnestly plead

For the sake of the lambs today,

For when the sheep are lost

What a terrible cost

The lambs will have to pay.
 

 

C. C. Miller, “The Echo,” in Best-Loved Poems of the LDS People, ed. Jack M. Lyon and others (1996), 312–13.

I think this poem illustrates just how important it truly is to be an example of the believers. I think all to often we don't realize the impact we have on those around us. Wither we would like to admit it or not people are watching and they are taking notes. Let us stand strong, and show other's what we truly believe. It is not just enough to say I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but we must act in a manner that shows others that we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

I love my Lord and Savior and am so grateful for all that he has given my in my life. Everyday I try to pay him back for everything, and I just find myself more indebted than the day before. That is the beauty of it all, He just keeps on giving.

Hermana Peterson

 

The Eternal Perspective

While studying one day I came across the best analogy story ever! And I wanted to share it everyone, but it is kind of long so I have another blog post! It is all about the game of life, and how the eternal perspective is needed. I hope you enjoy. President Boyd K Packer shared it in October 1983 conference in the talk entitled, "The Mystery of Life."

"Imagine that you are attending a football game. The teams seem evenly matched. One team has been trained to follow the rules; the other, to do just the opposite. They are committed to cheat and disobey every rule of sportsmanlike conduct.

While the game ends in a tie, it is determined that it must continue until one side wins decisively.

Soon the field is a quagmire.

 

Players on both sides are being ground into the mud. The cheating of the opposing team turns to brutality.

 

Players are carried off the field. Some have been injured critically; others, it is whispered, fatally. It ceases to be a game and becomes a battle.

 

You become very frustrated and upset. “Why let this go on? Neither team can win. It must be stopped.”

 

Imagine that you confront the sponsor of the game and demand that he stop this useless, futile battle. You say it is senseless and without purpose. Has he no regard at all for the players?

He calmly replies that he will not call the game. You are mistaken. There is a great purpose in it. You have not understood.

 

He tells you that this is not a spectator sport—it is for the participants. It is for their sake that he permits the game to continue. Great benefit may come to them because of the challenges they face.

He points to players sitting on the bench, suited up, eager to enter the game. “When each one of them has been in, when each has met the day for which he has prepared so long and trained so hard, then, and only then, will I call the game.”

 

Until then, it may not matter which team seems to be ahead. The present score is really not crucial. There are games within games, you know. Whatever is happening to the team, each player will have his day.

 

Those players on the team that keeps the rules will not be eternally disadvantaged by the appearance that their team somehow always seems to be losing.

 

In the field of destiny, no team or player will be eternally disadvantaged because they keep the rules. They may be cornered or misused, even defeated for a time. But individual players on that team, regardless of what appears on the scoreboard, may already be victorious.

Each player will have a test sufficient to his needs; how each responds is the test.

 

When the game is finally over, you and they will see purpose in it all, may even express gratitude for having been on the field during the darkest part of the contest.

 

I do not think the Lord is quite so hopeless about what’s going on in the world as we are. He could put a stop to all of it any moment. But He will not! Not until every player has a chance to meet the test for which we were preparing before the world was, before we came into mortality."

Let us all remember that there is a purpose for everything, and even though we can't always see it God is there helping us out. I know that at times life is hopeless, but that is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so great! It gives us hope when we think that all hope is lost. While I am struggling with this and that, it is always helpful to see the bigger picture, or the eternal perspective.

Hermana Ashley Peterson

"Hope is never lost." -Jeffrey R Holland