3 Nephi 15-21

I realized from this week just how much I love the book of 3 Nephi, especially the chapters when Christ is visiting the people. I think 19 has got to be one of my all-time favorite chapters. It's so beautiful and so descriptive. It gives such powerful imagery and helps me to imagine myself in that situation.

Sadly we didn't really discuss 19 in class. We focused more on the historical side of it all--the twelve tribes of Israel, the scattering and gathering, the Law of Moses, etc. I enjoyed it, but I think I enjoyed my personal reading the most.

We did, however, discuss chapter 17 where Christ blesses the people. He mentions in verse 2 that they are weak, and He tells them to go to their homes and recover so He can teach them more tomorrow. But when He tells them to do this, the people begin to cry. He instead stays and tells them to bring everyone forward that needs to be healed. In verse 9, it emphasizes that "He did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him." He healed each person individually and took the time to love each of them. He realized that people were more important than time restraints. I've been trying to think about this a lot too, as I balance homework/life/school with service and going to the temple regularly. This is a good example to me of putting the most important things before important things.

After healing the people, He healed their children as well. In verse 21, it says "And when he had said these words, he wept ... and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them." The cool thing Brother Griffin pointed out is that weeping requires opening your heart. It requires allowing yourself to feel emotion and to feel someone else's pains, which isn't always an easy thing to do. It's hard to make yourself vulnerable and capable of sharing those emotions, but that's one of the beautiful things about the Atonement. Because Christ suffered each and every one of our pains, sorrows and afflictions, He knows exactly how to open His heart to us. He knows how to cry with us and to make Himself vulnerable, because He's already been there and has done it before. He can share our emotions because they've already been His. Pretty cool. :)

Chapters 18-21 is about turning our mortal efforts into eternal rewards. In chapter 18 we discussed the Abrahamic Covenant in which Christ says "I'll be your God if you'll be my people." The cool thing is that baptism and the sacrament is our own form of the Abrahamic covenant. Each week we take the sacrament and renew that covenant with Him to be completely clean and do what He has asked of us. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had sacrificial meetings, but we have sacrament meetings. Each week we put all of our mortal, earthly desires, worries, cares, goals, passions and concerns on His altar. We give them and ourselves to Him, because things that are His can be eternal.

That's all for this week!

Kelsey