Pearl of Great Price

 
  I love the time that we, as missionaries, get to spend studding and pondering upon the scriptures. What I was thinking about today was the story of the Pearl of Great Price. The story is about a rich man that is searching for pearls of value. But as he is in the market place one day he finds a pearl of great price and sells all that he has. Here is the story.

  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."

  This is great for a few reasons; one of my favorites is because it’s short sweet and to the point. When you find yourself happy with your life style, like this man probably was with his way of life and then he saw something greater that what he had, and so he got rid of those things of less value so he could have what was truly great. The gospel of Jesus Christ is like this. We all have our things in the world that we like, that are "fun" and make us "happy" but we can sense there is something out there greater, something of more worth. What this parable is saying to me is, when we find that of great worth, something that will take us to a whole new level of happiness, we must leave or “sell”, what is slowing you down behind and move to the one of greater value. If we do, we can find an added measure of happiness. I know this to be true, and I wish to leave this in the name of Jesus Christ, who has that of most worth, Amen.

The Good Shepard

  I have had a couple of good ideas of things to blog about, and the one I wish to start on is the good Shepherd. I have been reading a lot of really good talks lately about rescuing the lost sheep, and if you think about it we are all lost in one way or another, and we know lots more that are lost as well. The talks that I have been reading were talking a lot about different ways that we can try to bring them back and I thought they were all great, but it changes a little with each person. But the most important thing we can do is to show someone that they belong and that someone cares for them. I love the scripture from John 10: 14 it says: "I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." We are all His sheep and He knows us individually. It’s not like a big company where people fall through the cracks and are forgotten, He can call us all by name. We need to do our best to help bring those lost sheep back into the fold. We may not be able to know all of the sheep that belong to the good Shepherd, but we can help out those that we do know. I know each of us can reach out and help someone. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Charity

   I have been thinking of charity quite a bit lately. I have been reading through the LDS bible dictionary, where it gives definitions of different words, and one of the definitions that I really enjoyed was the one on charity. It goes as followed; " The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ." That to me is really cool, when we show charity towards others it is the strongest kind of love.

  The scriptures tells us multiple times to have charity, to help our fellow man. A way I like to look at helping others is, we are all on the same team. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and He loves us all the same. There is a scripture that says, as ye have done it upon one of these the least of my brethren ye have done it unto me. It doesn't take a lot to brighten someones day. If you can think of it as when you are helping someone you are helping God, it can make it a little easier to do when you reflect on all of the times He has helped you. Or if you put yourself in their shoes and think of what you would like someone to do for me. I know that as we try to apply these principles, not only will me make others happier, but we will become happier ourselves.