The Ten Commanments

The Ten Commandments:

thou shalt have no other gods before me

thou shalt not make any graven image of likeness of anything that is in heaven above or worship false idols 

thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain

thou shalt keep the sabbath day holy

thou shalt honor thy father and they mother

thou shalt not kill

thou shalt not commit adultery

thou shalt not steal

thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor

thou shalt not covet

The first great commandment is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second great commandment is to love thy neighbor as thyself. 

Love God:

no other gods before me

don't worship idols

don't take the Lord's name in vain

keep the sabbath day holy

Love neighbor:

honor father and mother

don't kill

don't commit adultery

don't steal

don't bear false witness against thy neighbor

don't covet

I feel that all of these commandments are being broken all the time but the top three would have to be: worshiping false idols, keep the sabbath day holy, and coveting. If everyone could keep these commandments, the world would definitely be a different place. EVERYONE worships false idols. They come in the form of houses, cell phones, clothes, degrees, titles, and so many more things. I think there would be a greater importance and value on the things that matter most like family and God. If everyone kept the sabbath day holy no one would be working on Sunday. That would be really different from what we are used to now. An interesting thing I learned while reading about coveting was that it seems like the least important commandment but it is actually very important. If this commandment is broken, then there is weakening in all of the other commandments because they are all so intertwined. If people didn't covet we would have a lot less people breaking all the other commandments.

Preparing to Meet the Lord

Right now we are talking about the story of Moses. Moses was chosen to ask Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. God wanted these children of Israel to become a peculiar people. He wanted them to become the twelve tribes of Israel. They will be a holy nation of priests. In order for the children of Israel to become all of these wonderful things, they needed to obey the Lord's voice and keep His covenant. If the children of Israel could accomplish these things they will become this wonderful group of people and be a treasure above all other people. 

I think we can make a good application to us from these verses. I believe that it really isn't any different in our day. If we obey Him and keep our covenants that we made with Him then we will become Priests and Priestesses of our own worlds and just live in this wonderful paradise with our Heavenly Father. I believe that there are reasons why certain stories are in the scriptures. It is for our benefit in our day so that we can be taught lessons. There is a lot of symbolisms and just other parts that are meant for us also. I know that if we follow is voice and keep His covenants then we will be treasured above all other people. 

Marriage in the Covenant

Abraham did not want his sons to marry girls that were Canaanites. He wanted them to go to his country and find a wife. He showed his concern because he made them swear that they would do this. His concern for them also came from the fact that if they did marry someone that was a Canaanite, the sons would end up falling away from the gospel. Of course, no parent would want that. They needed to find someone that they could be one with the Lord. It just doesn’t really work when you marry someone that isn’t of the same faith as you. It isn’t a good pairing. I think we can definitely see this concerns for parents even today. We know that if we marry someone that is not of our faith or has different beliefs than we do then there are more chances for arguments which means there are more problems involved in that kind of marriage. It not only creates problems in the marriage but in the family as well.

Rebekah ends up being the one that is chosen for Isaac. Rebekah also has a lot of good traits that would be good for us to look for in a companion.

·         She gave the servant a drink from her pitcher and she even drew water for his camels. I have heard that drawing water from a well is very hard and she did that several times. (18)

·         She provided a place to stay for the servant. (25)

These instances show that she was a strong woman, she was kind, and she was beautiful inside and out.

Rebekah and Isaac had concern for Jacob. They were afraid that he would marry someone that wasn’t of the same faith as Jacob. They told him where he should go to find a wife. They said if he wouldn’t marry someone of Canaan then he will prosper and be fruitful.

Jacob ends up meeting someone named Rachel. She was of the same faith as Jacob. In order to be able to marry Rachel, Jacob had to work for Laban for seven years. That is a long time. After the seven years is up, he doesn’t get Rachel, he gets her older sister Leah. So he has to work another seven years for Rachel. He does all of this just so he could marry in the covenant. I think this is in the scriptures because this is an example to us that marrying in the covenant is so important that we should do anything to be able to do it. I never made this connection before but now I really see how important it is. Now that I am married I can hold an even greater importance to it because I am so grateful to be eternally sealed to my husband, someone that I love so much. It is something that is worth it to work at it for fourteen years. 

Cake Pops

So, I was in Target and I picked up a recipe book of cake stuff. I don't really remember what it was but I looked at it and it had a recipe for cake pops. Well I wanted to try and make them and they weren't hard so here is how that experiment went :)

The finished product

Don't drool on your keyboard :)

First Day of School!

Ok so I know this is really late, but.....whatever lol. This is our 2nd spring semester here for us. Which makes it our 4th semester at BYU-I. I made Ryan take a picture before he went to school. Isn't he cute :)

He made sure that I took a picture of myself also. I left after him so I had to just take the picture myself :)

Yay for the first day of school!

Who was Melchizedek?

             In Genesis Melchizedek blessed Abraham (then called Abram). But who is Melchizedek? He was the king of Salem. At some point in Salem the people became very wicked and had gone astray. Melchizedek preached repentance to his people and they did repent. They had peace in his days and he was also called the prince of peace.He received the office of the high priesthood according to the holy order of God. He was a high priest and he took upon him the high priesthood forever. I don't know if those last two sentences are the same thing.  It also says that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek and he received it through the lineage of his fathers. Now the Melchizedek priesthood is named after Melchizedek because he was such a great high priest. Before it got that name it was called "The Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God." In Doctrine and Covenants 107:4 it says, "But out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood." I think that is so interesting that, that is the why they called it that.
                  Among all of God's ancient high priests none were greater than Melchizedek. He held such a high position in the eyes of the Lord that he was like unto that of Abraham. And we know that Abraham was the angel Gabriel who told Mary that she was going to give birth to the Son of God. Something that I found very interesting is that Melchizedek's position was so high and exalted in the eyes of the Lord AND his people that he stood as a prototype of the Son of God himself. That is such a powerful statement. A prototype is a model of something or something that illustrates another object. He is a model or example of the Son of God. I find that amazing and yet, I really didn't know anything about Melchizedek or even that it was a person. I just knew it was a name for the higher priesthood. I also noticed that he was called the prince of peace which is also what we can refer Jesus as and so now it all kind of makes sense. One more interesting thing. Shem, the son of Noah, is thought to be Melchizedek. We don't know for sure but there is a lot of evidence suggesting this. I am so glad that I have learned this about the Melchizedek priesthood. It is so much more important now than it was to me when I knew nothing about it. I also think the manuals are so useful for helping us to understand the scriptures better especially if you are someone like me who has a hard time understanding them and the things that are not exactly visible when just reading them.