D&C 121

So I thought that I would add to the thought from yesterday with what I learned today in Sunday school. It's pretty great.

So D&C 121 is set when Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail and terrible (TERRIBLE) things were going on in Far West. (I know that apparently they are glad to not be us, but I am glad that I am not them. I swear I couldn't have been a member of the church then. I think I couldn't be able to put my family in that much risk. Too Scary.)

Joseph is feeling pretty alone and asking the same things that most of us ask when we are having trials. My favorite thing to ask Heavenly Father is if he loves me so much then is this really what he wanted for me?

Joseph is asking similar questions, and your heart just goes out to him. I feel very terrible for him because he's just asking him to make his powers known and stop all these terrible things. Why didn't he? Ahh, it's just terrible.

Anyway, from this section we get Heavenly Father's beautiful answer: Now let's put this in the context of what I blogged about yesterday.

7 My son, ^apeace be unto thy soul; thine ^badversity and thine afflictions shall be but a ^csmall moment;

Now let's put this in the context of what I blogged about yesterday. If Heavenly Father used the same phrase that we give our kids all the time and said, "Give me a minute" when we prayed for something to end, it would take (ugh! This seriously took some seriously thinking, remember I do math with maybe 6th graders at a max, I just ended with the kindergartners and 1st graders, so this is a giant step ahead of me)(this is with a little bit of rounding too) about 8 and a 1/2 months for that time to pass here. If he said give me a second, it would be a few days, and if he said can't you just give 5 minutes, it would be a little over 3 years. Seriously a boggling concept, but do you get the picture. He literally means that our afflictions are a small moment to him. 8 months is a minute? This could be reading way to far into something he was using as a figurative sense, and not a literal comparison. But, there you have it! WAIT A MINUTE! This to shall pass.

(Based on my nice guessing, I've only been gone for like 1/2 an hour, and Neil's mom has been waiting for all of us to join her for a matter of minutes. MIND BLOWING!

Also an interesting little tidbit from reading this chapter at home tonight.

For all the terrible terrible people and the awful things they did...(I thought we were desensitised until I got thinking about the awful things these people did to men, but more importantly woman and children and BABIES)...the Lord said this.

24 Behold, mine eyes ^asee and know all their works, and I have in reserve a swift ^bjudgment in the season thereof, for them all;

19 Wo unto them; because they have ^aoffended my little ones they shall be severed from the ^bordinances of mine house.

Did you catch that last verse? From what I comprehend, they can never have their work done for them. EVER! There goes your eternal glory. No forgiveness. Is that not terrible. I was shocked. I have never out right heard that the work for some people would be useless.

I'm almost speechless. That's a terrible punishment, but rightly deserved. Wow, that's all I can say.