Thursday, December 26, 2013

Week 12: A Wise Master-builder... Bring Your Finest

Like baking... If you want the best, most delicious, amazing dishes, you of course want the best, most delicious, amazing ingredients.... and so it is with building. The beauty of our temples has always amazed me. Never have a seen a more beautiful, perfect building that wasn't one of the Lord's houses...

I remember a story about a temple being built.. and during the night vandalists had snuck into that holy temple and vandalized the walls with gruesome graffiti. The prophet, upon seeing the horrific vandalism, instructed that it was to be removed and taken care of... Well painters came in and repainted the wall covering the graffiti. By the time they were done you would never have known that the walls had once been covered in filth. The prophet came back in to inspect the work and looked at the wall which now seemed white and perfect... but kindly the prophet asked if the graffiti had been removed or simply covered. When they told him it had just been painted over he asked if they would take a sander, grind down the walls and remove the filthy words before painting the wall again. 

There was also a story about the building of a temple where the pioneers were asked to give there all and sacrifice their best to the building of this temple. There was many pioneer woman who had inherited very fine and precious china, some had gold designs and beautiful, precious markings. These woman took their most prized possession to the temple and unwrapped their precious china from the cloth they so carefully stored them in. Giving up their beautiful dishes they went home to care for their families. The china was carefully ground up and mixed into the cement for the bricks. Later the woman went back to the finished temple and notice the beautiful glow that sparkled around the outside of the glorious building, but up close they notice that the sparkle and shimmer the gleamed around the temple came from none other than pieces of their beautiful possessions, now there for all to see.  

I love these stories and sometimes compare them to myself.

Am I giving my best when I am building myself?

I am not a perfect person... of this I am sure. But how many times have I, like the painters, took the walls vandalized with my sins, and simply covered them up rather than removing the sins altogether? I, without my Savior can simply only cover them up. I can not remove them, I can only cover them up and hide them away. 

And second, am I giving my best to the Lord? 

When Christ came to earth He gave us the greatest sacrifice... He died for me. He died for you. He died because He loves us and wants us to return to our Father in Heaven. He gave us the most precious gift that we could not give to ourselves. He sacrificed His life and for that I am eternally grateful. So... why is it so hard for me to sacrifice my best to give to Him. Like the pioneer woman, I have very precious and beautiful gifts... and I hope that I can be like them and be able to give them unto the Lord. 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Week 11: And Still, The Builders Build...

If you ever drive down through the main road in Orem, Utah you will find two very large buildings on your right. Lost and abandoned, these buildings are incomplete and unfinished. Once upon a time they had a builder, and that builder had a dream. The building would be large among the many it stands next two. With the finest materials. It would hold many people and there would be many memories made in that building. It would be one that everyone would want to go in... just to see whats in side. It would be beautiful. But as life went on... funds run low, the building abandoned and unfinished, the dream burnt out.

As a child I always drove by the building with my parents and assumed that it was a castle they were building for a princess.. I never understood that the builder just gave up.

We are sometimes as the builder. We have a big dream ahead of us and a heart inside of us and we will reach that dream no matter what. Sometimes we dream of building ourselves with the finest materials, that people could see by our beautiful exterior that we are children of God, and they would want to know us just because of the happiness that surrounds us. Sometimes we dream of being that princess.. that would one day enter into that "castle", God's castle.. to be sealed for time and all eternity. Sometimes we dream of going to school and getting an education, or waiting for a missionary; our missionary, to come home and take us to that castle. We all have dreams, big and small, but sometimes as life goes on... our desires run low and our dreams burn out.

We can become discouraged and lost and abandoned. We can be tempted and tried to the point where we wonder if the dreams we were hoping for are even attainable at all. Satan tries to tell us we are not good enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough, that there's no hope for us, that we're not worth it... but let me tell you, HE IS WRONG!

You have a God that loves you. He is yours and He loves you so much that He sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for us. To build us. Don't give up. No matter how lonely, or lost, or abandoned, or broken, or depressed, or sad, or unforgivable you think you are... you are NEVER too far away for the Savior's love. Turn to Him for the help you need to not only endure, but to have fun in the journey to your dreams. Keep on keeping on! Keep on building! Keep on pushing! You are worth it! And one day you will be in that castle, or at the very dream you once seen as unattainable, and you will look back and realize that those thing that once seemed so big, are but small stumbling points on your journey, and that those small stumbling blocks.... are the things that shaped you and built you into who you are today. So keep on building, and still, the builders build.