spiritual stage set to behave as a disciple of Christ

John 7

The Feast of the Tabernacles is at the end of the harvest and commemorates blessings from God during the Exodus. The way it is described, it reminds me of US Thanksgiving without the football.

Jesus traveled to the feast incognito and heard the murmurings of the people as they waited. Some accepted Him as the Christ, while others believed Him a deceiver. Even though they all wanted to see Him, they were amazed that He actually showed His face; He was a marked man. Even so He taught at the temple.

He taught that His teachings were from the Father. He taught how to gain a testimony of this truth by doing the will of the Father. "...As you try it (living God's will), you can know it is true. This requires the faith to try, but it yields spiritual evidence. To the disciple who tries the experiment will come conviction, knowledge, and light." John K. Carmack, Ensign, November 1988, 26

This message amazed the people then and continue to amaze some today. Keeping the commandments or doing the will of the Father brings peace and happiness. Feelings of spiritual joy even in the midst of trial build our testimony. We can know that living the law of the Gospel is the only way to find true happiness. Sounds to simple to be true, but that is the bottom line.

But.....we must know what the will of the Father is in order to live it. How do we learn this? We have scripture available to read at this time. If we read and study His word, we can learn the will of the Father. I can't speak for others, but in my experience, studying scripture daily is the only way to keep the will of the Father foremost in my mind. Arising early and studying the word, my mind is invigorated and my spiritual stage set to behave as a disciple of Christ. Attending church meetings, listening to the words of modern prophets, worshiping in the temple, serving others, memorizing hymns and scripture, and so on, we participate in various ways to to live the will of the Father, but references to them are in the Word. The key to testimony is knowing and understanding the will of the Father is the Word learned  line upon line, precept upon precept.

Let's go one step further here. As women we are commanded to love our children (among other things); what better way to show our love than to be a living testimony of Jesus Christ! Imagine the security a child in our home would feel if we lived the principles of 1 Corinthians 13. Imagine if we helped them hide God's word in their hearts and truly understand the words, how they would be armed for the future. Nurturing children takes many forms. could this be one of them?

And how about our husband's and loving them--what if we adopted some of the Proverbs? For instance, "It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house." Proverbs 21:9 These little tidbits make us laugh, but they should also make us pause and think.

God is so good. He gave us the owners manual if we will only read it.