As many of you all have been reminding me so far, it's been a couple days since my last blog post. I was thinking about that and realized that I'm coming up on 1.5 months of having a stale blog. Kinda sad, but true nevertheless. Anyways, this is my post of repentance.
So a couple days ago Elder Hobson and I were knocking on doors in a neighborhood. We came up to this guy named Jerry who was working in his garage. Right as we were about to start talking to him his dog walks out from behind a table. Now when a missionary encounters a dog there are generally only a few different outcomes:
1) The dog is friendly and we get to learn a lot about it from it's owner.
2) The dog gets ticked off and starts growling, at which point we just back away slowly and try not to make any sudden movements.
3) The dog gets really ticked off and starts chasing us. Not much you can do at that point besides run and hope that either a chain you didn't notice holds the dog back, or the owner tells the dog to heel.
Well as soon as I saw the dog I prepared myself to respond according to those procedures. However something unprecedented occurred--the dog did absolutely nothing. A split second later I realized why. See if you can figure it out yourself from the picture.
Where are his eyes? Well I'm sure Bruno (the dog) could smell us, but he was definitely not looking at us at first. He did 2 complete circuits of the garage before he noticed us and left patrol duty to check us out. At that point he was looking right at us, but then Bruno's owner, who was right next to him, went to pet him and he jumped from surprise. I thought, "Wow it would be hard to only see what's right in front of you!"
Well you'll all be surprised to know that this thought made me remember of a couple scriptures! First off a scripture from the Book of Mormon:
Mosiah 11:29
This part of the Book of Mormon is about a prophet named Abinadi and a wicked group of people under the rule of a king named Noah (no relation to the Old Testament prophet).
Abinadi is directed by the Lord to command the people of king Noah to repent for the evils that were taking place among them. Well generally speaking people don't like to be told they need to repent. The people were so angry with Abinadi and his words that they bound him and took him to king Noah. This scripture describes their attitude.
29 "Now the eyes of the people were blinded; therefore they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi, and they sought from that time forward to take him. And king Noah hardened his heart against the word of the Lord, and he did not repent of his evil doings."
Were they literally blind? No I suppose at least most of them had fully functioning eyes. But they did have hearts that were 'hardened,' or in other words they were not humble enough to listen to the word of God. All the people could see was the shallow things and the pleasures right in front of them. In a spiritual sense they were all blind, especially king Noah who, "did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness...and he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed...to support himself, and his wives and his concubines." The blind leading the blind!!
Now we contrast this to a scripture from the Bible:
Luke 4:18
This verse is Christ reading a prophecy about himself from a book written by the prophet Esaias.
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised"
Jesus Christ brought sight back to the eyes of many people during his ministry. That was one of His trademark miracles. However I feel like there is meaning to the phrase 'recovering the sight of the blind' beyond that of the physical miracle. The scripture says that Christ was anointed to preach the gospel, and so He did. In doing so he opened the eyes of His followers. He showed them things as they really are and told them about things as the really would be in the future. His teachings helped them to find greater peace in this life and to prepare for eternal happiness in the life to come. By opening their eyes to the miracles of God and the blessings of obedience, Christ was able to put lost souls back on the path that leads to our Heavenly Father.
I am grateful for the perspective I've gained from knowing and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for the love He showed to us in the way He lived His life and in the reason He gave it up. I promise all who read this that by following Christ and letting Him open your eyes, you will find the greatest form of peace and security that exists.
As a servant and representative of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm here to invite all to come unto Him! I testify that these messages are true and from God, so pay attention to your thoughts and feelings as you read.
Scripture of the Day!!!!!
8 But as oft as they repented and sought fogriveness, with real intent, they were forgiven.
Moroni 6:8
Moroni 6:8
Ya...that's a sweet dog. I am going to get one sometime. As I was reading your post I had a thought come to mind. As we were talking to Jerry, Bruno (the dog) was "uncomfortable" or "tence" because of the unfamiliar company. Jerry tried to calm his own dog down by petting him but as you said Bruno jumped by surprise when Jerry touched him. Bruno didn't realize that it was his owner trying to comfort him. I think I could apply this the gospel somehow?
ReplyDeleteIn life we all go through rough times and they are usually in itself "uncomfortable." During these times it's almost "natural" to go into this kind of defensive mode where the only thing your thinking about is yourself and your own "way out." Even when our own Heavenly Father is doing everything He can to comfort us and help us, we seem to sometimes ignore it and not realize what he is doing.
I guess my advice to all who read this is open up your eyes! Don't be a stubborn chow like Bruno. Look at the blessings and miracles around you and know that God is in control and is more than willing to help us and comfort us. Good post Elder Elison, your the man.
Yay! You did it again! You took this scripture and explained it perfectly! I wish I could have a gospel discussion with you every day, when I read the Book of Mormon!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how your perspective on things can affect so much. If only we all could open our eyes a little wider and notice all that is laid befor us. Love the post!
ReplyDeleteThanks! yeah the gospel does give you a pretty neat perspective on the world. a lot more security I think. I wish everybody knew!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing how other people really explain scriptures and messages. I love the view and the insight! Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteI never, ever thought I'd see the day when you would post about a dog. Animals, in my opinion, are really good examples of the gospel. They, being (relatively) silent and almost foreign to us in some ways, are like the Holy Ghost. He is quiet and always testifies to us in ways we don't always expect, so He's foreign too. As you knew, the dog would growl first if he didn't like you. That's fairly quiet, and if you weren't looking for it, you probably would have missed the warning signs, like you would with the Holy Ghost.... But the dog was blind to the possible danger in it's own familiar territory, like we are without the gospel....
ReplyDeleteJust a thought :)
holy deep comment! that's awesome you definitely took this a step beyond my post. that is interesting I guess animals really do make a good gospel analogy. they communicate to us, but not with words. the signs are more subtle and it takes a bit of practice before we can really understand what's being told to us. definitely a lot like the Spirit!
ReplyDeleteThat picture is hilarious, and your message is inspiring! Thanks for brightening my day!
ReplyDelete