12-3-11 “He did deliver me from bondage” p.139, Day 3

12-3-11    “He did deliver me from bondage” p.139, Day 3

This reminds me of the Z model.  I like the phrase “freed from sin”.

sin being on the left                                                                                                    freedom being on the right 

carnally minded                                                                                                               spiritually minded

death                                                                                                                                   Life

I’ve been thinking lately about the phrase “to let go of the cares of this world”.  Certainly the cares of this world are predominately carnal and belong in the physical reality.  She says to describe a day of each?  There is one sense of it when I am focused on all the ‘things’ in my house, or the money we don’t have, or all the stuff that I want.  When I focus on these carnal things my focus becomes selfish and short-sided.  On the other hand when I think about ways that I can help other people or who needs me to help them, then my focus turns outward.  In the service of others I am blessed with joy, because I get to serve God.

I was thinking yesterday of a blessing timeline.  Imagine in your mind a time line that shows a thing you think is a blessing, then draw a line forward into the future for how long that blessing will last.  Like this:

Now                    1 yr        5 yrs     10yrs                   50yrs                   100yrs                1000yrs             Death                

Food_ (only ‘today’)

Car________________ (if we’re lucky)

Civil marriage_______________________________ (till death do you part)

Having family & children ------------------------------------------------------------à generational continuance

Eternal Marriage (sealed in the temple) -------------------------------------------------------------------------à

What are the long-term effects of my choices?  How long will it matter? How long will it last?

What do we spend our money and our time on? How long will it last?  Does it really matter?

Idea for future…

*  “ring true to me”  compare to ring of a bell. Individual resonance because of shape. Truth individual resonance to each of us.

*Idea to establish joint decision making in a presidency:  Use a cookie sheet/plate to stack weights.  Use washers for weights.  Imagine each washer is a 5 lb weight.  Use different places around a circle on the cookie sheet to represent each person in the presidency (maybe use name tags).  Have each sister individually take their own stack of weights and distribute them according to how they feel the decision making process should be distributed.  Who has the most weight?  How are the weights to be distributed? 

My thoughts: According to the law of Zion and in efforts to strive for unity, each person has an equal amount of weight.  Responsibility and accountability is equally shared.  We are a team.  If we fail, we fail together.  If we win, we win together. 

Thoughts from http://ce.byu.edu/cw/womensconference/archive/1998/smoot_mary_ellen.htm

She said that Enoch is a perfect pattern for doing impossible things.  He built the city of Zion from the ground up; from a wicked selfish people to a giving and pure people.  I was thinking this morning that the sealed part of the Book of Mormon probably contains more of this pattern: how to build Zion.  And surely the Prophet is leading us to become worthy enough to receive it.  I can’t wait till I can open those pages.  I’ll go straight to the index and look up Enoch to see the pattern of how to build Zion.  But surly there is more that I can do with the scriptures I now have.  I know I still have a lot of work to do.