This upcoming week has me thinking a lot about what I am grateful for. It has been a difficult semester and I have often found myself looking at all the negative things going on in my life instead of looking to the Lord and seeing all the blessings he has given me. Because of the spirit of Thanksgiving, I decided to look for scriptures that would apply to me this week. 

In Alma 34:38 it reads, "That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; That ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you."

This scripture is so powerful when you really think about what he talking about. Aside from excepting the Holy Ghost into our lives, we need to remember Christ as well. This is a time for worship as well and during that worship, we always need to remember to thank God or EVERYTHING he does. We might find ourselves asking him for a plethora of things in our prayers but when was the last time you truly thanked him for the little things he has done throughout the week? So I invite you to think about the things you are thankful for this week. Also, remember the Lord because without him, you would not have those things. He has truly given us everything in one way or another. Happy Thanksgiving :) 

I have had a very sad week. I have been disgusted and hurt by the hate that I see in our great nation. On Tuesday night, Donald Trump was elected president. Since that day, people have began rioting, protesting, and being violent. While I understand that people are upset, it is no way to act towards someone who is going to be leading our country for the next 4-8 years. No matter what, we need to turn our hearts to God in prayer for this man who will move our amazing country forward. Now more than ever do we need to come together and turn to the real man in charge; God. For those of you who fear for our future, I would like to share a scripture with you that really helped me this week. 

Moroni 7: 41 reads, "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal and this because of your faith according to the promise."

This is something I wish everyone would understand. We should be having hope because we have God and our Savior to care for us, no matter the circumstance, As long as we have faith in Christ, we can move forward with happiness and acceptance for the future. Pray instead of protest and create change instead of violence. Most importantly, respect the opinions of those around you because we are all Gods children, regardless of our differing beliefs. 

This week I want to talk about passions. I am going to be a little more specific to sexual passions though. It is obvious that it is part of human nature to have these desires. I think our society has made it so that people believe they have the right to act on these desires and that there won't be any consequences for those actions. However, I know for a fact that acting on these desires without any commitment can hurt you physically and spiritually.
In Alma 38 we read the words given to Shiblon by his father. There is a very powerful lesson that pertains to what I want to talk about. In verse 12 it reads, "Use boldness, but not overbearance: and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness." This scripture has a lot of very important points but I want to focus on the word Bridle. This basically means to control your passions and not let them overtake you. He then says that when you do this, you will be filled with love. To me, that means that if you love someone, you will hold back your passions for that person to show them respect. I strongly believe that if you refrain from letting your passion get out of hand, you will always make the right decision. We all get into situations that may cause us not to make the right choice, but it is important to remember that we are all children of God, and we should respect ourselves and those around us. If this concept was more established in the world, I think we would see a lot of problems with sexual assault and unplanned pregnancy disappear. So overall, bridal your passions people. You will feel happiness and love when you do so.

For my blog post today, I would like to focus on Lamoni's people. In Alma, his people are addicted to killing and bloodshed. When they finally heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ though, they were ready to bury this addiction.
 Alma 24:19 reads , " And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and this we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace." They gained strength and guidance in order to put aside their addictions and become better people. This can relate to us today because we all have addictions. While it may not being the addiction to murder, it is still a good lesson to take into consideration. People are now addicted to drugs, alcohol, pornography, eating, and so on. If we follow the teachings and examples of Lamoni's people, and bury our addictions, then we will be stronger and more happy. I know that the weight of addiction not only affects you, but it also affects those around you. The great thing about burying your addictions is that you don't have to do it alone. When you look to Christ, he will help you. And in the end, it will be worth it.