I've had some sweet moments while studying the scriptures lately. Some personal questions that were answered, and some fun connections that were made. Hopefully I can explain them in this post, but if not, I'll have to in another post.
However, I want to talk about how much I really, really loathe the adversary.
He knows me. Not in unique way like the Savior. But he still knows my weaknesses {they are not hard to find}, and he knows how to exploit those to his advantage. If I have had a "rough day" with the kids, I want to forego all responsibilities and discipline. No cooking, cleaning, meditation, learning - one of my weaknesses is that I am an "all or nothing" type of lady. And if I'm not feeling it - I'm not feeling ANY of it. So I can feel that as I was striving to read and study more - the influence of him testing me. He was trying to make my life more hectic, to make me feel out of control so that I would give up all control. Sadly, one day he did get the best of me.
But one day he didn't.
And I will take any win I can get.
I have been thinking about my sister this week and an experience she had that boils my blood.
My sister, for a Young Women's project, started an Instagram feed where she posted uplifting sayings and quotes from church leaders. Under her post, she would share an encouraging word to her followers. Lots of "you can do it," "remember who you are," "He loves you! Don't forget!" and positive sentiments like that. She had quite a following and I was impressed! I loved reading her testimony daily. I loved that she motivated others to be their best self and to reminded them of their true purpose.
Well, someone had asked to be her friend and turns out, it was a prostitute (or something similar) that had inappropriate pictures. Ashlyn was disgusted and devastated. And immediately vowed to never go on Instagram. She deleted Instagram, stopped her personal progress project and chose a different one. And nothing could change her mind {and I know because I might have tried}.
Maybe she isn't suppose to be on Instagram. I don't really love the hold that social media has on our youth - mainly the fact that they use it to determine their self worth. But I do know that she was a light. She was using social media in a positive way. She was sharing her testimony to hundreds of people and reminding them each day that they were worth it. And I feel like Satan got involved there. That he sabotaged that testimony from being heard.
And I hate that. And I loathe him for it.
I decided to start my new determination to study the scriptures by looking up a word. The first word that came to my mind was "divine nature." I looked up the word in the Bible Dictionary and it brought me to only one verse that talked about divine nature together.
2 Peter 1:4. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
I looked to the footnotes for the words "divine" and "nature." For divine it says Earth, Purpose of. And for nature it brings you to 1 Samuel 10:6, "And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man."
My thoughts went along the lines of: The purpose of our time here on Earth is to develop ourselves. There were many character traits that followed the verse that I read in Peter and it also talked about our calling and election being made sure. So I thought now is the time to develop these characteristics and when I do, I will be turned into a better version of myself, one that resembles our Heavenly Father because that is the end goal, right?
The sweet moment came when Trent and I discussed what I had learned together. He reminded me that the footnotes could also be suggesting that the Earth has a divine nature - which it does! The Earth is to become the celestial kingdom {read about there here}. Therefore, the divine nature of Earth is to turned into the Celestial Kingdom. Well, if that is the whole purpose of Earth, I feel like the same could be said about us. We are similar to Earth because we are meant to become celestial beings and live with God in the Celestial Kingdom. A fun relation that we put together.
What I think heaven was trying to remind me was - what is the end goal Chelsea? What is your divine nature? What are you working towards? I needed that perspective to be brought to my attention again. Heaven knew I needed that. As I started this journey of "studying instead of reading" - He reminded me of the why. Why I study. Why I pray. Why I mother. Why I love. Why I am here.
It ties into my divine nature.
I have some other questions that go along with that topic that I am studying. And there have been some other sweet moments I will have to share, but
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