I have failed in writing once again. It becomes a little more difficult when you are no longer writing letters home from the mission field. I have decided however to do a second blog about a picture a day, borrowed from several artists (more info coming about that).
For now, my first topic I would like to cover is about Blogs. Last week in my lectures class the guest speaker (Jim Hadley? John Hadley? Some artist with the last name of Hadley) said that to have and write in a blog is important because it allows free expression. This in turn helps anyone with a blog, who writes in it, to be creative.
Second, today in Institute we talked about Mary, mother of Jesus. The class is about Women in the Scriptures, and so we look for and talk about the qualities of the women in the scriptures and how those qualities can be applied to us. Mary, as we discussed, was highly favored of the Lord because she trusted in Him, she was virtuous, humble, faithful, grateful, and submissive. As to the submissiveness, she said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy words" or "Thy will be done." I was thinking about this a few weeks ago during the Christmas season. Mary was given the most difficult task of anyone in the scriptures, other than Christ (and you might notice later on in Luke 22:42 that Christ basically says the same thing as his mother, just as a fun fact). Think of it: Angel Gabriel comes to Mary, a girl of 13 years, and says, "Hey Mary, you have been chosen to be the mother of the Savior of the world. Oh, and if you are feeling burdened by this thought now, wait until your son is 33 years old. He is going to have to pay the price for the sins of all mankind and will be crucified three days later."
Mary knew the prophecies about the Savior, and I believe it would have been very difficult for her to realize that she was going to give birth to the Christ only to watch him die in a little over thirty years. However, as the scriptures state, she responded, "Be it unto me..." or "I will do it."
What I likened to myself at that time when I was reading about this several weeks back, I thought, If Mary could give birth to the Savior and know what she would have to do and what would happen in the coming years, and yet said she would willingly do it (And she did do it!), I can do difficult things, too.
I know that whatever comes our way, we can do difficult things. Why? Because God will help us. If He gives us a challenge or a calling, He will help us through it.