Are you Burdened Down?

Life has been weighing me down this week.  Every day I had a lot that I needed to accomplish and I have a lot to accomplish in the near future, and I might be at my breaking point.  Because of this I have had a heavy heart, a distracted mind and I have not been mentally with my family because I am worrying about the hundred things that are going to be coming at me.  Does anyone else feel this way? And honestly I didn't know that this was how I felt until yesterday, I was in a Relief Society* Presidency meeting when my dear friend said our opening prayer and it went something like this, “Father we come to thee burdened downed”.  Not until then did I realize that this is how I was feeling, and the tears flowed freely.  I finally recognized that I was feeling a heavy burden.

 In Mathew 11:28-30 we read,

 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

This scripture is me. I am laboring with all my might, and I am very heavy laden.  But did I come unto Christ as the scripture said?  No, I haven’t.  Not once this week did I say in my prayers, “I am feeling burdened with all that I have going on in my life, can you help me with my burden?”  No, all I prayed for was that I would make it through the day.  But He promised something better than just making it through the day.

               

                In verse 29 and 30 it reads:  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

A yoke is a harness that goes between two oxen.  It is usually made of wood so that it cannot flex, so that one ox cannot get ahead of the other.  The yoke makes it so that they must be side by side so that they can pull the burden equally.

                If Christ is saying take my yoke upon you, is He not saying keep me right next to you so that I can help you carry your burden.

                How do we yoke Christ next us?  It tells us in the very next sentence. I have never noticed until just now.  LEARN OF ME. What? I am burdened down with all that I have to do and Christ wants me to take time to learn of Him. He wants me to take time to read my scriptures, pray, and do things in my life that will bring me closer to Him. I am too busy; why should I? 

Why should I take the time in my busy life to learn about Christ?  Because I want the promise that follows, “and ye shall find rest unto your soul.” Isn’t that what I want, to feel peace; I don’t want to feel burdened by all that I need to do.  I want to feel peace.

But aren’t reading my scriptures and praying just more things to add to my burden?  Christ answers that question in verse 30:

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

He just told us that His burden is light. His burden – doing those things in our lives that will bring us closer to Him – does not add to our load.

Mosiah 24:15  And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

So this week I am planning on praying that the Lord will help me bare my burden, and Learn more of Christ, so that I can feel peace. 

If you find yourself feeling burdened I would urge you to join me in Coming unto Christ, and then share with me your experience.

*Relief Society is an organization of women from ages 18 and up in the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints. This organization has a president, two counselors, and a secretary.

Family Scriptures "Blues Clue" Style

Several months ago my husband and I attended a class that shared ideas how to teach your children  scriptures stories.  One of the ways they shared with us they called the "Blues Clues" style.  The makers of Blues Clues did a study that children need to hear things five times in a row to have them remember thing real well.  If you have young children a great way to teach them scripture stories is do the same story five days in a row.
We implemented this into our family and it has worked great.  We do it every other week and read the scriptures the other weeks. We have older kids so we tweaked it a bit so that it would be for meaningful for them.

For my older kids this is what we do. (I do have younger kids and it works for them as well)

Day 1- Share the story

Day 2- Share the story, and then discuss the principle that the story demonstrates that you want to                   focus on.

Day 3-Share the story, then share modern day examples of the the principle that you are focusing on.

Day 4- Share the story, discuss the context of the story, (what's going on around the story).

Day 5- Share the story, How are you going to apply what you have learned into your personal lives and            your family.

Here is an example:

Day 1- Daniel in the lions den from the Bible,

King Darius was the king of Babylon.  He chose men to help him. Daniel was their leader. They did not want Daniel to be their leader.  The men knew that Daniel prayed to God.  They went to King Darius and asked him to make a new law. It said that the people could not pray to God.  People who did not obey this law would be thrown into the lions den.  Daniel would not obey the law, he loved God and he still prayed to him.  The men saw Daniel praying, and went and told the the King. The King knew that Daniel had to be thrown in the lions den.  King Darius fasted all night that Daniel would be saved, and Daniel prayed all night to God.  In the morning the King went to lions to see if Daniel was still alive.  Daniel said that God had shut the mouths of the lions.

Day 2- Share the story, then choose a principle.  There are several you can choose from this story;      obedience, faith,the power of prayer, Standing up for what is right.  For our example lets choose obedience.  You would discuss how Daniel showed obedience to God.  God asked him to pray to him and no other thing.  So even when the law was made that no one could pray to God, Daniel still prayed to God.

Day 3- Share story, then remind everyone that your focus is obedience, ask them if they have seen others being obedient.  Example:  I asked Chris if he would put his toys away yesterday.  Chris was obedient and came right away and put his toys away.  You could also add how that person was blessed for being obedient.

Day 4- Share the story, then discuss the context.  You could explain how as a young boy Daniel was taken from his home and brought to live with the king.  And other stories of Daniel leading up to the lions den story. You still would want to tie in obedience.

Day 5- Share the story, discuss what you can do as a family to show more obedience.  Maybe your focus would be being more obedient to mom and dad, you could explain blessings that could come from that. Or being obedient to adults; teachers, parents and grandparents. Look at your family needs and decide.  Then I like to write that goal down and post it on the fridge so that we all can remember.  For individual goals I pass out a paper that we can right our own personal goal.

Don't think that my family is perfect, we just try to do our best.

I hope that you will  take the chance to share the stories of the scriptures and teach those around you how to apply them in their lives.