"Better Than I": Post #2

         Just last week, my roommates and I watched the movie Joseph: King of Dreams on Netflix. I grew up listening to the soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond, so the story of the prophet Joseph has always been one of my favorites. In the movie (as well as in the Bible), Joseph is first thrown into a pit by his twelve jealous older brothers, and then sold into Egypt as a slave. Joseph begins to work for a man named Potiphar, and is actually promoted to work in his household, until one day Potiphar's wife gets a little too friendly: "And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out" (Genesis 39:12). Joseph is unjustly cast into prison and left there to rot. While in prison, Joseph meets Pharaoh's butler and baker, and is able to interpret their dreams. The baker is sentenced to die, as Joseph had predicted, but the butler is set free, as Joseph also predicted. Joseph pleads with the butler to please mention his gift to Pharaoh. Joseph is then left all alone in prison, starving and alone. In the movie, Joseph climbs his dungeon wall towards a small opening in the ceiling and yells angrily at God, asking why He has abandoned him. Joseph grabs at a root growing out of the wall, which gives way and Joseph falls back to the rock hard bottom. It isn't until Joseph hits rock-bottom that he sees that the root he yanked out is actually a tiny tree with a single green leaf growing from one of the tiniest branches. The music begins as Joseph then plants that tiny sapling in a crack in his prison. The song that plays is called, "You Know Better Than I," and I thought the lyrics were so good that I'd just include the video right here.
          So, it turns out that God had a plan for Joseph all along. Joseph ends up saving his entire family from a famine and brings them to live with him in Egypt, although Joseph couldn't see or understand that when his brothers sold him for silver, or while he sat starving in prison.
          What I learn from the story of Joseph is that God knows better than us what we need, and who needs us. He knows better than us who we can become. We may not understand the trials we are going through, but God does. I hope we can trust in the Lord's timing, trust that He loves us and only wants to help us become like Him. I hope we can remember that "He knows Better" than us. 

Here's the video with the lyrics to "You Know Better Than I." Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oL6HlzQZLo

Plant People in a BIG Pot: Post #1

          In the spring of 2012, I hopped on a plane and flew over the ocean to London, ready for a BYU study abroad and a new adventure. There were 42 of us, and along with touring the city and doing some major sight-seeing, our professors split us up into groups and assigned us to different wards all around London. I went to the Catford ward, so every Sunday we'd take an hour and a half train ride up to the chapel. I served with the young women, and was so excited when the missionaries came to sit with one of their investigators, the only girl who ever came to Young Women's. One week in class, our teacher (a spunky older sister from New York) gave us a lesson that I've never forgotten, a lesson that I thought a lot about in my own mission actually. She told us to always "plant people in a big pot." Give people room to grow and improve; even if they start out really small, they will at least have room to grow into something bigger and better. 
          I knew that this New Yorker didn't literally mean I should throw somebody in one of those orange, terracotta pots that people put on their porches. But, what exactly did she mean? One of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon is the transformation of Alma the Younger from a wicked troublemaker to one of the best missionaries in history. I mean, Alma started off as a "very wicked and idolatrous man... a hinderment to the church of God" (Mosiah  27:8,9). He "was going about to destroy the church of God" (Mosiah 27:10). What changed? The scriptures tell us that one day, Alma and the sons of Mosiah were going around causing trouble as usual, when an angel suddenly appeared in front of them. They were so startled that they all fell to the ground in fear. The angel told them that he had been sent there to stop them, and that the Lord had heard the prayers of Alma's father (also named Alma). The whole time that Alma the Younger had been going around rebelling against the church and God, his father had continued praying in faith, believing that his son could still change. In other words, he planted his son in a big pot. Because of Alma (the elder's) faith, his son was able to completely turn his life around. 
    So, what if Alma would have decided that his son was too far gone to worry about anymore? What if he would have given up on him? In his 2010 talk "The Best Is Yet to Be," Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ." Planting someone in a big pot means you don't judge them, but rather you forgive them and let them leave behind their old mistakes. Sometimes we even need to plant ourselves in a big pot, and just forgive ourselves and move on. 
          I believe in the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that each one of us can truly change if we repent and rely on the Savior. The Atonement will not only heal us, but make us better than what we were before.