Scripture Challenge - Week 5: It's supposed to be hard

This week I read Mosiah 16-25. I got a bit behind so I spent a really nice hour catching up on Sunday afternoon. It was great to read a big chunk all at once and really get the flow of the story rather than reading in little bits like I usually do.

Here are a few quick messages that I wrote down in my little scripture journal as I read this past week:

• Mosiah 18:10 - God really really wants to pour out His spirit on us and give us wonderful things but we've got to be doing what we're supposed to be doing in order for Him do do that. I so often want so much to give my kids the rewards I've promised them and I'm often as disappointed if not more disappointed when they don't hold up their end of the bargain and I can't give them the reward I was excited for them to have. I love thinking of our Heavenly Father so anxious to give us good things and I want to be worthy of what He'd love to give me.
• Mosiah 19-20 - The Lamanites assume that Limhi's people stole their daughters and attack Limhi's people but actually it was the priests of King Noah who took the daughters. It is so easy to jump to conclusions about so many things. Assumptions are generally dangerous things. It's important to delve into the truth and not jump to conclusions (especially important for parents, I think).
• Mosiah 21 - Fighting for what's right at the wrong time generally doesn't work.
• Mosiah 22 - Sometimes you have to leave everything to get what you really want and need. We're blessed that we don't have to leave everything as people long ago often had to do. But sacrifices are necessary parts of life.
• Mosiah 23 - The Lord doesn't usually remove hardships right off the bat when we ask Him to. Hardships are necessary for our progression. Life isn't supposed to be easy. But as we pray and work and humble ourselves, the Lord will ease our burdens.
• Mosiah 23:27 - Gratitude is so important. We must take time to really give thanks. Yesterday for Fast Sunday, we fasted in thanksgiving for Jared's job, for our health and strength, for our wonderful kids and extended families, for the strength we received during some very rocky times last year when we wondered if our prayers were being heard (help we couldn't see very well at the time but can see clearly now). 
• Mosiah 25- People can really change. The priests of King Noah urged Noah to put the brave and righteous prophet Abinadi to death, ditched their wives and children so they could run away faster when the Lamanites were pursuing them, stole the daughters of the Lamanites when they needed new wives, and then, in the end, they realized their wrongs and the bad traditions of their fathers that they'd bought into and ultimately lived as righteous Nephites. They were apparently good enough husbands to their new Lamanite wives that these wives pleaded with the Lamanites to spare their husbands when the Lamanites captured these priests.