I had intended to go to bed early tonight, but I can't sleep, so I thought I should work on this blog. A couple of months ago I went to the state fair. I was walking around and looking at the animals. One building housed the sheep and goats. One of the pens had four or five little goats. As I was walking by, a girl came in to check their water and feed and then she left. I watched those little goats try to follow her, and start bleating for her. It reminded my of the one year that I took a lamb to the fair. I had two little lambs, Elbert and Louise. All summer long I took care of them and got them ready for the fair. Sometimes, I would even just go sit with them or walk around with them. They would always follow me. They were sweet little companions for me. When fair week came I was really downhearted because I knew that I would have to sell my lambs at the end of the week. After the lambs were sold, they put them all together in one big pen. Someone had told me that they weren't going to feed or water the lambs that next day. Well, I didn't want my little lambs to go without food and water so I went to find them. I wasn't sure how I would find them. They were in a very large pen with a lot of sheep that all looked pretty much the same. As I was approaching the pen, two of the lambs moved toward me. They came running over to me and I recognized them as my little lambs.
Seeing those goats at the state fair reminded my of that experience and it made me think about a scripture. John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Though I don't understand how He does it, the Savior knows each of us individually. Out of all of the billions of people on this earth, He knows my name. He knows and recognizes me, but do I always know and recognize Him? Have I spent sufficient time with Him to know His voice and trust Him enough to follow? I do want to come to know Him better. I want to gain a real relationship with Him. I have been thinking recently that this is something I need to spend more time on. There are a lot of things going on in my life right now, and I think they are all important, but I really feel that I need to build a better relationship with the Savior. Sheri Dew has said that in the days ahead a casual commitment to Christ will not be enough to see us through. I think that to gain that relationship with the Savior I need to spend more time with Him, and spend more time trying to follow Him. I want to be numbered among His sheep.
