Elizabeth and Zacharias

Here are just a few thoughts I have about Elizabeth and Zacharias. In Luke 1 it says that both Elizabeth and Zacharias were "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." They had been unable to have children even though they had prayed for that blessing and were now "well stricken in years." While Zacharias is working in the temple an angel comes to him and tells him that Elizabeth will have a son and that his name will be John.

I have wondered why the Lord sometimes makes some of us wait to receive our righteous desires. Sometimes we are told that if we just made more of an effort or had greater faith that we would receive those blessings. But Elizabeth and Zacharias were faithful. They were blameless before the Lord. They were doing their duty and remaining righteous. Why did the Lord make them wait? I think sometimes there is something that the Lord needs us to learn before we can receive the sought after blessings. Sometimes the blessings are delayed because the Lord is preparing us to be of service to others. I think that this may have been part of what was happening with Elizabeth and Zacharias. Elizabeth was a cousin to Mary, who would be the mother of Jesus. Mary was young, unmarried, and was going to be the mother of the son of God through a miraculous conception. We don't know much about Mary's family, but certainly she would have needed some people to accept and understand her situation. What better place to find acceptance and understanding than from your cousin who has just had a miraculous conception of her own? I think that Elizabeth was uniquely prepared to be someone that Mary could go to. I think that just maybe this was one reason that Elizabeth had to wait for so long to have a child. It was not because she wasn't doing her part. It was not because she didn't have enough faith. The Lord knew that Mary would need someone, so he prepared Elizabeth to help fulfill that need.  

New Beginnings

It's a brand new year. Time to figure out what was wrong with our life in this past year and start on the process of remaking ourselves...again. We had a lesson in church this last Sunday on setting goals. What kinds of goals to set. How to set goals. Why we should set goals. Yes, I think goals are important. We should be constantly striving to become better people and make changes in our lives that are necessary. However, while I was listening to the lesson on Sunday, I was struck by the thought that it is only because of our Savior, Jesus Christ that we have the ability to truly work on remaking ourselves and becoming better. It is only through the atonement that we can let go of our mistakes and have a new beginning. Christ is the one who inspires us in our quest to be better and He is also the one that will guide and help us through the process.

During the lesson the teacher also talked about the number of times that we intend to make changes but they just never occur. Most of us have made new year's resolutions that somehow don't even last through the end of January. Why is that? Maybe it is because we are trying to accomplish the remaking and reshaping of ourselves all by ourselves. I think that if we made an effort to prayerfully consider some goals for our lives and then consciously petition heaven for help to achieve them we might end the year with a greater sense of accomplishment and fewer regrets. Just a thought. We may still find ourselves unable to accomplish everything we desire, but I think we will have learned something about ourselves and maybe just a little bit more about aligning ourselves to God's will. We might also gain a deeper understanding of the atonement and a closer relationship with the Savior who truly makes it possible for us to become new.