Noah revisited

In light of the new movie, I would like to address the debacle that is the new Noah movie. First creative license is fine but what they did was an abortion to the story. So in light of what has been in the news for the past two weeks and on the internet, here are some things to consider...

Noah and his children and their choices...

Noah had sons and daughters that were both obedient and disobedient. I don’t know what it’s like to have children who reject the gospel but to Noah's credit he had at least three sons that were covenant keeping children. I will never get to be six hundred years old in this life so I have no idea of what his family was like by the time he even hit half of that. It had to be a big family and I am certain that many of the children of Adam had lots of kids in those days. It had been a few years ago (perhaps decades) when Enoch (Noah's great grandfather) and his city had left leaving Noah, his wife and sons (with their families) to fend for themselves. Could you imagine the day that the prophet had received a vision to build a boat? 

Noah was not a young man and had spent all his life defending the truth and preaching the gospel to the wicked children of Adam. While he was doing this entire he was commanded to build a boat. Now he had probably a sizable crew being old with sons, grandsons, great grandsons etc. So getting the ship together would be a task but with a good crew and the Lord the Ark would not be lost. With his children he would be able to collect the order that the Lord commissioned him to do and get all the necessary animals of the earth.

Shutting the door; that did Noah shut out...

Now the scriptures say that Noah had three righteous sons and it makes no mention of the other sons and daughters that were his children. I could imagine that when he was building and gathering that in the beginning that there would be a lot of obedient children and that they obey their father without question but it doesn't stay that way when there is hard times. The persecution had to be brutal. Being a member of the church can be that. It’s easy to be baptized and teach in church but when you are being persecuted by the neighbors and friends who also might have been members of the church it becomes harsh and perhaps unbearable. How easy it would have been to sway good faithful children of Noah from the task at hand. 

I imagine that closing those doors to the good kids who had turned their back on their father was extremely tough, after all these are his kids. Those left behind were the children that let go of the iron rod and had gone off and done their own thing; they started faithful and for whatever reason wavered and joined the wicked. They might have mocked and ridiculed their father/brother/son and laughed when he closed the doors. The rain would come and those same people would bang on the doors begging to return to God; to Noah. However the door was closed and that chapter was closed. It was time to start a new chapter.

Life on the boat...

Life must have been crowded and the family work must have been hard. Weather they were floating or just sitting on a boat in the rain, the life on the boat had its responsibility to the animals and to keeping them all alive. I am certain that it was not an easy task; feeding watering and cleaning the boat had to be a daily task and yet I feel that there were birthdays and anniversaries celebrated so give the Ark some merriment. There might be fights and disputations but when you are all in a crisis, people work fast to get along. Also if it got to heated I bet there was placed in the Ark that you could go where you would not see that one guy/gal that rubbed you wrong so you could cool off.

Our obedience when the sky is clear...

So now I am getting to the point that I think should be made; applying the story to ourselves. The scriptures say that we should liken the scriptures to ourselves. How can this be done when there is no flood, animals, angry mobs trying to kill us etc? The Lord has asked us to do things at a more personal level to levy our spirits and prepare for the floods that will come in all its forms. For some it will be a physical challenge, others spiritual or mental. For some of us it will be a long time before we know normal again. Physical ailments and mental trauma could in fact bang against our Ark and if it is not finished when the trial comes then we will go down with the ship. If it is built we will be asked to stay on the ship for a time till the waters recede and our life will be again new and different. We may not be releasing the animals and family off the ship but perhaps walk after our rehabilitation or communing with people after our mentally debilitating experience. I do not know your experience; only my own. I know that if you are building in the rain it is harder than in the sun. I know that if you act quickly then you are more prepared then when you are idol and wait to the last minute. I know for some of us we look at this life as our probation; a time to prepare to meet God and that could be a time in the boat or before it by how you look at it but none the less we are on that Ark together. We can do great things if we are united in our effort and we can prepare if we trust each other and the Lord in all things. Ours is going to be a unique experience for just us and if we are true to the task then when the rainbow comes and we behold the promise that was for us (and maybe our posterity) we can smile when He says "Well done".

Image is located at Nothing Wavering.

God gave men the priesthood because...

I want to point the reasons for priesthood to being a men only thing. First I know that it was such a controversy recently and I know that some women could do a better job but there is a key reason why it’s in the hands of men; we, guys, are lazy!

Ok, one of the key things that God has pointed out to us all the time (from Adam on) is that men will be the bearer of the priesthood, providers for our families defenders of truth and right.This comes with a standard of responsibility; namely to bless and edify the whole earth, establish order and to bring all nation tongues and people to Christ through the blessings of the covenants of the priesthood. 

I know it’s the vague answer but have you considered this part of the equation that the priesthood was given to men to get them off their rumps and do something. We guys (as most wives, mothers and sisters know) are inherently lazy. For heaven’s sake, a guy invented the television, remote control and a lot of comfy things that we all enjoy. The Lord in his infinite wisdom told us to work and beyond that gave men the priesthood so that we could get out there and do more than just collect a paycheck and collect action figures (hobbies). 

Imagine for a moment that at the end of the day Brother and Sister Smith are getting into bed after a hard day work, she with the kids and he with the job. At night the Sister Smith is 'asked' by her sick children to take care of them and then the phone rings and it’s a fellow saint asking for a blessing. If women had the priesthood, the husband would ask the sweet wife to do it because he is tired (the poor baby); never mind that she has been busting her hump too. Disputations would erupt and the two would always be at odds as to who should exercise their priesthood keys. Now because the man is the only one with the rights to exercise those keys in our modern day, each members roll is defined and the wife would kick her sweet husband out and have him get dressed give that blessing. He's not arguing about it because he knows that it is his sole responsibility. He calls another brother and they give the blessing. Brother Smith is grateful for the chance to bless the siants life and goes back to bed. 

I know that it’s over simplification but does it really need to be complicated? We each have a roll in life and in the church. Heavenly Father loves each of us and when we have our role or life chore then we know what is expected of us and we can then perform it to the best of our ability. The fact that there is a disputation among the brothers and sisters in our church today is ludicrous. From the very foundation of the world he has defined our role and how we should treat each other and while I empathize with the plight that has been created I am sure that if we are prayerful of our troubles, we will get an answer. We may not like it but if we accept it and obey it, we will be happy. 

Image is found here.