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  Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Deuteronomy 6–8; 15; 18; 29–30; 34 – Jennifer Roach Lees appeared first on FAIR.

How to Complain to the Lord by Autumn Dickson In Numbers 11, we read about the Israelites getting sick of their miracle, namely the manna in the wilderness which fed them. They remembered all the good food they used to eat in Egypt, and they were mad about eating the same thing for every meal. Numbers 11:10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. Moses gets so sick of the Israelites complaining that he asks the Lord to kill him rather than having to deal with them anymore (same, Moses, same). The Lord responds by sending too much meat until they get sick of it. I want to share my own story, and then I’ll bring it back to the Israelites. My daughter was baptized in December. It was beautiful. A lot of my family was in town for the wedding and so they got to be there which was magical for me; it also actually complicated things. The week before the baptism and wedding, the stomach flu went through our house. I rejoiced that we got over it in time for my family to come into town because I don’t get to see my family that often, and I adore being around my family. Unfortunately, the day before the baptism, one of my babies started throwing up again. I was actually rather devastated. I hadn’t realized how much excitement I had placed on being with my family and having everyone with us for this huge step in my daughter’s life until it was potentially getting taken away from me. I pleaded with the Lord for it to be a fluke, that she would just throw up once and go a full 24 hours without throwing up again before the baptism. Unfortunately, this miracle was not to be. She threw up again the morning of the baptism. I texted the family and warned them all that I was still going to my daughter’s baptism and that the baby would be there because I had no one else to watch her. I told them I understood if anyone was too afraid to come because everyone was traveling for Christmas (some on international flights), and there were some pregnant women and other little children. We had some immunocompromised family members. There were many reasons to stay away. And then I knelt down. I told the Lord that I accepted what He chose to give and withhold, and I worked really hard to feel that acceptance and not just offer lip service. Heaven knows lip service wasn’t going to make me feel any better. And you know what? He blessed me for it. He opened my eyes to see the fact that I was blessed for having a family that I wanted to be around. Not everyone has that. He helped me see that I have an eternity of Christmases to be with family and celebrate. And most importantly, He helped me see that my daughter’s baptism wasn’t just about that single day. It was about the fact that she was binding herself to her Savior forever. In fact, because of her baptism, I would be able to be with her and the rest of my family for eternity. It was definitely a moment to celebrate. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding it, it would be one of the greatest blessings of her life. Now, my family all came anyway, as did my husband’s family who live closer to us. It was perfect and chock full of the spirit and a surprising amount of fun. BUT. If my family had chosen to stay away that day, I would have understood. There were plenty of reasons to bail. I would have been terribly disappointed and sad, but it would have likewise been tempered by the Savior’s soft reminders. I’ve gotten frustrated with the Lord often enough in my life that I’ve realized it’s fruitless. There have been times when I’ve been filled with anger or sadness or betrayal and turned to the Lord in my immense overwhelm; He has responded by giving me a clearer perspective and teaching me that I can trust Him. So after a million and one experiences with the Lord and His wisdom, I was able to approach Him with a lot more faith this time. Rather than getting angry with the Lord for not preventing the problem, I approached Him with meekness. As with all things in the Lord, I was the one who was blessed. We don’t approach the Lord with meekness to placate His ego. We don’t approach the Lord with meekness to try and get Him to change His mind. We approach Him with meekness because it blesses US. It allows Him to show us the reality of our situation. The reality of our situation is this: even in the midst of fast and direct trials like Egypt or in the long and arduous and uncomfortable trials of a journey through the wilderness, we have already won! We actually have every reason to be grateful and when we commit to meekness, we have the Lord to help us remember that. Important sidenote: I have learned that meekness can coexist with many different emotions. We often picture a humble, quiet servant who doesn’t talk back or ever complain, but I don’t think that’s the only way to be meek. Even in the midst of anger or frustration or exasperation or devastation or annoyance, we can simultaneously say, “I know Thee, Lord. I know I am in Thy hands, and I know that Thou art doing what’s best for me.” You don’t have to turn down your emotions in order to successfully approach the Lord. Just simultaneously bring your knowledge that the Lord is watching out for you. Better yet, take those big emotions to the Lord and ask Him to help you see more clearly so that it’s not difficult to be meek. When I approached Him in prayer about seeing my family while they were in town, I was bawling. I’ve definitely approached Him and carried my anger with me. We don’t have to seem all pious and restrained. We can simply cling to our testimony that the Lord loves us and wants what’s best for us. The truth is, the Lord is often going to do what He’s going to do anyway. If the Israelites had simply approached Moses (or approached the Lord, directly) and asked for some dietary variety, maybe the Lord would have sent the right amount of quail rather than sending a difficult lesson alongside it. However, the blessing of meekness is that regardless of what the Lord chose to send, the Israelites could have been happy. We came here to struggle. He can’t take that away without simultaneously robbing us of the purpose of the Plan of Salvation (growth), and meekness softens that struggle enough that we can see it more clearly. It enables us to see around it and rejoice anyway. I testify that the Lord has your best interest at heart. I testify that He loves you. I testify that meekness over complaining is a gift that blesses us. It honors Him with the deference He deserves, but even our meekness before Him gives back to us. I testify that trials are gifts, and that the Lord provides.   Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Numbers 11–14; 20–24; 27 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

The Idols We Don’t Call Idols by Autumn Dickson The Israelites were delivered by incredible miracles. The plagues were immense in and of themselves, but the parting of the Red sea was next level. The Lord had freed the Israelites through marvelous power, just as He promised. A short time later, the people find themselves in the wilderness. Moses is lingering up on the mountain away from everyone, and the Israelites have gotten antsy. They convince Aaron to make them an idol to worship. Aaron tells them to bring their earrings, he melts them down, and makes a golden calf. Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. I grew up thinking these people were ridiculous. You just saw the sea part, and you forgot that fast? How could you be so blind? Why would you follow after another deity? As I got a bit older, I remembered that they had just been slaves. Despite the miracles, I assume they were still very young in the doctrine of Christ. How much were they taught in the midst of everything else Moses was trying to take care of in freeing them? Maybe I’m late to the party, but as I read the verses this time, I started to wonder if they really followed after another god at all. There was an Egyptian god that was represented by a cow, but ancient Near Eastern studies also explain a connection between bulls and calves and mounts and thrones for deity. Maybe they were just trying to build a physical representation of their God to carry with them. In the verse we read, we even see that Aaron tells Israel, “This is the god who brought you out of Egypt.” Perhaps they weren’t worshipping a different god at all. Perhaps their worship was merely corrupted. Maybe that’s why Aaron didn’t put a stop to it. Maybe he thought it was fine because he thought it was one way to worship the true God. Maybe he thought it was great that they were sacrificing their gold and trying to worship the God who had delivered them. Obviously we don’t know. There aren’t enough details. However, there are principles we can learn about the gospel from studying it from either angle. Today, I’m going to speak as if this angle (corrupted worship over following after a different god) is the true angle, simply so we can explore it more effectively. However, before I begin, I completely concede that we don’t know for sure whether this is the truth of the account. Fortunately, whether I have the story’s details correct isn’t completely relevant. What’s important is that the principles I want to talk about are correct. So that’s what we’re going to talk about. Maybe the Israelites were hoping for a symbol of Christ, not a separate idol to worship. Plot twist. When we don’t worship how the Savior prescribes (like building a golden calf), we run into danger of turning that symbol into an idol. I guess we’re talking about corrupted worship and worshiping idols. Now, following another god is crazy after everything the Israelites experienced; worshiping in a corrupted manner is more understandable. However! Despite it being more understandable, it is still dangerous and needs to be corrected and prevented regardless of whether their hearts were in the right place. Sometimes the world looks at sin and gives a pass when your heart is in the right place. We can be understanding of a good heart and still make the correction; it is loving to make the correction. When I was around 10 years old, I remember my mom walking into my room when I was saying my nightly prayers. I had a picture of Christ sitting in front of me while I prayed because I wanted it to help me remember Him. It made my mother a little bit uncomfortable (at least that’s how I remember it when I was 10), and she told me it wasn’t a great idea. The practice stopped that night. Some would call this silly. Why not let a child put a picture in front of them to help them focus on Christ? I understand the sentiment. Having something in front of you to focus your thoughts and help you be reverent so you can focus on Christ can be a good thing. But there’s another side to that coin too. It could be fine. I could have kept the picture of Christ and never run into dangerous ground. I don’t think I would have worshiped the picture, but let’s talk about a couple of perspectives I might have adopted had the practice continued. I could have gotten to the point where I didn’t feel like I could pray without the picture there. I could have gotten ultra-protective of the picture. I could have wanted to carry the picture with me to make me feel safe even though I was perfectly safe without it. I could have attributed more power to the picture than the picture held. I could have given it power over me even though it had no power innately. Even if I didn’t consider the picture my “god,” it still could have affected my life. And in perfect honesty, that’s how most idols work these days. People don’t call their priority their god; they don’t consider themselves worshiping idols. They just give all their time and energy and resources to something, hoping it will bring them deeper happiness than it is capable of giving. We are worshiping incorrectly when we attribute power to things that don’t have power. We are worshiping incorrectly when we give things power over our lives and place all of our hopes for happiness on those things. Even if we don’t call them “gods,” we’re still worshiping wrong and hurting ourselves. People do stuff like this all the time. Superstition is rampant in our world. It’s easy to start giving things power when they hold no power. Maybe I would have never been so silly as to give the picture any power, but I’m not totally sure. Let’s look at another example. I got plenty superstitious as I played tennis through high school. I went through the same routine between each point, worried that if I changed it, I might lose. Plot twist 2. I lost a lot of the time anyway. And yet there I was, making sure I always did the short handshake with my partner in between points. I made sure I bounced the ball three times before serving, and then I would start over if I messed something up. I literally remember messing up my rhythm in between points and feeling cursed. I was convinced I had ruined the point before the point even began. Needless to say, I basically gave those points away. The Israelites have just left Egypt behind where they were surrounded and ruled by people who worshipped things like the golden calf. It was dangerous to their spiritual health. Even if it was meant to represent Christ, it would have been very easy (as we see throughout the rest of the Old Testament) for them to turn it into their god instead. For example, when they run into problems, did they feel a need to go and talk to the calf or did they pray to God? If something happened and the calf was damaged, would they have cursed themselves by assuming they were cursed for hurting the golden calf? I gave away points in tennis because I attributed more power to my routine than it actually held. What would the Israelites have given away because internally, they were giving more power to the golden calf than it actually held? We worship how the Savior asks us to worship. That’s when we are at our most spiritually powerful. That’s when we are going to be led in the right direction concerning His character and decisions regarding us. That’s when we’re going to be able to get closer to the truth, and therefore, closer to happiness. I testify that the Lord has revealed His own character and the way that He wants us to worship. I testify that He did this because He wants to protect us and keep us close to the truth of things. I testify that as we follow what He has given, we see reality more clearly and find deeper joy.     Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.