New Testament

Another semester, another class.

1. Using the following references, fill in the chart below by writing in the second column a brief description of each miracle the Lord performed, then in the third column list those who exercised faith for the miracle to occur.

2. Explain in writing how it affects your faith to know that God has this kind of power.

Reference	Miracles of the Lord	Who Demonstrated Faith
Matthew 8:1-4	cured a man’s leperosy	the leper
Matthew 8:5-13	cured servant of palsy	centurion
Matthew 8:14-15	cured Peter’s mother in law of fever	Peter’s mother in law
Matthew 8:16	cast out devils	many who were possessed
​​Matthew 8:23-27	calmed the sea	disciples
Matthew 8:28-34	cast out devils into swine	the two men with devils
Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34	cured issue of blood	woman with the issue of blood
Matthew 9:27-31	cured blindness	two blind men
Mark 2:1-12	forgave sins and made the man able to walk	man with palsy

Knowing that God has the power to do all these things is amazing, so is knowing that worth men of the priesthood can use that same power tells me that I am loved. Christ isn’t walking around performing miracles like He did during is mortal ministry, but He is still able to perform miracles through people. My grandmother was able to be healed when she was close to death from cancer through the power of the priesthood. I am so grateful that God can heal and does heal. I am also thankful for His power to forgive my sins. That is a greater gift, a gift of eternal healing.

James 2

Faith without works is dead.

Yes, I am doing my homework on my blog. Oh the joys of technology. Every week for my New Testament class I do some sort of project on my choice of 3 topics. As I looked over this week's topics this one jumped out and begged to be a blog post. Here is the prompt:

Your friend, who is investigating the Church, has expressed a question in the letter below.

Dear Christy,

Some of my friends are saying that Mormons are not Christian because you believe that you need to do righteous works along with having faith to be accepted by God. My other friends claim that with the grace of Christ, works are not necessary. They say that if I join the Mormons I would be denying Christ's grace. How should I respond to them?

Your friend

My response would go something like this:

Dear Friend,

Christ's grace brings us up from where we are to His level. After we try as hard as we can to be as righteous as we can, He makes up the rest. I just looked up at my wall and realized I had a picture of Christ up there that I had forgotten about. It's far enough from my bed that I don't normally see it. It's a popular picture, we use it a lot in the Church, but as I look at it now I realize there is no way I am not a Christian. I know Christ is my savior. My heart feels close to bursting now with the love I feel for Him. We believe that we need to prove ourselves before the Lord to be accepted into heaven. We need to work our hardest. Christ lived the perfect life. It was full of examples of kindness and righteousness. Though I could cite scriptures that say how important actions are and even Christ saying keep the commandments and do good, but I'm not going to. Why? Because I believe there is something more important in there. Faith in Christ motivates me to be more like Him. I look up to His example and want that more for me. As my faith grows so does my desire. That I believe is the important part. Faith is a motivator. True faith encourages us to show it through our good works. Faith doesn't sit idly by waiting dormant. It wants to jump out and be shouted from the rooftops. That faith is shown in our actions.

Love,

Christy

Body Image

I've been thinking about body image a lot lately.

It's pretty obvious when you look at me that I am not in shape. Not very close to it either. This is a statement of fact. I've also gained a considerable amount of weight since I've gotten home. However the only reason I really noticed is my clothes stopped fitting as well and I went to the doctors. Now that I've been thinking about it I notice and recognize that I need to take better care of my body.

When I was a freshman in high school I began dieting. I stopped drinking all pop and eating candy. At first I ate diet meal bars for lunch, but then as my sophomore year began I was eating only an apple from breakfast until dinner. During p.e. I ran my heart out, frequently with the goal of pushing myself to the point of throwing up. I did this for a couple reasons. First, the guy I liked only liked skinny girls. I was trying to fit into the mold I perceived he had. Second, all my friends were skinnier than me. Once I started I was on a goal of forever losing weight. I looked in the mirror and only saw how fat I was, how much bigger I was than any of my friends.

Me on the far right October 2006

My friends and I would do things like have formal dress parties where we all got together and put on our dresses and felt pretty. The only one I fit into was mine so I'm behind everyone in the picture to hid the fact that I am in the same dress I was last time.

In January of 2007 I had to have 3 surgeries on my foot leaving me out of my crazy exercise for a while. I never regained the active lifestyle that I had and have basically been gaining weight since.

The real question is why have I been so comfortable with my pretty obvious unhealthy and unflattering weight gain when before, when I looked much better, I was so unhappy with my appearance?

Happy Christmas!

I'm already thinking about what I want to make for my family's Christmas Dinner. Menu planning is one of my favorite things and holiday foods are even better! I was thinking that an international dinner would be fabulous to make things new and different. But now I'm wondering if I should just do an English dinner... hmmmm... so many yummy choices. Any thoughts?

Thinking back

You know what I did on 9/11/01? I went to school. My 1st period teacher kept saying things like she didn't know if we were going to be staying in school all day. I was confused. I could not figure out what was going on. I got sent home from school. I learned what happened when I went home, but it didn't really mean anything to me. I think I went to pizza hut. I mocked my siblings the next day as they went to school and I didn't. I desperately hoped that while I was out of school Mom would not have the baby because a) that would basically ruin my birthday and b) I would be stuck in the hospital. As I have gotten older it has meant more, but at the time I was just glad I didn't have to go to school.

People you make me grumpy

Girl, you are making me crazy angry. When you borrow something and then leave somewhere out of state, please return it or make plans to give it back. And DO NOT blame it on me or tell me that you shouldn't have to because you washed dishes. What a poop head.

Fitness goal number 2

The Teton Dam 10k was about 2 and a half weeks ago. I did well for myself. The course took me about an hour and 20 minutes which is my fastest time. It felt pretty excellent. Except the past 2 and a half weeks I haven't exercised at all and my candy and unhealthy consumption has skyrocketed. Basically, I feel like I have totally regressed. Any weight that I lost I'm going to gain back and then some if I don't stop. Through this whole 10k thing I learned that I am only motivated to exercise when I have to, when something is making me, so I'm doing the triathlon in Ridgecrest this fall. Starting Monday I will work my butt off.