Breastplate of Righteousness

In battle, I believe a breastplate is something extremely important (well not that I've ever been in battle, but I've seen enough Merlins and King Arthurrs to know what they are ;). A Breastplate covers your chest, some of your stomach, and part of your shoulders. It is made of very strong metal so that swords will not pierce it or bend it. But the most important occupation it holds is protecting the life giving, blood pumping heart, as well as other important organs. (Lookey, you're getting an anatomy lesson too ;)

Righteousness. Righteousness.

First let me tell you something my dad told me. Have you ever thought of how faithful means obedient? Being Faithful means being obedient to and honoring someone else. But it also is literally 'full of faith.' So if you want an increase in faith, it can come parallel to increased obedience and righteousness.

How does righteousness protect us in the war of life (or righteousness. I was gonna say righteousness, but then realized that would be redundant ;) ? Well, first, our obedience must be molded perfectly to fit us so as not to injure us and become counter productive. And guess who knows us the best and can  come up with the best blueprints for our armor? You guessed it, Heavenly Father. In the long run, the blueprints for the whole war are found in the plan of salvation. But the blueprints pertaining to our personal righteousness is found in the commandments and by listening to and following the Spirit.

Then this righteousness needs to be strong and immovable, so that not even swords wielded by the devil can pierce it. We need to keep our convictions strong, and never yield to temptation. Luckily thpugh, if you mess up or if there is a chink or weak spot onyour armor, you can go to the expert to fix it.

http://churchleaderscampfire.com/wp-content/uploads/Armor-of-God.jpg

Jesus Christ is the ultimate hero, healer, and making-weak-things-strong-person ;). He will help you as you build your armor piece by piece so that you can fight for God and all good.

We're all in this together. As each of us works on our personal righteousness, we will be able to protect the life in all of us. But there is an even greater heart to this-- as we put on our armor, we are protecting our eternal life. Thank you thank you to God for his unspeakable gift.

He Reaches My Reaching

Hey guys I finished it! See this post to understand my painting. It looks better in person...oh well. 

I'm done with the faith value project! Yay! 

Haha look I'm wearing the Young Womanhood Medallion!

He Reaches My Reaching is the title of this piece. No matter how many storms we need to go through, hold tight to the iron rod. Someday you will make it to the tree of life, and be able to taste the sweetest, purest fruit: the love of God. 

The Tree of Life

(copyright Intellectual Reserve and lds.org)

I'm so excited! In art class, we are having the opportunity to do self portraits in any way we like. At first I was a little unsure about it, because being the center of attention isn't too cool, but I have an idea!

I was thinking, and I realized there were not really very many widely known art pieces about the tree of life that are actually personal. They all show the grand scheme of things, but not a personal view. 

So I am going to draw myself reaching up and plucking off the fruit of the tree of life! 

For those who are unfamiliar with this story, it is found in 1 Nephi 7-11 or so (?). For those who are familiar, too bad! ;)

The tree of life was a dream that a prophet had. But I'll just describe what was in the dream. 

Many people were gathered, confused by the fog and storms and darkness of life. They were wandering, just like how we wander. Some of them found an iron rod suspended in the air, and grabbed hold of it. Looking down at their feet, they saw a straight and narrow path. If they followed that path and rod, they would reach a tree. Full of fruit and shining like the sun, the tree welcomed all to partake of its sweetness.

Across the way, a dirty river flowed. Across the river people laughed and spat and pointed fingers at the followers. They were rich and pleasurable, and some people who had reached the tree were ashamed. But those who had held fast to the iron rod were able to reach the tree and share the fruit with their families.

What did this dream mean? Well, that's what Nephi, a young man and the son of this prophet wanted to know. He prayed and asked God what it meant. An angel came to him and asked him what he thought the tree was. Nephi said he did not know the meaning of all things, but he knew that God loved his children (more on that in another post). The angel then showed him the vision and explained.

The tree of life is the love of God, and the fruit was the sweetest above all other fruits. The only way was by following the straight and narrow path and the iron rod to the tree. The iron rod was the word of God, and if we hold fast to it we can find our way through the mists of darkness to reach God's love. The word of God is found in the scriptures.

We need to make sure we find the iron rod and hold fast to it so that the people who laugh and mock us do not cause us to leave the light we've been given. As we keep progressing along the straight and narrow path, we will one day be able to bask in the light of God's love.

This past year, I have read my scriptures so much. I am so grateful to feel the love God has for me. If you want to feel it, read the scriptures. They will show you the way. God's love is the source of true happiness! I know that if you will search for him, and ask him if he loves you, you can receive a knowledge of that as well!

Crayola is Smart

(copyright Intellectual reserve and lds.org)

Okay, so it might just be the artist in me, but I just love Crayola.

So, on Sunday our lesson was on unity. They asked us how we could describe unity in an object lesson. I came up with this:

So, say everyone is assigned a color. We are all crayons, and your color is brown. That kind of stinks, you think. You can't draw beautiful rainbows, or paint a night sky. You can't make awe-inspiring sunshine like yellow, and you didn't even get a color that stands for beauty at all. But it was the luck of the draw, and you are stuck with it. 

As you continue on your career as a crayon, you notice you are the last color picked. Little children have loved and worn down all the purples to a stump, yet you've only been used once to draw a girls hair. No love for you. Soon the box is discarded and you are left alone with the other colors, only half used and unloved, while they taunt you because the only thing you are good for drawing is dung. 

Alone, you feel ugly and unwanted. Looking at the other colors, you notice red is too rash and glaring, orange too prideful, yellow is somewhat unkind. Green gets jealous often, blue is depressed, and purple seems to be hiding something. Alone, all the colors have lost their beauty. You start to wonder why the world even invented crayons, if every color alone is disgusting. 

But there is one who sees your true worth. That is Heavenly Father. The world is like a child, telling us we need to be perfect this and perfect that. It uses us for a short scribble, but quickly the trends change and you are discarded. Remember, Satan is never there to lift you up. 

Heavenly Father sees the worth in your humble color. Though you may not have apparent beauty, God sees your full potential. He is the Master Artist and Creator, he sees us as we can one day be. 

The Artist finds the discarded colors and is sad. The world has degraded and belittled us. But he knows how to guide us to become a beautiful masterpiece. We just need to put our crayon in his hand and let him do his magic. 

This picture of deer is what a true Master can do. And look! Your humble brown is the main event! No longer can blue and red belittle you, for you were made to do amazing things!

 I guess I strayed a little from the unity aspect. The truth is, our self worth is so important when we work together. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, but when we come together and work together, led by a loving Heavenly Father, we can do incredible things. 

Remember there is always someone who loved you!

<3 eliza