Christlike Counterfeits

For the last few days, I have been studying Christlike counterfeits.  When I say Christlike counterfeits, I am talking about when Satan tries to get us to be confused with the definitions of simple principles of the gospel.  A lot of my study has come from Preach My Gospel Chapter 6, where it teaches us how to develop nine of the Christlike attributes.  Some Christlike counterfeits that I have found are as follows:

Faith vs. Belief
In essence, this is where we believe in God or a principle of his gospel, but we don't do anything about it.  James teaches us that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17).  Faith leads to action, so if we are not acting, then we fall victim to one of Satan's counterfeits.

Humility vs Self-degradation
I often make this mistake because I always thought the definition of humility was the absence of pride.  And since pride is putting yourself above others, humility must mean to think yourself below others.  This is false!  We must never self-degrade ourselves to be humble.  Humility is putting our trust in God and giving him the honor for our talents and accomplishments.

Diligence vs. the workaholic
President Uchtdorf explained this best in a talk given, "Of Regrets and Resolutions."  He states, “Isn’t it true that we often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of a superior life.  Is it?  I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished.  I can’t see it.  Instead I see the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time." Amen.

Obedience vs. Compliance
This is best explained through a scriptural example, the story of Lehi's family.  We follow the story of Lehi's family traveling from Jerusalem to the Promised Land.  We notice that the sons of Lehi did what they were supposed to with one noticeable difference; Nephi was obedient, whereas Laman and Lemuel were compliant.  Laman and Lemuel along with Nephi left Jerusalem, helped retrieve the plates, built a boat, and settled in the Promised Land. However, through their attitudes, we see that Laman and Lemuel were merely compliant and Nephi was truly obedient.

The list goes on and on, but I have already written too much. Satan will try to twist and taint anything that is lovely or good report or praiseworthy. Satan tries to deceive us by calling “evil good, and good evil” (2 Nephi 15:20). He wants to distract us from developing and reaching our full potential, so he confuses us with counterfeits. I think it's important to recognize these counterfeits, and make the necessary changes. When we do that, we can truly be developing the Christlike attributes and become more like Him.

Making Sabbath Day a Delight

Goal

My new goal is to post more regularly to the blog, in effort to improve my personal studies.  With that in mind, I would like to choose a topic for each week and post a few different things for that topic during the week.  For example, I can post the topic with the doctrine on Monday, a scripture story on Tuesday, the principle of the gospel on Wednesday, the application on Thursday, and a personal experience on Friday.  This is just an idea.  I will keep working on it, but my main purpose is to improve my personal study and grow closer to God.

Purpose

How can we as members make the Sabbath Day a delight?  By preparing for the Sabbath Day, and specifically the Sacrament, throughout the week.

Intro

The Sabbath day is a holy day set apart each week for rest and worship. The problem with me is that I rarely get to enjoy the 'rest' and 'worship' part of Sunday.  Having two kids under the age of two makes it difficult to enjoy church with grouchy kids who are sleep deprived and hate sitting still for more than two seconds.  Messing up their nap schedule makes the entire day hard. I realize that I have no place to complain because I see the Bishop’s wife taking care of five kids all by herself and she does it gracefully.  However, even if it’s two or five, Sundays are hard for me but I sincerely want to make them a delight.  In my studies, I have pondered quite a few things that I could to make Sundays more enjoyable, but one that really stands out to me is preparing for the Sabbath, both temporally and spiritually.

We'll Ascend Together

We just wanted to start a blog to share our favorite conference talks, scriptures, insights, ideas, etc.  This could include doctrinal literature or may expand to other literary mediums such as blog posts, newspaper/magazine articles, TED talks, or anything else that is lovely or good report or praiseworthy.

Anyone and everyone is invited to post or comment, just keep it genuine and uplifting.