Abraham 3:6 - ruling the night...


zil
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So someone caused me to go look in Abraham chapter 3 today, and as I was scrolling, I noticed two separate words highlighted, so I went back to them after reading the verse I was there for, and found them in verse 6:

Quote

6 And the Lord said unto me: Now, Abraham, these two facts exist, behold thine eyes see it; it is given unto thee to know the times of reckoning, and the set time, yea, the set time of the earth upon which thou standest, and the set time of the greater light which is set to rule the day, and the set time of the lesser light which is set to rule the night.

...as you can see, it was the word "rule" which I had highlighted (same use appears once in verse 5, and in 4:16-17).

Now I have to go tell you a little back story.  I was in RS back a few years when we were on the George Albert Smith manual, chapter 21, "The Power of Kindness".  At the very start of that chapter is a story illustrating the power of kindness (I recommend you go read it now, it's only a couple of paragraphs).  It occurred to me as I sat in that lesson, that the ways of God are basically the inverse of the ways of man - that you have to turn your brain upside down from what the world teaches us in order to understand God's ways.  (E.g. kindness is certainly not what you think of when you consider, say, the power of the extremely wealthy and powerful as to worldly things like politics or business).  Yes, I may be old to have come to that realization, or to have put it into terms consciously, but there you have it.

So then one day (no idea when), I was reading this verse (Abraham 3:6) and my mind caught on the word "rule" (as a verb and as something the sun or moon would do).  According to the world (or google), the verb "rule" means: "exercise ultimate power or authority over (an area and its people)".  And I thought to myself, perhaps when God uses this term, he means "to give light to" (see other uses of the various forms of "rule" in this chapter).  So that whatever our position here, or hereafter, if we are called to leadership (and parenthood could certainly be leadership in this context), our duty is not to rule as man defines it (even if we try to tweak that to fit into a Church calling), but rather to give light to said group.  It seems that it's easy to get caught up in little details of running an organization and forget the things that are most important.  Yet, if we instead focus on helping the people we're supposed to be serving to see the light of the Gospel / Christ / Truth, would that not be so much more effective?

Anywho, just some light pondering on a Wednesday afternoon.  (No pun intended, but appreciated after the fact. ;) )

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