Remember Lot's Wife

One of the blessings that come from teaching seminary is that you, as the teacher, learn so much as you prepare to present each lesson.

This week I have been fascinated with learning about Abraham's life and all that we can learn from his experiences.  As I prepared to teach my lesson about Lot, I remembered a talk given by Elder Holland in a devotional speech given at BYU on January 13, 2009 titled, Remember Lot's Wife.   (You can get to his talk by clicking here . I personally like to download the free mp3 version and listen to Elder Holland deliver his talk.  His voice inflections are so great.  You can also download a free pdf written version of the talk.)

Below is a portion of his talk to get you interested in reading/listening to the whole thing:

"To all such of every generation, I call out, 'Remember Lot’s wife.' Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the 'high priest of good things to come'.”

This is a few highlights from his talk  

You can also see the above video by clicking here.  

Below is a portion of Elder Holland's talk that is in the above 6 minute video given on January 13, 2009.  

Remember Lot's Wife  

by Jeffery R. Holland

As a scriptural theme for this discussion, I have chosen the second-shortest verse in all of holy scripture. It is Luke 17:32, where the Savior cautions, “Remember Lot’s wife.”

The original story, of course, comes to us out of the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, when the Lord, having had as much as He could stand of the worst that men and women could do, told Lot and his family to flee because those cities were about to be destroyed. “Escape for thy life,” the Lord said, “look not behind thee . . . ; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19:17; emphasis added).

With less than immediate obedience and more than a little negotiation, Lot and his family ultimately did leave town, but just in the nick of time. The scriptures tell us what happened at daybreak the morning following their escape:

The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;  And he overthrew those cities. [Genesis 19:24–25]

With the Lord’s counsel “look not behind thee” ringing clearly in her ears, Lot’s wife, the record says, “looked back.”

It is possible that Lot’s wife looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind. It isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.

I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. We remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. She thought that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind.

There is something in us, at least in too many of us, that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life—either mistakes we ourselves have made or the mistakes of others. That is not good. It is not Christian. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ. To be tied to earlier mistakes—our own or other people’s—is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist.

I can’t tell you the number of couples I have counseled who, when they are deeply hurt or even just deeply stressed, reach farther and farther into the past to find yet a bigger brick to throw through the window “pain” of their marriage. When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.

Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is it charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. Don’t keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, “Hey! Do you remember this?” Splat!  And soon enough everyone comes out of that exchange dirty and muddy and unhappy and hurt, when what God, our Father in Heaven, pleads for is cleanliness and kindness and happiness and healing.

Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right! It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come.”

The Binding

Today in Seminary we studied Genesis 22.  As you study what happened with  Abraham and  and Isaac, you'll find it's an amazing story.

I saw this video about 15 years ago.  It touched my life then and I'm happy that I can post it on our family blog today. It is a great portrayal of the faithfulness of Abraham.  I hope I can follow Abraham's faithful example.

You can also see the video by clicking here.  

From the Old Testament Seminary  Manual:  Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac is not only an impressive demonstrations of faithfulness, it also teachers about and testifies of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  

Update on Hermana Magnusson. Welcome to Argentina

Lisa with Pres. and Sis. Levering

I know we've left you hanging on Lisa's whereabouts from our last post.   The office elders from Lisa's mission sent pictures of her arrival to Salta a couple of days later,  but we didn't hear from Lisa herself until yesterday.  We were happy to hear of her travel adventures and safe arrival.


 we were delayed in getting here a day.  oh man, what a story.  we arrived in dallas ok, but then sat on the tarmac waiting to take off (for buenos aires) for TWO HOURS because of one problem after another- the pilot needed to change the flight plan due to the volcano.  then we were overweight, so they asked for volunteers to take a different flight.  then there were mechanical problems.  then a sudden attack of severe lightening storms, and finally, part of the plane was struck by lightening so that´s when we had to deboard.  we were waiting around for instructions and a man in a uniform (the pilot of the plane?) came up to me and my comp and said, "sisters, heavenly father didn´t want us on that plane.  there were too many problems.  you be sure to write that in your journals tonight."  interesting, eh?  not sure if he was a member, but he sure talked like one.

Lisa's companion is native Argentine which is a great way for Lisa to learn Spanish.  

 my new comp is hermana rojas.  she is from cordova, argentina, and also speaks just about zero english.  i´m glad, because it´s forcing me to speak spanish all the time.  she is a convert of about 5 years, and is the only member in her family.  she´s 23 and was studying to be a kindergarten teacher before the mish.  she is good and speaks slowly for me and i can understand her most of the time.  i´m so grateful for that.  but, i am discovering how much spanish i don´t know (ie: in the mtc they don´t teach you vocab necessary for cleaning your apartment).  i am able to communicate well enough, i guess, but there are still too many long chunks of silence.  i need to remember  that that will come with time.

Lisa with Herman Rojas

Lisa's first impressions of Argentina:

-the people here "sing" their spanish.  and they talk fast.  and sometimes the argentine "sh" (for double l´s and y´s) is so strong i can´t understand anything.  but i am able to contribute a little to lessons, so i´m grateful for that.

-we walk everywhere, or ride the colectivo (bus).  our chapel is about a 15-20 minute walk away.

-there are a lot of plants here that i recognize from home, like the trees with the purple flowers that line the driveway to northview.

-dogs are everywhere.  they lazily walk around or are just laying in the sidewalks.  

-the ward meets in a new chapel.  there is another ward that meets in the same building.  not sure how many people were at church on sunday, not enough to fill the chapel, but enough.  we arrived at gospel principles for sunday school, and when my comp stood at the front of the class, i realized it was our job to teach!  thank goodness my comp is a native and taught because i wouldn´t have been able to do it.

We love our Lisa and are happy that she can be bringing the gospel to our brothers and sisters in Argentina. 

If you want to write to her, I'm sure she'd appreciate an email.  Her email address is:

lisa.magnusson@myldsmail.net

Volcanic Ash Cloud

Lisa is scheduled to fly to Argentina today. We'll see if she makes it.

Volcanic ash cloud grounds flights in Argentina and Uruguay

17th October 2011

Click here for story source

Flights to major airports in Argentina and Uruguay were suspended yesterday as a dangerous ash cloud from the Puyehue volcano in neighbouring Chile began to drift into the countries' airspace.

Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires was shut down, and flights at Ezeiza airport south of the Argentinian capital were also grounded.

Both international and domestic flights have been affected in Argentina, including routes to Mendoza on the steps of the Andes mountains and Ushuaia in the far south. Bariloche airport is also currently closed.

American Airlines, Lufthansa, TAM and Gol have also cancelled a number of their flights to the Argentinian capital.

Argentina's transport secretary Juan Pablo told reporters that officials were waiting for the ash cloud to pass before the airlines operating out of the airport could resume their operations.

.....Later today

I just got a call from Lisa. She having a layover in the Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas airport. She is on her way to Argentina hoping that her carry-on luggage (that they took away from her because there wasn't enough room to carry it on her plane) makes it to Buenos Aires. She sounded great and ready for this new adventure!

Sanctify Yourselves

In Lisa's last letter she sent from the MTC (Missionary Training Center) she said:

sunday night our fireside speaker was chad lewis, the NFL ambassador to china and part of byu's athletics staff (but you already knew that--right, sam??) he shared a lot of interesting missionary experiences he had in the NFL--all because he served a mission. it was good, and all the elders were eating it up.

speaking of football, there's a video on the lds.org youth page. the title is "sanctify yourselves." it's really good--a true story about a little boy that was struck by lightening during football practice and he received a blessing. the coach is the dad of one of the elders in my district (elder johnson, from pocatello, ID). you should watch it! (especially sam)

I agree with Lisa, this is a good story and a good message.