Significantly Single (And...loving it!)

So I went to youth conference this past week and it was amazing!!! The focus was on service (o ye that embark in the service of God...) and New Testament parables.  The parables were very enlightening and they were told from a kind of different perspective.  I'll just tell a couple of thoughts I had of some of them.  The first day we were spoken to by the inn keeper, but after he spoke, Mary, the mother of Jesus, spoke.  She talked about how it was interesting being his mother and watching him learn and grow.  Then she said something that I've been thinking about a lot.  She was talking about his youth and she said; "Jesus lived unhindered by sin and distractions." So that was a really cool line but I started thinking about it.  To be "hindered" means to "create difficulties resulting in delay or obstruction.  When I think of hindered, it sounds more like me tripping over my own feet rather than someone tripping me or pushing me down...it's all me getting in my own way.  Most of the time, we bring sin upon ourselves that results in our delay of spiritual progression.  If we could get out of our own way, stop tripping ourselves up with our own dumb sins and distractions, we could progress much faster.

Another one was the Ten Virgins, modern day perspective.  So, ten girls came up, and paired up in twos, one representing wise and the other foolish.  The foolish one began by telling what she represented, maybe vanity.  She'd talk about her gorgeous hair and unlimited amounts of clothes and shoes (she had to get new things every week because it was totes out of style by the end of the week).  She'd talk of her friends and then she'd say something about her lamp (testimony).  "I really do appreciate my lamp," she'd say, "But it really looks bad with this outfit so I'm just gonna lay it on my shelf for later." How often do we think our testimonies are out of fashion or too embarrassing to wear around our friends? I'm sure you're all a lot better at keeping them bright than I am.  One foolish virgin also said "well I sure like my lamp, but it's a little heavy and awkward, so I'll just keep it in my purse for safety.  I mean, I'll always have it with me, but it won't be so weird to carry it around..." At the end, one of the virgins came up and explained that these girls were all LDS, and none of them were "wicked" as we sometimes think.  They were only foolish, not wise.  There's a difference between righteous and wicked, but sometimes we can't define a line between wise and foolish.  Not a lot of people in the church are truly wicked, bad, and perverse people.  All of us are a bit foolish sometimes, and most of the time we don't even notice that we've stuck our lamp in our purse or on the shelf "for safe keeping."

We watched the miracle of the man healed of palsy.  The man who was chosen to play him talked about his friends.  You'd have to assume that the men who carried him to Jesus really wanted him to get healed and loved him a lot.  The man had no way to get to Jesus, and no way to tell his friends he wanted to go, but they took him, probably through crowded streets, and he was heavy.  I can't imagine the man's frustration when he saw the very very crowded house with no way to enter.  The friends he had were awesome though! I mean, who climbs up on a house top carrying a bed with a 170 pound man on it, then vandalizes the roof to let him in?! Those were some dedicated friends! Also, if you look in the bible video, when they let the man in the roof, they dropped the ropes they had had to lower him in.  If Christ didn't heal the man, there is no way he could've gotten out of the house.  The friends had such immense faith that he could be healed that they hardly hesitated before throwing the ropes down, knowing he'd be walking out of there in a matter of minutes.  Talk about faith!
Well, there are tons more things I wanted to say, but it's getting WAY too long! Love you all! have a fantastic week!!!