2.347 He Saw Peace in the Land

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. I've got a deep question for you. Have you seen the Son of Righteousness?

We're reading this week the Articles of Faith and Official Declaration 1 and 2, as well as Ether chapters 8 through 11, and we're currently the Ether chapters. We're going to go straight for the verse and then share a bit of a story afterwards. I might go just a little bit longer than usual, but I've got to record this one because it literally just happened.

Our verse for today is Ether 9:22. We have a section inside of here where Emer, ruler over the land, rules righteously. We have this little tiny glance of what happens.

Prosperity comes, abundance comes. We get this window of time with Emer living in peace. Verse 22 says: "And after he had anointed Coriantumr to reign in his stead, he lived four years.

And he saw peace in the land, yea, and he even saw the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day. And he died in peace." Now while I believe this verse is talking literally that Emer was able to have a vision and the spirit of Jesus Christ, it's giving me pause to think in my own life on the ways that I have witnessed the Son of Righteousness in my life. And tonight, as I record this (you're going to listen to it in the day, but I typically record these at night), tonight, I had one of those opportunities to witness the Son of Righteousness in my life.

You see, there's a little bit of a secret here that I'm letting out for some of you that know me closely. You know that for years during the Christmas season, I have gone to Christmas parties and family parties playing Buddy the Elf. Yes, I dress up in the full costume and I burst into parties, whether they're at a church; I've been to people's front rooms and houses.

I've even had a party in the basement of a mortuary for a family party there. I've been everywhere as Buddy the Elf. And last year, with my mom passing away right during this season, I couldn't seem to find the Christmas joy.

And I turned down opportunities to be Buddy the Elf, and at that time I pretty much had decided that Buddy the Elf was going to be retired. Now fast forward to this year, I wasn't thinking much of it, and I got a text message saying, "Will you be Buddy the Elf for the special needs activity night?" A church down the road away is about 10 minutes away from me that gathers the whole region for a Special Needs Mutual, and I couldn't miss that opportunity. So it was time to bring Buddy back out.

So I got dressed and got ready to go and prepared myself. And I'll be honest, after not doing it for some time, I got a little bit nervous. I don't typically get nervous playing Buddy, but I thought, "Can I do this again?

Can I bring Christmas joy back into my own life and into the lives of others?" And as I burst into the gym tonight, I had barely taken two or three steps into the gym and said, "Is this a Christmas party?" When this wonderful girl jumped up out of her chair and just bull-rushed me and gave me the biggest hug. And honestly, I don't think I'm overstating; through the night, she probably hugged me a hundred times. She was so happy.

I found out that tonight was her first time attending Special Needs Mutual, and she just was so excited that Buddy had come to visit. And then as I went table to table and hugged and high-fived and connected with each one of these amazing spirits, these precious children of our Heavenly Father, I can say that I witnessed the Son of Righteousness in their eyes, in their actions, in their joy, in their smiles. I got to hand out stuffed animals.

My joy was back. Not just the Christmas joy, but joy I felt I had lost when my mom passed away. As we got to the end of the night, everyone having stuffed animals in their arms, one of the men came up to me and he said, "Buddy, can you do a favor for me?" He said, "I have a friend who has seizures and I think an Elf on the Shelf would help her.

Would you please ask Santa to bring her an Elf on the Shelf?" One of his family members was there and said, "I think Buddy can get that message to Santa Claus. We'll make sure she gets an Elf on the Shelf." And then he said, "Oh no! We didn't get a stuffed animal for her." And this was my favorite part of the night right here.

You see, my daughter had come with me to be kind of like my handler. And in all of the Buddy handing out stuffed animals, I made sure to give her a stuffed animal too. And without hesitation, she turned to him with her stuffed animal and said, "Here, do you think she'd like this one?" And there my daughter gave her stuffed animal away.

Tonight, I witnessed my daughter be the hands of the Son of Righteousness. Now this is kind of a moment I wanted to just capture. I know this is a longer episode and that's okay.

Because my friends, we all have opportunities to have peace in the land. We all have opportunities to see the Son of Righteousness, and we have opportunities to be the hands of the Son of Righteousness and rejoice and glory in our day. Take an opportunity to lift another.

Tonight, I got my Christmas joy back, not because I sat and remembered all the ways I missed my parents. I got my Christmas joy back because I went and gave Christmas joy away. May we all have an opportunity to lift someone else and by so doing be lifted ourselves is my hope and prayer for you and for this season.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.