3.019 Failure and Joy?

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you'll serve.

Joy through failure? How does that work? We're beginning this week with new readings.

We're going to be reading Genesis chapters 3 and 4 as well as Moses chapters 4 and 5. Hopefully, at this stage, you're starting to realize that the two sections of Genesis and Moses really do go hand in hand. Read both of them side by side.

Reading both of them side by side helps us better understand the stories we know from the Old Testament. This week we're going to be looking at the Fall of Adam and Eve primarily. Although we do also, in the second chapters of our reading this week, we do also get into Cain and Abel and their story as well.

So, looking forward to the discussion this week. As I kick off this week, we're actually going to dive into a verse that is in the Book of Mormon. As I mentioned, these ones are going to supplement our readings inside the Old Testament.

And the reason for that is because we're going to see that as Latter-day Saints, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we see the Fall of Adam and Eve differently than the traditional Christian world does. The Christian world is going to explore the Fall of Adam and Eve as this epic failure. Sometimes it's pushed specifically on Eve and her failure and womanhood, and that's why, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Sometimes it's seen as this epic miscommunication between Adam and Eve. And so this week, in order to kick off the whole study of the Fall this week, I really wanted to start off with the way that we view the Fall of Adam and Eve. And we actually view it as not just necessary, but a very, very positive moment in the history of humanity.

So let's take a look at our verse for today and see if we can see that positivity. We're going to look inside of 2 Nephi chapter 2, and if you want to study 2 Nephi chapter 2, 3 and 4 inside of this week, it would be a prime time to feed into this discussion of the Fall of Adam and Eve and its necessary nature there. So keep that in mind as you're studying this week these two chapters.

Our verse for today is very, very small and very important for us. 2 Nephi 2:25 says this: 'Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.' Now, when you think about the Fall and you think about all the things that happened with it: Adam and Eve being removed from the Garden of Eden. They were removed from this environment that supplies everything that they want—this environment that is a perfect place for them. No challenges, no struggles, right?

All the perfect things. And then they were removed from that environment, and they were removed from it to have joy. That seems very paradoxical.

What is happening here? Until you dig into the idea of joy. Now, this is only the idea of joy according to Allen, so you're welcome to have a different perspective of this.

But what is it that brings us joy in our lives? And as I thought into that question, some of the things that I landed on are this. I find great joy in the doing of new things.

I find great joy in learning how to do new things. But it wasn't until going through the process of having a child and raising a child and then multiple children. And it was through that process of learning how to be a father that the joy of fatherhood came into my life.

My friends, we see the Fall of Adam and Eve not just as necessary for the Plan of Happiness and Salvation, but we see the Fall of Adam and Eve as an opportunity for us to be taken out of our comfort zones and into challenges, into struggles. We'll be right back. My friends, I am so grateful for the challenges in our lives because as we overcome those challenges and as we learn to lean on our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in our lives, we can accomplish so much more than we ever imagined.

And that can truly bring us joy through our failures. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We'll be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.