To be a "Y's" man is to be a wise man

I never thought I'd be the typical blogging Mormon, yet, here I am. I'm beginning my Sophomore year at BYU. It has already been a whirlwind of crazy adventures and learning opportunities. This year I am taking New Testament for my religion class. As part of it, we are required to write a reflection each week of something we have learned. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to put those writing/thoughts onto my blog. So, here ya go :) 

This week we celebrated Christmas as we studied the birth of Christ. I love the story of Christ’s birth, but more in particular, the story of Mary and Joseph.  The amount of faith that Mary had to have after being told that she would be in charge of the life of the Son of God, would be incomprehensible. Could you imagine being told as a very young virgin, that not only were you going to have a baby, but a baby that would be the redeemer of all mankind? The pressure would have overwhelmed me, as I would suspect it would for most of us. Luke 2:19 says, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Ponder in the footnotes means to study, pray, and meditate. What an example Mary is to us. When the impossible happened, she turned more unto the Lord for guidance. On the other account, Joseph would have had to have an incredibly compassionate heart to obey the Lord’s command and go to Mary. Put in his shoes, I would have so many doubts. How could this even be possible? I would like to testify that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. He will qualify us in whatever we are called to do. Whether that is be a Primary teacher, a Bishop, the parents of a disabled child, or even a student, he guide us with angels on our left and our right, as long as we put our faith in Him first.

My professor, Brother Griffin, made this really great analogy of the wise men. As students of BYU we are all “Y’s” men. For us, it is not enough for us to hear about God, we need to earnestly seek him as the wise men did. Like the wise men, we offer him gifts. Not expensive physical gifts as the wise men did, but expensive spiritual gifts of a broken heart and contrite spirit.  With the title of being a “Y’s” man, we are the wise men of today. What an amazing comparison!

In closure, I’d like to leave you with my favorite scripture from this week. Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” If you pay attention to this verse, he progressed in four different areas: wisdom, stature, God and man. In other words, he is expanding his mind (intelligence), body (physically), spiritually (God) and socially (family/friends). Is this not the areas we are to better ourselves in as well? What a perfect example for us to follow. If we are to become like Him, this verse gives us a basic outline of what we are to do.