Finding Solutions in the Scriptures

God wants us to be happy in this life!  He has provided guidance and direction for us in the scriptures.

2 Nephi 32:3 says: "Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

So, this week's assignment is all about finding solutions to life's challenges in the scriptures.  I was given three different scenarios that I will share with you, and the answers for these challenges can be found in chapters 1-4 of Philippians.

Here are the scenarios.  If you would like, you can try to find the answers for yourself first, and then compare them to what I found.  :)

1. People sometimes argue and complain over petty matters in church meetings or throughout the week.
2. Many youth feel that their parents' testimony is sufficient for them.  Since they have good parents, they rely on them for all their spiritual strength.
3. An investigator is considering joining the Church, but his family will no longer associate with him if he does.

For scenario one, there are a lot of verses in Philippians chapter 2 that apply.  The phrases that jumped out at me include, "be likeminded," "let nothing be done through strife," and "let each esteem other better than themselves."  We are commanded to be as Christ, to be humble, to be a servant.  Verses 14 and 15 read: "Do all things without murmurings and ^adisputings:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the ^asons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse ^bnation, among whom ye ^cshine as lights in the world;"

The challenge presented in number 2 also has solutions in chapter 2 of Philippians.  In verse 12 we are commanded to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."  David O. McKay once said:

• “To work out one’s salvation is not to sit idly by dreaming and yearning for God miraculously to thrust bounteous blessings into our laps. It is to perform daily, hourly, momentarily, if necessary, the immediate task or duty at hand, and to continue happily in such performance as the years come and go, leaving the fruits of such labors either for self or for others to be bestowed as a just and beneficent Father may determine.” (David O. McKay in CR, Apr. 1957, p. 7.)

And finally, I found answers to the third challenge in chapters 3 and 4 of Philippians.  Basically, we are taught that it is worth it to lose all earthly things in order to truly know Christ.  "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Phil. 3:13).  "I can do all things through ^aChrist which ^bstrengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13).

There are likely hundreds of verses that could help solve these problems, but these are the ones that I found.  Let me know if you found any different ones!