Perfect Power, Perfect Understanding

So, when I was younger, my mom would tease about my youngest brother saying: We had to have him because he made us perfect with 7 children.  My mom was referring to the symbolism of the number 7 and how it stands for perfection.  Well, in my new testament class we have also been learning about a lot of number and object symbolism.  My teacher gave us a list of numbers and their meanings:
3 = Heaven or the Godhead
4 = Earth or men/women
6 = Imperfection or bad
7 = Perfection, complete, or whole
8 = New beginnings
12 = Priesthood or Authority/power
40 = preparation or judgement.
After we finished learning about the number symbolism, we started to learn a few of the objects symbolic meanings.  We were taught that wings are our agency.  Eyes are to see, know, or understand.  Horns symbolize power.

Now, all of this background in this symbolism was to help us understand The Revelation.  What stuck out to me was the 6th verse in chapter 5 of Revelation.  It says: "And I beheld. and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." After knowing the symbolism of the number 7 and of the horns and eyes it makes so much more sense.  This "Lamb" had perfect understanding and perfect power.  He saw everything and had the power to change things.  If you haven't already figured it out, I'll tell you.  This scripture is talking about Christ.  He is the Lamb of God.  He was slain for us, even though he had perfect power.  It was because of his perfect understanding that God had a plan and needed Him, that he was willing to die for us.  I am so glad to know about these symbols because it helps me grow in knowledge and understanding. Christ truly did die for me and for you.  It is a beautiful thing.  He died so that we might live.

I'm peculiar. Are you?

Do you ever feel weird?  Strange?  Different than most people?  I often do.  In the scriptures, such as 1 Peter 2:9, it tells us that we are a "peculiar" people.  My new testament teacher explained that peculiar doesn't mean the same thing in this context as we usually think about it.  He told us that peculiar means purchased.  We are purchased by Christ's infinite atonement.  One thing that really stuck out to me was when my teacher asked me what my price was.  He explained to us that the price of a soul is infinite because it is based on our capacity to become like God.  We have infinite potential.  We are of great worth.  It reminds me of a few other scriptures.  D&C 12:10 says: "The worth of souls is great in the sight of God."  Moses 1:39 says: "For behold, this is my work and my glory -- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  God loves us and wants us to return to Him.  It is his work.  He glories in us becoming like him.  So, it makes sense that our worth is infinite and that we would have a loving Savior pay the infinite price for us.  We truly are purchased by Christ.

Not only this, 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that we are chosen and that we have been called out of the darkness into "marvelous light".  How wonderful is that.  Heavenly Father doesn't want us to wander lost in the darkness.  He is calling us to the light and he has shown us the way, through his son, Jesus Christ.  It truly is marvelous!

Illuminated through trials.

Often I find myself trying to understand why life is so hard.  It feels like if I'm doing what is right I should be blessed for it, and I am, but that doesn't take away the trials in life.  I was taught the reason for this in my New Testament class this week.  My teacher showed us  Hebrews 10:32 Which says: "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;"  He explained that the whole book of Hebrews is a list of greater than statements.  The one in this scripture is persecution > ease. God loves me more than he loves my comfort. There is so much to learn from being tested and tried through our afflictions. The things that we learn cannot be learned through ease and Heavenly Father knows this.  Thus he loves me enough to let me be tried and to go through hard things.

If you are going through a trial.  Don't blame God.  He is showing you how much he loves you by letting you grow and learn by experiencing affliction.  We are "illuminated" by our trials.  I know that I have learned so much about relying on my Savior and his atonement during my hard times.  During times of ease I sometimes get lazy and too slow to turn to God. We should always turn to the Lord, but sometimes we need to be knocked down to realize that there is always a hand to help us get back up.  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ always have their hands stretched out towards us.  We just need to be willing to stretch out ours and grab a hold.

Know what you want.

Dating.  Isn't it just everyone's favorite thing?  If you didn't pick up on the sarcasm, let me just tell you the plain and simple truth.  Most people that I know dislike dating and the "dating game".  It's not fun trying to get a guy that you like to ask you out.  It's even harder to figure out how fast to take a relationship.  What can you do to show interest without being too forward and also avoid giving the wrong impression to certain guys are all things to think about.  It takes a toll on you emotionally and mentally.

Now, I may be young, but I've had my fair share of dating experiences to have learned a little bit.  What I want to talk about is knowing what you want.  Dating is pointless if you don't know what it is you're searching for from it.  It brings to mind the principle from Alice in Wonderland, where Alice isn't sure which road to take.  The Cheshire cat asks her where it is she's trying to get.  Alice responds that she doesn't know.  To that the Cat replies, that it "then it doesn't matter."   This is very similar for dating.  If you don't know where you want to end up, it really doesn't matter who you date.  If you know what you want, then it definitely does matter!  The type of people you date are the pool of people that you will have to choose from for your eternal companion.  If you know you want a temple marriage, then date people who are worthy to enter the temple.

Knowing what you want is more than that though.  You need to figure out what you want so that you can be careful of other people's hearts.  I want to relate a story about this.  Last year I didn't really know what I wanted from dating.  Was I just dating for fun or was I looking for someone I could start a meaningful relationship with?  I had no idea.  I started hanging out with a great guy in my ward.  He was nice and funny.  We always had a good time together.  Since I wasn't sure about where my life was heading, I was just enjoying the ride.  A little too late I realized that the boy was invested and He wasn't the right guy for me to build a lasting relationship with.  Because I didn't know what I wanted, but kept moving forward, I ended up hurting this guy so much more than if I had known from the start and not let it get too far.   When you are unsure of what you want, be gentle with the people you are dating.  They might know what they want and you moving forward without that knowledge ends up in them getting burned.

Now, I don't mean to discourage moving forward with faith.  If you are praying about things and are not getting any indication that the relationship is wrong, move forward!  Don't hold back because you are not 100% sure that the relationship is going to work.  What I am saying is that your actions should be in accordance with your thoughts and feelings.  You shouldn't kiss someone just because you are afraid of losing that opportunity, while at the same time knowing that you are not ready for a commitment.  Let your actions be honest.

Having said all of this, I urge everyone to pray and ponder and figure out what their goals are for life.  If you are not at a point where you are searching for a meaningful relationship, be honest about that.  You will be so much happier and so will the people you date.  If you feel like you are ready for something more serious, look for that.  Make it a priority, but don't act with more affection than you feel.  That's where I feel the Jane Austen character has it wrong in Pride and Prejudice.  Don't ever act in more reassuring ways than you are feeling.  If it is a good thing that is supposed to happen, you won't lose it by taking your time and letting things grow slowly.

Good luck with all of your dating!  Don't let the "games" get you down.  It's all going to work out.  I hope my advice helps at least a little bit.  Anywho.  "Let the games begin!"

So that's how the spirit speaks to me!

Alright, if you're anything like me you sometimes wonder what the spirit sounds like.  How do you know if the feelings you are getting are the spirit or just your own thoughts?  Well, I recently found something that gives me a lot of peace.  2 Timothy 1:7 says: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of peace, and of love, and of a sound mind."  I needed this scripture in my life this semester.  Dealing with certain decisions, I have felt terrified.  Sometimes I felt as if the fear was taking control of my life.  I would sit and wonder if the fear was a sign that I was making the wrong choice, but that never felt right because I've had other experiences pointing that it was the right decision.  So what is a girl (or boy) to do?

The answer I came up with, using this scripture, is that fear doesn't come from God.  Life is full of scary things.  We have to make decisions and they can be extremely frightening, especially when we don't want to mess up.  The good news is that if we're not supposed to go in a certain direction, God won't make us scared of that possibility.  God would give us the peace and the "sound mind" to make the correct decision.  God gently leads us and also lets us make our own choices.  Knowing that God doesn't give me fear helps to me to make better decisions in my life.  It's not going to be easy to remember this, but through practice I know that I will be able to better recognize the hand of the Lord in my life and how the spirit speaks to me because it sure isn't through fear!

The Armour of God

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:11)  What does it mean to put on the whole armour of God?  Is it just being protected by God by keeping his commandments?  I used to think that.  Really, is applying protection to specific areas that Satan attacks, through following what the Lord teaches us.  In Ephesians Paul goes through a lists the specific pieces of armour that we need to have.  I would like to cover this list.

1. "Loins girt about with truth." (vs. 14) One of the major purposes of our life here on Earth is to get married and have children.  We must have truth.  This truth comes from knowing what the Lord teaches about sexuality and about God's plan for his children.  We are taught in The Family: A Proclamation to the World that marriage is between a man and a woman and that children have the right to both a father and a mother.  Knowing this can protect us from the lies that the world tries to teach us about sexuality.

2. "Having on the breastplate of righteousness" (vs. 14) The breastplate covers the heart.  We need to protect our feelings.  By being righteous we will not be hurt by the pains of serious sin and we will have promises of being able to return to our Heavenly home after this life.  We won't have to feel the pain of complete separation from God.  By being righteous, we truly put on a breastplate that protects our hearts.

3. "Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (vs. 15) Our feet lead us to where we are going.  By having the correct cover on our feet, we are protecting the way to get back to our Father in Heaven.  I also love how it says "with the preparation of the gospel of PEACE" (emphasis added.) when we are prepared and following the the Lord, we will feel peace and we will be prepared for all of the things that we need to do.  Also, the gospel provides a plan and a path for us to follow.  We need to prepare ourselves for the journey.

4. "Above all, taking the shield of faith" (vs. 16) We have an added layer of protection.  When we have faith it stops doubt and other "fiery darts" from even reaching the rest of our armour.  Faith is the first defense.  We don't always know or understand everything in the gospel, but when we have faith, we don't need to worry.

5. "And take the helmet of salvation" (vs. 17) We all must turn our thoughts heavenward.  We need to protect our minds.  An application for this would be to turn of the movie that isn't the most appropriate, or stop playing the video games that have a little bit too much violence, or to not date a person that pushes your boundaries because each of these things pushes your mind into the gutter.  Protect your thoughts.

6. "and the sword of the Spirit" (vs. 17) the sword of the spirit is the word of God.  It is our scriptures. It's the word of the prophets.  It is patriarchal blessings.  When we have these gifts from God we can defend ourselves.  We can cut down the lies that try to attack us from all around.  The word of God is there to defend us.  We all just need to use it every day, keep it sharp by reading the scriptures and the words of the prophets.

We can all do better to put on the armour of God.  I'm going to leave you with verse 18 from Ephesians 6.  I hope that we can all do this: "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."  Let us all pray and continue to strengthen the armour that we are already wearing.

Correct Timing

Lately I've been thinking a lot about timing.  How certain things happen at certain times and they need to happen at that specific time.  I've also been thinking about how much I would love to control when things happen.  I want my own timing.  I don't want to wait around for something good to come around, I want it now.  Most people have this attitude about life.  They want to do everything in their own timing.  The interesting thing is that most of what we want are good things.  A good job, a husband (or wife), children, a house, and many other worthy things.

In new testament class this week we learned a little bit about timing and using correct timing.  In Acts 22:18 Paul sees the Jesus Christ and is told to not stay in Jerusalem to teach because the people would not hear his testimony.  Paul wanted to do something good.  He wanted to preach to the people in Jerusalem, but the timing wasn't right.  Knowing that the timing wasn't right helps me to feel a little better about my own experiences where I have wanted something good, but the timing hasn't been right.  God has his timing, it's just a matter of us relying on him and letting him guide us.

In my Stake Conference yesterday, I had this very powerfully taught to me about something good that I've been frustrated with not coming in my own time table.  My stake President got up to address the members of our stake.  He told us that he had changed his topic to be about recognizing and preparing for opportunities for marriage.  This has been on my mind a lot. I finally feel ready to move forward and work on having an eternal family.  I've been doing my fair share of dating around and getting to know lots of different guys, but one thing right after another has not worked out.  I recently broke up with my boyfriend.  He felt like for some reason it wasn't right to be dating me.  It's important for me to remember that having it not work out, doesn't mean that my goals and aspirations to an eternal marriage are not important.  It just means that the timing isn't right yet and I need to follow the Lord's timing.  Paul wasn't able to teach the gospel to the people at Jerusalem, but his goal to preach the gospel was still a worthy one.  The timing and possibly the people weren't right.  Just like for me and my dating life.  I need to put my trust in the Lord that in his timing I will be able to go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity.  Plus, it will be so much better when it is at the right time, in the right place, with the right person.  I can't wait!

Who do you trust?

My thoughts this week are split between two different things that I learned this last week, but surprisingly they work well together.  The first part comes from Romans 1:16 and the second part comes from Romans 8:38-39 in the KJV of the Bible.

Romans 1:16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth...." My new testament teacher told our class something that I absolutely love.  He said that the word "believeth" comes from the greek word "pistoo'-oh" which means to entrust ones well being to another person.  I find that so interesting.  Believing someone means that you are trusting that person with your well being.  It really makes me wonder, who do I trust?  I have been reading Believing Christ and it strikes me as interesting that there is a difference between believing in Christ and believing him.  We need to believe the words he said and the things he taught.  When we do that, we are putting our trust in Christ.  That is what we are supposed to do.  my very favorite scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6 and it says "trust the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy path." When we believe Christ he cleanses us from sin and directs us to the right path.  We just need to put our trust for our well being in him and he will take care of us. 

Now, that leads me to my second thought.  Romans 8:38-39 In these verses Paul tells us why we should trust the Lord.   He says "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  God loves us.  Christ loves us.  Just like our parents love us and watch out for us.  That's one of the reasons why I trust my parents.  People who love us will watch over and protect us.  That is why we should trust Christ because he loves us.  When we do that we have "the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16).

My wonderful parents who love and support me so much!

We Have Control!

How many times do we all look at our lives and feel helpless.  There is so much that affects the way we view our successes and failures, our triumphs and loses.  If all of you are like me, we blame a lot of our problems and attitudes on other people and situations.  This is actually quite common.  In my psychology class we learned about self-presentation and the self-serving bias.  With positive things we attribute to our personality and own merits, but when something bad happens we attribute it to the hard situation and the other people.  This is common, but we shouldn't fall into this trap.  In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 it gives a list of things.   "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;"

I love this list! It gives us such a clear guideline on how we can be going through crazy hard things, but that there is always still hope and that we have control over some of it.  The first one is "Troubled on every side, yet not distressed" We all have troubles.  I know some of mine are family problems and having time for all of my school work.  Even though these things are troubling, I don't have to be distressed.  The second one is "perplexed, but not in despair." I can relate so well to this one.  I am perplexed at why my relationships don't work out or why I didn't get a job I want, but I don't despair.

This is how our peace can feel!

Now, I could go on through the rest of the list, but I'm going to stop there.  You could say "oh Annie, that's great and all, but I can't do that.  It's too hard for me."  You would be right. Alone, being troubled and not distressed is too hard.  It is only through Christ that this is possible.  He makes it so that we can be in hard times but not despairing.  He will keep us calm though the storm is raging around us.  Through Christ, we have control.

Charity = Christ's Love

So many times I have heard that charity is the pure love of Christ that it has become second nature to equate charity with the Love of Christ.  I love the idea of charity as the pure love of Christ, but it feels too abstract and unreachable.  In my new testament class we have this taught to us in a different way.  My teacher told us that true charity has only been seen once on this earth, and that was when Christ was here.  We read in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 where it says:

 "4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;  6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;"

My teacher told us to replace "charity" with "Christ".  A little show of this would be "Christ suffereth long, and is kind...."   This is SO applicable.  We are striving to become more like Christ and if we act in the way that he does, we will be cultivating charity.  Also, since only Christ has shown true charity, my teacher described it in this way: we are not giving charity, we are reflecting the charity that Christ has given to us. We all should try to reflect a little more of the love that Christ has given to us by being long suffering and kind.  I hope that through my actions, I can share Christ's love with everyone around me.  We all can be a little more loving and kind.  Lets let our actions do that, but also remember that as my teacher put it, "charity isn't what we do, it's who we are."

Falling Asleep..... ZZzzZZzz

I love sleeping!  It is one of my favorite activities.  I don't sleep enough and that is a problem for me physically, mentally, and emotionally.  The sleep that I want to talk about today though, is not the closing your eyes and go to bed kind of sleep.  It is a kind of falling asleep with our habits and the church.  In my new testament class this last week we read Acts 20.  In this chapter we read about a man named Eutychus who was sitting in a window and fell into a deep sleep and fell down from the loft where he was sitting and died. 

My teacher gave us a way to interpret this story.  One is with the lens of the plan of salvation.  He talked about how Eutychus could stand for Adam and falling down from the window would be the fall.  His death would be like the spiritual death that we are all prone to, and Paul raising him is a symbol of the Savior.  This is great and all, but we also need to apply it to ourselves.  We are like Eutychus.  We sometimes fall asleep to the things of the gospel. 

This begs us all to ask the question, what things have I fallen asleep to?  Are there certain things that we each don't really pay attention to?  Are some things just habits that we don't really need to pay attention to?  I know there are certain things in my life that are that way.  One thing that was brought up in my reading for the research paper for my new testament class was faith and works.  In some respects we all fall asleep to the fact that we have faith.  We say "yeah, I believe in Christ and his teachings." But we forget that faith is not passive.  Faith begets action.  We need to wake up to the gospel again.  Let our faith guide our actions so that we can come closer to the Savior and not be asleep to the things that we are doing in our lives.

Let the Lord take the Reigns.

Alright.  How many of us struggle with wanting to control everything in our lives?  I know I do.  I like to think that I know what is best and what I should be doing.  It is hard for me to recognize that I need to let the Lord guide my path.  Luckily, I'm no alone. The apostle Paul had good desires and wanted to go teach the people of Asia of the gospel, but the Holy Ghost forbade him.  After that, Paul and his companions were going to go to Bithynia, but "the Spirit suffered them not." (Acts 16:7)  Paul had good intentions and he thought that he knew where he should go.


One thing I really like about this story is that Paul didn't just give up when the Lord kept stopping
him in his tracks, he continued to move forward with faith.  I need to do that in my life.  I need to keep pushing on and trusting the Lord even when what I think would be good for my life doesn't pan out.  Finally in Acts 16:9 the Lord shows Paul a vision which instructs him to go to Macedonia.

Me, looking forward to a bright future!

Would Paul have gotten the instruction to go to Macedonia if he had stopped acting?  No!  God likes answering prayers for people who are acting.  When we act, it allows God to guide us. This is something that the Lord is trying to teach me especially in my life right now.  I have made many different plans for my life.  I'm going to finish college in three years, now I'm going to go on a mission.  I guess I'm not going to go on a mission, I'm going to keep going to school and be the relief society president.  Now I'm going to date this guy and possibly marry him.  Oops!  Looks like he is not right for me.  Guess I'll go back to square one and focus on school. Right as soon as I thought I had an idea of where I should be going in my life, God would say "I don't think that's what you need to be working on right now..."  The nice thing, is that even though I keep being stopped in a lot of the things I've been doing, I know that God is leading me.  He has a plan for my life and as long as I keep acting and following Him, I will get where I need to be.  I know that I'm becoming who God wants me to be and that I'm learning to have joy in the process.

What has been cleansed...

Acts 11 teaches a powerful lesson.  This week when I was reading this chapter it brought a lot of
things to my mind.  In this chapter Peter is recounting a vision he had.  In the vision Peter sees a vessel or a sheet coming down from heaven.  When the sheet opens, fourfooted animals came out of it.  God then commanded Peter to eat the animals.  Peter refuses saying "Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth." (Acts 11:8)

Now, for just a minute I want to talk about Peter's response.  He was being a good Jew.  He had always followed the law and these animals had been deemed unclean by the laws of the Jews. To eat them would go against his beliefs.  Back to the story now. The Lord responds to Peter saying: "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." (Acts 11:9)  Just like that the Lord lets Peter know that He is in control of the church.  We need to follow him and trust what he says.  If he commands us to eat something, we should do it.

That's all good and everything, but I didn't really get it the first time I read this.  It seemed like a "duh" moment.  Of course if God deems something clean, we will also see it as clean and not call it unclean.  "Oh wait." I thought, "I do that at times."  What I mean by this is, I believe in the atonement.  I have seen it work wonders in my life, but how many times have I looked at someone who has sinned, or even said to myself and think, "you are not clean.  Look at all of the bad things you have done."  I think this even after I have repented at times.  That is a tragedy!  "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common."(Acts 11:9)  I have truly repented.  There is no need for me to cling onto my sins and call myself unclean because through Christ I am made clean again.  This is also very pertinent to others.  I have a lot of friends who feel constantly judged by others for things that they have done in the past and repented for.  People are always reminding them of how they are "unclean" even though my friends have truly repented sins that sin.  This is where this passage of scriptures applies.  If we truly believe in the atonement and it's power to heal, clean, and remove sins, we will not call what God has cleansed, common.

"Why marvel ye at this?"

Hello again!  I'm back writing about my new testament adventures and other fun things!  This semester I am studying the second half of the New testament which starts off in acts.  This last week we read the first six chapters in Acts.  The part that stood out to me was chapter 3.  In this chapter Peter and John heal a man that had been lame from birth.  It is a beautiful miracle.  One of the things I liked about it, was the faith the lame man had to have, but also the support that Peter gave to him.  Peter told the lame man to rise up and walk, but he didn't expect him to do it on his own.  Peter stretched out his hand and helped the man to rise and while he did that the man received strength in his ankles and feet bones.  It was through the action of standing that the man was healed!  This reminded me of how often I sit and pray for healing or guidance or anything, without thinking of or doing anything other than asking.  There is so much more to be done.  To get the promised blessing and to be healed and receive what I am asking for, I need to step forward in faith.  I need to act.  It reminds me of the scripture in James 2 where it says "faith without works is dead."  I cannot expect things to come to me, just because I asked for them.  I need to show Heavenly Father that I truly will obey his will and do the things he asks of me.

The next part that stood out to me when doing this reading was the fact that Peter and John gave all of the credit back to Christ.  In verses 12-16 Peter asks the crowd why they marvel and then goes on to say that it wasn't by any power that John and him hold, but it was done through the name and faith on the name of Jesus Christ.  I love what this teaches me about the priesthood.  It teaches me that priesthood is the power to act in Jesus' name and that it works when people believe and have faith in Christ.  It doesn't come from any strength of mind or will power, it is trusting the Lord in everything and believing on him.  This part also shows how well Peter and John were following Christ's example. Christ never said "I am so wonderful!  Look at all of the great things which I have done!  everyone should follow me because I can raise the dead!" No.  Christ was humble and constantly pointing everyone to having faith and believing and following Heavenly Father.  Christ said let the glory be thine(God's).  Having Peter and John remind us that it wasn't through their own power that they healed the lame man, but through the name of Christ, they are pointing to God as well and asking people to follow Him.  This is beautiful and gives me a great example for my life.  Sometimes I want people to look at me and say "wow she is so beautiful.  Look at all of the talents she has!  She is an amazing relief society president.  She must be really spiritual."  Those would be great things to hear, but my goal should be to have my actions point to Christ.  What would be even better and more meaningful is if people could feel closer to Christ and Heavenly Father because of my actions.  That should be my goal, rather than praise for myself.

The last thing that I specifically liked about this chapter I learned about in class.  It is the fact that the man who was healed didn't just rise and walk with wobbling knees and legs.  He started to leap and run about!  He completely trusted in the Lord and he was healed quickly through a miracle.  This helps me to remember that Christ can do anything.  The miracles he performs are not done half way.  If I have the faith and it is God's will I can be completely healed.  Then, like the healed lame man, I will be leaping and running about for joy! I also love the idea of the lame man leaping around because it shows what happiness comes through exercising faith in Christ.  Whenever we give a little to Christ and Heavenly Father, such as having faith in them, we are given back so much more!  They are constantly blessing us.  It is a beautiful thing!