City of Enoch

Sunday we played catch up with our Sunday School lessons because we had ward conference the week before. I've been thinking about the lesson almost nonstop since then. First we talked about Cain and Able, then Enoch and the his city that was translated, how God showed Enoch the vision of Noah and the flood, and then the actual events before the flood where Noah is told to prophesy and declare repentance. All of these really hit me.

If you don't mind, I'm going to go out of order here and start with Enoch.

God told Enoch that he needed to go to the people and tell them to repent. Enoch replied by saying, Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?

Of course, he went forth with the promises of God that his mouth would be filled by his spirit, that mountains and streams would move for him, and with the promise of safety. He had great success obviously--his City of Enoch, or City of Zion, was translated and taken up to heaven.

I have been wondering since Sunday, What did those mothers of Zion do to keep their tempers when little Mahujeal or Zillah wouldn't eat all their dinner or go to bed on time? How did they teach Zillah not to hit or bite Mahujeal. How did they keep harmony in the family when Mahujeal doesn't want to share, Zillah missed her nap, and mom and dad are fasting? HOW?

Next, Enoch couldn't understand why God planned on sending the flood. He saw God and the heavens weep for the loss of His children who wouldn't repent and were so caught up in sin.

Then there are six times that the Lord speaks about why He is destroying the earth by flood. He is upset because the daughters of man have sold themselves, violence, pride, evil thinking, violence, violence, and violence. The violence of man is, from what I have gathered from these scriptures, a huge factor as it was mentioned four times.

I'm not a violent person. I don't think of myself as someone who enjoys watching violence (I like the X-Men movies, but have to look away anytime a movie has Natives all painted and shooting little poison darts, and I had a hard time with Cinderella Man). Still, I know there's room for improvement. There are times when I feel like kicking or hitting something. I've seriously considered buying a punching bag just for these moments which happen almost daily. I need to learn to control myself better. Also, I don't think all violence is physical. I think sometimes when I lose my temper at my kids and yell, that could count as violence--an emotional violence against them. I need to learn to keep my temper better.

I also need to rid myself of pride. I don't think I have "evil thoughts" and I've never sold myself, so I think I'm good on those, but the pride and need to kick are things I need to work on.

Lastly, after studying the section on the Lord's reasoning for the flood, I thought back to Cain and Able. The first real sin (Eve's taking of the fruit and Adam's following suit were not sins.) of the world was murder--violence. Just an interesting thought I had.

Anyway, this post is more of a journal thing for me. I don't imagine it will be of much interest to y'all, so sorry if you read through the whole thing and are disappointed. Maybe I should have written a little warning at the beginning of the post. It's also kind of long for a post with no pictures. Oh well.