Role Model Abraham

       

 There are three important promises that God made with Abraham.

• Promise one Abraham was promised the power of the priesthood for him and all of his posterity that is worthy of it. 
• The second promise is posterity, and that all nations will know his posterity. This promise is interesting because at the time it was given Abrahams wife Sariah couldn't have children and that his only son, Ishmael, was from Sariah's handmaiden. This is when Abraham learned that his wife would soon have a baby and that they would call him Isaac. 
• The third promise is property, Abraham was promised land for his posterity in Genesis 12:7 it says “unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.” One of my favorite lessons from this story is that Abraham remembered to thank God for all of the promises that He gave him. 

        The first thing that he did when they came to a new place was built an altar, an olden day small version of the temple. Temples are Gods home on earth, it is a place where people can go to feel closer to Him, to talk to God, receive revelation, be spiritually fed and so much more then we understand. Abraham built altars and today we have temples, we have temples all over the world, just like Abraham had altars wherever he lived. It isn’t enough to go to the temple once we need to go as often as we can.
           Abraham had a nephew Lot, Lot chose to live on a hillside watching over Sodom, Sodom was a very wicked place. By living on a hillside he wasn’t living in Sodom and being part of the wicked, he just wanted to watch. Abraham on the other hand turned his tent away from Sodom and pointed it toward the temple. Every morning Lot would wake up and see Sodom first thing and that’s where his focus was most of the day, watching what they were doing. Abraham on the other hand woke up to the temple, towards God and paid no attention to Sodom. Abraham put God first in all he did and that’s why he was blessed with great promises.
            You can only look at Sodom for so long before you join it. One example was given in class about letting Sodom into our homes through television, we aren’t being a part of it we only want to watch it, just like Lot. But how long can you watch a show that swears without having a bad word pop into your head? A month? Year? Only a week? Satan gets to us through which we don’t think he can affect us. Television isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes what Satan shows on TV drives the spirit away and lets Satan sneak into our homes without us realizing it. The lesson I learn from Abraham and Lot is that we are blessed when we turn our tents towards the temple, when our focus is on God instead of the world God can teach us and help us become a better person. I want to be an Abraham.