The following transcript is intended to aid in your study. However, while we try to go through the transcript, our transcripts are primarily computer-generated and often contain errors. Please forgive the transcripts’ imperfections.

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Segment 1

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Would you say that with age comes wisdom? Okay, well, what about with experience comes wisdom? Or what about this? With the imperfections of others comes wisdom. You didn't see that one coming, did ya? Well, you know what? The Book of Mormon prophet Moroni said, "Give thanks unto God that He hath made manifest unto you our imperfections that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been."

That's in Mormon 9:31. Well, today's discussion of 2 Samuel chapters 11 through 12 and 1 Kings chapters 3, 6 through 9 and 11 contain stories of imperfection and contrition, which when combined can definitely make us all more wiser than we have been. Welcome to the Sunday on Monday Study Group, a Deseret Bookshelf Plus original, brought to you by LDS Living, where we take the Come, Follow Me lesson for the week and we really dig into the scriptures together.

I'm your host, Tammy Uzelac Hall. Okay, if you're new to our study group, follow the link in our description and it's going to explain how you can use this podcast to enhance your Come, Follow Me study just like my longtime listening friends Sue and Doug King. Hello, you two. Okay, now the best thing about this study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, so it's always a little bit different, and this week is different.

I have two brand new guests, and let me tell you right now, I cannot believe I got them to say yes that they are going to be on this podcast, because these are women who have paid the price to know the scriptures. And I say that because there's a story as a seminary teacher where I got yelled at by my area director that I had to be willing to pay the price.

And I said, "But I just want to get married." And then I learned I had to pay the price. So these women, we have, oh my goodness, Krista Isakksen and Michelle Wilson. Hello, you two. Hey, Tammy. Hello. It's so fun. We're so excited to be here. Listen, these two women are authors. Not only that, you have probably read a lot of their work.

They have been longtime contributors to LDS Living. So all those fun articles that pop up, they've written. And they have just studied and paid the price, and they have a new book out. Oh my gosh. Woo-hoo. This is so cool. It is 365 Daily Devotionals for the Old Testament. If you don't have this, stop what you're doing right now, go to our link in our show notes, click on it, buy it.

It's so good. Okay, I, sorry, I just said all that, but we don't even know you. Tell us how you two know each other. Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Well, I think you have said it in a way nicer way, but Michelle and I are writing buddies, which means that we have a lot of words. Right, Michelle? Like, all the words.

All the words. So many. So yeah, Michelle and I are both nonfiction writers. Uh, we write books, articles, you name it, we love to write it. We love to talk about Jesus. And so Michelle and I kept bumping into each other in the same areas, at writing conferences and, and different things. And so all of a sudden Michelle started roping me into doing things, so I rope her into doing things.

And in other words, we get each other into a lot of trouble, and it's a lot of fun. We do have a great time together, don't we? Yeah. And so you originally met just at, like, writing conferences? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then Krista reached out to me, and I still have on my phone, I don't know if you know this, Krista, but your, your caller ID is Krista DB Pitch.

Because she reached out to me and she said, "Hey, I met you at the conference and I wanna pitch something. How do I do it? Can you help me?" Mm. And so to this day, that's, that's what, what shows up on my phone, but you know- That's amazing ... this, this writing world can be kind of small, especially the nonfiction writing world.

And so when you find someone that, that has this love for words and wants to talk about Jesus, you know, and write about them, it, it can be very solitary just to be sitting in your room and, you know, you talk about paying a price, and there's a, uh, there's a price to pay for writing what we write. So any time you can meet someone that not only does the same thing and understands that same price, but knows the joy, but then you just have this kinship with.

So that's how we first connected, and then after that, I just, I just kinda like held her hand and I haven't let go. So she really hasn't had a choice. And she's a hand you wanna hold on to- ... 'cause she, she's a mover. Oh, fantastic. She's a doer, for sure. She's fantastic. It's really fun. Yes. It, it really is amazing when you get into the writing world how deeply you need good friends and good mentors, and Michelle has been that for me.

She's shined a light on the way to go, and I'm just really thankful for where we've ended up together. It's beautiful. Well, tell me a little bit about your process for writing the devotional book for Old Testament, 'cause that's a big tackle. Usually you don't start with the Old Testament if you're gonna do a devotional book.

You start, you know, you're like, "Something a little more co- ... " No, New Testament would've been easier. How did you tackle that, Michelle? Well, it's called procrastination and writing a lot toward the end. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That is more true than we want to admit. I'm just kidding. So my ... It's, it's published through my publisher, Cedar Fort, and, uh, I'd already published one book through them.

Um, and they reached out and said, "Hey, we've got this team and we'd like to add one more. Would you be interested?" And I said, "Yeah." So I hopped on and then, and then I realized, "We need one more," and so I talked Krista into coming. But the process is really interesting because the book has, not only do we talk about the little scripture part of it, but it has like a scripture verse, but then it has a quote from a talk, and then each devotional is, most of them are just sh- small personal stories that are meant to uplift or help you think.

Mm. And it can be a lot, because each of us wrote about 95, 96- Uh-huh ... separate devotionals. And I will say, going back and looking at what we did, and now we're working on the, the New Testament, which will be out next year, I rely heavily on the Spirit, because there are things in my life that I forgot that happened or- Yeah

that I see in a different light. So it takes, it takes a lot of prayer, and sometimes, you know, you talk about the price. Sometimes that can be intimidating because to, to receive revelation you do have to put yourself in a mindset, and you have to be in the right space, uh- And so for me, it's just this process of locking myself in my office, saying a prayer, and just putting on some music and, you know, yeah, just thinking about what God can do in my life, and it's amazing how He brings those experiences back up.

It's been a really sacred experience to write about the Old Testament. I don't know about you, Michelle, but there were scripture blocks that I was assigned that in my usual, just normal, personal, personal study, I would just read it and then go, "Okay, skip." Like, go to the, the next part that I understand or that's more interesting.

But suddenly you're assigned to write something. You have to, you have to have an insight. You have to sound really smart and have something inspirational about a scripture block that you've not really ever paid attention to. And so I agree, there was a lot of pleading with the Lord to help me understand it, to see it with new eyes, and to relate it to something in my life.

And so the process has been absolutely sacred and beautiful to connect with God and have Him show us why each part of the scriptures that we have are sacred. Wow. This is going to be so good today because those of you listening, just so you know, what they just described is what we're gonna do. Because we're taking some pretty rough stories, stories that you often wanna teach and, and maybe, uh, poke at and judge with.

And so these women are gonna take some of these stories and do exactly what they talked about, find the good, find Jesus, and give us the application. And so sit back and enjoy. This is going to be seven awesome devotionals that you get to carry with you throughout this week as we talk about the storyline.

So grab your scriptures and let's dig into 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. Okay, so first things first, ladies, just tell me, what did the Holy Ghost teach you as you were preparing for this discussion? Shall I go first? Yeah. Hit it, Krista. I'll go first. I'll go first. Okay. I think reading this scripture block over and over, the Lord reminded me through the Spirit that sometimes we're really on a good path, we're doing the right things, and all of us have moments where we're struggling, where we maybe feel distant from Him, where we know we can do better, and that is sometimes a hard place to not really beat ourselves up over.

Sometimes we feel like, "That's it. I have messed it up. I have lost my shot. I- there's no way for me to come back." But over and over, as I was reading about David, he did so much good. He was such a successful king, and he had really hard moments. But isn't it beautiful that the scriptures include both sides?

And I was so thankful that the Holy Ghost reached into my heart and reminded me that my Father loves me exactly as I am, and the reason that He continues to try to help me improve is because He loves me, because He has not let go of me, that He never will, that He, He's holding on tight. He wants me to come home to Him.

And so no matter what, He will always be there with me to help me c- correct my, my way or to guide me back to Him, and I'm so thankful for a Father that's so loving and that never lets go of us. Oh, beautiful. Oh, I love that. I love how it makes me realize that these are real people, and that's kinda something I experienced when we were writing the Old Testament devotional book.

I think sometimes we look back and we think, oh, you know, we don't really understand that they felt the way that we feel, you know? That there are certain things that just stretch across time: sadness, hope, happiness, fear, temptation. And so for me, one of the things the Holy Ghost reminded me of was that especially David, and Tammy, I love how you said, um, you know, we said a prayer before this started because we, we want the Spirit to be here with us as well, and, and you prayed that we would be able to see these people with an air of kindness.

And I thought, what a beautiful opportunity for us as we approach the scriptures to, to judge them, with air quotes, in the way that we would want to be judged. Mm-hmm. Right? I do. I love that because they're real people- Yes ... who are, who are really trying. But what I really loved, um, w- the thing that stuck out to me the most, it was almost like the glue that held it all together, uh, it's in 1 Kings and it's chapter 8, verse 61 "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commandments, as at this day."

I love that God loves us, but He wants to be in a covenant relationship with us. And He doesn't say, "You have to be perfect." He says, "Be perfect heart." And to me- Mm-hmm ... that's like, okay, we need to have a heart, have our hearts pointed toward God. That's what He wants. He can handle our imperfections, right?

Yeah. It's like this, this is why the Savior came, because it's expected. It's understood. We are, we are gods and goddesses in embryo learning how to walk. We're going to fall. But for me, I just love that God wants us to be in a covenant relationship with Him. It's kind of throughout the whole thing. And the other thing is just the importance of aligning my will to God's and becoming like Jesus.

Um, yeah, some of those, those verses, and we'll s- we'll talk about it as we go through these, these separate devotionals. So hopefully everyone's gonna just tune in and maybe listen to one a day, which would be really awesome. Then we could spend the whole week together. Um, but I love the fact that God gives us so much grace because that's what we do when we're in a relationship.

I think about my relationship with my husband. You know, if, if I don't make the bed in the morning, 'cause he's the bed maker, he doesn't go, "Yep, we're done. It's over." You know? And then if he forgets- Mm ... something at the grocery store or usually when he comes home with things that are not on the list and forgets some things that are on the list, you know, I don't go, "Uh, we're done."

I love how he's just patient with us and- Good ... and loves us. So I love seeing his patience and kindness throughout, throughout this scripture block. Mm. Beautiful. So cool. Oh my gosh, I'm just struck on verse 61. Mm-hmm. "Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord." And we love that the word perfect in Hebrew means to be complete or whole.

So now it's like let your heart be complete and whole with the Lord. Oh, that changes everything. That is, that's the goal as a covenant keeper. We try- Mm ... that we strive for that every day Oh my gosh, that's so cool Well, and, and God is in the business of hearts, right? Yeah. Oh. "Let your heart not be troubled.

Give me your whole heart." That's what he wants, you know, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Mm-hmm. He doesn't want us to be perfect. He doesn't want us to perform our way to him. He wants us to just give him our hearts so he can help form them into his heart. Well, in that verse Michelle shared, we're gonna talk about a little bit later, but just so you know, put a little plug in, that's the dedicatory prayer of the temple that gets built.

So that is what is said there. So I think that's so cool. But Krista, you were gonna share something. Just that idea that he wants our hearts because he loves us, 'cause he's our dad. Mm-hmm. He's our father. It's not to glorify himself or, or because he needs, you know, a praise. It's because he loves us. We're, we belong to him, and he wants us to come home.

And I think I'm so thankful that my entire life story is not in scripture for all of the centuries to read through- ... all the things that I did wrong. Right. Right? I mean, this is really incredible that David's story is just laid out in all of it, right? The good, bad- Mm-hmm ... the ugly, for everyone to learn from.

But I think 1 Kings 8:36 is, to me, the whole point of our father's plan and why he leaves stories like this in his scriptures. Um, just a little portion of this verse says, "Teach them the good way wherein they should walk." Oh, yes. That's- I love that ... that's what our father wants for us. He wants us to walk in good ways because he can see what happens when we walk in other paths.

Mm-hmm. And he doesn't want us to hurt. He wants to save us pain. He wants to save us trouble. He doesn't want us to be... I mean, sometimes when I'm having a bad day, I, I cry in my bathtub. I'll just lay that out there. There's my little bit of, you know, insight into my bad days. But I just sit in my bathtub with no water, and I just cry.

And I know that our Father wants to help us avoid as much pain as we can in this life because He loves us. Mm. And so He gives us commandments. He gives us ways to live, models to live. He gives us Jesus Christ, hoping that if we walk in those good ways, that we will not suffer. And so I think that that's why we have stories like this that show what happens when you follow the good path and what happens when you don't, so that we can remember to follow Him.

Oh, wow. Krista, your words are so striking because God doesn't want us to suffer and that He loves us. Like, everything you talked about that makes it sound like your life has been sunshine and roses- ... and that you haven't experienced heartache and sorrow. And I just want to say, I hope it comes out in our discussion today, but with what Krista has been through in her life, um, uh, your words are even more powerful.

Because if God doesn't want us to experience sadness and heartache and sorrow, you, my friend, you are very keenly aware of those feelings, so. Well, there, there is a reason I cry in my bathtub. We'll get to that. Okay, good. Perfect. And I, I love how it all ties into that, that same chapter, but verse 58, that He may incline our hearts unto Him.

Mm-hmm. And so if, if sometimes you feel like you're having a hard time giving your whole heart- Mm ... when you walk in His ways, God can help you incline your heart toward Him. It's, it's a teamwork, and that's what covenant life is. Mm. Oh, it absolutely is. Well, ladies, thank you. Oh, my goodness. We're one segment in and we're feeling the Spirit.

This is so awesome. Everything you just taught us is absolutely true. So let's do this then. Let's get into some of these stories, because we have Saul, David, Solomon, okay? We've talked about these so far, the first three kings of Israel, and we've talked about how they started out with so much promise.

They were humble, they were courageous, they were wise, and they each found favor with the Lord at first. But then sadly, each king gave in to these human weaknesses and temptations. And everything that these two women have just shared with us is the perfect setup for what we get to talk about now, because some of their imperfections will indeed give us wisdom, and I think their contrition will give us wisdom as well.

So let's dive into the first story of imperfections, and Michelle is gonna teach us about that. We'll do that next.

Segment 2

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Uh, hopefully you can remember back when I had the discussion with John Haywood and his awesome son, Jake, and one of the things we did was a scripture blockchain, and we talked about how David inquired of the Lord over and over again. Anytime there was a battle, anytime there was a fight, he said, "Okay, how do I do this?

What do I do?" It was the times he didn't inquire of the Lord that he got into trouble. And so here we are, trouble. Turn to 2 Samuel 11, and Michelle, talk to us. Teach us what do we need to know about this? Give us a good daily devotional from this tragic story. Well, and you know, it's, it's momentarily tragic, and that's what I love.

I, I think the, the, the takeaway from all of this is that tragedy, even when we make our worst mistakes, can be just tragedies in the moment with the power of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, covenants. So here's where we are, and I'm not a scriptorian. I've studied a lot on this, um, and I'm excited to share this story.

So 2 Samuel 11, we see David. He's, he's united Israel together, right? So he's living in Jerusalem. This is the capital. And in verse one, we kinda see where he is. We kinda see his mindset. And when I first started studying this story years ago, I just remember thinking, "King David, he's gonna be so awesome.

He was like, he slayed Goliath." Mm-hmm. "He is just gonna be just like this amazing, amazing..." And then chapter 11 verse one, "And it came to pass that the year was expired at the time when the kings go forth to battle," but David didn't go. So all of a sudden this chapter is setting us up to go, "Okay, there's something different about David.

We don't know what." The writers who wrote this, and they actually wrote this about 500 years after this took place. And so when we read this narrative, we also read it not like a journal entry, but these writers have a message they want to share. Mm. And so the way that they're sharing it, we really need to pay attention to that, too.

Why would they put that detail in? You know, when I read this, I call this my little segment by degrees, because that's what this is, right? I don't think David woke up that morning and said, "Let me see what I can do to ruin my life today." I mean, do any- Right ... of us do that? No. No. But for whatever reason, he chose not to go to battle in a time when that's what the kings did.

They went to battle, and he didn't. So one evening in verse two, and this is, these are the degrees, and each one might not seem, well, progressively they do get worse. But verse two, "And it came to pass in the eventide, David arose from off his bed and walked the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself.

And the woman was very beautiful to look upon." So boom, this is the first degree. Well, the first degree was he didn't go. Second degree, he looked upon. That to me says it wasn't just like, "Oh, I shouldn't have seen that. Oh, my goodness," you know? And sh- this is Bathsheba, and she's participating in a r- cleansing ritual.

So we know that she is a woman who's living the Law of Moses, who is a covenant woman. She's not doing anything wrong. I mean, it, the, the, Jerusalem was a tight city. The houses were built upon each other, right next to each other. It was not uncommon for a woman at the end of her period to go through the cleansing ritual sometimes on the rooftop because, I mean, how many people are gonna be looking at a rooftop if you, you're way up there.

You know, it's, it's not a typical place where people would be able to see. So I think sometimes she can be vilified, and I just wanna put it out there, she did nothing wrong. Mm. Right? She was keeping her covenants. I mean, her name literally means what you said, Bat-sheva. Daughter is Bat, Sheva is covenant.

Yes. So I just love that you set that up. She's a covenant-keeping woman, 100%. Oh, God. She is. I love it, I love it. So the next degree, verse three, "And David sent and inquired after the woman." So one, he didn't go where he should have been. Two, he kept looking at something he shouldn't have been looking at. And three, he thought and he sought.

So he inquired. He said, "Go find out about her." And they came back- Mm-hmm ... and said, "Oh, is this not Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" And David knows Uriah, okay? Yeah. And I think Kris is gonna talk about that in a little bit. Mm-hmm. And then David sent messengers in verse four, and brought her.

So he thought, he sought, and then he brought. That'll be something to remember. When you see- I... Say that again ... something you shouldn't... He thought, he sought, and then he brought. He thought, he sought, and he brought. Oh, that's good. He thought about her in a way that he shouldn't have. He sought her out in a way that he shouldn't have, and then he brought her to him, and then he was with her in a way that he shouldn't have.

And so i- if we just par- if we just pause right there just for a second and we go, "Oh, David, how dare?" You know? But how many times in our lives, and this is not something that is, is meant for us to feel shame or to feel guilty, but this is a constructive way we can use the story in our lives to bring light to what we're doing in our life that might be moving us out of a functional relationship with Jesus Christ.

We don't wanna be- Mm ... a dysfunctional relationship. We wanna... He's always functional, but where are we, right? Are there things in our lives that we are thinking about too much? Could it be past mistakes? That could be something that can separate us. Can it be maybe things that we wish we had that we don't have?

Can it be maybe someone hurt our feelings and we can't forgive? Are there things that we are thinking on too much? Are we seeking them out? I'm really, really good at this. I told someone once, m- one of my superpowers, and I have many and most of them can be used for good or evil, but one of my superpowers is that I have the ability to justify almost anything.

Like, if you were on a diet but you need to eat a cookie, I will come up with the most beautiful reason for you to eat a cookie, and it will be spiritually based and completely selfless. Like- Oh, my gosh ... so anyone out there, if you're like, "Michelle, I need to know if I should do this," I'd be like, "Let me tell you."

It is a gift that I use sparingly. Um, it's- We are the same person. My patriarchal blessing actually warns me of that. I have the gift of justification or rationalization. This is why you keep these types of friends in your pocket. Oh, I love it. I love it. Carry on. This is so good. Just for those moments. So I can talk anyone into anything.

And so when I'm out seeking something, I can come up with reasons why it's a good idea to seek it, and I can look for that justification for my anger toward this person because I've thought about it and I've sought it out. I've sought out reasons why I'm justified. And then what did, what did he do? He brought her to him.

So not only was it a temptation that he saw, but he brought it. And how many times do we, do we do that? Do we put ourselves in a situation where that temptation is there, or those feelings or emotions or situations that get in our way of being close to God, of having that one heart? So you look at these things and I just, man, I just think by degrees.

Mm-hmm. That's tragic. David was not a horrible person, but he did walk that path of degrees to the point where we're gonna see what he does next. And here's where, here's where we turn a page, right? Because he goes from making a mistake... So she gets pregnant, and all of a sudden he's like, "Oh, no." Mm-hmm. "I've gotta fix this."

And he doesn't do the right thing. He tries to cover it up. So verses six through 13 is all about him trying to cover it up. So he says, "Okay, we need to bring Uriah back, because if we bring Uriah back and then he lays with his wife, then it'll look like the baby's his, and I'll be in the clear and all will be well."

So he didn't start this going, "Oh, she's on the rooftop. I'm gonna kill her husband so she can be my wife." Nope. Yeah. That ended up happening, but it was a journey there, right? So again, still in chapter 11 in these verses, we see that he tries to get Uriah to come back and be with Bathsheba, but it doesn't work.

In fact, Uriah is a real stand-up guy. I wish we had like the book of Uriah, 'cause I want to learn more about him. Oh, that would be cool. Wouldn't it? That would be cool, yes. Wouldn't it? Maybe it's those book of scriptures that we don't have yet. So David says, "Okay, Uriah, come back here. Tell me how things are going.

How's it going?" You know- ... under that guise. And then he says, "Why don't you go home for the night? Thanks for telling me and giving me the update. Go home." And in verse 11, "Uriah said unto David, the ark," because they would take the ark with them sometimes to battle to represent God's power, right? Mm-hmm. "The ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents.

And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing." So like Uriah has no idea the impact that these words might be having on David right now because he's like, "They're all out in battle.

That's where I need to be." Mm. "And I'm here to give you an update, but in good conscience, I cannot, I cannot relax. I cannot even lay with my wife." He's saying he cannot do everything that David is doing. Mm. He is relaxing, he is sleeping and, and he is laying with his wife, all these things. And I wonder, and it doesn't say, and I think that the writers did this on purpose, they don't in this section give us a lot of what is going in into David's mind.

And we want to be careful, you know? Mm-hmm. We don't want to proof text. We don't want to go in and just assume things. But I do wonder if that kind of went, oh, if David was like, "Oh, ouch, that kind of hurt." Mm-hmm. Um, because he takes it a level up. He's like, "Well, okay, that's fine. Just stay." And so then he tries to get Uriah drunk in hopes that Uriah would go and be with Bathsheba.

That doesn't work. And here is where things turn cold. And this is where David first really makes me sad. Because I can understand being tempted by degrees. I can understand being weak, and I can understand in a panic sometimes we try to fix problems. But in verse 14, "And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah."

Then verse 15- Mm ... "And he wrote in the letter saying, 'Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him that he may be smitten and die.'" So two things. One, it appears as though David doesn't see a way out of it through Uriah's being alive and being with his wife. So next step, he has to die.

Because if he dies and then he brings Bathsheba on, and then it'll look close enough to where, you know, the baby's his and everything's okay. But did you see who he had carry the letter to Joab? Uriah, he carried his own death sentence and had no idea Yeah And that just, that just hurts my heart. And so that's the first time.

And yes, we, we want to have an air of kindness, but that to me is where the tragedy first became a real tragedy because that's what he did. Um, Uriah ended up dying. Mm-hmm. You know, it's hard. Elder, Elder Soares in October 2020 in his talk called Seek Christ in Every Thought, he said, "My dear friends, when we resist the little temptations which often come unexpectedly in our life, we are better equipped to avoid serious transgression.

As President Spencer W. Kimball said, 'Seldom does one enter into deeper transgression without first yielding to lesser ones which open the door to the greater.'" So I look at this and I think, again, David didn't wake up that morning and go, "I think, I think I'm gonna have Uriah killed." Yeah. Right. It was just by degrees.

Oh, Michelle. That's awesome. I love that. Like, I put that on my scripture right here. Just by degrees. Yeah. It's so crazy. Well, and even to support that, I think this is cool, I've never considered this, but now I, now I have looking at this verse. So in verse two where it says, "David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof," highlight walked, like walked upon the roof.

I thought this was fascinating. In Hebrew, when you translate verbs, there's two ways you first learn, past tense and, and future tense. Those are your tenses. Once you get those down, then there's like this whole other world that you have to start learning of translating verbs, and they're... And it's like a menorah, that's how many branches there are of ways to translate verbs.

So one of them you learn is called Hiphil. And I looked up 2 Samuel 11:2, and I just learned this and it's crazy, that the word walked is the Hiphil form. It's not past tense form. So rather than saying, "And David came up from the roof," and he walked once upon the roof, past tense. What Hiphil means is that it's a reflexive verb.

It's a repeated verb, meaning again and again, back and forth. Like, it wasn't a one and done for him. He didn't go out and see her, "Oh, I want her," and go back into his house. It had to have been, like you said, by degrees. Like, y- and you can compare this to the Joseph in Genesis where Joseph ran, you know, when Potiphar's wife wanted to have him.

And I wonder how different it would've been if David had ran as opposed to repeatedly walking on that roof and- Mm ... seeing what he saw. So I don't know, that really just strikes me with this idea of by degrees. That is so powerful. Well, and isn't that, though, how the adversary works? Yes. So 2 Nephi 28:21, "And others will he pacify and lull them away into a carnal security."

Mm-hmm. Now, I mean, how secure did he feel? He's, he's not in battle. He's comfortable. You know, he's walking and walking and walking and he's, he's feeling pretty good, right? That, that they will say, "All is well in Zion. Yay, Zion prospereth, all is well." And thus the Devil cheateth their souls and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

Mm-hmm. So lest we think this is all David, uh, the adversary has intent here, right? Mm-hmm. And, and I think we need to be aware of that i- in our lives. We are not perfect people. David is not perfect. He wasn't a bad person. Right. Um, although, you know, verse 14 we're like, "Okay, that was pretty cold." That's almost like bad person-

territory, right? Yeah. But again, error of kindness, right? Yes. And, and again, a different culture, a different, a different kingdom. But what is really interesting is in verse 25, so messengers are sent back to David saying, "Okay, Uriah is dead." And thus, David said unto the messenger that brought him the message, "Thus shalt thou say unto Joab."

Let not this thing displease thee. So I think that's interesting only because- Hmm ... in verse 27 at the very end, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Now sometimes- Oh, interesting ... we look at just that verse and they're like, wow, that is like kind of underwhelming. Like, you get someone killed and that displeased the Lord.

But I just had to connect those two play on words. Yeah. That's cool. Because to me it gives even more power, because one of the other things that I love about, um, this scripture block is h- the importance of aligning our will to His. And so we're looking at, you know, displease as far as man is not displeased, but the Lord is.

So for me, that's highlighting that. Okay, so we have this story about David by degrees and some of his imperfections, and we've all learned wisdom from this story, but it's not the end. So in the next segment, Michelle is gonna give us some contrition and carry on with this story and what happened. We'll do that next

Segment 3

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So we're still in 2 Samuel, and Michelle is going to tell us the rest of the story. What happened with the baby that she got pregnant with? And there's also a prophet named Nathan in chapter 12 she's gonna teach us about. So hit it, Michelle. What do we need to learn from these verses? I love Nathan. I mean, to come to a king and to say the things that he does.

Nathan, I want the book of Nathan. I'm gonna, like, request all of these things in my- I love it ... the Bible, the extended version. Totally. I want it, I want it. So Nathan comes to him, and instead of saying, "David, you did wrong," he tells him a story. Mm-hmm. And we find this in verses one through four. And essentially he tells a story about a rich man that had all of these flocks and these herds, and then there was a poor man who had just one little lamb, and he loved that lamb, and then he had dinner with his family, and the kids love the lamb, and he was just, like, you know, just like his little bestie.

Well, a traveler came, and the rich man, instead of taking one of his lambs, he takes this poor man's little beloved lamb, and he slays it and gives it to the traveler. Well, I love this. In, in verse five, "David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, 'As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.'"

Mm-hmm. One thing I love about David that I can completely relate to, he was an emotional guy. He was not- Yeah ... a stoic man. He was emotional. He felt all the things, right? Mm-hmm. And these are, this is where the four most condemning words of the Bible come in. "And Nathan said unto David" in verse seven, "Thou art the man."

Ouch. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Imagine that moment, and I wonder if, like, the heavens and the Earth and time just paused for a minute for David to let that sink in and for the Spirit to teach him. And I know the Spirit taught him because David's response, verse 13, "I have sinned against the Lord." And this marks- One of the most sad and beautiful, um, moments of repentance, I wish that we could have had a sneak peek into, like, Alma the Younger's three days.

You know, he talks about how he was- Yeah ... you know, in chains and bound and, and in agony. But we get a sneak peek in Psalm 51. Yes. This is actually to have been believed to be what he, he wrote. This is David pleads for forgiveness. And this, if you are ever repenting, which we should all be repenting every day, right?

Um, just for anything that keeps us away from God. But if, if you find yourself maybe making a mistake that feels too big for you and you feel like you're the only one that's done this, read Psalm 51. It's beautiful. It's full of hope. It's full of heartache. But then David says, um, "Create in me a clean heart."

And doesn't that go back to what we were talking about previously? Mm-hmm. A clean heart. "O God, renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take the Holy Spirit- and take not the Holy Spirit. Return me unto the joy of thy salvation." So I, I love that David... He did wrong. There's, there's no doubt.

By degrees, he got to the place where he made a really, really terrible choice. Mm-hmm. But that's the path, this is the beginning of the path of his repentance. And so I love these, I love these two chapters. Tragic, but I don't know if there's two more powerful differing chapters where you can see, uh, in 11 his, his process of, of just going down to that place where he made those- Yeah

terrible choices. And then the reverse process, the brokenness, um, the consequences. And there are some bad consequences. The Lord says that, you know, there's going to be, um, really bad things coming and, and they do come, and we might talk a little bit more about that later. But then God continues- Mm ... to work.

They actually had the baby and- Mm-hmm ... it was sick for seven days. And it was just, it was tragic. And David... And these are in verses 19, 15 through 19, David begs that the child would live, and the child died and, and this is where I think David lost a lot of hope. In verse 22 he says, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, 'Who can tell whether God would be gracious to me that the child may live?'

But now he is dead. Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." And this

This is the only time that I got emotional reading this- Mm ... because that is his loss of hope, and yet he still had faith. And I think sometimes we think we can't have hope without faith, but you can. You know? He says, "Okay, this has happened, but I have faith. I'm gonna move on." And then a- a- and move on, those words sound so trite, but he's gonna move forward with God, right?

I love that. And then in verse 24, David comf- comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and then she, um, bare him a son and called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him. Mm. That is the, the last thing I wanna highlight in these two chapters because we're talking about a covenant relationship. The Lord didn't not love their son, the first one.

What it means here is the Lord loved him, meaning Solomon was going to be the one who was going to keep the covenant going. And if you fast-forward to 1 Kings 3:13, and Solomon loved the Lord. It's beautiful. So a hard, hard story, um- Mm-hmm ... but I love the humility to, to, to- Yeah ... go that low, but to come back and to try to remain strong and do what you can and to raise your, your child to love the Lord, and we'll see that over this next few, um, few devotionals, but that's what he tried to do the rest of his life.

Wow. Such a beautiful example of what we've talked about, imperfection and contrition. Wow. Michelle, thank you so much. That was so good. Ah, I love, love, loved it. Okay, so then let's do this. In the next segment, Krista gets to teach us something good that David did, and I specifically wanted her on this episode because she taught it to me, and I loved it.

And I, it, the timing worked out great. Again, God is so good. He knows who needs to be on here. So- ... in the next segment, Krista's gonna teach us something good that David did. We'll do that next.

Segment 4

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Okay, Krista. This is so cool. Tell us, because this is the devotional of devotionals. Like, this is the one you're gonna give at the youth conference, right? I just... You gave it to us when we were at a meeting. That's how I met Krista, is Krista and I were on the BYU Women's Conference committee this year.

Yeah. And she was asked to do a devotional, and when she shared this, my mind was blown. And so here we are discussing it, and I couldn't be more thrilled. So Krista, hit it. Give us a devotional about what, something good that David did. So this was one of those moments where I was studying the Old Testament, and I needed to write a devotional about it, and I read the scripture block, and a word stuck out to me that I had never paid attention to before.

I'm sure you've had that happen, where you're reading something you've read before, but all of a sudden it's like an angel comes down with a highlighter and says, "Pay attention to this word." So, um, I wanna talk about the mighty. Now, this is maybe something you've never heard about before, so I'm gonna set it up a little bit if that's okay.

A little context. David lived as a fugitive for a lot of years. He lived in caves. He lived in the wilderness. He lived in forests without running water, without air conditioning. He was just out in the wilderness. And I'm sure that that was rough. Because he'd been living with, you know, King Saul and invited into the palace and to eat good food, and here he is suddenly on the run.

And sometimes he lived in foreign territories. He was just all over the place. But during this time, there were men who needed a good leader. There were men who knew that David was going to be the king, and so suddenly they began to flock to him. They found out where he was hiding, and they came. Um, we, we, we think that they were men like outcasts, debtors, distressed men just looking for someone to follow, someone to help them.

So they came. This was before David was the king. This was before David had anything to offer except a dirt floor. Hmm. And they came to him, and they showed loyalty to him, and that's how David formed an army, a great army, and this was the most loyal army because it was founded during times of distress and poverty, not because he was wealthy, not because he could give something back to them, but because of love.

Isn't that really amazing? Yeah. These men loved him. They just loved him for who he was and who he could be. They believed that he was going to be a great king, and so they followed him loyally, and I think that's really neat. So here's where we get that word mighty. The scriptures call these men that were flocking to him mighty men, and this is, we're in, um, 2 Samuel chapter 23.

This is where we get that mention. So these are mighty men, and he begins to form these mighty men into military groups, and he places the best of them, there's 30 of them that he places over his divisions, and he calls them captains. And this group of distinguished, trusted leaders that were really loyal and really great military fighters, he called that group The 30.

As a quick footnote that's interesting, this is where this story ties back to what Michelle was teaching us about David and Bathsheba. When we talk about those 30 that were mighty captains, Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, was one of those 30 captains. Oh. And so that's what makes that betrayal sting even a little bit more, knowing that Uriah was one of those 30 men that had been proven in battle- Mm-hmm

that loved David, that served him, that protected him with their life, and so that's one of the men that David later betrays. And so that's why that stings a little bit harder. Yeah. And then we, we learn about a group that's even greater than The 30. These are the three men who stood out above the rest.

They're the most fierce, highest ranking warriors. They showed the most extraordinary devotion to David. They did really amazing things I'm gonna tell you about in a second, but in 1 Chronicles chapter 11:12, it calls them The Three Mighties. Isn't that the coolest, the coolest nickname? So we, we're gonna be back and forth between 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11.

So these scriptures are very similar, but there are some, some differences. So we'll, we'll kind of be jumping back and forth. But yeah, that's where we find that really cool nickname, the Three Mighties. I had never paid attention before to that really cool nickname, and I wanted to learn more about the Mighties.

Who are these three men that ... I mean, I don't think the scriptures give nicknames to very many people. Do you think, Tammy? No. I think- This is so cool. Can we read the verse? Yes. I love this. So here we are in, uh, 1 Chronicles 11. We're gonna start in verse 11, and just the first part says, "This is the number of the mighty men whom David had."

Now we're just talking about the three right now. The 30 is a different group, but right now we're talking about the three. So if you jump down, we're, we're gonna talk about all their names. Verse 11 and verse 12 names them, but the very end of verse 12 says that these are one of the three mighties. Ooh, that's so cool.

The mighties. And so when I first read that I thought, "Who are these mighties? And I want to be one. I want to be a mighty." That's such a cool nickname. So how did they get these names? That's like a girl's camp name. The Mighties. Right? The Mighties. Yes. A youth conference. I love it. Yes. So let's just quick look at who these three incredible men- Yeah, yeah

are. We know that they were mighty warriors. We know that they were very devoted to David. But this is like, I feel like the scriptures in this part in 1 Chronicles and in 2 Samuel 23, it's like watching a Marvel movie. These men are like epic superheroes. They're so cool. So the first one that we read about in 2 Samuel 23:8 or 1 Chronicles 11, and he has different names in both of those scriptures.

He is called either Josheb-Basshebeth or Jashebeam And that's, it's the same person. But he was called the chief or captain of the three. And he was famous for killing hundreds of enemy soldiers in a single battle. So if we go to 2 Samuel 23:8, and I'm actually reading from the NAV version- Okay ... because I really like the way that it's worded here.

It says that he raised his spear against 800 men whom he killed in one encounter. Can you just see it like a Marvel movie, like a superhero movie? He's got his sword and he, he's, he's, oh, his spear. He's got his spear and he's raising ag- against 800 men and kills them all in one encounter. Now, S- Samuel says it was 800, Chronicles says it was 300 men, but either way, that's a lot of people to kill with a spear.

So he was obviously really clearly a legend in combat. So that's the first of the mighties, Jashobeam, the captain. The second one we find in 2 Samuel 23:9-10, or 1 Chronicles 11:12-14. His name is Eleazar, and he is called the warrior who wouldn't retreat. So his scripture, his story is really cool. The Philistines were gathered for a battle, and when the Israel- Israelite troops saw them, they all ran away.

All of them, except Eleazar. Mm. He stood his ground beside David, the two of them side by side. Again, we're in the NAV 2 Samuel 23:10. It says, "But Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about- Wow ... a great victory that day."

So can you imagine this? Two men against this entire army, and they are fighting and fighting with swords. There's exhaustion, there is unwavering courage. They're not backing down. And Eleazar fought so long and so hard that his hand froze to his sword, it like cramped around his weapon. Mm-hmm. He probably couldn't feel it anymore, but he never backed down.

He display- he displayed great courage beside David. And I love that, that this, this story actually gives credit to the Lord. It says the Lord helped them to be victorious. So that's why this man was a mighty. He t- he trusted that the Lord would take care of them, and they, they were victorious that day.

Okay, so that was number two mighty. Our number three mighty is named Shammah, and he is in only 2 Samuel. Uh, Chronicles doesn't really talk about him, but in 2 Samuel 23:11-12, we learn about the man who defended the field So again, reading his story from the NIV version of the Bible. In 2 Samuel 23:11, it says, "When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them.

But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory." There's that credit again to the Lord. Mm-hmm. But I think it's important to understand Shammah, he was all by himself, and he stood in the middle of a field and defended it.

Why would he do that? Why would he risk his life for a field of lentils? Well, we learned that this was not just some random field. This was covenant land that belonged to the house of Israel. Mm-hmm. And so this man was a covenant man, and he was willing to risk his life to defend that covenant between their people and the Lord.

So he stood by himself, and the Lord brought about the victory. So that's why these three men are mighties. They were fierce warriors. They were very loyal to their King David, but also that they loved the Lord, and they trusted that he would protect them, and we see that. So how cool. These are our three mighties.

Oh, I love it. They're incredible men. Now, there's a really touching story surrounding these three mighties that I wanted to share. We find this story in 2 Samuel 23, starting in verse 13. Also, it's in 1 Chronicles 11, starting in verse 15, so you can read it another place. But basically, at this point, David is hiding in a stronghold during the Philistine occupation.

That occupation included his hometown of Bethlehem. We remember that David was born in, in Bethlehem because Jesus Christ comes through his lineage. Mm-hmm. And so that's his hometown, and he's feeling homesick. He's living in a cave. I'm sure he's exhausted. He's tired of fighting. He's dirty. There's probably not running water for a bath, and he's really homesick.

He can't even go home to Bethlehem, to the place that he loves to find some peace or, or rest. And so we read in 1 Chronicles 11:17, he kind of just has one of those moments where he sighs out, "Oh, that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate." He's not giving a command.

He's not the king. He's not acting as a military leader this moment. He's just homesick. Mm-hmm. And he just sighs out this longing. And I know that we've all been there, in a place where, oh, if I could just have this, or if I could just be here, or if someone would just call me, it would make me feel better.

I would know that I'm loved or that I'm cared for. I just long for something that brings me peace and comfort, and that's where David was. Well, the, the amazing thing is his three mighties overhear him say this. They overhear him wish for a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem. So what do you do if you're a mighty?

You can't just let David lay there and- ... and long for it. You have to go get it. And so- We are reading in 1 Chronicles chapter 11, starting in verse 18. It says, "And the three break through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David."

So these three men went to Bethlehem, risked their lives for David because they loved him. They loved him so much they were willing to risk their lives for a drink of water for this man that would be their king. I love that. I want ... I'm, I'm, right now, I'm thinking- Yeah ... in my life, who are my mighties? Yeah.

Like, if I'm like, "I am really sad. I need, I need a girls' night out. I need chocolate." "I need you to pray for me." You know? Who is willing- That is such a good question- Yes ... to think about. Like, who are your mighties? Who are the people that would bring you water, that would keep ... Yeah, that would hold the sword so tight that their hand gets frozen to it.

Like, that is a great question to think about. Who is willing to go out at 1:00 in the morning and get tacos for me because I really- Yeah ... need tacos, right? Yeah. Who is that person? That's mighty, for sure. So these mighties, right, they, they go and do this for him because they love him. It's incredible. For a drink of water.

I don't know how they brought the water back, but they brought it. Mm-hmm. And then continuing in verse 18 it says, "They brought the water to him, but David would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord." And this is why verse 19 explains why David would not drink the water. This was a moment where David showed the beautiful and good and godly side of himself.

Verse 19 it says that David said, "My God forbid it me that I should do this thing. Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? For with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore, he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest." So David would not drink the water because he realized that it came with a cost.

Mm. These were three men, mighty men, who had already shown that they would risk their lives for him. They had already shown that in battle. They stood beside him when no one else would. They defended places that nobody else was willing to, and then they risked their lives to go get him a drink of water.

He probably wished he had kept that thought to himself in that moment. But what incredible friends, and he realized their true colors, that they really would do anything he asked and requested. But not just that, he recognized that the Lord had given them to him. These were mighty men that had been brought to him by the Lord, and so he showed respect to the Lord by respecting these men and not drinking that water that would have cost their lives.

I think it's a really beautiful moment where David shows his reliance on the Lord, his respect for the Lord in the way that he treated these beautiful friends. So yes, who are the mighties in our lives? That's what this story and that's what this concept did for me. I started to think about who are the people in my life that would, yeah, bring me water, bring me chocolate.

I love that, Michelle. Who would bring me chocolate- Mm ... when I'm having a bad day, when I'm crying in my bathtub and having a really hard time? Who are those people? And there are a couple of things that I thought of. I shared this story, Tammy, during that meeting. This is one mighty that I thought of instantly.

Um, one of the biggest mighties in my life is my son Walker. His name is my maiden name, so he is named after my family, and he is a precious son to me. He's my middle son, and Walker has the biggest teddy bear heart. But when he was a senior in high school, he decided that he wanted to be a Marine, that he wanted to join the Marines.

And a lot of people came to me and said, "How can you do that? How can you let your son put himself in danger?" And yet I knew this son's heart. My Walker loves to show that even the smallest person who thinks they are even the most unimportant person, he loves to show that they matter. He loves to defend.

He loves to stand up for what is right. And he is not the biggest, tallest Marine you'll ever see, but his heart is the biggest that you'll ever see. And so I knew that he wanted to join the Marines so that he could defend and stand up for little, for the little guy. Mm. And so how could I say no to that?

So my, my Walker, as soon as he was graduated from high school, he signed on with the Marines. He signed a contract, and he was shipped off to boot camp. He went to basic training and a couple of other trainings, and those were really, really difficult experiences for him. But he had very sacred experiences where there was an experience where he was extremely sick.

He had pneumonia and I think probably a couple of other things, and there was a day where in the middle of him being extremely sick, they had to hike 18 miles fully loaded, 100-pound pack- Mm ... their weapon, all of their gear, and he literally did not know how he would do it. But if he didn't do it, then he would be held back, and he would have to start all the way over again.

So he prayed in a way that he had never prayed before and asked for help. And the first mile went okay, but after the second, third, fourth mile, he started to really slow down and fall behind. He was so sick, and the weight was so heavy. And he carries, he carried in his pocket a picture of his sister. I lost a daughter 20 years ago to cancer, a little two-year-old daughter named Elora.

And Elora is just younger than Walker, and so when he went to boot camp, that's who he took with him to put over his heart, was his sister. Aw, that's sweet. Because he knew, he believed in angels, and he believed in the help of, of those heavenly powers. And so in that moment when he was struggling the hardest he'd ever struggled, he prayed.

He asked Heavenly Father for help, "Please help me to be able to make it through this." And right away, suddenly he felt someone lift up, up his pack, and he turned around to see which of his buddies was goofing off, and there was no one there. And so he thought, "Oh, that's weird," and he went back to his prayer.

And he said, "Heavenly Father, I really need help." And again, he felt someone pick up his pack off of his back, and he turned a second time to say, "Who's doing that?" And no one was there. Mm. The third time he went back to the prayer. Third time he felt that pack lighten, and it finally hit him. Angels are real.

The help of the Lord is real. Mighties come in all different ways, and that day his little sister was a mighty for him. So Walker learned through that experience to rely on the Lord, to love Him and trust Him and know that as he did hard things that the Lord would, would help him and defend him. Wow. And so Walker came back from his basic training, and his plan had always been to, to serve a mission And so as soon as all those trainings were over, he was preparing his mission papers, and Walker signed as, on as a reservist so that he would be able to take two years leave of absence and serve a mission.

But right as he was about to put his mission papers in, a rotation deployment came down for his unit, and Walker had a really difficult decision to make. He needed to go serve this deployment with his team, with this crew, with these men that he had trained with and served with. He needed to go with them and serve and defend the country.

But he was really nervous about delaying that promise that he had made to the Lord to serve a mission, and he prayed and wrestled with that, and he talked to his bishop, and he talked to us, his parents. And one day he came to me and said, "Mom, I'm going to go serve my country, but I made a promise to the Lord that this will not change my promise to Him to serve Him.

I promise that I will go and serve a Lord f- uh, serve a mission for the Lord." And so Walker did. He ser- he, he trained for a year with his unit, and then he was deployed for a year overseas. And when he came back, even though he was older than most missionaries, he was 24 at that time, he worked on his mission papers, and he kept that promise to the Lord.

And he is currently right now as a 25-year-old serving in the Cape Town South Africa mission. Hmm. And he is a mighty He is a mighty for Christ. He has the loyalty and love for the Lord that David's men showed for him. Mm. My son loves the Lord, and he kept that promise, and he defends him loyally and serves him, him fiercely.

And I'm extremely proud of him for serving his country and serving the Lord. He is a mighty in my life. Wow. Krista. Mm. What a mighty story. Yes. I'm, I'm a proud mother. Oh. I really love him. But filled with all the feels. Yes. Filled with anguish and heartache. Like, I, I would love to know the story of these mighties, like how they got to become so mighty.

Right. The- I want their backstory. Yeah. Who were their mothers? Mm-hmm. Who were their mothers, and who were the people in their lives- Right ... that taught them to f- to fight that way, and their fathers and, and their family members. So I... The beautiful thing, Tammy, is- Mm ... yes, my son is a mighty, but I look out at the world now through different eyes since learning this concept of the mighties.

Absolutely. I see people surrounding me who are mighties for Christ. That was one of the things that, Tammy, you and I, uh, as committee members for BYU Women's Conference this year, we had the opportunity to pray for the thousands of women that would be traveling to come to the conference. Mm-hmm. And we recognized very quickly as we prayed for them, the Lord knew that all of those women were his mighties.

The reason they were coming to this conference is because they love him, they serve him, they defend him. They stand up for what is true and right. There are women and people across the world who are mighties for Christ, who do hard things, who stand up for him, who fight for truth and righteousness, who love him and are loyal to him.

And so I love that my paradigm has been shifted, and I try to look at people in different ways. Instead of looking maybe at people's weaknesses or, or the, the part of them that, you know- It's like a beam and mo- moment, right? Mm-hmm. Instead of looking at the one little flaw someone has, can I see the beauty in who they are, the mighty that they are?

I love just that, the way that it shifted my paradigm and that I get to look at everyone around me as mighties and see the good in them. And I know that the Lord has given me mighties in my life to protect me, to, to strengthen me, to love me, and I want to, in return, reciprocate that and be a mighty for other people in their lives.

Well, can I just jump in here? And I- Yeah, mm-hmm ... I absolutely love this. I love the paradigm shift that I've experienced. I've written all these notes. Like, I wanna be Eleazar. I wanna be the one that doesn't retreat. Um, and it just made me briefly think of my, my daughter, Paige. You know, she's, she's an older single adult.

She's had her share of struggles with depression and some other things. And when you were talking about mighty, I love the fact that sometimes the mighties among us are the ones that might not look mighty. Mm-hmm. But I think about my daughter and all the times that she's been depressed and all the times that she's been sad.

She has never retreated. She has continued to try. And so I just, I love the idea that you've introduced of us just looking at everyone around us. And my husband always says, "Just assume everyone's trying their best." And how many mighties are drawn to us, but how many mighties have, has God brought to us so we can learn from and be protected by?

Yeah. I love it. Thank you so much, Krista. Oh. I know. My mind is just spinning. Like, my daughters, for sure. I- Mm-hmm ... especially my two oldest, whose mother died, and now they're grown and they're active- Uh-huh ... and they love God. Oh, they're such mighties. That's heartache. And they've, they've... Just the people that stay, mighties.

So now at church, I can't wait to go to church on Sunday and just sit with all the mighties. All the mighties. It's awesome. And the truth is that I think it's important for us to remember that God considers us all mighty. He has said that if we could see someone in their true form, if we could see who they were before they came to Earth, if we could really see into their souls, we would understand that each person is a divine son or daughter of God.

Mm-hmm. Each of us is a mighty. And isn't that a beautiful way to look at the world? Yeah. Absolutely. Well, and I'd add to a beautiful way. Wow. I know you, you touched on your daughter, Elora. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I thought about you when, you know, we talked about in, in, uh, chapter 12 of 2 Samuel when David lost his child, and how he lost hope but kept faith.

And as I've gotten to know you over the years, you are, you are a woman of mighty, mighty faith. Mm-hmm. To, to stand in that moment of loss and to thank God for him to be standing next to you, that is a beautiful thing. So thank you for being a mighty one in my life. I appreciate you and I love you. Thank you, Michelle.

Thank you. Okay. I appreciate that. Krista's a mighty for sure. Wow. Thank you for teaching us that lesson. That was so good. I love that we get to talk good about David. This is fun because in the next segment we're gonna talk some more good about David, and one of the things I've liked so far, and you pointed this out, Michelle, that even amidst the loss and, and all of the choices he made, that verse of scripture where he, you can see his hope and his faith, like he still believes in God.

There are some really beautiful verses that are sort of his last words he says that I think encompass this idea that he still believes in God. We'll show you what they are next

Segment 5

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Let's turn to David's last inspired words because these aren't his actual last words. He's gonna say some more things to his son, but it is believed that these are his last inspired-by-the-Spirit words. You're gonna find them in 2 Samuel chapter 23, and it's going to be verses one through seven. So bracket those off, one through seven.

I'm gonna read this little quote. This is from Anne Madsen, who I love, scholar Anne Madsen. She says, "The last few chapters of 2 Samuel seem to be afterthoughts recounting several instances in David's life which needed to be preserved, but with little interest in chronology, much as we might string together significant experiences using different criteria than time sequence in our telling.

It may also be that the last of his days were so much less glorious than the first that it was reassuring to recall the great times in or out of time sequence. David's last words included sage counsel to his descendants, the king he fully expected to rule after him forever. They are lofty words full of idealism which only a poet, the sweet psalmist of Israel, could frame.

He delivered them directly through the Spirit of the Lord and in the manner of a prophet." What a great compliment. So that's what Anne has to say about these verses. So I asked my guests to read 2 Samuel chapter 23, verses one through seven. And they can use King James Version. They could also use any other version they wanted.

I use the NIV, the International Version. So we're gonna just kind of talk a little bit about this. Tell me, what did these final spiritually inspired words teach you about David? Well, I think, uh, what stuck out to me first was just his understanding and appreciation of who God is. In verse three, "The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake unto me."

Mm. And I love that. It, it kind of solidifies some of what he's learned, and he's learned the power of God and who God is and who he is. So I love that he starts with that, and that is his foundation. Oh, that's great. I loved four. Four is beautiful in the King James Version, and in, here's the NIV, "He is like..."

I mean, this is so cool going off what you said, Michelle. He knows who God is. To be able to say this about Him, "He is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth." I mean, that is so beautiful and poetic. I wish I could write poetry.

It's not my skillset at all. Because in fact, I was with some friends last night, and they were telling me they met a poet laureate of this s- this town that they, they went to and she was like, "Can you imagine being the poet laureate of anything?" And I was like, "No, 'cause all my poems rhyme. I'll never get picked."

Poetry, that is so poetic. I, that's, I love verse four, that he was able to just beautifully describe his relationship with God and Jehovah. Well, and I think, you know, that, that even hits a little bit deeper for me because they didn't have electricity back then, right? Mm-hmm. So light, how valuable. Even during the day, the, the, the inside of their homes were still a little bit dark.

So just to really value and love the, the meaning of light. Well, and you live in Washington, so th- that verse is all you. The rain. A morning without clouds, that is rare. Yes, the brightness after rain. Nobody knows brightness after rain like someone from Washington. Amen. No, because not only does the sun come out, but everything brightens up because of all the water droplets.

Like, it really is so bright. Yes. Stunning. Fresh and clean and beautiful and refreshing. Putting your name by verse four, Michelle. I love verse five. I guess we're going in order, three, four, five. But I, I love that here we are at the end of David's life, and when he was going through that dark, dark part of his life with, with Bathsheba and Uriah, he could have chosen to be angry at the Lord.

He could have stepped away and said, "You know what? I don't want anything to do with you anymore." I, you know, he could have blamed other people or, or just kept going down that path and not repented. But here we are at the end and he says, "Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure."

He knows that through it all, no matter what he's done, no matter what path he's walked, the Lord's covenant and promises and blessings and love are sure. That's his testimony at the end of his life, and I love that that's where we get to see David. In the end, he loves God, he knows God, and he has absolute faith in those promises.

Well, and just the truth that God's covenant is bigger than any human imperfection. Mm-hmm. I love it. I guess I really love David's story because he, he isn't written just as a flawless hero, which that's... It's amazing to have heroes to look up to and, and, and people that, you know, maybe show how to do hard things.

We have a lot of those, but here is someone who went through the hard, difficult work to come back to the Lord, to repent. And I feel like David's story is more relatable in that way because that's the truth of all of our experiences. We will all not die flawless heroes, but our lives are complex. Our lives are ups and downs and ins and outs, and he shows that it is possible to come back from that brink.

It's, it's possible to have faith and rely on the Lord's love. And I've, I love this quote by Elder Matthias Held. This is from his April 2024 general conference talk titled Opposition in All Things. He says, "In our lives, we sometimes make wrong decisions, and we must live with the consequences humbly and patiently until we are able to change our course again.

Life is all about making choices. Our Father in Heaven gave us the divine gift of agency precisely so that we could learn from our choices, from the right ones and also from the wrong ones. We correct our wrong choices when we repent. This is where growth happens. Heavenly Father's plan for all of us is about learning, developing, and progressing toward eternal life."

I love that he said that we learn from the wrong decisions that we make as well. Mm-hmm. That there is a purpose, that, that it was never Lucifer's plan that everything would be perfect in this life, that we would be made to obey, and that we would be flawless when we return home. That would not help us to become like our Father, to be who He is, to do what He does.

The way that we learn is through complicated processes here on this earth, through trial and sorrow, and repentance, and going through really hard things, standing in really hard places, and still relying on the Lord and trusting that He's got us. And I hope that at the end of my life I can say, just as David did, that I too know that the covenants the Lord with me, has made with me are sure.

Mm-hmm. I've, I've talked about, uh, I've mentioned my little daughter Elora. Um, she was sick with a, um, what I thought was the flu, and she had a seizure w- that night. And we, my husband and I rushed her to the, to the emergency room where the doctors discovered a cancerous brain tumor, and she died the next day.

So it was 30 hours- Gosh ... from that first seizure to when she died, and she was two years old. And as you can imagine, that was devastating to us. It was so fast we didn't even have a chance to fight or let alone know what was really happening. Um, but when Elora was, uh, first arrived at the hospital, while we were waiting for answers from the doctor, my husband asked if he could give her a blessing.

And then he asked if I wanted a blessing, and I was desperate for a blessing from the Lord. And I only remember one line of that blessing But as I held onto my daughter's hand, not knowing why she couldn't wake up, the Lord promised me, he said, "All will be well." I came out of that blessing, I jumped up off my chair, and I said to my husband, "Did you hear that?

The Lord promised me that all will be well, which means that Elora will get better, that she will be fine, that she will come home with us, and everything will go back to the way it was." And my husband looked at me and he just didn't look as sure as I did. And I said, "What? What's wrong?" He said, "Is it possible that the Lord's promise means that no matter what happens, no matter what path this leads, eventually all will be well?"

Hmm. And at first I was mad. I didn't want his way to be right. I wanted my way to be right. But as I thought about it, I had to agree that, that that was the most incredible promise from a loving heavenly Father. I still didn't know at that point what would happen, but the Lord could see, and he was promising me that even though I was about to walk through the darkest days of my life, he made a promise to me that eventually all will be well.

And over the last 20 years, I have clung to that promise. That is a covenant that the Lord made with me, that if I kept my hand in his, he would lead me to that day. And here I am 20 years later, past the death of my daughter. And yes, there have been hard things, and I continue to grieve for her. That's not ended, but I can see the places that the Lord has led me, the ways that he has allowed me to turn this distress into sacred opportunities to love and lift people who are standing where I have stood.

Opportunities to say his name, just like this one, to testify of him. Mm-hmm. Being here on this podcast and saying his name, to write books, to, to write articles that, that talk about what he's done for me. These are sacred things, and in this way, he has led me to days where all is well. This is the way he keeps our covenants with us.

Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's long, sometimes those blessings, like Elder, um, Holland taught us, sometimes those blessings come, don't come till the next life. But they do come, and I testify of that. I love him, and I know that his promises are sure. You know, Krista- Um- ... that makes me think of, speaking of last words, David's last words to Solomon, 1 Kings 2:3.

Oh, thank you. Yes. He says, "Keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest." And I think that's what he's trying to tell his son, and I think that's what the Lord was saying to you. When he says, "All will be well," it doesn't mean all will be right exactly as you think it should be well.

Right. Right. But all will be well meaning you will prosper, and the key that you talked about was walking with the Lord, inviting him into our darkness instead of asking for him to take us out of it sometimes. Oh, I love that connection, Michelle. And thank you for getting us into 1 Kings. So go to 1 Kings chapter 2, because those are David's last words to his son, Solomon.

So awesome. Brilliant. Both of you, thank you. And as both of you were talking, I went to my translation of verse five, and now for me, it just comes full circle because I was thinking exactly of what you were talking about. And he, and the way the NIV translates verse five, it says, "If my house were not right with God, surely he would not have made an everlasting covenant."

I mean, don't you love that if- Mm-hmm ... if we're not right with God. So he's acknowledging, like, it is. So he did make an everlasting covenant. It, if it were not right with you, Krista, it would not be well. But because, because it is right with God, with you in your family, he has made an everlasting covenant with you.

And then he says, "Arranged and secured in every part, then surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation or grant me every desire if I were not right with God. But because you are right with God, you will be granted every desire." The fruit of your salvation? That's amazing. And I love everything you've said testified to that truth.

Isn't that the beauty of David's story here, though? Mm-hmm. That yes, there are times when we're not right with God. And, and in the future I expect that there will be times where I am not in the right place. That's just our mortality. Yeah. But how beautiful that he allows us to come back over and over. He is a mighty God.

He is the mightiest of all the mighties. Yes. He is mighty and eternal, and he has enough strength and patience and, and power to forgive us and to bring us back to him over and over. He has the might and the love to help us all- Yeah ... carry the things that feel unbearable, to correct the things that feel impossible.

He can do that for every single one of us. Isn't that mighty? Our God is mighty, and I love him. I will never look at that- Yeah ... that term, He is mighty to save, in the same way again. Oh, I agree. I gotta write that down. He is mighty to save. That- He is ... you're right, that changes everything. Thank you so much, ladies.

Okay, so in the next segment then, and in our last segment, we get to talk about one of the mightiest things that David did, and Solomon, before David passed away. We'll talk about that next.

Segment 6

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We're gonna do a fun scripture chain just to give a little background- Okay ... going into 1 Kings chapter 8. So here's what we want to do. Let's all first turn to 2 Samuel chapter 7. We just want the section heading. Okay? So 2 Samuel chapter 7, and will you please read, Krista, the section heading? Yes, I would love to.

"David offers to build a house for the Lord. The Lord, through Nathan, says he has not asked David to do so. The Lord will establish David's house and kingdom forever. David offers a prayer of thanksgiving." Okay, so clear back, 2 Samuel 7, "I want to build a temple," and Nathan's like, "Yeah, you're not going to."

Let's put next to that section heading, put 1 Chronicles chapter 22, verses 8 through 11. And right here we have the story line, and I, I just wanted to put us in Chronicles, but here's the story line where it's being said, "Listen, David, you're not gonna build a temple." And then in sep- in verse 7 it says, "And David said unto Solomon, 'My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build the house unto the name of the Lord my God.

But the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Thou hast shed blood abundantly. Thou hast made great wars. Thou shalt not build a house unto my name because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all the enemies roundabout.

For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give him peace and quietness unto Israel in his days, and he shall build a house in my name."'" So there's the prophecy that David gets, "So you're not gonna build it." So next to those verses, put 1 Kings chapter 5, verses 3 through 5, and let's go there. 1 Kings chapter 5, and we have verses 3 through 5.

And Michelle, will you read those verses for us, please? "Thou knowest how that David, my father, could not build an house unto the name of the Lord his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.

And behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, "Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name."'" Thank you. And now bracket off those verses and put this reference, 1 Kings chapter 6, section heading And just the very first thing it says is Solomon builds the temple.

There it is. He builds the temple. He gets it built. And then the last thing you wanna put next to 1 Kings chapter 6, Solomon builds the temple, is 1 Kings chapter 8. This is the completion of the temple, but even more importantly is we are gonna go to verses 22 all the way to the end, which is the dedicatory prayer and an apostolic blessing.

This is so cool. So we have a dedicatory prayer. That is verses 23 through 53. Then verses 54 through 61 is an apostolic blessing. So bracket those off. Now, I ask my guests to come and just tell me, give me two verses from this dedicatory prayer that you love, that stood out to you, and then we're gonna read a cool quote by Elder Hane about temples.

So go ahead. We'll hit... We'll start with Michelle. Michelle, what two verses did you mark that you love in this dedicatory prayer? Well, it was hard to narrow it down to two. There are so many beautiful things in here. We could do a whole episode just on this. I agree. Yeah. I know. I know. And y- the temple is such an important part of my life.

Um, but... And we kinda mentioned this before. I'm gonna start with a verse that comes from the apostolic blessing, uh, 58. We'll start there, "That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers." I love that.

I think sometimes when we go to the temple, you know, of course, we need to have a level of preparedness and desire to be there, but received a blessing once that told me that I needed to have more faith, and I should go to the temple. And at first, I was a little offended. I was like, "I've come to you in faith for a blessing, and now you're telling me I need more."

But as I prayed about it, I was able to get some divine clarification through the Spirit, and it was, "No, no, no, go to the temple so I can strengthen your faith." Mm. And I love that. And this is... I mean, we've had temples since the time of Adam, not because we just need to go and serve God, but because something sacred happens in those spaces that allows him to, to change us and to strengthen our faith and change our hearts.

So I love that verse. Me too. What a great blessing to get. Like, I love this as part of the apostolic blessing part. You just picture in verse 53 Solomon raising his hands, and he blessed them. Wow, I love that Okay, I agree. This was really hard. Um, but the f- the first one that stood out to me, the first verse is verse 29.

I love that this is the very beginning of Solomon's prayer, and he reminds us this. He prays that, "God's eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said my name shall be there." He reminds us from the very beginning that the Lord's name is upon this house.

That means- Mm ... he says, "This is mine. This is my address. This is, this is where I live And even today- Oh, I like that ... we have his name on the hou- on the house of the Lord. It says right above the door, "Holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord." It's his address. He's saying, "This is, this is where I live.

Come on in." I love that so much. "Come visit me here." Michelle and I are like, "That is awesome. This is my address." Spiritual Google Maps. That's so fun. I love that. I, I think that's very important to remember that this is our Father's home, and when we go there, we go to visit with him in prayer. We go to help him with his work.

It's like when I visit my parents at their house. When I go home to my parents' house, they just welcome me in, but we work together in their garden, and we laugh together, and, and we pray together, and, and I can share my sorrows with them. And there isn't anything that I can't share with my parents in their home.

I, I, I mean, I know that not everybody has a home and, and parents that is like that. I understand that, but that is what our Father's home, the temple, is meant to model, that this is a safe place for us to come to, to commune with him, to unburden ourselves of all of our sorrows or all of our pains. We can tell him anything, everything.

We worship him there. We work with him, and when we leave, we go back to our homes feeling rejuvenated because we got to spend time with our dad in his house. Mm-hmm. And I just love that so much. Um, Elder Neil, uh, L. Anderson said this in his April 2024 general conference address, Temples: Houses of the Lord Dotting the Earth.

He said, "The temple is literally the house of the Lord. I promise you as you come worthily and prayerfully to His holy house, you will be armed with His power. His name will be upon you. His angels will have charge over you, and you will grow up in the blessing of the Holy Ghost." So- Mm ... we can literally go to our Father's house, and where His name is, then we take His name home with us.

I love that. Oh, I do, too. Awesome. Okay, I'm gonna jump in here, Tammy, because you said- Mm-hmm ... we could have two verses. Yes. I want you to go again, Michelle. So I did one from the apostolic blessing, which I know that you're gonna talk a little bit more about. But my other one that I love was verse 23. Um, and it's Solomon said, "Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like thee."

Mm-hmm. And I love that. You know, Krista, you just said, you know, we all have different homes on this earth. Uh-huh. But we all have the same Father in heaven. We all have the same Savior, Jesus Christ. And then he says, "There's no God like thee in heaven above or in earth beneath who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all thy heart."

So boom, there is that theme, heart and walking. God is perfect. We are not. And the fact that, that, that, that Jehovah, the Savior, the God of the Old Testament, is willing to walk with us in our imperfections and begs us to just walk with him, I love it. It, that's a beautiful way to introduce the temple because that's what the temple is.

It's the place where we can go and be with him in that covenant relationship, perfect and not perfect. Beautiful. I love that Oh, I think that is so cool. Oh, how fun is that? And I love it when it says, "Keep his covenant and mercy," highlight mercy. That's hesed right there. Mm-hmm. Mm. Beautiful. Oh, I love, Michelle, that you pointed that out That walk before thee with all their hearts.

And that's been your theme, the hearts. Mm-hmm. There's so many. In fact, that's fun to go through and draw a little heart every time you see that word. Oh, I love that. 'Cause it's everywhere in this dedicatory prayer, heart. Okay, do I get a second turn? Yes. Yes. Okay. I'm excited. I'm gonna cheat just a little bit here.

I know it's supposed to be one verse, but it's kind of a block, but I will, but I'll only talk about one verse. Okay. But it starts in verse 46, and it's a block that kind of goes through verse 50- Mm-hmm ... where Solomon is praying that even if, for some reason, we sin and that sin separates us from thee, I mean, he's talking about we're being carried away captive by an em- enemy into a different land.

And, and that's really, um, symbolic, right? I don't think I'm literally going to be ca- carried away captive. Maybe, but the chances of that in my life aren't going to happen. But what does that symbolically mean? In what ways do I become separate from my Father? What ways do I allow myself to wander in diverse paths, find myself not near Him?

Okay, he says even if that happens, even if we are no longer in the land where we're able to go to the temple, for whatever reason, and this could actually apply to people who maybe don't live near a temple, okay? So for whatever reason the temple becomes inaccessible in your life, he says, in verse 48, he says and prays, "And so if they return to thee with all their hearts and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou has chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven, thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause."

In other words, if there's ever a reason that we find ourselves unable to actually be in the house of the Lord, but we still have kept those covenants and we still believe in the Father, we return to Him in our hearts and we pray to Him as if we were in the temple, please still hear us then. Isn't that a beautiful promise?

Yes. That there are seasons of my life where I can actually physically be in the temple and enjoy the spirit that is there, but even if there are circumstances that keep me from physically being there, I can still pray to the Lord as if I were in His home if my heart is close to Him and I return to Him in that spirit, and He will hear my prayer.

What a beautiful blessing for those that are maybe not proximitively close or for whatever reason the, the temple becomes un- inaccessible. I love that. Oh, I do too. How fun that I just marked where it said that, "Their supplication in heaven, thy dwelling place." I just put below it, "His address, Krista." Yes, His address.

I love that it says right there. I love that. His dwelling place. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, there are so many verses we could talk about. So, so many. So the thing th- and I will just share what I love that I didn't even notice as I was- Preparing, I, I like, how many times have I read this? Doesn't it happen all the time?

You're like, "Where have I been all the years?" But I loved so much that when this prayer begins, in verse 32, it begins with, "Then hear thou in heaven." And I can't believe how many verses say that. It's in verse 34 it starts, verse 36 starts, verse 39 starts, verse 43, "Hear thou in heaven." And I just love that idea, like, oh, please hear us.

In your dwelling place, at your address, in heaven, hear the things that we have to say. Hear these things that we're asking for. So the next time I go to a temple dedication, I hope I go with those thoughts. Please hear thou in heaven as we dedicate this to thee. And, and then again, turning towards the temple to pray.

That is a thing. In fact, Don Parry, on the YouTube series Jesus Christ in Scripture, does an entire whole episode about all the scriptures that say you should turn to the house of the Lord and pray towards it. Wow. Even though we don't- Wow ... do that, but he gives proof for it about maybe why other religions do it.

And just the thought that you shared, Krista, like, well, maybe we could. I think that's kind of cool. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Because we're not just facing the temple, we're facing Christ. So I wanna share this quote. This is from Elder Alan D. Haney, and here's what he had to say about the temple, and maybe it will change the way or the direction that we pray.

Um, Michelle, will you read this quote for us, please? "Jesus Christ is why we come to the temple. He is who our Father in Heaven desires us to meet in the temple. He is at the center of every symbol, every ordinance, every covenant, and every hoped-for blessing in the temple. Seeking Jesus in the temple enables us to understand why we are in the temple and why we should return."

Thank you. I love that. That is just everything we've talked about, like Jesus Christ centered, turning towards the temple, praying, but keeping all of these prayers in our heart, and then go and take some time. Read the apostolic blessing 'cause it's so powerful, and I'm so glad you started us out with that, Michelle, because it just...

All of second, all of 1 Kings chapter 8 is powerful. So thank you, ladies. We're done. That's the end of our episode. Ta-da. Okay, so gather your thoughts and just look back and think of all the things we discussed, and what is your takeaway? What eternal truth did you learn from our discussion of these chapters?

For me, the eternal truth is that God wants to be accessible to us, and he will do all that he can in the temple through prophets, through the Spirit, through personal revelation. God wants us to be with him. And I don't know about you, but I, I love being wanted, right? Mm-hmm. I love being loved, and it m- it, this has really helped me to understand that when I feel distant from God, it's usually me- Mm-hmm

who turns my head because I feel shame or gets distracted or gets complacent or, or gives into some temptation, but I love that God is steady. He is there. He is unmoving, always loving, and that, that I can always come to him and repent and be with him, and all it takes is me just focusing on him and inclining my heart toward him.

So for me, these are chapters of hope. I know that we can be kind of hard on David, and most of us wouldn't make the choices that he did at one point, but hopefully most of us will make the choices to repent and, and just to want to be with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in a covenant relationship because, uh, that's where we grow.

That's, that's how we will be connected to them, and not only them but to our families that have passed, our families that have come, our families that are now. Yeah, so just a, a lot of hope for me has come out of these chapters today, so I appreciate being here. Wow. Thank you, Michelle. What a great takeaway.

Those are great. Everything you said, true, true, true. Thank you. Krista The very first book that I wrote was a memoir about my little daughter, Elora, who passed away, and I really struggled with the title because I wanted the title to suggest how God had carried me, how Christ had saved me as I walked through the darkest days and path that I had ever walked.

And I, I decided that the title would be Unbearable Burden because that's what I felt like that burden was to me. It was unbearable. And finally, one of my sons suggested the way to bring Christ into that title. He said, "What if you made the un of unbearable look like it's blowing away? Because when we rely on Christ, every unbearable burden can become bearable."

Oh, neat. It was b- beautiful and perfect. And so that is how I have tried to continue to hold onto Christ, remembering that with Him, every part of our lives that seem unbearable, that seem too heavy to carry. David experienced that. Mm-hmm. The, the sin and, and the hard things that he did led to some really difficult consequences.

He walked, I'm sure, days and roads that felt unbearable to him, and, and we all walk those paths for different reasons. You know, there's all kinds of different reasons that we experience dark days, but I trust that the Lord has the might and the power to help us carry everything that feels unbearable.

With Him, when we yoke ourselves to Him, when we keep our hand in His, He will never leave us alone. That's my favorite of His promises. In John 14:18, He says, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you." And I testify that He does, that His promises are sure, that He is the mighty of mighties. He is mighty to save- Mm-hmm

and He can do that for all of us. He will never leave us on our own to carry those unbearable burdens. He loves us, and He will come. Amen. Amen. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, okay, here's mine. I loved so much, Michelle, when you said, "God is in the business of hearts." Brilliant. That was so- Amen ... good. So good. And then, and then next to that, "He is mighty to save."

And then I love the thought, sought, and brought. That was so cool. I'm gonna put that... Well, I have. I put that in my story of David. That was so good. And then Krista, hello, our discussion on the mighties. And when you told your story about your son, I wrote down, "Our mighties can even come from beyond the veil."

Mm-hmm. Like you can consider that, that the mighties are our ancestors and our loved ones, and I just think that was so neat. That talk, that whole story is... Yeah, I'm so glad your son is one of your mighties, 'cause now he's one of mine. Thanks. Yay. And I do like the thought, like, who would one of our mighties be?

And, yeah, that whole discussion was awesome. A- and then Michelle c- snuck in "He is mighty to save." I was like, "Oh, so good. So good." So thank you. That, that was it. We're done. This was such a good- Yay ... discussion. Thank you. I truly believe our prayer was, my prayer will be answered. People will listen to this and just think of the story of David in a completely different way.

All right. Love you. Bye, ladies. Love you. Bye. Okay, what eternal truth did you learn? What is your takeaway? That was an incredible discussion. And I will tell you this, it went in such a different direction than that we had originally planned because these women came with so much information. Oh, I knew it would be good.

Talk about daily devotionals. Seriously, each segment could be a daily devotional. So follow us on Facebook or Instagram, and you can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode at ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday, and share what you've learned. Share what your takeaway was, your eternal truth.

And it's not a bad idea to go there anyway because it's where we have links to all the references and a transcript of this whole discussion. So go check it out. The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a Deseret Book Shelf Plus original, brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac Hall, and our absolutely superb study group participants were Krista Isaacson and Michelle Wilson.

And you can find more information about my friends at ldsliving.com/sundayonmonday. Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited and mixed by Cole Wissinger, and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week, and please remember, you are God's favorite.