God Wept

Day fifty-two

There is a little sadness in our house this morning because our friends are on the road, heading home again. It was so nice to see them and it brought back those strong bonds of friendship.  We are very blessed to have them in our lives.  I prayed with a thankful heart for having such wonderful people to bless our lives and asked that they will be watched over as they travel.  I prayed that they might know how much they have impacted my family and that they might receive all the blessings they deserve for sharing their love with us.

I am in Moses Chapter 7 today which has some of my favorite verses from the scriptures in it Moses 7:28-41.  The prophet Enoch is talking with God when something happens that shows him a side of God that he was not aware of, God wept.

"And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?"  (Moses 7:28)

That verse has always touched my heart.  I am not a person that is brought to tears easily, I am more of a keep it together person. I don't know that this is necessarily a good thing, but I feel like people look to me to be strong in times of adversity, so I try to keep my emotions under control.  When I do cry it is usually because there are very strong emotions of love attached to it. That is what I think of when I read that God wept, it is an expression of great love.    

When the scriptures talk about God weeping it is usually because the people he loves are not living their lives correctly.  Elder Marion D. Hanks explains:

"God, from whom all blessings come, asked of his children only that they should love each other and choose him, their Father."

"But as in our day, many neither sought the Lord nor had love for each other, and when God foresaw the suffering that would inevitably follow this self-willed, rebellious course of sin, he wept.  That, he told Enoch, was what he had to cry about"  (Conference Report, Apr. 1980, 40-41)

I have felt that way too.  It is difficult to watch those that you love suffer, especially because of their wrong choices. 

I can remember the first time I read and really understood what these verses were saying, I was a teenager.  It made me evaluate my life and say to myself: Do my actions make God weep?  Because of my great love for God I remember crying because I could not say that I had not made God weep with my actions.  I realized I had caused him pain.  These verses led me to repentance and shaped the way I would make decisions for the rest of my life.  For me these verses are as important as the verses about the Atonement.

As I studied this chapter again I reflected on how far I have come from my teenage years.  I still make mistakes, but I am getting better, and I still think about how my actions will make God feel.  In fact, my love for the Lord has greatly increased over the years.  And with that increased love has come this desire:  If God should weep for me, I want it to be out of joy and not sorrow.