obey your law [Scripture Mastery Times: Exodus 20:3-17]

A few weeks ago I was home for FHE. We were discussing the chapter in Preach My Gospel about commandments. Guys, there are a lot of commandments we need to keep.

The Ten Commandments were their own section (even though there are ten of them). The manual says:

"The Ten Commandments are still valid today. They teach us how to worship and show reverence to God. They also teach us how to treat one another."

It's no surprise that these verses in Exodus are still part of required scripture mastery. These commandments sort of form the basis of society and civilization.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of thefathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lordblessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 ¶Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

 I've been thinking about how following God's commands means we will be blessed. (And how not following them means we will be...not blessed. You follow?) In the Book of Mormon all over the place we read that "If ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land." I feel like that is a fair trade-off.

I also read something this morning about how sometimes our focus on keeping the commandments is so we can get to heaven (or so that we avoid going to hell), which, while that is part of it, I think that the best and most important reason to keep the commandments is because God asks us to, and we love Him. We have faith that He knows what is best for us, He wants us to grow and learn and treat others right, so He gave us commandments to help us along the way. Sometimes it's hard to remember that in the face of a long list of do's and don'ts, but ... we should try to remember.