I Believe in Keeping the Commandments

By Karen Lofgreen

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10).

What would it be like to play a game that didn’t have any rules? You wouldn’t know how to start the game, how to play it, or how to know when it was finished. Rules help us make right choices.

The most important rules we can follow are Heavenly Father’s commandments. In the third Article of Faith, Joseph Smith wrote about how important it is to obey God’s laws: “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”

Moses was a faithful prophet of the Lord. One day, after wandering in the desert for two months with the children of Israel, he went up into Mount Sinai and spoke with the Lord. God told Moses that he would bless the children of Israel if they would keep his commandments.

When Moses told the children of Israel what the Lord had said, they promised, or covenanted, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8).

Moses went again up into Mount Sinai to tell the Lord that the people had agreed with the covenant. The Lord then told Moses that he would come in a thick cloud, and the people would see his glory and hear his voice.

As the Lord had instructed, Moses told the people to prepare for this event, and on the third day, they heard a very loud trumpet. There were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud appeared upon Mount Sinai, which shook greatly. The people were afraid. They couldn’t see the Lord because he was in the cloud, but they heard him say, “I am the Lord thy God” (Ex. 20:2).

Then the Lord gave them important rules, known as the Ten Commandments. Later he wrote them on tables of stone so that the people could learn and remember them better.

All of our prophets have given us commandments from the Lord to help guide our lives. When President Howard W. Hunter became the President of the Church, he talked to us about some of these commandments. He asked us to live more like our Lord Jesus Christ, to treat each other with more kindness and forgiveness, and to live worthy of temple blessings (see Ensign, July 1994, pages 4–5).

Instructions

Some of the things President Hunter and our previous prophets have talked to us about are listed on the next page. In the box next to each statement, draw a picture about it. Use the pictures at the bottom of the page as a guide, or draw something else that is appropriate.

Illustrations by Denise Kirby

Sharing Time Ideas

President Howard W. Hunter, by Lavon Thornton, based on a photograph by Merrett Smith