Jesus, our Savior and a discussion of Fun...

I was talking to my kids the other day about fun.  We were discussing whether we came to earth to have fun or to have joy.  The scripture that came to mind was the one that says, "men are that they might have joy (not fun.)"  Having fun is great, but we are here for bigger reasons.  We were placed here on earth to make a difference.  We each have a mission to perform on earth.  I considered Jesus' life here on the earth.  Did he have a fun life or a life of joy?

I thought how Christ knew about all of the eras of time and could have easily come today so that he could have fun.  Why would he choose to come in the meridian of time when he would have to work hard to have enough to eat to survive?  There were no soft beds or warm houses; no comfortable cars with air conditioning; no free time for leisure or fun.  There were no boogie boards, no snow skis, no jet skis, and no parasails.  If Christ were thinking of himself only, He might have chosen to come now and have a great time playing and having fun.  But thankfully He wasn't thinking of Himself, He was thinking of us.  He said with the Father, "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  He knew why He would come to the earth and it was to help us.  Sure, He found time for fun when possible.  But the big things happened.  He lived a perfect life with no sin, then He taught everyone His gospel during His ministry, He atoned for our sins, then He conquered death with His resurrection.  He accomplished His purposes in the meridian of time because that time and people would be the only time and people that would crucify their God.  It had to be then and there.   It's not that we can't have fun, but we can't be distracted from our missions by it.  We let fun fill the time while we are doing what we came here to do. I think of Joseph Smith and his trials, but he still had time for fun. 

I'm glad that Mary, Joseph and Jesus all chose to play their parts in the unfolding of the greatest story in all of history.  Any one of them could have said they didn't want any part of this story.  Mary was maligned as a sinner.  Joseph carried that stigma with him when he married Mary and took care of Jesus as his child.  And Jesus suffered so much for us.  They all performed their missions on the earth in spite of the personal cost and made our salvation possible.  It is something that should make us very happy!

 

There was a world of people depending on Jesus to do what He agreed to do.  There are people who depend on us to do what we came here to do.  So we can look for ways to make a difference in this world and do our best with our trials.