Sometime after the Tower of Babel debacle, a baby boy was born in the land of Ur.  Unlike all the other babies born in Ur at this time, this one would change the world.  This baby boy was the future prophet, Abraham. Abraham grew up in a home that left much to be desired; in fact his dad tried to sacrifice him to pagan gods– yikes!  Abraham made the wise choice to move away from home.  Abraham describes the reason for this decision not as an effort to run away from anything, but as an effort to run TO God.  In Abraham 1:2 he said, “. . . finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers . . ." Don’t you love that?  Abraham was anxious to enjoy three great blessings of following Jesus: happiness, peace, and rest.  Often I think we’re guilty of looking at the gospel as a never-ending “to do” list: I have to read my scriptures, I have to pray, I have to go to church, I have to do service.  But Abraham saw far beyond all of those “have-tos” and “shoulds” and instead focused on the blessings the gospel brings: peace, happiness, rest.  So today is a great day to consider this question:  What would my life be WITHOUT the gospel?  My guess is that as we ponder on this, we’ll realize that the gospel has brought countless blessing that make all the “have-tos” and should dos” more than worth it!   Music courtesy of bensound.com