3 Lessons from Mary & Elisabeth
Enjoy diving into parallels we can draw from Mary and Elisabeth's lives to our lives today on this week's episode. Subscribe and Share to remember God.
Parallels from Mary & Elisabeth in our Day
1. They both trusted the path God placed them on.
Luke 1: 6-7 Elisabeth and her husband remained righteous and committed to God despite their inability to have children.
Luke 1: 38 Mary submitted to God's will and was willing to change her entire life to be the mother of God's Son.
Question: What can I do to show God that I trust Him during my difficulties?
2. They loved and supported each other
Luke 1:39 Mary went with haste to help and support Elisabeth in her pregnancy.
Luke 1:42-45 Elisabeth supported Mary by living righteously enjoy to have the Holy Ghost teach her that Mary was the mother of the Son of God.
Luke 1:56 Mary stayed with and helped Elisabeth for the last three months of her pregnancy.
Question: What can I do this week to show love and support to others in their trials?
3. They were courageous
Luke 1: 60 Elisabeth courageously told the priest that her son's name was John.
Matthew 1:18-19 Mary courageously carried Jesus not knowing how that would turn out.
Question: What can I courageously say and do to stand up for the right?
Related Video Content:
Check out my video on the 5 Lessons from Mary, the Mother of Jesushttps://youtu.be/KAUCNiscG5M
Here is a fantastic Bible video on Mary:https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-10-027-mary-the-mother-of-jesus?lang=eng&_r=1
A video on the angel fortelling Christ's birth to Maryhttps://www.lds.org/media-library/video/nativity?lang=eng&_r=1
Here is a Bible Video of Mary and Elisabethhttps://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-10-003-mary-and-elisabeth-rejoice-together?lang=eng&_r=1&category=nativity
The naming of John the Baptisthttps://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-01-004-the-naming-of-john-the-baptist?lang=eng&_r=1&category=nativity
Transcript:
Tamara Anderson 0:00
What lessons can we apply from Bible heroines, Mary and Elizabeth. That's what we'll be discussing on Bible stories today.
Tamara Anderson 0:14
I am Tamara K Anderson, here today with this week's episode of Bible stories today, a weekly show where I talk about stories from the Bible and things we can learn from them. If you are new, consider subscribing. And in any point, feel free to check out the show notes which are right below here. I'll tell you a little bit more about the verses that I use. And I'll also share related content that goes with today's video.
Tamara Anderson 0:38
In today's video, we're going to talk about Mary and Elizabeth, and their amazing story. I'll also share three parallels we can learn from Mary and Elizabeth life and a question that goes along with each one of them. So let's get going.
Tamara Anderson 0:52
First of all, Mary and Elizabeth are some of the most iconic women in the New Testament. And it is so awesome to read and study their stories, Mary ended up becoming the mother of Jesus Christ. And Elizabeth was privileged to be the mother of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And they were interconnected. Not only were they cousins, and not only did they both have babies, that they shouldn't have been able to have Elizabeth first because she was too old. But Mary because she was a virgin. And so that is something they shared in common.
Tamara Anderson 1:29
But there are three things I think we can learn from Mary and Elizabeth. The first is this, they both trusted the path God placed them on. Let me share with you some verses that talk about how they trusted the path that God placed them on. We'll start off with Elizabeth and this is found in Luke chapter one, verses six and seven. It says, "And they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no children, because Elizabeth that was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years."
Tamara Anderson 2:03
Now, these verses are talking about Elizabeth and her husband, Zacharias. And we can see that even though their path had perhaps not been the path that they would have chosen, I'm sure they would have loved to have had children. They were still faithful. And so they trusted the path that God placed them on. And that's harder to do than it sounds. Sometimes when life doesn't turn out the way we want. Or when we have trials. It's easy to just give up on God, because you feel he hasn't helped her life turn out the way you wanted it to. But that's not always how life goes.
Tamara Anderson 2:48
Let's look at Mary next. Mary was an amazing woman. And her life probably did not go as she planned either. And one of the most amazing verses in chapter one of Luke is when Mary talks about how she feels about her life's plan changing. This is found in verse 38. And Mary is responding to the angel. Hereafter he tells her she's going to be the mother of Jesus Christ. And here's what she says. And Mary said, "Behold, the handmade of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word." I love that first. It is amazing. It shows such incredible faith. And sometimes it's all it's easier to have faith before we go through an experience. But Mary shows continuing faith as she goes through this whole process of being pregnant and conceiving without a husband.
Tamara Anderson 3:45
The question here that helps us apply it to our lives today is this. What can I do to show God that I trust him during my difficulties? And that's going to be different for each of us because each of us have different difficulties. So I want you to pause this video and even think about that, or write about it or journal it or talk about it with your friends or family members.
Tamara Anderson 4:10
The second principle we can learn from Mary and Elizabeth is they loved and supported each other in their trials. And I think this is an incredible example of two faithful women being kind and supportive to each other. If we read in Luke chapter one, verse 39, we show how it shows us how Mary was supportive to Elizabeth as soon as she heard that Elizabeth was a child and knowing that she was old and probably needed some help. It says in verse 39, and "Mary arose in those days and went into the whole country with haste into a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth." And so she went quickly and helped out. And I think that's an admirable trait for all of us to emulate that out when we hear someone's in trouble, we should act quickly or with haste, and, and go and help and serve. And Elizabeth was also an example of love and support to Mary. We read in verses 42 through 45 that Eizabeth was blessed to get a witness that Mary was indeed the mother of the Son of God, and that she was carrying the Savior. And that was a huge way to support Mary, by following the spirit will read that in verse 42, through 45. "And she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me, for lo as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed."
Tamara Anderson 5:58
And I love that I love that Elizabeth was living a righteous enough life, that she was able to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost that of Mary's defined mission. That is incredible, isn't it? And that's another way we can love and support each other, is by listening to promptings that we feel inside our hearts.
Tamara Anderson 6:22
Another example of how Mary loved and supported Elizabeth can be found in verse 56, of the same chapter, and it says, "and Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house." So Mary wasn't afraid to be in it for the long haul. She was willing to stay and help and nurture Elizabeth through the last few months for pregnancy, which must have been very difficult, seeing as she was a little advanced in her years. What an amazing example she is.
Tamara Anderson 6:50
So my question to you is, what can I do this week to show love and support to others in their trials? Think about that, and apply it in your life.
Tamara Anderson 7:01
The third thing we can learn from Mary and Elizabeth is this, they were courageous. And I love this. I love that there's examples of good and courageous women in the New Testament, we can see how Elizabeth was courageous by looking at verses 60 and 61. And this is after John was delivered. And, and she took him she and Zacharias took him to the priests to be circumcised, and given a name. And as they want to do this, the priest named the baby Zacharias and Elizabeth, even though it probably wasn't very common for a woman to stand up and say something since her husband couldn't speak. She stood up and said, "Not so, his name is John." And they looked and they're like, but nobody's named John. And then her husband writes that his name is John.
Tamara Anderson 7:55
And I love that you Elizabeth was courageous enough to step up and speak out and, and say what she knew she needed to say, even though it might not have been, perhaps a culturally appropriate thing to do. She did it anyway.
Tamara Anderson 8:12
And Mary was also courageous. We read in Matthew chapter one, a little bit about her circumstance, and what required her to be courageous even before the Savior was born. And this is a little bit from Joseph's perspective, but we can see Mary's courage in this. It says, "Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when his mother, Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her public example was minded to put her way privily. And then an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that the child Mary was carrying was indeed the Son of God."
Tamara Anderson 8:58
And what I love here is not only Joseph's example of courage, but Mary's example of courage, because in those days, she could have been killed for being pregnant without being married, that shows an amazing amount of strength and courage and trust in God, that that is so admirable, and I love her for it.
Tamara Anderson 9:23
And so the question here is, what can I courageously say and do to stand up for the right? And that's a great question to ponder.
Tamara Anderson 9:34
So those are the three lessons we learned from Mary and Elizabeth, the first lesson that they both trusted the path God placed them on. The second lesson that they loved and supported each other. And the third lesson that they were courageous, and I hope that we can emulate those in our own lives and I hope that the questions I've shared with you will help you think and ponder and be able to apply some of the same characteristics in your own life.
Tamara Anderson 10:04
If you have found this video helpful I invite you to share it with others that might be inspired by it. Remember God loves you!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai