#21 God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him

1 Samuel 2-3; 8
So you know that game that women play at baby showers where there is a tray of baby items that gets passed around, everyone gets a look, it gets covered again and they get 2 minutes to write down as many items as they can remember? That is the game we are playing; as a group they will try and come up with all 17 items before the allotted time while one person is writing them on the board. I won’t tell them how many and I won’t help at all because the deal I’m making is if they get them all I have to make and bring a treat next week, if they don’t I won’t.
After that game is over I will pick random people to pick out one item listed on the board and we will talk about what scripture that one item represents and how that person either honored or dishonored the Lord by their actions. I do have a couple items on the tray that represent ways we can honor the Lord that don’t go with a scripture but the lesson manual suggests we mention.

1-Tithing envelope the next 3 go together I just needed more items to put on my tray, but in essence we honor the Lord when we pay a full tithe and give to fast offerings, we won’t discuss in detail today of all the honor we receive back from the Lord because we pay our tithes and offerings, but if you’ve ever paid your tithing you should already know of the blessings and honor that have come from that.
2-Tithing slip
3-Change
4-Food item (can be anything) 1 Sam 2:15-16 a priest, Eli’s son, dishonors the Lord by taking food from off the altar before it is sacrificed (he’s robbing God) Do we honor food over the Word of Wisdom, or the Lord? Are we praying over our food, or just eating it? If we are choosing not to pray over it is that dishonoring the Lord?
5-Book of Miracles or paper that reads “IT”S A MIRACLE” 1 Sam 2:1 Hannah rejoices to the Lord in prayer. She honors Him, He honors her back because as she honors him her power (horn) and confidence (mouth enlarged) over her enemies!
6-Hand mirror 1 Sam 2:22-24 Son’s of Eli honor themselves by gratifying their own lusts and desires without thinking of long term consequences. What instances do we do this which can easily be corrected? We could talk about anything here, pornography, movies, music, worldly goods, Just fill your weakness in the blank.
7-Picture of my children 1 Sam. 2:29 Eli dishonors the Lord by honoring his sons over the Lord. He worried about alienating his sons by coming down hard on them and making them stop taking the sacrifices from off the altar. When we refuse to teach our children difficult doctrine because we don’t want to hurt their feelings, we are saying that our children’s feelings are more important than the word of God.
8-Ceramic hands clasped in prayer 1 Sam. 3:1 & 10 ‘The Lord was precious’ means that the word of the lord wasn’t shared or talked about very often, Samuel had no idea that the Lord was talking to him because even though he lived with Eli, Eli had stopped being as valiant of a servant as he once was and hadn’t taught him the basics of prayer, including who to pray to and how to recognize his voice. Are we teaching each other and our children these basic principles?
9-Movie we either honor or dishonor the Lord with every movie we watch or games we play. Elder Bednar gave a talk recorded in this month’s Ensign that cautions heavily about gaming and chatting on the internet. We need to think about our entertainment items very closely.
10-Baby doll 1 Sam. 2:20-21 She gave Samuel (Her only child at the time) to the Lord so that he would become the prophet, He honored her by blessing her with many more sons and daughters.
11-Clock Time-how we use our time reflects whether we are honoring or dishonoring the Lord. In what ways can we give our time to the Lord? Scripture reading, prayer, taking & doing our callings, visit/home teaching, speaking in sacrament, attending & helping at the ward activities,
12-Recorder (like the musical instrument) developing our talents and seeking opportunities to share them with others, is one way we honor the Lord. Hiding them, denying that we have them or being ungrateful for what we do have are ways we dishonor the Lord.
13-Ensign 1 Sam. 8:19 People refused the word of a prophet, we also dishonor the Lord and His words when we don’t take the time to read the latest counsel and apply it to our lives. Does anyone know the latest counsel of the 1st presidency?
14-Man of God or servant of Lord (either a picture of our Bishop) 1 Sam. 2:27& 31 Because of the dishonor Eli’s sons brought upon the church a man of God or another servant of the Lord came to tell him that The Lord has had enough and because Eli hadn’t stopped the action of His son’s (taking the sacrificial meat from the Lords altar and seducing women @ the temple) the Lord would displace Eli and his son’s out of the picture completely!
15-Crown 1 Sam. 8:5-7 &22 the people had enough of the priests that had presided unrighteously; they request a king. He tries to counsel them against it by listing all the things that would happen to them if they had a king (vs. 10-18) they don’t care and still desire a king, so they get one. We too dishonor the Lord by desiring what the world desires rather than what the Lord wants to honor us with, a better way and life, albeit different from the world.
16-Pres. Monson’s picture 1 Sam. 3:19-20 Samuel grew and none of the Lord’s words fell to the ground, meaning that whatever the Lord instructed He did and revealed His words to the people. Where there once was no prophet, Samuel became the newest prophet of the Lord. We honor the Lord by honoring his prophets!
17-Coat (a Barbie coat so it will fit on the tray) 1 Sam. 2:19 every year Hannah and her husband came to the temple to offer sacrifice and she visited with her son and provided him with some things. This time it talks about a coat she had given him. What I get out of this is that she is bringing love and basic necessities to the prophet of the Lord, how can we follow this example of giving honor? We can pray for the brethren, as well as give the basic necessities to the church so that they may be used to help those who have none.

I want to end with one last scripture 1 Sam. 2:30 the Lord makes it very clear those who honor Him, He will honor, those who despise Him or bring dishonor to Him, He esteems them lightly, He doesn’t say He will stop loving them, but following the footnotes to Malachi 2:9 says He will make them contemptible to others, meaning they will have lost all respect for them, forever. I have challenged myself to pick one way to honor the Lord that I studied out here today and am not currently doing and incorporate it into my daily routine starting this week. The Lord challenges us to do all we can to honor him and I pray that we will, in the name of Jesus Christ amen.