Just remember that the author of Ecclesiastes is considered clinically depressed
I like to remember ether 12:27 when reading scriptures is bumming me out
I remember thinking that Solomon really does sound depressed as I read through the chapters. So yeah it makes sense.
All his gloomy talk throughout the whole thing really started to spread into me and I started to feel gloomy too. Especially when he talked about the vanity, or meaningless of knowledge and labour and stuff like that. Because that's what I seek to do. That's what makes my life meaningful, is working to serve others and make and positive difference in the world. I love my hobbies. I love learning about new things and getting smarter and stuff. But he just says it's all for nothing. And I don't agree with that, but I can't help but feel his negativity creep into my mind and cloud it with those thoughts I don't want.
A verse that really went too far for me was verse 10 in chapter 9. I'll just quote it for you here:
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."
And yeah. The way I interpreted this was that there's none of those things in the afterlife. I might be wrong and someone please tell me if I'm wrong. I know that can't be exactly true, because I'm sure other verses in the bible say differently about heaven, but still it's depressing and makes me have anxiety, because it feels like he saying hurry up and do what you can because you'll die in the future, and I had trouble with thoughts like that too in the past.
Toward the end, the last chapter felt like a hurried way to get a positive point out of the book. The whole thing didn't feel like a fear (or love) for God and His commandments like the few last verses said. At least in the way we were reading it and the points we were focusing on as a family, it didn't.
I really need to go to the new testament and read something positive. Verses about His mercy and love and about loving and serving others really help me shift my focus back to what's good and positive. A lot of members like the book of mormon and read it ALL the time, but honestly I like the new testament better. Might be because of all the spiritual turmoil happening to me atm, but I find a lot of comfort in Jesus' words of mercy and love.
I'm glad you have verses that give you comfort too <3
I did. Heck, we read basically the whole book this morning. We got the first few chapters done yesterday though. The little short chapter at the end didn't make up for the the depressing pages I had just sat through. I'm trying to find good things in the book, and there were, but all the paragraphs surrounding those few verses that are meaningful to me is just stocked full of the word vanity and how this and that are meaningless.
What I tried to focus on in the end was the final chapter and the verse that talked about the love of God and His commandments, and when my dad asked me what I had learned I tried to take the chapters in the middle and form something positive by saying we should put our effort in and focus on things that are important, but when he asked my younger sister and she said all things are vanity (or in other words, meaningless) that was the last straw for me. I really didn't like that at all. Got pretty sad and upset but I pushed it down and controlled my emotions. I don't want her learning that and having that mindset, but I'm not her parent. I can't do anything.
Gah I need to go relax or something lol