Answer to a Prayer

Today I was reading in Moroni 7 and received an answer to a very important prayer I've had lately.

Lately, I've been thinking about how to homeschool. I decided to homeschool in January, but since my oldest is only 4 and a half, I haven't really worried about how to do it. We've just been getting into a regular schedule... But lately, I've been learning about a specific method, and I've been wondering whether or not it's the best idea for our family. I was really struggling with this. I prayed a lot; I fasted.

Then today, I read Moroni 7:16: "For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God."

It was the answer I've been waiting for! I thought about this specific method, and realized that, YES!, it "inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ..."!! I was so relieved to get such a straightforward answer! (Usually, my answers are a little more hazy.) I looked through the principles of this method of homeschooling and realized that everything in it would coincide perfectly with the Gospel and with what I found to be important.

I'm so grateful that we have the scriptures! Today was definitely an example of that quote: "If you want to talk to God, pray. If you want God to talk to you, read the scriptures."

The Desires of MY Heart

May I begin with a plea? I would love to see more posts! What did you learn while studying the scriptures this week? Perhaps your two-year-old reinforced a gospel principle that we all could benefit from? Did you learn something as you prepared a lesson for Sunday? What's been on your mind lately that has caused you to ponder some aspect of the gospel? Share, share. :)

The desires of my heart...the desires of my heart...the desires of my heart. I have thought about these words repeatedly. Today, I plugged them into a scripture search. There are a lot of scriptures that include the words desire and heart. Not all of the desires mentioned are righteous ones.

For example, Mosiah 11:2 "For behold, he did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart..."

Then you have those that have a change in desires, such as, Alma 19:33, "that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil."

There are those that have seemingly unusual desires as is found in D&C 62:7

Certainly there are many throughout the scriptures that have righteous desires. What makes it so? I found a couple of scriptures that to me indicate how we can make sure we are having righteous desires. Not surprisingly, it happens when we are focused on the Lord.

Psalms 37:4 says, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." It looks to me like this scripture is telling me that when I am delighting in the Lord, He will give me the desires that my heart should have. Almost like the concept of praying to know what to pray for. It seems kind of a silly statement at first, but if we have the Lord first and foremost in our hearts, He will guide us to what our desires should be. And, of course, the scripture seems to also indicate that we will be able to have what it is that we desire. If we had no hope of obtaining our desire, the desire would be fruitless and discouraging. See Proverbs 13:12

Then, in D&C 6:20, we read, "Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." That is how we keep having righteous desires. It becomes not so much the desires of MY heart, as it is the deep desires of my heart through following the Lord. Partnering our own desires with His yields the true desires we have within us.

I am Invincible!...(with Divine Help)

Everyone is familiar with at least one verse in Philippians 4--"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." This is, of course, an awesome verse. I was fascinated a few days ago when I read again the words preceding this verse.

Paul was aquainted with many different facets of life. He tells the Phillipians in verse 11, "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." From this, I gather that he was not in a state of "want" at the time of writing, but that he had been in that state before. I have often read that scripture and found myself dwelling on the fact that one must be content with whatever little amounts one has. But truly, we are to be content whether we are abounding in the world's goods or we are basking in humble circumstances. (Or anywhere in between for that matter.) Is it not true that it is entirely possible to be extremely wealthy and not be content? The opposite is also true. Heeding Paul's advice to be content no matter what state we are in is imperative to our happiness.

In verse 12, Paul goes on to list various circumstances in which we must be content. It is an intriguing, thought provoking list. It doesn't just speak of rich versus poor. After listing many possible scenarios, Paul then proclaims the well known verse that makes each one of us invincible...but only because of Christ.

I was so fascinated with those verses I suppose because I realized that when Paul says, "I can do all things" he is really referring to ALL things! He means getting through very tough situations. He means having the Lord with us during extremely exhilarating times. He means putting Christ into mundane things. He means ALL things.

If we put Christ into all aspects of our lives, how blessed we are as He strengthens us in everyday things and in out of the ordinary things. We really can do all things through Christ and be strengthened because of it.

Teach Ye Diligently

I have always loved a certain section of D & C 88 . I love it because I homeschool my children. I love it because it tells how we can edify others by learning together. I love the idea that teaching each other helps all involved to be prepared. I love how things are brought around in a full circle of learning in the middle of this section.

I think part of D & C 88 is made manifest through the goals of this blog. In D & C 88:74 the Lord gives a commandment to "assemble yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and sanctify yourselves;" And here we are--virtually assembled in an organized fashion trying to sanctify ourselves.

Then, in verse 77 "I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom." And what shall we teach? Verses 79-86 give a good outline.

Verse 78 lets us know that by doing this we can be uplifted by the grace of God in a perfect way. "Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in...(many things)...that are expedient for you to understand;" It is awesome to hear the testimonies of others, to know the insights that someone else has gleaned in their scripture studies. It promotes faith. It strengthens my testimony. It gives me reasons to go look up some things in the scriptures that others have talked about and learn more or confirm a truth for myself.

To me, verses 87 - 116 give the reason why we should teach diligently--the Second Coming.

Verse 117 and 118 sum things up, "Therefore, verily I say unto you, my friends, call your assembly, as I have commanded you." Then He tells us again in verse 118 to "teach one another" and includes a bit of what to teach.

Verse 119 and 120 takes us back to the beginning of the circle where we are reminded to "Organize yourselves;" and have all our incomings and outgoings be in the name of the Lord. What a great way to look at having the Spirit of the Lord always with you. And we can help each other along the way, especially in our struggles. After all, isn't that part of the Lord's plan--to have us "succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” (D&C 81:5)

Eternal Family

One belief that Latter-day Saints hold dear is that of Eternal Families. We believe that through the power of the Holy Priesthood, families can be sealed for Time and All Eternity. Our families can be together forever. This is a wonderful blessing from our Heavenly Father.

At the October 1996 General Conference, Elder Robert D. Hales gave a talk about Eternal Families. The talk is filled with scripture regarding the eternal nature of families and God's plan for his children. The line that struck me most, however, was not scripture. It was a comment made by Elder Hales made after quoting Doctrine & Covenants 132:19. He said:

"As taught in this scripture, an eternal bond doesn't just happen as a result of sealing covenants we make in the temple. How we conduct ourselves in this life will determine what we will be in all the eternities to come. To receive the blessings of the sealing that our Heavenly Father has given to us, we have to keep the commandments and conduct ourselves in such a way that our families will want to live with us in the eternities."

This was such a powerful statement to me. My husband and I married in the LDS Arizona Temple. We are sealed and our children our sealed to us. But as Elder Hale pointed out, being sealed is not the only thing that we must do. We must 1) Keep the commandments and 2) Conduct ourselves in such a way that our family will WANT to live with us in the eternities! I knew the "keep the commandment" part, but had not thought about whether my family would want to be with me forever. Isn't that an amazing concept!

Are we treating our spouse in a way that they will want to be with us forever? What about our children? Do we show them love and respect? Do we treat them like the children of God that they are? Or do we abuse the role of parent? Will those darling children want to be with you for all eternity? Or would they rather be with their friend's family?

I love my family and I want to be with them through the eternities. I'm pretty sure that they want to be with me too. But even so, I am going to strive even harder to conduct myself in such a way that my family will want to be with me forever. To earn their love and respect. And to teach them the commandments, so that we can all make it back to our Father in Heaven together!

Recent Discoveries in the Book of Mormon

Reading The Book of Mormon this time around has brought new understanding to some of the things I've been reading. Here is a recent discovery I made while reading in Alma:

Alma & Amulek:

Reading in Alma 15, I saw Alma and Amulek's friendship differently than ever before. Until then, I just saw them as being brothers in the Gospel - teaching together, going through the same tribulations...

But then last night I came to Alma 15:16, which reads, "And it came to pass that Alma and Amulek, Amulek having forsaken all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being rejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred."

Amulek's tribulations went beyond the huge stuff from the previous chapter. He had to leave everything behind, much like Lehi and his family. But he also left behind friends and his closest family members, knowing they didn't want anything to do with him.

It would be a sad story if it ended there, but then we get to verse 18: "Now as I said, Alma having seen all these things, therefore he took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla, and took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord."

What a true friend!!! This is the kind of friend I want to be! He saw that Amulek was struggling, so he took him to his own house and took care of him. But even more important than that, he "strengthened him in the Lord." Kind of like that saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Alma could have made him feel better about this single tribulation, but instead he taught him how to deal with ALL the tribulations he would ever have to go through. He taught his friend to look to God in times of hardship. What an amazing friend!!

Not "Just" Testimonies

I just read the talk Elder Ballard gave at BYU-Hawaii last December, which is also in the July Ensign. As I was thinking about this blog as I read it, I realized that I'd like this blog to be more than "just" straight-forward testimonies. I'd like it to be filled with all things Gospel-related!

So to those who contribute to this blog, I invite you to use this blog as a journal of sorts for all the interesting and uplifting things you discover while studying and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Personally, I'm going to try to start studying specific topics from the Church website, and give small summaries on this blog. I would love for each of you to feel comfortable sharing the things you find that touch your lives for good!! I know that if it can touch your life, it will most likely touch many other lives, as well!

Of Joseph Smith

I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God! I know he was chosen to bring the fulness of the gospel back to the world. I know he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, that he spoke with them face to face! I know that he translated The Book of Mormon, through divine inspiration. I know The Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith gave his life 164 years ago because of his devotion to God and because he knew and would never deny that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God.

How do you......

Get yourself out of a spiritual funk? I have been having the hardest times with being active and going to church since we moved out of AZ. I still have a testimony, live the right way and believe in the gospel. But I just can't make it to church on a regular basis. I want to be active again, receive a calling and be a part of a ward again. I am just having a hard time with the first steps. I know I should just stop whining, get over it and go already. But, sometimes I just don't know what to do...

Painful Faith

I am so excited about this blog... I have to tell all of you that have already posted, THANK YOU! You are all amazing and have such great faith and strong testimonies, and have have strengthened mine by reading. Michael and I have not been very good about reading our scriptures together. We get really good, and then fall out of the habit. Why is it so easy to fall out of it, but to hard to get back in?

Well, as a little background, Michael deals with chronic sacroiliac joint pain, which no doctors have been able to get rid of. He has been through so many painful procedures in the HOPE that something will lessen or get rid of his pain. Having constant pain and no relief really tries us, mostly him obviously. But I feel so incredibly helpless! On top of this back pain, he also was diagnosed with Ciliac disease about 2.5 years ago... so he cannot have any wheat, oats, rye or barley, which is in EVERYTHING it seems. (I hope I'm not sounding like I need sympothy...sorry).

Last night, with a new goal of reading our scriptures together, we decided to just open up the scriptures and start reading from whenever. Matt 9, what an awesome chapter. Now, I've heard growing up people saying how when they've had a problem they've just opened their scriptures and found an answer... I've tried this in the past, but not with any real luck. We weren't looking for any answers or anything out of the ordinary, just to start doing what we know we are supposed to be doing to strengthen our faith and grow closer to Heavenly Father, I mean, who doesn't want more blessings :) Boy did I get a heartful! The chapter is about Jesus healing people from their illnesses, casting out devils, and preaching the gospel of course. We read about the woman who had a disease with an issue of blood for 12 years came to see Jesus... and then we read "If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said 'Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made me whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.'" I really didn't hear the rest of the chapter because I was just so touched by the spirit that I was crying. I believe in miracles, and I know that Michael could be healed this second, but for whatever reason, He has not. I know that one day he will be whole. Our bodies will be perfect after the resurrection; we just have to keep an Eternal perspective! I am so thankful for faith, and for my Saviour who truly lifts our burdens and makes them easier to bare. All He asks for is simple faith!