I Too Must Give

 

A while ago there was a news article picture showing a mother struggling to carry a baby, a toddler, and a bag through bombed out streets trying to get to safety from war. When I think of that picture it helps me realign my priorities and focus on what really matters. The big things in my life feel smaller.

Another image I saw was of families who live mere feet from train tracks in pieced together huts, and they live there their whole lives. Their kids pick through trash piles to try to find something to sell to the recycling center so they'll have money to buy food that day. 

I don't think 'I'm so blessed' because I don't think I've done anything more than them to be born where I was- I think 'I am grateful' to live where I do, and that I need to do something to help them.

Grace Noll Crowell wrote the words my heart feels:

Because I have been given much,
I too must give;
Because of thy great bounty Lord,
Each day I live;
I shall divide my gifts from thee
With every brother that I see
Who has the need of help from me.

Because I have been sheltered,
Fed by thy good care;
I cannot see another’s lack and I not share;
My glowing fire, my loaf of bread,
my roof's safe shelter overhead
That he too may be comforted.

Because I have been blessed
By thy great love dear Lord;
I’ll share thy love again
According to thy word;
I shall give love to those in need,
I’ll show that love by word and deed;
Thus shall my thanks be thanks in deed.

Sword of Spirit and Shield of Faith

 I wanted to share these thoughts by Rachelle Sorensen:

Since we are studying Ephesians and the armor of God, I wanted to share something I learned about the sword of the spirit. I still think about it occasionally years later. A guy said he learned some fencing in college. He mentioned that it takes years and years of study and practice to become good with a sword.

The Spirit is like that. If we want to be able to “wield it,” we need to become masters and really learn all of the techniques of how to use it.

A sword can be used for defense and offense. To me this means the spirit can warn us of ways to protect ourselves or it can tell us to take action and move forward in some way.

Swords can be used to protect others. We can fight Satan while defending our families and friends and neighbors and the spirit will show us how (I also realized we can use our shield of faith to shield our kids while they are making their own shields). All the other armor only protects the person wearing it.

Anyway, the imagery is SO much more powerful to me now! I want to become a master swordswoman now as I valiantly and expertly wield my sword of the spirit.

What are some ways the Spirit has guided you as you have raised your family?

Knowing in Part and Darkly

 

1 Corinthians 13:9-11 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

God has a grand eternal plan for all of us and we muck through it the best we can as mortals. We 'know in part' God's plan and 'we see (God's plan) through a glass, darkly' but we cannot truly comprehend the enormity of God's work of encouraging all our spiritual sisters and brothers into glorious eternal life.

In May 1842, Joseph Smith told Brigham Young, “This is not arranged right, but we have done the best we could under the circumstances in which we are placed, and I wish you to take this matter in hand and organize and systematize....”

God is working with fallible people which must be somewhat frustrating. Most of us are striving to do 'the best we (can) under the circumstances in which we are placed' but we all mess up. Sometimes our mistakes are made public while most are more private mistakes. When in doubt turn to love- the pure love of our Heavenly Parents and our Savior, charity. The love that knows all and loves all. Turn to charity for peace and direction and you will be guided and comforted.

Three Important Messages

In church recently we talked about three important things we believe that not everyone knows.

First- You are a child of God. You have Heavenly parents- a mother and a father of your soul. If you've been to a funeral with an open casket before, you probably noticed that the body is just a body. There's no spark of life in the body anymore, just a shell. You have a soul and a body. Earthly parents provided you a body. Heavenly parents provided you a soul.

Second- Jesus Christ is your Savior and because of Him we can have eternal life. Eternal life meaning life with God verses only everlasting life meaning living forever. Jesus suffered through the agony of the atonement and crucifixion and became brilliantly resurrected so that our souls and our bodies will be perfected together forever in God's presence if we choose.

Third- We have living prophets that receive modern revelation from God, and we can also receive personal revelation from God. The line to heaven is open and we can pray and God will answer. God doesn't always answer in the way or timing we want, but God is aware and trying to communicate with us personally. Prophets are here on Earth right now and receiving guidance and direction for our times.

You can ponder over these three messages and receive your own testimony they are true.

Choose Him Again

I used to know all my state capitals extremely well. You could ask me one and I could pop out the answer. Because I haven't practiced the skill in my adult years, I have forgotten about a third and have to think hard about another third of them.

Russell Nelson said, "With frightening speed, a testimony that is not nourished daily 'by the good word of God' can crumble. Thus, the antidote to Satan’s scheme is clear: we need daily experiences worshipping the Lord and studying His gospel. I plead with you to let God prevail in your life. Give Him a fair share of your time. As you do, notice what happens to your positive spiritual momentum."

Our testimonies are like a fire. If we feed a fire it burns bright and gives warmth to those around. But a fire can turn into a windblown pile of ashes if we stop feeding it. We can get to a point where we wonder why we would even bother trying to light a fire again- the cold and the dark feel familiar and safe while the light and heat burn. 

Every day we need to be making choices that strengthen our belief in God and Jesus, in the atonement and repentance, in pure love and kindness towards ourselves and others. Every day we need to Choose Him Again.

Shawna Edwards- Choose Him Again

Before we came here we all lived in heaven
With Heavenly Father and Jesus His son
It's where They taught us to choose good from evil
To be prepared for the battle to come

For Satan tried to destroy us forever
To make us turn from the things we were taught
But nothing can keep us from choosing Jesus
For we loved the plan of God

And we will choose Him again
For He's our Savior and friend
He'll help and guide us each day
And He will show us the way
To be the best us we possibly can
Oh we will choose Him
We will choose Him again

And now we're on Earth to prove we'll be faithful
Keep His commandments and follow His ways
For we're still fighting for good over evil
Not with a sword but with courage and faith

And we will rise up and stand with our Savior
Forever true to the things we've been taught
And nothing can keep us from choosing Jesus
For we love the plan of God

And we will choose Him again
For He's our Savior and friend
He'll help and guide us each day
And He will show us the way
To be the best us we possibly can
Oh we will choose Him
We will choose Him again

Like Him in Sorrow

We strive to follow Jesus Christ and be like Him as He is like God. One thing we learn about Jesus is in Isaiah 53: 3-8

 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Jesus was "...a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.." In our quest to be like Him, we will at times be people of sorrows and acquainted with grief, perhaps for much of our lives. Sorrow and grief, being despised and rejected, wounded and bruised, oppressed and afflicted, stricken. These same things He went through helped Him to have the compassion and charitable love needed to complete the atonement and death on the cross. His pain made Him more compassionate, more understanding, more purely loving. 

To be like Him we must pass through our own intense trials, carry our own crosses, bear our own burdens so that we may know like Him how to succor others. I am not grateful for the trials I have had in my life but I do make them worth something by taking the good out of them- the help and love and lessons learned. I can then, like Jesus, help those around me in a holier way.

 And "...with his stripes we are healed." He does not leave us wounded and broken. His atonement covers every pain, sickness, heartbreak, sin, sadness, and hurt for everyone. He extends us this great mercy especially as we extend our compassion to others to help them feel His love.

When we go through something hard it is nice to talk to someone who has gone through the same trial. Jesus felt everything in His life and the atonement so He is the perfect one to turn to in trials. We need to learn how to Hear Him (Jesus, God, Holy Ghost) to get the comfort from them- often through other people He sends, and in turn to help others- serving for Jesus in His name.

Mother's Day

 Mother's Day is a hard day for so many women every year. I just read this talk again- Infuriating Unfairness by Dale Renlund- and it can apply to all the feelings associated with Mother's Day.

Our first was a stillborn and I had HELLP Syndrome, and then I had two rough pregnancies with pre-eclampsia, and then our youngest got cancer. This life is not what I had always dreamed and hoped, I didn't get the four living kids I always thought I'd have. But we make the best of it and find gratitude in our journey.

I am not grateful for my trials but I'm not going to let all that pain go to waste and not make something good out of it. In the darkest times is when the little light in our lives shine brightest. And God and Jesus have and will more than make up for any pain and unfairness in this life. Though we cannot comprehend it now, we must have faith that it will be. 

Take care of your heart on Mother's Day ❤💔❤

Do Something

 Matthew West sings a song called Do Something that comes to my mind periodically:

"I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how'd we ever get so far down
How's it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to heaven

I thought, God, why don't You do something?
Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me

So, I shot my fist at heaven
Said, God, why don't You do something?
He said, I did, I created you
Now listen

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now
It's time for us to do something

If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
Oh, it's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something

I'm so tired of talking
About how we are God's hands and feet
But it's easier to say than to be
Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves
It's alright, somebody else will do something

Well, I don't know about you
But I'm sick and tired of life with no desire
I don't want a flame, I want a fire
I wanna be the one who stands up and says
I'm gonna do something

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now
It's time for us to do something
Yes, it is, c'mon

If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something

We are the salt of the earth
We are a city on a hill
We're never gonna change the world
By standing still
No we won't stand still
No we won't stand still
No we won't stand still

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now
It's time for us to do something

If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something"

It's easy to complain about how the world has degraded and how much is wrong with the world. It's scarier to do something. Why? Because you worry it won't make a difference, because you worry you might do the wrong thing, because it requires effort, because it can be different than what you are used to doing. But there's a good chance you are already making a difference for good in this world. 

 

 

 

"When people travel to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small.

Few people think that they can radically change the future by doing something small in the present."

 

You make a difference in the world every day, and it's your choice if your impact is good or bad. Every act of kindness is a light to the world including smiles at neighbors and strangers, packing a sweet note with your child's lunch, and refraining from saying unkind and unhelpful words.

"Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. 

 

 

Small acts of kindness and love."

JRR Tolkien's word via Gandalf relay the same message. You can make the world a better place every day but small and simple means. There are many problems in the world that need solving and you don't need to be the one to solve them all. If you make yourself and the area around you bright with love and goodness, that light will spread like a righteous fire and influence the world for good. 

You will never realize the massive impact you've had on others until you get to heaven and see the rippling effects of your small good deeds. Have faith you can make a difference in your sphere in life and change the world one small act of love and charity at a time.

Believe, Wish, Love

Faith, Hope, and Charity are mentioned together frequently. What do they mean though? Believe, Wish, Love.

Faith is belief. Belief in a god, belief in an afterlife, belief in a testimony, belief in truth. Not knowing something but believing in it like you do know it.

Hope is a wish. A wish that there is someone out there watching out for us, a wish for a better life, a wish that we will live with our families forever after we die.

Charity is love. It's the pure love of God- our Heavenly Parents and of Jesus Christ- our older spiritual brother. It's their love that we feel in our soul. It's their love that we pass on to others. It's the most important and lasts forever. God will never stop loving us.

It seems like hope should come before faith. We hope for something, wish for it. Then we learn to believe in it, to have faith. Sometimes it's easier to have hope than faith, to think, 'I really wish it was true, but I don't know if I can take the chance of believing it.'

Fear and doubt like to creep in, trying to cancel out faith and belief. They bring thoughts of questioning, of what if, of why me, why this, why not this, why now, why not now?

 Dieter Uchtdorf said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your beliefs." Why are you having those doubts? Is there a person or activity in your life that's having a negative influence on you? What feels right and true to you? Your beliefs or your doubts?

Start with hope- wish for the truth with all your heart, wish that you could find peace in your soul. Have faith- believe that the truth is out there and that you will find it, believe it like you know it. Lastly charity- open yourself to love, the love of a supreme being who wants the best for you, the love of family and friends, the love of yourself.

"... charity never faileth." Love never fails. Even if you can't believe in an idea, a person, or a religion, believe in love, pure love. Loving others and being loved is the basis for a good relationship. Love is truth and will lead to more truth.

Faith, hope, charity- believe, wish, love.

Time to Ruminate

A few years ago my husband brought up the subject of moving to another state which I quickly rejected as he knew I would. He then said it wasn't for sure and it wouldn't be for a while if it happened at all, but he knew that if it was to happen, I would need ample time to wrap my head around the idea and do research like I always do. We have not moved, but my mind is more open, and I now know a lot more about places beyond my home state.

God works the same way with us, planting an idea in our head. Sometimes that idea is planted years before God expects us to progress beyond ruminating and accepting to action. 

If you've been thinking about something for a while and feeling guilty about not acting upon it- stop. Take some time to decide if you really want to do it, then take small steps to make it happen. God's timeline and help don't have to be understood to be followed. Loving nudges from heaven will get us doing what we need to do when we need to do it.

Prone To Wander

O to grace how great the debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, as a fetter,
Bind my wand'ring soul to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for they courts above.

These words from "Come, Thou Fount" by Robert Robinson show the human side in all of us. The side that is prone to wander and leave a God that we love. Some would say that if you really loved God, you wouldn't leave Him. But here in this beloved song, the truth is shown.

We are humans, prone to error and wandering, in debt daily to a gracious God that we love. Even the seemingly stalwart surely have private moments of doubt and dismay. Everyone questions what they believe in at some point. It's not wrong.

To question what you believe in is not wrong. To talk these over with others in a sensitive manner is not wrong.

We are encouraged to ponder the words we receive through the scriptures, church leaders, talks, and personal prayers. If you don't know the ins and outs of what you believe, can you strongly believe it? If you don't test the boundaries of your knowledge, how will you know exactly how much you know?

God knew we would wander and leave Him- every single person. But in His infinite wisdom, He provided a plan called the atonement. Every wrong you do can be made right. Every pain can be tolerated and soothed. Every weakness can be understood. Every person gets this chance every day, every hour to make things right and peaceful again in their lives.

It takes constraint, fettering, binding, and sealing yourself to God in an effort to be righteous. But this binding and sealing is to a God we love, a God who provides a way to make up for our pains and sins, a God who loves us more than we can love Him. Who better to give your broken heart to?

Come, thou fount of ev'ry blessing;
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount; I'm fixed upon it;
Mount of thy redeeming love.