God's Love For Us

"....He chastened them; yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them." (Helaman 15:3)

I know, and I think that most people know of, God's love for us despite our follies and short-comings. But do we really believe this?  Often, we are the most hard on ourselves I think.  I met a cab driver recently back east.  As we talked, it came up that I am LDS (Mormon).  He began to tell me how he was baptized and was active in the church for awhile, but then his life started to fall apart and he no longer goes to church.  He said, "I know that what the church teaches is true, but I'm disappointed in decisions I've made.  I need to get that worked out before I come back."  He was missing the whole point.  The church is not for the perfect but rather those trying to be better.  "We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19).  Heavenly Father and Christ's love for us is eternal and always forth-coming.

Although I don't always claim to have been exactly on the straight path,  I've always been able to see through dark mists that God indeed loved me despite it all, and therefore that gave me strength to make the necessary changes to come back onto the right path.   His love is always there for the sinner AND for the repentent.  He cannot tolerate the sin, but he loves us in-spite of the sin.  If you feel like God does not love you, simply pray sincerely and ask...you WILL feel it because He does and I've felt and continue to feel it.

To Act for Ourselves...

"For Behold, Ye Are Free, ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you." (Helman 14:30-31)

I find free agency an interesting thing.  Often I find myself contemplating what I want now for what I want in the future and the future is a hard thing to imagine when it comes to the next life.  It's obvious that major wrong decisions hamper our spiritual well-being and probably the outcome in the next life (without repentance), but what about the smaller things?  I feel like sometimes I'm always doing a balancing act.  BUT, I soon realize that is because my life is not inline with where it needs to be.   The balancing act comes from falling to far to the left.  Imagine a straight line.  Our job is to stay on that path and the Lord helps us stay on that path through the scriptures, prayer and the Spirit.  When we cross the path more than staying on it, it is because we let temptations, however small, pull us one direction or the other rather than staying on the path.  That being said, it is the divine plan of the Savior to let us make those decisions and use repentance to correct when we're off.  I'm grateful for the foresight and love of our Heavenly Father to give us that chance and know it is part of the Plan of Salvation.

Why We Celebrate...

Forgivness

"How wonderful that God should endow us with this sensitive yet strong guide we call a conscience!  Someone has aptly remarked that 'conscience is a celestial spark which God has put into every man for the purpose of saving his soul.' Certainly it is the instrument which awakens the should to consciousness of sin, spurs a person to make up his mind and adjust, to convict himself of the transgression without soft-pedaling or minimizing the error, to be willing to face facts, meet the issue and pay necessary penalties---and until the person is in this frame of mind he has not begun to repent.  To be sorry is an approach, to abandon the act of error is a beginning, but until one's conscience has been sufficiently stirred to cause him to move in the matter, so long as there are excuses and rationalizations, one has hardly begun his approach to forgiveness.  This is what Alma meant in telling his son Corianton that 'none but the truly penitent are saved' (Alma 42:24).

(Spencer W. Kimball, Miracle of Forgiveness, pg. 152)

The Resurrection & Eternal Families

The resurrection is a gift from God that requires nothing from us.  We will all be resurrected despite our behavior, good or bad, in this life.  What happens after is up to us.  I am so grateful for that hope that the resurrection provides.  I know that it doesn't simply end with this life.  The relationships we build in this life continue onto the next.  Knowing that I can be with my wife and children forever gives me motivation to be the best I can be and treat them with the perspective that this relationship is eternal.  The ability to be sealed forever as a family unit that cannot be broken by even the bands of death is done in a temple by someone who has the authority to do that.  Living my life so I am able to attend the temple and honor those promises I made is paramount.

By Small and Simple Things

"And the Lord God doth work by ^ameans to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very ^bsmall means the Lord doth ^cconfound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." - Alma 37:7


Often, there are great events in life that shape and change our lives....death, birth, marriage, new job or loss thereof, sickness, world events, etc.  But when you really stop to think about it, it is the sum of the small things in our lives that shape us.  A ship reaches its destination through large rudder directional changes, but the majority of the trip is done through small and constant changes by a very small rudder on a very large ship.  


I often see the the effects on my life, both personal and professional, when I don't read the scriptures or pray on a regular basis.    By doing those small things as well as holding family home evenings, loving one another, repenting when falling short, being thoughtful and kind to my spouse on a constant basis, serving faithfully in my calling, are things that keep me on course.  Those type of things are the small things that make up the man and bring about His great and eternal principles as one of His children does the things necessary to carry on the work and someday return to Him.

Trusting In The Lord

 3 And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their ^atrust in God shall be supported in their ^btrials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be ^clifted up at the last day. - Alma 36:3

This verse really hit me yesterday and I've been thinking about it ever since.  I think that sometimes society teaches us to have such trust in ourselves to accomplish things that we lessen the enormous responsibly we have to continually learn to put our trust and hope in the Lord.  How do you balance the need to trust in yourself to accomplish and trust in the Lord to deliver you?  It often takes hitting the bottom before we realize the appropriate balance which should be weighted more heavily in the Lord's direction.

Procrastination & Repentance

"Procrastination, as it may be applied to Gospel principles, is the thief of eternal life--which is life in the presence of the Father and the Son." - President Joseph Fielding Smith

The need to daily repent is something that we have been taught all our lives, but I think it's hard to daily do this without falling into repetitious prayer.  Something I found that helps is to go over in my mind before I pray my day and actions to think of specific times where I need to do better and then to specifically ask for repentance from those times.  It helps me be less repetitious and take more advantage of the Lord's forgiveness.

To Pray Continually

In Alma 33, Alma teaches the people that they do not have to have a "certain" location to pray, rather they can pray anywhere and continually.  The idea that you have to have a certain location to pray in order to have your prayers heard seems silly, but then I started thinking....what does it mean to pray continually?  Do I have rituals for prayer like the people Alma was teaching, but just don't realize it?

Alma 13: 28 But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and ^awatch and pray continually, that ye may not be ^btempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be ^cled by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, ^dmeek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;

Elder Erying says..."Our hearts can be drawn out to God only when they are filled with love for Him and trust in His goodness. " (Conference Oct. 2001).  So, I think that my tendencies is to make sure I pray morning and night and with family. But...if I forget to pray in the morning, do I stop and take care of that wherever I'm at, or keep moving?  Does having your heart drawn out towards God mean that you have charity?  I would suppose so.  So, I guess that having a prayer in your heart continually would involve integrity at work, looking for ways to be an example and serve and being true to oneself when alone or without anyone else around.  

Discipleship Is A Journey

Sometimes I wonder if my greatest hindrance to building a testimony is patience.  I'm not good at seeing the long-term.  As Alma progresses in his oratory on comparing the growth of a seed to a tree bearing fruit to our spiritual journey, I realized that patience plays such a grand player in our discipleship.  Being able to see the end at the beginning or more importantly all along the way as we grow and learn "line upon line" is paramount to eating of that fruit from our tree.

  42 And because of your ^adiligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the ^bfruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.

  43 Then, my brethren, ye shall ^areap the ^brewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth ^cfruit unto you.


What do you do to keep perspective?

Faith...as a Seed

Alma 32:28-30 discusses how faith does not instantly come rather it grows slowly through diligent efforts. I'm pretty sure I always "got this" and understood that it takes time and effort for ones faith and testimony to grow, but I don't think I really thought about all the ways the soil needed to be cultivated in order to make the seed grow. I found this quote by Elder Faust which struck a cord today.

"We also need to prepare our own seedbed of faith. To do this we need to plow the soil through daily humble prayer, asking for strength and forgiveness. We need to harrow the soil by overcoming our feelings of pride. We need to prepare the seedbed by keeping the commandments to the best of our ability. We need to be honest with the Lord in the payment of our tithing and our other offerings. We need to be worthy and able to call forth the great powers of the priesthood to bless ourselves, our families, and others for whom we have responsibility. There is no better place for the spiritual seeds of our faith to be nurtured than within the hallowed sanctuaries of our temples and in our homes." - Elder James Faust, 1999