Thank you for stopping by our blog. We hope you stay a while. Contact us and let us know what you think.
All in Gospel Living
My soul craves the connection with divine that happens much easier and with more intensity and frequency when I carve out, when I CHOOSE solitude.
Prayer is how we communicate with God and we can never forget that. The scriptures teach that "If ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray" (2 Nephi 32:8). Prayer is from God and anything that teaches otherwise is not.
As I apologized once again and hung up the phone, I experienced a totally unexpected swell of warmth and peace. My head was downcast and regretful; my heart was calm and joyful. I knew I had done the right thing. I had borne my testimony that Sundays were special days in our family, and that didn’t change because we were trying to sell our house.
Being a disciple of Christ is not always easy. It is not always popular. It is not to be taken lightly. But, once we make the choice to follow Jesus Christ, we don’t get to pick and choose the easiest commandments to keep.
The truth of the matter is that God will never take us where He cannot reach us. He will always bring us to a better place – even if it takes a while to get there. We just need to have faith and believe that He will guide our steps right back to Him.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said that "the happiness of the Latter-day Saints, the peace of the Latter-day Saints, the progress of the Latter-day Saints, the prosperity of the Latter-day Saints, and the eternal salvation and exaltation of this people lie in walking in obedience to the counsels of … God."
God loves us. If He was willing to allow His Son to redeem us with His blood, He wouldn’t disregard that sacrifice by leaving us without direction back to Him. It makes perfect sense that our loving Heavenly Father would give us modern-day prophets to guide us through this mortal journey.
The Lord, in his infinite goodness, would never leave us alone on this earth to fend for ourselves. He knows we need instruction and direction. Throughout the ages He has placed prophets on the earth, to act as his mouthpieces – from Adam to Noah, Moses to Peter.
The Book of Mormon IS the word of God. It records a fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we recognize this book to be sacred. For many of us, it brings great peace and hope in troubling times.
Joy, contentment, gratitude, testimony, direction, not to mention relief and healing from afflictions that come to all of us, are a direct result of us answering the call to serve .
"I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually." 1 Kings 9:3
We live in a worldwide church. There are 15 million of us around the world. The curriculum for the church is pretty much the same all over. So, a Sunday School lesson on patience taught in Palermo, Italy on the second Sunday of the month, will most likely be taught in Mesa, AZ on that same Sunday… give or take a couple weeks. It takes massive amounts of organization to do this. But the organization doesn’t end with the curriculum.
One thing that sets The Church of Latter-day Saints apart from other houses of worship is our laymen organization. We are asked to serve on a voluntary basis – from bishop all the way down to a nursery leader.
It's easy to only see the negative to situations we don't actually know about. We are told not to judge. There's the age old adage about walking a mile in someone else's shoes. As children of God and as brothers and sisters in Christ, shouldn't we be loving each other? We have all failed, fallen and tried to get up and start anew. Should we be surprised that our friends, family and ward members are doing the same?
In the Book of Mormon, we are taught to believe in God, to worship Christ, to be kind to our neighbors, to have hope in the atonement, to be grateful for our blessings, to love those who hurt us, and the list goes on and on. A true believer of the words of the Book of Mormon can only yield goodness.
The sacrament provides a time for a truly spiritual experience as we reflect upon the Savior’s redeeming and enabling power through His Atonement. ~Cheryl A. Esplin
Church has not, nor is not always the peaceful joyful experience I would like it to be. And it's almost never easy to get there. But besides the wiggling, poking and sometimes really ornery behavior, there's the deeper purpose. And it's worth it.
I don't think it's always easy for us to choose happiness, but I DO think that we can try just a little harder to be just a little better about choosing to look for the good. It's out there. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, and His gifts are in abundance. Especially this Christmas season, I challenge all of us to look at our lives with a softer lens and remember to choose gratitude, choose happiness, and choose love.
We know that God loves ALL His children and wants them all to return to Him. He doesn’t care if they live in Jerusalem or Santiago. God could not give instruction to one group of people and not another – it would contradict His loving nature.
Heavenly Father loves His daughters. He needs each of our unique talents and gifts. We will never know the scope of our reach, just as we can never truly comprehend the scope of His love for us in this life.
