Be Still

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the noise of the world. 

Last Sunday I taught the gospel principles class in my ward and while it went well, it also went WAY faster than I had planned, we were at the end of what I had prepared and we had about 15 minutes left . . . so with no lesson material left I decided to make a list on the board of different commandments that Christ has given to us and that, by following them, will help us draw closer to him. I figured that would take at least 5 minutes and then they would have a visual for my invitation. We had a lot of different things written on the board, i.e. forgive, repent, love and serve one another, keep the Sabbath day holy, be still, etc. My invitation was to pick one to work on that week and see how their relationship with Christ grows as they did so. 

As I was looking at the list, one of them (Be still) really caught my eye. The point of my lesson was to find ways to strengthen our personal relationships with Christ. My goal from the lesson was to take more time to be still. I wanted to disconnect more from the worldly noise and tune more into the spiritual noise so I would be more available to receive promptings from the Holy Ghost. I think it has literally been the hardest week for me to do that. I didn't do very well at all, in fact, I went on a Netflix and YouTube spree. While on my endless YouTube video rabbit hole I found this video. 

*** Warning, there is some swearing*** 

In the video, in case you didn't want to watch it :) He talks about how he is always connected to something from the moment he wakes up until he goes to bed and then he goes on to talk about how rewarding it is when you disconnect from all of the entertainment and noise that can come from everywhere and just think. 

When I watched this I realized that that day I had done almost nothing but be plugged in to the noise of the world. I was very similar to this guy. I got up and was listening to an audio book, Then I walked to class with my headphones tuned into my favorite Pandora station. I went to class and then listened to Pandora some more while I did homework then repeated until my classes were done, then I walked home to the sound of my Pandora station. When I got home I got on Facebook, then watched some episodes on Netflix then got on YouTube... I had just spent my whole day drowning every other voice out with meaningless entertainment. It was a wake-up call to me that I needed to stop and let my brain think. I needed to take time to be still. This small rebuke was a tender mercy to me. It helped me remember the goals I had set earlier in the week and to do better for the rest of the week. 

I think it is amazing how God really is involved in our lives and wants to help us achieve our goals and will send us reminders of those goals when we are not on track to achieve them. This week my goal is to take time, and more than just a couple of minutes, to be still every day during the week so I can enjoy the company of my own mind more. I think I will find it to be rewarding in many ways.

Also, another tender mercy, tonight was, for the first time in almost 2 years, seeing this cute girl again! Sister Richards (now Betsy) stopped in Rexburg for a few hours and I got to hang out with her :) So fun!

Beware of Pride...part 2 :)

A couple of summers ago, when I was on my mission serving in the Catoctin ward, I made a new friend. His name was Humperdink. He was a prideful little guy and I wrote a blog post about it...which you can read here. In it I talked about a humbling experience that I had when I thought that I was above the pride cycle. Well, in my religion class my religion professor mentioned something, I can't remember what he called it, where you don't have to be in the pride cycle. The Lord blesses you, you remain humble and serve others and God blesses you more etc.

***bonus if you make it to the end there is a little before seen picture of me actually holding Humperdink***

While I don't think that I am above the pride cycle, it is nice to know that my original thoughts about people not having to be stuck in the pride cycle were right. It gives me something to strive for. Something that I will have to strive and strive for, because pride is . . . hard . . .to get away from.  I think in part it is because it rears it's ugly head in so many different ways.

Pride has been defined in many ways by the Prophets and Apostles, for example

Pride Is...

"A natural consequence of setting our hearts on the things of the world" -Gerald N. Lund April 2008

"The most deadly spiritual virus" -Boyd K. Packer April 1989

"A great obstacle in listening to the voice of the Lord" -Fransisco J Vinas October 1996

and, last but not least,

"The universal sin, the great vice" -Ezra Taft Benson April 1989

So . . . Bad right? And as if all these warnings weren't bad enough, let's take a look at what the Book of Mormon has to say about it.

We are instructed to avoid pride in Alma 38:11 "See that ye are not lifted up unto pride; yea, see that ye do not boast in your own wisdom, nor of your much strength."

2 Nephi 28:13 tell of some consequences of pride "They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up."

And in Moroni 8:27 the ultimate fate of those lifted up in pride. "Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction except they should repent."

so. . . again . . . bad. But, there is a reason we are told so much about pride and I think the main reason is so we can learn to recognize it in ourselves. If we don't realize that we are prideful then we aren't going to be able to change that. So I guess the big question is, how is my pride manifesting?

Me and my friend Humperdink

That is a good question, Prince Humperdink and I are going to go think about that now, and I hope you will too :D 

The Blessing of Becoming an Instrument.

Becoming an instrument? Why would I want to become an instrument? What's the point of being a Piano or Flute! That just seems silly . . .

No, not that kind of instrument. The kind of instrument I am talking about is becoming an Instrument in the Hand of God. In my Book of Mormon class the past couple of weeks we have been talking about the Abrahamic covenant, what it is and what we are promised if we keep the covenants we make.

Abraham 2:9-11

9 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations;

10 And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;

11 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.

What stood out to me most was that God told Abraham, while telling him of the blessings to him and his seed, that all the families of the earth will be blessed with the blessings of the Gospel. As I did the reading a couple other scriptures really stood out to me.

2 Nephi 2:3 "Wherefore, thy sou shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brohter, Nephi; and thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God. ..."

2 Nephi 3:7-8, 14

7 Yea, Joseph truly said: Thus saith the Lord unto me; A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers.

8 And I will give unto him a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work

14 And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise;

and finally (bear with me, I know it is a lot of scriptures),

Mosiah 26:20 Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep

The overall theme that I kept seeing over and over again as I was reading all the scriptures about the promises that God grants to his children was, it is a blessing, not a burden or obligation or something undesirable to become an instrument in God's hands. When we are keeping our covenants it is a blessing in our lives. We are blessed to help our friends and family and neighbors to come unto Christ and to make the same covenants that we have made and to receive the same blessings that we have received.

When I think of people who really understood the joy of becoming a tool that God can use I immediately think of the sons of Mosiah. In Mosiah 17 they fast and pray MUCH that the Lord would grant them that blessing, and when they had received it they were overjoyed! They rejoiced! Ammon's words in Alma 26:15-16 "...we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work. Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever."

In Elder Nelson's 2011 October Conference talk he explained how important this part of the Abrahamic covenant is. He said,

 "Ours is the responsibility to help fulfill the Abrahamic covenant. Ours is the seed foreordained and prepared to bless all people of the world. That is why priesthood duty includes missionary work. After some 4,000 years of anticipation and preparation, this is the appointed day when the gospel is to be taken to the kindreds of the earth. This is the time of the promised gathering of Israel. And we get to participate! Isn't that exciting? The Lord is counting on us and our sons -- and He is profoundly grateful for our daughters -- who worthily serve as missionaries in this great time of the gathering of Israel.

I know that one of the greatest blessings we have in life is to be a blessing in someone else's life. I know how wonderful it feels and how much sense of purpose it can give to know that I am here for a purpose, that I can be a blessing someone else's life and how much meaning there is in life as I strive to do this. I know that as we strive to live our covenants we will have opportunities to become an instrument in the hand of God and bless the lives of others and in the process see how much of a blessing it is to us to do so.

God is Good!

Sometimes I receive the clearest revelation when I am in the shower...I don't know why, maybe because there are basically no distractions and I am usually singing hymns...yes I do sing in the shower...don't judge :) Any-who. . . Last night when I was in the shower I was thinking about how good God had been to me that day, seeing all the things that he helped me with (homework especially and being generally productive) and I just realized that God has always been good to me. Always. And, if He always HAS been good to me, then He always WILL be good to me. Just a nice reminder that I can trust God. He has always been trustworthy, so even though it is hard sometimes, I can trust Him now and I will always be able to trust Him!

How to be Filled

You know that feeling, where you feel kind of empty inside? A kind of loneliness that doesn't really go away, but it isn't REALLY loneliness because you can feel it even when you are surrounded by the ones you love the most? Where there is a place that you want to be filled but isn't? You try to fill it with more social activity or more study, or any manner of things, but it just doesn't quite work? Well sometimes I feel that way, and sometimes there are times when that part of me is completely filled and I am simply happy. A inner happiness that does fill that part of you.

Recently in my Book of Mormon class we have been studying how the Book of Mormon teaches the Doctrine of Christ, namely Faith, Repentance, Baptism, partaking of the Sacrament, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.  As I have been doing the reading I have noticed something that I absolutely love about the scriptures relating to these different parts of the Doctrine of Christ. What I love is the word 'fill'. In so many scriptures it talks about how these simple principles and ordinances will FILL you, for example . . .

Alma 36:20 "And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!" This is what Alma described feeling after he had excercized faith and repented.

and...

3 Nephi 19:13 "And it came to pass when they were all baptized and had come up out of the water, the Holy Ghost did fall upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire." ***

I love the fact that there is a part of me that is just waiting to be filled by the Holy Ghost, that I can literally have a member of the Godhead with me at ALL times. I know that by striving to adhere to the simple teachings of Jesus Christ and growing in our faith in him, we will be filled. We don't have to be empty or lonely and having the gentle influence of the Holy Ghost filling us makes everything more bearable. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I am so grateful that he inspired so many of his Prophets in the Book of Mormon to teach His simple truths so that we may have a more perfect fullness of joy in life.

*** for more scriptures about being filled through the Gospel of Jesus Christ see...

3 Nephi 18:9
Alma 29:10
Alma 19:30
3 Nephi 26:17
3 Nephi 12:6
3 Nephi 20:9
Moroni 8:17
Mosiah 21:28

The Atonement

My mind has been on the Atonement of Jesus Christ a lot recently. It seems everywhere I go I am hearing all about the Atonement. I have had Relief Society lessons, Religion Class lessons, English spiritual thoughts (3 of these have been focused solely on Alma 7:11-13), My cousin's blogpost about the Atonement working in her life, and even more. This really shouldn't surprise me because as Joseph Smith said... 

"The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it."

The Atonement truly is at the center of our religion, without it we wouldn't have a religion to begin with. We would be lost forever, becoming angels to a devil (2 Nephi 9:9) and with no incentive to make good choices. 

Recently the thought that has been weighing most on my mind is in regards to the "Infinite" aspect of the Atonement. Why that aspect do you ask? Well, let me tell you. Once upon a time while I was on my mission we had a lesson set up with a potential investigator. He was somebody that previous missionaries had talked to but hadn't taught, so we thought we would introduce ourselves and see if he was interested in learning more. When we got to his house he was very friendly and welcoming. He was very strong in his faith, but liked to talk about religion. We had a nice conversation for the most part, but something that he talked to us about really bothered me. It was something that I disagreed with very strongly but never had the opportunity to discuss in more detail. He said something along the lines of . . .

Christ only suffered for the people that he knew would repent and accept his sacrifice. 

I know those weren't his exact words, but that was the gist of his belief. In my heart I immediately disagreed but I didn't feel like I could articulate my thoughts and beliefs clearly enough and didn't wan't to end up bible bashing so my companion and I didn't say much on that score, but it has stuck with me ever since. 

God loves all of his children, there is no one that has ever lived, that will ever live, or that lives now that is not loved by God. He sent His Son to this world to suffer and die because he loves his children. In Doctrine and Covenants 19:16 it says "For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;" Christ came to atone for the sins of ALL mankind. His Atonement is not just infinite in that it covers each of our individual sins and weaknesses and trials and burdens and sicknesses and temptations, it covers ALL of that for EVERY individual that ever has, does, or will exist. I just can't believe that a God who is all loving would provide a way for only those who would accept his son. It is such an important thing in understanding the character of Christ to know that he suffered even for those that would reject him, because otherwise they would be doomed. They would never have a chance and I know that God would never do that to even one of His children. To believe that Christ didn't suffer for all is to believe that God doesn't love all His children and that Christ's atonement is not infinite. 

I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have and that has been strengthened by this study that God does love each and every one of us and that Christ's atonement really can and does radiate its glorious light into ALL.

Alma 34:14 "And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal."

Even When We Are Doing Well...

So . . . for those of you who don't know, I moved up to BYU-Idaho for school a couple of weeks ago and I have been getting used to life up here. It is very different going from a non-church school to a church school, but not in a bad way.

When I graduated from High School, there was no way under the sun that I was going to go to a church school, especially not BYU-Idaho. I didn't want to have an Honor Code. (silly me . . . ) Somehow I thought it would limit my agency. Not that I did anything terrible or horrible when I went to Utah State, I still lived gospel standards, and basically lived the honor code anyways, but I didn't want it forced on me.

Now that I am here, I realize how silly that is. I still live the standards I always have and it is really cool to pray in class and have spiritual thoughts etc. It is a beautiful environment where you really can feel the spirit so much, although it does sometimes lead to awkward/cool experiences.

Yesterday I had a really good day. The week before had been really stressful. I have smaller classes here than I did at Utah State and that basically means more homework that I actually have to turn in. Yes, I know that I am sometimes a little bit of a slacker...okay, maybe more than a little bit when it comes to homework. Anyways, I was super stressed about all of my classes and all the homework that I had to do. Yesterday morning after my calculus class I was sure that I was going to fail. I was already behind in some of my classes and I didn't know how I was going to be able to catch up. So, as I was doing homework for a certain class the thought came to me, "I can drop this class". So much peace came over me that I knew it would be okay if I dropped a class.  (but to be sure I had to call my sister and have her validate my decision. Thanks Julie!) So I dropped my class and suddenly life seemed manageable again. It was wonderful! My day was going great!

After my last class that day, I stopped on my way home to enjoy the good weather (while I can) to sit and read. As I was reading I heard a man singing. He came around the corner of the building by the table I was sitting singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" at the top of his lungs. He saw me, stopped singing, and apologized. I smiled and said, "No worries, you're fine!"  waved and went back to reading. He continued walking and singing, and I didn't think more about it. . . . Until he came back.

I was reading when I noticed him walking back towards me, he introduced himself, sat down, and asked if I was doing okay. I said "Yep! I am doing great!"

He said, "Oh, well, I don't usually do this, but what is your favorite hymn?"

"I like 'Lead Kindly Light'"

"Would it be alright if I sing it for you?"

"umm...Sure..."

He then proceeded to sing to me. To tell you the truth I was kind of embarrassed and it was awkward, people were walking by and this random man was singing to me. He finished singing for me and then asked if he could say a prayer for me. I again, said sure, feeling kind of awkward. He prayed for me and then got up and left...and then I proceeded to read again and I just kind of laughed thinking to myself how that was weird.

When I went home I told my roommates and they kind of laughed with me and I called my sister-in-law this morning and told her and we laughed a little about it. I commented and said that now I know how the random people on the street I talked to as a missionary and prayed for felt.

Anyways . . . fast forward to this afternoon. I was sitting in devotional and I realized how, this young man was simply acting on his prompting. He felt like he needed to come and make sure I was okay, sing a hymn, and pray for me. He was acting on his faith. It made me think about all my tender mercies. Usually when I recognize them I am having a bad day,something is hard, or annoying, but God's tender mercies aren't just for when we are down. God is ALWAYS there, showing his love for us. He shows us he is there when we are having good days, doing fun things, and enjoying life. I am grateful for this young man's dedication to his prompting and for reminding me that God is blessing me all the time, not just when I am down.

And just for kicks and giggles, here is a picture of a happy sun wall hanging and a pretty flower :)