P is for...

This week studying Enos, Jarom, Omni, The Words of Mormon, and Mosiah 1, 2, and 3 was the BEST!
I was reminded of so many wonderful things, and have had so many thoughts twirling around in my head about what to share this week.
No joke. I've even posted a picture so you can see my mad study skills with all of my post-it notes through-out my scriptures for this assignment. The hardest part for me has been trying to decide which thing I want to focus on. Because I want to share it ALL!

This is not my family, but I love this picture of them praying together.
This picture is from the lds.org media library.

Although I want to share it all, I've decided to go with prayer. Prayer is such an integral part of having and exercising faith that I just can't imagine that any of the rest of it will matter as much if I don't talk about the importance of prayer first. Prayer enables us to communicate with our Heavenly Father so that we can give thanks, know things for ourselves, be comforted, receive help, ask for blessings, seek forgiveness, pour out our hearts, and gain knowledge just to name a few.

It's like having a conversation with your dad, only Heavenly Father may not speak back to you with His voice, but He will use a variety of ways to communicate the things He wants us to know. Our answers may come as a feeling, or thought, maybe even a dream; or as we are reading scriptures or other good books, possibly even through the words of a song; or from other people either by what they say or by being of service in some way to us, and quite possibly through our service to them. It might even come in the form of something as odd as a billboard on the highway. I promise you that He will answer us. He knows us individually, and He loves us.

I was taught from an early age that there is an order to prayer. We start by addressing Heavenly Father, then we thank Him for all of our blessings, then we ask for the things we need or want, and finally we close in the name of Jesus Christ. It's that simple. Now, just because we pray for something we want or need doesn't mean that we will get it, or even if we do get it, it may not be in our timing. All blessings are given according to the will of Heavenly Father and His timing.





The following video is the
Sermon on the Mount: The Lord's Prayer. This is where Jesus teaches his disciples the correct manner of prayer and then He offers the Lord's prayer.

There is also a language of prayer we use to show reverence and respect to Heavenly Father. To the right is a little rhyme I found in the Friend magazine to help children remember the language of prayer. I've also linked a wonderful talk entitled The Language of Prayer by Elder Dallin H. Oaks that explains the reasons we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints use what some may view as archaic pronouns in our prayers. For example, instead of using the pronouns you, your, and yours, we use the pronouns thee, thou, thy, and thine. Since the pronouns thee, thou, thy, and thine aren't being used commonly, it allows a distinctive form of address in the English language to symbolize respect, reverence and closeness.

Along with the scriptures that I studied, I also watched various video clips. Here is the link to one of my favorite clips from Elder David A. Bednar's talk entitled Pray Always. The following short video is a quote from Elder Bednar's talk, and a beautiful reminder about why meaningful prayer is important.

I'll leave you with the words of Enos and then another video about prayer. So, there comes a time when Enos is turning himself back to God and he says this about himself, "And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto Him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto Him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens." Enos 1:4 

What are some things we can learn from Enos' example of prayer? Has your soul ever hungered to know God? I would love to hear how prayer has blessed your life.

Thank you for taking some time to ponder and reflect on prayer. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, if you have trouble viewing any of the videos, please try another browser.

Here's THE Truth

Here's the truth, my truth anyway...
This week, I have been studying such wonderful and great, but also sad and hard truths in The Book of Mormon,
Another Testament of Jesus Christ,
in  2 Nephi, chapters 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33. On the one hand I want to rejoice, but on the other hand I want to cry. The truth is, life is hard and confusing at times. As Christians, we often make it even harder on ourselves by trying to impose our will onto Heavenly Father, rather than accepting His will in ALL things; EVEN those things we don't understand, we don't like, or we don't want to believe any more because of the world we live in.

This is where I'm coming from... I hear a lot of people say: Christ loves everyone, so we are to follow His example, and love everyone. I agree, whole heartedly. After all, it is the second commandment. Jesus said it Himself, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Matthew 22:39  The problem with this is that maybe, just maybe, we are forgetting about his first and great commandment, which Jesus also said Himself, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Mattew 22:37  For some reason, maybe some of us have confused the commandment to love every one (our neighbors) with condoning, and even actively participating in unrighteousness. This doesn't mean that in order to obey God's commandments that we are unkind, shun people, or are unwilling to give service, friendship, and fellowship to our neighbors if they are living a different lifestyle to us. It means that we follow the Savior's example. We love them, we serve them, we have compassion for them, we continue to keep them in our lives. We are kind to them. We pray for them. We allow them the freedom to choose for themselves how they live their lives without judgement from us. The Savior loves all of us, yet He does not condone, nor participate in sin.

Here's the truth. Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15 

He didn't say if ye love me keep only the commandments you agree with, keep only some of the commandments, keep them only when it's convenient, keep them as long as they're politically correct, keep them if you feel like it, keep them, but not really, or anything of the such.
He is very clear.
"If ye love me, keep my commandments."
There is no wiggle room in that, He's not asking, He's not pleading, He's not even commanding, He is making a plain and simple statement. It is up to us to choose IF we love Him, and IF we are going to keep His commandments.

Now, for just a moment I'm going to turn my thoughts to the adversary. I don't like to do this, but it is important to understand the seriousness of what he is trying to do to all of us, and the consequences we will endure if we were to be of the world, and follow him. Remember, he is called the adversary for a reason. He wants us to be miserable like he is. He is not our friend. He is not our ally. He does not have our best interest at heart. He is the father of all lies. He is our enemy, and an enemy to ALL that is good, including the Savior and our Heavenly Father. The following points can be found in 2 Nephi 28:20, 21, and 22

• He will rage in our hearts, stirring us up to anger against that which is good
• Others, he will pacify, and lull away into carnal security
• He will cheat our souls
• He will lead us carefully down to hell
• He will flatter us telling us there is no hell
• He will tell us there is no devil
• Then, he will grasp us with his awful chains, from where there is no deliverance

I don't know about you, but I don't want any part of the adversary, or his enticements no matter how appealing they may seem in the current trends of the world. Did you see the part that says he will lead us carefully down to hell? He may even do it in some form of false goodness; like making us believe that it is more important for us to love ourselves more than anything or anyone, so that we will do what we want to do, rather than love and keep the commandments of God and Jesus Christ. Remember, he's a sneaky one, and he may not always be so easy to detect. He will lead us away a little at a time until he finally has us in the grasp of his awful chains.

Here's the beauty of it all though. We have an Advocate. Someone that has extended an invitation to keep us safe, and out of harms way. Someone that wants us to succeed. not just in this life, but forever.  Someone that will NEVER lead us astray. Someone that wants us to show our love for Him through our obedience by keeping His commandments. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is waiting for us to choose Him. I know it can be hard for us to turn our will to His will; but if we do, we have been promised blessings that extend into the eternities.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ don't expect us to attain perfection in this life. They know it isn't possible for us to do it on our own, so we have been given the gift of the Atonement.

Because of His love for us, Jesus Christ offered Himself for a sacrifice for the sins of the world, so that we can, IF we choose, go home to our Father in Heaven. In order to do this we must be willing to repent of our sins, and forsake them. We do this by loving Him more than we love our own desires, and by being obedient to His commandments even when we don't think they are fair. Jesus Christ offered this as a reminder of  His willingness to continually extend His mercy upon us: ". . . I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they [the Gentiles] will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them. . . if they will repent and come unto me; for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, . . ." 2 Nephi 28:32

I'll leave you with one last thought. No matter your circumstances, we have all been blessed with the light of Christ, and the influence of the Holy Ghost. I know with all of my heart, that if there is something that is weighing us down, that Heavenly Father does hear and answer our sincere prayers. Through the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things. Of this, I do testify and bear witness of God the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost. They are real. They love us. They want us to choose Him, even the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ.

I know this was a long post, so thank you for taking the time to reflect with me.