Remember Him

One of my favorite spots.  Wormley Creek, Yorktown, VA

For the last few weeks, I have been through a lot of personal trials. It seemed to me that there was an unfair portion of things being dumped on our family, and I couldn't really figure out why. I'm a questioner, a truth seeker, a need to know"er". This week for my religion class we studied Helaman 10-16. One of the first things that really made me stop in my tracks was the following passage of scripture:

Helaman 12:3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

Now while my recent trials have not involved death, famine, and pestilence, they did involve some afflictions and a little bit of terror. When I read the above passage, I have to honestly say it made me a little upset and I found myself becoming prideful to think that God needed to chasten me, so that I would remember Him. 

The truth is this- when things are going well in my life, I do tend to "not" remember Him as much. So, this did cause me to do some pondering and questioning of myself. Why do I forget God when things are going well? I think it's this- while I may go through the motions of doing the "right" things most of the time, my will is not necessarily always aligned with His will.

In order for me to truly remember Him, I have to turn my will over to Him, seek forgiveness, and let go of my pride; I need to realize I'm not the one that's in control; and I need to ask Him for help, guidance, forgiveness, and the ability to let go of any number of other things. I also need to be humble, teachable, and grateful in my circumstances. I don't know about you, but for me, that last one, being grateful in my circumstances, can be really difficult at times. I also know from my own personal experience that as trials are heaped on me, I turn to my Heavenly Father more earnestly as I'm pleading for help to deal with, accept, and/or overcome afflictions. I truly do remember Him more when I am suffering...

That being said, I know that trials come to everyone and that not every bad thing that happens in our lives is because God is chastening us. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. We are here to be tested and tried and to hopefully turn to our Savior Jesus Christ and allow His atonement to work in our lives so that we can go back to our Father in Heaven. Not just to be in His presence, but to dwell with Him and our Savior again.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coef8G5ax6E

Samuel the Lamanite had this to say:

Helaman 13:11- But if ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord; yea, thus saith the Lord, blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me, but wo unto him that repenteth not.

The Lord our God wants us to choose Him so that He can bless us with all of the things He has promised us. I am so grateful to know that while He chastens us at times, that He loves us and wants to bless us if only we will repent and return to Him. If life seems overwhelming or too difficult, no worries. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has our back. He loves us. He sacrificed His life for us. He atoned for us. All we need to do is turn to Him. He is there, waiting for us to seek Him out in the storms of life. He wants to help us overcome whatever is ailing us. Because of Him our lives and hearts can be changed forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

Thanks for spending some time with me. I love hearing from you, and would love to know what you do to draw closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ during difficult times.