A Mighty Change

From the LDS.org media library

This week I studied Mosiah 27, 28, and 29. I also studied Alma 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Believe it or not, all of those chapters only covered about twenty-six and a half pages, but they were packed with so much goodness! In Chapter 27 verse 10 we learn that this guy called Alma the younger, (He was called this as a way to differentiate him from his dad who was also named Alma.) and the sons of Mosiah (there were 4 of them) were going about secretly seeking to destroy the church, and leading people astray. Then later in the chapter we see a real conversion to Jesus Christ take place with Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah. I am pointing this out because, sometimes I tend to think that I’m not worthy of God’s forgiveness, but then I remember stories like this where they had turned completely away from God, even leading people away from God, and when they truly repented they were forgiven. It gives me so much hope not only for myself, but for all mankind.

However, one of the problems I've encountered with seeking forgiveness is that I'm not always able to forgive myself, which has lead me to believe that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is for everyone else, but me. This video is a beautiful reminder of what the Atonement is really capable of doing in my life and yours.

My instructor, Brother McVey, pointed out that in the scriptures in Alma 7:11-13  ". . .we learn more about what the Atonement covers than in any other scripture." I've put the link in for the scripture, but I also want to share the verses here. 

From the LDS.org media library

It says:

11. And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

So once we have sought forgiveness, have been forgiven, and have allowed the Atonement to work in our lives, how do we know that we have really changed? In Alma Chapter 5 there are some questions that we can ask ourselves to help us gauge where we are in our lives in relation to Jesus Christ. 

Questions such as in this sampling:

• Have you spiritually been born of God? 
• Have you received His image in your countenance?
• Have you experienced this mighty change in your heart?
• Do you exercise faith in the redemption of Him who created you?
• Do you look forward with an eye of faith?
• Are you stripped of pride?
• Can you look up to God at that day (judgment) with a pure heart and clean hands?

I know that I still have a lot to work on, but my hope is that as we are striving to master our souls, that we do have a mighty change of heart. A change so great that we only ever desire to love, serve, and be obedient to our Savior Jesus Christ. I’d love to know how you have overcome the natural man to align your will with the Father’s.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate it.

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.

It's True, and Here's Why

I want to share who I am, and what I stand for. I am Sarah; I am the daughter of Ruth and Bill; I am a wife to my wonderful husband; I am the mother of three amazing children; I am a grand daughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin, and a friend; I am a daughter of the Most High God; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and as such I want to testify of Him and His Gospel. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a member of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am a Christian.

So, this week I studied 2 Nephi, chapters 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.  Each week, I'm given a new Study Skill to apply to my study of scriptures. This past week was Clustering, and it can be used to relate specific topics in the scriptures with additional scriptures, thereby acting as another witness of truth, or to clarify when there are things we want to understand better. Clustering is often referred to as cross referencing. It can be done by searching the Footnotes, Topical Guide, Index, Bible Dictionary, and Conference Reports. One of my favorite ways to cluster a topic is by heading over to the lds.org search bar.

While studying 2 Nephi 9:2, I came to this sentence "...until the time comes that they shall be restored to the true church and fold of God." The word restored is cross referenced, but what really had my interest were the words true church. In my sincere desire to understand what Heavenly Father was trying to teach me I headed over to lds.org, and typed in true church. I found a reference entitled Church, Signs Of The True. 

Signs of the True Church- "The doctrines and works of a church that show it is approved by God and is the means the Lord has established for his children to gain the fullness of his blessings." Some of the signs of the true Church are as follows:

1. Correct understanding of the Godhead
2. First principles and ordinances
3. Revelation
4. Prophets
5. Authority
6. Additional scriptures to come forth
7. Church organization
8. Missionary work
9. Spiritual gifts
10. Temples

I love my Savior, and want to shout His truths from ALL of the rooftops. I hope you will take some time to study these things out for yourself, and then pray about them to know if they are true. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our sincere prayers.

For those of you that may be curious, and wondering about some of the additional scriptures that have come forth, I invite you to request your own free copy of The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ to read, study, ponder and pray about. If you want to get started right away while waiting for your paper copy, click this link now.

Thanks for taking some time to hang out. I'd love to know your thoughts.

Spiritual Dead Spots

Have you ever had a time in your life when you think you're doing the right things, and no matter how hard you try, the straight and narrow path feels like this crooked fence?  It seems straight, but yet it still takes you ever so slightly off course, and then you redirect heading back to the center, to be just slightly off course again?

Well, I've had one of those times recently. Nothing in particular was wrong; I thought I was doing all of the right things I should have been doing, but yet...I just felt BLAH!

I started thinking, maybe it's the lack of daylight because of the bad weather we've had recently, or the shorter days because of the change of season. Regardless of the cause, I'd felt a little more irritable than usual. I'd been a real grumpy grump becoming angry and annoyed over things that wouldn't normally bother me. This created a HUGE problem for me. I had put myself in a spiritual dead spot. Meaning, I didn't have the Holy Ghost with me as much as I wanted. This is the sad part, I didn't even recognize it fully until a couple of days ago.

I watched a video clip on Monday from from the April 2004 General Conference session entitled "Did You Get the Right Message?" by James E. Faust. In this particular clip, he is talking about how we can often put ourselves into spiritual dead spots; places and situations that block out divine messages.
Now, this is the important part for me. ANGER is included among the other things like, pornography, transgression, and selfishness that offend the Spirit. Imagine my surprise when it finally dawned on me that it wasn't everybody else that had the problem, but that it was me. Talk about having an "aha" moment.

This week I have been studying 1 Nephi 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22. So, when I finally realized that I was the problem it made me think of this passage of scriptures that I had read earlier in the week found in 1 Nephi 16:1-2. Nephi had just told his brothers Laman & Lemuel in 1 Nephi 15 what was going to happen to the wicked if they continued in their wickedness, to which Laman & Lemuel (I'm going to paraphrase here in my own words) whined saying to Nephi, what you've told us is really hard, and it's more than we can bear.

Now, why do you suppose Laman & Lemuel would think hearing about what would happen to the wicked would be too hard for them to bear? 

I'll tell you what I'm thinking; I think it's for the exact same reason I had my "aha" moment. Because, it truly does feel like we're being cut to the core when we know what is being said is true, and we are guilty of sin. But hold on, there is good news! We have been blessed with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through Christ, all of our wrongs can be made right again, if we are willing to humble ourselves and repent.  What a wonderful thing He did for us because of His loving kindness and long-suffering towards the children of men.

I've included a video entitled "Lifting Burdens". If you are unable to view it in your browser, please try another. Such as: Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc. ...

                              

I would love to hear how you have overcome your own spiritual dead spots to be able to feel the Spirit more fully.

Thank you for taking some time to ponder with me.

In Your Patience Possess Ye Your Souls

Jesus Christ says "In your patience possess ye your souls." Luke 21:19
Another way of saying it is like this: "In your patience, win mastery of your souls." (Thanks Pres. Uchtdorf)

I have recently started the Pathway program through BYU Idaho to further my education. One of my classes is the study of religion, and this semester we are studying the first half of The Book of Mormon. Part of my assignment this week is to share what I've learned. In order to do that, I decided to create a blog. Please be "patient" with me as I learn how to master the art of blogging.

This week my study assignment was 1 Nephi 1, 2, 3, 4. and 5 found in The Book of Mormon. I also watched 8 video clips from various speakers, and attended a gathering with my peers. I have chosen patience for this post, because I can see where patience has played a part in all aspects of my studies this week. The driving force in this for me was a clip of a talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who is an apostle of the Lord in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Here is the link to the transcript, as well as the video of the talk that President Uchtdorf gave during the April 2010 General Conference. 

President Uchtdorf said something in his talk that really stood out to me. He said, "Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most."

I thought about what President Uchtdorf said and how it applies to my own life, especially over the past few months with some trials and difficulties my family has been facing. I see now that by continuing to wait in patience for answers to our prayers, that my husband and I have grown closer to one another, as well to our Heavenly Father; and we have really been listening for the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We exercised faith by continuing to DO the things that the Lord has commanded us to do.

So, I'm going to be really real here for a minute, because I don't want you to think that it has been easy by any means. There were times that I just wanted to give up, throw in the towel, and cry for days. I couldn't see that God was going to answer our prayers. I felt abandoned, confused, alone, and fearful. I didn't want to seek His counsel because I was tired of waiting "patiently" for something to change. Little did I know that the biggest something to change would be me. I've taken to heart the things that I've studied in the scriptures, watched in different videos, and read in talks. I see that I have not been alone in my trials, that God has not left me, but that He continues to bless me with His tender mercies.  My vision had become very narrow, focusing on the trials instead of the blessings.

President Uchtdorf said, "Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and facing it with courage, grace, and faith." I agree, with my whole heart. One of the definitions of courage that I love is that courage is the choice and willingness to confront uncertainty or intimidation. Grace in facing trials means to me, a spirit of goodwill and kindness, and then faith calls us to action.

So for example, in 1 Nephi 3 we can see the evidence of Nephi and his brothers exercising patience in trying to obtain the brass plates. Nephi and his brothers were not happy to go back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates from King Laban, but they exercised faith and courage by devising a plan that I would imagine also included grace to get the plates. When the first plan didn't work, Nephi, with great patience towards his brothers, was able to help them see another way to try again. If Nephi had handled the situation differently, by losing his patience with his brothers, he may not have been able to persuade them to go back with him. To see how or if they end up getting the plates, continue reading chapter 4 of 1st Nephi.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and insights about patience, the talk I referenced, and/or the example I used. The only thing I ask is that you be respectful in your language. Thank you so much for taking the time to ponder some things with me.