Hope

This is a very beautiful video. I hope it inspires and uplifts for you as it did for me.

Organize Yourselves

My husband and I teach the 15-17 year olds in Sunday School. This week, we were discussing the Saints preparing themselves for their trek to Salt Lake (section 136 in D&C contains instructions for them as what they needed to do). One of the verses we talked about struck me:

2) Let all the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who journey with them, be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God.

Along with reading this section, we were trying to figure out how we could apply it to our own journeys in life. I was struggling with how to relate to it, and my husband said, "Companies then are wards and stakes today." This made me think about the organization of this glorious church.

This brought me back to something my dad told me years ago. I was traveling to Russia to teach English, meeting my teaching group in Moscow, and making several layovers in various countries all by myself beforehand. I was a little nervous because my layovers were quite short, and I wasn't sure I would be able to make all the takeoffs. My dad told me, "If you miss any of your flights, and get stuck in one country, all you have to do is call me. I will locate the nearest bishop in that area, and you will be taken care of until you can get on the next flight."

How lucky are we, as members of the church, to know we will be taken care of no matter where we are in the entire world? I know if I was ever in trouble or in an emergency, there would be someone I could call in my local ward or stake to help me in a moment's notice. I've had those moments from time to time in my life, and I'm sure I'm not alone. It's one more testament, this church is true, and the way it was organized in the very beginning was truly inspired.

Enhancing Your Sabbath

I love getting the Church News! Not only do we know what's happening with the church around the globe, we get brief glimpses of talks the Brethren give as well. Or we get a glimpse into BYU Education Week. In the five years I lived there I never went, and now I feel like I missed a giant opportunity. At least, CN is there to help.

One of the highlighted presenters in the CN was good ol' John Bytheway entitled, "The Best Three Hours of the Week: Getting the Most from Your Sunday Meetings." I have a pretty energetic 16 month old and I have a hard time paying attention on Sunday, so it was nice to have a repremand and ways to improve.

He said the first thing we need to examine is our attitude toward the Sabbath. Then, he used the acronym of CHURCH to offer improvements:

C: Choose

• The choice to get more out of Sunday meetings actually begins with Saturday night. Don't stay out (or up) too late.
• Pray for the speakers/teachers, and give yourself a smaller sermon in your mind about whatever topic they are addressing.

H: Holy Sabbath

• Ezekiel 20: 20: "And hallow my Sabbaths..."
• Not participating in activities that run over into the Sabbath

U: Unity

• D&C 38:27: "I say unto you, be one. And if ye are not one, ye are not mine."

R: Respect

• When you disrespect your called-and-sustained teacher, leaders or advisers, you disrespect the One who called them. In other words, you disrespect the Lord.

C: Covenant

• The most important thing we do on Sundays is partaking of the Sacrament
• Elder Holland has suggested Aaronic Priesthood holders wear white shirts when passing
• Ponder on the Savior during the actual passing of the sacrament---Brother Bytheway thinks about the video "Lamb of God" and when it shows the empty tomb.

H: Holy Ghost

• It's your job as a listener and my job as the listener as well as the teacher's job (to be in tune with the Spirit) so that we get something out of our meetings

He concludes by saying by reminding that it is our choice to make it (church meetings) exciting and interesting; but, in the end, we are there to worship the Lord. I hope this list can help us all improve our Sabbath worship.

The Influence of a Righteous Woman

Yesterday our home teacher came over and gave us the message for this month. It is by Elder Uchtdorf and is titled, "The Influence of Righteous Women". It is a really wonderful message to read, so make sure you read it! There is a quote from President Grant that says,
"Without the devotion and absolution testimony of the living God in the hearts of our mothers, this Church would die."

The article talks a lot about the little things that we women do, thinking that they are so inconsequential, but we don't seem to know that everything we do makes a big difference. One of Satan's big tactics is to convince us that we don't make a difference to anyone, no matter what we say or do. But really we can prove him wrong by simply putting our creative skills to use, or calling someone to see how they are doing, or any number of things where we reach out to others.

I feel like this message has something for everyone. If you are like me, and struggle to think that anything you do makes a difference to anyone- this message is for you. Or if you are the overachiever who feels like there is so much to be done and that you will never succeed at helping everyone, this message is for you. Or if you have any other misnomers about your special purpose and heritage as a woman in the church, this article is for you!

My home teacher shared a personal observation with us that I want to pass along. He said there were two families he knew who came together when, in one of them the husband went inactive and a bit nuts and the other one had the wife go inactive and a bit nuts. The active husband and the active wife met each other from the two separate families, got married and joined their families together. This brought together many children who were quite different. What he noted, however, was that the active mother's children were very active in the church. But the active father's children were all inactive in the church. He used this story to explain how important a mother's testimony is in the home for her children.

After hearing this story, I thought- yeah true, but the father can make a big difference too. I remember learning about this in my religion classes at BYU. But I guess that was not the point of the message in this month's Ensign. So, therefore let us embrace the divinity within ourselves and seek to reach our true potentials and influence others for the good.

The Lord's Timing

Have you ever felt like you simply don't understand the Lord's will for you? When trials come into my life I often struggle to understand why. Lately I have begun to realize that we do not always need to know why we are given a specific trial to overcome. All we really need to do is have faith that the Lord knows best and he will guide you to where you need to be (at the right time). This talk by Dallin H. Oaks is excellent and I really encourage you all to read it! It is called, "The Right Thing, at the Right Time."

My favorite quote from this talk is the following:

“Since faith in the timing of the Lord may be tried, let us learn to say not only, ‘Thy will be done,’ but patiently also, ‘Thy timing be done.’ ”

The Lord's timing can sometimes be a frustrating thing, especially when your desires are in line with the teachings of the gospel. Since my miscarriage I have been struggling with why we haven't been blessed with a child. The Lord has commanded us to get married and multiply and replenish the earth, so why would the Lord make us wait? The answer is unclear and we may not understand the why until we pass through the veil, but I am finally beginning to understand that there are things I must learn before I will be the best mother I can be. The Lord knows us best, He knows what is best for each of us individually. Try to remember this in your trials. If you do it will be much easier to remain faithful and endure to the end.

An Important Lesson on the Atonement

There is a book that I have had recommended to me in almost every Institute class that I've ever been in called "Believing Christ" by Stephen E. Robinson. This book opened my eyes to an understanding of how the Atonement actually works and I wanted to share a part of it with you.

" All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and depressions of the human family. He knows the loneliness of those who don't fit in or who aren't handsome or pretty. He knows what it's like to choose up teams and be the last one chosen. He knows the anguish of parents whose children go wrong. He knows the private hell of the abused child or spouse. He knows all these things personally and intimately because he lived them in the Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, he then chose to experience our imperfect lives. In the infinite Gethsemane experience , the meridian of time, the center of eternity, he lived a billion billion lifetimes of sin, pain, disease, and sorrow."

"God uses no magic wand to simply wave bad things into nonexistence. The sins that he remits, he remits by making them his own and suffering them. The pain and heartaches that he relieves, he relieves by suffering them himself. These things can be shared and absorbed, but they cannot be simply wished or waved away. They must be suffered. Thus we owe him not only for our spiritual cleansing from sin, but our physical, mental, and emotional healings as well, for he has borne these infirmities for us also. All that the Fall put wrong, the Savior in his atonement puts right. It is all part of his infinite sacrifice--of his infinite gift."

I cannot imagine what it would be like to feel the pain of even one other person and yet Christ chose to take all of our sorrows and heartaches and unfairness from us by absorbing them all into himself. I'm grateful for a Savior who was not only prepared, but obedient enough to do that so that we might be relieved of our own lifetime of sin and live with our Heavenly Family for eternity.

Finding Hope

Today is a day that will always be in our memories. Some people don't like to remember because it causes them sadness. I, on the other hand remember this day and am filled with gratitude, peace, and humility. Our Heavenly Father loves us. We sometimes make poor decisions yet He still supports and blesses us if we but turn to him. I would like to share a video with you called Finding Hope which is about a man who describes his experience at the towers and how he was able to get through that tragedy with the help of his faith in Jesus Christ. It is 8 minutes, but well worth the watch.