Resiliency

We moved about 2 years ago and our new place had some flowers in the back that were overrun by weeds. I have never been as dedicated of a gardener / yard caretaker as I would like to be, but I'm really trying to do better at this house than I was at the last one, so I tried to weed around these flowers to see if they would come back to life. This week, they bloomed, and I believe they are bearded irises:

Plants often remind me of how resilient things can be; they seem to be able to make all kinds of things work and don't really seem to take a hint when you want them to go away, especially not weeds. In the Book of Mormon, Alma teaches that nature testifies of God:

all things denote there is a God; yea, even the ^bearth, and ^call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its ^dmotion, yea, and also all the ^eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.

As these blossomed, I've been studying that same Alma the Younger's dramatic repentance as part of the Come, Follow Me reading for the week. In thinking about the flowers and the reading, I wondered how many people have given up on themselves as followers of Christ due to problems that are much easier to solve than Alma the Younger's sins. In order to repent completely, Alma would have to publicly repudiate everything he'd done in the past; he would have to admit he was wrong and or lying to people for years, and he'd have to become a completely different person. Sometimes we may have messed up badly, and we may need to greatly humble ourselves to repent, but even if our sins are worse than Alma's the Savior suffered specifically to be able to correct these wrongs.

I am so grateful that Alma was resilient enough to believe Christ could help him change. I pray that we all can exercise faith in the same principle as we try to overcome our own sins, big and small. People bloom more beautifully than flowers.

Hearing Him Part Three: Journal Writing

If you're interested in reading more about Hearing Him, here are links to part one and part two. This entry is about journal writing; I find that writing in a personal journal is very helpful for recognizing the voice of the Lord in my life.

I often write about experiences where I believe I have been inspired; this helps me clarify my thoughts about what I've received, and in many cases I have received additional details about revelatory experiences while writing them down. The act of writing forces me to further consider what happened, and in many cases this focuses my mind in a way that allows the Lord to speak to me. He taught:

I will ^atell you in your mind and in your ^bheart, by the ^cHoly Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

I find that quiet reflection on these experiences - in this case brought on by writing in my journal - prepares my mind and my heart for further clarity from the Holy Ghost.

I will also often write about how I recognized the voice of the Lord; it doesn't always happen in exactly the same way, and it is almost always subtle. Sometimes I don't immediately recognize it, and sometimes I don't recognize the experience until after the opportunity to act on it has passed. However, even in these cases the Spirit will sometimes help me realize what I could have done differently to more completely recognize inspiration. Writing about how I've received revelation naturally causes me to think more about that process, and over time I improve in understanding.

Writing about these experiences also helps me value them, and helps me demonstrate the same to the Lord. I have learned that honoring the things the Lord has told me to do today makes it more likely that I will further understand His will for me tomorrow.

Last, I do read my journals from time to time. When I do so, I'm often seeking to better understand or remember something that happened, and I am very grateful for having written something. I often learn more when re-reading these experiences; I have now had several experiences that seem to teach me more each year rather than fading from memory. I am grateful for every word I've written about them.

Hearing Him Part Two: Real Intent

One of the scriptures that teaches clearly about revelation is Moroni 10:4-5:

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ^aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not ^btrue; and if ye shall ask with a ^csincere heart, with ^dreal intent, having ^efaith in Christ, he will ^fmanifest the ^gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may ^aknow the ^btruth of all things.

I love these verses because they concisely teach truths about receiving answers from God. These verses are part of what is often referred to as Moroni's promise; Moroni is engraving the last few words in the Book of Mormon, and he knew that many people would later read it. He offered us a test for how we might know the truth of the Book of Mormon, and the process for receiving that answer from God is the same as receiving any answer from Him.

I want to focus on these phrases: "with a sincere heart, with real intent." I think their meaning is plain enough: we have to truly want to know the answer, and be willing to act on the answer that we receive. To quote President Ezra Taft Benson: "Pride is a damning sin in the true sense of that word." If we are not willing to follow the will of God, He will not always reveal it to us. (This is merciful, by the way, because in this scenario He is not giving us commandments and knowledge that He would then have to judge us by when He knows we will not live up to them.) When we pray to know truth, we must be willing to follow that truth. If we are making a decision and we ask for guidance, we must be willing to follow His guidance. If we've already made a decision and will do our own will no matter what, then we are not asking with real intent nor with a sincere heart. Perhaps we are asking out of habit or only because we want the Lord's blessing to do what we've already decided to do. This does not please the Lord and is not a path towards communing with Him.

Would we meet with a financial planner with no intention of listening to her advice on how we manage our money? Do we consult doctors so that we can throw away the medicine they prescribe? Perhaps we know some people that do these things to one degree or another, but hopefully we know that this isn't normally wise. Even financial planners and doctors are human and fallible, where God is omniscient and omnipotent, and He sees the beginning from the end. He is not relying on statistical probabilities or best practices to guide us, but teaches based on a perfect understanding of where we are and the best way to help us be prepared for our eternal destiny.

Naturally, it is very difficult to set aside your own will when making decisions; the more important the decision, the harder it is to truly be willing to follow the Lord's words, whatever they may be. For me, cultivating a knowledge of His character and attempting to control my own pride have been two keys to success along this path. I know that many of the better decisions I've made were changed after praying, and some extremely important decisions I've made were only confirmed after I was willing to follow the Lord's will even though He did not want me to change my mind.

Hearing Him Part One

After General Conference and all the messages about recognizing when the Lord is guiding our lives - or "Hear Him" as it's been designated - I've decided to spend some time thinking about what things I've done to help me recognize God's influence in my own life. I think that there's almost nothing as universally helpful as being able to understand when the Holy Ghost is inspiring us to do (or not to do) something. Jesus taught that life eternal is knowing God, and it seems like recognizing His inspiration is a crucial part of that.

One of the first things that comes to mind is a recommendation I received about taking notes in church meetings some time when I was a missionary. The suggestion was to make a vertical line on the notes we took: one side of the line was for notes about something the speaker said, quotations, etc., and the other side would be for impressions that I recognized to be from the Spirit. These days, I often take notes using my cellphone, so I don't draw a vertical line in the notes, but I still have a notation that I use for spiritual impressions to distinguish them from my regular notes. I'm virtually always taking notes with bullet points, so for a line that is inspiration, I simply start with '***' after the bullet point. For the size of my phone screen, this makes it really easy to find these notes when I'm looking back through later. This is helpful because these impressions often include things I'd like to write in my journal about or are things that the Lord is telling me I need to do, so I need to be able to find them easily.

Ultimately, this doesn't take much effort: I always have my smartphone with me, and before smartphones I virtually always had paper with me. For me, adopting this habit has been a minor adjustment. (I recognize that if you do not have a habit of taking notes, it's a larger adjustment, but in many cases it's not a major undertaking.) However, making even this small act of attempting to recognize when the Spirit is speaking to me and exercising the small amount of faith to identify for myself, in my private notes, the things that God is telling me has made a great difference for the years I've practiced this. It makes me think of what Alma taught his son Helaman, "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

I don't remember who first taught me this idea, but I'm very grateful for it. It has helped me 'Hear Him' a bit more clearly over the years.

Between God and Myself

Many things in the past year or so have caused me to reflect on the importance of my motivation in worshiping, attending church, and practicing religion generally. Specifically, that it is very important for my devotion to be aimed at God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and nowhere else. Among other things, I've seen how focusing on the personal nature of worship protects me from feeling offended, becoming prideful, being distracted, or a myriad of other things that would reduce the meaning of and minimize the blessings from these devotions.

Thinking about this has made me reflect on the example of a man I met in the last area where I served as a missionary. Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints follow a schedule for their geographic assignments within the mission (a broader geographic area) known as transfers. Every six weeks, transfers occur, and that's when missionaries are sometimes moved. About two weeks before the 2nd to last transfer of my missionary service, the mission president asked my companion and I to visit an adjacent island (Brava) to determine whether or not missionaries should be placed there again. The missionaries had been removed for a time due to inconsistent boat service and no airport that made it unacceptably risky to keep missionaries there. As the boat service was now functioning normally, he sent us, we visited, and then we recommended that missionaries be placed there.

Two weeks later, my mission president informed me that I'd be transferring from Fogo to Brava, and I ended up finishing my missionary service there. As we got to know the members - most of whom had been members of the church for less than two years - we saw that they felt alone. Many had stopped coming to church; if I remember correctly, the average church attendance had gone down to six people per Sunday while there were no missionaries there.

Among the faithful was a man we'll call Ricardo. In one conversation, Ricardo told me how alone he felt as he saw the numbers of faithful Saints dwindle over time. He missed the fellowship of those who left greatly, and often felt lonely and forgotten as he worked to keep the church functioning on this small island, cut off from the world. He also mentioned how he'd felt offended at times by not being asked to serve in certain ways, even when he felt ready and capable to shoulder the burdens of these callings. In short, he had a number of serious obstacles, but he continued to attend and serve at church*.

Ricardo then told me why he never stopped coming: he simply stated that the promises he'd made when he was baptized and received the Priesthood were between him and God and no one else. It didn't matter that he felt isolated on this tiny island or even that at times he felt let down by things he couldn't control or influence in the church. Ricardo knew that his path back to his eternal home consisted in keeping the promises he'd made to his Father in Heaven.

Ricardo has been a tremendous example for my life; I see time and time again that when I act with devotion to God alone I am better able to commune with Him. I know that He watches over us and wants us to come to Him, and I testify that He will help us to do so as we try to walk the covenant path.


*Just a note that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a lay ministry. He served in a volunteer capacity and was not a church employee.

Revelation (The Book)

As a Church, we are finishing the New Testament as a book of study for the year and I've been thinking how the book of Revelation is in many ways a representation of the Gospel to me: some parts of this book I just really don't understand. I'm sure there is symbolism and meaning to the different beasts and the different numbers of heads, horns, etc., but for the most part I find myself wondering what it means. There are other pieces that are somewhat scary - such as the many trials and difficulties that are prophesied before the Savior's second coming - but there are some pieces I find supernal and beautiful. I find myself filled with hope after reading them.

Revelation 1 starts by describing the Lord as "Him that loved us, and ^bwashed us from our sins in His own ^cblood" and goes on to quote the Lord explaining some of His own character and attributes:

Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that ^aliveth, and was ^bdead; and, behold, I am alive for ^cevermore, Amen; and have the ^dkeys of ^ehell and of death.

Revelation also includes some unique titles for the Savior, for example in 3:14 we read that He is "the amen" and "the faithful and true witness." (I love studying the different names the Savior has in the scriptures. I feel like there are so many things to learn from these titles.)

Two of my favorite verses of scripture come from Revelation; in 7:17 we read

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of ^awaters: and God shall wipe away all ^btears from their eyes.

 And similarly in 21:4:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more ^adeath, neither ^bsorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more ^cpain: for the former things are passed away.

 My own personal faith causes me to spend more time working towards and pondering the beauty of these wonderful words than worrying about the pieces I do not yet understand or hope for. I love the book of Revelation and the many things it teaches about the character of God and His Son; I love and hope for the transcendent peace that will be ushered in by the Savior's second coming. These marvelous messages do not immediately make me understand the other passages, but they give me hope and something to work towards. It will be a long time before any of us fully comprehend the Lord's plan for ourselves, let alone have the ability to make sense of everything in the world. However, the more mature I become in the Gospel the more I grow in confidence that the Lord is able to fix everything that we allow Him to in our lives. He will set right the wrong to establish His mercy, and that sustains me through the many things I do not yet comprehend.

Repentance as a Gift

I've had repentance on my mind a lot lately. Today I read this scripture:

5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin - 1 John 3:5

It got me thinking: Christ took upon Him our sins so that - through fully accepting Christ as our Savior - He could bring us back to live in the presence of our Father in Heaven. Each time we repent, we can take a step towards receiving that goal now. With every step that we take towards personal virtue and purity, we become more comfortable in the presence of Deity, and we can better enjoy and receive the company of the Holy Ghost. We can allow Christ to take us closer to our Father's presence by trying to be better and exercising faith in His power to forgive us.

I'm grateful for the gift of repentance. I get upset with myself sometimes, especially when I feel like I'm making the same mistakes again and again. Because of my faith, believe I can change even the sins that I commit regularly (eventually). Over the past few years, I've made a stronger effort to better follow the Gospel and to improve my personal righteousness. I have felt a difference in my prayers and in my confidence in receiving answers to my prayers, as well as in my ability to recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost in my own life. I'm grateful for President Nelson's invitation to do better which has helped me maintain focus on improving myself.