Normally when reading the Ensign or watching the General Relief Society broadcast, I'm given spiritual strength and uplifted by the words shared, I write them, I apply them in my family and I move forward. However, these past few weeks, as I study I feel a strong relationship between each source of knowledge that connects my thoughts so clearly. I can't help but feel that the Lord is preparing me for something greater, by helping me to see the wider connection of the concepts I'm studying and helping me understand their significance in my life.
First, I recently was watching Music and the Spoken Word on a Sunday morning. I just LOVE the speaker guy, Lloyd D. Newell . I'm still learning to love the Mormon Tabernacle choir. They're amazingly talented and the music moves me but I'm still learning. But what I really love about Music and the Spoken Word is the way the words and the music connect. It allows me to see hymns in a new light and with new attached meaning. On Sunday the 8th of September, I was just enjoying the word and getting ready for church and he started talking about endurance. I sat a listen more intently. He said, "You’ll find that happiness is not bound by our circumstances—rather, it is activated by our choices." I was hooked, I love learning about choosing happiness and hearing about others finding joy in their own journey. It's easy for some and I personally don't feel like it's too difficult for me but I also feel very blessed to have a generally happy and easy going life. I know it's not always going to be this easy to be happy and being able to find those joys is a skill to attain now. He said something that made me run to my journal and scramble to remember and write each word, he said, "It has been said that while pain and heartache are inevitable, misery is optional. In other words, even amid the difficulties and adversities of life, we can choose happiness and reject misery." I take so much comfort in this and I also feel a special challenge from my Heavenly Father to avoid misery, it's optional, and to endure with faith and happiness through the hardest of times. I think more than anything, this got me excited, I'm excited to be tried, and to succeed with joy!
I was reading a story in the Ensign called, "The Healing Balm of Hope" and I couldn't help but notice how much it related to my thoughts throughout the week. One of my favorite quotes from the article was, "Divine hope is sustained not because things always turn out as we wish but because we know that “all things wherewith [we] have been afflicted shall work together for [our] good” and to the glory of the Lord’s name (D&C 98:3). I know this is true, I know we can be made more whole each day through our trials and that they are for our good. This knowledge makes it close to impossible for me to ever be sad, I know I'm growing and no matter the trial, its design for my progression to perfection. SO beautiful. Throughout the week Chad struggled to find the right topic to teach in combined relief society and priesthood that Sunday. I felt prompted to suggest this talk and as we prepared the lesson together I was so enlightened by the message of hope and excited to hear what the spirit would have Chad instruct on Sunday. The lesson was perfect, so many wonderful stories of hope and faith were shared and we discussed the 10 different ways we can better cultivate hope in our lives. I was happy to have followed the Lords prompting and saw the fruits of my labors that RS/P meeting. All credit to the Savior (always) and as I believe I was taught more through this experience than anyone, I'm so grateful for Him.
Next, The General Relief Society broadcast. Always so inspiring and uniting to be in a room full of dedicated sisters ready to grow closer to God. The obvious theme of the broadcast was keeping covenants (with special emphasis on our baptismal covenants) and how to do that. I loved every speaker, it was all so inspired and connected perfectly. I learned so much from the first speaker, Sister Linda K. Burton. She explained that an invitation to share a burden is an invitation to keep our covenants. Not only should be be more adamant about lifting others burdens to express our love to the Savior, but we express that same love by allowing others to keep their covenants and share our burdens. Sister Carole M Stephens reiterated this thought with her quote from Elder Holland, “an invitation that is born of our love for others and for the Lord Jesus Christ … will never be seen as offensive or judgmental.” This to me was so powerful as I'm always the one allowing myself to ignore promptings out of fear of others taking offense. I know if my intents are pure, the Lord can soften the hearts of those around us and help them see and feel the Christ-like love behind our actions. I need to lift burdens without fear and be courageous enough to say, “Don’t be offended. That’s ridiculous!” She continues to remind us that we have the opportunity to be instruments in the Lords hands and how great that is. She uses a scripture from Ammon but I connect more with Mosiah 23:10(My favorite scripture since high school, that I now continue to learn new principles from.) "Nevertheless, after much trials and tribulations, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to the knowledge of His truth." Through our trials, the Lords makes us instruments! It is a blessing and an honor.
Sister Linda S Reeves spoke to us and I felt that she further illustrated the importance of understanding and living our baptismal covenants more fully. As I listen to her talk for the second time this week, I realized that her counsel to reflect on our baptismal covenants the day before the Sabbath is so beneficial I plan to read them and apply them each Saturday in preparation for Sunday so that as I take the sacrament, I'm more prepared than just thinking about it during the opening hymn and announcements.
The prophet of the Lord spoke to us in closing and his message reflected on the power of prayer. Each womans circumstances are uniquely and beautifully different but we each have burden as that weigh us down. President Monson reminded us that Gods love is not circumstantial and that "weather we deserve it or not" the Lord will answer our prayers and love us to the end. then he said, prayer must be our anchor, and I SO love that. I don't know if its because my mind is stuck on the "nautical setting" for baby Liam but the visualization of a anchor in my beliefs being prayer is so real to me.
These messages of Faith, Hope, Prayer, and Service ring so true. These past few weeks have been amazing and I feel so prepared for the next trial the Lord offers me. Last night in my reading, I was studying hope a little more and ran across a Mormon message I had never seen. Please watch it! We're given trials but we have hope! And when we have hope we practice faith more readily and through our faith and prayers we are made whole. I rejoice the the fact that we can hope!
Here is a link to the general Relief Society Broadcast if you missed it!
http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/general-relief-society-meeting/2013/09?cid=HPMO093013100&lang=eng
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