Always Remember

There are certain experiences in our lives that we need to hear over and over again. We forget these pivotal times in our lives where we have learned and grown and become better.

Why would we have these experiences if not to teach us more in the future and to help others learn as well.

I was reading in my journal from my mission and came across an entry where I learned a lot about myself and the person that I wanted to become.


July 17th 2013
(yes, 2 years ago people!)

Monday- A new look with my eyes and heart

I want to be able to love everyone the way Christ did. It wasn't just a toleration, but a true genuine love. People's well being and families are important.
I want to be able to love God more. That I will love His children, but also His other creations.
I bore my testimony in the Women's Garden of the majesty of our God. He loves us enough to give us a beautiful Earth filled with things to bless and enrich out lives further.
I AM able to see people with God's eyes and with His heart with His power that He bestows upon me in accordance with my righteousness and obedience.
When others are not acting the way that would be appropriate, I AM going to love them. When they say something hurtful, I AM going to love them.
I AM able to have a change of heart to see and treat people with an ETERNAL LOVE.
---


I read that today and it was exactly what I needed to hear. It wasn't easy to love everyone all the time in Nauvoo, and yet, I look at each of the Elders and Sisters I served with and I can think to myself, "I LOVE THEM".


Last night in the temple during Prayer Meeting, one of the Matrons of the Temple shared the scripture in Alma 5 that reads,
"And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?... I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?"

I want to remember this experience and scripture. I want to be able to pull it from my heart and mind when I feel the temptation to not love someone. Everyone is deserving of His love and sometimes the Lords uses us to show that love to others. We are instruments in His hands and we must be more like He who lived and died for us.

How I was Raised

As I grew up, my parents had fairly high expectations of me. I was the youngest of three and my older siblings set a standard that my parents wanted me to follow. I remember watching my sibling grow up. I saw their failures and their successful moments. I saw how they reacted and how they changed.
They are my heroes.
They have helped me shape who I am and continue to help me understand the person I want to become still.

There was one standard that I remember watching my sister keep sacred to her.

It was respectful and appropriate language.

I remember her telling my mom an experience of her first year in high school where there were people cussing and talking about Mormons in a negative way. She stood up for what she believed in and I remember being in awe of her. How she could have so much courage, it was amazing.
Didn't she care what people thought of her?
Wasn't she scared that they would make fun of her?
I think that answer is yes for both questions, but standing up for her beliefs and standards was MORE important.


I had friend who cussed a lot in 5th grade. I wanted to be just like my sister, but I was really scared that this person would hate me and judge me for being different than everyone else. I thought I would lose a friend. (a 10 year old worries about those sort of things a lot!)

One day, she said a bad word and I just went for it.

Me- "Allison, would you mind not saying those kinds of words around me?"
Allison- "Huh?"
Me- "The bad words.... Can you not say them around me?"
Allison- "Oh, sure! I didn't know they bothered you?"
Me- "Uh, ya, they do. Thanks."

UTTER RELIEF!

Now not everyone reacted that way when I asked them, but Allison was my friend and she respected me and didn't use those words around me ever again. If ever she slipped and did, she would immediately apologize and move on.

I was taught at an early age that foul language is degrading and harmful to our spirits. We should always use clean and wholesome language that uplifts and edifies.

When we choose to stand up for our standards and our beliefs, we are showing that we value the opinion of the Lord more than the opinion of men.

I want to be like Hyrum Smith when the Lord told him, " Blessed is my servant Hyrum Smith; for I the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right."

I love the Lord.
I love his commandments and I WANT to obey them because I LOVE the Lord.

Follow the Gift

day 8

"We need not walk by the shores of Galilee or among the Judean hills to walk where Jesus walked. All of us can walk the path He walked when, with His words ringing in our ears, His Spirit filling our hearts, and His teachings guiding our lives, we choose to follow Him as we journey through mortality. His example lights the way. Said He, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”"

—Thomas S. Monson

The Savior set the perfect example for who we should be, how we should act, and what we should do. By following His example, not only will we find more joy in our lives, but we will be able to reject any evil messages that come from Satan and his followers.

We know what is expected of us on this Earth. We know the commandments that have been placed before us. We know that they are given to us for our good, so we can improve ourselves and become the people that God needs us to be. We know these things.

So why do we not obey them?
Why do we think that we know better than the one who knows all?


We have been given the beautiful gift of agency wherein we can choose for ourselves the path that we want to take. And sometimes, we choose the wrong path.

But that is why we have the Atonement.

To know and experience the Atonement of Jesus Christ does not require us to be in the Garden with Him. We do not have to "see" in order to believe. It is ALWAYS there and it is ever flowing with the love and compassion that only the Savior can give.

#sharethegift

Embrace the Gift

day 2



“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:3–5


What has the Lord done for us?

EVERYTHING

How could we repay him for all that He has done?

Take what He has given and use it!

The Atonement is not for looks or for show. It is a real thing, with so much potential energy.
Use the Atonement! Use it until you feel you have used it all, then you find that there is still so much for you to use!
The Lord has experienced ALL of our sorrows and pains. He felt our weak spirits, literally when we are about to break into thousands of pieces. His Atonement holds us together, never letting the pieces fall through the cracks. With the love that only a God can give, He gently and kindly puts us back together.

"and with his stripes we are healed."

We can be clean and whole again through our Master and Savior. The Prince of Peace, our Advocate and our Brother. As we embrace and act in accordance with the Atonement, we can find everlasting peace and an endless love that rivals all the rest.

Through the month of December, I challenge each one of you to think about ways you can #embracethegift in your own lives and help others do the same.

Endurance

"There are so many things to be endured: illness, injustice, insensitivity, poverty, aloneness, unresponsiveness, being misrepresented and misunderstood, and, sometimes, even enemies. Paul reminds us that meek and lowly Jesus, though the Lord of the universe, “endured contradiction of sinners against himself.” (Heb. 12:3.) Smaller variations of these contradictions or hostilities will be felt by His disciples.

We tend to think only in terms of our endurance, but it is God’s patient long-suffering which provides us with our chances to improve, affording us urgently needed developmental space or time. (See Alma 42:4–5.)

Paul observed, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” (Heb. 12:11.) Such “peaceable fruit” comes only in the appointed season thereof, after the blossoms and the buds.

Otherwise, if certain mortal experiences were cut short, it would be like pulling up a flower to see how the roots are doing. Put another way, too many anxious openings of the oven door, and the cake falls instead of rising. Moreover, enforced change usually does not last, while productive enduring can ingrain permanent change."

- Neal A Maxwell

 

What more can be said than that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been a while... Welcome back!

It's been a while my friends, but I am back and ready for a new adventure of life and happiness.

I have been through A LOT this summer.
There have been things that have tested the limits of my ability to forgive and forget.
I have learned that everyone deserves to be loved and cared for, no matter what they have done or what they believe. Everyone deserves to be forgiven and loved.
And that is my goal for the year. To show people that no matter their circumstance, no matter how far they feel they have fallen off the edge, they are still here, still deserving of every ounce of love and compassion that is out there.



Everyone has been through things that have changed their perspective, life, and hearts.I have been through the hardest test of life and still struggle with it DAILY. It never leaves me. But I chose to push through it and let the warm sun radiate my spirit because I can't let the gray clouds of doubt and fear seep in.
If they do, I am afraid that I will go back to who I was.
So, I will be happy. I will chose joy and smiles over sorrows and pity.
I will help others be happy and want to choose joy over their sorrows. I don't want anyone to feel the pain and sorrow that comes from mistakes and a PAST.

Thanks to a special friend of mine, this is what my answer has been to many of my questions.

Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen. (Alma 26:37)

In Sister Byers words, "it doesn't matter where we are physically, spiritually, or emotionally- no place is too far to not feel his love."

In Jeffrey R Holland's words, "the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it."

I want to be more like the Savior and be merciful and show compassion because everyone deserves that. Because that is what I deserve.

I love my God. I love my faith. I love the mercy that comes from a Savior who knows EXACTLY what I am going through, each and every day.

time flies

So I realized that it has almost been a month since I decided to do this Personal Progress Challenge and I have just barely finished my first experience.
These past few weeks have been CRAZY!

So my experience was Virtue #3.

I read Alma chapter 5 while I was in the temple one day and thought about some of the things that Alma asks.

 13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.

 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

 15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption braised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

I'll be honest, I don't think I am perfect at these things. I'm human and I lose myself in the world. My struggle is to find myself once again and return to the Savior who set the perfect example for me.

I went into my Joseph Smith and the Restoration class one day and my professor commented on how happy I always look and how that really lifted his spirits before class. WOW! I have been told that I am an optimistic person, but to be told that your happiness is lifting another, that is the light of Christ. THAT is having His image in your countenances.

16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

 17 Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?

 18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

 19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

This is intense. I would never think that I could get away with "tricking" my Father in Heaven. I know that He knows all things. When I go to the temple, I especially take note of the fact that I am an imperfect person seeking the blessings of the Atonement and how I can learn to be better.
Perfect in Greek means to be complete or whole and although I can't say that I am perfect according to the world's standards, I can be complete and whole again.

 26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

 27 Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?

 28 Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life.

I love what it says about "sing the song of redeeming love". For me, I rejoice and praise my Lord and Savior through music and song. I love to read hymns during the Sacrament and I will always think back to my mission where I praised the Lord EVERY DAY by playing music that helped people be happy and think of the Savior.

 33 Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you.

I will receive you.

What a beautiful promise. In the temple, He receives us. We learn and grow and draw closer to Him, remembering all of the promises in store for us when we are obedient and worthy.

Whenever I go to the temple, I want to be able to ask myself:
Is your attitude positive and uplifting?
Have you been humble and meek with all your dealings with your fellow man?
Have you made right the wrongs that you have done?
Have you prayed with a sincere heart, seeking forgiveness for the mistakes you have made?

These are deep questions, but if you think about it, it is the Lord's house. Wouldn't you want to be clean and whole and prepared to enter into the temple?
I do.

A Silly Little Thing

Yesterday I decided to go donate plasma before I went to work the WBB vs Gonzaga. I had to wear my work clothes because I would be walking all the way to the Marriott Center from plasma. I got dressed and walked to plasma. I was wearing shoes that were newer and I could feel the pain begin to tingle on me heels from the shoes, but it was fine. I made it there, donated, collected my money, and began my trek to the Marriott Center.
That's when the real pain began.
Apparently, blisters had formed on my heels while I was donating and when I started to walk back, I tore the skin, so the tender, red skin was being rubbed against the back of my cute converse.
It was utterly painful.
I called my dad and needed him to distract me while I tried to walk/limp/hop/skip/run/crawl to my destination. He was trying to make me laugh, but honestly, I HURT!
And I'm not just being a baby.
I hung up the phone with my dad, said a prayer that I would be able to make it there without any severe difficulty, then a sweet miracle happened.

I was crossing the street when a car honked at me. I turned to see a guy that I work with, but don't know very well through the window. He rolled down the window and asked if I was headed to the Marriott Center. I said yes, and he said to hop in!
He told me that he saw my work shirt and knew that I was headed to the game. I didn't tell him that I literally couldn't walk anymore, but I did convey my sincere gratitude for the ride. I grabbed some bandaids and wrapped up my sores.
Alone, I said a prayer of gratitude that my Heavenly Father would be so aware of me, that He would send someone to help me get to work because even He knew I couldn't walk.

It is the little things in my life that remind me of the love that my Heavenly Father has for me. I don't have big spontaneous miracles happen in my life. Instead, I feel like I get a better deal. He gives me experiences that lead me right back to Him. Whether it be a car that picks me up to go to the temple or work, or seeing someone who gives me a hug when I needed love, or even to see that I can make it this year financially. They all lead me back to him. I have been blessed to witness little miracles in my life.
When I was in Nauvoo, we would call them Nauvoo miracles. The little things that helped our testimony and our love for one another.
He knows all of us.
He loves all of us.
He is aware of all our needs and will bless us with things that we need.
I love Him.

Testimony

"You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God; and God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God." - President John Taylor

I have had many experiences this week that have pulled on my heartstrings.

It felt as though the Lord was telling me that I needed to struggle, I needed to go through hard things so I could, in a way, prove to him of my worthiness to achieve the Kingdom of God. 

He knew I could do it. He knew that I had the strength and the capability to overcome my obstacles.

But He also knew that I couldn't do it alone. 

He knew that I HAD to turn to Him and seek His power and grace. I know that I am going through hard things because He wants me to return and live with Him again.

He provided a way for me so that the pain and sorrow from my tender heartstrings wouldn't hurt as bad. He strengthened my back so that I was able to bear all that was placed on me. 

I will continue to be tried and tested. I will meet people who will make me doubt my worth and my potential. I will be confused and afraid.

But I can overcome. Through the power of the Atonement, I can do all things. 

I love this gospel more that life itself. I know my Father in Heaven loves me enough to place trials in my way to test my faith and my dependence on Him. I know I will hurt, but I also know that the happiness and joy will overcome it.

"Repeat the Sounding Joy"

Repeat:
the laughter
the cries of surprise
the smiles that last forever
the longing gazes into the fireplace
the warmth received from the piles and piles of blankets
the marathon of movies
the endless knitting
the beautiful decorations that never want to be taken down
the times when i can look and see my mom and dad beside me with smiles on their faces
the hope
the everlasting joy that comes from the knowledge that there is a Savior who did it all for us, and we can celebrate His birth because He means so much to all of us.

I believe in Christmas because I believe in Christ.