Sunday Reflections

We had a great lesson this past Sunday on preparation.  The following quote from the lesson was one that I found to be very inspiring!

"World-class athletes and university doctoral students spend hours and days and weeks and months and even years of preparation. Daily drops of preparation are required of them to come out on top. Likewise, those who wish to qualify for exaltation in the celestial kingdom are expected to live a higher standard of obedience that comes by practicing the virtue of obedience day by day and drop by drop." 

If you have not yet had the chance to read the talk given by Sister Linda K. Burton that was used for this lesson I have included a link below.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/11/general-womens-session/prepared-in-a-manner-that-never-had-been-known?lang=eng

I hope that you all have a great week and I look forward to seeing you next Sunday!

Nancy

Sunday Reflections

The lesson in Relief Society was based on President Monson's October Conference Sunday morning talk, "I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee".

President Monson touched on loosing his dear wife. "To say that I miss her does not begin to convey the depth of my feelings". However, his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ has provided comfort to him during this tender time.

Everyone on this earth goes through suffering and sorrow. No one is free from turmoil and misery. "Sadness and suffering are universal". At times we feel like asking the question, "why me?" when we feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel and we are encompassed by disappointment and despair.  Sometimes "we are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism".  These are the times when a a fundamental question remains to be answered by each of us: Shall I falter, or shall I finish?

The class discussed a few ways which help us individually get through those hard patches in life. Those times when we feel like faltering but want to press on:
- Special scriptures, encouraging us to press on, can be placed in locations we will easily read to remind us of our Saviors desire for us to succeed.
- Our faith in knowing the Savior loves us can be a reminder to us when we feel alone.
- Visual pictures of our Saviors embrace can remind us that he is always near if we seek his help through prayer.
- Looking to the future and not dwelling on the past can help us get out of a rut.

"Our Heavenly Father . . . knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass." These trials allow us to change for the better and "rebuild our lives in a way our Heavenly Father teaches us and become" someone better than before. More understanding, empathetic, and with stronger testimonies. Being more spiritually refined! How are you making sure you are growing through your challenges in life? Are you staying the same or becoming more spiritually refines?

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I pray that our trials and experiences will make us stronger people and that we can rely on the help, comfort, and strength of the Lord to get us through these times. The Savior says, "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" Joshus 1:5. He is always there if we just turn to him and ask him help.

Sunday Reflections

Our Father in heaven established a plan of salvation for his spirit children...to enable them to advance and progress until they obtain eternal life.

In the premortal spirit world, we rejoiced to learn of Heavenly Father's plan of salvation. This plan is to enable the children of God to become like him and have the power and wisdom and knowledge which he possesses.

The Fall of Adam and Eve was part of Heavenly Father's plan.  Had Adam and Eve not partaken, the great gift of mortality would not have come to them.  Moreover, they would have had no posterity, and the great commandment given to them by the Lord would not be fulfilled.

Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice to save us from the Fall and from our sins.  Adam's transgression brought these two deaths, spiritual and temporal -- man being banished from the presence of God, and becoming mortal and subject to all the ills of the flesh.  In order that he should be brought back again, there had to be a  reparation of the broken law.  Justice demanded it.

Building on the foundation of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we work out our salvation during mortality.  The plan of salvation consists of the following steps: faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and finally enduring to the end.

All people will receive the blessing of resurrection through the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

We came into this world to die.  Physical death of the mortal man, is not a permanent separation of the spirit and the tabernacle of flesh, notwithstanding the fact that the body returns again to the elements, but is only a temporary separation which shall cease at the resurrection day when the body shall be called forth from the dust to live again animated by spirit.

The faithful will inherit eternal life with their families in the presence of Heavenly Father. The Scriptures say that eternal life -- which is the life possessed by our Eternal Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, -- is the greatest gift of God (see D&C 14:7).  The glorious blessing of eternal inheritance...does not come except through willingness to keep the commandments and even to suffer with Christ if need be.

(From  the third chapter, "Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith", The Plan of Salvation.)

This was a very in depth lesson on the plan of salvation, I have but skimmed the surface and invite you all to read it carefully.  

Wishing you much joy this week

Liese

Sunday Reflections

From "No Other Gods", Elder Dallin H. Oaks, October 2013

Are we serving priorities or gods ahead of the God we profess to worship?

Our twelfth article of faith states our belief in being subject to civil authority and " in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law."  But man's law cannot make moral what God has declared immoral.  Commitment to our highest priority -- to love and serve God -- requires that we look to His law for our standard of behavior.  In this determination we may be misunderstood, and we may incur accusations of bigotry, suffer discrimination or have to withstand invasions of our free exercise of religion.  If so, I think we should remember our first priority -- to serve God -- and , like our pioneer predecessors, push our personal handcarts forward with the same fortitude they exhibited. 

Elder Oaks adds, a teaching of President Thomas S. Monson, from 27 years ago, which applies to this circumstance,  "Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval..."

We must never dilute our first priority-- to have no other priorities ahead of God the Father and His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Finally Elder Oaks concludes with a prayer that God will help us to understand this priority and to be understood by others as we seek to pursue it in a wise and loving way.

God be with you all.

Liese

Sunday Reflections

Sunday's lesson was from the second chapter of the teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith entitled "Our Savior, Jesus Christ".  It is a wonderful lesson reminding us of our brother Jesus Christ and of how important it is for us to know him and work to grow and keep a testimony of him. 

President Smith said, "Let it be uppermost in your minds, now and at all times, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God who came into the world to lay down his life that we might live.  That is the truth, and is fundamental.  Upon that our faith is built."  He continues on to say that it is not necessary for us to rely on the testimonies of others to know this, but that we can receive revelation for ourselves to know without doubt that it is true.

I am grateful for my testimony, that I know Christ lives, that he is the Son of God, and that he atoned for my sins.  The spirit has born witness of this to me. I am grateful for each of you and your testimonies.

Liese

SUNDAY REFLECTIONS

Teachings of Presidents of the Church:  Joseph Fielding Smith 
Chapter 1

"It is my desire to remind you of the nature and kind of being that God is, so that you may worship him in spirit and in truth and thereby gain all of the blessings of his gospel."

God is our Father; he is the being in whose image man is created.  He has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's (D&C130:22), and he is the literal and personal father of the spirits of all men.  He is omnipotent and omniscient; he has all power and all wisdom; and his perfections consist in the possession of all knowledge, all faith or power, all justice, all judgment, all mercy, all truth, and the fullness of all godly attributes... if we are to have that perfect faith by which we can lay hold upon eternal life, we must believe in God as the possessor of the fullness of all these characteristics and attributes.  I say also that he is an infinite and eternal being, and as an unchangeable being, he possesses these perfected powers and attributes from everlasting to everlasting, which means from eternity to eternity.

We know that our Heavenly Father is a glorified, exalted personage who has all power, all might, and all dominion, and that he knows all things.  We testify that he, through his Only Begotten Son, is the Creator of this earth and of worlds without number.

I also testify of my Heavenly Father, that He is, that He knows me, that He hears my prayers, and that he wants us to be happy and live a joy filled life.

It is my hope that each of us will strive to know our Heavenly Father and develop a relationship with him.

Wishing you a wonderful week.
Liese

Sunday Reflections

We had a wonderful lesson yesterday reminding us that our Heavenly Father knows us, is mindful of what is happening in our lives, and hears our prayers.

From the 2005 Spring Conference address " The Tender Mercies of the Lord", Elder Bednar said, "I have reflected repeatedly upon the phrase "the tender mercies of the Lord."  Through personal study, observation, pondering, and prayer, I believe I have come to better understand that the Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Truly, the Lord suits "his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men". (D&C 46:15)"

The trick is to identify and remember these tender mercies.  The hours of each day fly by so quickly and everything is just a blur as we fall into bed at night, but it is important that we take time to reflect on our day and recognize the hand of the Lord.  It may also be beneficial to record these tender mercies for ourselves when we may be feeling alone and need a reminder or for our posterity.

Wishing you a wonderful, joy filled week.
Liese