Raising my kids, moment by moment,
is the hardest thing I have ever done.
because I know it matters.
because I want to do it right.
because I know I won't.
because I still must try.
And mostly because there is no way I can do it alone.
I made this blog as a place to gather the inspiration as well as somewhere to put the ridiculous amount of photos I take, trying desperately to see this crazy time in our lives for what it really is--soul stretching wonderfulness, I won't want to forget.
It's short. I've listened to it a few time now, loading the dishwasher. And bits of it have lingered with me.
She says this book's purpose is to get the women of the church from where they are, to where thy need to be.
She describes feeling stuck, and having a dream (abotu 6 minutes in) "I am not prone to having dreams," she explained, "that I can even remember, but I had a very vivid dream in this place where I was stuck."
She discribes going on a hike, following someone, but she looses sight of them and ends up lost in an amusement park.
"I couldn't see any way out, I could see over the walls at where I needed to be, but couldn't figure out how to get there."
She decided maybe this dream meant that she needed to lay aside some of the amusements of the world, so she could have the Spirit of the project again.
She then almost immediately felt, "Maybe this isn't just an allegory for me, but this is an allegory, for the women of the world or the sisters in the church that they have allowed the amusements of the world to encroach upon them...they're lost in an amusement park, and they need to lay aside the things of this world and seek for the things of a better. That felt like, again that originall injunction that we need to get the sisters in the church form where there are to where they need to be."
This world is so noisy, so flashy, so full of things we can constantly be reading , checking, viewing.
Things that dont' really feed our souls, or make us grow.
I don't think this was meant in a accusatory way. We all get sucked in to the cares and values of this world. I think it comes as a gentle invitation, to follow the Saviour, away from the noise, away from the clamour and find greater peace and purpose.
There is so much good to take in, and we live in an age when there is endless accessibility to interesting things. But we are also warned again adn again to not let the good, crowd out the best.
I love how the women who wrote of a constitution for the women in church, (with their oh-so- womanly way: seeking for ways to improve, serve and gather) were told by Joseph Smith that the Lord had "something better" (see chapter 2, in Daughters of my Kindgom)
When he did organize them, shortly there after, he left them with a promise, "If you live up to these principles how great and glorious!—if you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates. … If you will be pure, nothing can hinder."
Joseph Smith
If you remember back (to this post) my word for myself this year is "purify".
Things that are impure have fillers and additives, things that aren't essential, that sometimes aren't even real.
What amusements are tainting my life? what is robbing me, even of just the time I could spend in more soul satisfying pursuits? Learning of the Lord, or serving and loving His children.
That is what pure sources offer, true satisfaction.
Sister Eliza R Snow said the Holy Ghost “satisfies and fills up every longing of the human heart, and fills up every vacuum. I am filled with that Spirit,” she continued, “my soul is satisfied, and I can say in good earnest, that the trifling things of the day do not seem to stand in my way at all. But just let me lose my hold of that spirit and power of the Gospel, and partake of the spirit of the world, in the slightest degree, and trouble comes; there is something wrong. I am tried, and what will comfort me? You cannot impart comfort to me that will satisfy the immortal mind, but that which comes from the Fountain above. And is it not our privilege to so live that we can have this constantly flowing into our souls?”
There is so much in my life that doesn't satisfy....really. Things that, even though "not bad" have me "partake in the spirit of the world" just a bit too much. That, to use Joseph Smith's wording "hinder" me.
This scripture story reminds me of one of my favorite songs.
And leave me feeling lost in an amusement park, wandering, instead of purposefully following my Master in the paths He would have me take.
I think He's always walking with us, but like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, maybe we don't always recognizing Him there.
If we can get away from the distractions....
In RS today we learned about the Six Destructive Ds—doubt, discouragement, distraction, lack of diligence, disobedience, and disbelief from this talk.
I found it very interesting that distraction came after discouragment. I know in my life when I seek distraction most, is when I haven't sought as diligently for the encourgement of the Lord and His Spirit.
I'm grateful for Daughters in My Kingdom, not just as a new resource (yet another manual) but as a gift from our Heavenly Father, that has the power, specifically to help women, like me, who are trying to get from where I am to where I need to be--which is beside my Savior, close enough to feel His power, His mercy and His help. And His love.
Yesterday I gave a Relief Society lesson on Visting Teaching.
I really wanted the sisters to feel that the Lord had prepared more blessings, more joy, more friendship, more growth, more peace and help and strength for them as they minister to their sisters.
Right away some sisters shared beautiful experiences of being on sacred ground as they have tried to love and serve and listen to their sisters. I love teaching in my ward...their is so much wisdom and experience, so much enthusiasm and love. Really, should I talk at all?
I kept thinking as a prepared, the Lord is not in the business of burdening. He's very adamant about it in fact:Comeunto me, allyethatblabourand are heavy laden, and I will give youcrest... For my yokeisaeasy, and my burden is light.
So why do our responsibilities in the gospel at times seem so heavy? We forget the yoking part!
My friend was telling me about a talk she listened to (which maybe she'll post a link in the comments if she reads this?) where the function of yokes was discussed. That it wasn't just sharing the load, but the the yoke was actually designed so that when both animals are correctly yokes the load eased upon both their backs, so much so that one animal in a yoke couldn't pull the load. It doesn't work.
Nope he doesn't burden, nor does He give us mere "busy work". He is, however, very much in the business of blessing and most definitely in the business of our progression. Everything he requires of us is for our own good, for our growth and development. For us to become more like Him. And we have been promised peace and joy along the way.
In our diligent efforts to fulfill all of the duties and obligations we take on as members of the Church, we sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossibly long to-do list, as a block of time that we must somehow fit into our busy schedules. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why.My dear sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an obligation; it is a pathway, marked by our loving Father in Heaven, leading to happiness and peace in this life and glory and inexpressible fulfillment in the life to come. The gospel is a light that penetrates mortality and illuminates the way before us.
... When we understand why our Heavenly Father has given us this pattern for living, when we remember why we committed to making it a foundational part of our lives, the gospel ceases to become a burden and, instead, becomes a joy and a delight. It becomes precious and sweet."
So why do we visit teach????
Sister Beck has explained that visiting teaching is an expression of our discipleship and a significant way to honor our covenants. "As committed disciples of the Savior," she goes on to say, "we are improving in our ability to do the things He would do if He were here. We know that to Him it is our caring that counts, and so we are trying to concentrate on caring about our sisters rather than completing lists of things to do. True ministry is measured more by the depth of our charity than by the perfection of our statistics."
It is easy to get caught up in the doing. Which is good. A desire to be obedient, comes from love of our Saviour. But sometimes we just get fixated on the doing, the finishing the accomplishing. When the ultimate "task" the Saviour has given us is to become like Him. And, that my friends, will not be "checked-off" anytime soon.
But I believe there is meant to be joy in the process. That rob ourselves of some of the significance when we get to concerned with completion.
I came across this quote in Daughters of my Kingdom by Louise Y. Robison, Seventh Relief Society General President, and it really struck me.
“If we only half do our work we will have no pleasure, if we do it from a sense of duty we will have no joy, but if we feel we are a branch of this vine, and that our Father in Heaven has felt us to be worthy to be a member of that branch, and that we can carry this work when it is here to do, then we will have joy.”
Made me think of the New Testament when Christ warns that if we do things with anything but pure motives (ie to be scene of men), we will "have [our] reward." Matt 6:2
I don't want the reward of my own making, my own pride getting patted on the back. I want my Father in Heaven approval, I wan His Spirit and it's beautiful gifts: joy, peace, love.
The catch is inorder to REALLY do what we've been asked, to fully participate in His work, we have to involve the Lord. We can not do it alone.
We need His power. Pres. Ezra Taft Benson taught:“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.”
In that moment! I love the immediacy of that!
That is the moment, I believe, we also find more joy in our service as well. More peace.
These ideas have come to me in a few areas of my life, not just visiting teaching.
Pulling back and asking myself, what is the WHY behind what I am doing? What is the purpose in my doing and have I missed the mark? Have I voided this process of it's blessings by focusing too much on the task at hand, of my own duty instead of the Lord's involvement and direction.
When we involve the Lord and let Him lead us through, He has a wonderful way of pointing out the beauty. Like any good teacher, the learning is enriched in their presence.
I finished the lesson by sharing one last experience I had preparering the lesson. It was Saturday night, and I was tired. I had prepared lots, long before, but I still wanted to piece together my remaining thoughts. McKye apparently didn't get the memo that mommy had set aside this time for her lesson, and would not stay in bed. I was frustrated and feeling more scattered by the minute. Then the Lord pulled me away from the kitchen table littered with all my materials, said leave this, I have something to show you. I settled on the couch (McKye at my feet, finally drifting off, happy with his hard-won victory over mommy who told him he had to go back to bed). I got my bible out and turned to John 17.
This is why. The Spirit said gently.
This is why we do everything-- visiting teaching, missionary work, temple work, teach our families... because of Jesus Christ's atonement.
When we have felt the saving power of His sacrifice we want to help as many as we can also feel the peace of becoming His.
this is alifebeternal, that they might cknow thee the only true dGod, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast esent.
I recently began reading the Book of Mormon again (Ben is a really good example to me, he's always lapping me)
At the end of the first chapter (1 Nephi 1:20) I have always written the word "THESIS".
My english background, made me pay attention to Nephi's words "I will show you...", basically he's saying this is my whole purpose on writing.
"I will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
MAKE US: change us, increase our capacities, not a passive "here you go" help, but a grace that not only aids but builds and affects who you are!
Unto the POWER of DELIVERENCE: deliverence from? sin, effects of sin, regret, guilt, doubt, fear, hopelessness, individual weakness: impatience, indecisiveness, negative self-talk, temptation to compare
To deilver me from myself, unto my POTENTIAL.
From my natural man tendencies, reactions and "default" modes--to become a Saint through Christ's power, to be like Christ--to be full of love.
For Christ-like qualities, like love, gentleness, meekness, to become my default!
Even when I'm tired, even when I'm "fed-up!"
I can become MIGHTY in my own endurance, in my temerance, in my long-suffering, in my godliness.
With these ideas in my head, I started posting my Relief Society lesson on dreams. And it hit me, one of my "dreams" is me.
A better me. A me who pushed through to who I could and was meant to be.
My dream is about becoming.
Conversely, my greatest frustrations in this life come from my own falibalness. My dream is to become like Christ. To think and feel and react like He would. To have the peace not of "perfection" but of those made pure, refined. The purity of His love, the singleness of His mind and purposes. No pride mixed in the motives, only love.
That's MY dream. To be full up of love.
On Sunday I was "re"set apart, still as a counsellor in Relief Society but with a new President. I loved sitting there and hearing the blessings of the other sisters. The President was told she was "full of humility, and full of kindness". The other councillor (and having known her a bit now I thought this could Not be more accurate!) was told she was full of goodness, full of service, full of goodness."
I joked with Ben that I'm just "full of it", but than realized I'm very much still filling up, and I'm so grateful for the example of "full" women to teach and guide me.
In the book Mary, Martha and Me, Camille Fronk Olsen paraphrases the Apostle Paul who taught of the fruit "of the flesh". She describes them as including "a sense of inferiority, pride, impatience, dissatisfaction, jealousy, and contention (see Galatians 5:19-21) But as we read on in verses 22-23, ont he other hand we have the fruits of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance." Those good qualities those sisters through serving in the Spirit had "filled up on".
I've been thinking a lot about my "defaults", unfortunately the "fruits of my flesh"...my bit my tongue moments, or "the last straw, flying off the handle, the in-a-nut-shell my "not my best moment" moments (Sadly he ones Ben always seems to be around for! I'm try so hard all day and by the time he gets home I feel so spent)
Sister Eliza R Snow said that the Holy Ghost "satisfies and fills up every longing of the human heart, and fills up every vacuum. When I am filled with that Spirit, my soul is satisfied, and I can say in good earnest, that the trifling things of the day do not seem to stand in my way at all.But just let me lose my hold of that spirit and power of the Gospel, and partake of the spirit of the world, in the slightest degree and trouble comes; there is something wrong. I am tired, and what will confort me? You can not impart comfort to me that will satisfy the immortal mind, but that which comes from the Fountain above. And is it not our privilege to so live that we can have this constantly flowing into our souls?"
Flowing in and filling us up, changing us.
Filling us with its fruits and freeing us of the trouble (not the challenges, not the hardship but just some of the trouble we cause ourselves by our reactions).
Oh to live up to our privileges! To have that Spirit with us, to fill and fulfil us. To deliver us from ourselves, and through His mercy make us mighty.
Nephi's thesis. My dream. A long process. But doable, day by day, relying on that Spirit.
Seeing as I already referenced this lesson I thought I better post it.
Photo courtesy of McKye...I like thinking this is an image he sees often.
So I was asked to speak to a bunch of LDS college students last month. And I wanted to talk to them about dreams, and about how life doesn't always turn out like we plan, but that if we turn our life over to the Lord He will make everything amazing.
When I was asked to switch months for teaching Relief Society, that talk was still swirling in my ind, and it got re-vamped for the sisters. It was very interesting to see how the message changed for a different group of children of God. Both went well...a message I needed to internalize, one I know pretty good in theory but too often forget in the everyday.
Relief Society Lesson “From Him I’ll Gain my Fondest Dream”
Think about some of the dreams you had? Who’s on plan “A”? (I was at a women's conference where that was asked and out of hundred of sisters only a couple rose their hand, and I'm pretty sure they missed the question!)
In a journal I have at home I have a dream list. Things I want to do & see in this life. I started that list in my first year of university and I have added to and altered it over time. I have even been blessed to check off quite a few things. See a Broadway play. Graduate University.
I was blessed to serve a mission, marry in the temple, and become a mother. And there are yet things I hope to do.
But today I want to talk to you about some of the things that weren’t on my list.
Think about what wasn’t on your list? things you didn’t expect.
I didn’t include on my list for my father in law only a few months after my own wedding to abandon, my new mother inlaw, his wife of 25 years and their 8 children, I didn’t plan on the emotional havoc that would reek on the family had just become a part of. I didn’t include on the list of dreams for my eldest son Aaron to be Autistic and unable to speak unable to tell me where it hurts when he’s sick, or if kids are mean to him, I didn’t plan on countless hours and days devoted to his various therapies and … I didn’t expect to not really sleep for 5 years, while I worked the “night shift” as a young mom of three boys. Yup three boys. I didn’t plan on my husband changing his degree, or working in a job were he is required to travel extensively, he’s away right now infact. Nope. None of these things were on my dream list. I could spend hours telling you a various heartbreaks of friends and families and ward members, much more difficult than mine.
I spoke on this topic a few weeks ago at the institute. Where their dreams were all shiny new. Same topic, very different deliverance. Because when I said to them "Life is hard"….they thought they knew it was. When I say to you ladies: "Life is hard"…I have no doubt you know that all too well.
Life is hard.
There is a reason this encouraging quote by Orson F Whitney is often quoted
QUOTE #1:
“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”1
QUOTE #2: Sister Beck has said “Questions about adversity, trial and struggles are the most universal because of the fact that we all struggle with something almost all of the time.
That was a liberating statement for me, because I thought “Oh, I can stop wondering when it’s gonna let up!”
Sister Beck the general Relief Society president, in a receipt interview spoke of meeting with sisters all over the world and hearing about their unmet dreams and expectations.
Some, she said, are sad because they are not married, or are and can’t have children. Others have families but struggle with the challenges that brings they didn't expect. Some are sad because they don’t have enough money. Others deal with sickness or death, that no amount of money can fix.
Sister Beck says that the underlying idea of all these things is that we all want to “live the dream.” Now.
ON BOARD LIST:
WORLD'S DREAM VS THE LORD'S DREAM FOR US
[we had SUCH a great discussion as we brainstormed the differences of what the Lord wants for us and what Satan makes us think we want!]
The world, under Satan’s philosophy tries to convince us that you can buy anything in this world for money, he wants us to believe that if we just wear the right clothes, or drive the right car, choose the right degree, so you can afford the right house in the right neighborhood and obtain this allusive lifestyle of constant fun and glamour, you will be able to avoid any pain, disappointment, sorrow or struggle.
I love how Sister beck put it: Despite popular media messages to the contrary, no one is rich enough, beautiful enough, or clever enough to avoid a mortal experience. In fact she says, it’s what we all signed up for.
Quote #3: Pres, Uchdorft warned us in the last general Relief Society
So many people today are waiting for their own golden ticket—the ticket that they believe holds the key to the happiness they have always dreamed about. For some, the golden ticket may be a perfect marriage; for others, a magazine-cover home or perhaps freedom from stress or worry.
There is nothing wrong with righteous yearnings—we hope and seek after things that are “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.”4The problem comes when we put our happiness on hold as we wait for some future event—our golden ticket—to appear.
Quote # 4: Sister Beck: A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her that she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence.
Sister Sheri Dew: “It is not possible to sin enough to be happy. It isn't possible to buy enough to be happy, or to entertain or indulge or pamper ourselves enough to be happy. It is not possible to hide enough or run far enough away from trials and troubles to be happy. Happiness and joy come only when we are living up to who we are...
Let’s look at some examples of people in the scriptures who strove to live up to who they were & who God wanted them to be.
PETER- Peter built up his fishing business, was asked to leave it all to follow Christ. Luke 5 :10 "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men…forsook all and followed him."
Straight away left his nets…
A return sister missionary gave an extraordinary talk last stake conference where she shared how after Christ’s death he goes back to fishing, back to the familiar, forgetting what he had learned. The Savior basically reenacts his call, by telling him to cast his nets on the other side. Christ asks later on shore lovest thou more than these?
Are our nets on the right side? Or are we saying to the Lord, look I’ve been here all day and caught nothing, unwilling to move our nets…our dreams/efforts etc
What dreams do we cling to because they’re familiar? What nets are so comfortable that they prevents us from seeing what the Lord has prepared for us?
ABRAHAM- dreamed his whole life of having a child, and just when his dream came true the Lord tests him.
Abraham, putting his long awaited dream on the alter.
What does the story of Abraham teach us about what the Lord wants from us and for us?
Sis Beck “Life is a series of losses”…Again this was a very freeing thought to me. But in reality everything we give up, if we give it to the Lord will can trust the God fulfills His promises.
Elder Holland has assured us:
Some blessings come soon,
some come late,
and some don’t come until heaven;
but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ,
they come.
Love that. So what is the purpose of our waiting?
(Skipped all this next bit...that's one of the hardest parts of teaching for me, being willing to follow the Spirit when it leads me to omitt "good stuff" that I prepared)
Elder Holland “An High Priest of Good Things to Come”
Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”
On those days when we have special need of heaven’s help, we would do well to remember one of the titles given to the Savior in the epistle to the Hebrews…Paul—tells us that through His mediation and Atonement, Christ became “an high priest of good things to come.” 1
Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. Moroni spoke of it in the Book of Mormon as “hope for a better world.” For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of “good things to come.”
My declaration is that this is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in times of need. There is help. There is happiness. There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the Light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, the “light that is endless, that can never be darkened.” 3 It is the very Son of God Himself. …
To any who may be struggling to see that light and find that hope, I say: Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve. Christ comes to you …with a future of “better promises.” He is your “high priest of good things to come.”
…I think of young mothers and fathers who are faithfully having their families while still in school—or just newly out—trying to make ends meet even as they hope for a brighter financial future someday. At the same time, I think of other parents who would give any earthly possession they own to have a wayward child return.
I think of single parents who face all of this but face it alone, having confronted death or divorce, alienation or abandonment, or some other misfortune they had not foreseen in happier days and certainly had not wanted.
I think of those who want to be married and aren’t, those who desire to have children and cannot, those who have acquaintances but very few friends, those who are grieving over the death of a loved one or are themselves ill with disease. I think of those who suffer from sin—their own or someone else’s—who need to know there is a way back and that happiness can be restored. I think of the disconsolate and downtrodden who feel life has passed them by, or now wish that it would pass them by. To all of these and so many more, I say: Cling to your faith. Hold on to your hope. “Pray always, and be believing.” 5 Indeed, as Paul wrote of Abraham, he “against [all] hope believed in hope” and “staggered not … through unbelief.” He was “strong in faith” and was “fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able … to perform.” 6
How have God’s sure promises helped you hold on?
Pres Uchdorft used a fairytale analogy
Sandwiched between their “once upon a time” and “happily ever after,” they all had to experience great adversity. Why must all experience sadness and tragedy? Why could we not simply live in bliss and peace, each day filled with wonder, joy, and love? The scriptures tell us there must be opposition in all things, for without it we could not discern the sweet from the bitter.2…in stories, as in life, adversity teaches us things we cannot learn otherwise. Adversity helps to develop a depth of character that comes in no other way. Our loving Heavenly Father has set us in a world filled with challenges and trials so that we, through opposition, can learn wisdom, become stronger, and experience joy.
Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.
Hebrews 12:2
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Christ finished His work, He is on the right hand of God and offers us the same reward.
Quote #5: Barbara B Smith said: We have the power and the capacity to inherit all that our Father has if we will begin the process and continue until we become what we are really meant to be.
Each individual is entitled to determine the ultimate destiny of his or her life. We can choose to use the powers within to have a happy life of continual growth and development that leads to eternal progression, or we can choose to follow the crowd of other people struggling to a top that leads to nowhere. (Barabara B Smith the power within us)
Did you hear the choices? All that the Father hath, or nothing?
2 Nephi 2 :27 men are free… to chooseliberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
Eternal joy or misery.
How could this be a difficult choice?
We are free. WE can choose Christ EVERY TIME.
There are so many things in life we can’t control, included some of those dreams we have on our lists.
What are we free to choose?
There are alot of things in this life, beyond our control that we can't choose, BUT the choice we can always make, despite circumstance, or other’s agency, or sin, we can ALWAYS choose to go to Christ.
How have you used your agency to choose Christ despite things beyond your control?
I testify, there is nothing better than the gospel. The world offers you nothing. Satan will never support you, he abandons and leaves heartache and regret EVERY TIME. Whereas the Savior offers us everything!!
Sister Beck has explained “that mortality is NOT the dream, it is what prepares us for the dream! Preparing you so you can appreciate it and so it will have value.
He knows what He wants you life to be.
"This is my work and my glory." Glory includes knowledge. It’s like he’s saying, “This is my work, and I KNOW what I’m doing. I know how to save and exalt you. I know how to get you where you are going; I know how to make you who you are meant to become. I know how to make your dreams come true. Trust me.
So back to MY dream list. I don’t look at it as much as I once did. Instead, I spend more time on my knees trying to find out His will on a daily basis. Because I have learned something as I go back to what I see now as a bit immature plan for what a good life would include. I have learned that truth that Pres Benson taught that :
“Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He can deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, and pour out peace.”
I have learned that my Heavenly father’s dream for me is so much bigger and deeper than any I could have for myself. “I’m preparing you for the dream, so you can appreciate it, so it will have value!”
So I ask you to consider: One day, perhaps not until the next life, I know my son will finally look me in the eye and be able to say “I love you mommy” and what do you think that will mean to me? Will I take that for granted? Not a chance.
What dream will you defiantly not take for granted because of the experiences you've had in this life?
Remember:
Some blessings come soon,
some come late,
and some don’t come until heaven;
but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ,
they come.
One day we will all meet our Savior, who paid the price for all of our dreams TO COME TRUE. And if in this life we have turned to Him, if we have used his great gift of the PRECIOUS atonement, if we have served and loved Him, and let HIM tell us what dreams we should be working towards, as the hymn says, “from Him we’ll gain our fondest dream!”
What does that look like for you?
I was going to ask you to close your eyes. and picture it...but As beautiful as that image might be….it’s wouldn't be accurate because the scriptures say the dream is beyond our abilities to imagine. In fact, that dream is described the same way in every single one of the standard works.
Isa. 64: 4.men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the aeye seen, …what [God] hath bprepared for him that waiteth for him.
9 But as it is written, aEye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath bprepared for them that love him.
16 And after this manner do they bear record: The aeye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;
116 Neither is man acapable to make them known, for they are only to be bseen and cunderstood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who dlove him, and purify themselves before him;
d&c 76:10 For by my aSpirit will I benlighten them, and by my cpower will I make known unto them the dsecrets of my ewill—yea, even those things which feye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man
The Spirit can teach us and lead us to the greater dreams and purposes that the Lord has prepared for us in this life, those that will prepare us for eternity...
Then shall I see and hear and know
All I desired or wished below
And ev'ry power find sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy.
(Sweet is the work, Hymn #147 verse 4)
He will show us the way to the dream of all dreams: eternal life and exaltation, that we can’t even imagine.
That we will all let Him, and that we might live so that we might "Gain from Him our fondest dreams" is my prayer,
