Book of Mormon Reading: Ether 6-11

In my reading today, this particular title of the Savior stood out to me: "Son of Righteousness." (Which, by the way, is found only three times in the scriptures and only in the Book of Mormon).

One way I pondered this titles is that Righteousness is the very personification of our Heavenly Father. One definition of righteousness is "it includes all we call justice, honesty, and virtue, with holy affections; in short, it is true religion."

Thus understanding the true nature of the Godhead is understanding true religion.

Another way I have pondered this title, "Son of Righteousness," is that through obedience to my covenants and by applying the atoning blood of Christ, I, too, can become a daughter of Righteousness. That is why I chose to come to earth--to prove that I want to live His life (which is eternal life) and be with Him forever.

Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 56

Because they have covenanted not to fight, not to pick up weapons of war, the covenant fathers of the people of Ammon took provisions to their warrior sons.

Fathers are providers.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World, teaches that "by divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families."

Heavenly Father is the Ultimate Provider.

He has provided the heavens and the earth.

He gave us the matchless gift of His divine Son.

He offers us all that He has as we keep our covenants and endure to the end.

Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 32

Faith ≠ a perfect knowledge

Faith = hope for things that are true, but are not seen

Faith = work.

Faith takes work for faith and knowledge to grow.

Faith should grow before ever attaining a perfect knowledge.

Having a knowledge ≠ having a perfect knowledge.

Perfect knowledge = Eternal Life.

Eternal life = life that our Father in Heaven lives.

The Seed of the Evildoers Shall Never be Renowned

Through modern day revelation we learn that before we came to earth we lived with our Father in Heaven as one of His spirit children.  During our premortal existence, we were part of a Great Council in which Father presented to us His great plan of happiness.  This plan enabled us to become like our Heavenly Father.  We would be able to go to earth to attain physical bodies and to use our gift agency to make choices, particularly while facing adversity, as a test to see if we would return back to Father's presence.

Knowing that using our agency would inevitably cause us to make choices contrary to Father's commandments, Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Spirit son of our Father in Heaven, covenanted to be our Savior.  He wanted us to use our agency, and would suffer for our sins so that we could repent so we could return back to our heavenly home. Jesus Christ sustained the Father's Plan, giving the glory to God to whom it properly belonged.

Lucifer, another spirit son of God, rebelled against the plan and 'sought to destroy the agency of man.' Lucifer's modification of God's Plan (in that no one would be lost because everyone would choose the right), not only took away our agency, it also gave him all of God's power and honor and glory.

Lucifer's plan was rejected.  He rebelled against God.  Lucifer became Satan and he and his followers were cast out of heaven.  Those who had faith in Jesus Christ have come or will come to earth to receive a physical body and have their agency to choose how they may, hopefully finding faith in Jesus Christ and returning to live with Him again.

I have been thinking a lot about Lucifer's twisted plan and here are some of my thoughts.

1. Lucifer was unable to come up with an original plan of his own. Instead, he took Father's great plan of happiness and twisted it. He does that same thing today! Lucifer is unable to come up with an original plan of his own.  Instead, he waits and takes the good and great things God gives to man  and then twists them just enough to drag God's children speedily down to hell.  Television. Internet. Families.  Just to name a few.

2. Lucifer loves himself.  He loves himself more than he loves his neighbor and exponentially more than he loves God. If that doesn't destroy the law and the prophets.  Furthermore, when God declares 'wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent,' the 'the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, . . .  because of iniquity and abominations.'  He laughs because he attributes all that suffering, all that sorrowing, all that iniquity and abomination to him!

3. The most chilling of all is this: Perhaps Lucifer wanted to destroy our agency because he didn't want to experience pain!  He wanted a body without the pain.  After all, sickness is hard enough.  And then, then there is dying.  Dying for oneself was one thing, but to die for all of Father's children? He wanted no pain and yet, ALL the gain.

Interestingly, Isaiah saw the devil like he was and is and will be:

How art thou fallen from heaven. O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations.

For thou thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, everyone on in his own house.

But thou are cast out of thy grave like and abominable branch, as as the raiment of those what are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because those hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of the evildoers shall never be renowned.

The Fathers in my Life

Father's Day is a time to reflect upon and show gratitude for the fathers and father figures in our lives.  I hope you will reflect upon the men who have blessed your life for good.

I am grateful for Bishops.  

I've had many a bishop in my day, Fathers of the Ward, to which they are sometimes referred. I've visited with these "fathers" on numerous occasions: for temple recommend interviews, for callings and releases, for tithing settlements. And while I have always had a great deal of respect and admiration for these men, I've never had cause to visit specifically with the bishop.

Not too long ago, however, I found myself in a situation that I could not reconcile.  Even after discussing it with my husband, I still felt unsettled and anxious.  I prayed for an answer from Heavenly Father.  And the answer came, "You need to see the Bishop."  The bishop?  But I knew the matter was NOT a bishop matter.  Stubbornly I insisted to myself that I would not bother the bishop on something I felt I could resolve on my own. But the feeling to visit with him was so persistent that I knew if I didn't I would be rejecting an answer from the Lord.  So finally after dragging my feet for a full week, I went to see the Bishop.

Immediately, upon seeing him, the peace and comfort I prayed to have was rewarded to me simply because of my obedience. My bishop gave me the counsel and direction my soul needed. That single experience enables me to testify that the Father of the Ward, the Bishop, is there for each one of us in our hour of need and we will be directed by the Spirit to seek his help and guidance.

I am grateful for my earthly father and his love for the gospel.

Growing up, my father saw to it that we had family prayer, family scriptures, family home evening.  We attended church together, and every six months we sat down as a family and watched General Conference together in our living room.  His guidance always led me to search the scriptures  and teachings of latter-day prophets.  I remember vividly the fireside talk President Benson gave in February 1987.  It was about mothers staying home.  Honestly, that talk would have been erased from my memory if it hadn't been for a high school teacher, who, the very next morning who singled me out and asked me in front of the whole class,  "So, what are you going to do with what President Benson counseled?" I marveled at his question because he didn't even go to church!!  Why would he care?  Except that it was his class that was the catalyst of what I wanted to do for the rest. of. my. life.  

I began pondering my teacher's question and pondering President Benson's talk for days.  Heavenly Father certainly wouldn't expect me to choose between a family and a profession!  Couldn't I have two cute kids and a great career?  When my pondering mind wore out I took the matter and discussed it with my dad.  He knew how much I loved this career choice . . . but he also knew there were blessings to be had by being obedient to the prophet.  My dad's final words on our discussion were these, "When the time comes, you'll know what to do.  Heavenly Father will let you know what is right for you."

I am forever grateful to an earthly father who directed me to my Heavenly Father . . . and I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who gave me my answer.

I am grateful for my husband, the father of our children. 

This year will mark 21 years of marriage for us.  It was that long ago when, kneeling together at the temple altar, that we were admonished of Heavenly Father's commandment to "multiply and replenish the earth!"  If anyone would have told us, even ten years ago, that we would parents of nine children, we would have completely doubted their competency! 

When our oldest was two and a half and our twins were a mere FIVE months, I found out that I was expecting . . . again.  While I was very apprehensive of what others would say about our fast growing family, I was even more concerned on how my husband would respond.  

I broke the news to him a few days later at a gas station, while he was pumping the car with gas.  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I awaited his reaction.  And to my utter surprise not only did he smile, he glowed.  "We're going to have another one?" he asked with pure anticipation.  How blessed I felt at that moment to know that it didn't matter what anyone else would say about the number of our children or how close together we had them. I knew that in our little world of family, all that mattered was that my husband was happy to be a father!

The most important Father in my life is my Heavenly Father.

As far as earthly fathers and earthly father figures are concerned, I have found none to be perfect.  Even those for whom I have deep love and respect have fallen short on more than one occasion. Those occasions have caused me to drop to me knees in humble prayer to receive counsel, direction and peace from my Heavenly Father.

In his book, As the Father Hath Loved Us, Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone wrote, "Imagine the Father amidst the worlds without number, plans for redemption, the work of the atonement, and His eternal ministry, which we know so little about.  And yet in all His majesty, He hears the tiniest whisper of a prayer from the least of all His creations and cares and responds with an Answer."

During the most darkened times in my life - times when I have felt hopeless or lonely; afraid or forgotten; unforgiving or angry, I have always been able to offer every, last ounce of my soul to my Heavenly Father. Knowing that even in offering up my very worse self, He not only will listen, He will not only understand, He will still love me. I have no doubt that Heavenly Father loves me as His daughter. Heavenly Father is the most important Father in my life.

Happy Father's Day!

What I Wrote in My Highschool Journal and How It's Coming Back to Haunt Me

I'm at the point in my life where I am dealing with a full-fledged teenager!!

The problem is that now I am on the mother-end of this relationship.  And it isn't as just cut and dry as I thought it should be for parents as I did when I was 15.

So I am learning, learning, learning those lessons that only come with experience.

One of those profound lessons was written ever so discreetly in my high school journal which, I happened to pull out this week  . . . and actually dared to look inside as I opened to a completely random page.

On the one side was my personal experience of meeting a prophet of God with real teenage descriptive words such as "cool" and "awesome."

On the other side of the page was high school drama and emotion that made my eyes grow big enough that it squeezed my brain into realizing that, YIKES I was 15 once!!

Gulp!

Back then I really didn't know much of anything!!

And as I quickly shut that journal, I marveled that somehow between being me then and being me now, is that I still I really don't know much of anything!  But the little that I do know is, Father in Heaven is good and kind and patient.

And, if He can be good and kind and patient to a 15 year old girl who was me, He will be good and kind and patience to a 15 year old boy who is mine for now. . .

Tidbit Tuesday - Heavenly Home

"There are no separate paths back to that heavenly home. Just one straight and narrow way, at the end of which, though we arrive trailing tears, we shall at once be “drenched in joy.”"

-Neal A. Maxwell

Family Home Evening - Our Heavenly Father

Tonight's family lesson came from HERE.

Here is what we did:

Everyone was given a piece of paper and crayons and asked to draw something they see or hear or feel or smell each day that reminds them that they have a Father in Heaven.

After each family member shared what they drew, we were asked some to think and share of some of Heavenly Father's character traits.

Then we discussed different ways on how each of us can better develop a relationship with our Father in Heaven. Prayer and studying the scriptures topped our list.

And here is just one of the things I learned tonight during family home evening:

After I drew my very colorful picture of a sunset, making sure I put in plenty of reds, oranges, and pinks in my Crayola the sky, I realized that I hadn't yet colored my sky blue.

YIKES!

So I dug around in the crayon box - that has at least 682 small, broken pieces - and finally found myself a sky blue crayon.

And guess what happened as I began to color over my already colorful sunset?

The light azure began to pick up the yellows and oranges and turn them into . . .

GREENS!

Which taught me another something so absoutely AMAZING about Heavenly Father.

In all my meager years of earthly existence, I have n.e.v.e.r. ever seen a green sky.

Never.

Blue + Yellow = Green.

But never during a sunset.

Because during the sunset, the yellows of the sun and the blues of the sky defy the color wheel.

And instead of greens, these two colors: blue and yellow, create deep reds, soothing oranges, calming pinks and absolutely stunning purples fit for a king.

And that, I think, makes Father in Heaven even MORE amazing!!!!

P.S. I also think Heavenly Father laughs a whole lot more that I think He does.

Remember the Receiving

I will not lie when I say there have been dark times in my life when I was certain I couldn't go on.

Certain that no one really could know the depth my pain or the height my despair except God Himself.

And He did.

He always sent help.

His help has come to me in the kind, thoughtful service of others.

Those divine acts of love and mercy have made deep, everlasting impressions upon my heart. Impressions that can't be erased, but can only be remembered as I give in return.

That's why I've joined with so many others in supporting this month's cause to raise money for single moms. (See my sidbar widget!!!)

While there are lots of statistics out there about single moms (CLICK HERE),the bottom line is I want to show the Lord, in my small way, that I do remember His kindnesses towards me.

And this month this is how I'm choosing to do it.

Will you remember a time when the Lord has been kind to you. Perhaps even overly kind and downright merciful?

Will you remember how you felt?

How humble and how joyful?

In that same spirit of receiving, will you give?

Maybe today you can only afford to give a dollar.

Then just give a dollar.

Perhaps today you can give a little more.

Then give a little more.

Whether giving big or small, if we remember how our hearts felt in our times of humble receiving, I am certain that we will be filled with His love, even charity, as we bless the lives of single mothers who will be able to do incredible things for themselves and the ones they love!

The Sixth Day of First Grade

Today is my daughter's sixth day of first grade.

I know, because she reminds me each and every morning how many days of first grade she has already attended.

Mostly because, this last week has been the sum of all her six year old fears: A brand new school. New faces. And a full day (seven full hours) without her Mom.

We've said countless, quiet prayers on the way to school, while waiting at school, and even at her desk.

We've prayed as a family.

And her sweet older brothers have done everything to cheer her up and cheer her on.

But even still, I have literally left her sobbing at her desk, in her chair, in that happy little first grade classroom.

Which has made me think that maybe, just maybe, those newborn babies who can't stop all their crying even after they're fed, even after they're changed, and even when they're being loved, maybe they're crying because of how long they've been away from Father and Mother in Heaven.

Four Weeks = An Eternity

For me, the Temple is one of the B.E.S.T. places to see people I haven't see in years.

And last night was no exception as I, quite literally, ran into my first missionary companion (a.k.a. Trainer) in the temple.

And as we had time to only visit for just a few minutes, I was amazed that one person could have had so much influence in my life in such a short amount of time.

For because we were only companions for four weeks!

Four weeks!

Because when I got to the mission field, she had 28 days or so before she went home from her mission!!

She being a seasoned 20 month missionary (yes, you read right, TWENTY MONTHS) and I, being the incoming eight-weeks-of-MTC greenie.
And yet, in that short period of time, her testimony of the gospel and her zeal for building the kingdom of God left an indelible impression upon my heart.

Just for the record, as soon as we left the apartment to work, my trainer spoke nothing but Spanish to me as we were walking and talking and teaching and knocking!!  Spanish.  And it wasn't the Spanish I heard in the MTC!  No, this one actually had a real accent and persons who talked back an wanted you to respond!!!

I laugh now because I did not understood a word.  Not one single word!  And yet, in those sweet moments of listening to her Spanish, the Lord was trying to teach me that if I worked as hard as my trainer, I would come to love the people and love the work as much as she did!

And do you know what else I discovered?  I discovered that sometimes, four weeks is long enough to be blessed for an eternity!

Tidbit Tuesday - Heavenly Father

"Imagine the Father amidst the worlds without number, plans for redemption, the work of the Atonement, and His eternal ministry, which we know so little about.  And yet in all His majesty, He hears the tiniest whisper of a prayer from the least of all His creations and cares and responds with an Answer."

-Vaughn J. Featherstone

A Thought on Parenthood

I have contemplated the wisdom of a loving Heavenly Father. His wisdom far surpasses my minute, finite understanding, but sometimes I find that if I listen ever so carefully, He will teach me - Parent to parent - little tidbits that help me better understand my place as mortal mother, earthly keeper of His Spirit Sons and Daughter.

One concept I have pondered is the knowledge Nephi received about his people. He was able to foresee, through the power of the Lord – the destruction of his people (See 2 Nephi 26). Yet, this knowledge, which was obviously passed on to other righteous men, did not diminish Nephi’s desire or his intense labor in preaching repentance and testifying of the truth. What if Nephi had known his people would all turn out okay? Would he still have put forth as much energy in preaching repentance? As I contemplated this idea for a long time, I had this Parent to parent tutoring session (thanks to the Spirit):

If, as a parent, I foresaw my children choosing wicked over righteousness I may have a mortal tendency to give up hope in the present and/or find myself in the depths of personal guilt and private blame for all the things I could have done, should have done, or didn’t do. Perhaps I would forget who the real Parent is and my role as an earthly keeper of God's children to have faith in Christ and his redeeming and enabling Atonement for me and “my” children.

However, if I foresaw my children always choosing righteousness over evil, always recognizing sin and repenting immediately, perhaps I would have the mortal tendency to puff myself up with pride and adulation. And in so doing, I would disregard heaven, forget God, and poison my soul with the idea that I should receive the glory for the good choices my children have made.

Either way, those sentiments do not represent how the Lord would want to feel about Him, about myself or about His/my children.

I have concluded that to very few does the Lord show the future. Perhaps, in the case of prophets, the future is shown because of the keys they hold and the responsibility that is theirs to warn the wicked and save the saints. Perhaps to the few men and women the future is shown because of the intricate trust the Lord has in their ability to keep things in sacred perspective.

And for me, I have happily decided that as I walk by faith as an earthly parent of Heavenly Father's children, He will show me just enough to help His children get back home.

Tidbit Tuesday - Another Thought From MEE

"Our Heavenly Father knows the rest of the story."

-Mary Ellen Edmunds

Jacob and Joseph

Last week, as I was studying the Sunday School lesson, a thought that never occurred to me before, increased my love and awe in how good and wonderful is the Lord!

That God knows the beginning from the end.

That in our human inability to understand the whys and the whens, God is able to make all things right.

Because He knows how a particular situation, a certain circumstance, even an accident, can bring His purposes about.

The story is of Jacob when he "loses" Joseph.

When Joseph becomes a "missing person" and there is no "person of interest" because the persons of interest told their father that their brother had maybe been torn up by wild beasts.

Missing.  No body.  No evidence but a shredded coat.

And for the first time while reading this story - because I am a mother now - my heart ached with Jacob, for "he refused to be comforted."

But the thing about this story, is that we know what happened to Joseph!

And even more than that, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know that what is happening because of The Restoration was because of Joseph!

But right then - in those moments when Joseph's brothers sold him (for twenty pieces of silver) and then told their father he was dead - and then for many subsequent years to follow, Jacob was missing one of his sons.

And God, in His goodness, allowed so many things to play out out of that one misfortune.

Joseph, literally becoming the savior to his family and the whole Israelite kingdom.  Being a type and shadow of the Savior Himself who was sold (for thirty pieces of silver) and left for dead, but was then resurrected to save all of His Father's kindgom. . .

And as I contemplated the great love that both fathers had for their sons (God, the Eternal Father and Jacob) - enough love to let their love bless me - I feel such a greater appreciation for this Easter Week.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. "