Peace

"Life often feels like a great pile of obligations, frustrations, and disappointments. But the Lord is there, always the same, His arms still outstretched. When we feel overwhelmed, we have to remember the peace He has spoken to us on previous occasions. His peace brings comfort and strength; the world cannot give that to us."
(Kathleen H. Hughes, "Remembering the Lord's Love," Ensign, Nov. 2006, 111-12)

Lesson Learned:

"Peace is not the absence of conflict.  It is the presence of God whatever the conflict."

The Hour Glass

Once again we had an awesome lesson in my Provident Living Sunday school class.  We talked about the plan of happiness.  I really liked the way the teacher portrayed which way we can live our lives. He said we can either follow God's path or Satan's path. Which would you choose?  

Obviously the one to the right looks pretty promising.  The further you go it seems as if you just get more and more freedom.  More and more possibilities for life. The one on the left all you see is that your path gets smaller and smaller.  It seems as if you will end up with no freedom at the end.  No more possibilities. Sure Satan's path is wide open.  SUPER FUN.... While God's path seems limited.  That's the way Satan works though.  He doesn't show you the rest of his picture. He makes you think and believe that his way is the best and will give you more freedom.  He deceives the image of a happy ending.  While if you were to live God's path He will show you the rest of his image and you can clearly see that his ending is by far much better then Satan's.

I know that it's not always easy to follow the Lord's commandments.  It's not always easy to choose His way.  Especially in times when it would involve embarrassment or loss of pride.  But in the scheme of things Pride is the cause of all sin. Pride is what gets you to lead the path of Satan anyway.  All God wants for us is happiness.  He wants us to experience the things we experience and make those hard decisions because he sees the bigger picture.  He can see that if we follow his path to the narrow way that just beyond that is a never ending path of happiness.  So think twice when you have those moments of "Do I choose this? or do I choose that?"  No one is perfect but I know remembering this helps me to try and make the right decision.  It gives me comfort knowing that living the gospel is all worth it in the end.  The hard things bring good things. Lessons Learned:

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with  his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."  -St. Matthew 16:25-27

Kindle Your Testimony

This past week I had the opportunity to go to the testimony meeting at my girl's camp.  It was so neat.  It is interesting to see the difference between when you are the youth and when you are a leader.  I was so proud of my girls.  They are so strong.  I am so grateful for their courage to try.  Most of my girls got up and bore their testimonies and I felt very blessed to hear them.  I remember being in Young Womens and thinking girls camp was one of the best times ever.  Mostly because of how you bond with each other and the spirit that you feel.  I know that my Young Womens experience was a very positive one and it was a huge influence in my life.  It definitely helped build most of my testimony as a youth.  A girl that wasn't a member stood up and compared a testimony to a fire.  How you have to build your foundation and then start it. Then you have to keep it going and add things to the fire (testimony) or it will eventually die out.  If you don't always nurture and kindle it it won't keep going.  The more you add the stronger your fire (testimony) gets.  She also mentioned that a testimony is also like a fire because of the warmth and that it brings people together.  What an amazing young woman.  I was very impressed.  I am grateful for the spirit felt that night.  I hope that you whether a youth or a leader can always remember that your example and testimony will affect others and in most cases help others strengthen theirs and bring them closer to the spirit.  I also hope that those who are struggling with their testimonies or who don't think they have one yet that as long as you try it will come.  It's up to you to build that fire (testimony).  Once you build the foundation its easier to keep it going then to let it die out and try to build it again.  It won't always come fast and most of the time it comes in little moments when we least expect it to.  Remember in order to know something is true you have to learn of it first. Lessons learned:

"We should be patient in developing and strengthening our testimonies. Rather than expecting immediate or spectacular manifestations, though they will come when needed, we should pray for a testimony, study the scriptures, follow the counsel of our prophet and other Church leaders, and live the principles of the gospel. Our testimonies then will grow and mature naturally, perhaps imperceptibly at times, until they become driving forces in our lives."
--Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Patience, a Key to Happiness", Ensign, May 1987, 30

"A testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will always include these clear and simple truths: 
"--God lives. He is our loving Father in Heaven, and we are His children.
"--Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and the Savior of the world.
"--Joseph Smith is the prophet of God through whom the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in the latter days.
"--The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

--The Power of a Personal Testimony, Ensign, November 2006, 38

Why do you live the gospel?

My ward has just started this new Sunday school class on Provident Living.  I LOVE it. We talked about temporal and spiritual needs.  We discovered that all things are spiritual.  Everything given to us is God's.  All the way down to our talents that able us to work to provide for our families.  Brian made the comment that when we pay tithing it isn't giving God our 10%, it's that God gave us 100% and we are just giving back 10%. I really liked a comment someone made in the class though.  The question was "Why do we live the gospel?"  Why do we live the gospel?  Why do we do the things we do?  Why are we obediant?  Why do we keep coming back to church? There are many answers and I'm sure you have your own point on it but I liked what he said. He said: 1. We live the gospel because we are afraid of the consequences. 2. We live the gospel because we desire blessings. 3. We live the gospel because we love God. 
Lesson Learned:
"If ye love me keep my commandments." (John 14:15)   so "Keep my commandments, If ye love me."
I would like to add a number 4 though to the list of why we live the gospel.  4. We live the gospel because it brings us happiness. I don't think any of us want to be in a state of unhappiness.  Yes we have hard times in our lives but with the Atonement we can have those hard times and still be happy.  Like I stated earlier.  We choose happiness.

Sisters

I love this story:

"I walked into the house, exhausted. It had been a long day, and I was starving. I sat at the table while my mom made dinner, telling her everything I had done that day. All of a sudden my little sister, Cherri, was at my side. She twisted her hands together nervously and didn’t quite look at me. “What happened?” I asked, not feeling very sympathetic. “You know your pearl necklace?” she replied in a small voice. “Well, I was playing with it, and it broke.” A million thoughts raced through my head. How many times had I told her not to play in my room or with my things? The necklace was hardly important, but that was beside the point. She had ignored my warnings one too many times. Somehow I managed to bite my tongue, and an exasperated sigh escaped my lips. “Come on, show me where it is,” I said. She took my hand and led me to my room. Pearls littered the floor, which wasn’t exactly clean to begin with. “What have I told you about playing in my room, Cherri?” “Not to,” she mumbled. “Okay, then, why did you?” I pressed. She just shrugged her little shoulders and looked at the floor. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “Help me clean them up, and don’t play in here again,” I said. She did so and left the room, and I put the incident behind me. The next day, I came home to an ecstatic Cherri. She grabbed my hand, jumping up and down. “I have something for you!” she said. “Sit here on the couch and I’ll be right back.” She raced downstairs and returned a few minutes later cradling something in her hands. “Here, I made it for you all by myself,” she said proudly. “Mom didn’t even help me at all!” She held out her little arms so I could see what she had made. Laying in her hands was a scrap of frayed black ribbon strung with meticulously arranged yellow and white plastic beads.“It’s a necklace!” she said, jumping up and down again. “I made it for you because I broke your other one. Do you like it?”I smiled. The necklace was a bit tacky, and yet it was beautiful. “Yes, Cherri, I love it.” I put it on and wore it the rest of the day to show my appreciation. I was so glad that I hadn’t yelled at my sister in anger and made her feel like I didn’t love her.I kept her little token of restitution in my drawer, a constant reminder that a pearl necklace could never be as special or beautiful as my frayed black ribbon with yellow and white plastic beads from a precious younger sister.”
(Liora Johns Phillips, “Pearls and Plastic Beads,” NewEra, Mar 2008, 22–23)

“So many of us make a great fuss of matters of small consequence. We are so easily offended. … I plead with you to control your tempers, to put a smile upon your faces, which will erase anger; speak out with words of love and peace, appreciation, and respect. If you will do this, your lives will be without regret. Your marriages and family relationships will be preserved. You will be much happier. You will do greater good. You will feel a sense of peace that will be wonderful.”

(President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Slow to Anger,” Ensign, Nov. 2007, 63–66.)

Being the younger sister is never easy growing up, but being the older sister might be a bit harder.  Oh the joys of sisterhood!  I love this story because it reminded me of me and my older sister.  And then it reminded me of me and my younger sisters.  Oh dear, I’ve been on both ends.  Unfortunately I don’t ever remember being that nice to my younger sisters though when they bothered me like that.  But I do remember looking up to my sister thinking she was the best person in the whole world, and if only I could be just like her, wear her clothes, have her friends, be her age, do what she does, say what she says, eat what she eats…etc…(You know what I’m talking about if you are a younger sister).  There is something special about the relationships that Heavenly Father lets us sisters have.  We truly are blessed.  So don’t take it for granted.  Lessons learned:

1.    It’s better to ask permission then forgiveness.

2. President Hinckley was a great man and had many wonderful things to say.

3.  Read the church magazines. They have great stories. 

4. Stop to think before you choose to get offended or angry.

5.  Love your sisters.  They can become some of your best friends.  True that.

6.  It’s ok to want to be like your older sister.

7. It’s ok for your younger sisters to want to be just like you and try to copy everything you do.

8. Bitterness only hurts you.