We may sound crazy, but we seek to listen to and follow the Spirit of God

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.

So often I have been puzzled by trying to feel and recognize the spirit for myself. I have also been puzzled by others experiences in which they claim to be directed by revelations from God. These puzzling questions have helped guide my search to find the truth of the matter. I really love these verses from Galatians because they tell me that acting on spiritual promptings will have a beneficial result and these are some of the strongest ways in which the spirit will manifest itself to us. I have also learned that sometimes the spirit prompts me to do some things that require courage and getting out of my comfort zone, but always after I have faithfully accomplished those things to which I was prompted to do I get a fruit of the spirit, either love, joy or peace, or really whatever it is that the Lord sees that I need to give me a confirming witness that he commanded the things that I did.

I have also learned some valuable lessons along the way and I felt impressed that I should record and share those experiences with you. I hope that it will be helpful to you in your quest to better understand the workings of the Spirit of the Lord. They really helped me, and I know that God is merciful and he teaches us in a way that we understand. Knowing this is both beautiful and difficult to convey. In sharing these experiences because I do not want to claim that this is an all exclusive experience in how the Spirit functions. I will say that no matter how differently we are instructed there are guides and checks in the scriptures and in the words of the living prophets that are universal. These guides assist us in processing our experiences and gaining spiritual understanding for them. Since I am confident there are people like me out there in the world I just wanted to be able to share something that perhaps will lift your hearts and help. I am also confident that this may spark the embers of recollection for you and encourage you to share your story. I am a firm believer that there is much to gain in hearing and understanding through the Spirit of the Lord their experiences and life lessons.

Christ teaches us to be as a little child/Faith and Innocence of a Child is the natural teaching ground for things of the spirit.

As a child I loved the things of righteousness. I loved “Hamily foam Evening” which is what I used to call family home evening. (Family Home Evening is observed on Monday Evenings and is a sacred time that has been established by the LDS Church for families to spend together.) I liked scriptures study not because I understood it but because I felt something good in it. Parents need not worry that their children do not understand the scriptures and worry more about doing what it takes to create an environment where the children can feel the spirit. Perhaps it was partly due to the spiritual efforts my parents made in teaching me and perhaps it is just a gift or both working together from a young age I looked for connections to life from the scriptures, which I know now to be a function spiritual gift. I have an ability to understand how the scriptures interrelate with life and all of its wonders. I know that more specifically this ability connects with the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, the gift to teach by knowledge and wisdom, discernment, and joy in reading the scriptures. Of course there are other gifts of the spirit such as faith, hope and charity that enhance this ability. I will be sharing more about spiritual gifts in another post, for now I would like to share how the ability to recognize the spirit and how the spirit was working in me throughout my life. I will readily admit that when I was younger I thought everyone thought that way I did. Now I understand that each person is unique and the gifts and abilities they have from the Lord also gives them great perspective on matters and much can be learned if we work together using the gifts that the Lord has given us.

I do remember the first time I thought that I could be different.  I was weeding the garden and having an allergy attack from the weeds at the same time. I remember saying, “That darn Adam”.  My Mother looked at me puzzled…so I explained… “Well if he wouldn’t have fallen we wouldn’t have weeds.” Clearly I understood nothing of the doctrine of the Fall at that time and it would be a perfect time to enlighten me…but it was not common to focus on teaching doctrines of the gospel in that way when I grew up. Many considered them separately and would have lessons on Sunday or even daily scriptures study, but really focusing on doctrine means seeing their links to life and the lessons that God is trying to teach us daily. Religious training for women in the Church was vastly different than that of the men from about 1940-1995 when President Hinckley instituted the correlation of Priesthood and Relief Society Instructionwith the lessons coming from the Prophets. I can’t say for certain that the lack of doctrinal instruction in courses for the women and girl’s courses in the Church were to blame for the lack of further instruction or my Mom simply took pity on me due to the allergy attack that I was allowed to do chores inside the house instead of outside that day. While don’t remember getting that conflict resolved in my heart for some time. What is evidence in my experience that I was seeking at an early age to understand the gospel. We must not underestimate the abilities of children to grasp the things of the spirit!

Even though I didn’t have a proper understanding of doctrinal truths at that time I did desire the things of righteousness. I was willing to adjust my life to the truths I was learning. I remember one evening in particular after a family home evening that I felt quite humbled by the lesson. I don’t remember the lesson I do remember the result of real sorrow due to the fighting I had done with my sister. Meekness always attends a repentant heart and at my young age I was having these fruits of the spirit being made manifest to me. I remember my mother comforting me and helping work things out between my sister and myself. I know that by inviting the spirit of the Lord into our homes through Family Home Evening we assist our families in having greater access to the blessings of the Lord. Specifically I know that bonding experiences come to those who work at having meaningful family home evening, which includes playing together as a family, as well as increasing feeling of love for each member.

Sometimes when I was little and able to talk my siblings into playing Church I would set up a sacrament meeting. I did feel like some things about Church could be better. For example I would have my brother pass the whole pieces of bread for the sacrament instead of the small ones that are never enough. Clearly I didn’t understand the sacred significance of the ordinance of the sacrament, but I sure did like it. I would stand on the piano bench while speaking into our vacuum cleaner handle to my audience of siblings and stuffed animals. I think I vaguely remember them giving talks as well too. I definitely sought for goodness in my play. Goodness is another fruit of the spirit and it doesn’t seem strange to me at all that following these experiences of playing Church that I also had a desire to participate in Church.

I remember trying to figure out what to say in a testimony. I wanted to share my testimony in Church but I wanted to make sure I said the right thing. I would listen to the testimonies of others and recognized that there were several phrases that were repeated. I knew they must be part of a testimony so of course I included them; “I know this Church is true! I love my family…” I must have been close to six years old at the time and a little confused that testimonies seemed to be all over the place in what people shared. (It really wasn’t until my MTC training that I actually knew the purpose of testifying and what we should testify about.) I asked my mother as we were driving in the car to go somewhere what was in a testimony. While I don’t remember her instruction I do remember after her instruction practicing what she taught as I knelt down in the back of our Monte Carlo. Of course there were no seat belt laws at the time. I felt driven to share the gospel due to the faith I had even at that early age.

 I don’t remember how long it was from the time of my Mother’s instruction until the time of my trying to share my testimony in Church, but I do remember that experience. I was sitting on my Father’s lap when I decided to ignore my overwhelming nervousness and follow that feeling that I needed to stand before all the strangers and share my heart and testimony. I went up all on my own and began to share my rehearsed testimony but something different happened in the process that I had not anticipated. I was overpowered with a feeling of love that was so strong and good I began to cry. I was shocked and scared then audience started to laugh. Looking back I can see that they were just thinking I was so cute, but at the time I was really humiliated by the audience and confused by what I felt. I ran and tripped a bit going back to the safety and security of my Dad’s lap. I wasn’t there long before I felt better, but it would be years until I would again gain the courage to share my testimony. What I didn’t understand then but I now do was I felt another fruit of the Holy Ghost. I was feeling the Love and approval of God, which is one of the most wonderful feelings.  

Also as a child I loved singing in the primary program that was held yearly in our ward and is held yearly Church wide. It is an opportunity for the Children to teach the gospel. I recall singing quite loud and knowing every word, I also remember a few people thinking it was a little funny, but I still felt proud of what I was singing and I felt the something wonderful. I know what I felt at that time was the Holy Ghost testifying of truth to my heart by the Holy Ghost that what I was singing was true. This can also be called enlightening or enlivening. I felt something really strong when I say about missionary work. I felt what the scriptures call, invigorated. It was like electricity was moving through my whole body. I felt tingly all over and super happy. I knew that I would serve a mission someday and I wanted to with my whole heart. Knowing these things know I am so grateful for an opportunity to help my son recognize at a young age the truth of the fruits of the spirit and how we can have the Holy Ghost with us always as we remain worthy of it.

Although I didn’t feel the courage to bear my testimony again for some time that didn’t damper on me learning things by the spirit in fact I had numerous experiences with the spirit. I lacked faith in my ability to testify but I had faith in living other principles of the gospel. Also being young and innocent has its advantages when it comes to spiritual matters. Looking back and pondering when I feel the spirit with me has allowed these experiences to come back and teach me. Now I readily recognized what I didn’t understand at the time that the fruits of the spirit were responsible for those wonderful feelings.

One of the sweetest feeling of the spirit I remember as a child was on the day of my Baptism. We are baptized at age 8 in my faith as revealed to the prophets. I appreciated making the choice to be baptized and speaking to my Bishop I felt something warm in my heart (love) and I desired to do anything that would produce such a good feeling. I would look back and label what I felt as a warm light within me that was attended by a sweet feeling of peace that gave me confidence that my decision was right.

I did experience a little opposition on my Baptismal day. It was nothing grand and glorious like the poor Saints who were part of the restoration of the Church. I was told by my older brother that the water would turn black because of my sins. I thoroughly believed him, this had to be true. I decided to get baptized anyway because I knew it was the right thing to do. Perhaps it was because I was already nervous and I was the first in the line of young people who would be baptized that day. My nervousness increased to being absolutely terrified when I went to open the door as I had been instructed to lead to the font when my name was called and found the door locked. I was pounding on that door hoping that somehow it would open. There was a lot of hustle and bustle and talk about how to get me into the font, finally the man with the keys to the door showed up and I was able to walk down the steps into the baptismal font and meet my father a worthy priesthood holder. I passed my little trial of faith in order to get baptized and the fruit of that experience was so sweet. What I didn’t know at the time was that contrary to the belief that I held that my sins were washed away in the water, they were actually washed away by the reception of the Holy Ghost the following Sunday during Sacrament meeting. I felt awesome after my baptism and nothing else mattered.

The following Sunday during Sacrament Meeting I was invited to the front of the Chapel with a small group of priesthood brethren, namely my grandfathers, father, and Uncles who held the Melchizedek priesthood. They placed their hands on my head and joined in a circle. I remember feeling that their hands were heavy. I don’t remember much of what was said, but I do remember when I was told to receive the Holy Ghost that I felt like a warm picture of water was rushing from their hands to my head and filling my entire body. Man I loved that feeling. I know now that what I felt then was the miracle of the bestowal of the Gift of the Holy Ghost which was to be my companion as I remained worthy of that gift. I know looking back I had a feeling of edification testifying that the decision I had made was right and the experience I had had was from God. There was a profound feeling of peace that stayed with me. I was not to have such another powerful experience until the day I received my patriarchal blessing.

How do I know if I am feeling the spirit or if it is just my cream of wheat?

I don’t want to give the wrong impression that I was an angel child that did everything right and was never angry. I was a normal child who dealt all the occasional time outs and being sent to my room. I did whatever I could to avoid getting spanked. When I got older I still struggled with the typical challenges of the age and trying to figure out how to deal with all I was learning in school and Church, which didn’t always agree. Something else was happening even though I wasn’t aware of it. The accountability I had as a child was very small and slowly I was gaining more and more of an understanding of spiritual things which made me more responsible for my choices. Agency, another universal truth, was also changing me, for in order to be an agent for oneself I needed to understand the law in order to experience having full agency in making choices. I often did things because my parents expected it or because I feared what would happen if I didn’t do what was right. This is a limited use of our agency and does not have as much power to really change our hearts and grow spiritually. Doing what was right for the mere sake of wanting to do what was right happened more slowly for me and continues to change and purify to this day. I have also come to understand more of how personal purity and virtue plays such a huge role in the amount of spiritual knowledge we gain. Having our thoughts and actions match the gospel standard in this regard is and always has been under great attack in the world. I believe it is because Satan is real and he doesn’t want us to understand what living a pure and virtuous life can do for us. He clouds the lines of appropriate behavior and wins part of our hearts.

Seminary was great to help us understand gospel truths that sometimes we may have missed from our Sunday instruction or instruction that occurred in our home. I learned great lessons of morality and personal worthiness in both places, but I didn’t understand half the words which were used to teach me. I remember a classmate asking a question that I have never forgotten. He said, “How do you know if you are feeling the spirit or if it is just your cream of wheat you ate that morning?” The question was never answered. I don’t know why. Perhaps the teacher thought he was being flippant, since teenagers occasionally are, but something in my heart told me that it was sincere. Plus I wanted to know the answer. Later in my youth I learned that because the youth are just learning how to feel and recognize that the Holy Ghost they have a lesser accountability when they do something wrong than when someone who commits the same sin with a greater understanding. In other words what some label as sins are mistakes and even if they do actually commit a sin they sins of youth are very forgivable. That was a truth that set me free and really helped me to feel the mercy of the Lord. It also made a lot of sense. I wasn’t acting in open rebellion and even if I did wrong things most of the time I didn’t even know they were wrong. I did know and love many who did make really wrong decisions and they also knew they were wrong, but they only knew they were wrong because their parents had told them that and not because of any true conversion to the spirit themselves.

I tried to keep the commandments with all of my heart. I loved to pray and I greatly feared doing anything in which I would have to speak to the Bishop about. Little did I know that keeping the commandments was making it more possible for me to feel the spirit. I didn’t like movies that were violent or that had bad words and I did feel uncomfortable with things that were wrong. Now I know that these were also gifts of the spirit. The fruits of love joy and peace would come after I left the situations that were not good. I just wanted to be at home most of the time, because I felt safe and loved there.

 While I was far from perfect and fought much more with my siblings than anyone should I did have enough of the spirit to recognize that I needed to get my patriarchal blessing. This is a special ordinance is not essential for salvation. A Patriarchal blessing gives us personal counsel, comfort and direction. A Patriarch places his hand on your head and gives you counsel from your Heavenly Father to you. It was a special and sacred experience that changed me. I recognized the change too; it took the fight out of me. My little sister Celeste wanted to know what it was like to get the blessing and I told her that we were not suppose to talk about it. I didn’t quite understand how to share something so sacred without offending the spirit. I am sure my sister could have been told more, but I didn’t know how. She got upset with me and I remember not fighting back. Then I knew that something had changed in me. I didn’t even want to fight.

I was far from being out of spiritual danger even though I wanted to do the right things. I often got really angry with people that were mean and that anger justified or not, separated me from God. Sometimes I let things fester way too long, but my Mom did something terrific for me then. She bought me music that was meant to help us feel the spirit. I didn’t know that at the time. I kind of liked the melodies and the feeling that I had. My spirit was being fed with powerful reminders of God’s love and the need to live his gospel. Plus it wasn’t organ music that would give the definite religious flare it was EFY music. For those of you that don’t know what EFY is it is an acronym that stands for Especially for Youth. If you were to hear the music for yourself you would probably identify it as Christian Rock. I liked it. It helped me feel better and focus on things that really mattered.

Attending Ricks College gave me a really good experience of how to incorporate the spirit of the Lord in all we did. Attending the college ward was awesome because it was centered on the challenges that we had as young adults. I felt the spirit strong every week. My religion classes were deep and meaningful and I really learned a lot. I was beginning to experience a mighty Change in heart. Opportunities to serve and lead were also helping me to get more of the Spirit of the Lord with me, but nothing was so life changing as receiving the temple endowment and recognition of covenants and ordinances on feeling and recognizing the spirit.

I remember walking out of the temple and seeing the world with new eyes. I saw people as children of God and my brothers and sisters. I didn’t want to do silly things anymore and I felt a greater desire to read and understand the scriptures. I went back to the temple often and I loved how it felt. I tried to learn something new every time I went. There was a peace and joy there that I couldn’t find anywhere else.

Since I went to the temple when I was 19 I wasn’t able to think about serving a mission until age 21. I thought I might marry first having some options that came, but the answers I had in prayer were taking me into a different direction. I know that the Lord was preparing me for a mission and the extra time in the temple gave me greater confidence and more virtue. This experience helped me mature spiritually. I believe that these were critical steps in helping me accomplish what I would need to do as a missionary and where the Lord would lead me after that.

Refinement of Missionary Service

Mission life was challenging, yet I am so grateful for the refinement that began in the MTC and continued throughout my mission. I received a spiritual witness unlike any other I had at the time that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I knew that by the power of the Holy Ghost. This all happened during the weeks of intense spiritual refinement I received during the MTC.  I don’t think I was the only one in the Church that nicknamed the MTC the “Mental Torture Chamber”. I felt so convicted of my sins there. It seemed as though I remembered every unkind and wrong thing I ever did there. What I understand now is that it is impossible to come closer to God in our sins we must shed them and allow the Savior by his Atonement to cover us in our weakness. I was super confused by this since I had “repented” or so I thought, but I really needed a better understanding of what repentance really was. I was gently led by my Heavenly Father to understand that principle and the importance of the condition of my heart while going through repentance. Merely going through the steps of repentance was not enough. I needed a penitent heart. I learned that I could serve as an imperfect person and he would change me and I could repent as I served. I had not been guilty of anything that would have prevented my service, but I sure felt like a fish out of water the way I was learning about repentance there. I wished I had become comfortable and understood that process better much earlier.  I also wish that I hadn’t been so afraid of repentace when I was little and had more confidence in the Savior’s Atonement, but I did do the best I could with the knowledge I had and tried to assist others to understand that blessing better in their lives.

I desperately wanted people to listen to my message; I knew how much they would benefit from the peace and love that came through the reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I knew there was no better pursuit in life. I knew because I was willing to leave the Church if it wasn’t true. That was the condition of my heart when I prayed to know if our Church was the Lord’s only true Church on the face of the Earth. It was way too bold of a statement for me to feel comfortable with unless I got my answer from God.  I prayed in the MTC and explained that I would give my life to this work if it was true, but if not I would leave and got an unmistakable answer that filled me with such “joy”. I have thought about the condition in which I approached the Lord and wondered why he answered me. I have come to understand that 1. I was completely sincere in my desires, 2. I was keeping the commandments and 3. This experience was necessary for my life would later prove to be critical in understanding those I would contact on my mission.

For a moment all my fear was gone and filled with increased faith in the Church seemed to be all that mattered. I was called to serve in the New York, Utica mission; New York was not a very easy going state. I had one too many experiences with those who practiced witchcraft and I felt a great drive to avoid any kind of resemblance to their way of life. I testified often as prompted by the spirit and that had a huge impact on me. I began to gain more confidence in the ways of the spirit. I began to recognize when the spirit was speaking to me and also when the spirit was speaking to others.

I remember one experience when an investigator told me that he had heard the spirit tell him not to go to Church. I knew this young man was struggling to stay active and worthy so I wasn’t surprised that he would have an interaction with the wrong spirit. I told him that was not the right spirit. I think that was the first time he was introduced that there were good and evil spirits around us and it was up to us and our choices to decide what we would choose to follow. Because missionaries moved around a lot I lost contact with him, but I will always remember him. I hope that things worked out okay for him. He helped to me to understand even more to keep the commandments and learn to listen to the right spirit. The best scriptures I can suggest for those of you who want to further study this concept is Doctrine and Covenants section 50. There is also a lot of Church History that helps as well, but starting in D&C 50 is the best place to begin.

Flirting and dating are not tolerated and contrary to some I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to worry about that stuff when I was out on my mission, or so I thought. Not flirting and dating was a harder for some than others, but I was amazed with even my desires to have nothing to do with it there were still challenges. I couldn’t control the actions of others. I learned something really great from sacrificing this part of my social life for 18 months. I learned that by putting God first everything would turn out just fine when it came to matters of the heart. I kept the rules even when the traveling leadership encouraged otherwise. While I had some pretty tempting experiences, namely really good young men showing interest in me, I am happy to say that I stayed true to my promise to keep the mission rules. The experience wasn’t completely worthless. These good young men helped me to start recognizing traits that I wanted in a husband and things I didn’t want as well.

I worked myself to complete exhaustion just how I was wrongly taught to do. The scriptures are clear that we are not to run faster than we have strength, (see Mosiah 4:27) but because we follow the leadership and there are many varied abilities among people it is difficult to come up with rules that blesses everyone. I just didn’t understand that working so hard didn’t mean sacrificing my health. I came home quite ill and took a while to get my condition under control, but I felt that the spirit wanted me home for a little while. I tried to follow the spirit in what I should study for a career and I know that I got an answer from Heaven that I was to be a teacher. It came in a really interesting way. I was actually on the mission when I got the answer even though I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it until I got home. It happened when I was out knocking on doors and praying in my heart of what I should do weeks away when I got home. I knocked on a door and a man answered. He grabbed my hand with both of his and looked into my eyes. He told me that I needed to be a teacher. There was no prompting by me whatsoever to initiate an exchange. There was a prayer in my heart. I knew what this man had said was true because of the feelings that came to my heart. I felt peaceful and energized to pursue that path. I still had to decide what kind of teacher, but the main direction was a gift from God.

Difficulty with matters of the heart

Trying to “find my center” or get a direction for my life when I came home was a little difficult I needed a direction and course and when I was a missionary that was all set up for me. I needed to learn how to implement all I had learned through the spirit to real life now and so I sought to get healthier, and find the direction I pursue when I went to school. I worked in a couple grade schools, I did home health, and I worked in an interior decorating shop in Rigby. The owners of this shop would later become my Brother’s in-laws, but at the time they were just good friends with my Dad. I felt great when I was involved in the schools, but I didn’t know if elementary education was the kind of teacher I needed to be come. Through prayer and constant effort I finally felt all things come together in the moment that the Lord had designed for me to go to Utah and attend Brigham Young University. I had my reservations and I knew I would be challenged by my new environment, but I also knew that I needed to keep growing spiritually to keep the spirit with me and there was nothing better than a challenge to keep you spiritually up to date.

I was a little surprised when I did find my major that it was not a teaching major. I remember attending a devotional that was presenting the changes that were happening within the school of family life. Family Science was going to be called Marriage Family and Human Development and follow the pattern of the Prophets and revelation as to the subjects they would cover and how they would teach it. I was thrilled and overcome with joy. I wanted to be a part of that major! It filled my heart and was exactly what I needed to continue to purify my desires and come closer to God. It is hard to say which experience was more powerful in changing me. The education that I was gaining was really helping me get an internal definition of the Doctrine of the Family that aligned with the Lord and His desires for the Human family. Later the School of Family Life offered a Family Life Educators Certification. I thought this has to be the kind of teacher that I needed to become and I took all the required courses. Little did I know at the time that I would become a seminary teacher.  I recognize now that the information I was learning was preparing me for my future family and working with thousands of families in the Seminary and Institute Program.

I will have to say that all of my education experiences of growth didn’t outweigh extracurricular activities. I would even say that my extracurricular activities had even more bearing on my spiritual growth than anything I was learning spiritually. I fervently wanted to be married and make the next steps that I thought were both natural and normal. I was no longer afraid of that most important step. What I didn’t expect was how many disappointing relationships I was going to go through. The marriage discussion seemed to come up with everyone I dated, mostly because I chose to date those who were ready for that next step. For one reason or another; my relationships would not work out. What made that difficult was how prayerful I was and how I sought the spirit in understanding if those I was dating were acceptable choices. I was a little confused why I would feel good and peaceful about pursuing relationships that wouldn’t work out the way I wanted them too.

I know that the Lord was allowing me to experience these many disappointments to help me understand that another’s agency has a bearing on the outcome of prayers. I would have experiences where either I or the one I was dating would get a confirmation that things were right, but the other one wouldn’t want to continue. I didn’t always know if they were prayerful about the matter, I did know that I was. I found it more and more difficult to invest my heart in relationships because of their unstable nature.  But driven with the desire to do what was right I began to see that while God allowed me to go through these difficult challenges I was able to relate to those who had similar heartache in a much more compassionate way. That was enough to keep me from making the choice that so many of my other peers were making to give up on relationships or to lower their standards. My trials were not being wasted, they were the vehicle that God used to teach me of spiritual things and it helped me to better understand and show empathy to his children. My capacity to love was growing and so was my wisdom. My faith in God and my closeness I felt to Him was also increasing. I could see that there was great difficulty in matters of the heart. It was easy to confuse emotional experiences for spiritual experiences because of their common link, Love, and peace, and even joy. Experience taught me that while I could get a “yes” that the relationship I was in was pleasing to God; I needed to wait to find out if the other individual also received a “yes”.

I had at least three relationships where we both had yes on my side for a time, and then when we came to know each other better we found that the goals we had for life were not the same. Rather than making each other change the righteous desires of our heart we saw this as a good reason to go our separate ways. Of course one of us would usually come up with that answer before the other and hurt always came in when I was the one that didn’t understand. I also had the experiences when the other individual was not honest this was the most confusing and hurtful. I always tried to be honest and not date someone after I knew that things would not work out. That saved me from eventual heartache that I knew would come since I had experience that with my first engagement. When I was engaged the first time I had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. I wished I would have listened to and understood those feelings that I had and trusted them more than I trust the things the man I loved would say. I put my trust in the wrong source. God is always right even if others are telling us what we want to hear that is contrary to what God wants for us.

I wasn’t doing anything wrong I was pursuing something that was right and good, but I learned that Satan had his way of challenging us in these things as well. I found that loneliness and unmet needs clouded my thinking. At the time I didn’t know how to give those troubles to the Lord and allow him to help me rise above my circumstances. I did learn through these experiences that the Lord could lift those challenges if I would pour out my whole soul to him in prayer and have faith that he would help me. A tender mercy I received while breaking up with my fiancé was a sweet a peaceful feeling that everything was the way the Lord intended and it was right to not be with him. While this was one of the most devastating experiences it was also extremely enlightening to the fact that I needed to never allow things in my heart that would cause me to stray from God and his plan for me. I needed to use his grace to overcome those challenges whenever that happened. Since that time I have always recognized that peaceful feeling when things happen contrary to the way I thought they would.

I know that it was my faith in Christ that helped me to recover from that personal devastation. I also know that living the commandments especially keeping law of chastity gave me greater strength to continue to wait for the companion who would take me worthily to the temple. I kept my hope alive because of my faith in the Savior and the soul stretching experience of having to wait for years beyond my desires to find a righteous husband. These years were critical in building the strength of character given through the spirit’s long-suffering I would need to take on the challenges of marrying a widower later on.

On a little less-serious matter I experienced the fruit of the spirit, longsuffering, in behalf of a roommate. At the time I was serving as the Relief Society President of my college ward. I made a lot of mistakes. But I had help from the spirit to do things that were very important. I remember having a disagreement in the apartment, and while I was not the one at fault for the issue I did feel like there were unfair demands placed upon her so I stood up for her and challenged the opposing roommate with these words, “Does it really matter?” This infuriated my roommate. She angrily replied that she hated my sarcasm and threw a glass of water in my face. Then something out of the ordinary happened.  I didn’t retaliate and there was the miracle. I looked at her and felt the most wonderful peace come upon me. I felt lifted beyond my present abilities I simply responded “I am sorry did I say something wrong?”

Seriously for years after I have pondered this experience because it was so contrary to my nature to not fight back when someone was being unfair. I learned later that I roommate at the time was devastated by the loss of a relationship she had hoped would be more. I didn’t know, but the Lord knew she couldn’t handle anything but kindness when the spirit of the Lord intervened. I know the spirit didn’t just intervene because I was her roommate, but I was also a spiritual leader to the women in that ward and I desperately needed his help and prayed for it continually.

I did have a few moments that really lightened the mood when I was feeling that the trial of living single when I wanted to be married would never end! One time of these heart lifting moments came when I was seeking to lift the hearts of others. It happened during a stand-up comedian show I was doing with two of my friends. I was able to get a really funny line out though after being perfectly set up by the male member of the troop, he was griping about girls and dating life and putting us in the disparaging light. It did not matter to me at the time how truthful and warranted his feelings were I had to one up him in my comedy set. I was talking about lines from the hymns that are the perfect match for our trial. I chose lines that people sang all the time, but never really matched them with their experiences. I used the hymn God Speed the Right to be the theme song for dating and encouraged the girls when things were not working out to know that with “if we FAIL we Fail with Glory.” This definitely shot down the young man I was working with and put the women in a much better position which could not be debated. The crowd roared with laughter, mostly because it was about 80% female and they finally understood a way that line actually made sense.

I was always a seminary teacher 1^st and a comedian second, and while my friend’s frustration was apparent there was a doctrinal difference to the circumstance. Because the responsibility to marry is squarely on the holders of the Melchizedek priesthood and if they shirk their responsibility to, “Work and Watch and Fight and Pray” through the efforts of finding a wife and fail to marry they are in big trouble eternally. The woman whom they could have married is left single she will be compensated for her misfortune, or “fail with glory.” Of course the man can always repent and gain his blessings later so I don’t want you to think I have forever being damned in association with the last remark, it is common knowledge that the women bare less of the responsibility and therefore can still continue to grow spiritually so long as they do not turn down worthy options and due to her own disobedience to God’s commandments.

The other time I got a chuckle when we were singing the words to “Does the journey seem long,” It seemed like every line paralleled comically the challenges of waiting for what seemed like forever for a spouse and I am grateful comedy assisted me in getting through those difficult years. I believe that these experiences were a completely different fruit of the sprit I felt both love, joy and greater peace with my circumstances. I learned that temperance was also important. Temperance or what we would term as balance in our life was and still is a constant struggle.

Graduation came and went and I was led by the Lord to the Seminary and Institute program in the LDS Church. I was in the perfect environment now to teach and learn more of the doctrine of the Lord. I finally figured out what kind of teacher I needed to be 4 years after the experience I had on my mission leading me to a teaching profession. I learned an important part of gaining spiritual understanding and that is the timing of the Lord is always right. I really liked being a part of the first group of seminary teachers to teach the new methods that involved more student participation instead of the common stand and deliver style of teaching. I needed the training that was happening now and could see how perfect the timing was for me to enter the Seminary and Institute Program. It was difficult to have such a different training background as my faculty.

I did at times feel like obedience to the training I received meant I was rocking the boat since a majority of those I worked with were not trained in this new style. The intensity that I was trained as a student teacher gave me pivotal experiences in understanding the value of the new style and was part of what I needed to stay true to it during the transition period. Other teachers were being trained on these same principles in regular training meetings, but they had greater difficulty giving up the way they had taught for years for yet another new style of teaching. I did see the positive effects on the students and knew for myself that I really didn’t learn in depth the teachings of the gospel until I was the one teaching and applying those principles. I do believe that there were individual families that were doing exactly this in their own families, but seminary was a place where we could reach those with less than ideal circumstances at home.

Trying the spirits; seeking to understand if our spiritual promptings are coming from God or other sources.

I only worked a few years as a full-time teacher before I applied for the Master’s of Religious Education Program that was made available for our profession at BYU. I felt driven to follow the counsel I had been in a priesthood blessing to put my whole heart into this work. I knew this opportunity would help me do just that. It was an awesome time for growth in knowledge of the scriptures and more disappointments in relationships. My environment was intense and lacked the balance that I needed to completely feel the full blessings of the gospel, but I did get the portion to which I was obedient too. I started a comedy group Humor-U just to be able to do something different.  While it was difficult to have balance at the same time and had a demanding schedule, I was searching in my heart for mister right.  Working full-time and continuing my education in a very demanding Master’s program. It was easier to stay busy and focused during that time. But business does not equate with righteousness and being too busy will drown out spiritual promptings.

I believe it was partly an imbalance in the systems that I was working in that allowed me to still feel the spirit even though I was being stretched too thin, because I was not fully accountable for the issue. I was only following the guidelines of BYU and Seminary and Institute so there was a shared accountability happening. I also didn’t see another way around it because I was obligated to my employer to work the way they insisted and I was obligated to the Master’s program that I had felt impressed to join. Seminary and Institutes as well as BYU are known for the excellence and they are incredibly demanding in what they expect out of their participants. I am not saying they are unrighteous at all in their goals, they do the best they can with the huge range of students and their differing abilities. I haven’t quite worked out the whole demand for excellence while still living a temperate life and not being too busy. I did find that I needed to rely more on the Lord for what I was to accomplish during the day and let other things go. This meant sometimes choosing between two things that were good, but the Lord knew where I needed to end up and I trusted his judgment on where I needed to focus my time.

The good things that happened to change the way I thought and believed I can say were due to the fact that I was constantly immersed in the scriptures and words of the prophets for both my profession and my schooling. My attention directed through the spirit to principles I was learning about or teaching that were applicable to me and my present challenges. When studying the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith I came across the principle of “Trying the Spirits.” Doctrine and covenants 50 also explains these principles and I found this to really grab my attention. I realized that I needed to purify further my life and seek to know the spirit that I was choosing to be led by. Moroni 7 also provided vital information in learning how to judge these spiritual impressions. I began to recognize the increasingly subtle advances that the adversary was trying to throw at me to distract me from my purpose to serve God and others.

It was during this time that I felt overwhelmed with opposition. I knew that it came due to the nature of my project and thesis I was working on that if successful had the potential to help remove road blocks to the new curriculum for the youth. I fasted, I prayed, I changed, and I sacrificed, but I was much weighed down in these circumstances and I needed more help. It was then that my little brother Joel showed up at my home. He could see that I was distressed and I told him a little of what I was going through. I don’t remember quite how it all worked out but I requested a blessing from him. In the blessing I felt a direct connection to God and the words were exactly what I needed to continue my work. I was told that there would be challenges thrust upon me. I don’t know why that was comforting other than it confirmed I wasn’t nuts. The opposition I was experiencing was real and I was told that Satan was trying to stop me. This again required me to refine my life and get rid of things that were interrupting my ability to connect with Heavenly Father. I was being led to an increase of faith and a refinement of my soul that was critical in being successful. I also had my family fast for me which not only took care of some struggles in family relationships it has been something we have adopted as a regular family practice. We don’t just fast for my greatest concerns every month, but we check in with all our family members and fast for each of my sibling and parents greatest concerns. This has been a great blessing to our family and we have become much closer.

I was successful in passing my Master’s Thesis and the project which was accepted by the Young Women Department of the Church. It proved helpful in establishing new curriculum for the youth. I moved forward and again started to make myself available to date more and to pursue the righteous desire of marriage and family.  Or so I thought. I wasn’t in my new ward long before I was called to serve as the Young Women’s President. This was definitely in conflict with both my temple job and attending the activities for singles my age. I prayed about it and knew by the peaceful feeling that the call came from God and again I would have to sacrifice what I wanted for blessings God wanted for me which I couldn’t see. At least now I understood that the Lord needed my faith and trust in him to grow and I had amazing experiences with my girls. He also knew that I was up for more disappointments in the dating world and these responsibilities would be the means to lifting my heart.

I was able to continue my work at the temple which was in jeopardy when I accept the call to be the Young Women’s president. I was completely imbalanced in a worldly sense spending all my time in a spiritual realm and not having much time for anything else. I found the greatest temperance or balance was in this spiritual world. I absolutely loved being in the temple and being a volunteer ordinance worker instead of just doing my weekly service as a patron. While I was working there I felt that actually felt a spiritual rest that I needed. That spiritual rest was partly due to the goodness of the people that I associated with. Each heart hearts which were full of love and willing to serve, all who enter the temple must meet a worthiness requirement which also strengthens the spirit that you can feel when you are around them. Now that I was no longer obligated to my schooling I was able to be more obedient to the principle of temperance and receive that fruit of the spirit that was most difficult for me. Even though being a temple worker rather than just a patron more than doubled my temple attendance I was in a place where it was so easy to feel the spirit and concentrate on Heavenly things. I began to work in all other areas of my life with greater ease and with more faith. The Lord increased my capacities. I appreciated the blessing of renewing our covenants during the sacrament.

While my quest for spiritual knowledge is personal and still a work in progress I hope that something I shared will be helpful and encouraging to you in your quest for seeking and understanding the Spirit of the Lord. I know that the Lord will lead us if we will allow it and that he can help our lives to be more fulfilling and happy! I know that no matter the changes we need to make to adjust our lives to feel the fruits of the Spirit of the Lord are all well worth it. I also know that while we may be different in our life stories we are all connected to that same God that will lead and direct us to do well and to seek to lift and serve others. I am so thankful for those that helped me in the times of difficulty and I know that the Lord is so merciful and kind. I also know that it doesn’t matter how far away we feel we are from the gospel of Jesus Christ the only thing that stands between us and getting closer to God is us and our incorrect perceptions. May the Lord bless you in your life and may you have the opportunity to share with other the blessings you have felt come from Him.

 Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.

5 Things that helped me, and can help you, become a much better Gospel Doctrine Teacher

 

5 Things that helped me and can help you become a much better Gospel Doctrine Teacher, is the concluding segment of an article entitled:

Why I am no longer concerned about false doctrine being taught in Church every week.

 

I have been a teacher of the gospel for more than twenty years, both in a lay ministry capacity and also professionally. I have taken classed from the brightest minds in the Church. Yet nothing has been a more powerful teacher to me of how to instruct than those who taught by example the proper way to be in tune to the gospel and to teach the way the Savior taught. I remember a young man I served with in a college ward (comprising of students and leaders chosen from the surrounding community) before I served a mission. We were both teaching the missionary preparation course. While I had not served a mission I was the only young woman in the ward that had received my own endowment in the temple. Since that is a step that all missionaries needed to take in their preparation to serve a mission they figure I was the closest thing they had. I may have been through the temple but I didn’t know much when it came to anything else.

Luckily I was not on my own. My partner teacher was a wise returned missionary who taught with love and the spirit. In attempting to correct a problem that had happened in the ward through teaching correct principles I decided I would put in my two cents as well. I definitely thought that what I had to say would solve the problem a lot faster. I don’t remember what I said but I did remember being condemning in my tone. He thanked me for my comment, but said I prefer to follow the spirit. It was one of the first times where I had recognized that my thoughts were not in alignment with the spirit of the Lord. I was teaching the truth without love or understanding and I was that tinkling symbol the scriptures talked about. My teaching didn’t lead to edification, it led to hurt and guilt.

I wondered why I could have even justified that I was speaking by the spirit at all. In quiet reflection I realized that in looking back at my education in the spirit at that time I saw examples of both good and bad teaching, but I accepted it all as good. Some people had said they were “going by the spirit,” when in actuality they were just, “shooting from the hip.” They hadn’t even bothered to study the lesson at all. I did also have great teachers that took great pains to help us feel the spirit and they followed it in class. One teacher was Shirley Squires. I felt the warmth of her faith. I could tell she cared about us and she really wanted us to understand. One time I remember her asking me what the answer was to a question she had posed to the class, but there was only silence after and no one dared to raise their hands. I knew the answer. What I couldn’t understand why she knew that I did. This both scared me and left me confused.

I know now that I didn’t have within myself a spiritual compass to guide me. I am forever grateful for her wonderful instruction. It taught me a valuable lesson that when a person is led by the spirit there will be a power carried to the hearts of those who are seeking to understand. I also learned that the spirit would help me as a teacher know who to call on. Thankfully I learned later through my missionary training that God would speak through us, but it was our responsibility to fill our souls with his truth so that when he picked us up to write his message we would be pens filled with ink. I was finding at last my internal spiritual compass.

I am so grateful for the shift the Church has made in teaching the youth. The approach they are taking is much like the way I learned to teach the gospel in the MTC and the way we were expected to teach in the professional Religious Education world. I have served teaching the youth with this new curriculum and have absolutely loved it. I have also had conversations with those who are overwhelmed and frustrated with trying to adapt to this new method. I know that it will take some time and some adjusting, but I can tell those that are teaching that this will be the greatest blessing to their lives when they learn to teach by involving the students in the process. Lessons sink home when they have the chance to learn the doctrine for themselves and teach it to the class. I have also learned is anyone can be a powerful teacher in the gospel if they know where the power comes from and how to access it for their classroom.  

I have tried to compile lessons I learned while being trained as a religious educator that really helped. Our training happened yearly with Apostles, weekly with our principles, and all the summer months from a variety of the best teachers that the program could offer. I share this because we were constantly encouraged to change and challenged to learn more and there is nothing that can give us greater power in our teaching than to repent, or change, and exercise greater faith in Christ. I know this list has the potential to be helpful. I did not mince words here because I feel very strongly about each of these helps. I could tell you many good and bad experiences that helped to make this a firm part of how I approached gospel teaching. There is not one of these that do not have scriptural foundation, as well as counsel from Prophets, Apostles, and promptings by the spirit. While I treasure the messages I have learned they have become so part of me that I feel them right from my heart. I do invite you to find out the truth of what I say for yourself. Study it out for yourself, practice it and I can assure you with all of my heart that you will teach with greater conviction and power and you will touch the hearts of those the Lord needs you to reach out too.

1.       Don’t stray from approved curriculum! Help your class to understand the doctrines you are assigned to teach that day by using the scriptures. They are the foundation of any class on Sunday. You should be in the scriptures throughout your entire class and take no more than a few minutes in a readiness activity (object lessons or stories etc. that introduce your topic). Never teach from unapproved sources. Religious Educators call that the kiss of death! The spirit will back you up when you obediently use the approved materials for your classes.

 

There are additional sources that are always appropriate to use when there are questions and you need more information to help your class better understand what you are trying to teach. Those sources are: the scriptures( not commentaries on the scriptures), General Conference addresses, True to the Faith, For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, Daughters in my Kingdom, the Hymnal, Teaching no greater call, and approved manuals and materials for your courses, and the Church handbook of Instruction which is available online.) There is so much information in these approved sources that I pretty much guarantee that you will find everything that is your responsibility to answer questions and teach with clarity and power of the Spirit. Don’t do the work for your students when they need to seek for answers themselves. Help them know where to go. Help them not be frustrated and loose hope. Most importantly, follow the Spirit in what you say and the question you answer. Follow the spirit as to the questions you have your class answer and those questions which should remain answered through prayer and revelation given to that individual.

 

In order for the scriptures to profit us and help us learn, we must be able to take the topics and apply them to our lives. They were written to show us how to live and how to come unto Christ. You are not teaching a history lesson! It is unnecessary to focus on the history. Our focus should be how to help the class come closer to Christ that day. You are not expected to speak Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic, or be able to explain all the maps in the topical guide.  Inviting others to share how the principle and doctrines you are teaching has changed them and made them better will be the most edifying experience you can do for your class.

 

2.       Avoid speculative comments about doctrine and people! Don’t allow your class to take you down this road! Stick to the scriptures and words of living prophets! If they are not addressing it you shouldn’t either! Learn to politely lead the class back to the Savior every time they stray into topics of little spiritual value and importance. It is easier to pick up when you can recognize the spirit with your class. The spirit will not attend such comments and you will feel the difference as you seek to understand this yourself, then you can help others understand it as well.

3.       Live the Gospel! You must be a stellar example of the principles and doctrines of the gospel you teach. Living the gospel will help you to teach with a pure heart. There is no replacement that will be more powerful. Don’t worry about being perfect or not knowing a lot. You are only expected to do your best and the spirit will attend you and testify of the truthfulness of what you are saying. If you lack confidence in your obedience repent and ask for help. There is someone in your ward that is a stellar example of whatever principle you are trying to teach that would be happy to help you whenever you need them. When they stand with you the spirit that will enter your classroom will amaze you. When they are approved by your bishop, they will make a wonderful example for the class. If you are living the gospel it will be much easier to recognize the spirit in your lessons and pause to help others recognize when they are feeling the spirit as well.

4.       Keep it simple! The Savior himself said that if it does not teach faith and repentance it is not His doctrine. Everything we teach must help us and others want to repent and exercise greater faith in the Savior. If we are not leading others to partake of the gift of the Atonement we are wasting all of our time. Testifying of doctrines and principles frequently throughout the lesson rather than just at the end will increase the feeling of the spirit in your classroom. When in doubt stick to the basics 1. Godhead, 2. Plan of Salvation, 3. Atonement of Jesus Christ, 4. Dispensation, Apostasy, and Restoration, 5. Prophets and Revelation, 6. Priesthood and Priesthood Keys, 7. Ordinances and Covenants, 8. Marriage and Family, 9. Commandments. These basic doctrines can be taught weekly and they always bring an edifying feeling when you know they are true and you testify of them and invite others to testify of the same. We should always seek to build others faith in these principles and doctrines including building the faith in the Lord’s organization for his Church. We should never demean any program or leader in the Church.

 

5.       Remember it is about those you teach and not about you! We must magnify Christ in the methods we use to help others. Anything to call attention to ourselves is priest craft, which is setting us up for a light and example instead of the Savior. I believe that most people are innocent of this and if they do it at all they don’t understand what they are doing. But, whether they understand it or not this weakens the power of our teaching. Even when we don’t understand that we are sinning we are still breaking eternal law which will result in a decrease or eliminate to the power of the Spirit of our lessons. Everything the Savior taught when he was living among us in mortality was to lead us to the Father. He didn’t seek praise, recognition, or anything contrary to the Father’s will. He was and is the perfect teacher to emulate. When you don’t know what to do, He does …and He will still lead us. LDS.org has GREAT REFERENCES for TEACHERS! Use them because Christ has inspired them to help His children come home. The message is about bringing us all to our eternal home. He loves us and when we love those we teach, they can and will feel his love through us. If we love the Lord we will feed His sheep.

Thank you so much for taking time to read my blog. I feel so grateful for the kindness of those who have responded to me and supported my efforts. I really try to follow the Spirit in those things that I share and my only hope is to be helpful and do what my Father in Heaven needs me to do. May the Lord bless you.

Andrea

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why I am no longer concerned about false doctrine being taught in Church every week.

Why I am no longer concerned about false doctrine being taught in Church every week.

Since my mission I have found that there are some common misunderstandings that still hold strong among those that are not of our faith. What I am more concerned about are the misunderstandings of those that are in my faith. Yep, believe it or not all “Mormons” understand correct doctrines and principles and some don’t even understand that doctrines and principles are not the same thing. I know this because I was once one of them. You see we are not perfect like the Savior was, we make mistakes and everyone is on a different level of understanding. Sometimes we get so caught up in the way we live and mistakenly think this is the doctrine and principle of our Church when it is actually, “Mormon Culture.” For example the name of our Church is doctrinally based. Our name came through revelation to a prophet and you can find in the scriptures that Christ said his Church would bear his name. We are not suppose to call ourselves Mormons but the nickname has been so widely accepted and we are accustomed to being called “Mormons” that we readily accept the mistake. We have had numerous conference talks to try and get us out of that mode. From now on you will hear the right name and right abbreviation of our name from me. Our Church is called, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Our abbreviated name, “Latter-day Saints” and “LDS”, you have to understand that our nickname assumes that you know that we follow Christ.

With all that said, the Church readily recognizes that some don’t know of the misunderstanding and have a site called Mormon.org because people actually search for us by our nickname. Of course people can readily see when going to the site our official name, which is a great example to all of us to follow. I have met a few people who don’t believe we are Christian and quite frankly with some of our poor examples I can’t blame them for the misunderstanding. I have also met with some that get quite “huffy and puffy” saying we don’t believe in the same Jesus Christ you do. To them my answer is simple… there is only one Jesus Christ and we believe in him, but there are some doctrinal understandings we have about Jesus Christ that may differ from the rest of Christianity.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints We believe in Christ and seek to know Him better.

The doctrine of the Savior Jesus Christ is the first truth I would like to address. I believe it is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in our own faith. I know this because I use to be one of those who had this misunderstanding. I believe that because I have had that misunderstanding it makes it easier to have compassion for that same misunderstanding. I am so grateful for those who helped me begin to gain a greater understanding of my faith. They were good at asking questions and making statements that took time for me to investigate. I began to see how starved I was for doctrinal instruction on my mission. I couldn’t get enough of the scriptures. I wanted to learn everything. I so thirsty for the truth and I continued after my mission to pursue greater spiritual understanding as it connected to scriptures. My work at the MTC fueled my desire and I found myself wanting to study more. This led to a career where I was able to study the gospel full time and still I wasn’t satisfied. I obtained a Master’s in Religious Education and there is where I began to really understand the deeper question of my soul. For years I have made a great effort in studying causes for why this may be the case which I am not going to address. Instead, I will just say a common misunderstanding and what the truth of it really is. I do not attempt to address every misunderstanding but while this post is not exhaustive list of misunderstanding held by the Latter-day Saints it is real.

Often, members of our Church believe that Christ is their lawgiver, their judge, and their exemplar. What they misunderstand is the relationship of all of Christ’s roles, namely that He is our Savior and Redeemer. I was often amazed by the testimonies of those in other faiths concerning Christ and His saving and redeeming role. I felt their faith and I experienced the conversion for myself. I needed more time with the scriptures and a greater willingness to go to God with everything that bothered me trusting in His infinite care. That time helped me to change and see that I was not viewing the majesty of Christ and who he really is and what power He can extend to me. I recognized that an imbalanced understanding of Christ’s attributes and roles can lead to imagining up for ourselves a pretty awful God to fear and tremble at. I recognized there is timing to His roles and how those roles relate to each other. I was one that greatly feared making mistakes. I wanted to do everything right and found no matter how I tried I just couldn’t do it.

Trying to live up to the expectations of my leaders and what I thought was right literally took me to a point of exhaustion. I wondered what the point to life was anymore. I was so empty on the inside an equally unhappy. At that desperate moment I prayed one of the most distressed prayers I have ever prayed to seek a way to feel the spirit and be happy again. I prayed to the Lord and explained I would rather die than continue to live the way I felt and I asked for deliverance and the power to do whatever I needed to do to change. Immediately after the prayer I was prompted to get a priesthood blessing. I went to our ward mission leader who had been a member for 5 years. He gave me one of the most powerful and directive blessings I had ever had. I was told that my suffering I had experienced ensured that I would have the spirit for the rest of life and that I was to fill myself with His spirit. I learned later that it was not just a spiritual crisis I was experiencing. In addition to my spiritual well-being my health was a great reason for the depth of darkness and exploratory surgery discovered that I had not just suffered from a chronic illness but I had also had acute appendicitis which had fussed my appendix with scar tissue to my intestinal track. I literally worked myself almost to death on my mission, but I am not sad that I did. Even though I know many more truths about caring for my health while doing the work of the Lord at the time I had done the best. I had followed the counsel of my leaders and more importantly I came to know God in such a way that I never wanted to leave Him.

I am so glad that I let go of the fact that God and Christ were judging me for every action. I found comfort in the scripture that taught me that Christ had not come to judge the world but to redeem it. You see the proper understanding of Christ includes that He will be our judge, but that is not his purpose with us yet. The timing of the judgment of Christ is in a future day, actually judgment day.  Christ’s judgment will take place in final judgment where we are judged according to our works and receive the reward for such.  We look forward and prepare for that judgment, but if we get too focused on the judgment in this stage of working we can become paralyzed with fear.  We fear making mistakes and getting “Judged” for them and do not recognize that we are expected to make mistakes and learn from them at this time in our life. Do you remember when you were learning how to drive? I Do! I remember my driver’s education teacher constantly reminding me to look at the horizon and not the front of the car. By having my eyes fixed in the wrong place I was surely going to cause an accident. Seeing this error, my teacher kindly provided for me the proper vision. We need to see Christ more clearly because doing so makes life significantly happier.  When we let go of unnecessary guilt because we feel that God is judging us we can better use our energy to just want to do better and seek his help in doing so.

In connection with the thinking that God is our Judge now is the misunderstanding that immediate and permanent judgment happens the moment we die. While it is always important to prepare to meet God, always we need not be overly concerned that we are not perfect when we die. Joseph Smith taught that it would be a long time after we had crossed thru the veil that we will have learned everything necessary for exaltation. If we just step back and look logically at his statement we can see of its’ truthfulness. Why else would we do work for those who have already died if there was no chance to change in the next life. Also I don’t know anyone that knows how to create a world when they die. That will take some careful study.

Who is Jesus Christ to those of the Latter-day Saint Faith?

So who is He? The Bible Dictionary gives a wonderful definition which I feel with my whole heart is true, “The anointed (Greek) or Messiah (Hebrew). Jesus, who is called Christ, is the firstborn of the Father in the spirit and the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is Jehovah and was foreordained to His great calling in the Grand Councils before the world was. He was born of Mary at Bethlehem, lived a sinless life, and wrought out a perfect atonement for all mankind by the shedding of His blood and His death on the cross. He rose from the grave and brought to pass the bodily resurrection of every living thing and the salvation and exaltation of the faithful.

He is the greatest being to be born on this earth—the perfect example—and all religious things should be done in His name. He is Lord of lords, King of kings, the creator, the Savior, the God of the whole earth, the Captain of our salvation, the Bright and Morning Star. He is in all things, above all things, through all things, and round about all things; He is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; His name is above every name and is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved.

He will come again in power and glory to dwell on the earth and will stand as Judge of all mankind at the last day.”

Another document that I love which describes the Savior is The Living Christ. Which reads,

“he is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal like in the world to come.

…He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall speak in worship before him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.”

In addition to all of this, which I know for myself to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost, I also know that Christ has perfect hope, charity, and love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, obedience. He is everything that goodness comes from. He has no darkness and confusion. He is bright as the lights of the heaven and creator of them. I am in awe of his excellence and majesty. And humbly acknowledge in complete humility that he was sent by God to save us, and He accomplished all the Father required of Him perfectly. I have felt his sacred power lift me to greater understanding and hope. Through his grace I have accomplished goals beyond my skill level and I know he is real!

One of those times that I came to understand Christ power to lift me in my circumstances happened when I was seeking answers from God to get relief from a very painful chronic illness. I had conquered my fear of doctors and went to many to seek relief. I also sought relief through healthy diet, exercise and that led me to understanding more about nutrition and it’s affects on the body and how herbs and naturopathic medicine could be useful as well. Still the naturopathic course I had chosen wasn’t strong enough to stop this rapidly growing disease. I remember waking up after a surgery, which was meant to reduce my pain, and thinking, “There has got to be a better way.” I heard a voice come to my heart in a quiet still whisper, “There is”. I sought for 2 more years before finding an alternative medical therapy, Chinese medicine and acupuncture greatly relieved the disease and put it into remission. I say this not to draw attention to the experience of illness in my life but the quiet, gentle and sometime long process that it is to learn something through the spirit. I wasn’t the same person because my experience made me more tender and compassionate to those who suffer. It also taught me of the beauty of agency and how the Lord gently put me in the right direction and expected me to act for myself and use all my energy to find a solution. All the while I felt of his love his patience and felt confirming witnesses to decisions I was making to improve my health as I read my scriptures, prayed and obtained priesthood blessing for the healing of the sick. I was also changing. I found diligence virtue and knowledge was growing in me. I wasn’t as afraid of challenges and I started to see the miracles that happened in my behalf could not have come any other way.

Don’t fear imperfections of mankind but seek to learn for yourselves the truth from God.

Your fear in proper gospel instruction may have increased with this article which is not my intent. You may feel like there should be clear teaching on the matter and that people should not be so messed up about their own faith. I agree the teaching of the gospel should be clear! What becomes the most important factor for change is members must be willing to pay the price. Paying the price is a common phrase we Religious Educators used to describe the effort and direction we must go in order to gain gospel scholarship. It means quite simply that we need to see that the scriptures and words of living prophets have the correct answers. Paying the price takes constant effort and study to understand, but the way we go about these things are simple. Every day we should be searching the scriptures individually and as a family. We need to have regular family home evenings and attend Church. It is amazing how much information you can gain if this simple but regular study is practiced. There is no replacement for time and constant effort.

One thing that I noticed that came from daily study of the scriptures was the ability to see the principles and doctrines and how they related to a normal day. On days that I was so exhausted from my chronic illness but still had to drag myself out of bed and make a living I had my prayers were answered. I always had enough energy to do what he needed me to do. I knew that energy was a blessing from the enabling power of the atonement. I then could see more perfectly the way that people were helped in similar ways in the scriptures. Sometimes it was the scriptures that opened my mind to the possibilities of life and that I could call down the powers of heaven in behalf of others just as Alma, Abinadi, and Nephi had done. It started to get fun when I learned to pray by the promptings of the spirit because it gave me a clue of what would be happening that day. I sometimes would feel prompted to pray for wisdom in working with my students and I would have sweet experience with parents which would confirm to me the things I had done that helped, and also some things I could do to better help their children. I saw the connections to the scriptures to my regular life. I saw different ways to draw my student’s attention from the world to listen to the things of the Lord everywhere and with everyone that I associated with. The study of the gospel was giving me corrective lenses in which I could see the hand of God working in the behalf of others and myself.

The scriptures were now becoming part of my very being and identity which made Church service more meaningful. I sought for ways to serve in the Church instead of seeking for spiritual experience, and oddly enough by serving others I found great spiritual experiences. I was often impressed by my humble brothers and sisters and how they dealt with the passing of loved ones and their faithful obedience to the gospel after a conversion to the gospel in their later years. With all the good experiences I had my share of frustrations. I remember one teacher was trying to teach that God had all power, all wisdom, and basically was perfect to which the classroom erupted with comments that God was a student that had just been around a long time and that he was still progressing. I tried to back up the teacher, but it felt like we were the only ones in the room that believed the truth. The teacher was an excellent student of the gospel and I could feel the spirit of his words, but the class was blocked by their own ignorance and not even those who were in charge of correcting the doctrine were saying anything. I remember finding some good sources to their answer, one being a talk by Bruce R. McConkie that was entitled The Seven Deadly Heresies. He sure did let the audience know that believing God had not gained all knowledge was incorrect. He told them if they believed that well they had the intelligence of a nat. I really liked the bluntness he used. It sure did relieve my irritation, and left no room for argument to the contrary. I took a copy of that talk to my father, who at that time was serving as a Bishop in the ward where the incident occurred. He used the quote in meetings to correct the situation that had arisen among the ward members before his call as Bishop. I was grateful for the truth to be out and for the good people in that area to be reclaimed, but I was frustrated with how long it took to correct.

Now I am not so frustrated even though my husband and I come home from Church every week with stories from our classes that show there is misunderstanding of simple doctrines taught every week. I know what to do when that happens now. I am grateful that this is no big deal in our home. We just get the scriptures and have the discussions that correct all of the doctrine that was misunderstood. It makes for a great gospel discussion in the home and we leave stronger and better each time. I can completely understand why the Church does not hold the primary responsibility for teaching the gospel. It is just simply impossible to get perfection from an imperfect group. But it is possible to get perfection from looking to Christ in all things. We can pray about anything that may have confused us, search the scriptures and words of living prophets for help and come back from the experience stronger every time.

 I am not worried about wrong doctrine being taught at Church because I recognize it as just a reality of the doctrine of the Fall. The fallen condition in which we live just means we are in constant error and only God can raise our sights and understanding to His truth. If we follow the counsel of our leaders to search and find answers for us then everything will work for our good. I think it is also important to understand what people misunderstand so we can be an instrument in bringing clarity. I don’t mean we can set up a rogue effort to correct every misunderstanding that come up, for there is an organized system to go about doing this. For those of you who do not understand this let me tell you I have learned through leadership position and becoming more familiar with the Church Handbook of Instructions is for the responsibility of teaching correct doctrine in the Ward. The responsibility is placed upon the leaders of each organization and the Bishop. If there is a problem talk to the leader of the organization and talk to the Bishop. They will be able to gently correct the issue if needed. Pray for your instructors and those who have heard the wrong doctrine. Your responsibility is complete when you get a confirmation from the Holy Ghost that the Lord is pleased with your efforts and you don’t need to worry about it.

An object lesson that I found quite effective and entertaining to help illustrate where we go to find our gospel answers and any answer, really is this: I would have a young man in my class collect water from the boys restroom, strait from the toilet. I would get another clear glass and fill it at the drinking fountain. Because many times the water looked the same, it was difficult for the class to tell the difference between the two. If you told them that they were free to drink the water, they were not so thrilled with the thought that they could be drinking out of the toilet. No normal person would really want to drink toilet water, but if we now draw the connections between this and gospel teaching we will begin to see that we are drinking toilet water every day we listen to someone and assume that they are telling us the truth. Or that just because the position that they hold, with the prophet of the Church being the only exception for this, means that everything they say is in line with correct doctrines and principles of the Church. If we seek the source of knowledge, which is God, then we will be drinking from the pure sources. Prayer, Fasting, Scriptures, and General Conferences of the Church are great examples of what we can do to go to the pure source of information. Ultimately the pure answer will be a confirmation of the Spirit of the Lord, or the Holy Ghost will teach us the truth of all things.

5 Things that will make you a much better Gospel Doctrine/Sunday Gospel Teacher

I have been a teacher of the gospel for more than twenty years, both in a lay ministry capacity and also professionally. I have taken classed from the brightest minds in the Church. Yet nothing has been a more powerful teacher to me of how to instruct than those who taught by example the proper way to be in tune to the gospel and to teach the way the Savior taught. I remember a young man I served with in a college ward (comprising of students and leaders chosen from the surrounding community) before I served a mission. We were both teaching the missionary preparation course. While I had not served a mission I was the only young woman in the ward that had received my own endowment in the temple. Since that is a step that all missionaries needed to take in their preparation to serve a mission they figure I was the closest thing they had. I may have been through the temple but I didn’t know much when it came to anything else.

Luckily I was not on my own. My partner teacher was a wise returned missionary who taught with love and the spirit. In attempting to correct a problem that had happened in the ward through teaching correct principles I decided I would put in my two cents as well. I definitely thought that what I had to say would solve the problem a lot faster. I don’t remember what I said but I did remember being condemning in my tone. He thanked me for my comment, but said I prefer to follow the spirit. It was one of the first times where I had recognized that my thoughts were not in alignment with the spirit of the Lord. I was teaching the truth without love or understanding and I was that tinkling symbol the scriptures talked about. My teaching didn’t lead to edification, it led to hurt and guilt.

I wondered why I could have even justified that I was speaking by the spirit at all. In quiet reflection I realized that in looking back at my education in the spirit at that time I saw examples of both good and bad teaching, but I accepted it all as good. Some people had said they were “going by the spirit,” when in actuality they were just, “shooting from the hip.” They hadn’t even bothered to study the lesson at all. I did also have great teachers that took great pains to help us feel the spirit and they followed it in class. One teacher was Shirley Squires. I felt the warmth of her faith. I could tell she cared about us and she really wanted us to understand. One time I remember her asking me what the answer was to a question she had posed to the class, but there was only silence after and no one dared to raise their hands. I knew the answer. What I couldn’t understand why she knew that I did. This both scared me and left me confused.

I know now that I didn’t have within myself a spiritual compass to guide me. I am forever grateful for her wonderful instruction. It taught me a valuable lesson that when a person is led by the spirit there will be a power carried to the hearts of those who are seeking to understand. I also learned that the spirit would help me as a teacher know who to call on. Thankfully I learned later through my missionary training that God would speak through us, but it was our responsibility to fill our souls with his truth so that when he picked us up to write his message we would be pens filled with ink. I was finding at last my internal spiritual compass.

I am so grateful for the shift the Church has made in teaching the youth. The approach they are taking is much like the way I learned to teach the gospel in the MTC and the way we were expected to teach in the professional Religious Education world. I have served teaching the youth with this new curriculum and have absolutely loved it. I have also had conversations with those who are overwhelmed and frustrated with trying to adapt to this new method. I know that it will take some time and some adjusting, but I can tell those that are teaching that this will be the greatest blessing to their lives when they learn to teach by involving the students in the process. Lessons sink home when they have the chance to learn the doctrine for themselves and teach it to the class. I have also learned is anyone can be a powerful teacher in the gospel if they know where the power comes from and how to access it for their classroom.  

I have tried to compile lessons I learned while being trained as a religious educator that really helped. Our training happened yearly with Apostles, weekly with our principles, and all the summer months from a variety of the best teachers that the program could offer. I share this because we were constantly encouraged to change and challenged to learn more and there is nothing that can give us greater power in our teaching than to repent, or change, and exercise greater faith in Christ. I know this list has the potential to be helpful. I did not mince words here because I feel very strongly about each of these helps. I could tell you many good and bad experiences that helped to make this a firm part of how I approached gospel teaching. There is not one of these that do not have scriptural foundation, as well as counsel from Prophets, Apostles, and promptings by the spirit. While I treasure the messages I have learned they have become so part of me that I feel them right from my heart. I do invite you to find out the truth of what I say for yourself. Study it out for yourself, practice it and I can assure you with all of my heart that you will teach with greater conviction and power and you will touch the hearts of those the Lord needs you to reach out too.

1.       Don’t stray from approved curriculum! Help your class to understand the doctrines you are assigned to teach that day by using the scriptures. They are the foundation of any class on Sunday. You should be in the scriptures throughout your entire class and take no more than a few minutes in a readiness activity (object lessons or stories etc. that introduce your topic). Never teach from unapproved sources. Religious Educators call that the kiss of death! The spirit will back you up when you obediently use the approved materials for your classes.

 

There are additional sources that are always appropriate to use when there are questions and you need more information to help your class better understand what you are trying to teach. Those sources are: the scriptures( not commentaries on the scriptures), General Conference addresses, True to the Faith, For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet, Daughters in my Kingdom, the Hymnal, Teaching no greater call, and approved manuals and materials for your courses, and the Church handbook of Instruction which is available online.) There is so much information in these approved sources that I pretty much guarantee that you will find everything that is your responsibility to answer questions and teach with clarity and power of the Spirit. Don’t do the work for your students when they need to seek for answers themselves. Help them know where to go. Help them not be frustrated and loose hope. Most importantly, follow the Spirit in what you say and the question you answer. Follow the spirit as to the questions you have your class answer and those questions which should remain answered through prayer and revelation given to that individual.

 

In order for the scriptures to profit us and help us learn, we must be able to take the topics and apply them to our lives. They were written to show us how to live and how to come unto Christ. You are not teaching a history lesson! It is unnecessary to focus on the history. Our focus should be how to help the class come closer to Christ that day. You are not expected to speak Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic, or be able to explain all the maps in the topical guide.  Inviting others to share how the principle and doctrines you are teaching has changed them and made them better will be the most edifying experience you can do for your class.

 

2.       Avoid speculative comments about doctrine and people! Don’t allow your class to take you down this road! Stick to the scriptures and words of living prophets! If they are not addressing it you shouldn’t either! Learn to politely lead the class back to the Savior every time they stray into topics of little spiritual value and importance. It is easier to pick up when you can recognize the spirit with your class. The spirit will not attend such comments and you will feel the difference as you seek to understand this yourself, then you can help others understand it as well.

3.       Live the Gospel! You must be a stellar example of the principles and doctrines of the gospel you teach. Living the gospel will help you to teach with a pure heart. There is no replacement that will be more powerful. Don’t worry about being perfect or not knowing a lot. You are only expected to do your best and the spirit will attend you and testify of the truthfulness of what you are saying. If you lack confidence in your obedience repent and ask for help. There is someone in your ward that is a stellar example of whatever principle you are trying to teach that would be happy to help you whenever you need them. When they stand with you the spirit that will enter your classroom will amaze you. When they are approved by your bishop, they will make a wonderful example for the class. If you are living the gospel it will be much easier to recognize the spirit in your lessons and pause to help others recognize when they are feeling the spirit as well.

4.       Keep it simple! The Savior himself said that if it does not teach faith and repentance it is not His doctrine. Everything we teach must help us and others want to repent and exercise greater faith in the Savior. If we are not leading others to partake of the gift of the Atonement we are wasting all of our time. Testifying of doctrines and principles frequently throughout the lesson rather than just at the end will increase the feeling of the spirit in your classroom. When in doubt stick to the basics 1. Godhead, 2. Plan of Salvation, 3. Atonement of Jesus Christ, 4. Dispensation, Apostasy, and Restoration, 5. Prophets and Revelation, 6. Priesthood and Priesthood Keys, 7. Ordinances and Covenants, 8. Marriage and Family, 9. Commandments. These basic doctrines can be taught weekly and they always bring an edifying feeling when you know they are true and you testify of them and invite others to testify of the same. We should always seek to build others faith in these principles and doctrines including building the faith in the Lord’s organization for his Church. We should never demean any program or leader in the Church.

 

5.       Remember it is about those you teach and not about you! We must magnify Christ in the methods we use to help others. Anything to call attention to ourselves is priest craft, which is setting us up for a light and example instead of the Savior. I believe that most people are innocent of this and if they do it at all they don’t understand what they are doing. But, whether they understand it or not this weakens the power of our teaching. Even when we don’t understand that we are sinning we are still breaking eternal law which will result in a decrease or eliminate to the power of the Spirit of our lessons. Everything the Savior taught when he was living among us in mortality was to lead us to the Father. He didn’t seek praise, recognition, or anything contrary to the Father’s will. He was and is the perfect teacher to emulate. When you don’t know what to do, He does …and He will still lead us. LDS.org has GREAT REFERENCES for TEACHERS! Use them because Christ has inspired them to help His children come home. The message is about bringing us all to our eternal home. He loves us and when we love those we teach, they can and will feel his love through us. If we love the Lord we will feed His sheep.

Thank you so much for taking time to read my blog. I feel so grateful for the kindness of those who have responded to me and supported my efforts. I really try to follow the Spirit in those things that I share and my only hope is to be helpful and do what my Father in Heaven needs me to do. May the Lord bless you.

Andrea

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tender Christmas Eve /in Honor of My Husband's First Wife and Her Sons

An Answer to Elder Perry’s Great Question/Christmas Eve at the Roof

I have never been a person that is at a loss for words, and quite frankly neither is my husband. Yet, on Christmas Eve 2011 we were both at a loss to express what was in our hearts when Elder Perry, (A member of the Quorum of Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and who must have the same Christmas Eve tradition of eating at the Roof restaurant at Temple Square) posed the question, “How did you get these two here?” His wife must have sensed there was more to our little dinner than a happy holiday tradition and promptly put her elbow in his side, I assume to let him know he was prying. I had such a feeling of love in my heart and was so close to tears that not a word escaped my lips. My husband’s quick wit kicked in and he said, “Food.” It is good food and his answer helped to lessen the awkwardness of the moment, but I felt a twinge of regret in not being emotionally able to express my gratitude to those fine young men and my wonderful husband. Lucky for me they are a lot easier to run into during the day than Elder L. Tom Perry and I can make up for that moment with this post.

I can understand what a curious sight we must have been. It must have been a little puzzling for anyone who saw our family mournful on a Christmas Eve. We bore no resemblance at all to the typical family. My husband’s first wife was from Taiwan and had passed away earlier that year, and he had married me near the close of the year. Her 2 sons bear her resemblance.  Here we were, two very Caucasian parents with two handsome Amer-Asian young adult men.

The night was so still, quiet, and solemn.  Guy and I sought to make the evening about remember the boy’s mother. We dressed up in her honor and quietly all drove together to a wonderful dinner. Reflecting back on this I see things a little more clearly. I am so grateful for their reverent conduct and for their loving acceptance of me. I know it couldn’t have been easy for them to see their father remarry, let alone the same year their mother passed away. Yet they exhibited noble character. If they had any hard feelings they kept them in their heart and acted with great kindness. That to me is the definition of nobility. I am still in awe of how they treated me.

I too felt keenly of Cici’s loss and found it difficult to hold back tears because her death made it possible for me to join this wonderful family of noble men. She had been my friend and I mourned her death too, in saying this I do not pretend to know the depth of my Husband pain or Cici’s sons sorrow. I had known their mother for years and you can read all about how Guy and I’s story came about in: The Less Loved Wife? I wish now to concentrate on the miracle of my first Christmas in this wonderful family, and to better answer that question posed by an Apostle of the Lord.

So what would have I said to Elder Perry’s question, “How did you get these two here”?  I wish I could have said had my emotions and intelligence would have allowed, is this: These great young men lost their Mom this year, she had cancer. The older son quit his job to help with the family business during her illness, and the younger son was serving as a full-time missionary in Taiwan at the time of her diagnosis as well as passing. He just returned home. Tonight we are here to honor her Christmas tradition and memory. I am his, (pointing to my new husband) new wife and his first wife’s friend. I have waited years for the opportunity to be a part of an eternal family and this is way more than I ever anticipated. More in the sense of blessings, heartache, and a lot more required of me in assisting my grieving family than I feel confident doing. My sweet husband followed the Lord and married again when his heart was broken. The timing of his effort to win my affection came when I needed him most. These honorable young men have been nothing but kind and polite to me in their heartache and I love them so much for it. I cannot express in words my feelings of gratitude to my Heavenly Father and my Savior who have made this moment possible and for healing which can happen no matter the ache. I know God lives and these young men came here tonight of their own free will, no one could ask for a better Christmas in such difficult circumstances. So you see our hearts our full and we are all doing our best.

You may think that this answer may provoke a response from the questioner of regretting having asked such a question. Or maybe you think I am trying to teach him a lesson. I have no other intent in this response than to sincerely express what happen in that sweet and tender moment before the moment fades in my memory. I am also confident that sharing your heart sincerely with and Apostle when they ask such a great question is always acceptable. Apostles of the Lord often here tender stories of faith. They work among the children of men daily for the Lord and seek to do nothing but his will. While I know they readily admit to human error I have never known more Christ-like men. I wish I could have at the time shown my faith and trust in Elder Perry and the position he holds in actually answering his question. I suppose he will never hear the answer to his question personally, the timing may never be right again, but I am so thankful he asked it. The pondering of it has made all the difference this Christmas.

Years have passed and our family has been joined by another son and we are preparing to again go to the Roof restaurant on Christmas Eve. In preparing to go I can’t help but reflect back to that first tender Christmas Eve.  We have had more dinners and with each one the happiness increases. I know that no matter how difficult the holidays can be in our losses and sorrow there is hope and happiness ahead. While the holidays seem to be the time we feel more keenly the losses of our heart, I see them now as an opportunity to reflect more on that one great sacrifice of the Savior of the world for us. I know that these losses are only making room in our hearts for the Savior tender kindness to enter. I know that Christ is the miracle of Christmas. Allowing Him in and remembering all He has done for us makes Christmas the most wonderful time of the year.

Merry Christmas everyone,

Andrea