Giving Everything

I heard a song the other day and I don't know what the title is, but a question in the chorus of the song really struck me: " I don't want to spend my whole life asking, "What if I had given everything, instead of going through the motions?" It just made me think about what life is really about and WHY I do the things I do. Do I just monotonously go through my same routine everyday because I've never known anything else? And then when trials come, I say, "Well it must all be for nothing anyway." Or do I truly give everything in being a wife, a mother, a woman of God, because that's what I KNOW Heavenly Father wants me to do, even in the midst of hard times? I think we all come to a point (or several points) in our lives where we question ourselves and what the point is of doing what we do and believing in what we believe in. But I choose, when I find my faith wavering, to go with what works. What really makes me happy? I try to remember those experiences I've had when I know that the Spirit has comforted me or borne witness of truth. I so easily forget. But I know that true peace and joy are found in living (truly living) the plan of happiness that Heavenly Father has for all of His children. I struggle with turning my will over to His sometimes, because I am afraid of not being able to handle what is ahead. And I know I don't give everything I have all the time because of impatience and distraction and again, fear. But I know that I don't want to look back on my life and ask myself, "What if I had given everything, instead of going through the motions?" I must have faith that there are marvelous things prepared for those who do give their all for His sake and I must keep trying! The following scripture gives me a lot of comfort:

"But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Cor. 2:9

Giving everything is hard, especially when life is hard! But I as my wonderful friend, Marilyn, said to me on Sunday, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philip. 4:13 I know all of us can do this!

The Love of Our Heavenly Father and Savior

What do we have hope in if not a Supreme Being who has overcome all evil and who loves us unconditionally; sees our needs, answers our prayers, and heals us with His Spirit? What would be left to have hope in? When all seems dark around us, we must believe that there is someone out there who knows all and who will bring mercy to those who suffer, and justice to those who would willingly inflict suffering. If there is no Heavenly Father, then those who do wickedly would never have to suffer as they make those around them to do so. And those who are righteous would have no hope of blessings or a reward for their patience, kindness, and forgiveness. There would be no purpose in any of what we do. We must believe there is purpose and that there is a God over all people and things! If not, how truly hopeless our situation would be! And if we choose to believe that there is a God, we must take the time to find out His character through study of the scriptures, prayer, and personal experiences; or perhaps, the experiences of others if we find our desire waning. We must be believing and unshaken in our hope that there is a God who loves us, even if all around us should fail. I love these words from Paul:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?....Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." --Romans 8: 35, 37-39

A beautiful hymn also comes to mind:

"Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone.
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed, we shall meet at last.

Choose to Hope

Why I still choose to hope.....

I have seen many people, despite trials and suffering, who still hope and who still trust that God cares for them and loves them. They continue strong and unwavering in their faith despite....

watching a child battle cancer and lose.
watching a child battle cancer and win.
battling cancer themselves.
being abandoned by a husband.
the deaths of 3 family members in one month
having to bury a baby who was 20 weeks premature.
having been addicted to drugs and alcohol.
having to take care of a husband for years while he suffered and eventually died.
being in a wheel chair and doctors cannot diagnose the condition.
losing a job and not finding one again for 6 months.
having to bring children to church every Sunday alone.
struggling with diabetes.
being away from church for 20 years.
the divorce of parents after 25 years.
struggling with an eating disorder.
having a severely handicapped child who will never talk or walk.
having been through a divorce which was no fault of their own.
being abused by a spouse.
being single and pregnant.
having a spouse with a severe mental illness.
having children who choose unhappy paths.
the early death of a spouse.

So our circumstances do not have to control our faith. We can have the faith and hope to control our attitudes in spite of our circumstances. And I choose to look at those who are faithful regardless of what they must go through in this life. Oddly, or rather, not, they are some of the happiest people I know.

Political Two Cents

I don't pretend to be well-educated in the area of politics, but as of late, I have read a great deal about this nation's history and the purpose of it's establishment and government. I firmly believe our founding fathers were inspired by our Heavenly Father to create such an unprecedented way of governing. He has blessed this nation with unique freedoms and circumstances as no other nation has been. But where is our country headed? Can we not see the connection between the moral decay of our country and the increased "intolerance" for the belief in a right and a wrong? If nothing is "wrong", and everything is right because someone desires it, we only find ourselves with more "rights" and no responsibilities, and no virtue. Lately I have seen that our country's own government is only facilitating this idea of "entitlement" without responsibility and without virtue!

“Nowadays, the purpose of government is not so much to secure our natural rights as to provide us new rights, to bestow on us social and economic and other kinds of entitlements – the list goes on and on, and it's still being added to.” --Charles Kesler
"Big Government is intrusive and not liberating…Big Government constrains you for the sake of equality so that your freedom is no greater than anyone else's. It also constrains you for your own comfort and security. Its constant tendency to control and equalize the conditions of life leads it to attempt to diminish the risks of life by which inequalities of fortune, and even of merit, occur. In diminishing your risks Big Government diminishes your virtue, because it (THE GOVERNMENT) assumes responsibility for making things come out well for you despite YOUR errors or, what is more and more likely, your INACTION." --Harvey Mansfield

Is more government the answer to the constant pleas for more rights and seemingly less tolerance for faith and moral values?

Courage and Truth

I came across this on YouTube, and thought it was well worth sharing. How incredible that a person as young as this could be so gifted a speaker and could dictate so boldly on such a controversial topic. What an example her conviction is! I can only hope I can teach my children to stand strong for truth and good in the face of shifting moral values and the emphasis on "rights" rather than "responsibility" world we live in.

http://www.nmatv.com/video/1318/Preteen-pro-life-speech-goes-viral

One True Source of Peace

"Where can I turn for peace? Where is my solace when other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice, I draw myself apart, searching my soul?
Where, when my aching grows, where, when I languish, where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish? Who, who can understand? He, only one.
He answers privately, reaches my reaching in my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace He finds for my beseeching. Constant He is and kind, love without end."

The Savior's Yoke

I recently read a very thought-provoking book called "The Peacegiver" by James Ferrell. It was about the Atonement, but not strictly in an informative sense. It addressed the subject in such an illuminating way that I felt my view of this miraculous act was forever changed. Maybe not "changed" necessarily, but deepened so much as to make my perspective on life different. I thought about how many times I try and do things by myself believing that I am weak if I have to ask for help so readily. And I thought about how easy it is to succumb to pride in terms of it's true meaning: comparison. How easily I base my reactions off of others' actions; putting myself in the victim mode too often and thinking that righteousness is a relative term--that somehow if I'm doing "more" then I shouldn't have to be the one to humble myself or apologize first. This book really opened my eyes to see how the Savior suffered for each one of us individually and that our happiness is separate from what others do around us. And what we choose to do in life should only be based on our relationship with the Savior, never being provoked or justified by another's actions. Many times we see others acting in certain ways or saying certain things and we feel it justifies us in acting in a way we otherwise wouldn't. Or we're allowed to feel more righteous than them because they are "sinning" worse than we are. How are we to make that judgment or assumption? To quote from the book (the author is bringing out a parallel to our lives through the story of Jonah):

"You see, Ricky, relative righteousness means nothing. Whether Jonah was better or worse than Nineveh isn't the question at all.... Some laborers work longer, the Savior told us in one of his parables, and others shorter. Each person's payment at the end of the day has nothing whatsoever to do with the work of others. We are each working out our own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. And that gift will come to us only if we know in our hearts that we deserve it no more than anyone else.... The truth is, we are all, each of us, equally damned without the mercy of the Lord. Eternal life is a gift. I have no cause to feel entitled. I have cause only to feel grateful."

I feel very humbled by this and immensely unworthy, yet grateful, for what the Savior has done for us, all of us individually. I have come to understand that the Atonement means so much more than "suffering for us". It seems like we use that phrase so casually because, well, who of us can possibly comprehend what was actually done in the garden of Gethsemane? But I know that the Atonement is real and that because of it I am free from the powers of darkness and temptation, if I choose. And why not choose Christ? What happier alternative would there be? I don't have to be in the power of Satan or succumb to weakness! Christ has done that for me already, and He faced what none of us will ever have to. So we should come unto Him every day of our lives. One final quote, Christ suffered an "indescribable anguish and overpowering torture, a supreme contest with the power of evil, an hour of anguish when Christ had to meet and overcome all the horrors that Satan could inflict. And he suffers all this.... for us.... the addict, the abuser, the chronic complainer, those whose spirits are depressed. His struggle tonight is for all mankind, but only because it was for each of us, individually and specifically.... If we harden not our hearts and stiffen not our necks against him, he will facilitate the breaking of our sinful, stony hearts and will give us what Ezekiel called his new 'heart of flesh', saving us from all our uncleannesses. This is the miracle of Gethsemane."