Personal Revelation
I have really been loving what we have been learning about in Come Follow Me recently. We have been learning so many good things. I feel like I haven't ever read the Doctrine in Covenants before. A completely new and enriching experience for me. How blessed are we to have this Come Follow Me program as well as so many resources to assist and enhance our study and learning.
I have loved learning about personal revelation. I have been learning more and more that revelation is not necessarily a huge experience, but little experiences every day. When we invite the spirit into our lives we will naturally be enlightened and inspired in all that we do. Alma 32 talks about planting a seed of faith. You will know if the seed is good because it will:
S...Swell
E...Enlarge
E...Enlighten
D...Delight
I love that acronym. This is how personal revelation is! If we have a thought planted in our mind, we can know if it is from God if it makes us feel good. If it swells, enlarges, enlightens, and causes us delight. Such an easy formula and something that I have often overlooked. I sometimes wait for revelation to be a huge and overwhelming experience. It does happen like that occasionally, but, more often than not, it's usually a still and small experience. When we are baptized we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It means that we can have the spirit with us at all times. The spirit already dwells with us, he is already speaking to us an influencing us on a regular basis. We often don't even recognize it.
I have been praying so hard to be able to recognize when I'm receiving personal revelation. That I'll be able to recognize when I am hearing Him. I have learned that when I want to speak to the Lord, I pray. When I want the Lord to speak to me, I read the scriptures. I addition, I have been paying more attention to the thoughts that come to my mind and making sure I write them down and follow through with those thoughts.
This past week I have been intentional about sending texts to people that pop into my mind. Friendly texts, spiritual texts, or texts with quotes and talks from church leaders. Yesterday I had an experience that was amazing. The Young Women Presidency was planning to do an activity on February 10th (next Wednesday) to introduce the new Youth Theme. We had planned to distribute coloring pages and coloring pencils to the girls and have them color while listening to a talk by David Butler about the theme. This idea seemed to be a good one...until yesterday. I just felt sick about it. I knew that our plan wasn't right and that we couldn't follow through with it, despite it being less than a week away. I texted my presidency and told them what I was feeling and that something needed to change. They were so supportive and within a few hours we had completely changed the activity into something that we all feel really good about. It is now broken up into 4 different sections with a variety of different activities to keep the girls attention as well as inspire them. I have complete confidence that Heavenly Father guided this activity. This is the experience that He wanted His daughters to have. Not the experience that we had originally planned. I hope that the girls come and feel of God's love for them.
Heavenly Father is in charge. He loves His children. If we are willing, we can choose to live our lives so that the Holy Ghost will feel welcome dwelling within us. When the Holy Ghost dwells within us, we will be able to be an instrument in God's hands, reaching out, in love to His children. We are God's hands here on earth. When we serve our fellow beings, we are serving God. I was reading in Mosiah Chapters 1 and 2 this morning, the beginning of King Benjamin's speech. He told his people that because he had lived his life serving his people and serving God, his conscience was clear. I realized that serving others is a sure way to feel good and to have a clean conscience before the Lord. Sometimes I find myself wondering if God is pleased with me. Sometimes I feel like He is disappointed in me. However, I realized today that although I don't always feel approval from God (most likely due to my own weaknesses and inadequacies getting the better of me), I can feel confident that God is pleased with me when I am doing my best to serve others. When I serve others, I'm sharing God's love and, in turn, I feel God's love. Serving others never fails to uplift and strengthen me. When I feel down, the only sure remedy that I know is to reach outside of myself and serve someone. We can know who God wants us to serve by listing to the sweet, still, and small voice of the spirit. God is willing to speak to us, and I think He is is especially willing to communicate when we are anxious to serve His children. If I ever wonder if God is pleased with me, I only need to serve someone. Then I will know.
I learned this acronym regarding service last year while listening to a podcast:
PULSE
P...Pray
U...Understand
L...Lose yourself
S...Spirit
E...Emulate
I loved reading in the Doctrine and Covenants last week, "Doubt Not, Fear Not". I learned a wonderful acronym for FEAR.
F...False
E...Evidence
A...Appearing
R...Real
Sometimes we feel fearful to follow through with the promptings and impressions that we receive. However, we need to remember that "God giveth not the spirit of FEAR, but of power and love and of a sound mind." We can pray for strength and know that God will give us the power and love that we need in order to accomplish His work.
Catilyn received a card in the mail from her Primary Teacher. What a sweet gift!
Caitlyn loved her. She stayed with her for the entire time and loved every minute. William was a little hesitant to get involved, ha ha. When she knocked down his block tower he ran to his room. It's funny to think that by the time Lizzie was William's age she already had 2 little brothers. William will never know what that is like, unfortunately. Oh how I wish that I could have had another baby. Nevertheless, I will go forward with faith and see what else God has in store for me. I am feeling the urge to do nursing school. I will likely apply next year.
God is good.
Since this post has had so many acronyms, I'll end with one. This is an acronym that I made up when giving a talk a few years ago. I was asked to speak on how we can make Christ the focus of our lives. I came up with the acronym FOCUS to help me remember.
F...Faith (I now would add Faith over Fear)
O...Obedience (I now would add Ordinances)
C...Communication (I now would add Covenants)
U...Understanding
S...Sacrifice or Service
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