Thursday, February 21, 2008

Unconditional Love

I amazed at Sarah’s unconditional love and constant concern for my happiness. She is selfless and trusting. She is pure, intelligent & beautiful.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

T.o.t.L.P. Spring 2008: Personal Revelation

Recently I decided to reflect on some inspiration/answers to prayers that I received a while back. Tonight I had particular impressions come to my mind and heart during my Institute class. The subject for discussion was Elder Robert D. Hales talk titled Personal Revelation: The Teachings and Examples of the Prophets. -Ensign November 2007 pg 86-89

These thoughts are for me and by witting them down I am holding up my antenna to receive more personal revelation. This is a mixture of a list of my thoughts, statements from class, scriptures and quotes from the talk that we reviewed.

"When we are on the Lord's Errand, we have His blessings to accomplish whatever we are asked to do"

"President Lorenzo Snow had studied the gospel for several years before joining the Church. But he did not receive a witness until two or three weeks after his baptism when he retired in secret prayer."

-doubt & fear are not from the Lord. This is letting myself get in the way. I may have had an impression to do something and then afterward we start to roll it over in my mind and question it saying, "Wellll....I don't know...maybe..." or "Is this really what the Lord wants?" That is when I need stop right then & there and remember that one of the only ways to know I can do something is because He told me to go and do it. I had the confirmation, therefore don't cast away my confidence.

The discussion moved on to: "...prayer provides a firm foundation for personal revelation. But more is required." Also "Revelation comes on the Lord’s timetable, which often means we must move forward in faith, even though we haven’t received all the answers we desire."

-The Lord may not answer right away in order to give us a trial of our faith to make sure we are commited, qualified, and faithful. Do I still read and pray and do the right things for the right reasons-even when it seems that I haven't received an answer right away?

-Later we talked about how if the spirit is pressing upon you it is leading to revelation & inspiration. The example of the prophet Joseph Smith in D&C 128:1 when he wrote "...that subject seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest..."

-What is something 'still' and 'small' and how does one approach heading it? Something small requires attention and focus to look at or listen too. It takes effort to understand. Further, "The more we receive and acknowledge personal revelation, the more our testimonies grow." Laman & Lemuel had become past feeling in 1 Nephi 17:45, notice it is not written 'past hearing' because one of the great indicators a majority of the time is a feeling. Maybe we only get a feeling one time for a short period of time to see if we will act on it and that might be the time when the answer is coming to us.

In 3 Nephi 11:3 I was reminded about what the still small voice was not.
-More of what it is:
"feeling the feather in the windstorm"
"tender, soft, clear, sweet"
"the still small feeling"
-what it does: "whispereth , pierceth" -D&C 85:6

What I can do:
-ask and expect an answer
-"I don't have to be perfect to get an answer, just clean and worthy"
-"Once I know you make my decision to go forward w/ things I know to be right"

a better life

at 8:52 pm on 6 feb 2008 it was:
almost 63,072,000 seconds
or 1,051,200 minutes
or 17,520 hours
or 730 days...
or 104 weeks...
or 24 months...
or 2 years...
...since my life was changed for the better!