Removing the Cord

"Destroy any paths leading to your past and make a clean break. Be fearless and focused on the Kingdom that is ahead of you and the One who holds the keys to your future." ~ Jonathan Cahn

As humans, we all make mistakes. None of us are perfect, and as imperfect beings, we stumble and fall many times along our way through life. Yes, we are bound to make poor choices, but instead of repenting of our sins, weaknesses, and shortcomings and moving on, many of us don't move on, or we do move on a little ways but drag the past along with us.

Even though the Lord forgives our sins and forgets them, we don't forget them, which is okay. It's right that we don't forget, because they are a reminder and a deterrent, hopefully swaying us not to repeat those offenses again. But in many cases, we unnecessarily drag the past around with us. Instead of overcoming, we let the past hang around our neck like a flaxen cord that we can't escape.

We need to understand that we do have an escape. God gave us that escape when He gave us His Son. Christ paid the escape fee, He paid our ransom, and our debt is clear. When we've truly repented and made a change in our life, we need to allow ourselves to move on and focus on that Kingdom that is ahead of us, not the crumbling city we left behind. We must not be like Lot's wife in the book of Genesis, who turned back to look with longing at the city God had just helped them escape. When she did this, her life was immediately forfeit, and for her, all was lost. Each time we look back on our old life, we lose a little more of ourselves and our growth is stunted.

The atonement of our Savior was gifted to us for a reason. When we truly apply it in our lives, we become strong enough to overcome all- all the poor choices, all the trials, all the pain, and all the regret. This is coming from a person who knows, so trust me on this.

As we begin this new year, may we all change the direction of our vision. May we intently fix our eyes on the glorious Kingdom ahead of us, not the abandoned, desolate city, state, country, island, etc. behind us. Now more than ever is the time to get our hearts, minds, and lives in order. We were given the means to do this long ago. That escape is ours for the taking. May we all vow to take the key offered, unlock the door, step through, then lock it behind us. If we walk through that door with our hand in the Savior's, there will be no danger of being pulled back through. He has promised this, and

He never goes back on His word.

Happy New Year!

Riding the Storm

Opposition is a natural part of life and we learn and grow with each trial we face. The greater the hardship, the stronger we become when we overcome it. We just need to remember that no matter what we face, we never have to face it alone. The Savior is always there to carry the burden and shoulder the pain, but only when we allow Him to.

E.A. Bucchaineri said, “A new challenge keeps the brain kicking and the heart ticking." This is such a true statement. If we didn't have trials, our growth in this life would be stunted and there would be no way we could reach our full potential. Without sorrow there can be no real joy. Sure we all love the times in life when everything is smooth sailing, but only because we have experienced the rocky seas first. I consider the joy that come after the pain celestial favor, and though it is sometimes hard to see the end of a storm, eventually, it does come.

One of my favorite quotes is from the movie The Count of Monte Cristo. In the movie, the Count is attending the birthday dinner of Mercedes' son, Albert Mondego. He gives the birthday toast and during that toast he says something that has always stuck with me. When talking about the storms of life, he repeats something Albert said weeks earlier when he was accosted in an alleyway, and adds some extra words of wisdom to it. He said, "When those storms come, say to them, 'Do your worst, for I will do mine.'"

Every single one of us has times in our life when storms rage and we wonder if one of these times we will be washed away with the tide. Yet somehow we stand strong. We are somehow gifted with the strength to withstand the raging waters and go on. We will be told at different times in our lives that God will not give us more than we can handle. He lets it rain and He lets the winds blow, because He knows it is for our good. He knows exactly what lessons we need when we need them. How grateful I am for that truth.
So when we faces those storms in life, let's quote the Count of Monte Cristo and say "Come on! Do your worst, for I will do mine!" Then we will lean on the strength of the Lord and learn and grow from the experiences.

Thoughts From a Mother of a Reformed Wayward Child

Today I want to talk about a painful subject that many parents deal with. This is the trial of having a wayward child.

Every parent has gone through these steps with their children:

First: Oh, I can't wait until he can he's born.

Then: I can't wait until she can sit up on her own.

I can't wait until she can crawl.

I can't wait til he can walk.

I can't wait until he can talk.

I can't wait til she's out of diapers.

I can't wait til she can go to nursery.

I can't wait til he can go to pre-school.

I can't wait til he can drive. (Well, maybe some of us aren't sure about that one.)

I can't wait til he can get a job.

I can't wait until he graduates.

I can't wait until she's married.

Then: I can't believe how quickly time has gone.

We all want our children to grow to be strong individuals with integrity and righteous morals. But since we all come to this earth gifted with agency, there is no guarantee that that path will be taken.

When a child strays, as parents, we have a tendency of wondering what we did wrong, or what we could have said or done to prevent or deter that child from making the choices he or she has. Sometimes we doubt our ability to be a good parent. Sometimes we wonder if God hears our pleas for the child, and wonder why He doesn't stop the child from straying off the path. Sometimes we even blame ourselves for something we might have done in our own lives and wonder if this is our punishment. This thinking could not be more wrong. I know this because I once felt these very things.

Sometimes we parents see a teenager beginning to make bad choices and try to help him or her see the consequences that are sure to follow those choices. We even try to help them see how the choices they make now will affect their future. We can see it all clearly, but the teen can't because their brains don't work that way. They think they know so much, they even think they know more than we do.

Then the teen becomes a man or woman and lives a destructive life. Does this mean we as parents have failed in our calling to love and guide this child that God has entrusted to our care?

No, it doesn't.

Basically all we can do is all we can do. We teach them what's right, then we place them in God's hands.

If you have done your best to raise your children right and one or two stray off the path that God wants them on, please don't beat yourself up over it. Agency is a powerful thing, and all you can do is pray that they finally understand that enough to use it wisely. You can't let it destroy you.

All we can do is turn our children over to our Heavenly Father - because they were His first.

Letting Go and Moving On

How true this quote is, and in many different contexts, but I choose to use it in reference to healing.
Part of healing and overcoming poor choices of the past is learning to forgive ourselves, letting go and moving on. Yes, there are lessons to be learned and those lessons will change the course of our lives - hopefully in a good way - but each time we look back and rehash, we stunt our growth, which is not what God wants. We can never forget mistakes, but we should also never forget how far we have come.
Overcome the past by looking forward, and be grateful for how far the Lord has brought you.
Always be grateful.

Keeping Our Eyes On the Prize

Helen Keller said, "Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and

you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” 

We all have things to overcome in life, whether it be trials or maybe even our own weaknesses. We have times when we feel successful, then there are other times when we stumble and fall. Falling is a part of life and it happens. But when it does, instead of beating ourselves up over our mistakes and letting hopelessness descend upon us, we need to recognize them, make amends within ourselves, and then start again. Falling doesn't mean we forget the progress we have made, it just means we need to be a little stronger the next time. When we fully lean on the Lord, He will give us that strength.

With all the things I have personally experienced in my life and how far God has brought me, giving up is not an option. If I did that, I would let down my Savior and myself. As long as I keep going, I am able to find joy in every weakness I overcome.
I pray that we can all persevere, keeping our eyes on the heavenly prize that is ours when we succeed.
And we will:-)

Strength to Weather the Storm

Today's experience is from Nicole Green.

I have metal rods in my back from scoliosis surgery when I was 16, and at the time of surgery, I found that I have a rare platelet disorder where my blood doesn’t clot as quickly as it should. I was told that I would be fine to have children, but then learned after pregnancy that an epidural was not an option. This wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but my first baby weighed 9 lbs. 11 oz.! Luckily, my second was a little smaller.
While pregnant with my third, I remember suddenly being so terrified of going through it all again. I remember praying very hard for Heavenly Father’s help. It seemed silly because I knew that I could tough it out, but I also knew that He was mindful of my fears. The doctors had been running a study on my blood, and suddenly for a very brief time, my blood tests were normal. The head anesthesiologist felt comfortable giving me a half-medicated epidural, and I knew that this was an answer to my prayers.
I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to help us endure our trials, and though he can’t always take them away totally, He can give us the strength to weather the storm if we simply ask.

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." - Helen Keller

Trials Are a Part of Life

Like everyone else in the world, my life has been full of trials - some big and some small - major

trials and minor everyday oppositions that come with living on this earth. Financially, there were days in the early part of our marriage when my husband and I wondered how we would make it from one week to the next.

One trial in particular was when we had only been married for a little over a month. My husband had a job in Salt Lake City that barely paid enough to cover the rent and a few other bills. I was waiting for court-appointed child support from my ex that was behind. It was only $52.00 a week, but that small amount of money is what we counted on for groceries. Because the payments were behind, we were down to a can of tuna and a box of rice, and to top it off, I was pregnant with a honeymoon baby and was so sick, I couldn't stomach our meager meal. We honestly did not know what we were going to do. All we could do was pray, so we did.

Then a child support check came, and another, and another. We were blessed and were able to feed our two boys.
The next month we moved down to Cedar City and stayed with my in-laws for a short period until my husband found a job that paid enough for us to get a place of our own. Sadly, during this time, I lost the baby, but six months later I became pregnant again. A year later, loans and grants fell into place and my husband moved us to Winter Park, Florida where he went to recording school and earned his audio engineering degree in a year.

Life was hard and we continued to struggle. And though changes came and things slowly improved, the trials were always there. There were many other times that we worried about feeding our family and paying the bills, but we always made it through with God's help, and each trial only served to bring us closer to the Lord and to each other.

No matter how alone we feel during the tough times, we are never really alone. The Father is always there and the Savior's arms are always outstretched, waiting for us to take His hand, enter His warm embrace, and accept His comfort. And though trials will always be a part of life, His comforting presence will be as well. It is a gift that is always available if we will only receive it.

Facing Health Challenges With Faith

This week's overcoming experience is from Carolee Hall. She is an amazing woman. I have had the pleasure of knowing for years and I'm grateful for her courage and insight.

I personally feel that one of my callings in life is to find my family history. As soon as I began working on this project I became ill. I had extremely high blood pressure - high enough to kill me and we didn't know why. After a year of blood pressure numbers measuring 246/146, we finally discovered the adrenal glands were enlarged and producing too much adrenaline and so they were removed. Their removal caused minor but ongoing problems for some time, and then one day (only 6 hours before I was scheduled to have a laser treatment to remove kidney stones) I felt a horrible ripping sensation in my chest. I had previously had a small heart attack and assumed this was the big one.  The pain was so awful I couldn't call for help or move.  I laid there, in the kitchen where I had gone to get a drink in the night, and croaked until someone heard me.  I lived to make it to the emergency room, an hour away, and was told it was a dissected aorta and the thoracic doctor there told me he could not save me.  That I could not live.

The pain was incredible and my husband and I decided that if we simply asked God to take me now, that it would save my suffering, and it seemed reasonable to us both since I wouldn't be able to recover anyway.  We prayed hard and for the rest of the night I kept thinking the next breath I took would be my last, and wondering what paradise would be like.  I couldn't move.  The pain was so intense that I simply couldn't move.  By morning I wondered why God had not taken me. I was beginning to feel upset that he would leave me in this death watch and in such great pain for so long.  They kept me on pain meds, and one day ran into another, and still I lived.  I prayed every waking moment - asking Him to just end it.  My children and grandchildren all came and said goodbye tearfully and told me it was okay to go.  Meanwhile the doctors and nurses were telling me not to sneeze, not to cough, not to move too fast as it would be instant death.  One even said to me that when it happened, it wouldn't last long and shouldn't be any worse than what I had already experienced.
The doctor said if I got to the point that I could be moved to a rehab facility, I would need to "wrap myself in bubble wrap and not drive over any bumps in the road." I was indeed moved to a rehab facility a few days later and put on a hospice program with counselors trying to prepare me mentally for death.  Old high school friends came to say goodbye, cousins, and neighbors, all telling me goodbye. And still I could see no purpose in this nonsense. Since I couldn't live, why didn't God just do it now?  One morning I was blowing my nose when the nurse came with my pain meds. When she saw me blowing my nose she begged me to stop because she didn't want the paperwork it would generate when I died.  I lived that way for about 25 days.

 I couldn't sleep on my side -- the aorta would pull and cause too much pain to sleep.  I was disappointed each morning to see a new day and I still had to endure another day of it.  It absolutely felt like a horror movie I was living in. It couldn't be true -- but it was. The doctor then scheduled me for a follow-up CAT scan to see how much the aorta was still bleeding inside, since I was still alive.  Immediately following the CAT scan, he said the leaking could possibly be be fixed if he could find the right surgeon, but he couldn't do that sort of thing. A couple of hours later, he came in and said he had found one in Salt Lake City, and I was life flighted there where they did surgery and repaired it, saving my life.  My doctor tells me I can claim this as a bonafide miracle since surviving such an injury is very rare.

 

The reason for telling this lengthy tale is this: as I thought about this whole experience, I kept wondering why God had not taken me -- why had He saved me?  The post-surgery pain is still significant and I can only stand or walk for short amounts of time. So why? I still have other health issues I cannot survive.  I am in kidney failure, so why?  Finally, I worked it out in my mind. Since I felt that my life assignment has been to do family history work and that was when my health suddenly took a turn for the worse, maybe the adversary had some hand in this. I finally found a quote from one of my early church leaders that said all illness and pain came from the adversary.  If that was the case, I was being attacked to keep me from doing what I was assigned to do. Somehow I had given him power over me and my health.  I decided to take my life back, to claim my own right over myself to be free from any such future bombardment.

I began noticing that while getting ready for church, I would find myself in great pain and I'd think I should stay home.  But every time this happens, if I can overcome it and go anyway, the pain stops.  I am convinced that there is an influence there in an effort to keep me ill. Now I pray daily to protect me from that influence.

 

I believe this is part of the challenges we have to face in life.  All are different. Some of us have health challenges and some have other challenges, but all are designed to help us grow. I must admit that when I didn't die after begging God to take me, I almost felt betrayed by Him.  He had always answered my prayers before. However it was pointed out to me that He didn't refuse to answer my prayer - He just said "no". . . for now.  I still have a work to do. God knows all our assignments and all we have done and all we still have to do.  He will not take us until we are done.  He will walk beside us until we can stand alone. He loves us and He knows us.