Holding Fast to Faith

How I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior! And how grateful I am to know that as long as I
place all my energy into becoming one with Them, there is nothing I cannot get through.
And so it is with all of us.
Happy Sabbath! :-)

What Matters Most to Me

For my birthday, my family gave me a birthday/belated Mother's Day gift and I became teary as soon
as I saw it. It is a charcoal drawn portrait of the Savior and I embracing. I have seen drawings and paintings like that done, but it has always been when I've attended the viewing of a friend or acquaintance. One day I said, "I would love to have a picture like that done, but I want it done while I am alive and can enjoy it instead of after I'm gone. I want to be able to look at it and dream of the day I can be embraced by my Savior." Well, a sweet daughter-in-law was listening and coordinated with everyone else to have it done. And now, I have this priceless gift in my home to help keep my heart and my thoughts focused on eternal things, the things of Heaven.

They are having another portrait done and I'm excited about it as well. I try to surround myself with things of God because I never want to forget from where my blessings come and to Whom I can always look for safety and shelter in the times to come.

No Greater Love

Today in Relief Society, the lesson was a discussion on ways we have been affected or changed by
love in our individual lives. I enjoyed hearing the various experiences shared by the sisters, and there were many thoughts and feelings spoken.
I too have been changed by the power of love throughout my life through countless experiences, but each and every one of those teaching moments - both the bitter and the sweet - were covered by an even greater love than my finite mind could comprehend. And THAT is the love that has changed me more than anything else. It has changed my heart, my mind, my spirit, my entire being. It is a love beyond all love, a bond beyond all other bonds. It is sacred, it is eternal, it is EVERYTHING.
It is only in and through the complete love of God and His Son, and becoming one with Them, that we receive tender mercies and divine guidance to overcome all things and endure to the end in righteousness.

Marching into Life's Battles

Someone else posted this meme a while back and it has become one of my favorites.
Many times in the past, the trials of life have felt like a huge weight that I didn't think I could carry another step. And the constant war that Satan and his minions are waging really took a toll on my spirit from time to time, so much so that it was hard to spiritually prepare myself for the work the Lord has for me. It is this way for most of us.
I don't feel that way anymore.
I don't feel that way because I finally learned that I MUST - I absolutely MUST - shift the weight of those trials over to the Savior, and when I do, not only does He shoulder them, He fights the battles for me, and the Father leaves the Holy Ghost and His angels as backup.
We can't ask for more protection than that.