Changing Your Circumstances

There is so much that God wants for us, and He will give us our wants and righteous desires according to His will and in His own time. But He also wants us to put forth great effort and not just wait for our righteous wants to be granted. He wants the best for us - usually a far better life than we can imagine for ourselves. Sometimes God will even give us things that are not good for us,

especially when our hearts are fixed on those things instead of Him. With that granting comes lessons and learning experiences, and many times those lessons are brutal. Still, with the Lord's help, each of us can grow into the person we are meant to me. It is not about material possessions or status. It is about adopting a righteous and holy mindset. If we can just hold to the knowledge of all we can be and then act upon it, little by little, the Lord will bring us there. Life can and should be joyful, regardless of our circumstances, and change is always a beautiful thing when the Lord is in it.

Gratitude

I absolutely love this quote, because it is nothing but truth.

Despite the upheaval in the world, there are  many, many, many things I am grateful for, but I will only list five:
1. The gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. The healing power of the Atonement.
3. My amazing family.
4. The knowledge that my Father in Heaven and my Savior love me and are always aware of me.
5. For the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be another witness that He is the Savior of the World.

So, what are you grateful for?

Happy Sabbath, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratitude in Sickness and Health

Dealing with an illness over the past couple of years has brought me many moments of humility and gratitude during the good days and the bad. However, over the past six months or so, I have learned many things.

First: The Lord is ALWAYS aware of us, each and every one, and His comfort is ALWAYS available and ours for the taking.

Second: We can - and should - pray for healing, because we are meant to. But I have also come to understand and accept that God has a plan for each of us, and sometimes health trials are a part of that plan; they are refining, purifying, and testimony-growing when we allow them to be. I understand fully that healing will come in the Lord's time and according to His will. Until then, I will continue on in faith and pray for the strength to endure well.

Third: None of us ever suffer alone. Our Heavenly Father and our Savior love us too much to leave us alone. But . . . we have to allow Them to be there and eagerly embrace the comfort They are so willing to give. I know, I know, it sounds like it is easier said than done, and for many it may be, but I have found that in my case, it can and must be done to the best of my cognizant ability. I always ask for the Savior's help in this because He has been through it all and He knows exactly how I feel.

No matter how much I struggle and how much pain is present on any given day, life is such a beautiful thing to me, and I am truly grateful for the comfort I receive from the Savior, from my family, and caring friends.
Life is meant to be lived fully and each day is to be savored and celebrated. And every time we look for the good in each new day, we express our gratitude to God. A heart full of gratitude brings Him joy.
And that is definitely something to celebrate:-)

In the Lord's Eyes

In a church message I received by email this morning, it talked about listening to the voice of the Lord instead of the alternate voices of the world, and not letting the world decide if we are good

enough - if we are attractive enough, spiritual enough, smart enough, talented enough, and basically, just plain good enough. Those same voices also try to coax us into blending in with the rest of the world instead of standing out like we were born to, and being a light of the Lord.

I ask you, what is more important, how the world sees us or how God sees us? Will we bend to emulate the standards of others or will we seek after the standards of the Lord? After all, the world can't save us from sin, nor cleanse us spiritually. But the Lord can. So, it stands to reason that the Lord's opinion and the way He sees us is far more important than the opinion of man.
We must remember that the natural man/woman is an enemy to God, and unless we are striving to be true men and women of God, there is rarely any importance in the natural man's words as pertaining to the things of God.

The voices of the world are extremely loud, but the whispering of the Spirit of God is far more powerful, and if we let it, His voice can, and will, silence the others.
May we all have ears to hear and listen to His voice always, then internalize the Savior's view of us instead of seeing ourselves through the blurry, unclean lenses of the world.

A New Heart

Despite my blatant imperfections, I pray for a renewed heart daily. The Lord blessed me with a new

heart years ago, and because of the sinner that I am, and because of the natural man (woman) in me, I now seek for a daily renewal. Striving to turn a life over to the Lord completely is no small thing. We are all weak and it takes constant effort. And because of this, I am always asking Heavenly Father to make my heart His, to align it with His, to change my ways to His ways. I pray to become so in tune with the spirit that all I do, say, and think will be in accordance to His will for me, and that I won’t seek after anything that is against it.

In essence, my longing for a renewed heart each day is a heartfelt longing to know Him–to truly be the person I was before coming to the earth, the person who walked and talked with the Father and the Son, the person who knew Them intimately. And I will never stop praying and pleading until I am that person again, until I can finally kneel before my Savior and know without a doubt that He is pleased with me, and my offering.

May we all pray earnestly for a new heart – a heart that can truly be claimed by the Lord.

The Shaping

Growing closer to the Lord during trials is more important than we know. We can allow our trials to shape us into the strong, righteous, holy people that God needs us to be, or shape us into the bitter,

stagnant, miserable people that Satan desires to have. One leads to spiritual growth and progression while the other leads to loneliness, despair, and regression. One road leads to God, the other leads away from Him. One is an upward climb, moving an inch at a time to heavenly rewards, the other, a slippery slope or free-fall into darkness.
Either way, the Lord's hand is there for us to grab and hold onto. Because that hand can pull us up the steep climb, or catch us before we fall down the slope. We just need to keep our eyes fixed - especially during dark times - that we may never lose sight of it.

Happy Sabbath!

Sometimes we want to accept Christ in our lives on our own terms instead of His. With all the things

going on in the world, I would much rather have Him in my life on His terms, no matter what they are, because when I need help, as a beggar, I can't be choosy. I love Him too much to ever go there.