Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence

Yesterday, I ran into a friend that I had not seen in a long time. I love these kinds of reunions! We met in our home ward about seven years ago. She became a part of our family. The girls saw her as an aunt figure, someone they could play with and trust. I saw her as a friend and a wonderful role model for our children. Anyway, she moved and then we moved and life carried on.

I think yesterday's reunion was a little like Ammon's with Alma. It was so good to see her.

Anyway, in our conversation, she referred me to a talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

"Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence." (click here or here).

Here are some things Elder Holland teaches:

"First of all, revelation almost always comes in response to a question, usually an urgent question—not always, but usually. In that sense it does provide information, but it is urgently needed information, special information."

"Lesson number two is closely related. It is that in the process of revelation and making important decisions, fear plays a destructive, sometimes paralyzing role...That is the second lesson of the spirit of revelation. After you have gotten the message, after you have paid the price to feel His love and hear the word of the Lord, go forward. Don’t fear, don’t vacillate, don’t quibble, don’t whine. ... With the spirit of revelation, dismiss your fears and wade in with both feet. In the words of Joseph Smith, “Brethren [and sisters], shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!"

"The third lesson from the Lord’s spirit of revelation ...is that along with the illuminating revelation that points us toward a righteous purpose or duty, God will also provide the means and power to achieve that purpose. Trust in that eternal truth. If God has told you something is right, if something is indeed true for you, He will provide the way for you to accomplish it. That is true of joining the Church or raising a family, of going on a mission, or any one of a hundred other worthy tasks in life."

So, this morning, I read Elder Holland's talk. I loved it!  Reading his words gives me absolute confidence to follow the spirit's direction especially. Particularly after the spirit has given me a deifinite answer. And boy, has  anxiety and doubt crept...maybe more like stormed in after answers had come. I do not need to tvivla (This word most accurately describes what I am trying to say. It is Swedish for doubt, but it means more that the word doubt in English.) Hesitate. Vacillate. Rethink. JUST MOVE FORWARD.

I think, because anxiety and depression have been a difficult burden, and yet these two things have played a vital role in my faith and coming to know Christ, Elder Holland's words give me direction and clarity to hold to those feelings of the spirit.

HOLD ON TIGHT!

MOVE FORWARD WITH FAITH!

And then I as I do, I will SEE and FEEL the confidence of the Lord.

DO WHAT THE SPIRIT DIRECTS  and

DON'T LOOK BACK or QUESTION the feelings that came.

Because that lays weedy seeds of doubt that quickly overtake my mind and heart.

The beauty of living prophets is that THEIR WORDS ARE TRUE!  From God! I can follow them and KNOW that they will ALWAYS lead me to a happy life. NEVER to a place of unhappiness.

Thankful Thursday: Tender Mercies

Today, I was offended. True story.
By those near and dear to me.True story, again.

I felt Lousy.

And I didn't want to feel that way because, well, I am connected to them, forever.

And feeling...offended...hurt...angry...
And carrying these feelings for a long time is really...
A big waste of time!
A big waste of emotional health!
And it is way too burdensome!

So after a lot of praying/pleading to Heavenly Father to help me let it go...to help me see differently...to lift me up out of the pit so I could breathe...and when I was calm enough to listen, He gave me some understanding.
He helped me forgive and move away from those feelings.

Today, I felt the tender mercies of the Lord.

This post was origianlly written June 4, 2011. Decieded to share it.

Alive in Christ

Yesterday I was feeling very blue.

At some point, I curled up in bed to take a nap hoping to sleep off some

of the sleepy sadness I was feeling.

It felt familiar...depression of not too long ago.

As I lay in bed, I reached up for the scriptures and read where I had left

off the night before.

Mosiah Chapter 3

A beautiful chapter on Jesus Christ's atonement.

When I came to verse 19...which reads:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

...my spirit felt the need to reach for the Atonement to heal and lift and

pull me from the place I was in.

I had been relying on my dear husband to help pull me out of the blue and

depressed state in which I felt stuck.

And when I read this verse, I knew to Whom I needed to turn.

Only in Christ can my burdens truly be lifted.

So, in that quiet moment,

I poured out my heart...

and waited...

and listened....

I felt His peaceful reassurance,

and comfort

that coming to Him is the only sure Way to find peace.

Sometime later, after sleeping for just a short while,

I woke,

my spirit lifted,

filled with hope and reassurance of God's and Christ's love for me.