Tag Archives: testimony

Home Again

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Before I left Australia for our visit to the United States, I was telling my friends that I was I finally going home.

Then we spent 19 days living out of suitcases, living in other peoples’ houses, and driving other peoples’ cars. We enjoyed overwhelming hospitality and we had a lovely time visiting with family. But now, 20 days later, I can honestly say that I am finally home.

Home is no longer where my parents live — it’s where my family lives. And my family is now my husband and child.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

I am so glad for this aspect of Heavenly Father’s plan, for I truly feel that my husband and I are one.

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us — that they may be one, even as we are one. (John 17:21-22)

I realize that the Savior is speaking of our becoming one with the Father. However, I feel myself becoming unified with my husband in a similar manner. I understand how the Father and the Son are one, even though they are two beings: my husband and I have become one, even though we are two people. I understand how the Father wants our relationship with Him to be. United in purpose: One.

Moving across the world and having a child brought me closer to my husband. I found that traveling for 19 days also did. And now we are home again. Home. United: One.

The Opposite of an Epiphany

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Epiphany, noun; 3 a (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b: a revealing scene or moment

When I was a young girl, my family went to Nauvoo at least once a year. I was very familiar with the shops and houses and streets, and every visit, a little bit more was developed to be like Old Nauvoo. I enjoyed those visits.

We always started at the Visitors’ Center. We’d watch the orientation video and we’d go on a tour. I was always impressed by a particular display stand. It was a display of the golden plates underneath some glass. A plaque next to the display said something like this:

The Golden Plates: Joseph Smith translated the writings on the golden plates into what became the Book of Mormon.

When I was 14 or 15, I was sitting in a Sunday school class. We were talking about church history. I don’t recall what the subject was on that particular day, but it occurred to me: the plates in the Nauvoo Visitors’ Center were not the real golden plates. It was a moment of realization: “I can’t believe I just figured that out.”

I can’t bring myself to call it an epiphany because the result was realizing how ridiculous my prior understanding had been. It wasn’t an “intuitive grasp”; it was a “wow, I’m slow” moment. So I’ll call it an “opposite of an epiphany.”

I had another “opposite of an epiphany” the other day. I was singing Paul a song about Noah and telling him about all the animals he put on the ark. When I got to kangaroos, I stopped.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Kangaroos are native to Australia alone. How did Noah get kangaroos in the Middle East?”

My husband Looked at me. “What do you think? Do you really think Noah took two of every single species of animal on the ark?”

And then I had the same feeling as when I realized the golden plates aren’t in the Visitors’ Center: Noah’s story, and the entire Bible, is of one people in one nation. We don’t really have to take it completely literally.

Of course, it doesn’t matter where the real golden plates are. My testimony of the translation doesn’t depend on the physical plates. It’s the same thing with Noah. Did Noah take kangaroos on the ark? Did the Lord cover 197 million square miles (the entire surface of the earth) with water? I don’t know. Yes, it’s true that “With God, nothing shall be is impossible” (Luke 1:37), but in this particular story, I don’t think it happened literally and it really doesn’t matter if it did or not. My testimony doesn’t depend on it.

On my last visit to Nauvoo, I didn’t see the golden plates display; the Visitors’ Center has been completely reorganized since I was a young girl.

But these “opposite of an epiphany” moments are reminding me that I have a lot of growing up to do: Was I really an adult before I realized that? What other things am I not realizing?

Have you had any “opposite of an epiphany” moments?

Healing

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The surgeon cut me open four times. Three cuts were half an inch. The last was one inch. He removed one of my organs (my gallbladder) through one of them.

For one week, I left the waterproof bandages on. I had bled, and the bandages were weary. My muscles were sore, like someone had punched me in the gut. I rested. But then I stood up. I swept the floor. I picked up my baby, and I went to the grocery store. I lived.

After one week, a nurse removed the bandages and the stitches.

Now, four bright red lines mark the spots. The skin has come together. There is no more blood oozing, there is no more pain. My body has healed itself.

As I look at my week-old wounds, I think one word: Miracle. My body is a miracle.

Your body, whatever its natural gifts, is a magnificent creation of God. It is a tabernacle of flesh–a temple for your spirit. A study of your body attests to its divine design.

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Mosiah 4:9

Watching my body heal has strengthened my testimony of God’s majesty.

Lesson 3: The Fall of Adam and Eve

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Sometimes I think it would be nice to live in a world with no sickness, no sorrow, and no pain. What would such a world be like?

I’ll begin with the trivial: I wouldn’t be uncomfortably hot during the summer. Now, on hot days, I hope for a short summer and early autumn. Of course, I wouldn’t have any uncomfortably cold wintery days either. But, without the extreme weather, I wouldn’t appreciate spring and autumn weather. By eliminating unpleasant weather, pleasant weather gets very boring.

Then I think about a world void of sicknesses and pain. I’ve always been healthy and lacked major health problems. That has changed in the past four months. (Having a baby helps your body fall apart, I guess.) I would love to eliminate pain and sickness from my life! Ironically, though, it is only now that I’ve regularly experienced ill health that I recognize what a blessing it was to have had good health. Every day that I am not ill is a very good day (there still are plenty of those), and some days I feel great! By being ill, I appreciate so much more being well. (However, I really do look forward to not being ill on a regular basis.)

It might sound nice initially, but a world without sickness, sorrow, pain, and sin would lack all enjoyment as well.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve lived in such a world.

When they were first placed there, they were given two commandments:

  1. Multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 1:28)
  2. Don’t partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17)

And here lies the most complex irony: because the garden was a place of innocence, Adam and Eve couldn’t fulfill the first commandment without breaking the second.

When Adam and Eve did choose to partake of the fruit, they committed a transgression, not a sin. Because there was nothing inherently wrong with partaking of the fruit, it was not a sin to partake of it, even though it was a commandment not to.

I like this comparison: A parent tells a child to never cross the street. Does the parent have a reason for the rule? Yes. But is it inherently wrong to cross the street? No. At some point in his life, the child needs to cross the street.

Eve had a dilemma. She had to choose to sacrifice her painless world of innocence in order to gain experience and to bear children. She did not know what the experience would be because she’d never before experienced it. No human had experienced it. It’s hard to choose to experience the unknown. And yet, she wanted to gain experience and she wanted to raise children.

I feel close to her dilemma. A little more than three months ago, I went through incredible pains to bring a child into the world. It was horrible. I thought I was going to die. I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted to give up. Why can’t we have children without the pain?

Well, that’s not the plan, and I’m not talking about the lack of drugs. (I imagine childbirth is still quite painful with drugs.) There is much pain in raising a child, beyond childbirth. The plan of our Heavenly Father is to learn from experience. Experience sometimes entails fear and pain, but it also includes incredible happiness. There is supposed to be opposition as we experience the good.

Eve could only bear children by giving up innocence. I can’t speak for Eve, but because I went through that painful experience of childbirth:

  • I have the most beautiful, perfect little boy to raise.
  • I learned a lot about my abilities to do what I have to do.
  • I gained an incredible spiritual closeness to my Heavenly Father.
  • I am learning every day from my child.

I think childbirth is an incredible miracle. But it required going through a very challenging experience. It required that I not live in a perfect world, void of pain and sorrow.

Adam [and Eve] fell that man [and woman] might be, and men [and women] are that they might have joy. 2 Nephi 2:25

I’m grateful for the Fall of Adam and Eve. It meant I could come to earth. It meant I can bear children. It meant that I can have my joy multiplied as I Experience. And truly, my family is my greatest joy.

Lesson 3 of 45

Good, Better, and Best

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For my visiting teaching lesson Wednesday, I presented Elder Oaks’ talk from General Conference: Good, Better, Best.

(Note of explanation: Since we get the Ensign at the end of the month, I’ve been told that we should present the message from the previous month’s Ensign. I didn’t know that last month and presented the December message I got from the internet. This month, since I’d already done the December message, I thought I’d go back and do the November conference message.)

This talk stood out to me because it is something we all need. I guess I should speak for myself: it’s something I need. As an adult, I don’t often face blatant good versus evil choices: for example, my friends don’t tempt me to smoke a cigarette and I have to decide whether or not to “just say no.” Life is no longer black and white: I often must make choices between good and good or good and better. Striving to better ourselves by making the best choices seemed an appropriate focus for the beginning of the year.

Here is something that stood out to me as I read it:

To our hundreds of thousands of home teachers and visiting teachers, I suggest that it is good to visit our assigned families; it is better to have a brief visit in which we teach doctrine and principle; and it is best of all to make a difference in the lives of some of those we visit.

I have not been a very good visiting teacher: before we moved, I didn’t do it very often. Then, I didn’t have an assignment from May until December. But now I have an assignment again, and I want to do a better job. No, I want to do the best job I can.

I do teach the bishop’s wife so this seems to me to be quite a challenge.

Here is my question for you: Have you had a visiting teacher that made a “difference” in your life? What did they do? I want to be the best kind of visiting teacher, and I don’t think simply visiting and sharing a message is quite enough. I’d be interested in your thoughts.

Lesson 2: Agency: The Power to Choose

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My son’s face relaxes as his mouth grabs hold of the pacifier. He begins to suck and his mouth almost smiles. He stops squirming and his eyes close. I feel his body go partially limp in my arms. I know he likes that pacifier!

Then I watch his right hand begin its move toward his face. He likes to have his hand near his face. It’s a comfort to him. But I know what is coming. Sure enough, his long little fingers reach the pacifier and loop through the ring on the end of it.

“Paul, don’t do it!” I warn him. “If you move your hand back then you’ll pull the pacifier out of your mouth.”

His eyes twitch, but his lids remain shut. He continues sucking.

A door slams somewhere and Paul’s body starts. He jerks his right hand away from his face. Sure enough, just as I warned, the pacifier now remains in his right hand, a full three inches from his mouth.

His eyes open wide and he stares at me. His look is part shock and part betrayal. How could you? He seems to say. Then his bottom lip begins to jut out and his whole face begins its contortion. Here comes a cry!

You did it! I want to say. You pulled the pacifier out of your own mouth! You can control that arm; you can control that hand! You can choose to put the pacifier back in your mouth! Just move your hand.

But I know he is still too little to recognize his own power: he has agency and he doesn’t even realize it.

Being a mother is helping me see how Heavenly Father views us. Just as I want to help Paul understand how his tiny choices affect his life, Heavenly Father likewise wants me to understand how my more significant choices affect my life — and my eternal progression. Paul is not yet making any choices of eternal consequence: he is still unaccountable. But as the days and years go by, he will gain the ability to choose between right and wrong. He will learn.

When we lived with God in the premortal world, we understood that we could make choices. Heavenly Father provided an opportunity for each of us to come to the earth. We would choose how we would live. We knew we’d make mistakes. And Heavenly Father promised a Savior, who would pay for our sins, so that we could return to live with Him again.

Heavenly Father’s plan includes these principles of agency (See 2 Nephi 2:26-29).

  1. A law. He provides commandments to follow that enable us to return to Him.
  2. Knowledge of the law. He gives us these commandments through prophets and scriptures. As we grow on the earth, we learn the commandments.
  3. Opposition: good and evil. We sometimes have to choose between good and evil; we have to choose between obeying the commandments and doing other things we might want to do. The Spirit will help us discern which choices are right.
  4. Freedom of choice. Heavenly Father will not force us to choose right. We have complete freedom as to whether we will choose right or wrong. We make our own choices!
  5. Responsibility for choices. This is the hard part: we can’t choose the consequence of our choices. If we choose right, we will be blessed. If we choose wrong, we are cut off from our Heavenly Father, unless we rely on Christ’s atonement, which is another choice. Thus, in Heavenly Father’s plan, some people will not return to Heavenly Father again.

In that premortal realm, we know that Satan wanted the glory as the Savior (See Moses 4:1-4 and Abraham 3:24-28). He wanted to save everyone, by making them choose right all the time. He wanted to eliminate principle — the freedom to choose. It sounds like a nice idea: we’d all be saved. There is pain in choosing wrong and some people won’t make it back. Wouldn’t it be great if all made it back?

In watching my son, I realize what a tragedy it would be if he couldn’t learn to control his own body. What if I forced him to move in a set way? He wouldn’t be able to move his arm toward his mouth if the result would be the pacifier coming out: he’d be forced to stay in one position. He would not be able to jolt in surprise when a door slammed. He’d sleep between set hours every day so he wouldn’t be uncomfortably tired ever. He would never choose again.

What a tragedy that would be! What would be the point of his existence? In watching him, I see how important it is that we are able to choose what we do. His choices are small and insignificant now, but as he grows, they will increase in significance. Yes, he will make wrong choices. But he will choose!

There is a reason we experience negative consequences: it is how we learn. It may be hard to anticipate negative consequences for our own choices. But looking on, I can anticipate my infant son’s dismay when he removes his own pacifier. He will be sad, and he is. I know that as he grows, his life will be full of such moments, most of them of much more significance. It will be sad to see wrong consequences. But he will eventually learn how to control his arms and hands. I know that as he gains control and accountability, he will begin to recognize how his actions are related to the consequences, and he’ll learn to make different actions.

Because we did accept Heavenly Father’s plan, we have the freedom to choose. I look on and anticipate the consequences of Paul’s choices, and Heavenly Father likewise looks on and anticipates the consequences of our choices. Heavenly Father has provided guidance for us so we can avoid the painful mistakes. By listening to the Spirit, by obeying to the prophet, and by reading the scriptures, we should recognize what the consequences of our choices are and what right is.

As I listen to my son’s crying, I recognize what a great blessing this gift of agency is! He can choose and therefore he can learn. We all can.

Lesson 2 of 45

Lesson 1: A Loving Father, An Eternal Plan

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The Plan of Salvation is summarized in a chart in my Sunday school lesson manual:

plan-of-salvation.jpg

But in reviewing the Plan of Salvation chart and the scriptures on it, I began wondering “What is a basic definition of the plan of salvation? Does it really consist of circles and lines? That can’t be it. Is it really defined by Moses 1:39?”

I felt foolish asking that. I’ve been a member of this church my entire life. I’ve read the Book of Mormon a dozen times in my life. How can I not know what the plan of salvation is? Why can’t I simply state what it is?

My first thought was to consult the Gospel Principles manual. To my surprise, it had no chapter dedicated to the subject. Isn’t that something that is taught to new members? My next idea was to consult LDS.org in a basic search. “Plan of Salvation” led to more than 1,500 hits, and I hadn’t even included “plan of happiness” or any of the other names for it. Where do I begin?

I found that LDS.org has a gospel topic library that provided the best explanation for me:

The plan of salvation is the fulness of the gospel.

Well, that encompasses everything! That would explain why there isn’t a chapter dedicated to it in the Gospel Principles manual: the entire manual is the plan of salvation. That’s the whole point of the gospel and of course new members need to learn it. But it isn’t a one-week lesson.

My next question was this: Why does the manual focus on the chart in the first place, then?

The explanation continues:

As we come to understand the plan, we find answers to questions asked by so many: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after this life?

I see now that the chart is simply a device to illustrate it. I understand now why this is only the first lesson of an entire year of Sunday school lessons. We get to discuss the answers to those three questions over the course of the year. We get to discuss our purpose over the course of the entire year.

Moses 1:39 is the focusing scripture in this lesson. I decided to put it in context. As I read the rest of Moses 1, I see other things that hint of the miraculous plan of our Father in Heaven.

From the beginning of the chapter, we learn that God has a body. Moses speaks to Him “face to face” (v2). We learn that Moses is the son of God (v4) and that God has a special plan for Moses (v6). I believe we can extend that to all of us — we all are children of God and God has a plan for each of us. I know that is true. God does have a plan for us, as we’ll see in verse 39.

Moses learns that “man is nothing” compared to the glory of God (v10). Because he has had this incredible vision of God’s power, when the adversary comes to tempt him, he recognizes the difference between the adversary and God. He notices that the adversary does not have the same glory that God had had: “Where is thy glory?” (v14). True, Moses is very scared during his encounter with the devil (v20), but ultimately, he knows to call upon God, and he receives strength to command the adversary to depart (v20-21).

Because he has demonstrated his faith in God during such a tremendously difficult encounter, he is filled with the Holy Ghost and again beholds the glory of God (v24-25). It is in this subsequent vision, again when he is “face to face,” that he learns so much more about the plan of salvation. It is in this context that God provides an explanation of his purpose:

For behold, this I my work and my glory: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Immortality, of course, is the ability to live forever, to be resurrected. Everyone will enjoy that blessing. Eternal life is living with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father again. Achieving eternal life is up to us. Our decisions in this life determine whether or not we will live with God again. It is through the atonement of Christ that we are able to be clean in order to return to God again. This is why an understanding of the plan is so important. If we know what we have to do to gain eternal life, it will be easier to do it.

Moses was the chosen one to write of the plan of the Father at that time. I believe that would be the biblical record we have. But the Father promises that when the “children of men shall esteem my words as naught” and take the truths out of Moses writings, then He would send another. That promise was fulfilled in our dispensation with the Book of Mormon and with modern prophets. In the Book of Mormon, then, we can find the fullness of the plan of salvation, the plan of happiness. We can find answers to the burning questions we have in our life: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?

I think that knowledge of the plan does make the difference. Just as recognizing the difference between the power of God and the non-power of adversary made a difference for Moses when he was confronted, knowing the purpose of God in our lives can help us when we are confronted by the adversary.

This is lesson 1 of 45 in how we can prepare for exaltation. I have a feeling that even after 45 lessons there will be so much more to learn!

Preparing for Exaltation

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I teach course 12-13 in Sunday school, which follows a different manual than the regular gospel doctrine course. Thus, last year I taught from The Presidents of the Church manual. I began my calling in August, so I only started with President George Albert Smith. I’ve really enjoyed the overview of the prophets’ lives and teachings. I found myself eager to begin anew with Joseph Smith in 2008.

Last week, the Sunday school president told me I wasn’t to teach from that manual in 2008. I was disappointed, until I took a look at the manual I am to teach from: Preparing for Exaltation. It is an excellent manual.

The first two months talk about the various aspects of the plan of salvation (i.e., premortal life, earth life, the spirit world, and the three degrees of glory). Then the remainder of the year discusses various aspects of the gospel that can help us return to live with our Father in Heaven again.

This manual is a wonderful return to basic gospel principles that seems very appropriate for youth just about to embark on their teenage years. I look forward to building my testimony of the basics this year.

Question for you: Do you think 12-13 year olds would want a CD of primary songs? Are they too “cool” for primary songs? I keep thinking of the following songs and how appropriate they would be on a “theme CD” for the entire year:

  • I Am a Child of God
  • I Lived in Heaven
  • I Know My Father Lives
  • A Child’s Prayer
  • I Pray in Faith
  • He Sent His Son
  • Did Jesus Really Live Again?
  • The Church of Jesus Christ
  • I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus
  • When He Comes Again
  • The Golden Plates
  • I Love to See the Temple
  • Faith
  • Search, Ponder and Pray
  • Keep the Commandments
  • Dare to Do Right
  • I Will Follow God’s Plan
  • Teach Me to Walk in the Light
  • Families Can Be Together Forever
  • Love is Spoken Here
  • My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Am I missing any songs?

Why I Blog and Elder Ballard’s Challenge to Bloggers

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A year ago, approximately, my sister started “blogging.” I wrote in my journal:

[My sister] has taken to writing a blog online every couple days. I’ve been logging on for the past few weeks. I think it’s the kind of thing that will fizzle out and die eventually.

Umm…OK, so I was wrong? I laughed when I reread that the other day.

I have always been a compulsive journal writer. At one point during college, I wrote in my journal every single morning for an entire semester. I got up at 5 or 6 a.m., before my five roommates even stirred, and wrote a few paragraphs. I wrote about what I did the day before. I wrote about my classes. I wrote about what I was reading in the scriptures. I wrote about my personal feelings and relationships.

Then I started working full time, and life, I guess, was boring. I decided my journals were boring, so I wouldn’t write every day. Well, it’s very easy to go from every day to never, or, at least, rarely.

A year and a half ago, I started grad school because I wanted to write again. I wanted a forum in which to share my thoughts and develop my writing talent and improve myself. After one course (and $1,800), I realized a school setting was not what I wanted. I thought I wanted someone to tell me to write and to read what I wrote. But I didn’t want the format of school. I wasn’t ready for the homework. I wasn’t ready for a teacher telling how much to read and write each week. It’s too much fun to not be in school. What did I really want?

That is the setting in which I was critiquing the blogging movement. I guess I don’t think I had any idea then how addicting it is to write for an audience and to feel like I have a place to share my thoughts.

I was being silly to critique it because just three months later, in March, when my husband and I decided to move to Australia, I changed our webpage (previously a page with our wedding pictures) into a “blog.” I did that because we were about to leave the country (I didn’t know it would still be four months) and I wanted a format to easily communicate with my family and share pictures and thoughts.

When I started my webpage, I really felt certain that it should not be a blog. I thought a blog implied revealing too many personal things. By definition, a blog doesn’t really imply any of that. However, I still think a blog should not replace a journal. There are things I write in my personal journal that I’d never write for the world to see. I want to guard my personal problems. They’re personal for a reason.

Also, along a similar line, I have wanted to keep this page in the family. There are weirdos out there. I don’t want strangers finding pictures of my son or stalking our family. I am blessed with a very common name, so I’m only one of many people named Rebecca Reid on the web (try to find me — go on, I dare you!). I have no intention of hiding behind fake names if I do make my page public. But as of now, my page is not searchable by internet searches, like Google. The only way someone gets here is if they know the webpage to begin with, or they link to it. That’s also why I require a person to login before commenting. I just feel safer that way.

Elder Ballard recently made a statement about blogs. (Yes, he’s nearly 80 and he is aware of these things!) Here is part of what he said (emphasis added):

The Internet allows everyone to be a publisher, to have their voice heard, and it is revolutionizing society. …. The emergence of New Media is facilitating a world-wide conversation on almost every subject including religion, and nearly everyone can participate … There are conversations going on about the Church constantly. Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches. … [M]ay I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration. Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true.

After Paul was born, I started thinking that I didn’t need my own page — I’ll just use Paul’s Page to discuss all family news. But then I started thinking about what I could write about on my page, and I found myself writing pages of outlines of things I’m interested in writing about.

I realized that I need my own outlet to write and expand on my hobbies and dreams. That is my way of continuing to develop myself. After reading Elder Ballard’s talk, I feel that I also need to discuss my testimony and publish it for the world to see. He said,

How will you use these marvelous inventions? More to the point, how will you use them to further the work of the Lord?

As a New Year’s goal, here are some things I plan on discussing on my page in the coming months:

Hobbies

  • Cooking (What I’m learning)
  • Family history (Yes, I will do it again at some point!)
  • Reading (Book reviews as I read)
  • Photography (Pictures I’ve taken of my travels and what I’m learning about photography)

Spirituality

  • Conference talks (requires me to read them)
  • Scriptures I’m reading (requires me to read them)
  • My Sunday school lessons (requires me to prepare before Sunday morning!)

My life

  • What I’ve been writing about all along

Elder Ballard’s talk is a great talk. Read it. If you have a blog, I challenge you to respond to his challenge in a post of your own, telling what you are going to do to answer it. Make it a part of a New Year’s resolution.

As for comments to this post, I’m interested in your thoughts. If I do write about the things I described above,

  1. Will you be bored to death? (I am not sure that I care if you are; ‘m still going to write about them, but I thought I’d ask.)
  2. Should I make my page searchable through a web browser?
  3. If I make it searchable, how do I protect my family from the weirdos?
  4. If I don’t make it searchable, how am I fulfilling Elder Ballard’s challenge? Do you all count as part of the conversation, too?

If you don’t like the “log in to comment” requirement, send me an email. I’m interested to know if that stops people from commenting.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Wisdom from Our Fathers and Mothers

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On a Bad Temper

“I have a terrible temper, but I control it, it doesn’t control me.”
–Edmund Z Carbine, 1864-1926

I think I may have inherited the temper. Edmund Z Carbine could honestly say “I haven’t been angry in over 15 years.” I wish I could say something similar.

On Church Membership

…the Mormons as they are called are my people, their God is my God, where they live I live (If I can) where they die I die, and there will I be buried. You see that I cannot come back.
–Adelia Rider Carbine, 1846, Iowa

Despite being driving from her home in Nauvoo, she still knew where she stood when it came to the gospel. It was true. It is true. What else matters?

On Conversion

When I was 14 years old I began reading the New Testament. I could see that the Lutheran doctrine did not correspond with it, so I must find something in accord with the New Testament. The more I read, the more I was convinced. Then I had an opportunity to go to some Mormon meetings. I found the spirit of God was there and the love of the brethren was great. I then began to pray in secret, alone by myself, and investigated the Mormon gospel [for three years]….I believed that the Mormons had the true gospel. But I wanted to be absolutely sure that Joseph Smith was a prophet for all people ridiculed him and told lies about him, but I did not believe it….I was sleeping in our barn on the hay in the month of August. I had prayed out by the fence before I went to lay down, but when I laid down I was seized upon with some evil power so I knelt down by the bed to pray again but the evil power was tormenting me and held me in torment; Then I lifted my voice in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the power left me. I was on my knees. I felt a wonderful change. I was looking and listening and heard a still voice but low saying “Joseph is a true prophet of god. The gospel is true. Why are you waiting to be baptized and receive the gospel?”…I then went up outside the barn to give thanks to God for answering my prayer. I raised my hands up high and said “Halleluia! Praise be to God and the Lamb for answering my prayer” and said “Yes, Lord, I will be baptized into the Church soon as I can.”
–Hans Olaus Sorenson, 1849-1944

Answers will always come to our honest prayers, even if it takes a long time. Are we senstive to the Spirit’s whisperings?

On Forgiving

They robbed and stole from me my life time earning….Two long years rolled by and I never had a good night’s sleep thinking how I could get some way to recover that which had been stolen from me. Then a messenger appeared to me and called me by name, and told me not to do as I was thinking, as that was a cowardly act. And he said, “Look”, and he showed to me many great and marvelous things, and said to me, “All you have suffered and lost is not as much as a pencil dot on this paper compared to what there is in store for you. Now be contented and be happy, and do not as you were intending to do.” I awoke and found it to be a dream or vision, and jumped right out of bed and wrote it down, and I have not been troubled since, and I don’t want to harm a hair on any man’s head, but want to do all the good I can. I called that my Savior, as it kept me from doing that which I ought not to do.
–William Benona Graham, 1852-1926

Sometimes I want to hold a grudge. But that’s not the way of the Lord. I hope I can keep an eternal perspective.

On Revelation

[Anna Clementina Hawkins] kept company [with Lucien] for about two years. He asked [her] to be his wife. But he was not a member of the Church and didn’t want to become interested…. And [she] felt that she couldn’t marry one who was not a member of the church and was not interested, so she dismissed him, which wasn’t an easy thing to do, as she cared a great deal for him. [She] had always prayed that she would choose the right one for a husband. So now she decided to fast and pray about it….Her prayer was answered and she saw in a dream her future husband just as she later saw him as he sat talking with her father, the night he came to apply for the teaching job. She was looking through a glass door behind him. And as she went back through the kitchen, her mother said, “Is that your young man?” and [Anna] replied, “Yes, that’s him.”
–Anna Clementina Hawkins, 1865-1944

It’s sometimes hard to have faith that Heavenly Father will provide for us and guide us. But He always will. Even without dreams to guide us.