Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to be able to be able to share what I know and love with my family and friends through BLOGGING! I stumbled along something beautiful the other day while I was having a really rough time. I have a lot of trials going on in my life and I really felt as if there was no hope for relief from the pain I have been feeling. A fellow missionary and best friend of mine told me to just humble myself and get on my knees and ask Heavenly Father for help. I was being stubborn of course and told her that I knew I needed to but wouldn't act on it. She said, "Sister Lowe, you HAVE to ask the Lord for help because there is no other way for you to be comforted." I realized at that moment that she was right. I decided to pray. I didn't recieve a life changing feeling or anything like that while I was praying BUT I did feel peace. After praying I remembered something that my Mission President had told me in an interview when I was asking him about recieveing answers to prayers. He told me that if I want to talk to Heavenly Father then pray, but if I want Heavenly Father to talk to me, I needed to read the scriptures. I opened the Book of Mormon and turned to Alma chapter 36:3-4, and this is what is says:"And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy
youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my
words and learn of me; or I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God
shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall
be lifted up at the last day. And I would not that ye think that I know of
myself—not of the temporal but of the spiritual, not of the carnal mind but
of God."
For me this hit home. I realized that I needed to put my trust in the Lord through my trials and through my
afflictions. Jesus Christ didn't suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane for all the pain and affliction and heartbreak and stress that we have all felt for NO REASON. He did it so that when we go through trials and tribulations,
when we lose a loved one, when we have our heart broken we could RELY on him and he will SUPPORT US IN OUR TRIALS.What a blessing this is! I know that the Book of
Mormon is real scripture and if we are searching for an answer to our
prayers we need to read them. We have the scriptures for a reason. TO HELP
US. Lets use this gift that Heavenly Father has given us to our advantage
and to help us progress.
What a beautiful description of how Heavenly Father will bless our lives if will take the first step and have FAITH in him.
ReplyDeleteHe never removes himself from being there for us, we are the ones who remove ourselves from him because of our own fears, anger, guilt,sin, shame or remorse.
It is Satan who uses it as a weapon against us to hold us back Heavenly Fathers all embracing love. He believes in us and loves us more than we can comprehend.
His arms are always open, just like a mother's arms are to her child. She loves and believes in them. Sometimes,like a mother,we are disappointed in the choices our child makes, but we know that it's the choices in life that will teach them and help them to grow and become stronger and closer to Heavenly Father.
He waits patiently for us to learn great lessons by the consequences of our actions. It is a constant journey and progression toward becoming perfected and returning to his loving arms.
When we look back at the lessons we have learned from our past mistakes we realize just how far we've come. We have learned from our mistakes and know we don't want to go down that road again.
We are told that if we have faith and we are trying to live the commandments that we will be blessed with what we NEED.
Our burdens will never be more than we are capable of handling. I have learned that I can find courage,comfort and peace through sincere prayer. A comforting scripture I read in Deuteronomy 4:30-31 says, "When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers..."
Each of us is being "purified" and "qualified" on a daily basis. If we just remain faithful and hold on to the Iron rod, as we are told about in Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon, we will beable to endure all the challenges given to us and we can become strengthened by them.
The goal is to make it back to our Heavenly Father and we will all be tried and tested before that happens. It is what we do with our tests that determines our happiness in this life.
We have so much to be thankful for and often we forget to show gratitude for all our daily blessings. I challenged myself to write down ay 3 things everyday that I am grateful for.
As I look back on those lists, I realize how truly blessed I really am. I am blessed each and every day.
There have been so many sacrifices made for me to have the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and to have the freedom to worship God in this free country.
I have been given the blessing of 5 amazing children who love God and want to be examples of him to others.
They are the greatest blessing in my life!
I am so very blessed to know that God loves me and that his son came to Earth to take my sins upon him so that I can progress and return back to our Father in Heaven someday.
Prayer is my life-line to Heavenly Father. I know he knows what is going on in my life but he wants to hear my plans,thoughts and ideas
so he can bless me and help me grow.
I love him and his son Jesus Christ,our brother.
It would be a lonely place in my life on this
Earth if I didn't have that knowledge.
I feel blessed to know about his modern day Prophet that guides us today to know what to do.
Heavenly Father hasn't left us alone to figure it out. He has his true church on the Earth today,just like in days of old. It is marvelous and perfect!
Gene R. Cook has a book called "Receiving Answers to our Prayers" I have the audio version. It's been a while since I listened to it, but it was fantastic! I actually let a neighbor of mine, who is not a member of the church, listen to it too. She was going through a really hard time because the sudden passing of her 18 month old niece. She felt it to be a very inspiring piece.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a blessing to know that I can talk directly to my Heavenly Father, through prayer. So many people think they have to go through a pastor or a minister of some kind to speak with God. I love that I can talk, just TALK to God and know that he understands everything I am working through. Even if it usually it to just to ask him to help me be patient with my kids. LOL (I ask for that a lot!)