Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Is God Real? Does God Love Us?

Take a look at what you see and ask yourself again if God is real?
 I know that God is real and that he loves all of his children perfectly. God created us and everything around us, even the very air we breathe. He loves us so much he wants us to become like him. To me that is a pretty selfless loving God. You might think to yourself well if he loves me why do i face trials and go through such hard times. If we look at the story of Nephi in the Book of Mormon he says something very profound; 
16 And he said unto me: Knowest thou the acondescension of God?
 17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
  So if we go through trial after trial and we don't understand why these things happen to us or why God allows bad things to happen to good people, remember that God loves his children , and if we know that and remember that then we will trust in him! I have found myself before questioning why certain trials have come my way, but as i pray and read and do what I'm supposed to be doing i later come to find out why some of those things happen to me. I don't know about you but i tend to learn more from my hard times, then from my easy times anyway, and I'm sure that's how it is for most if not everyone. Look at Jesus Christ for example, the one perfect person to live on this earth and never sinned once went through more then any of us ever will go through. So the bad things that happen to us or in the world we may never realize why they happen in this life but one thing we do know is that Heavenly Father loves us.
  Now back to how we can all know God is real. Look at the world, look at yourself, think of the complexity of those things as you read these scriptures...
   44 But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of aall these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the bearth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its dmotion, yea, and also all the eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.
40 And now what evidence have ye that there is no aGod, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only.
  We have all been greatly blessed by our loving Heavenly Father who wants us to feel complete joy and happiness and return to live with him again. Again i know that God is real and that he loves each and every one of us more then we know. I pray that we can all set aside our pride and see how we have been blessed and seek for the good things in life and in eternity.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Is Church Nessassary for Returning to Heaven... Is a parachute nessassary when skydiving?!

                               
    Today i was impressed to talk on why we need to attend church. When i have people ask me if church is nessassary or tell me that it isnt I think of the question well thats like saying a paracute isnt nessassary for skydiving, or asking them if they think a parachute is nessassary for skydiving. The answer is simple. YES! Whenever you go skydiving the instructors make sure everyone has a parachute so they dont just come crashing into the ground. We can think of that as Heavnly Father making sure we follow his commandments. We go to church to partake of the sacrament and to be forgiven of our sins the prior week. Seeing as how we all mess up and sin all the time God has blessed us with a way to stay close to him and be clean. So many people in this day and age think it is unessassary and that as long as they believe in Christ on sunday that they are doing what they need too, others may say well i can worship God from my own home.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks talks of the importance of church and partaking of the sacrament as well. "The resurrected Lord emphasized the importance of the sacrament when He visited the American continent and instituted this ordinance among the faithful Nephites. He blessed the emblems of the sacrament and gave them to His disciples and the multitude (see 3 Nephi 18:1–10), commanding:" We also attend church to strengthen our faith and to feel the spirit and pray for those arond us (alma 6:6). When we go to church and do these things we not only bring joy and happiness to ourselves but we please Heavenly Father and we can help those around us by being a friend or sharing a smile. We have 168 hours in the week and Heavenly Father only asks for 3! Is 3 hours a week to much to ask for the blessing of eternal happiness. Lets go back to the question is church nessassary to Return to Heaven, well is a parachute nessassary when skydiving? If you want to enjoy this life then yes! I know that when we attend church Heavenly Father will bless us throughout our lives and we can be happier and feel more peace in our day to day living.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Today Is The Day

 
Do you know where you will be tomorrow?

Choose You This Day

Thomas S. MonsonFirst Counselor in the First Presidency


Joshua of old declared, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 1
All of us commenced an awesome and vital journey when we left the spirit world and entered this often challenging stage called mortality. We brought with us that great gift from God—our agency. Said the prophet Wilford Woodruff: “God has given unto all of His children … individual agency. … [We] possessed it in the heaven of heavens before the world was, and the Lord maintained and defended it there against the aggression of Lucifer. … By virtue of this agency you and I and all mankind are made responsible beings, responsible for the course we pursue, the lives we live, the deeds we do.” 2
Brigham Young said, “All must use [this agency] in order to gain exaltation in [God’s] kingdom; inasmuch as [we] have the power of choice [we] must exercise that power.” 3
The scriptures tell us that we are free to act for ourselves, “to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.”
Let us not find ourselves as indecisive as is Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You will remember that she comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She is confronted by the Cheshire cat, of whom Alice asks, “Which path shall I follow?”
The cat answers: “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.” 6
Unlike Alice, we all know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for the path we follow in this life surely leads to the path we will follow in the next.
        
   As i have learned and grown serving Heavenly Father, i have seen the blessings of choosing to serve him now. We can not wait, as President Henry B. Eyring says, for we do not know what the choices of others may bring to us. Do we have another day? Fill your heart with the desire to follow the commandments and have faith in Jesus Christ. I know that as you follow him you will see a difference in your life. It will be one of a greater peace and love. You will feel better inside and you will feel the love of your Heavenly Father. He desires complete joy and happiness for each one of us and wants all of his children to return to live with him again. I have seen to many people throw there life away because they do not what to do that which may be hard, even if it is worth it. So choose this day to serve Heavenly Father and he will bless you, whether it be in this life or in eternity. I promise it will be worth it.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Do You Know What Flavors To Mix?

   Today I am really in the mood for some ice cream... What about you? How many flavors have you tried?
Some time ago when my friends and i went out to get ice cream even before getting there i knew what i wanted. I always got the same thing because i knew it was good and i liked it. Then finally one of my friends who i always went with told me to try something new. At first i thought to myself, i think i'll stick with what i know i like. I dont know what any of these other flavors taste like or they are boring and simple. Finally i gave in and decided to try something my friend had recomemended. He knew what it tasted like and he knew it was good. So then i thought okay ya know what i really enjoyed that and next time im going to try something else again, but i always changed it a little at a time or added simple treats in with it. After a several times of going i thought i knew most of the flavors and i was ready for something crazy. So i decided to mix some different flavors or ice cream with a few different toppings, and of course i ended up getting a bad mixture of flavors. It looked good and i thought after so many times that i would be able to handle it. So then after that last visit to the ice cream shop i decided to keep it simple this time.
   We can look at this as our daily lives and the things we chose to do. More specifically what we know we like and can handle as to taking to much in, thinking we can handle it. As children of our Heavenly Father we are taught line upon line precept upon precept. There will be time where we think we know enough that we want to go deeper or ask deep questions, but somethings we may not comprehend 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now or maybe never even in this life. It can lead to bad taste in the church if we mix the wrong questions with our current understanding. We may have a friend who recomemends something they know is good or that they know we will like, or can handle, but when we start to think we know everything and can handle everything we may end up with something we dont like. So then we must humble ourselves and start simple again. Go back to the basics and learn line upon line, precept upon precept. Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to have a great understanding, but patience is required.