Everyone Plays a Piece

"There are times when you might feel aimless
You can't see the places where you belong
But you will find that there is a purpose
It's been there within you all along and when you're near it
You can almost hear it." 

He is Glorious! You are His child! You are a child of God!

There is Just No Way That God Doesn't Exist

Alma 30: 40,44 "And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only....all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

A friend posted this on her blog a while back and it had an impact on me. My eyes tear up each and every time I watch it. God is real. We are His children. He loves us. And all things in and on this earth truly can lead us to know that there is a God.

Enjoy this wonderful compilation of the beauty of the earth:


P.S. I am back from my weird sickness. I still have bouts of dizziness here and there but I am pretty much up and running again. I'll be back on Words of Wisdom Wednesday to share an apostles thoughts on the matter.

MM: I Am a Child of God

"What a wonderful song that is. And what a great truth it teaches. You have an earthly father. He is your mother’s dear companion. I hope you love him and that you are obedient to him. But you have another father. That is your Father in Heaven. He is the Father of your spirit, just as your earthly father is the father of your body. And it is just as important to love and to obey your Father in Heaven as it is to love and obey your earthly father.

We speak with our earthly father. He is our dear friend, our protector, the one who usually supplies our food and clothing and home. But we also speak to our Father in Heaven. We do this with prayer. I hope that every night and every morning you get on your knees and speak with your Father in Heaven...It is not asking too much, is it, to take a few minutes of each day to speak with your Father in Heaven when you know that you are a child of God?"
(Gordon B. Hinckley, “You Are a Child of God,” Ensign, May 2003, 117)

What We Believe: God is Truly Our Father

Click to Enlarge

This article is taken from the January Ensign.
The PDF version of the magazine can be found HERE.

To learn more about our basic beliefs, visit Mormon.org.

Words of Wisdom Wednesdays: Faith-Filled Experience

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds,” Ensign, May 1991, 88, 90.

“One’s life … cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free...Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, ‘Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!’ …Real faith … is required to endure this necessary but painful developmental process.”

Any Thoughts?

Night Terrors and Knowing God

My 2 year old little boy has the wonderful joy of having night terrors, not nightmares (well at least not yet) but night terrors. On several occasions I have been startled awake by sudden screams of a little boy just about 2 hours after he has fallen asleep. I make my way upstairs to witness a weird and sometimes scary scene. He flails, he screams at the top of his lungs, and his eyes have a very glassy look to them. For our little boy this typically lasts for 15 minutes to a half an hour but occasionally longer and this particular night was definitely longer.

Sometimes all that we can do is just simply wait it out with him and make sure he is safe but this night was dragging on and on with no sign of the madness coming to an end. I tried several times to reach my arms out toward him to pick him up and countless times I was greeted with more screaming and a more horrified look on his face. I tried to assure him by saying, "It's Mommy." My attempts were not successful and I began to cry. I remember in that moment feeling so helpless and thinking how can I help him when he doesn't even know who I am.

He eventually calmed down and went back to sleep and of course didn't remember a thing about it the next morning, but I did. I learned a great lesson that night. I saw a small glimpse of what our Heavenly Father might feel when His own children do not know Him and what it might feel like to have them not accept your help and to not even recognize or acknowledge who you are.


It is hard for our Father in Heaven to help us if we don't know Him. We must go to Him in prayer and talk with Him. We must strive to know Him and to accept His outstretched hand. He is there. Even when we our lives are in a flailing and screaming state, especially when our lives are in that state, we must accept his helping hand and not be afraid to make changes or to have the faith to move forward in difficult situations.


It was sad and scary to me to have my son not know who I was and through the process I realized how much more sad and more scary it is if we don't know who our Heavenly Father is. I hope that we all can strengthen our relationship with our Father in Heaven and recognize that He is always there even in our darkest and most confusing hours. And even when we feel we don't know Him, He always knows us. He knows us and He loves us.

Mormon Myths Made Simple

This is a wonderful video that simply explains and clarifies the many myths that are out there about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To watch more videos like this visit MormonsMadeSimple.com .

A Question Asked: What does it mean to be "worthy"... for God's presence?

Question:
The full question went as follows (this question was asked in a comment on this blog):

"OK, so what does it mean to be "worthy" and to "qualify" for God's presence in the life of an LDS church member?

What about the grace of God? None of us are worthy, doesn't the Bible say that we all fall short?"

Answer:
My answer would not fit as a comment so I decided to post the answer here for the commenter and all to read. Please feel free to add to the conversation and to assist in answering these questions. Thank You.

I appreciate your question. It is a very valid question. It was interesting to read portions of a few talks and scriptures about your thoughts. It was a learning experience.

First, to answer your last question, we all, of course, fall short. None of us are perfect, but we can be worthy. I think that the confusion here may lie in our definitions of the word ‘worthy’. I loved this quote that I found by Cecil O. Samuelson of the Seventy that clears up the confusion of our view of being worthy.

He said, “Occasionally, for well-motivated and highly devoted Latter-day Saints, confusion occurs about the differences between worthiness and perfection. Worthiness and perfection don’t mean the same thing! All of us are “works in process.” We can be worthy while still needing improvement.”

So basically our view of being worthy or qualifying to be in the presence of God does not mean perfection it simply means that we are doing our best and are repenting and using the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. You mentioned grace. And yes, we believe that the grace of God is crucial.

In the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 2:6–8) it states,

“6 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
7 Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

A further description on our belief of the need for grace I found under Gospel Topics on LDS.org and it shares this:

“Grace is a gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ. The word grace, as used in the scriptures, refers primarily to enabling power and spiritual healing offered through the mercy and love of Jesus Christ.

Everyone on earth experiences physical death. Through the grace of Jesus Christ, all will be resurrected and will live forever (see 1 Corinthians 15:20–22; 2 Nephi 9:6–13).

Because of personal choices, everyone also experiences the effects of sin (see 1 John 1:8–10; Mosiah 16:4). These effects are called spiritual death. No one can return to the presence of God without divine grace. Through the Atonement, we all can be forgiven of our sins; we can become clean before God. To receive this enabling power, we must obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes having faith in Him, repenting of our sins, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and trying to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ for the rest of our lives (see Ephesians 2:8–9; James 2:17–22; 2 Nephi 25:23; 31:20).

The grace of God helps us every day. It strengthens us to do good works we could not do on our own. The Lord promised that if we humble ourselves before Him and have faith in Him, His grace will help us overcome all our personal weaknesses (see Ether 12:27).”

So as it stated in bold, “No one can return to the presence of God without divine grace.” We all must do our part to be “worthy” and the Lord’s grace will fill the void. We must be obedient. We must have faith in Christ. We must repent of our sins. We must be baptized. We must receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And then we must endure and follow the commandments, the teachings of Christ, for the rest of our lives.

President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency said, “So, the great test of life is to see whether we will hearken to and obey God’s commands in the midst of the storms of life. It is not to endure storms, but to choose the right while they rage. And the tragedy of life is to fail in that test and so fail to qualify to return in glory to our heavenly home.

I pray that we will choose to obey the Lord quickly, always, in quiet times and in storms. As we do, our faith will be strengthened, we will find peace in this life, and we will gain the assurance that we and our families can qualify for eternal life in the world to come.”

So in conclusion, we believe that we all can be worthy and qualify to be in the presence of God if we do our part by doing our very best “in the midst of the storms of life”. Our worthiness may not mean perfection but it is what we should be seeking for. But even after we have done our best we believe and know that we must rely on the mercy and grace of God. We are imperfect and carnal people and the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the only way that we can be forgiven of our sins and make it back to and qualify to be in the presence of God.

I know that God loves us. I know that he wants all of us to return to Him and to dwell in His presence. I know that there has been a Way provided for us all to return to Him and that is through our individual obedience and continual repentance and more profoundly through the grace of God granted by the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I hope this has answered your question. Feel free to ask for clarification if my words were confusing in any way.

Are Mormons Christians?

I recent commenter on my blog named Brian Scott wrote a great post on his blog called What Matters titled Faith Friday: Are Mormons Christians?

If you are thinking about joining the LDS church or want to learn more about how we are Christians take a peek at his post.

Trials: Be of Good Comfort

This last week was quite a tough one for our little family. We hit bumps and pot holes continuously throughout the week. We had one particular trial that seemed to take all of my energy and emotions - it seemed to take over all of me. It was an overwhelmingly emotional week. It was draining and frustrating and sad, and very dissapointing. One day I may write more personally about the whole situation but it is still too fresh and I think to wait some time may be good for me.

But as I have been dealing with this trial along with the many other bumps and holes we hit throughout the week I have been gratefully blessed with a peaceful assurance that my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ are there - that They know me, that They care about me, and that They will never leave me. I have felt the peace of knowing that my Father in Heaven does listen to my heart-felt prayers. That my Savior does understand - that He does know what I am going through.

At moments I am still overwhelmed and I am still brought to tears but the other night I was blessed to be guided to these wonderful verses:

Mosiah 24:13-16
"And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort...

And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

And now it came to pass that the burdens...were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage."

I know that I was visited by the Lord during these trials. I know that I have been stregthened and taught.

The last line in these verses says, "Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage." The following day after I read these verses my trial did not dissappear but I felt a greater peace, a greater amount of comfort, and I felt like I could lift my head a little and smile.

I know that we are all watched over and cared for. I know that we are not left to fight our trials on our own. I know that we are loved by our Heavenly Father and by Jesus Christ and that they will never leave us but will visit us in our times of need and will give us comfot if we will have greater faith and patience.

I am a Child of God

Psalms 82:6
All of you are children of the most High.

Wouldn't the way we treat people, our tendency to judge,

and our love for Heavenly Father be strengthened

if we realized this simple scripture...we are ALL children of the most High?

I am a child of God,
And he has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

Jeffrey R. Holland

Teaching and Learning in the Church

"That wonderfully revered Primary hymn

“I Am a Child of God”

has the children singing this request

to parents and teachers:

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.
(“I Am a Child of God,” Hymns, no. 301.)

We are all children of God, and we must teach each other;

we must help each other “find the way.” "

"I Am a Child of God"

First Article of Faith

First Article of Faith

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

Articles of Faith: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost

President Gordon B. Hinckley

"The first article of faith is familiar to all members of the Church. It is the pivotal position of our religion. It is significant that in setting forth the primary elements of our doctrine, the Prophet Joseph put this number one:

“We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” (A of F 1:1)."

Gospel Topics: Godhead

The true doctrine of the Godhead was lost in the apostasy that followed the Savior's mortal ministry and the deaths of His Apostles. This doctrine began to be restored when 14-year-old Joseph Smith received his First Vision (see Joseph Smith—History 1:17). From the Prophet's account of the First Vision and from his other teachings, we know that the members of the Godhead are three separate beings. The Father and the Son have tangible bodies of flesh and bones, and the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit (see D&C 130:22).

Although the members of the Godhead are distinct beings with distinct roles, they are one in purpose and doctrine. They are perfectly united in bringing to pass Heavenly Father's divine plan of salvation.