Tuesday, March 29, 2022

God Loves Watching You Grow



I planted some Ranunculus bulbs a couple of weeks ago. They started sprouting at the end of last week. It has been so fun to see the fast growth. The amount of joy it has brought me is borderline ridiculous. I looked at the progress of their growth yesterday and thought, “Man, I love watching them grow!”
And then, I immediately had this thought- “God loves watching YOU grow.”
If I love caring for and watching these little seedlings, how much more does my Father in Heaven love caring for and watching me grow? I am but a seedling in my eternal growth.

I’ve always known I am a Child of God. But, sometimes the deep meaning of that doesn’t sink in.

God loves watching my faith grow. He loves it when I accept His care and His invitations. He loves it when I gain new insight. He loves it when I become stronger and learn something new from going through something hard.

So, it begs me to reflect and ask myself - what am I doing to grow? How am I cultivating my testimony plant? It requires daily nutrients, that’s for sure. I am working to become the beautiful flower God wants me to be. And it’s pretty cool to think that my journey of growth brings my Father in Heaven great joy.



Monday, November 1, 2021

A Pencil in God's Hand

I have often been amazed at how God works in our lives. Some of my greatest experiences have come through the callings (church assignments) I've had. 

Today I was asked to help the Relief Society President in my ward (I'm currently the first counselor) with something on my lunch break. There is a sister in our ward who had to go to the hospital suddenly last night. Her dog was alone in her apartment. In talking with the RS president, we weren't sure what we were going to do. Her dog would need care a few times a day for potentially a couple of weeks. We're in a singles' congregation -- full of working individuals. And - there's one key to her apartment that would have to be passed around. 

Miraculously, we found a lady (who's not in our congregation) who was willing to take the dog for however long needed. Her dogs recently passed away and their household is set up perfectly for dogs - a large yard, etc. This lady doesn't know myself, the sister in the hospital or our RS president. She had just seen a post on social media asking for help with the dog. I think the Spirit must have nudged her a bit. Who does that - takes someone else's dog they don't know without pay and takes care of them? When we dropped off the dog to the lady it was so apparent to me that God's hand was in this. 

God loves His Children. He takes care of them. He provides solutions to problems. I know it. I've seen it. 

Mother Theresa stated my feelings so well: “I’m like a little pencil in His hand. That’s all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used.”

It is amazing to be part of God's work - simply an instrument - and see His hand play out in amazing things. God is good. 

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Promises of God


 Tonight I went for a drive to see the progress of the Orem Utah Temple construction. Shortly after I arrived, I noticed a beautiful rainbow forming. I thought it was very fitting. In temples, we learn of God’s eternal promises and we make promises, or covenants with God.  The rainbow is another promise from God. 

Genesis 9:15 says “And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” 

There are reminders of God’s love and His promises all around us. God is truly a loving God. I’m grateful for his gentle reminders that He loves me and that His promises will be fulfilled in His time.  

Friday, April 30, 2021

God's Loving Care

Every so often I feel like God gives me little "tender mercies" to show that He's there, He loves me and He cares for me. Today, I experienced one of those. 

This morning I had a doctor appointment about 25 minutes away from where I live. As I was walking out of the doctor's office after my appointment, I saw a friend sitting by the exit. She lives even further away than I do! I was so surprised to see her there. Neither of us live in the town where our doctors are at. It seemed so random to see her there! We chatted for a couple of minutes and then I was on my way. It was fun to see her. Such a fun "coincidence"

As I was traveling home on the freeway about 15 minutes into my drive traffic started to slow down abruptly. Soon, I heard sirens and saw the police cars coming. As I approached where an accident had occurred, it was obvious that it had happened just minutes earlier. They were blocking off lanes still, etc. And boy, those cars were really smashed. 

As I drove home the rest of the way I had the impression that it was definitely not a "coincidence" that I saw my friend at the doctor's office. She was placed perfectly by the exit so I'd see her and chat with her. If I had been on my way a couple of minutes earlier from that appointment, I don't doubt it could have been me in that accident.

When I prayed before I left my apartment this morning, I prayed for safety and protection as I traveled. God certainly answered that prayer. Grateful for His love, His care and Him placing us where we need to be at the very moment we need to be there. 

Neal A Maxwell said: 

None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings “coincidence.” This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by “coincidence” but instead by “divine design.”

I saw His "divine design" in my life today. 


Thursday, January 21, 2021

Faith is for the Future

In the words of Thomas Rhett, “Ain't it funny how life changes?” I had to stop by my work's office today to take care of a few things. I really like working from home, but stopping by today sure made me miss life before Covid. Crazy it’s been almost a year! And then I stopped to see the temple progress. I miss my daily lunchtime walks here. I miss being able to worship inside here. But then I remembered a quote by Jeffrey R. Holland: “Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come.” (From this talk.)Yes, nothing stays the same... and that’s ok. :two_hearts:Better things are to come.




Sunday, October 25, 2020

Waiting on the Lord

I gave a talk in church today for the first time in seven (!) years. It was actually really good for me to prepare this talk. I got to choose a conference talk from this most recent General Conference. I chose to speak on this talk. I was really touched by it. Thought I'd share my talk/thoughts on this blog. I know I have so many friends who are "waiting on the Lord" for various things too. My heart goes out to you all!

(I am part of a congregation of singles ages 31-45, f.y.i.)

******************


Waiting on the Lord. It’s something I both love and hate. I have studied about it a bit (I actually have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to it. Haha.) and I am living it. I think sometimes we dodge the topic publicly as midsingles. But, I’m grateful Elder Holland so wonderfully addressed it in his talk this last conference. I loved his remarks and have chosen to give my talk based on his. 


Waiting is something we can all relate to. He starts out his talk by talking about the pandemic and how we are all tired of it. It’s gone on way too long. How long will we have to wait for it to be over? 

And then he shifts to other challenges including: those who want to be married and aren’t, those whose marriages are struggling, those battling medical conditions, and emotional and mental health challenges. And then he mentions that there are large economic, political, and social concerns that confront us collectively. 


So, we have all of these challenges. And we pray so hard for them to be over. But sometimes, they aren’t over very fast. Sometimes we have to live through our trials. and some trials we have to live with.


Elder Holland talks about the fact that God wants our happiness and exaltation above everything else. So, if this is the case, why doesn’t He provide a miracle and relief from our waiting? He says, “Yes, God can provide miracles instantaneously, but sooner or later we learn that the times and seasons of our mortal journey are His and His alone to direct.” He administers that calendar to every one of us individually. For every infirm man healed instantly as he waits to enter the Pool of Bethesda,3 someone else will spend 40 years in the desert waiting to enter the promised land.4 For every Nephi and Lehi divinely protected by an encircling flame of fire for their faith,5 we have an Abinadi burned at a stake of flaming fire for his.6 And we remember that the same Elijah who in an instant called down fire from heaven to bear witness against the priests of Baal is the same Elijah who endured a period when there was no rain for years and who, for a time, was fed only by the skimpy sustenance that could be carried in a raven’s claw."


What I’ve come to learn from these examples as well as experiences in my own life, is that it doesn’t always make sense. Why do some people get miracles and others don’t? I think what it comes down to is there are lessons for each of us to learn in the various experiences we have. There are lessons to be learned when we are instantaneously granted a miracle. There are lessons to be learned when we wait. 


C.S. Lewis said, “I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do enter your room, you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise.”


I’ve had several experiences with waiting in my life. Sometimes I feel like that’s always God’s answer. Like, I’m about to cross the sidewalk and I push the button and hear blaring at me, “wait!” 


There was a period of time in my life when I was waiting for a good job. In total, I was job hunting for three years. I had countless interviews. I sought help and perfected my resume. I had experience. I had connections. There was no logical sense as to why I could not find a good job. But, looking back on it, God needed me to wait so I could learn from that experience. I learned to rely on Him. I learned to be humble. I learned that so many people were so kind and wanting and willing to help me in my trial. And, one of the biggest blessings - I was able to relate to a sister in my ward who was job hunting as well. She’s now one of my best friends. 


Another personal experience - one I think we can all relate to - I’ve had to wait to find my eternal companion. When I was younger, I always envisioned myself getting married in my early twenties and certainly have tons of kids by my thirties. I never thought I’d STILL be single in my thirties. But, as I’ve thought about it, there have been many blessings while I wait for this blessing. I have made friends I otherwise would not have met, I have been able to spend a lot of time alone with God and develop my relationship with him, I’ve been able to spend more time with my parents, I’ve been able to see and experience the world in ways that I could not if I were married. And, I’m grateful for that. 


There are so many blessings that come from waiting. I love this quote by John Maxwell, “God prepares leaders in a crockpot, not a microwave. More important than the awaited goal is the work God does in us while we wait. Waiting deepens and matures us, levels our perspective, and broadens our understanding. Tests of time determine whether we can endure seasons of seemingly unfruitful preparation, and indicate whether we can recognize and seize the opportunities that come our way.”


I don’t know about you all, but I feel like I’m fully cooked and burnt at this point in that crockpot! But, I love that. Waiting changes us and provides opportunities. 


One of the blessings of waiting, I’ve learned is that we have to rely on God and our faith is strengthened. Elder Holland says, “faith means trusting God in good times and bad, even if that includes some suffering until we see His arm revealed in our behalf. That can be difficult in our modern world when many have come to believe that the highest good in life is to avoid all suffering, that no one should ever anguish over anything. But that belief will never lead us to “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”


Ultimately, the biggest blessing of waiting on the Lord is that it will prepare us to be who our Father in Heaven needs us to be. Elder Holland says, “one’s life … cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.” It simply will not work “to glide naively through life,” saying as we sip another glass of lemonade, “Lord, give me all thy choicest virtues, but be certain not to give me grief, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor opposition. Please do not let anyone dislike me or betray me, and above all, do not ever let me feel forsaken by Thee or those I love. In fact, Lord, be careful to keep me from all the experiences that made Thee divine. And then, when the rough sledding by everyone else is over, please let me come and dwell with Thee, where I can boast about how similar our strengths and our characters are as I float along on my cloud of comfortable Christianity.”


I was really struck by that. Wow. I think we have to have an eternal perspective in our waiting. We can’t have it easy and expect to become like our Savior. I think it will be joyous on the other side when we unite with others and share our experiences from this life - experiences of waiting, learning, growing and trusting. The experiences that made us who we are and more like our Savior. 


I think it’s easy to view our trials and our waiting with such a limited perspective. In the eternal scheme of things our waiting is for a small moment. 


I love in Elder Holland’s talk he refers to the experience Joseph Smith had in Liberty Jail. The prophet cried out, “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?” (D&C 121:1.)

 

Side note - what struck me in this is that it’s ok to sometimes ask, “O God, where are thou?” and sometimes we feel like God has forsaken us. A prophet felt this way. 

But, Heavenly Father gave this reassuring response” 

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.” (D&C 121:7–8.)

I am so grateful to know that in the grand scheme of things our waiting is but a small moment. And those things that we have had to wait so patiently for will one day be ours. 

I want to close by sharing the lyrics from a beautiful song by Rob Gardner titled, “Sometime We’ll Understand.” I recommend looking it up and listening to it. But, here are the lyrics. 

Not now, but in the coming years,

It may not be when we demand,

We'll read the meaning of our tears,

And there, sometime, we'll understand


Why what we long for most of all

Eludes our open, pleading hand;

Why ever silence meets our call,

Somewhere, sometime, we'll understand.

So trust in God through all thy days;

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;

Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,

Sometime, sometime we'll understand.


Sometime, we'll fall on bended knee,

And feel there, graven on His hand

Sometime with tearless eyes we'll see

What, here, we could not understand.

So trust in God through all the days;

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;

Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,

Sometime, sometime we'll understand.


I know that sometime we'll understand why we've had to wait for the things we want most. God has a plan for each of us. Sometimes that involves waiting. Lots of waiting. But, that waiting will help us become who He needs us to be.

Thursday, October 11, 2018

In Every Change



I love this time of year. And, when I say I love it, I mean I LOVE it. So. Much! I love the beautiful colors most of all. Although I'm not a fan of cold weather, I do love the crisp, chilly fall air. Change is in the air.

Change can be a beautiful thing. This year has been a year of change for me. I feel like that has been God's lesson for me - learn from change. I'm still working on figuring out what lessons I'm supposed to learn from change. Apparently I'm supposed to learn something because I've felt that every corner I turn this year a new change has appeared! It's been a recurring theme in my life. For the longest time, my life felt stagnant. It felt like nothing was changing and nothing was going to change. Well, turns out, it does happen!

January of this year brought some change right off. At the beginning of the year, the prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints passed away. This resulted in a change in leadership.

Shortly thereafter in January, I was offered and accepted a new job. This was such a prayed for and longed for change.

I've already changed desk locations at my work (ok, small thing, but still!). And, over the summer, my boss announced he was asked to head up another department. I was completely devastated over this (truly). I really love my boss. This change has been a long process. They just hired my boss' replacement, who starts at the end of this month. I think Heavenly Father knew I needed months to process this, which has helped.

My church congregation changed from having Sacrament Meeting first, to having it as the last meeting earlier this year. Small thing, but not a huge fan of this change. Hoping it'll change back with the new schedule. Which is another change. Recently, it was announced that church will now be 2 hours instead of 3 (which is a VERY welcomed change!).

Also at church this year, my congregation got a new Bishopric. I also was given a new calling (service assignment), which has been such a great thing for me.

Also this year, I got a new roommate. The person she replaced is one of my very best friends. I was not expecting her to move out. This change was really unexpected and hard for me. It came about the same time I was getting a new boss and new Bishop as well.

All of the above events are things that have happened without me doing a thing. Which, I've been reminded that God is in control. He's over it all.

However, I have been proactive in making intentional changes in a few areas of my life this year, which has been awesome. I started going to the gym in the morning sometimes. That's huge for me. I'm good at working out in the evening, but going in the morning is a huge struggle.

I've also been reading more books. I'm trying to be more productive. I've really enjoyed learning about others' lives by reading biographies and memoirs.

Another recent change I am in the process of making is spending less time on social media. I'm currently participating in a 10-day social media fast. The women of my church were encouraged to do this by the prophet. So far, it has proven to be a great change. When I do return to social media, I plan to spend less time there.

I guess I can sum this all up by saying change can be a beautiful thing. Yes, it can be hard. But, we're meant to learn, grow, and stretch. I have learned that God is always there. I love the lyrics of the hymn, "Be Still My Soul," which say, "Leave to thy God to order and provide; in every change he faithful will remain."

Can't wait to see what amazing changes He has in store for my life in the future!