What if I were a refugee?

About a year ago I had a dream that has not faded.  I was in the woods camping with my family.   Nature was beautiful and my family was together  and happy.  But my happy dream turned from sunny to dark.  One by one my older children disappeared and then I couldn't find my husband.   My surroundings changed from nature to a scene of chaos and destruction, and I was very afraid for my younger children and for myself as I realized I was open to any danger an ill-willed stranger wished to bring upon what was left of my family or myself.

 I woke up thinking of refugees.  The fear and helplessness that filled my dream was the waking nightmare for millions of women just like me.  How could I help?  They were so far away!

At the Women's Session of the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, the women of our church introduced a new program called, "I was a stranger."  Here is the webpage that explains it and gives suggestions of how to help.

 https://www.lds.org/refugees?cid=HP_SA_26-3-2016_dPFD_fCNWS_xLIDyL2-1_&lang=eng

And here is a video that explains why we are interested in helping:

The next week, at our general conference, Elder Patrick Kearon gave this address explaining the problem, why we should help, and what we are doing.

I hope that I will figure out the right way to help.  I hope that, one day, no one will be a refuge.  

Love, Freedom, and 5:00 a.m.

Working out at 5:00 in the morning at the BYU-I gym has some great advantages.  One of them is you can listen to BYU devotionals while you are on the elliptical.  Another is that you can pretty much pick any freshly cleaned elliptical you want because there aren't very many other crazy people in Rexburg who are at the gym that early.

I usually have an inner struggle if the the TV's are on between the part of me that just wants to listen to music and the part of me that knows that,  if I listen to the devotional, I will get an amazing gift of hearing something that will actually help me or my family.   I am glad to say I usually listen.

Yesterday, there was one point in this wonderful talk, right between minutes 24:04-25:05, where Osguthorpe said something that made me think hard about freedom and love and their opposite.

"it is impossible to love unless we choose to love. Love must come from within. It cannot be forced upon us. So for purposes of his own selfish aims, the adversary would have made it impossible for us to keep the first two commandments. He would have made us into nothing."

He would have made us into nothing.  

Let's hear it for a God who would make us into everything that is good. 

But only if we freely choose it.

Look for the one.

So I really like khaki skirts and flip flops.   But I still like this message.  When you are trying to do the Lord's work, it is so much easier for me to think about working with "a class" or "a den" or giving a talk to "a congregation."   One on one is the scariest thing in the world.

 "You don't talk to congregations, you talk to assembled ones,"  he says.   Yep.  I believe it.

Hastening the Work...just not in a good way.

"Hastening the Work"

If you’re a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints, you have heard this phrase in the last few years a lot.    

There is even a website at

https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/members-and-missionaries

 in case you missed it.   But if you aren’t a Mormon and you have no idea what I am talking about, the phrase is short for Hastening the Work of Salvation, which is simply (although it is not simple) letting people know about Jesus Christ, about His love for them, and the way His gospel will change their lives.

This link says it better than I do.  https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/members-and-missionaries#media=14424200789892361816-eng

The amazing thing is this.  It seems like many Mormons are actually stepping it up. 

We can feel it in everything from the youth that have answered a prophetic call for younger missionaries,

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/thousands-more-mormons-choose-missionary-service

to Genealogy,

https://familysearch.org/

to much more meaningful and interactive youth curriculum.

https://www.lds.org/youth/learn?lang=eng

People everywhere and of all faiths are doing more good than ever before!

But here’s the thing.

We’re not the only team on the floor.

And the other team is doing really really well.

  Neil Andersen summed it up well in his last conference address:   

“My young friends, the world will not glide calmly toward the Second Coming of the Savior. The scriptures declare that “all things shall be in commotion.”¹ Brigham Young said, “It was revealed to me in the commencement of this Church, that the Church would spread, prosper, grow and extend, and that in proportion to the spread of the Gospel among the nations of the earth, so would the power of Satan rise.”²

Oh, bother.   

"...in proportion to the spread of the Gospel among the nations of the earth, so would the power of Satan rise."

So the next time you hear, "Hastening the Work", just think twice about who all is doing the hastening.  

What do we do about it?  

Here is the end of  Andersen's talk.  

"Build more firmly your foundation upon the rock of your Redeemer.

Treasure more completely His incomparable life and teachings.

Follow more diligently His example and His commandments.

Embrace more deeply His love, His mercy and grace, and the powerful gifts of His Atonement.

As you do, I promise you that you will see the whirlwinds for what they are—tests, temptations, distractions, or challenges to help you grow. And as you live righteously year after year, I assure you that your experiences will confirm to you again and again that Jesus is the Christ. The spiritual rock under your feet will be solid and secure. You will rejoice that God has placed you here to be a part of the final preparations for Christ’s glorious return.

The Savior said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”²⁵This is His promise to you. I know this promise is real. I know that He lives, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Father Abraham

Many years ago I had the chance to teach the Old Testament to an early morning "seminary" of 14-18 year olds.  As I started studying the book, I was so impressed with each prophet that came along.  But there is something special about Abraham.   He has a really good heart that wants all the right things.

But as I have been reading the Old Testament as our course of study for the year in Sunday School, something different has impressed me. In Genesis 23, after Sarah dies, he has to find a place to bury her, and he asks his neighbors for help.  When they help him and give him a place to bury his wife, he bows before them and thanks them and pays them, even though he is described by them as "a mighty  prince among us."

After he has lovingly taken care of his wife, he turns to the welfare of his son, Isaac, and makes sure he is settled with a good wife and home, before looking to his own life.

I have been looking for the right word to describe this wonderful characteristic of Abraham, and the word gracious keeps coming to mind.

Much like Abraham, there are people in our day who are like "mighty princes"  who enjoy wealth and celebrity.  Some of them are gracious and some, not so much.  Even if we are the farthest thing from "a mighty prince" we can follow Abraham's  example of compassion, mercy, and kindness.

Covenants and Confidence

I recently had the opportunity to attend the temple.
Okay, it was yesterday.
It is only five minutes away.
Don't hate me.

Anyway, this  month seems to have had more than its share of moments when all my inadequacies have been typed in bold face, italicized., and underlined.    It is like life wants to make sure I don't miss the fact that I am pretty much pathetic.
Thank you, life.

Happily, life has also brought me really close to a temple and I can go there often.
Thank you, life.

Temples are places where you make covenants with God about life, about family, and about ourselves. You promise, and so does He.  I have always found it comforting that even though I am inadequate in a million ways, I have made covenants with the most powerful person in the universe.
Yesterday, as I was reviewing these promises we have made to one another, I felt something I had not felt for awhile.  I felt confident. With the help of God and with my desire to serve, I could help other people in a manner that would be acceptable to God.  What a good feeling.
Thank you, God.

A wise woman name Rosemary Wixom once said to a very large group of women,
 "As we strive to keep our covenants, our feelings of inadequacy and imperfection seem to fade while the ordinances and the covenants of the temple come alive."

The power that comes through temple covenants are real.
They make a difference and they matter.
But you know what?  A lot of of other things don't.

An interesting and powerful phrase followed me out of the temple yesterday.
"...and it doesn't matter."
I guess that, because I had been focusing on things that do matter-- that matter more than anything else in life, I was able to really see what does not matter.

I burned dinner.  Again. And it doesn't matter.
I can't fit into that dress.  And it doesn't matter.
I can't do countless things as well as anyone else on the planet. And it doesn't matter.  
I can do my best, which will be pathetic when compared to others,
and unacceptable to many of those around me.
  And it doesn't matter.  

I can do my best and my efforts can be accepted by God,
who will constantly be helping me to do better.

That matters.  
Thank you, God.



 

Love the Beach, Hate the Gulf.

.

I had an interesting dream last night.  I was invited to visit a friend I had not seen in a long time.  She had a great house in a beautiful place and I had not seen it before so I was excited to be invited.    As we started out on the journey, we were in a car, but then the road became narrow so we had to get out and use a bike.  But then the road became a slippery and narrow sheet of rock, much like a very narrow granite countertop.  I think it was suspended over a large body of water, but I don't remember really well.  We had to walk in bare feet, concentrating with every step. People were falling off it left and right. I woke up before I reached my friend's house, and I couldn't help but think of the Everlasting Gulf of Misery scriptures. 

So, basically, there is this Everlasting Gulf of Misery that Helaman and Lehi talk about, and you really do not want to fall into it because not only is it apparently everlastingly miserable, but it is also full of woe.  

BUT...

The people who cross  the "strait and narrow course" (which may or may not look like a granite countertop), will "land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out." 

This sounds like a good place to be.  And I have been reading the Old Testament lately, and I have more than a few questions they might be able to clear up for me, but that is another blog post.  

I love passages like these that seem to provide a pattern for how to live your life, giving specific actions you can do that will make life a whole lot better. Not only will you cross the gulf and be in good company, but you will  have some great experiences along the way as you balance on that narrow path  of slippery granite counter top.  What actions do you pick out in the following passage?

  Helaman 5:12

 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

To me, it just seems to say, 

Believe in Christ and follow his commandments and build everything you do upon Him, and then you won't fall for all the stupid stuff everyone says is good, and it looks good, but it will actually drag you down to endless woe. 

 And no one wants that.  

No one nice, anyway.  

Helaman 3:29.

29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked

And this one seems to say that anyone can know what God has asked them to do , make it part of them, and then BE  it.