Prayer

Last night I had a dream, It was a pretty terrifying dream, there was no way we could survive, it was miraculous. It ended with me on my knee's thanking my Father in Heaven for his mercy and love. When I awoke I thanked Him again for allowing me to have this dream, where I could see how much he really loves me and how he can do anything, that it often comes down to us and our faith in what he will or won't do for us.

Yes, this was a dream, but ultimately it put into action what I have been thinking about, Prayer. Sometimes I question answers I get to prayers, is this something I want as an answer or is this the answer I am meant to receive? I imagine this is not an unusual concept to most people. 

Matthew 21:22

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

This particular scripture reminded me of several others, In 3 Nephi it adds the concept of asking for what is right. I think this is where most of us fall short when it comes to asking for things, we ask for things we want for ourselves. once we align our will with the will of the Lord it becomes us asking for things He wants for us.

President Faust gave a talk in April 2002 entitled The Lifeline of Prayer, as I have pondered and read about this topic I found what he had to say touching "This morning I bear witness of the importance of prayer. Access to our Creator through our Savior is surely one of the great privileges and blessings of our lives" He also said, "When God placed man on the earth, prayer became the lifeline between mankind and God". Go read or listen to his talk here. It is impactful.

When we talk about Prayer it would be remiss to not mention the Saviors plea to his Father. 

Luke 22: 42
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

The Living Christ knew how prayer works. He had faith in his Fathers ability to take the cup away from him, but he acknowledged what was right,  that it was needful that it was in accordance with the Fathers will.

Prayer is simple, but not easy. As we continue to move towards "not my will, but thine" we will move closer to the Savior, and closer to who our Father in Heaven knows we can be.

The Good Samaritan Luke 10:30-37

I’m sure in every generation, in every era, we are always in need of more Good Samaritans, but, since I live in this generation, I can’t help but see how much we still need to look past our differences. We are just as in need of Good Samaritans today as the world ever was. This is not a post about the current American President, and is not meant as any kind of political commentary, I think of the talk given by Elder Kearon, (you can find it here) this was given in April 2016. This talk really affected me and touched many who heard it. You can tell where the thoughts of many of the leaders of the church lie when another person also talks about refugees in the same conference (to the relief society) this talk can be found here. This talk which sparked a website (Iwasastranger.lds.org) was titled I was a stranger, in its Sister Burton even brings up the story of the Good Samaritan. She emphasises Luke 10:37 

...Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

If we are to go and do likewise, that is be a good Samaritan, we have to be able to overlook each other’s differences and see our fundamental similarities, we can do this with the clothes we wear, the color of our skin, the tattoos and piercings we have and the religion we practice, or lack of religion. We are a people who have similarities. We can find common ground if we try to.

I am a pacifist, and about as un-nerdy as a person can be. I married a retired soldier for the Army, who is also a big nerd. I’m not sure a nerdy soldier is a common thing, but what I do know is that while our differences are stark, we love and appreciate each other. I am proud of my husband’s service, even if the idea of having a gun in our home makes me very uncomfortable. I enjoy watching my husband’s 6 ft. frame relax as he begins to enjoy playing a video game, or some other complicated game that I can’t follow. Life and Love should never be about how differences divide us, but how differences can enrich our lives, and how similarities can encourage connection.

The story of the Good Samaritan has many messages, one we should see is how the Savior wants us to be. Good, kind, thoughtful, travelling the extra mile, going out of our comfort zone to help another. When we turn others into our enemy because we do not understand them, or they look, talk, or believe differently than we do, we are missing an opportunity. An opportunity to become more like Christ, an opportunity to grow. We need to work on getting past our fears so we can tend to the needs of others. 

Sometimes our enemies are not our enemies

They are a friend we do not know,

They are our neighbor.

Forgiving

Forgiveness is a topic most would rather avoid, but here are some musings from me, an imperfect BYUI student....

We aren't perfect, and most of the time we give ourselves a hard time about this,  but often we give others a hard time because of this too. We do this by not forgiving when we feel people have wronged us in some way.  We read In Doctrine and Covenants 64: 10

" I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men."

It is required, not you should or it is better for you if you do, but it is required. Some offenses don’t take long to forgive, some hardships are easier to get past than others, but we get credit for trying. Sometimes forgiveness will take a lifetime, and sometimes, the original hurt will be triggered by something else entirely causing us to dwell on those feelings again. WHEN these things happen, just keep going, keep trying, it is ok to keep trying, just don't give up.

while I didn't mean to sounds like President Holland, he has many wise words, you can read his talk about giving up here. its one of my favorites. 

I feel very strongly that the person we find hardest to forgive is usually ourselves, our exacting standards that we require of ourselves leave no room for our imperfections.  When things are tough and we need to forgive ourselves we should consider that it is required.   The atonement makes it possible to repent, to forgive and to move on.  In his talk from 2011 Elder C. Scott Grow said 

"If you are suffering from feelings of guilt or remorse, bitterness or anger, or loss of faith, I invite you to seek relief. Repent and forsake your sins. Then, in prayer, ask God for forgiveness. Seek forgiveness from those you have wronged. Forgive those who have wronged you. Forgive yourself"   if you want to read or listen to this talk go here. 

Forgiveness is one of those topics that cause me a lot of angst, in my reading about forgiveness I came across some awesome advice “after completing the forgiveness process, victims may still be haunted on occasion by the pain of the offense. During this stage, it is important to move forward. When thoughts revert to the painful injury, the victim is reminded that the decision to forgive has already been made. He or she does not have to repeat the process” (chapter 20 successful marriage and families).

This along with other readings has really helped me to understand that forgiveness is a process.  and it is ok that I fall down, and it is ok that sometimes forgiveness takes longer than others.

And it is ok. 

I need to keep repenting, keep forgiving, and keep moving forward. 

Together is a wonderful place to start.

Judging

Thhhhhhhhats right, we are going to talk about Judging. This week I read a few cool things,
In Matthew 7 we read
1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Don't think I didn't see that eye roll, this is important!

In Luke 6 it says
36. Be ye, therefore, merciful , as your Father also is merciful.

Hands up if you have been judged or if you have judged someone else unfairly.



  It's unanimous we have all been on one or both sides of the judging.



I belong to a divorce support group, let me tell you something you may not have expected to hear...people can be soo judgy about divorce. You might think in a nation with such high rates of divorce, in a religion that preaches love and forgiveness and to NOT JUDGE, we would as a community be nicer, turns out we aren't. Some of the things divorced people are judged unfairly and often without any evidence about include but are not limited to the following:
-  stealing your spouse because we are now desperate for someone else's spouse now that we have finally  thrown ours away
- being abusive (if you are male)
- being a woman scorned (and therefore out for blood)
- being greedy (if you get alimony or child support)
- having an issue with porn (usually men are accused of this)
- infidelity
The list is endless, you may know someone who faces this reality. I have heard some of these in relation to me, I am now married ladies so thankfully your husbands are safe again.  You may know someone who has these very issues. And yet... im sure you can find the scripture about sweeping your own back door or scripturally put, worrying about the beam that is in your eye and not the mote(splinter) in your neighbors eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)
instead  of judging, BE MERCIFUL as the scriptures say or as  President Uchtodorf says:

Matthew 5:48 says
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect
let's quickly compare that to Luke 6:36
Be ye therefore merciful , as your Father also is merciful.

This week I used a technique in my reading called Flag Phrases. flag phrases are there to alert us to something important. Well, friends, I see something important here.
Be ye therefore... perfect/merciful even as your Father is.

In our journey towards perfection perhaps we should spend a leeeeetle more time in trying to be merciful to each other.
Just because you don't understand is not a reason to dislike.
 Being Judged unfairly hurts  and not just the person being judged, It hurts the person judging too.  You have felt it, I have felt it. so let's stop perpetuating that hurt on others.

The profound poster above, is made from words in this talk, you should watch it. its pretty amazing
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-merciful-obtain-mercy?lang=eng