Take upon you His cross

I'm studying Jacob 1:8 today. The footnotes are great. The third one leads to use 14:27, which leads to a bunch more. From them I learned that taking up His cross means denying myself of ungodliness. Taking upon me His cause and name. It means bearing the shame of the world and not worrying about what there think or say about Him or my believing in Him. It means believing in Christ and becoming like Him. 

My soul is happy about the restoration

Recently I felt like I needed to strengthen my testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration. So I started reading the D&C. Wow! Today I felt the blessings of it. I read a talk about Palmyra that was about this guy who had a question about why Palmyra was the place for Joseph Smith to see God and why and how there were crowds of people there. And basically his talk was about how we get answers to prayers if we seek them. As I read the talk, I just thought about how everything about Joseph Smith and the restoration was really unique and special. And it all and each happened because Heavenly Father loves us. And wants us to have truth. So many little things just worked out in our favor. What a blessing. And I'm so grateful. Then I read D&C 19. And I don't remember what it's about even now, besides Jesus talking about His experience and encouraging them to always repent and to teach repentance. But I remember the way I felt. The same as above. And this scripture pretty nicely and sweetly sums it up: "39 Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness?"

Sacrament meeting

I felt the spirit so strong today during Sacrament Meeting. Xavier Zamora gave a talk and he testified a lot in it and each time he did, I felt there Spirit confirming to me it was true. It's such a blessing to have experiences like that in Sacrament Meeting, experiences when I love he meeting and listen and my heart is touched and I feel truly edified. 

I learned from a youth's talk that in order to make my worship more worshipful during Sacrament Meeting, I need to think about the meaning of the words of the hymns. I need to pay attention to them. I need to sing them as praises or as prayers into God. This is something I'm going to try harder to do. 

I also had a day vision about me as a mother a few years down the road and my kids asking me why I read he scriptures each day. Instead of giving them a list of impersonal reasons why we should read the scriptures, this is what my day vision showed me to say: "My reason is different every day. Today is..." Hopefully, this will show them that some days I read them to get strength. Some days for more patience. Some days because I love God. Some days because I need answers. Some days because I'm preparing to teach. I want to be authentic to them. I can't wait to have conversations like that with my children. 

Repent. Just do it.

In 2 Nephi 28, Nephi's like, "So everything I said is true and really important and just listen to it. In the latter days, when my progenitors are going to be reading this stuff, people are gonna be going around saying, 'There's no God,' or 'God doesn't do miracles anymore. He already did all that,' or 'There is a God, but he won't care about the little stuff.' Don't believe them."

Nephi goes through and talks about a bunch of different kinds of sins. He spends a lot of verses talking about blasphemy and pride and foolishness. And then, toward the end of the discussion, he says in one simple verse: "So, repent. Just do it. God's arms are always extended." When I first read this, I was thinking about other people. Yeah, they should just repent. But then I realized I needed to be thinking about myself and my sins and just repent of them. And stop doing that. I prayed that I'd be able to forgive a couple people that I have bitter feelings toward. I think and hope that for GC this weekend, I will know what I can give up and improve for the Lord. And I hope my heart is humble and open to receiving that. Maybe I should pray for it.

Easter thoughts

I'm teaching sharing time on Easter and I'm really grateful for the opportunity. I have been studying the resurrection and the Atonement this week, and it really has been wonderful. I feel as though this is going to be a special Easter for me, and I'm grateful for that. Easter needs to be celebrated more in the Church, and this one is going to be a big celebration in my heart.

As I've been studying, I've wanted to teach the kids three things that came from Easter: 1) resurrection, 2) ability to repent, and 3) enabling power. I feel like this is an important lesson

2 Nephi 4

There's so much to learn from this chapter. My biggest takeaways were that I need to trust in the Lord more and no rely so much on myself, the arm of flesh. I've gone too far on the spectrum of asking for help/doing your best with your best judgment. Maybe it's Satan who makes us think that the latter is always the better option; and then it turns into relying on the arm of flesh and not trusting in God. 

Another thought is that love consumes the flesh. I wonder if I felt God's love it love for God more often if I would be able to get rid of the natural man tendencies in me, like the temptation to rely on myself, or the temptation to be prideful or judge others. 

The last is from verse 27: when we give way to temptations, the evil one has place in our hearts, destroys our peace and afflicts our soul. Wow! Pretty awful effects and results from sinning. 

What makes the Liahona work?

Before that, we need to understand how it came to be. People didn't make it. So no matter how good we are or smart we are or whatever, we still need guidance from Heavenly Father. "And the Lord prepared it. And behold, there cannot any man work after the manner of so curious a workmanship." Man couldn't have done it. And God loves us, so He did. 

"And it did work for them according to their faith" (Alma 37:40). It works according to their faith. I need to ask more. I need to ask for guidance more often, and believe God will give it to me. I think it's possible to go too far to the "God wants me to make decision on my own and do things the best that I can do before asking Him" side. He wants to help me, and He wants to grow our relationship. 

Things that break it: slothfulness (apathetic, lazy), not exercising our faith and diligence 

Transgression, traveling an indirect course (Alma 37:41-42)

Or don't give heed. So not only when you do not ask, but when you don't heed what is given to you. 

Look and live! It's there. The way is prepared. Just look. The words of Christ can lead us a straight course to eternal bliss