Joy and Peace in Christ

A couple of days ago, I was thinking about someone I know who has left the church, and the reasons they gave for it, and sometimes when I think too hard about that it makes me question my own faith. It can be hard to remember sometimes that I have had a witness of the truth, I have felt the Holy Ghost and God's love for me. I have felt that the prophets are called of God. Because none of that is tangible. I can't see it, I can't touch it. I just have to remember that I've felt it. Sometimes it feels like I hold on and am grasping at something I can't reach; just in a direction where I need there to be something. I need the gospel to be true, because if it isn't, I have nothing. I was feeling this way a couple of days ago, feeling like I hadn't felt anything in a while, when I realized that wasn't true. I felt it a couple weeks ago, at least, and wrote about it.  You see, I've been reading the Book of Mormon, underlining every reference to Christ. I...

I have been taking an institute class on Elder Anderson's book The Divine Gift if Forgiveness. I did a project for the class, and wanted to share it here too.   This drawing is titled “A Change of Heart”. I imagine that the hard, dark, broken heart is mine and it lives in the blackness of a sorrowing, lost soul. But, I have invited in the soft, light, whole heart of Christ. His heart replaces mine, and His light fills the darkness. As I was contemplating this project and what to draw, I was inspired by three passages. The first is the quote by CS Lewis in chapter 10 of The Divine Gift of Forgiveness. “Christ says 'Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want You...No half measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I ...

 I was reading in Elder Neil L Anderson's book, The Divine Gift of Forgiveness, and in chapter 15 he says something very interesting.  "This earth life would not be a time of absolute perfection, but a time of choosing good over evil, of learning by experience and the power of our spirits to put our trust in God, follow Him, and build out faith in Him. It would be a probationary state where we would make mistakes." Normally I think about probation as a time of proving your perfection. If a person in on probation at their job, or from jail, they are proving whether they can and will do what they said. And if they make a mistake, they could lose their job or go back to jail. It's not a time where mistakes are allowed. What I found interesting is that he defines a probationary state differently. He says mistakes are allowed; in fact they are expected. "...we would make mistakes" sounds like a pretty clear statement of fact to me. So I looked up "probation...

I was reading Elder Karl D Hirst's talk "God's Favourite" from October General Conference, and I was highlighting passages and writing down thoughts, not casually, but just moving along through the talk, when I read a sentence that stopped me in my tracks: "Surely Jesus removes all shame from the broken." Have you ever felt broken? Like your brain or your body or your spirit just don't work the way they are supposed to? I have. And while I have never been personally told that I am broken or unworthy or less than because of my struggles, I know people with similar struggles have been told that. And sometimes I feel that if they are, surely I am too. But, "through His brokenness, He became perfect, and He can make us perfect in spite of our brokenness. Broken, lonely, torn, and bruised He was-and we may feel we are-but separated from God we are not." "Surely Jesus removes all shame from the broken." Many examples come to mind.  The woma...

 Last week I had the awesome opportunity to attend an EFYSA (Especially for Young Single Adults) conference. There were speakers, activities and a service project, and I loved it. I want to share a few of my thoughts here. On the drive to the event center, one of the girls I was riding with asked me what I was most excited for about the conference. I had to think about it for a minute, because I was excited, but hadn't yet tried to put into words why. I decided I was excited for the positive, inclusive energy from a large group of faithful youth. I was excited for the classes and speakers. I was excited to do something different and higher energy than my life is right now. I loved EFY, and was excited to do something like that again.  The theme of the conference was "Think Celestial", from President Nelson's October 2023 General Conference talk. Most of the speakers' addresses were themed something like "Think Celestial by..." The keynote speaker on the ...

It says is the scriptures that God knows the end from the beginning, and I know some people struggle to reconcile this with agency. If God knows what you are going to choose, if the end it set, are you really free to choose? Yes. I like to think of it this way. Imagine I have a marble and I prop up a book on a table. If I put the marble at the top of the book and let go, what's going to happen? It's going to roll down. You know the outcome before I do it. You know the end from the beginning because you understand the physics of a rolling object near Earth's surface. Or imagine you ask your best friend what flavor ice cream they want. You know they are going to say chocolate, or strawberry, or cookie dough, or whatever before they say it. You still ask, but you know the answer because you know your friend and understand their likes and dislikes. So in both cases, you can predict, or know, what is going to happen in the future because you have an understanding of the present ...