A master artist had a classroom full of students.
"One day," he told them, "I will help you to become just like me."
Meanwhile, he gave them each a beautiful painting --each unique and different, but all his best work.
One student rejected the gift, and a few others did as well, jealous that they could not be the master painters.
The one who rejected the art soon became jealous of the other student's paintings. He went to one student and decided he would make him share his jealousy.
"Wouldn't your painting look cool if you added to it?"
The student was decieved by him, and graffitied the gorgeous painting, covering the beautiful shapes and colors with cheap paint.
The rejector came to another student and said, "Look at your painting, it isn't nearly as beautiful as the student next to you."
She looked at her own painting, and at the girl's next to her. Ashamed, she hid the painting beneath an expensive cloth which she thought was more beautiful than the painting.
The rejector next went to another girl with an especially unique and beautiful painting, one pleasing to all eyes and admired by many.
"Your painting is the most beautiful of all," he said, "you could make money off of that."
The girl felt pride for her painting. Not wanting to sell the whole thing, she sold bits and peices of it to others.
The rejector was glad he was able to deceive so many, but there was one student he could not deceive. He tried all his tricks, but the student continued to love his own painting. Never did he compare his own to others, or defile it, or sell it. He loved and charished his painting and daily thanked the master painter for such a beautiful gift.
The student who had graffited his painting saw the purity and cleanliness of the steadfast student, and realized he had forever destroyed and ruined such a precious gift. He tried to clean the cheap paint from his own canvas, but found the work difficult and laborous.
The student who covered her own painting saw the steadfast student's daily gratitude, and was ashamed she had not shown the same. She threw away the fancy cloth and was grateful for the painting she had, which was truly beautiful.
The student who had sold her bits of her painting, saw the whole canvas of the steadfast student, and realized the mistake she had made that could never be fixed on her own. Her painting was lost. Only through the mercy of the master painter could she be whole again.
Our bodies are creations of our Heavenly Father. Just as we would not destroy a beautiful piece of artwork, priceless, and given to us as a precious gift, we should not defile or be ashamed of the priceless, beautiful creations of our Heavenly Father. We are his pride and joy, his supreme creations. When we repect and love our bodies, we repect and love what was made by Him.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Daily Repentance
Repenting daily has many obvious blessings; it prevents you from forgetting your sins, you learn to recognize sins and feel Godly sorrow quickly, and you strive always to become clean. However, today in our Church Sacrament meeting I realized another blessing I had never noticed before.
Daily repentance directly affects the impact on our Spirits that partaking of the Sacrament has. When we speedily repent of all our sins and transgressions, we have the opportunity to be pure and clean again each week as we take of the bread and water and renew our baptisimal covenants. This in itself is a blessings, however this also brings with it another less-noticable blessing.
When we are pure, clean, and perfect for those few moments between renewing our covenants and the next mistake we make, our Spirits are as open as they can be to the Spirit. I have always felt the Spirit Strongly after taking the bread and water, but today I realized that it was more than that. This is the time of the week when I think of goals I want to make, changes I need to make, how I can help someone I've been praying for, what I need to do about a problem. The Spirit speaks to me and tells me a plethora of information that my heart opens up to while I feel pure and clean. Often this resolve does not stay, as mistakes are once again made. However, speedily repenting can bring that resolve to life again, enough to take it into action.
When we speedily repent, we not only allow ourselves to be perfectly clean for a few precious moments each week, but we also open ourselves up to the Spirit's promptings on a daily basis, as well as an onslought of Revelation that can occur every Sabbath day.
Daily repentance directly affects the impact on our Spirits that partaking of the Sacrament has. When we speedily repent of all our sins and transgressions, we have the opportunity to be pure and clean again each week as we take of the bread and water and renew our baptisimal covenants. This in itself is a blessings, however this also brings with it another less-noticable blessing.
When we are pure, clean, and perfect for those few moments between renewing our covenants and the next mistake we make, our Spirits are as open as they can be to the Spirit. I have always felt the Spirit Strongly after taking the bread and water, but today I realized that it was more than that. This is the time of the week when I think of goals I want to make, changes I need to make, how I can help someone I've been praying for, what I need to do about a problem. The Spirit speaks to me and tells me a plethora of information that my heart opens up to while I feel pure and clean. Often this resolve does not stay, as mistakes are once again made. However, speedily repenting can bring that resolve to life again, enough to take it into action.
When we speedily repent, we not only allow ourselves to be perfectly clean for a few precious moments each week, but we also open ourselves up to the Spirit's promptings on a daily basis, as well as an onslought of Revelation that can occur every Sabbath day.
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Power of Pondering
A short thought I wrote down in my journal on Sunday:
"When we ponder, we look deep into ourselves, and search for connections --connections between our deepest emotions and thoughts and our topic of reflection. When we ponder scripture, we apply what is read and learned to our personal selves. When we ponder all that we learn, we ingrain that knowledge deep into our hearts, minds, and souls so that it becomes part of us. When we ponder in prayer, we allow the Lord to use the Holy Ghost to plant feelings and messages into our hearts that then become part of us. I think this is where much of our personal testimony comes from.
Testimony is a personal part of ourselves. When strong, they become part of our very being. When we ponder our testimonies, we are pondering ourselves. We learn a lot about who we are based on what we believe. When we have testimonies grounded in truth, we learn something invaluable aboout ourselves; we are children of a living God, divine, and loved by Him.
When we ponder, we strengthen that identity."
Praying for missionary oppotunities? Share this, or any other posts on my blog! :)
Questions? Click the Temple button at the top of my page to link to Mormon.org
"When we ponder, we look deep into ourselves, and search for connections --connections between our deepest emotions and thoughts and our topic of reflection. When we ponder scripture, we apply what is read and learned to our personal selves. When we ponder all that we learn, we ingrain that knowledge deep into our hearts, minds, and souls so that it becomes part of us. When we ponder in prayer, we allow the Lord to use the Holy Ghost to plant feelings and messages into our hearts that then become part of us. I think this is where much of our personal testimony comes from.
Testimony is a personal part of ourselves. When strong, they become part of our very being. When we ponder our testimonies, we are pondering ourselves. We learn a lot about who we are based on what we believe. When we have testimonies grounded in truth, we learn something invaluable aboout ourselves; we are children of a living God, divine, and loved by Him.
When we ponder, we strengthen that identity."
Praying for missionary oppotunities? Share this, or any other posts on my blog! :)
Questions? Click the Temple button at the top of my page to link to Mormon.org
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
I'm a Mormon
Share your faith.
I've added a "button" above as my subtitle that links you to the mormon.org I'm a Mormon website.
I encourage everyone who is able to to make their mormon.org profile! And if you're not a member of the LDS church, I enourage you to click the link above and get to know what we're all about!
On mormon.org you can:
Ask questions on a live chat.
Research the doctrine, history, organization of the LDS church.
Look at profiles of mormons all over the world.
Watch videos about members of the LDS church and all the wonderful things they take part in.
Satisfy your curiosity.
I'm a Mormon.
I've added a "button" above as my subtitle that links you to the mormon.org I'm a Mormon website.
I encourage everyone who is able to to make their mormon.org profile! And if you're not a member of the LDS church, I enourage you to click the link above and get to know what we're all about!
On mormon.org you can:
Ask questions on a live chat.
Research the doctrine, history, organization of the LDS church.
Look at profiles of mormons all over the world.
Watch videos about members of the LDS church and all the wonderful things they take part in.
Satisfy your curiosity.
I'm a Mormon.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Support Systems
This isn't really a gospel topic, but it can be related to the gospel.
I've noticed throughout my life that I rely on different people for different things. I rely in my best friend differently than I rely on my parents. I turn to my siblings for different problems than I turn to my adult leaders for. I often wondered, when I was young, why there couldn't be one person I can rely on for absolutely everything. I used my journal as that one person for awhile, which was a good start.
Of course I now know that Heavenly Father is that person I can rely on for absolutely everything.
But of course my observations are still correct. Different problems in my life require different relationships to help solve them. If I don't know what to do about an issue with my friend, I'm not going to talk to that friend about what I should do obviously, so I'd talk to a parent, sibling, or another friend for advice.
Today I realized yet again another perfection in God's plan for us. We as human beings require a web of support systems from others because one person isn't strong enough to support us on our own. I imagined what it would be like to be the only person in the whole world someone could rely on, and I immediately felt exhausted by the idea. I don't think anyone is capable of doing that. This is why I beleive God made us so that we need a web of people who rely on and support each other. We're each part of this web, helping each other directly and indirectly to stay afloat. If one person falters, it effects the whole web.
Because Christ is perfect, He is someone we can always rely on, for anything. And although I'm not married, I can guess that a husband and wife support each other an awful lot. But even married couples have to rely on other people sometimes, and they always have to rely on the Lord.
This may not be a Spiritual boost or helpful discovery like my past posts have been for me, but I thought it was interesting, and it still strengthens my testimony that God's ways are perfect ways.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I've noticed throughout my life that I rely on different people for different things. I rely in my best friend differently than I rely on my parents. I turn to my siblings for different problems than I turn to my adult leaders for. I often wondered, when I was young, why there couldn't be one person I can rely on for absolutely everything. I used my journal as that one person for awhile, which was a good start.
Of course I now know that Heavenly Father is that person I can rely on for absolutely everything.
But of course my observations are still correct. Different problems in my life require different relationships to help solve them. If I don't know what to do about an issue with my friend, I'm not going to talk to that friend about what I should do obviously, so I'd talk to a parent, sibling, or another friend for advice.
Today I realized yet again another perfection in God's plan for us. We as human beings require a web of support systems from others because one person isn't strong enough to support us on our own. I imagined what it would be like to be the only person in the whole world someone could rely on, and I immediately felt exhausted by the idea. I don't think anyone is capable of doing that. This is why I beleive God made us so that we need a web of people who rely on and support each other. We're each part of this web, helping each other directly and indirectly to stay afloat. If one person falters, it effects the whole web.
Because Christ is perfect, He is someone we can always rely on, for anything. And although I'm not married, I can guess that a husband and wife support each other an awful lot. But even married couples have to rely on other people sometimes, and they always have to rely on the Lord.
This may not be a Spiritual boost or helpful discovery like my past posts have been for me, but I thought it was interesting, and it still strengthens my testimony that God's ways are perfect ways.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
On the Book of Mormon Musical
I will start off with a simple DISCLAIMER: "The Book of Mormon Musical" was not written or authorized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church) and therefore cannot be referenced as Church material.
"The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but The Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."
—Official Church Statement on the Book of Mormon Musical
I don't know what information presented in the "Book of Mormon Musical" was correct and what wasn't, because I have not seen the production myself and actually have no intention on seeing it, however I know that my testimony of the truth of the book itself remains the same. Many may wonder, was the musical accurate and truthful? My advice to you would be: read and find out.
Here's a helpful link that can answer some of your questions about the Book of Mormon:
http://mormon.org/book-of-mormon
You may have to copy and paste.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Inspired Questions- some Girl's Camp gems
So I wrote two posts ago about my experience at EFY related to asking inspired questions. Well now I want to write about answering them.
Asking questions is how we learn. By asking a question our minds automatically engage in the learning required to answer that question. The most effective way to true learning is through curiosity, and curiosity is manifested through asking questions.
However, to effectively retain that learning, we must use it. To deeply understand it, we must teach it. I was blessed with the opportunity to teach others what I have learned this past week. I went to a church Girl's Camp as a YCL, a Youth Camp Leader. I was over a group of girls 13 and 14 years old. As an activity we had the girls write down questions they had, about anything they wanted, and us YCLs would strive to answer them to the best of our ability. I was impressed by the number of sincere and deep questions these girls asked. They reflected the girl's high level of maturity. But the thing that impressed me the most, was how many of those questions were things I had wondered about myself in my life, in the past and actually a few of them more recently. By answering these questions my testimony grew even stronger in those areas we discussed, and there were even some questions I didn't know the answer to, and by studying and praying was able to gain a testimony of them myself, and then answer them.
My goal for girl's camp was to inspire at least one girl about one thing, and bring the Spirit strongly enough that at least one girl would have her heart open to it. The response I had from my girls was incredible. Knowing that I truly helped answer deep questions in their lives gave me a sense of joy like nothing else can. I know I did absolutely everything in my power to positively influence those girls for good.
My only hope and prayer at this point for my girls is that they continue to ask questions. I hope that I have been able to give them guidelines to finding answers to their questions on their own.
Once again it has been confirmed to me that when we ask, we truly receive.
Asking questions is how we learn. By asking a question our minds automatically engage in the learning required to answer that question. The most effective way to true learning is through curiosity, and curiosity is manifested through asking questions.
However, to effectively retain that learning, we must use it. To deeply understand it, we must teach it. I was blessed with the opportunity to teach others what I have learned this past week. I went to a church Girl's Camp as a YCL, a Youth Camp Leader. I was over a group of girls 13 and 14 years old. As an activity we had the girls write down questions they had, about anything they wanted, and us YCLs would strive to answer them to the best of our ability. I was impressed by the number of sincere and deep questions these girls asked. They reflected the girl's high level of maturity. But the thing that impressed me the most, was how many of those questions were things I had wondered about myself in my life, in the past and actually a few of them more recently. By answering these questions my testimony grew even stronger in those areas we discussed, and there were even some questions I didn't know the answer to, and by studying and praying was able to gain a testimony of them myself, and then answer them.
My goal for girl's camp was to inspire at least one girl about one thing, and bring the Spirit strongly enough that at least one girl would have her heart open to it. The response I had from my girls was incredible. Knowing that I truly helped answer deep questions in their lives gave me a sense of joy like nothing else can. I know I did absolutely everything in my power to positively influence those girls for good.
My only hope and prayer at this point for my girls is that they continue to ask questions. I hope that I have been able to give them guidelines to finding answers to their questions on their own.
Once again it has been confirmed to me that when we ask, we truly receive.
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