A Thought II

“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we comply with or keep those we have already received."

Joseph Smith

A Thought

"If all I had tomorrow is what I thanked God for today, what would I have tomorrow?"

Life as of June 11

So, if you've spoken with me in the last few months, you know that I have been struggling to figure out what I want to do with my life, especially in regards to my career. I feel a little like I'm playing Keep-Away, the game where a big circle of people keep tossing a ball back and forth to each other while one person runs around inside the circle, trying to touch whoever currently has the ball before they toss it to someone else. I've been seriously and carefully "running" back to old career options, exploring new ones, and being concerned because the time to decide is now. 

Going through this process, along with witnessing one of my friends pass through a true tragedy, has helped me learn a truth that is very precious to me:

It is in the process of experiencing uncertainty or adversity that we can receive some of God's choicest blessings.

And, for me, one of those blessings is knowledge. Knowledge of who I am, what I'm made of, and what my core is. Knowledge of God's purpose for sending us to earth. He has given us the opportunity to become like Him: to grow and learn by experiencing new things. And to learn that He is always going to support us, no matter what we've lost or how frustrated we might feel. 

A lesson from music lessons: if the goal is to learn how to play an instrument well, no amount of theoretical knowledge can take the place of actually practicing that instrument. I could study what a piano is and what the keys do when they're pushed, but no amount of theoretical knowledge could replace the experiential knowledge I will gain by actually practicing the piano every day. 

Well, we lived with God before this life and we all chose to come to earth. We had theoretical knowledge of what this whole earth-life would be like and who we could become.  But, now we're here. We're actually doing the practicing and learning. We are experiencing things that can, for the better, change us. The becoming thing is actually taking place. And we will become better than we ever imagined we could become. And the becoming occurs as we learn from the difficult things we experience. 

Blessings don't just come at the end of trials. I've also learned that expressing thanks for adversity and confusion while still experiencing them leads to some pretty powerful experiences. It's a simple act of faith: showing God that you trust Him, and that you trust that there are beautiful things to learn from the difficulties of life. I promise that as you express thanks to God for your own struggles, even while you're still experiencing them, you will feel Him teach you exciting and important things. What we learn from trials can often lead us to sincerely feel grateful for the trial itself. Passing through our hard times enables us to learn things that will forever be a part of who we are.

So, as we ask God to help us, He will change our hearts and teach us the lessons we came here to learn. He will give us the strength that we need to keep going. He suffered what we experience so that He can help us (Alma 7:11-15). And God will not leave us alone; He will comfort us through His Holy Spirit and through our friends and loved ones.

Guest Post: Dominique Badura

I was baptized when I was 8 years old and have been a member of the church my whole life, but my true conversion happened later in life, after I went to Boston. If it wasn’t for missionary work, I wouldn’t be a member of this church.

I always wanted to be the person that could share my testimony on an airplane, or with a random stranger on the street. But it just didn’t work like that. In order to share your testimony, you have to have a testimony. After being a member of this church for 18 years, I realized as I was trying to I was trying to share my testimony in Boston that I didn’t really have one. I took books of Mormon with me so I could pass them out, but in order to share my testimony, I needed to have one of my own. I met friends while in Boston that to this day are some of the best missionaries I know. They saw me struggling and made sure I went to church every week, they read scriptures with me but most importantly, they loved me.

When I came back from Boston, I fell back into old habits and stopped going to church. My Boston friends, with a few additions, wouldn’t let me go though. They continued their missionary work and eventually I gained a testimony of my own.

With help of friends I started reading the book of Mormon, and living the way I was supposed to. But most importantly, I started to feel Heavenly Father’s love for me. I could see through my friends examples that Heavenly Father loves me, and that I was supposed to go to Boston so I could gain a testimony and be able to share it.

Through this I gained a testimony of the book of Mormon, as I did Moroni’s promise each time I knelt in prayer I just heard the voice “you know it’s true” But during the sessions of the last October conference, that is when I got the firm answer of knowing what I was doing was good, and right, that Joseph Smith translated the book of Mormon and that when we do what is right that Heavenly Father blesses us.

Missionary work is love, like said by Elder Koelliker in this most recent conference, “it is when we yield to God’s will and live His patter that His spirit is felt. The Savior taught, “by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” This principle of having love one to another and developing our ability to be Christ centered in how we think, speak, and act is fundamental in becoming disciples of Christ and teachers of His gospel.”

It is because of the love of others that I am a member of this church. Missionary work is incredibly important, I can now testify of that.