Missionary Lesson: Our Purpose/The Atonement/Acting on Faith

The Sister missionaries invited me to go to a lesson yesterday and wanted me to participate with the lesson. We didn't end up teaching the investigator about this topic, so I thought I'd share here what I studied.

Our purpose on Earth is to:

1. Have JOY and
2. Prepare to return back to our Heavenly Father

We are also here to gain experience. Experiences can bring us happiness or they can bring us sadness, pain, or sorrow. And, sometimes these experiences are brought on by others choices. We have these experiences to learn and grow, distinguish between good and evil, and to make choices.

**SIDENOTE** In a recent Relief Society lesson, we talked about the differences between joy and happiness. Joy is an eternal concept, whereas happiness is a momentary experience.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ consisted of his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. It also consists of His resurrection. His atonement covers everyone! When each of us dies, each one of us will have the opportunity to be resurrected because of the atonement. Our ultimate goal is to return back into the presence of our Father in Heaven, to live with him and Jesus Christ for eternity. To make it to this goal, there are some conditions of the atonement that we must all follow. They are:

• Believe in Jesus Christ
• Repent
• Be baptized by immersion and receive the Holy Ghost
• Be the best we can be all the time, which includes loving and serving others.

The atonement is an amazing, personal thing that is hard for me to comprehend. I know that through the atonement and the promises I make and keep with Jesus Christ will allow me to be with my family forever. Through the atonement Jesus Christ will help me with the experiences I have on this earth.

Sometimes we feel tired, sick, confused, angry or it feels like no one is answering or even hearing our pleadings. Another name for Jesus Christ is Light. He is the source of light and truth and hope and love and happiness. Imagine you're holding a candlestick with a bright, shinning light. You can see everything the light touches but not the things in the darkness. You have to show faith by taking one step into that darkness so that the light will illuminate what you are looking for. Our Father hears us! He loves us! We can do our parts and act on faith that one day we will have energy; we will be healthy and strong; our minds will work in amazing ways; we will be filled with love and light; and all our questions will be answered. Until that day we must have believe in Jesus Christ, repent, and endure to the end.

Afflictions of the Righteous

If you have ever been in the midst of affliction (and, really, who hasn't) it almost always feels like your being afflicted because God must hate you. Why else would you have to experience that? I recently watched "Little Rascals" again, and the quote from Alfalfa always sticks with me: "What else could possible go wrong? And then the clouds parted and God said, 'I hate you Alfalfa.'" This quote makes me giggle, but a little sad inside as well.

I have studied a bit about the afflictions of the righteous. The scriptural account that comes to mind is that of Job. He had everything taken from him, including his family and his attitude was ,"though [God] slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). A few versus before, he said, "let come on me what will" (Job 13:13)!

Those afflictions of the righteous are for experience, discipline and instruction.

self esteem

be perfect

There are two scriptures that tell us to be perfect.

Matthew 5:48
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

3 Nephi 12:48
"Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect."

Notice the differences?

When Jesus Christ is commanding us to be perfect, he is not telling us that we need to bake a million cakes and cookies for the bake sale, be a specific size, volunteer for every little shin dig, have perfect little children who sit perfectly still in church.

Jesus is inviting us to be with him and our father in heaven. And the only way we can make it back to them, to live with them in the Celestial Kingdom, is through the atonement and by being resurrected. Resurrection means finished, complete, whole, fully developed. Being resurrected equals perfection!

Grief/Trauma

I have been struggling with this new experience with all the associated trauma and grief. Some people have asked why I am upset, after all, Alyn wasn't my brother; I've had people try to compare their unique experience with my own; etc. etc. I have thought a lot about grief. This is what I have come up with.

One of my sister-in-laws explained her thoughts about grief being cyclical instead of linear; that she can move forward and upward, but she can still experience bad, hard, awful, triggered moments that move her downward. And then she moves forward and upward again and the cycle repeats.

To me, grief is grief; people are different. One thing can absolutely devastate someone and that same experience, to another person, could be the absolute easiest thing to over come. That being said, I HATE HATE HATE when people try to compare their experience with my own. 

This made me think about grief and trauma like an earth quake: the focus of the event has the most damaging effect, and the further you get away from the focus the less intense it is and the damage gets less and less. BUT, the shock waves of the focus are there and affect a lot more than we could ever imagine.

My goal is to care for those around me, to love them and their experiences, and to help them as best I can. I love in Revelation as John describes the celestial earth and how God the Father will be among us, that he will "wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things (the things as they are right now) are passed away" (21:4). I am praying for that day when wickedness, sadness, grief, and trauma are no longer on this earth and I won't have to watch the people I love suffer!

light of the world

The book of Revelation in the New Testament contains imagery of candlesticks. Imagery is such a powerful teaching tool because one image can mean SO many different things to SO many different people!

To me, you and I and all of us are the candlesticks. We are the instruments, the candlesticks, that hold up the light--which light, we learn in Matthew 5:14-16, is Jesus Christ. This includes our testimony, our example, and our love for each other.

The question is then, how high will you hold up your light?

Satan tries over and over and over to diminish, obstruct, or snuff out our light. This makes me think of the movie "The Never Ending Story" where Atreyu and Artax travel through the swamps of sadness. Satan wants us to give in to the sadness, to just sink into oblivion, but we need to keep the light of Jesus Christ burning brightly in our lives!

Bob Goff mentions dead reckoning in his book "Love Does". He and some of his buddies went on a sailing trip from the U.S. west coast to Hawaii without the proper training or instruments. They relied on fixing on a point and adjusting their course to keep it in sight. We need to keep ourselves turned towards the light of Jesus Christ and ever move toward him! And in His light we can feel that love and lightness and joy and happiness that everyone needs and craves for!

fear vs. faith

For the past 18 months I have been living in fear. If some random act (because that is exactly what the FBI labeled it) could take away Alyn, what was stopping the same thing from happening to my husband?

I had crippling anxiety every time Joe left the house! I imagined car accidents, drug-seeking psychos robbing the pharmacy, or some deranged person storming wherever Joe was for his next rotation. I have spent many hours wondering what I would/could do to support my children if anything every happened to Joe. 

Joe was home for a couple of days a while back and I relaxed; he was home, he was safe. That is when I knew that fear was running my life and something needed to change. 

1 John 4:18

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear."

In 1 Corinthians 13, we learn the many definitions of love. This chapter is directed toward the many different ways we can give love. But an interesting activity to do is read the chapter as the receiver of love; we all cannot give love all the time, someone has to be the receiver!  

Fear and faith CANNOT be in the same moment. Faith means:

1. To have confidence (full trust) in something or someone.

2. Is kindled by hearing testimonies of those who have faith.

3. Is a principle of action and power.

4. To move its possessor to some kind of physical and mental action.

When we are humble, we look to God; we care what is right, we want to do God's will, and we love people! When we express true faith we are promised many blessings. We are promised miracles, visions, dreams, healing, and ALL the gifts of God. 

Revelation 12:14

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." i.e. the Great Apostasy

the woman = the church

the serpent = satan

The church was taken away from the earth for a time. 

My class discussed something about the apostasy that I had never thought of and, of course, I'm sharing with all y'all. After Christ was crucified, the people of that time and area went after the apostles until they were all killed or gone and the gospel was taken from the earth. God didn't take the gospel away as a punishment, rather he took the gospel away as a form of compassion. The people were not ready to accept and live the gospel, so by removing the gospel from the land, those people will not be held accountable for the truth and knowledge they did not have. Yet another way showing how loving and merciful our Father in Heaven is! 

take care. 

Bread of Life

Get ready for a mini talk! One of my goals this year is to get closer to Christ. Things are starting to open up for me and are becoming “plain and simple”. I want to share one of the insights I received recently. 

I love the duality of the scriptures and how you can learn multiple things from one scripture; even two different people can learn completely different things from the same scripture! I have been studying the different names of Christ. One name that stood out to me is “bread”:

John 6:35, 51

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. … I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The bread Christ is talking about is the atonement! We eat bread during the sacrament to remember the body of Jesus Christ.

Alma 5:34

“Yea, he saith: ‘Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely;”

Two additional names of Christ are Vine and Living Water. Vine and Water can also be tied to the sacrament through our drinking of the sacramental waters in remembrance of Christ’s blood. 

In 2 Nephi 32:3, he tells us to “feast upon the words of Christ”! All this imagery is about food and drink, and Christ wants us to feast upon them! Christ wants us to enjoy and savor and appreciate and enjoy the atonement. He wants us to use it, not just passively eat and drink a morsel each Sunday.

In the Old Testament, there is a story about God feeding the children of Israel manna and quail. The bread fell from the sky! This was in similitude of Christ’s atonement! Christ was physically feeding them, but would eventually spiritually feed them as well through the atonement! 

Revelation 2:17

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

Through the restoration of the gospel, we have the opportunity to go through the temple. Not only do we enjoy the blessings of baptism and the sacrament, we get to receive the blessings through the temple ordinances as well! 

Christ is the living bread! The scriptures are plain and simple and they are beautiful! 

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When I read the sacramental prayer again, I saw how beautiful the prayer really is! We have all heard the different names of Christ, but have you stopped to think about the meaning of those names? --Advocate, Gatekeeper, Holy One, Bread, Lion, Rock, Shepherd, Morning Star, Captain of Salvation, Commander, Door, Son. 

“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of they Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of the Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.”

pray always

One of the BIGGEST lessons I have learned in the past 8 months is that I have a Father in Heaven who LISTENS to my prayers. He LOVES me. He KNOWS me. He ANSWERS me.

A recent Sunday was dedicated to family and pray. A cute family of six sang "Families Can Be Together Forever".

I have a fam'ly here on earth.
They are so good to me.
I want to share my life with them through all eternity.

(Chorus): Fam'lies can be together forever
Through Heav'nly Father's plan.
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can.

While I am in my early years,
I'll prepare most carefully,
So I can marry in God's temple for eternity.

Such a sweet song sung by a sweet family!

In my women's meeting, we talked about praying always. All the stories that were shared were all ones I needed to hear: God wants to help us so we need to let him! I couldn't help but think about Alyn and Nicole and I just bawled and bawled. What an unfair situation we have all been thrust into. Right now I need to just keep reminding myself that God is my Father in Heaven. I need to remember that I am his daughter. I need to remember that Jesus Christ's atonement will make all wrongs right. I need to remember that I am loved. 

as an ensign

I want to be more like my Savior. I want to be close to him. I want to know him. I want to feel him in my day-to-day life.

Today, reading in the book of Isaiah I learned a couple of things.

In Isaiah 5:20 it reads, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter."

There have been a lot of worldly views that have been thrust into the spotlight recently; same sex marriage and physician assisted suicide to name just two. God has spoken time and time again about the sanctity of the human life he created. He does not want ANYONE to take those lives away. Period. God has also spoken time and time again on how marriage should be between a man and a woman. Period. What God has spoken should be enough. His word should count for more than it does.

I am learning that the more I come unto Christ I can recognize his voice better and more clearly. I am also learning that I can talk to Christ and that he listens and he hears and he answers. I can ask any question about anything, either big or small. If it is important to me, it is important to him.

serving with love

My mom was here taking care of me, my kids, and my house for 15 days after I had Makenzie. As I was sitting around a lot letting things heal, I read out of one of my church's magazines where the messages shared were ones that I needed to hear again.

Joe just finished his second year of pharmacy school. I guess I didn't have a realistic idea of how much work Pharmacy school was going to be and how little time me and my kids would have to see him. Let me tell you, pharmacy school is hard and time consuming and we hardly ever see Joe.

There are three articles that especially touched me and made me realize the changes I need to make in order to make the next two years of pharmacy school better for me and my three kids.

The first article talked about Jesus Christ's atonement for each one of us. Not only did He die for each one of us, but he wants to enliven us and enable us to do good and become better in ways that stretch us far beyond our mortal capacities.

"We also will pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept 

our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances 

according to our will."

The next talk was about gratitude. Instead of being grateful for things, we can be grateful in our circumstances, whatever they may be; we can choose to be grateful, no matter what.

These are three of my favorite talks so far. These are just clips. You can watch these talks and more at www.lds.org.