Faith: Value Experience 2

Okay, last post for today.

Today I completed the second Faith Value Experience:

"Discover the principles of faith taught by the mothers of Helaman’s stripling warriors. Read Alma 56:45–48 and 57:21. Review what “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (see page 101) says about a mother’s role. With a mother, grandmother, or leader, discuss the qualities a woman needs in order to teach children to have faith and to base their decisions on gospel truths. How can these principles help you in your life today and help you prepare to be a faithful woman, wife, and mother? Record your thoughts and feelings in your journal."

I talked to my mom and Cathy about this, and there was one major idea we discussed--ultimately, I think it's the single most important one. My journal entry here:

"I guess, to me, the biggest thing I need to do is strengthen my own faith and my own testimony. The most important teaching tool I will ever have with my own children is the example I set.


If I want my children to have faith as sure as that of the stripling warriors, to know that all I teach them is true, I need to make it a part of my own life, now. Before I have children.


It is important that I learn to lean on the Lord for guidance in my life decisions. I need to strengthen my faith of gospel principles and live them in my life so that I may know for myself they are true. I need to learn patience, and forgiveness, and charity, so that I may serve my children and show them an example of how the Savior sees them, and all of us.


I have to work on these things so that my children can look at me and see that all they are being taught is true. So when I tell them things, the weight of my example will help them understand and believe."

I also want to add something I just now understand from the example of the mothers of the stripling warriors. Aside from their examples convincing the sons that what they were saying was truth, living the words they taught showed their sons that they knew it was true. The stripling warriors knew it was true because their mothers knew it was true. It is amazing how much influence mothers have on their children. I know in my own life, I depend on my mom for a lot of things. I value her wisdom and advice so very much. Even though I'm 21, I don't hesitate to run to my mom when I need something. What she says to me carries great weight. Her opinion is valuable to me.

That makes me realize that what I teach my children is so very important. If they can see without a shadow of a doubt that I know the things I am teaching them are true, they will be impressed upon that those things MUST be true. So I must strive always to teach them only what is right.

Faith Experience 1: Progress (and a blurb about the Bible)

Blah...

It hasn't quite been 2 weeks yet, but I'm going to have to start the 3-week thing over tomorrow. Establishing good spiritual habits has been such a challenge for me. I did fine at first but I seem to have plenty of excuses for not being "able" to stick with it. Maybe I'm just not feeling very spiritual one day, or I'm just too tired another...stupid reasons, but I let them slide.

But I have to keep trying. I guess the more times I try, the better the chance I have of succeeding, right? >.>


I'm not entirely sure if this is related to the value experience or not, but I learned in Institute that the way to have more meaningful prayer, to know God better, is to study the scriptures and come to know Him that way. That's another thing I struggle with. Sometimes I'll study the scriptures pretty avidly and other times I just...don't.

But I'm trying. I actually found this cool thing, Bible360, which has a lot of really cool tools and resources to help people get the most out of their Bible studies. Now, it's one of those new translations...actually, I just found out you can read the bible in 4 different translations, and one of those is the King James Version, which is the one I use, so that's okay. The thing is, though, the people who created this program aren't members of the Church, so it doesn't have footnotes the same way the LDS scriptures do (there are notes, though), or reference any scripture outside of the Bible, and some of the information they have is incomplete or incorrect--I can see a lot of differences between what other people get out of the Bible and what we get out of it. So I can't depend entirely upon Bible360 for my Bible studies. But there is a lot of great stuff in there, and I feel this will be very valuable.

I think this actually might help me gain a stronger testimony and appreciation for the Book of Mormon. So many of the things we understand, we understand because we have the Book of Mormon to clarify and confirm what the Bible says. It's such a great blessing.

To finish this little bit, I'm making a conscious effort to study the Bible along with the Book of Mormon from now on. I have tended to take for granted, or even dismiss, the Bible as scripture and the word of God. And that is really not good. We need both the Book of Mormon AND the Bible. I'm no exception to that. I have a friend who loves the Lord, and loves Christ, and loves to study his scriptures. He does the best he can to live his life the way God wants him to. And the only scriptures he reads are in the Bible. I've known this in the back of my head my whole life, that people who aren't members of the Church can still be good people and can still live Christlike lives. I just never really thought of it, consciously. And now I have this friend and it's a personal example of that. The Bible DOES contain the word of God. There IS truth in there. It IS valuable and important. If his life is based on the truths he gets solely from the Bible, and his life is good, then doesn't that mean the Bible is good?

So partly as an effort to connect with and understand him more, and partly because I know I need it, I'm making a goal to come to know the Bible.



Back to the value experience. I read all the scriptures (let me refresh my memory really quick) and I am going to read two talks on faith now....

Okay. Done with that (and I'm getting ready for a bit of a break from this intensive gospel study XD).

What I like about the talks is that they emphasize how essential it is that we have faith. One talk teaches how a foundation of faith is important for enduring the trials of life and for learning and growing from them. They can in fact be blessings as well, but only if we have the faith to recognize it.  The other talk was a bit more general, but among the key principles I gleaned from it were the fact that we must have faith in Christ because He is our salvation, and that when we are faithful the Spirit will dwell with us to guide us through life's challenges and to help us stay on the path that will lead us safely home.

What the scriptures teach.... I love all the examples in Hebrews 11 of all the many miracles that were wrought by faith. When the Lord makes promises to us, He will keep them. We have to believe that, and trust that. I love Alma's comparison of faith to a seed. Like the Primary song... "Faith is like a little seed: if planted, it will grow." When we have faith, we act upon the things the Lord desires of us. We keep His commandments and strive to serve Him and be like Him. In return, we will be blessed and our faith will grow.

In relation to prayer: one of the commandments the Lord has given us is to pray, always. I need to keep that line of communication open. Not just when I'm in need of comfort, not just when I'm eating food or at church, but constantly. Praying always will bless me firstly because I am keeping a commandment, and secondly because that is how I can receive direction. Like Joseph Smith did. If he had not had faith that the words he read in James were true, that he would receive an answer to his prayer, he would not have been the prophet who brought about the restoration of the gospel. He would not have had Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to him and tell him that no church upon the earth at that time was the right and true church.

I don't really expect anything so drastic in my life. But I need direction in my life, especially at this point. I have lots of decisions to make that will affect the rest of my life, and I can't do it without the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I believe that praying and asking in faith, and building up that relationship with the Lord, will help me to make the right choices and bring blessings of comfort and peace into my heart.

I shall come back to this value experience in 3 weeks' time.

My new calling

I was released from my callings in Relief Society today and I am now the branch's Primary Music Leader. I will miss the opportunity I had to teach in Relief Society, and I love the lessons and whatnot, but I think that Primary will be a great source of blessings.

Firstly, I was in a similar calling a few years back (only I believe I was the second counselor in the Primary presidency in the branch then, and the music was a part of my duties), and that was a bad time in my life. I was off doing my own thing and I wasn't dependable or responsible. I rarely showed up for church and I let the rest of the presidency down. Made it harder on them. I don't remember everything, but I think part of it had to do with me not wanting to do the work to plan music time and also a lesson for sharing time every so often. So I just...didn't go. And I felt bad for doing it, so I was depressed and felt unworthy to go to church, and it just became a cycle of unhappiness all around. I feel like this is a chance for me to repent of that and move forward. Forgive myself. Know that I have come a long way since then. I've always kind of felt guilty in relation to Primary in general since then, and I think this will help me finally release all that pent-up misery I have.
That reminds me, I also need to apologize to the person who was Primary president back then. I'm sure I can find a way to get a hold of the person who was first counselor, too. I think that's part of why I haven't been able to move on. I think they've both forgiven me already, but I never said sorry.

Another reason I'm excited is that I get to work with kids and this is another opportunity I have to pick up teaching skills for when I'm a parent someday. A lot of the kids are hyperactive and kinda crazy, so this will help me further hone my patience. Which I'll be grateful for; I could use the practice. XD

Finally, I think this goes along with wanting to work through the Personal Progress manual for Young Women. It represents a sort of back to basics thing. Line upon line, precept on precept; the best way for me to strengthen my faith and gain an unshakable testimony of the gospel is to work on the principles first. You must have a foundation before you can build upon it. I will be there with the kids and hear the things they are being taught. I can look for the lessons in the songs I teach and strengthen my testimony that way.

So I am looking forward to this. It may not be easy, who knows, and maybe I'll feel like procrastinating a bunch, but I know that the Lord will bless me as I serve in this calling and that I have a wonderful opportunity to make a positive impression in the lives of these young children.