Good Morning Sisters!
HAPPY LABOR DAY!! Hope that all of you are enjoying the day with friends or family. I am enjoying the day not nannying my twins! Wish I could’ve slept in though, my body is so on this 4:30am schedule though. Have a great day!
Our lesson today was taught by Carole Richards, our Relief Society President. She got some of her thoughts from a talk entitled, “ To Love the Things God Loves” from the Ensign in 1981.
We focused on the desires of the heart and that is always such a great teaching to go back to often. For if we can keep our desires in line with God’s desires, the outcome of our lives would be so much more bright, wouldn’t it?!
In this talk Dennis Peterson shares a story from his mission to Japan and how he had a life changing moment, while watching an investigator change from a mean and abusive man, to a kind and loving father through the gospel. He then found a passage in the book, Jesus The Christ, that made a lasting impression. It is too powerful not to share. He relates the following:
“In Jesus the Christ, it explains that the Savior “had the capacity, the ability to sin had He willed so to do … Nevertheless his insurance against [sin] … is not that of external compulsion, but of internal restraint due to his cultivated companionship of the spirit of truth” (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973, chapter 10, paragraph 2 from the end, p. 134).
It was a moment of real revelation for me; I understood finally that Christ’s ultimate defense was not his supreme will power but simply that, nurtured by the Spirit, he had no desire for Satan’s grimy alternatives. He loves the things his Father loves. Thus, as his desires became deeds, those deeds reflected a spontaneous righteousness that came from the very depths of his being.
I loved this teaching. “If I could change the desires of my heart, then my actions would spontaneously become godly!”
What are our desires of the heart? Are they turned to the things of God, or do we desire having all the best of the things or the world?
The gap between good and evil is closing in on us every day. We have to determine where are desires are going to be set. What our ultimate goals are in this life. Where we want to be.
I love the story in the Book of Mormon where the prophet King Benjamin asked his people to gather to the temple, “they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple” (Mosiah 2:6) I think this perfectly depicts the desires of their hearts. They believed that King Benjamin was a prophet of God and their desires were to heed to his words so they put their doors toward the temple READY to hear.
Where are our door point toward? So our tent door show our true desires? Are we heading ourselves and our families in the right direction?
It is always good to take our temperatures and realign our lives continually so that we are closer to the things that God loves. I know it is a daily battle. None of us has it easy. The battle is what strengthens us for the REAL battle ahead. It is what prepares us to STAND at the last day. The real battle hasn’t started, we are just getting our armor ready. Every thing that we do to become more godlike, every righteous desire, gives us one more layer in our shield. I know that I need every layer that I can get.
Carole said something yesterday that I jotted down because it reminded me of my favorite quote. She said, “He (God) may not always put things in our time table, but he is listening!” My favorite quote is by Neal A Maxwell, “Faith in God includes faith in His timing!”
May we all continue to work on “turning our tents toward the temple” that we may be able to align our desires with God’s desires and have faith in him that he KNOWS what is the best for us, because he does!
I love you Sisters and appreciate all the righteous desires I see in you. I am blessed to be part of you! Happy Monday!
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