Can you see Gods power?

I was reading the scriptures this morning and came across a verse that is frequently used throughout the entire books of scripture and that is this- and the Lord did show forth His power unto them, preserving them.

It got me thinking, that the majority of the time when God "showed forth his power" it was because the people had just humbled themselves before Him. Wether it was from famine, drought, or they were about to loose a war and be killed, it was caused by their iniquity, their distance from God. Once they faced death, they then would turn to him, humble themselves and God would show forth His power unto them by bringing rain for the drought or relief from the bloodshed of the war.

So, do we recognize the power of God in our lives everyday, I think if we can do this, we might avoid  having to be compelled to be humble.

Covenants

McKenna,

As I think about all the things I want to tell you before you leave my "nest" I can think of at least a hundred things I want you yo know. However really, it all comes down to one thing..... Temple covenants. 

I know you have had to listen to my rants about how I love the temple but I want to make sure you really know why. 

I will admit that when I went through the temple for the first time, and even several times after that- I really didnt understand the power that can come from the covenants I had made. I knew it was what I was supposed to do, and wanted to do but, didnt fully understand. 

I remember when things really stared to get tough and i didnt know where to get peace. Peace from my worries, my thoughts, my fears,,,,I started attending the temple more and more. I would go fasting, looking for answers but only expecting peace. It never failed, Id feel peace every time. 

I have so many experiences that I have written down in my temple journal that one day you will have. I just know McKenna, that there is no other way to find peace, to receive the fullness of His love, His presence and His will for you, than at the temple.  

When i felt I had just lost everything, when divorce was looking more and more real, I was scared. Scared for my children and their future. I remember as I was participating in the endowment session, I felt an overwhelming peace that everything was gong to be ok because I had kept my covenants. That my children were gong to be ok because I had kept my covenants. I knew that the road would be hard but I had faith in those promises made to me. 

I know that you are gong to be busy, but please, nothing will be more powerful to help you through school than that will of the power that comes from attending the temple. 

When you find someone to share a future with one day, I hope that you will have quickly observed if he loves the temple. If he does BEFORE he is married then he will after. 

You too need to be solid in your testimony of temple worship. Its the most solid basis to build your relationship on. But you must first love it before you love a man.

Elder John J Featherstone says that even the very elect hearts will fail them if they

 do not worship in the temple often. The very elect! Think about that. You cant afford to let this slip by. Dont for one second think that you cant serve there now or think that you are too busy. I promise you, as your mother, that if you make it a habit and first in your life, you sill see miracles in your life mckenna, you will always have what you need and you will not need to fear in anyway because you will have confidence in the blessings thatcovenants.



Now a different aspect relating to covenants. Id like you to consider how much you value your baptismal covenants. How much do you think about them during the day? I would like to invite you to ponder this and recognize just how much or how little they enter you mind each day
I bring this up because something very valuable I learned these past few years is this: I have come to love God because I have come to value my covenants. When temptation arises I will immediately think about my covenants and how much they mean to me, how much I need the blessings and the choice becalmed easy. For example, I love coffee- really I do. Used to drink it in high school and just love it. I was cleaning a clients house and he had a pot of coffee waiting for me and offfered it. I said yes and the cup of amazing warm coffee was sitting there waiting for me. He left the room so he wouldn't have even seen me drink it. I started to justify that it's not a big deal and its better than coke. (Which I do think it is ha)  but that didn't matter- it was against the commandments. I felt a love for God at that moment and a desire not to loose any blessings- I loved God more than i wanted a drink of coffee.
When you face choices in your life, if you learn to value your covenants more than anything else, you will love God more than anything else. The choices that seem so hard to make will not be hard anymore.

Listen to the prophets voice.

My favorite talks I have listened to that have all made some impact on me in a big way.

You might not get the same message out of a talk that I did but I know that when I have emerged myself in the words of these men, I have been blessed.

Sometimes you need to turn off the music and just listen to the prophets! If you go to BYU devotional and listen to old talks from the prophets before they became prophets...those are amazing.



However long and hard the road1 Elder Holland

Cast not away therefore thy confidence - Elder Holland


Things as they really are- Bednar

Lesson from Liberty Jail- Elder Holland

Remember Lots Wife- Elder Holland

A summer with great aunt rose-Uchdorf


But if Not
Be not afraid, only believe - Uchdorf

Spiritual beings having the human experience

When you feel desperate and lonely and weak, you are in your mind. You need to find a way back to your spirit, by always remembering him. Turning to God.

The only way to feel that peace, it to turn to Christ.

What if you turn to Him and he still doesn't heal your scars? Why didn't he Heal his scars? So that we would always remember Him. So maybe He doesn't always heal our scar so that we will remember Him.

Now listen to this video and take notes! Its a good one.

What I know

McKenna, I remember when you were first born and I was already thinking about all the different things I knew I had to teach you. I remember listening to a conference talk by Elder Monson at the time, and he said that we need to teach our children all we can before they turn 8 years old. I remember thinking that I was already running out of time and you were only a month old!

I know that you are more than capable to be on your own and make your own decisions- I just cant help but wonder if I really did teach you everything you need to have roots in the gospel so deep that nothing, no matter the severity of trial, will sway you in your testimony.

Boo- I love this gospel and know that there is no other way in which to live this life than with and through Christ.
I know that the covenants we receive and promises we make are filled with power, power to accomplish all the Lord would have us, overcome all that is placed before us and endure as long as we are asked to. The power of the priesthood is available to all covenant keepers. Make it your goal to receive the temple covenants. The power is greater McKenna.

I know prayer works and there is power in it. I know fasting works and there is power in it. I know that scriptures, feasting on them, works and there is power in it. I know it because I have tried it, I have relied on it and the power in all of these things has saved me.

I know that you are an amazing daughter of God and have a purpose here on earth. You are being prepared for even greater things. Please know that I understand this will come with it's ups and downs  and that its because of the downs, you will come to know Christ, your Heavenly Father and yourself more. Embrace the downs with an opportunity to learn.

You are more than capable of doing this McKenna. I believe in you baby girl.

Prayer

I believe that prayer is a gift to us from Heavenly Father. He knows all, sees all and can do all, so why does He ask that we pray? Sometimes it requires us to be humble as we kneel down in prayer and ask sensere forgiveness. The opportunity to humble ourselves is a gift. Sometimes when we need an answer to something, we know that we must study it out in our minds before prayer right? So the studying part is a gift to us, when we study we learn and grow..... Heavenly Father knows this and allows us to have the opportunity to learn for ourselves. A gift.
Prayer makes us feel closer to Him, we can draw on His spirit and feel His power through prayer.
We can feel peace and hope through our prayers of gratitude. When we kneel and count our blessings out loud to God in prayer we are again being given a gift because that very act, counting our blessings, brings power.
Everything that we are being asked to do by God is never really for God- It always ends up blessing us.
Never stop praying, never. Even i f you get on your knees and let Him know that you are not sure what to say but youre there, just stay there until you know what to say. Never not pray.

Prayer is the fastes way I know to build a personal relationship with Heavenly Father. He really does listen, He really does care and He really will help.

Nephi's Psalm

2 Nephi ch.4 has been described as Nephi psalm. His sacred song if you will. This chapter has given me much comfort over the years.

Read these verses carefully and as you identify with them in your own personal way you too will find a deep connection to Nephi's words.

I love vrs 28 where he says he rejoices and gives place no more to the enemy of my soul. The enemy is Satan obviously and nephi in essence casts him out. We too can do this, we can cast out the enemy of our souls that we might find room to rejoice and praise our Savior Jesus Christ.

He also talks about trust- McKenna, your trust in Heavenly Father is everything. When you truly trust  Him you will find the fears will dissipate and you will be filled with peace.

Going backwards

1 Nephi 18:8-15

This part of their journey always fascinated me. Here nephi has basically built the boat himself that is taking all of the family across the sea, he is driving the ship which is not easy, while his brothers and family are partying like wild animals and as he says, being rude.
Nephi has experienced so many visions and confirmations up until this point to give him solid witness that he was doing the lords will, yet his brothers were driving the spirit away and Nephi knew that they would not make it with out the spirit guiding them.
So he try's to tell them to stop and that he's afraid God will stop guiding their path across the sea!

Of course Lamen and Lemual are pissed and this time the tie up Nephi really good- to where his wrists are bleeding and he's so weak.  They leave him tied up for a long time and the part that I always thought interesting is where it says in vrs 13... that they were driven back three days journey because of what lamen and lemual did. 3 DAYS!! Can you imagine being on a boat in the middle of the ocean, sea sick and miserable and you just lost 3 days worth of travel?!!

I took away from this story the principle that when we are not obedient to the Lords commandments and even go as far as rebelling them.... we dont just hit a pause button and say, " oh Ill just wander off the path for a min and then jump right back on and keep going forward" No, we actually loose the progress we made. "We are driven backwards"

We dont want to loose the ground we have already won. We do not want to loose the faith we have already exercised.

Be strong and steadfast McKenna in the progress you have made these past few years. You have allowed the Lord to steer your ship and the Holy Ghost is guiding you along the way.

There will be storms along the way, for sure, but if you remain worthy to be guided by the "leahona" you will not be tossed backwards in your journey. The storm will actually be moving you forward as the heavy winds blow.

I know this to be true.

Amulek- do you really know him?

This guy is one of my favorite men in the scriptures. I absolutely fell in love with his conversion story and want to share my thoughts on this.

So Alma chapters 8-16 you need to study

I am constantly amazed at how this guy not only quickly believed and obeyed an angel of the Lord but quickly believed the words of Alma while he was letting Alma stay with him in his house. It clearly states that Amulec had a family... that he was very popular, very wealthy and very smart.
Yet he gives it all up to go and preach the gospel with Alma.

The way Amulec so quickly roots himself in the gospel is incredible! He is immediately persecuted with Alma in their ministers and yet he doesn't waiver. He witnesses innocent women and children being burned alive and knowing that he and Alma have the priesthood power to stoop it, he has faith that its the lord will not to envoke that power to save them. Yet Amuleck doesn't waiver in his faith after watching that horrific scene.

Why was he so solid so fast? What did he do to hold tight to his faith no matter what tragedy he witnesses or experiences?

He is my hero!

Jonah like you've never seen him

Ok, so when was the last time you read the book of Jonah? Probably seminary. Get out your Old Testament and open up to the book of Jonah.
Come on now
Just do it

Ok, I wanted to bring this story up because its one of my favorites.
I learned about something in the scriptures called a Chaism- it's basically when the elements of a story repeat themselves in reverse order.
Chaotic passages points to the center of the story. In this story the center is the Lord delivered salvation- first to Jonah then to Ninivah on the the same terms...repentance.

Ok, so here is the chaism of the story

1. The Lord commands Jonah to preach against the wicked Ninivites.
2. Jonah sins, not wanting ninivah to be saved
3. Jonah repents, lord saves Jonah
3. Ninivah repents, Lord saves Ninivah
2. Jonah sins not wanting Ninivah to be saved
3. The lord asks "should I not spare Ninivah?"

This story is quite fascinating when you really study it.
The point I wanted to share at this- even a prophet of God wanted to give up. I want to share an experience that i had with this book to better emphasize my point.

So i was feeling very beat up and hopeless. I was so upset at the fact that this person in my life was, in my opinion, not worthy to be saved or forgiven or spared.
I had had enough and felt like i wanted to just die. I quickly felt guilt over that thought and the thoughts of not wanting God to save this person for any reason whatsoever.
I dropped to my knees crying and seeking help from Heavenly Father. I felt that i just couldn't hear him so i opened up my scriptures in a desperate hope to find Hid counsel to me in there.

I turned to the book of Jonah. I started to read and I started to see this man, a prophet of God, so downtrodden and depressed- upset rather- that the Lord was asking him to call the people of ninivah to repentance. These people had been awful, barbaric even and he saw no point in the Lord forgiving them. He refused to call them to repentance. So he RAN!
A prophet of God ran! Lol
Then i noticed that he even took it further than just running away. When the men on the boat were about to drown in the storm and they were scared- jonah knew why the storm was about to overtake the ship- God was angry with him. But he wanted to just be thrown overboard! He wanted to die!
A prophet of the lord wanted to die rather than see these people repent and be forgiven. Oh my gosh I couldn't believe what i was reading.
I kept reading and remembered the question the Lords asks him in the end... should I not spare Ninivah?
Johan finally asks the Lord to spare him from the belly of the whale. Which the Lord does. But then why would the Lord not spare Ninivah? Wasn't Jonah sinning too by not obeying the command of God and then running away?!

I learned a couple things this night when reading the story again. First, that im not alone in my feelings. Second, that if i wanted to be spared then I had no right to judge, prevent or discourage others from being spared too.

No matter how you want to apply this to your situation right now, I just wanted you to know that youre never alone in how you might be feeling and that you will always find comfort in the scriptures.

Dont look back

This is an amazing talk and I hope you listen to all of it. I know you perhaps gain something different than I did but I know it will be inspiring!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obNlH5VZ_qg

Decisions

You will always be making decisions and might feel immense  pressure to  make the right decision. It It is extremely important to make the right decision. But know that when you are worthy of the holy ghost you will be worthy to get heavenly direction.

3 things to help make a decision:

Make a plan
Study and pray
Examine your motives

Making Righteous Decisions