Inspiring

I was going to start blogging about the articles of faith, but yesterday I had such a great spiritual day that I am going to postpone the 2nd article of faith. First, of all I went to the temple yesterday. As we walked in one of the sweet temple workers said, "it is a difficult world out there; thank you for living worthy to attend the temple." The Washington DC temple has a front entrance that has walking bridge over the the main part of the temple. As we were walking on that indoor walking bridge I was thinking about that statement and how I was crossing into a better place. Some may find it exclusive or unfair that only members of our church are allowed in our temples. As I was walking back to the main portion of the temple I thought about how wonderful it felt to be admitted into this sanctuary. Where a level of spiritual purity is required prior to entering. Everytime you walk into one of our temples you are asked for your temple recommend. In order to get the recommend you have to be interviewed and found worthy to enter. Essentially, everytime you hand them your recommend you are saying, "I am living in such a way that I am prue enough to enter." This is not to say that I don't have a LONG way to go and a lot to improve on, but I am at least to a level that I can leave the difficult world outside and come into this super spiritual zone.

During the session I was thinking about many different ways to improve myself. I had settled on a few and was ready to move forward. THEN, I went to the General Relief Society broadcast and they reaffirmed some of the things I had been comtemplating. If you want to hear an inspiring, spiritual giant of a woman listen to Julie Beck talk about what relief society is for.

The three main parts that she outlined (as I remember them) are:

1. Increase in Faith and personal righteousness-I think I have pretty well discussed this in previous posts on my desire to increase my faith. I really do want to know more about my Heavenly Father and increase my faith in him.

2. Strengthen home and family-I believe that families are one of the most important aspects of life on earth. Now that I have finished school, I know that my next step is to increase the size of my family. This actually is a very scary concept for me (but also very exciting depending on the day). I am working on coming around to it and understanding my role as a woman, hopefully, will include being a mother and bringing children into this world and teaching them about Heavenly Father and helping them live up to their potential.

3. Serve the Lord's Children-As I have stated in previous posts, I believe that God is a loving, caring God and he wants to take care of all of his children. I believe that when somebody says a prayer, they are heard and He wants to help them and answer them. I believe that we can be an instrument for God to help others if we look for ways to serve.

Article of Faith #1

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

I believe that My Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ are two distinct beings that are one in purpose. Everything that Heavenly Father would do Jesus would do and that is why so many times in the scriptures it talk about them as one. I don't know why this is such an important docterine, but I know that it is something that makes our religion unique. I know that it is true, because I know that when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus he saw them as two separate beings.

I believe that the Holy Ghost is a special member of the Godhead that we are blessed to have with us after we are confirmed. I was thinking about this versus the light of Christ and what a blessing it is to have to Holy Ghost with us. When we are confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Meaning that he can be our companion and guide in life. What an amazing blessing, that I probably take for granted. I am so thankful to have that constant companion to help guide me to what is right.

Sharing with others

This week I was reading about choosing to "be good." Everyday we have a choice on this matter. We can either choose to be good or choose not to, this first step is an easy one for me. Obviously my answer is, I choose to be good. Now the hard part is what constitutes good. When are you "good." The truth is we need to be humble enough to realize that we can never be totally good. We have to constantly come to our Heavenly Father and be humble enough to say, I am still not there. I still need help. We must be meek (as the Savior said), so that we can have our eyes opened to what we could be and what we should aim for.

Coming Closer to Christ

I was reading this talk about coming closer to Christ and repentance. In the talk, by Henry B. Eyring, he discusses repentance and how it means making a change in life. While I was reading I was thinking about repentance and how I always feel like repentance is needed when you do something bad. I had never really thought of it before but, I realized that you also have to repent when you don’t do something good. This is a difficult concept for me. I am still trying to reconcile it in my head. How exactly do you repent for something that you aren’t doing and what happens when you keep forgetting to do the things you are supposed to? Like I said this is a work in progress for me, but that is the great thing about the gospel and our Heavenly Father’s plan. The point of it is to be a work in progress. We are constantly striving to be more like Christ and we are so blessed to have the atonement for the MANY times we don’t live up to His example. Not only did He give us the example of how we should be, but He provided a way for us to overcome our shortcomings and still live with our Heavenly Father again.