Preparedness

This week I listened to some of the conference talks that I had missed. One theme that struck me and then was reinforced to me this weekend at our ward camp out is the theme of preparedness. Right now I sit in my apartment, munching on food (which is plentiful), in comfortable clothes, where the temperature is easily adjusted and there is water and electricity. I am in good health, I have a great job that I enjoy, I have a wonderful husband and my family is doing great. However, I know that trials are inevitable. I have learned through the wise counsel of our prophets that we should prepare for trials by physically having the things that are necessary. They have recommended that we have 72 hour kits and food storage. I have been motivated by this counsel and I am working on getting myself prepared temporally. While I know this is important I was touched by a second principle. The idea that spoke to me was the importance of SPIRITUAL PREPAREDNESS. Elder Ballard discussed the lessons learned from the scriptures. In the scriptures we see a pattern of people who are blessed by Heavenly Father and because the have all they need they stop looking to the Lord for help and become prideful and start to sin and eventually they are "compelled" to be humble. I have seen this in my own life by my scripture study habits. When I am having a hard time in my life I do a better job of staying up on scripture study than when everything is going perfect. One of the way I can be spiritually prepared for hard times is to keep up on my scripture reading and my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I am going to work hard at preparing myself for hard times, by learning how to feel the comfort and peace of the Holy Ghost. By getting the habits of pondering scriptures and likening them to myself, I will be more prepared for trials. I am grateful for the apostles and prophets of our day who have reminded me and warned me to prepare for trials.

Easter

This morning the sun came streaming in our window and woke me up. The bright beauty of the sun is how I imagined the first Easter day was. I have been thinking about how important Easter is to me all day and how I could express my testimony on this blog. I think the time I felt the atonement touch my heart most was when I went to the temple before I got married. I was there for the first time and realized that the only reason I was able to be in such a pure in holy place was because of repentance. I wish I could describe this feeling I had of sitting there in the beautiful white surroundings and have the warmth of forgiveness wash over me. I had the sweet spirit remind me that because of Jesus Christ I could come to the temple. There I was able to worship and come closer to Heavenly Father and I could be sealed to me wonderful husband for time and all eternity. The atonement gives us the chance to have a peace in our hearts. It gives us the opportunity to be clean of our sins. I am so grateful for that peace and knowledge that Christ's sacrifice was for me individually.

The organzation

Beyond just the truthfulness of the gospel, I think the organization of the church is pretty incredible. It is amazing that is runs on the sacrifice and service of the members of the church. Nobody is paid we are just asked to volunteer. Callings are based on prayer and inspiration. I have had different callings. At times I have had callings that I didn't know if I could handle during school or with other obligations, but each time I accept a calling Heavenly Father provides a way for me to accomplish all that I need to do. I also have learned to love different groups of people through different callings. When I was a freshman at BYU I was called to be a FHE group leader and I really came to love each of the people that met together in our group. I still think about them and wonder how they are doing. As I think about the various callings I have had throughout my life the faces of those that I learned to love pop into my head. I could go through and talk about each calling and things I learned from each group of people, but I'll just say that I think the organzation of the church is divinely inspired. It provides us with opportunities to share in the lives of others and in a slight way see how Heavenly Father is concerned about our wellbeing and show us how to be more concerned with the welfare and potential of others.