Post # 43 – Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority

Dear Family and Friends

I wanted to continue with my thoughts from my last post and share more with you all about the Principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This week I wants to reemphasize the principle of Faith; you can view a video called Finding Faith in Christ here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2004-01-01-finding-faith-in-christ?lang=eng  

The Apostle Paul taught that “faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Alma made a similar statement: “If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21). Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot yet see.  You can find this and a lot of other resources on Faith found here:: https://www.lds.org/topics/faith?lang=eng

I am quite certain I have mentioned before that without faith in Jesus Christ I would not be able to have made it through all the challenges in my life as well as I have. I think about how my life was before I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and I think that I have always believed in God but growing up I never really had the opportunity to learn about my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I grew up in a family with eight children and my mom barely had a sixth-grade education, so when my father passed away she needed to marry someone who would be able to provide for her five children that she already had. My first step father was not a very nice man and there was much abuse of all types in our home. My second step father was an alcoholic, but he did love us, and he taught us a lot of things. ‘Again, though we suffered abuse from this new father figure as well as from our mom when she got angry or drank too much.

As I was growing up I could not understand why my mom would marry such a man, but after I left home and started a family of my own, I began to understand that she did the best that she could.  She did not have the education or the skills to get a job to provide for herself let alone for five children. Having the gospel in my life has made such a huge difference in the way I have raised my children – the cycle of abuse and alcoholism was stopped!

It is amazing what you can do with the Lord’s help and guidance in your life! And I want to tell you that I could not have managed to accomplish this with our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Before I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I was a drinker and a smoker. Growing up I developed these habits because it was easier to take the abuse with the alcohol and the nicotine in my system. I kind of grew up waking up with a bottle and going to bed with a bottle, especially in my teen years – never really drunk, so to speak, but never really sober either. My teen years were really tough for me, I was never good enough no matter how hard I tried to do good, so I stopped trying to do good and you can guess where that led my life.

I struggled in school because I went into junior high and high school without knowing how to read. They just passed me on and when I went to college it was really a struggle only on a much greater scale. I had to have tutors for all my classes after the first semester in college. My reading was on and other basic skills were on second and third grade levels, which did not help me very much in college. When I was in high school I just sat in the back and hoped that the teachers wouldn’t call on me to read. In college it was a different story.

I think maybe I mentioned in one of my earlier posts about how I became a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints. With my faith and trust in my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ I finally had the help I needed to give up those things and begin to live a better life. I rely a lot on my faith – I believe that if Jesus Christ could raise the dead He can help me with anything that I must face in this life. I want to share a talk from the October 2014 General Conference, called “Make the Exercise of Your Faith Your First Priority by Elder Richard G. Scott Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

I love how he speaks of prayer, faith, family home evening and temple attendance as tools that our Father in Heaven has given us to help us here throughout our mortal journey here on the earth. I hope you will learn as much as I have from the information given in this talk😊

Despite all of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take time to actively exercise our faith.

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, all that they needed for daily sustenance was abundantly given to them. They had no difficulties, or pain. Because they had never experienced hard times, they did not know they could be happy. They had never felt turmoil, so they could not feel peace. eventually Adam and Eve transgressed the command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By so doing they were no longer in a state of innocence. They began to experience principles of opposition. They began to encounter sickness that weakened their health. They began to feel sadness as well as joy.

Through Adam and Eve’s partaking of the forbidden fruit, knowledge of good and evil was introduced into the world. Their choice made it possible for each of us to come to this earth to be tried and tested. We are blessed with agency, which is our ability to make decisions and to become accountable for those decisions. The Fall made possible in our lives feelings of both happiness and sadness. We are able to understand peace because we feel turmoil.

Our Father in Heaven knew this would happen to us. It is all part of His perfect plan of Happiness. He prepared a way through the life od His perfectly obedient Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, for His Atonement to overcome every difficulty that we may experience in mortality.

We live in trying times. I need not list all of the sources of evil in the world. It is not necessary to describe all of the possible challenges and heartaches that are part of mortality. Each of us is intimately aware of our own struggles with temptation, pain, and sadness.

All you have to do is turn on the news or the radio, get on the internet and you see all of the things that are coming at our children in todays world. Without faith in the Savior we may make it through this life, but we won’t make it back to live with Him and our Father in Heaven.

We were taught in the premortal world that our purpose in coming here is to be tested, tried, and stretched. We knew we would face the evils of the adversary. Sometimes we may feel more aware of the negative things of mortality than we are of the positive. The prophet Lehi taught, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” Despite all of the negative challenges we in life, we must take time to actively exercise our faith. Such exercise invites the positive, faith-filled power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives.

Our Father in Heaven has given us tools to help us come unto Christ and exercise faith in His Atonement. When these tools become fundamental habits, they provide the easiest way to find peace in the challenges of mortality. Today I have chosen to discuss four of these tools. As I speak, consider evaluating your personal use of each tool; then seek the guidance of the Lord to determine how you could make better use of each one of them.

Prayer

The first tool is prayer. Choose to converse with your Father in Heaven often. Make time every day to share your thoughts and feelings with Him. Tell Him everything that concerns you. He is interested in the most important as well as the most mundane facets of your life. Share with Him your full range of feelings and experiences.

Because He respects your agency, Father in Heaven will never force you to pray to Him. But as you exercise that agency and include Him in every aspect of your daily life, your heart will begin to fill with peace, buoyant peace. That peace will focus an eternal light on your struggles. It will help you to manage those challenges from an eternal perspective.

Parents, help safeguard your children by arming them morning and night with the power of family prayer. Children are bombarded every day with the evils of lust, greed, pride, and a host of other sinful behaviors. Protect your children from daily worldly influences by fortifying them with the powerful blessings that result from family prayer. Family prayer should be a nonnegotiable priority in your daily life.

Scripture Study

The second tool is to study the word of God in the scriptures and the words of the living prophets. We talk to God through prayer. He most often communicates back to us through His written word. To know what the voice of the Divine sounds and feels like, read His words, study the scriptures, and ponder them. Make them an integral part of everyday life. If you want your children to recognize, understand, and act on the promptings of the Spirit, you must study the scriptures with therm.

Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have tie to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting in the word of God ach day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!

There are any prophetic promises of the blessings of daily studying the scriptures.

I add my voice with this promise: as you dedicate time every day, personally and with your family, to the study of God’s word, peace will prevail in your life. That peace won’t come from the outside world. It will come from within your home, from within your family, from within your own heart. It will be a gift of the Spirit. It will radiate out from you to influence other in the world around you. You will be doing something very significant to add to the cumulative peace in the world.

I do not declare that your life will cease to have challenges. Remember when Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were free from challenges, yet they were unable to experience happiness, joy, and peace. Challenges are an important part of mortality. Through daily, consistent scripture study, you will find peace in the turmoil around you and strength to resist temptations. You will develop strong faith in the grace of God and know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ all will be made right according to God’s timing.

Family Home Evening

While you are working to strengthen your family and cultivate peace, remember this third tool: weekly family home evening. Be cautious not to make your family home evening just an afterthought of a busy day. Decide that on Monday night your family will be together at home for the evening. Do not let employment demands, sports, extracurricular activities, homework, or anything else become more important than that time you spend at home with your family.

 While my children were growing up we held our family home evenings on Sunday after church. As my husband was not an active member of the Church it was harder to make this work for us. He was a sports fan, so Sunday and Monday were his time for ball games of one sort or another. He was usually watching a game, so he did not participate very often if at all.

We held them on Sunday’s after church to help keep the Sabbath day holy. It was hard to teach my children that the Sabbath day was for worshiping the Lord when their Dad wanted to go fishing, hunting, or camping on Sunday. So, for our family Monday nights were for Dad’s football games and on Sunday the children and I would go to church, then we would have our family home evening after church.

For our lessons we would usually review what they learned in their primary classes or we would watch a movie together and look for gospel principles we could find in the movie (with these ones their Dad would sometimes come out to join us, but most of the time it was just the children and I reading scripture together and saying prayers together. Like I said it was difficult and we did not manage it every week, but we did try.

I had to get creative, so we did not have your regular type of family home evenings. We played scripture football, we played file folder games that were scripture related. We sang songs together that the children were learning in primary, we played guess that prophet, and guess what book it is – to learn the books of the scriptures. We didn’t always have a gospel lesson per say, but we did try to spend quality time together.

The structure of your evening is not as important as the time invested. The gospel should be taught both formally and informally. Make it a meaningful experience for each member of the family. Family home evening is a precious time to bear testimony in a safe environment; to learn teaching, planning, and organizational skills; to strengthen family bonds; to develop family traditions; to talk to each other; and more important, to have a marvelous time together!

At last April’s conference, Sister Linda S. Reeves boldly declared: “I must testify of the blessings of daily scripture study and prayer and weekly family home evening. These are the very practices that help take away the stress, give direction to our lives, and add protection to our homes.” Sister Reeves is a very wise woman, I strongly urge you to earn your own testimony of these three crucial habits.

Temple Attendance

The fourth tool is to go to the temple. We all know there is no more peaceful place on this earth than in the temples of God. If you don’t have a temple recommend, qualify to get one. When you have a recommend, use it often. Schedule a regular time to be in the temple. Don’t let anyone or anything prevent you from being there.

I love to go to the temple, I would like to go more often but it is hard to find someone to cover my class while I am gone, and it is too hard for me to drive out early in the morning and do a session then return the same day when it is five hours one way. I don’t feel like I have a clear mind when I am there trying to listen and focus on what is going on and keeping myself awake Ii like it a whole lot better when I can go out on a Thursday afternoon or evening and then send all say on Friday in the temple and then again on Saturday at the temple until they close then I drive home.

While you are in the temple, listen to the words of the ordinances, ponder them, pray about them, and seek to understand their meaning. The temple is one of the best places to come to understand the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Seek Him there. Remember that many more blessings come from providing your own family names in the temple.

If you have not tried doing your family history, maybe now is a good time to begin. You may find as I have that you enjoy seeking out your ancestors more than you thought initially. And when you run into a roadblock as I am sure that you will, don’t give up, pray and your Father in Heaven will help you to find them, just keep searching. You can go here to get started: https://www.lds.org/family-history/getting-started something else you might try is something called indexing , there is a video to check it out here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-03-01-indexing-is-vital?lang=eng

These four tools are fundamental habits for securing your life in the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ remember our Savior is the Prince of Peace. Peace in this mortal life comes from His atoning sacrifice. When we are consistently praying morning and night, studying our scriptures daily, having weekly family home evening, and attending the temple regularly, we are actively responding to His invitation to “come unto Him.” The more we develop these habits, the more anxious is Satan to harm us but the less is his ability to do so. Through the use of these tools, we exercise our agency to accept the full gifts of His atoning sacrifice.

I am not suggesting that all of life’s struggles will disappear as you do these things. We came to mortal life precisely to grow from trials and testing. Challenges help us become more like our Father in Heaven, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible to endure those challenges. I testify that as we actively come unto Him, we can endure every temptation, every heartache, every challenge we face, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Well, here we are at the end of todays post, and as always, I hope and pray that each of you have been uplifted from what I have posted. And I do hope that you have learned a lot as well. So, until my next post, my challenge to each of you is to say your prayers, read and study your scriptures, if you haven’t had a family home evening – then give it a try, you may be surprised at what you find. And if you are a member and haven’t been to the temple, please make it a goal as soon as you can to go to the temple.

If you are a new member you can still get a special recommend so you can go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. Its worth checking on with your bishop or your stake president. I promise you will never be sorry for being worthy to receive a temple recommend and you will be blessed more than you know when you begin attending the temple on a regular basis. Use the tools the Lord has given each of us, it will only make you a better person, a better family, and you will each be blessed for your efforts😊