Day 1 - Am I seeking Christ's help?
Read: Proverbs 3:5-6
Jacob 4:7
Ether 12:27
Ponder: Am I seeking the Lord's help in all I think and do? How can He help me overcome my weaknesses.
Dear Friend,
I just had to send you a note to tell you how much I love you and care about you. I saw you yesterday as you were walking with your friends. I waited all day hoping you would want to talk with me also. It hurt me, but I still love you because I am your friend.
I saw you fall asleep last night, and longed to touch your brow. So I spilled moon light on your pillow and your face. Again I waited, wanting to rush down so that we could talk. I have so many gifts for you, but you awakened late the next day and rushed off to school. My tears were in the rain.
Today you look sad, so alone. It makes my heart ache because I understand. My friends let me down and hurt me so many times too. But I love you. Oh, if you would only listen to me. I really love you. I try to tell you in the blue sky and green grass. I whisper in the leaves on the trees, and breathe it in the color of the flowers. I shout it to you in the mountain streams and give the birds love songs to sing, clothe you in warm sunshine and perfume the air with nature scents. My love for you is deeper than the oceans and bigger than the biggest want or need in your heart.
If you only knew how much I want to help you. I want you to meet my Father. He wants to help you too. My Father is that way, you know. Just call me, ask me, talk with me. Please, please don't forget me. I have so much to share with you. But I won't hassle you any further. You are free to call me. It's up to you. I'll wait because I love you.
your brother,
Christ
I'll admit, that I find the letter to be a bit cheesy. That's not how I picture a conversation with the Savior would go. But I see the point it's trying to make, that we need to be seeking out the Lord and communicating with him, so I'll leave it at that and call it a good reminder.
The thing that struck me most about today's assignment was the scriptures it asked us to look up. Especially Proverbs.
Proverbs 3: 5-6 (and I was also impressed by verse 7)
5 ¶Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 ¶Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
I have a super independent personality. I don't know if it's an oldest child thing, or what, but I would just rather do things myself. I hate asking for help. HATE it. I don't want to be a bother to people. I don't want to be seen as taking advantage of anyone. I could go on for a long time explaining howt his relates to my relationships with other human beings, but that's not where I want to go today. I want to think of it in regards to my relationship with my Savior. I find that I tend to lean a little too far in the D&C 9:7 direction: 7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must cask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
The Lord expects us to use our brains and act for ourselves. I believe this to be true. But the Lord ALSO expects us to consult with him. We need to think for ourselves and then consult. To often I find myself just thinking and then doing, and skipping the consulting part all together. This is bad.
So the above point to ponder really caught me today: Am I seeking the Lord's help in all I think and do? If I'm going to answer honestly, I have to say no. Not as much as I should be.
I guess the big question of the day then, is How do I remedy this? What can I do to remind myself to be seeking the Lord's help in all that I do?
I read a Conference talk by Elder Bednar from Oct. 2008 called Pray Always. In the talk he lists three principles that can help make prayer more meaningful. Principle #1 really stood out to me.
Principle #1. Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all our doings (see Alma 37:37).
Simply stated, prayer is communication to Heavenly Father from His sons and daughters on earth. “As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part” (Bible Dictionary, “Prayer,” 752). We are commanded to pray always to the Father in the name of the Son (see 3 Nephi 18:19–20). We are promised that if we pray sincerely for that which is right and good and in accordance with God’s will, we can be blessed, protected, and directed (see 3 Nephi 18:20; D&C 19:38).
Revelation is communication from Heavenly Father to His children on earth. As we ask in faith, we can receive revelation upon revelation and knowledge upon knowledge and come to know the mysteries and peaceable things that bring joy and eternal life (see D&C 42:61). The mysteries are those matters that can only be known and understood by the power of the Holy Ghost (see Harold B. Lee, Ye Are the Light of the World [1974], 211).
The revelations of the Father and the Son are conveyed through the third member of the Godhead, even the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the witness of and messenger for the Father and the Son.
The patterns used by God in creating the earth are instructive in helping us understand how to make prayer meaningful. In the third chapter of the book of Moses we learn that all things were created spiritually before they were naturally upon the earth.
“And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth,
“And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth” (Moses 3:4–5).
We learn from these verses that the spiritual creation preceded the temporal creation. In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day. Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other.
Consider this example. There may be things in our character, in our behavior, or concerning our spiritual growth about which we need to counsel with Heavenly Father in morning prayer. After expressing appropriate thanks for blessings received, we plead for understanding, direction, and help to do the things we cannot do in our own strength alone. For example, as we pray, we might:
• Reflect on those occasions when we have spoken harshly or inappropriately to those we love the most.
• Recognize that we know better than this, but we do not always act in accordance with what we know.
• Express remorse for our weaknesses and for not putting off the natural man more earnestly.
• Determine to pattern our life after the Savior more completely.
• Plead for greater strength to do and to become better.
Such a prayer is a key part of the spiritual preparation for our day.
During the course of the day, we keep a prayer in our heart for continued assistance and guidance—even as Alma suggested: “Let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord” (Alma 37:36).
We notice during this particular day that there are occasions where normally we would have a tendency to speak harshly, and we do not; or we might be inclined to anger, but we are not. We discern heavenly help and strength and humbly recognize answers to our prayer. Even in that moment of recognition, we offer a silent prayer of gratitude.
At the end of our day, we kneel again and report back to our Father. We review the events of the day and express heartfelt thanks for the blessings and the help we received. We repent and, with the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord, identify ways we can do and become better tomorrow. Thus our evening prayer builds upon and is a continuation of our morning prayer. And our evening prayer also is a preparation for meaningful morning prayer.
Morning and evening prayers—and all of the prayers in between—are not unrelated, discrete events; rather, they are linked together each day and across days, weeks, months, and even years. This is in part how we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray always” (Luke 21:36; 3 Nephi 18:15, 18; D&C 31:12). Such meaningful prayers are instrumental in obtaining the highest blessings God holds in store for His faithful children.
Prayer becomes meaningful as we remember our relationship to Deity and heed the admonition to:
“Cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
“Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 37:36–37; emphasis added).
I really, really liked what he had to say about morning prayers. I liked how he called morning prayer "an important element in the spiritual creation of each day, that precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day". I've never ever thought about morning prayer in that way. And I think, this might be the key to my problem.
So....goal #1 for the next 14 days is to have a meaningful morning prayer.
And, since I am not a morning person, and since I will likely be making a lot of goals in the next two weeks, and because I really want this little 14 day challenge to work (and realize that it won't if I don't act on the things I'm thinking), I've decided that I need to write down my goals and hang them somewhere visible to remind myself of what I'm trying to do. So I'll get on that.
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