Sunday's Inspiration

One of the things I have decided to do this year is keep a journal. Part of that plan is to take it to church and write down the things that I learn each week. Often I get great inspiration and just know that I am going to remember it, but by the time the block of meetings is over, the 4-year old is collected, we have driven home and gotten dinner over with, it is gone....but no more!

Therefore, here are my notes from this Sunday's meetings.

The bishop and his wife spoke and they were both great talks. She started out by mentioning that as she listened to the latest General Conference talks she heard the message that we should get and keep a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit over and over again. She felt that this was the underlying message for that Conference. We need a personal relationship with the Spirit to help us survive the times. When trials come we should ask, "What am I to learn from this?"

One comment that she made that really hit home for me what that if all our prayers were answered right away there would be no opposition, no faith, no death, etc. We are told to pray with real intent, but what is real intent? She said that real intent means that we really intend to follow the direction that we are given....hmmm...I never thought of it that way before, but such a profound statement.

She also said that all beings who have bodies have power over those who do not. So, we have more power than Satan and his angels and always will have. We need to exercise our faith.

One of the best comments she made was that God will not require more than our best...but he does expect us to do our very best.

Then the Bishop started out his talk by reminding us of the challenges that our Stake President gave each of us at our last Stake Conference. They were:
1. Be a more honest people.
2. Get out of debt.
3. Be faithful in paying tithes and generous offerings.
4. Be a more repentant people.
5. Read "The Miracle of Forgiveness" by Spencer W. Kimball as a family before our October 2010 Stake Conference.

Then he went on to talk about why adversity is required in our lives. We are given adversity so that we can learn by the choices that we make when adversity comes into our lives. A lot of our adversities are created by the choices that we make. Hopefully we will learn by the choices that we make.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said that we will either choose Christ's manner of living or his manner of suffering. That really made me think!

In Sunday School we discussed the Counsel in Heaven and how Jesus was chosen to become the Savior of the world. It was a really good discussion, and then Sunday evening there was a segment of the series Messiah, Behold the Lamb of God on BYU-TV. One of the comments made was that when we were there in the counsel we put our complete faith that Jesus would be able to do what he said he would do. He had not done it yet, therefore, those of us who chose His plan chose it by faith and not by a knowledge that he would be able to atone for our sins. That should give us great hope that if we had that kind of faith then, then we surely can have the faith to make it through our time on earth.

I was truly inspired a motivated by the whole day!