A Feast of Words
Thankful for...
Good words, meaningful words.
I was surfing the web Friday a bit. You know how you go from one link to the next... where did I start?
I think I actually started at some boutique I can't even remember now, oops. They had a link to their blog. There was a post that I skimmed through, some girl modeling for the boutique. Then I clicked on this girls story and it brought me to her blog.
I still wasn't sure why this girl was of any significance.
Then I read a little more about her story, then you google her name and she's everywhere!
Have you heard of her? Jamie Hilton? Pretty amazing story... HER BLOG.
Truly I didn't spend a ton of time here, although, again, pretty amazing story.
As I skimmed through her blog this post caught my eye I Will Ride My Bear...
the words '...but I know that God is behind me. If he is for me? WHO can be against me? I've GOT THIS!' totally caught me off guard and struck me a bit. I was a little emotional.
Those words resonate for me. If He is with me, who can be or stand against me? No one can. Apparently I needed to be reminded of that because that phrase spoke to me.
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Last week was our Stake Conference. All of the LDS congregations from our area meet together. Our Stake President spoke some words that also struck inner chords for me. '
Do Not limit your God'. This would be lacking faith right?
Admittedly I do this.
I am a faith filled person, I am devout, but even the most faithful must grow their faith.
Faith must be living and breathing to continue growing.
I don't have faith when it comes to specific areas of my life. My faith has somewhat died. I feel that I have faith in my God, my faith in the individual is where I have the breakdown. God can do all, except take our choice from us. That is something He won't do. If He makes himself known to you, would you choose to believe Him? Even more than believing in Him, would you choose to follow Him? Have faith in Him? Not all of us do.
So, this is a challenge for me, an area I can grow and develop, where I can test my faith and prove to my God that I do know He has ALL power, especially where and when I can't see it. 'Do not limit your God.'
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For my last lesson prep I studied quite a bit about 'the Mormon health code' as some would call it. I refer to it as the Word of Wisdom. I read an interesting thought from Boyd K Packer...
Your body is the instrument of your mind.
In your emotions, the spirit and the body come closest to being one.
What you learn spiritually depends, to a degree, on how you treat your body. That is why the Word of Wisdom is so important.
I've been thinking about those words a lot, as I go about my day, as I read and study.
In your emotions, the spirit and the body come closest to being one.
I've been done with my lesson for weeks, still this thought of my emotions, my body and the spirit are circling. Then I picked up a book called 'The Highest In Us', by Truman G Madsen. I've been reading the essays within. My most recent... The Sacramental Life. It's quite the read! I've had to go back and re-read several times to GET it! There is much in here, but 'ordinances' is what has stuck out, with this circling still within me.
The word is rooted in ordained, order and ordinary, and all are valid. Taking ordinary things like bread, water, hands clasping, words, and consecrating them as holy, an ordinance. "Our ordinary work, ordinary breathing and speaking, ordinary pleasures, become extraordinary when they are consciously sacramental."
"I wish we had another word for the blending of thought and feeling that takes place in an ordinance... In modern thought, brain and heart are separated and often detached from the subtler aspirations of the spirit. But in ordinances, a symphonic combination of all aspects of the self occurs." (the emotions, spirit and body)
"...in ritual (or what we would call ordinances), our deepest motivations and deepest understandings merge."
Madsen quotes 'Religion as a Cultural System', edited by Michael Banton. "It is in some sort of ceremonial form, even if that form be hardly more than a recitation of a myth, or the consultation of an oracle, or the decoration of a grave, that the moods and motivations which sacred symbols induce in men and the general conceptions of the order of existence which they formulate for men, meet and reinforce on another."
'Consecrated behavior'. I choose to go to church every week. I put bread and water in my mouth. I go to the temple. I kneel to pray. I read scripture. I abstain from certain behavior, certain parts of culture that are common. Why? By putting my body in a certain place, by making it do 'common' or 'ordinary' things like eating, or kneeling, or not watching or doing, I am engaging my spirit in the same activities. When my spirit, mind, emotions engage, my behavior is consecrated. My spirit and the search for more meaning, higher understanding, eternal potential, are rewarded. Not because I put the bread in my mouth, but because I have done it with purpose and meaning. Not only do I have increase in understanding, spirituality, my emotions are rewarded with peace and happiness.
I am thankful for words, that others have spoken, that people have written down. We all have effect on each other. Words have struck my emotions, usually when I feel I seek, and my spirit is fed what it needs to be stronger, to be healed, to be at peace.
In other 'thanks'... I am so grateful for a walk in the warm weather today, with my sweet family. We walked around Bassett park, through the crunchy leaves. I love my kids. They are ALL of my joy! Seeing them laugh, learn, grow is my life's greatest joy. I love my Matthew. He taught us all about different tree species today! He is a man full of love. I'm so glad I get to receive that from him. I am thankful.