Help from heaven

President Benson said, “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find it.” I have learned the most from reading Goddard’s book and have enjoyed every page. The main thing I will remember, and implement more fully into my life, is that we are not meant to go through marriage as individuals. We are meant to work together with the Lord as our guide. He will help us to be humble, forgiving, and patient as we learn how to be better Christians. How do we work with the Lord? This is something we must work on daily through practice. I have found that starting the day off with prayer and asking for Heavenly Father’s help to guide me makes a big difference. This sets our minds and hearts towards what He would want us to do. Listening to the Spirit is vital also. If we can be worthy of the Spirit and listen to the promptings we can be in tune to what our spouse might need. The two most important things for me to be able to work with the Lord is to be worthy and to be willing to submit to what He might ask of me.

Consecrating our marriage

I really enjoyed relearning the story of King Lamoni and seeing how we can apply that to our marriage relationship. When brought to repentance, King Lamoni covenants to give away all of his sins to know God. He sees that there needs to be a full change of his heart, and in his life, in order to be in a good place. At this point King Lamoni is willing to turn his life over to his Heavenly Father by making every sacrifice necessary. In marriage are often brought to a point where we need to make a decision to repent and turn away from the pride and resentment we might have for our spouse or hold onto it. When we are willing to let go of our unrighteous judgements our marriage will flourish. Too often I get annoyed by my husband and his habits that can get under my skin. There have been times when I have to walk away before I get too angry. At this point of our marriage I watch him do the things that annoy me and think to myself how blessed I am to have him in my life. I laugh a little to myself about how silly those things are and how I use to be overtaken by my annoyances. I am so thankful for modern day prophets that teach us to be kind and especially forgiving.

His will

Goddard gives us his insights on pride by sharing, “The natural man is inclined to love himself and fix others. God has asked us to do the opposite. We are to fix ourselves by repenting, and to love others.” This council, along with many other things this week, reminded me of my role as a wife. There are so many times when I find fault in my husband and wish he would do things differently. These are really dumb things that don’t matter at all but for some reason they drive me crazy sometimes. It is obvious to me that I am the problem here. I need to learn more patience for sure. This lesson talked about Alma the younger and how he had a total change of heart. As he was in the process of repenting he remembered that his father had taught him that he can only find redemption through Jesus Christ. He called upon the Savior and aligned his will with the Lord’s. Alma is such a great example of humility and total trust. This is a powerful example to me of how I should be in my life and marriage. If I can align myself with God’s will and work hand in hand with him we will be able to overcome whatever challenges come into my life.

Doubt not, fear not

There have been so many different thoughts running through my mind this week that it is difficult to put them into words. My husband and I have gone through many trials as we try to figure out how to raise our children and many times we feel like we are failing in the process. Sometimes we disagree on how to teach the children but most of the time we are on the same page. It is a beautiful thing when we connect emotionally and are there to support one another. There are times when I feel like he and I are on an island and there is no one else that we can turn to for help in our struggles. However, there is our loving Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ, who know our deepest desires and pain. In Doctrine and Covenants 6:36 we read, “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” I doubt a lot and I live in almost constant fear that I am not doing all I can to help my kids along the covenant path. The feeling of panic overcomes me sometimes, but I know this is not helpful. The youth theme for the year is Peace in Christ. I wholeheartedly agree with that. When we lay our burdens at his feet and look to him at all times we can feel the peace that only the Savior can bring. He washes the doubt and fear from my mind over and over again.