Day 33- The Cycle of Gratitude

I have found that I live in a life of cycles:

When I am ungrateful, I focus on life's struggles.
When I focus on life's struggles, I get discouraged.
When I get discouraged, I allow Satan into my life...
And when I allow Satan into my life, 
I become extremely ungrateful.

BUT, on the flip side:

When I am grateful, I focus on my blessings,
When I focus on my blessings, I want to serve others,
When I serve others, I allow God into my life...
And when I allow God into my life, I am extremely grateful.

Moral of the story: 
Gratitude is a gift that just keeps on giving (and makes you want to keep on giving). It doesn't have to be Thanksgiving day for you to feel grateful! :)

"Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks."

-Doctrine and Covenanats 98:1

You don't have to start at the beginning of the cycle to feel gratitude. You can start with serving others, and the cycle will still begin.

Day 32- What Really Matters Most

Some days, I find myself focused on things that are of trivial importance and I get scared or confused about those things that shouldn't bother me at all. 

When I take a step back and recognize the blessings God has given me and work for a better understanding of those things that are of most importance, I am filled with peace and clarity. 

In this video, 

President Monson describes it the best: 

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."

Day 31- God Never Condemned Mourning

In this crazy ride called Life, there are twists and turns, ups and downs, rights and lefts. Sometimes you scream for joy, other times you cry out in pain. Our Heavenly Father knows we are mortal, and can be subject to sorrow and despair. 

Sorrow is not a sin. In fact, God asks that we "are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort" that we stand as witnesses of His love and power.
(Mosiah 18:9)

However, when faith has turned to fear or apathy, and we have allowed despair to conquer our souls, we need to turn to our Savior for relief. When He asks us to become perfect like He is, this does not mean we must be perfectly happy. This means we are to have perfect faith in Christ's atonement and be continually progressing.

Once the wife of a visiting general authority told us, 

"When I am faced with trials or something brings me down, I allow myself ten minutes to be sad. Then I move on and pray for the Lord's comfort to keep me going."

For many of us, limiting our sorrow to a quick moment of grieving can be extremely difficult. Especially those prone to depression. But we must remind ourselves that it is OK to have sorrow. By giving ourselves a time limit in which we plan to strive for greater faith and happiness just proves to ourselves and our Heavenly Father that we are not willing to let Satan trap us in despair.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose 
under the heaven:...

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance."

-Ecclesiastes 3:1,4

There is a time and place for joy and sorrow. But we must remember that in order to contribute to happiness in this world, we must be happy more often than we are sad. This is possible through the comforting grace of Christ's atonement.

Day 30- A story about a mortal girl

Once upon a time there was a daughter of a very compassionate and just God. He loved her and was always looking out for her.

 "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants." (v23)

Most days she did well to remember the commandments. But, being mortal, each day she had need to repent. One day she was brought to the realization that she was in much greater need of the Savior's atonement than she had ever been before.
 

 "And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents." (v24)

 She realized that if she didn't repent of the error of her ways, she would lose many if not all of her promised blessings from the Lord.

"But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." (v25)

 Upon her knees, she begged God for mercy in the name of her Lord and Redeemer. She promised to change her ways and make up for the wrong she had done.

"The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." (v26)

 Her gracious Father in Heaven accepted her humble offering of heart, coupled with the Savior's redemption from sin, and granted her forgiveness.

"Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt."(v27)

Happily she moved on with her day... but soon found someone who had done wrong against her. This grievance being miniscule compared to her wrongs against God. Yet she was furious!

"But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest." (v28)

Upset, she turned to the scriptures for help... and came across this scripture story. She decided to learn from the mistakes made and not make the same mistake herself. This is what she read:

And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

   Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

    Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

    And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

-Matthew 18 (29-35)

She decided to choose forgiveness.  

Just as she was given forgiveness.

Day 29- Starting again with a goal in mind

Sometimes I get bogged down thinking I haven't kept a goal and figure I should give up on it. This blog is one of those things I let settle dust, thinking if I just started new projects this one would go away.  

However, I want to start again. Not just with this blog, but in so many aspects of life! It's time to set goals and keep them! 

  We can look to our Heavenly Father and His goals to know what we should base our own goals on:

"For behold, 

this is my work and my glory— to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

-Moses 1:39 

 Our Heavenly Father has made our eternal salvation and happiness, not just His goal- but His entire work and glory. 

We should remember this as we prepare for this new year, for each new day, for our whole life and our eternal life to come. 

We can aid in His work as we lift all God's children and give each other the strength to:

never give up. 

Day 28- Join Me In Glad Adoration!

Sorry for going missing the past few months! A Scripture A Day is back!


So this past week, and today especially has been extremely gorgeous where I live <3

I couldn't understand how I felt such extreme euphoria because I've seen sunny days before. It felt like the whole world was right and no matter the pain I or others were going through, if they could just feel what I felt and see what I saw it seemed like all pain would disappear in the world! I realized that the Lord was giving me such a tender mercy with the sunshine as if to say- all is right in the world. There's always sunshine after rain. It made me want to literally dance and sing so EVERYONE could know how beautiful life is and amazing our Father in heaven is! I love Him! He loves us! And the only way for true happiness is to share that love with others so it can continually flow from Him through us so we can always feel that love! A hymn, which are also considered scripture, we sang in church today perfectly described how I felt:

"Praise to the Lord!
O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before him!
Let the amen sound from his people again;
Gladly forever adore him."


-LDS Hymnbook, Hymn 72
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Day 27- I Cannot Come Down

We are all trying so hard to stay strong and not give up on whatever we struggle with and the dreams we are aspiring towards. We will be faced with trials and difficult choices in which we have to stand up to strangers, acquaintances, or even those we love. We need to be able to have the strength that Nehemiah had in this scripture and recognize that we canNOT come down from the great works that we are doing and lower ourselves to the standards of others or the world. We must help His work along and seek for the blessings of His eternal love. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk about this and I recommend reading or re-reading it.

"And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"

-Nehemiah 6:3

 

Click here to read Uchtdorf's talk: We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down