Just had a huge ah-ha!!!
I was just praying, thanking Heavenly Father for the amazing joy and peace I felt while at the adult session of our Stake Conference last night. (Firm believer that you are blessed for being where you are supposed to be!) So much peace. So much joy.
As I prayed, thanking Him, I thought of Alma's experience (chapter 36):
That captured my feelings! The feelings of joy last night and this morning contrasted so much with the feelings of anxiety, doubt and depression that I had been feeling...and it felt so amazing. The thought came across my mind: maybe you felt the dark so you could more fully appreciate the light.
Opposition in all things. That we may know the good from the evil.
"It is better for us to pass through sorrow and pain that we may know the good from the evil."
Adam and Eve were cast from the garden of Eden so they could progress, so they could improve...so they could experience this contrast and know to choose the good.
Right now, I will enjoy the light.
I was just praying, thanking Heavenly Father for the amazing joy and peace I felt while at the adult session of our Stake Conference last night. (Firm believer that you are blessed for being where you are supposed to be!) So much peace. So much joy.
As I prayed, thanking Him, I thought of Alma's experience (chapter 36):
12 But I was racked with aeternal btorment, for my soul was charrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.15 Oh, thought I, that I acould be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of mybdeeds.16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the apains of a bdamned soul.17 And it came to pass that as I was thus aracked with torment, while I was bharrowed up by the cmemory of my many sins, behold, I dremembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, ahavemercy on me, who am bin the cgall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting dchains of edeath.19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my apains bno more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.20 And oh, what ajoy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
That captured my feelings! The feelings of joy last night and this morning contrasted so much with the feelings of anxiety, doubt and depression that I had been feeling...and it felt so amazing. The thought came across my mind: maybe you felt the dark so you could more fully appreciate the light.
Opposition in all things. That we may know the good from the evil.
"It is better for us to pass through sorrow and pain that we may know the good from the evil."Adam and Eve were cast from the garden of Eden so they could progress, so they could improve...so they could experience this contrast and know to choose the good.
Right now, I will enjoy the light.
Yes, enjoy the light. Bask in it!
ReplyDeleteI just had more thoughts, because I've been in places in my mind lately too that are frustrating and insecure. Feeling like a lot of situations are not my fault or forced upon me and I just have to endure. While there is truth to those things, there is also an enabling truth that 'I chose'. I chose parts of the things that put me here now and that keep me here now. And I can take responsibility for those, I can embrace those, I can magnify those or fix them if needed. Have you heard the story Welcome to Holland? In many ways I thought I was taking a trip to Italy, and ended up in Holland. Though not what I'd planned, there is SO MUCH good in Holland! Instead of lamenting about missing Italy, I am choosing to enjoy Holland while I am here. It means I can't do everything I thought I'd do in Italy, I have to adjust. And when I choose to enjoy, even though the situation doesn't meet the ideal in my head, the light comes, the joy {that is already there} comes.
DeleteWhy do we have to fight so hard sometimes? I don't know, but we can't stop. And we MUST enjoy the light and help our families enjoy it too.
I love those thoughts. That is an amazing way to look at it. I will particularly dwell on that last thought...helping our families to enjoy it to. By experiencing it ourselves, we can better know where they are at and help them more. I guess it is a good thing that our kids are so much like us! I used to think that our children became more like us because they are with us. While there is some truth in that to be sure, I have more recently come to believe that perhaps God sent us spirits that were like us because then we could not only relate but then help them in a deeply personal way. Our intelligences were distinct personalities and perhaps God matched us up so we could relate to and succor each other? "Help our families enjoy the light"...and in Holland or wherever we happen to be, right? Love you!
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