with no consideration of recompense.

Tuesday, 3/20/18

Hello Nate,

God bless you!

I am not sure what you do to celebrate FHE on Monday nights. Once a month we have a group that meets together and call it Empty Nester's Family Home Evening.

I am the only single guy that attends. And we always have a pot luck dinner. I have a severe allergy to monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer, also called MSG. It is in gravies and salad dressings and flavored potatoe chips and tomato sauce and on and on. Rather than try to decide if there is anything I can eat I just eat at home and sit at the table without a plate and visit while everyone else eats.

You may ask, why go if you can't eat? Answer: Socializing

Sounds strange doesn't it. Let me tell you it is strange and it causes everyone around me to reevaluate their own motivations.

After FS yesterday I ran some errands and then went home for my late lunch and reading time and nap. Then when I am not fighting sleep I can index some more, refreshed and awake at night. I am restudying GBH whose teachings were our priesthood and relief society manual last year. I get spiritually saturated at times and am full enough I can't take in any more. One page from his lesson left me full and very thoughtful.

This is the page:The Lord has declared in modern revelation, “If your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you.” (D&C 88:67.)
As we look with love and gratitude to God, as we serve him with an eye single to his glory, there goes from us the darkness of sin, the darkness of selfishness, the darkness of pride. There will come an increased love for our Eternal Father and for his Beloved Son, our Savior and our Redeemer. There will come a greater sense of service toward our fellowmen, less of thinking of self and more of reaching out to others.
This principle of love is the basic essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.5
If we would claim to worship and follow the Master, must we not strive to emulate his life of service? None of us may rightly say that his life is his own. Our lives are gifts of God. We come into the world not of our own volition. We leave not according to our wish. Our days are numbered not by ourselves, but according to the will of God.
So many of us use our lives as if they were entirely our own. Ours is the choice to waste them if we wish. But that becomes a betrayal of a great and sacred trust. As the Master made so abundantly clear, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” (Mark 8:35.)6
My beloved brethren and sisters, the challenge is great. The opportunities are all about us. God would have us do His work—and do it with energy and cheerfulness. That work, as He has defined it, is to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” (D&C 81:5.)
It is to minister to those in need. It is to comfort the bereaved. It is to visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction. It is to feed the needy, to clothe the naked, to shelter those who have not a roof over their heads. It is to do as the Master did, who “went about doing good.” (Acts 10:38.)7
My message to you today … is that you resolve to dedicate a part of your time, as you map out your life’s work, to those in distress and need, with no consideration of recompense.
Did any of that touch you?

I loved it.

I wished I could share it with my quorum.

So I took my priesthood manual with me to ENFHE last night just incase it would be opportune to share. Well as it turned out the person giving the lesson fell through so it was Vern to the rescue! It was perfect. It was almost as if it had been planned.

You may have heard the oft quoted scripture: if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

Well what about: if ye are prepared the opportunity will be provided?

I love to teach. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the prophets of the restoration. So I could give it my whole heart and soul.

As I left I had the doubts enter my mind. How had I done? Was the message appropriate? Then I realized, they were not my words. They were the words of a prophet given with my personality. I was safe!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Day

Sunday, 1/28/18 Hey Nate, here comes my first letter of the year. This is scary. I so want to get along with you and not offend. Can we make a deal right up front? When we are offended we will make note, and then when we feel safe we will share. That is my proposal. There are all degrees of being put off, feeling put down, feeling misunderstood, feeling ignored, feeling hurt and offended. Since I am an old science teacher I like to measure everything. I love to measure! 2 nd part of the proposal would be to rate the offense on a scale of 1-10. Little offenses would be a 1 and devastating offenses would be a 10! Gayelinn leaves me a voicemail or two each month. She left me 19 minutes the day after Mistelle's bday. She was worried she was going to die so she wrote her will. I haven't written a will yet, have you? I just listened to her vmail today. I usually leave her 10, 20 or 30 minutes a day. She says she loves them. So we have become quite close. She has such a plea...
Read more

2/5/18

Hey Vern, I didn't watch the Superbowl and If you look on my fb timeline you will see why. It is rigged. A way to keep the masses complacent and in the dark while evil continues to rule the world. The Simpsons are "illuminati" or ran by the organized elite of the upper echelons of Satan's servants. The score was predicted exactly years ago along with 9/11, Trump and his assassination. He is the fall guy for the new world order. The excuse for why America should be dissolved and accept the prophesied one world government. It will happen soon. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting but it was the first time I could worthily take the Sacrament . Next week I can prepare it! I was the first one up there. But I fast every Sunday. I figure if I can get more blessings why not? It is hard tho and won't put on weight as quickly as I would like but I get blessed. Last week I fasted for a friend to get back in the church. Two days later i texted her and she went! Amazing....
Read more

that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul

Hey Nate, Today was the day! How did it go? Someone read the blessing on the bread so calmly and understandably today that I felt blessed just hearing it. I purposefully did not look up to see who did such a great job. But I felt closer to God because of that blessing offered in my behalf. It is hard to stay worthy of blessing the sacrament. The good news: just repent first! I always prided myself on being a know-it-all in the church. It is easy to know more than everyone else when your family teaches the gospel. They did! Too bad my parents didn't live it. That messed all of us up. At BYU after my mission i got to be roomies with my best friend, next door neighbor, David Jentzsch. He taught me something his father taught him that surprised me. I guess I didn't know everything after all. 9  But behold, I say unto you that ye must  pray  always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall  pray  unt...
Read more