“Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.....

“Although there may be times when a child does not listen with a believing heart, your testimony of Jesus will remain in his or her mind and soul. Do you remember the story of Alma, who had chosen the wrong path? Returning, he said:

“I remembered … my father [speaking] … concerning the coming of … Jesus Christ … to atone for the sins of the world.

“As my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.” (Alma 36:17-18)

If a child is not listening, don’t despair. Time and truth are on your side. At the right moment, your words will return as if from heaven itself. Your testimony will never leave your children.

As you reverently speak about the Savior—in the car, on the bus, at the dinner table, as you kneel in prayer, during scripture study, or in late-night conversations—the Spirit of the Lord will accompany your words. (Enos :3-4)”

Neil L. Andersen, “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus,” Ensign, May 2010, 108–

Step 3, Step 11...

Once, for instance, I prayed through the night to know what I was to choose to do in the morning….

I prayed, but for hours there seemed to be no answer. Just before dawn, a feeling came over me. More than at any time since I had been a child, I felt like one. My heart and my mind seemed to grow very quiet. There was a peace in that inner stillness.

Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself praying, “Heavenly Father, it doesn’t matter what I want. I don’t care anymore what I want. I only want that Thy will be done. That is all that I want. Please tell me what to do.”

In that moment I felt as quiet inside as I had ever felt. And the message came, and I was sure who it was from. It was clear what I was to do. I received no promise of the outcome. There was only the assurance that I was a child who had been told what path led to whatever He wanted for me.

Henry B. Eyring, “As a Child,” Ensign, May 2006, 14–17

Step 3: Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Step 11: Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord’s will and to have the power to carry it out

Personal Peace.....

The Savior is the source of true peace. Even with the trials of life, because of the Savior’s Atonement and His grace, (my)  righteous living will be rewarded with personal peace. In the intimate setting of the Passover chamber, the Savior promised His Apostles that they would be blessed with the “Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” and then uttered these important words: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”30 Then just before His Intercessory Prayer: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”31

Personal Peace: The Reward of Righteousness, Elder Quentin L. Cook, Ensign, May, 2013

CONCLUSION:100% POWERLESS WITHOUT GOD......

CONCLUSION:100% POWERLESS WITHOUT GOD

And there was no way that they could deliver themselves out of their hands. (Mosiah 21:5)

For I am unworthy to glory of myself. (Mosiah 23:11)

And were it not for the interposition of their all-wise Creator,…they must unavoidably remain in bondage until now. (Mosiah 29:19; emphasis added)

Here are three more scriptures to “liken unto ourselves” if we want them to really speak to us. Blending them together, we might hear them say: There is no way, child, that you can deliver yourself from your enemies—your fear, your anger, and your guilt—that you are attempting to avoid by using your addiction. Avoidance is not deliverance. Of yourself you are unworthy and have no glory or power. Until you realize that it is the power of Christ and His atonement and grace that is “sufficient for you” (Moroni 10:32), you will remain in bondage, having no power of yourself to freeyourself.

We must all come to a place where we realize the following as Ammon did:

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my own strength I am weak;

therefore I will not boast of myself. (Alma 26:12)

He Did Deliver Me From Bondage, p 20

As Women We are to Hard On Ourselves...Rejoice.....Elder Holland

Elder Holland: Knowing women as I do and as the presiding Church officer here today, I want to say to you, “No, everything you have done is not wrong. No, you are not a failure. No, you are not personally to blame for every mishap in the world since the ark landed.” We are all pretty hard on ourselves, but it seems to me women are harder on themselves than men will ever be. Why is that so? We ask you not to do it. Repent when or where that is necessary, but then honor that other “R”—Rejoice! Make a resolve today that this is “your time” to be good to yourself. It will surprise you how much that helps you be good to all the others whom you want so much to bless in your life.

What Time Is This? Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Patricia T. Holland, Friday, May 4, 2007, at the BYU Women’s Conference

Detaching from the Addict......

“Detaching from the addict is extremely difficult to do, especially if he or she has just embarrassed you, hurt you, or stolen from you.  But keep in mind that what is most important to your salvation is what you do regardless of the addict’s behavior.  Codependents can measure the level of their recovery by discovering their ability to act and to feel according to their relationship with God, whatever the addict’s behavior.  Achieving some level of detachment (and that doesn’t mean that you don’t care) allows the codependent to add the additional ingredients to an effective strategy.

Hold on to Hope, p 124

Letting go or Detaching means:

Is not to enable but allow learning from natural consequences.

Is not to care for, but to care about.

Is not to fix, but to be supportive.

Is not to be protective, but to permit another to face reality.

Is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.

Is to fear less and to love more.

Becoming Codependent.....

“Family and friends become codependent as their feelings and actions increasingly depend on what the addict does or doesn’t do.  Gradually, codependents lose control over their own emotions and behavior, and they deal with the addict by adapting and exhibiting the behaviors of rescuing, persecuting, and suffering. Codependency is at its strongest when loved ones become so preoccupied and worried about working out the salvation of the addict that their own salvation is neglected and jeopardized.  In the end, everyone becomes his or her own problem.  Codependents can learn to become responsible to each other, instead of for each other.  Eventually, the codependent can acknowledge that he didn’t cause the addiction, he can’t cure the addiction, and that he can’t control  the addiction.  This acknowledgment is accomplished by the codependent learning how to love the addict as God loves him.”

Hold on to Hope, p 37

The Spirit of Revelation...

We as members of the Church tend to emphasize marvelous and dramatic spiritual manifestations so much that we may fail to appreciate and may even overlook the customary pattern by which the Holy Ghost accomplishes His work. The very “simpleness of the way” (1 Nephi 17:41) of receiving small and incremental spiritual impressions that over time and in totality constitute a desired answer or the direction we need may cause us to look “beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:14).

I have talked with many individuals who question the strength of their personal testimony and underestimate their spiritual capacity because they do not receive frequent, miraculous, or strong impressions. Perhaps as we consider the experiences of Joseph in the Sacred Grove, of Saul on the road to Damascus, and of Alma the Younger, we come to believe something is wrong with or lacking in us if we fall short in our lives of these well-known and spiritually striking examples. If you have had similar thoughts or doubts, please know that you are quite normal. Just keep pressing forward obediently and with faith in the Savior. As you do so, you “cannot go amiss” (D&C 80:3).

President Joseph F. Smith counseled: “Show me Latter-day Saints who have to feed upon miracles, signs and visions in order to keep them steadfast in the Church, and I will show you members … who are not in good standing before God, and who are walking in slippery paths. It is not by marvelous manifestations unto us that we shall be established in the truth, but it is by humility and faithful obedience to the commandments and laws of God” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1900, 40).

The Spirit of Revelation, David A. Bednar, Ensign, May, 2011

We Are Only Responsible for Our Own Space.....

“We have work to do to strengthen each other and ourselves.  Tolle likens negative, obsessive, painful thinking to pollution.  Unhappiness, he says, spreads more easily than a physical disease.  The negative entity of one person can trigger and feed on the negativity in others, unless they are immune through being highly conscious.  He asks, ‘Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess?  You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is.’ “

From “Power of Now, p 79, as quoted in Light in the Wilderness, by M. Catherine Thomas, p79

We Do Not Have All The Numbers....When We ask Why...

Although you may at times have asked, why me? it is through the hardships of life that we grow toward godhood as our character is shaped in the crucible of affliction, as the events of life take place while God respects the agency of man. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell commented, we cannot do all the sums or make it all add up because “we do not have all the numbers.”1

Faith, Fortitude, Fulfillment: A Message to Single Parents , David S. Baxter, April 2012 Conference

“So when we are not clear about spiritual things.....

“So when we are not clear about spiritual things, we can get trapped in a particular way of thinking because we don’t see our options-we hear about the joy of the Son-but where is it? We’re not trying to be bad; we just don’t know a better way.  I had a friend say to me a few weeks ago, ‘We know what we’re supposed to be and feel like, but we don’t see how to get there.’

We suffer from the limitations of the Natural Mind.  If we try to solve spiritual problems, like enmity and lack of love, in the Natural Mind, we will fail, because this mind can’t feel the spiritual way of things; we will find ourselves just going through motions, but not changing our heart at all.  Soon we realize that half-measures will not produce the change we need.  We have to stop protecting our carnal behavior and totally renounce it.

…Quotes Alma 22:15-16. With that commitment a profound change was wrought in this man.  We learn that the person who wants to be freed from the effects of his carnal programming must commit himself to an abandonment of the Carnal Mind or he can never hope for anything but adjustments to his behavior.”

Light in the Wilderness, M. Catherine Thomas, p158

Hold on To Hope. Effective Strategy......Detachment....

“Detaching from the addict is extremely difficult to do, especially if he or she has just embarrassed you, hurt you, or stolen from you.  But keep in mind that what is most important to your salvation is what you do regardless of the addict’s behavior.  Codependents can measure the level of their recovery by discovering their ability to act and to feel according to their relationship with God, whatever the addict’s behavior.  Achieving some level of detachment allows the codependent to add the additional ingredients to an effective strategy.

Hold on to Hope, p 124

Step 3: Decided to turn our will and our life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus

Sins trouble you…

When Ye Shall Receive these Things

Now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance. Alma 42:29

If we are to remain on the strait and narrow path, we must understand a proper remorse of conscience.  We must distinguish between the devil’s dissonance (which is demoralizing and counterproductive) and divine discontent (which is a godly invitation for gradual and constant improvement).  True Saints pray to know that they are in good standing with the Lord.  They ask the Father to help them desire righteousness and resist temptation.  They know that they are not to beat themselves up endlessly over past misdeeds.  But no one seeking salvation would want to feel any less guilt than is required for complete forgiveness.  “Now I rejoice,” Paul wrote, “not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance.”  And then the apostle added: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation,” while “the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).  We are to remember our past sins enough to stay far away from them and then faithfully go forward.

“The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain to be defeated than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant but still determined to do the Father's will, look out upon their lives from which it may seem every trace of God has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey. [Paraphrased from C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1961), p. 39] “

The Will of the Father in All Things JEFFREY R. HOLLAND BYU 17 January 1989

Step 3: Decided to turn our will and our life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus

If someone hurts you so much that your feelings seem to choke you, forgive and you will be free again. “

“When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we will not sin. We will be filled with wisdom, and we will be able to have the fruits to heal the wounds of the afflicted and to build a community of Saints. It is also obvious that without constant efforts, it will be very difficult to always be focused on our most righteous desires. Therefore, I want to share with you a vehicle, an instrument, that I developed some time ago for myself and for my family. It can assist us to reach our focus as we read the suggested vision of true discipleship as a Latter-day Saint. It helps when, from time to time, we ponder and seek identification with the following

* If someone hurts you so much that your feelings seem to choke you, forgive and you will be free again. “

Unleashing the Dormant Spirit,  F. ENZIO BUSCHE,  BYU May, 1996

Revelation Can Serve Various Functions........

“Whatever its form, revelation can serve various functions:

1. The testimony or witness of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ and that the gospel is true is a revelation from God.

2. Prophecy is another function of revelation. Under the influence of the Holy Ghost, a faithful member of the Church may be inspired to forsee something that will come to pass in his or her life.

3. Another function of revelation is to comfort.

4. Closely related to the feeling of comfort is the fourth function or purpose of revelation, to uplift.

5. Another function of revelation is to inform.

6. The sixth function of revelation is to restrain us from doing something.

7. A common way to seek revelation is to propose a particular course of action then pray for inspiration to confirm it.

8. The eight function of revelation is evident in those instances when the Spirit impels a person to action.

In all of its forms and functions, revelation is distinct from study and reason. Revelation is an experience, most often communicated by a feeling. It is God’s way of communicating to His children.  It is a vital way of learning from and about God.”

The Lord’s Way,  Dallin H. Oaks, 1991, Deseret Book. Pp 23-32