Sunday Inspirations June 8, 2008

I made myself and my Heavenly Father a promise many years ago. My junior year of high school was turning out to be a bit like extreme torture, and I found it necessary to find ways of bringing the Holy Spirit more fully into my life. One of these efforts included how I spent the Sabbath Day. A common scene in many households on Sunday nights include frantic teenagers desperate to finish off those last homework assignments before school the next day. While it's certainly a worthy effort, I began to realize it doesn't do much to keep me in tune with the Lord.

One particular Sunday I knelt to pray with a specific purpose in mind. I was hoping to make a pact, or a covenant between myself and my Heavenly Father. If I did my best to get my homework done before the Sabbath, and didn't do any of it that day, I asked for my Heavenly Father to bless me in the hopes of not allowing my grades to suffer.

They never have.

I have long since graduated from high school, but that covenant remains between my Father and I. It has long since gone from a habit formed as a teen, and come to bless me in my everyday life. Only once have I been required to work a job where Sundays were a must. When it has been my choice, I have kept my word to my Father. Not even in my LDSBlogs job do I allow myself to write or post on Sunday, even if my work there is the hope of bringing souls to a more full knowledge of what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nicknamed the Mormon Church, is all about.

This blog is different. In one effect it's a form of journaling for me. I can put down thoughts and ideas, silly stories of my family, or other things I might not take the time to record elsewhere. My wish for my Sunday posts is not to be silly, or to post about anything and everything. The Sabbath should be a day for stretching our spiritual muscles, for actively looking for the things God wishes us to learn or to remember. I was given two special tasks to remember today.

First, it is important for us to bear our testimonies. I recently read an article by a woman who in no way considers the Latter-day Saint Church, the Mormons, to be Christians. She'd obviously made up a situation in which a friend was listening to the missionaries. This friend felt the promptings of the Spirit, but had fortunately come to visit where the writer was able to talk her out of what she might have felt.

The author's particular point of attack was against the Mormon Testimony. She claimed all we did was look a person straight in the eye and say the words, "I know" with fervor. In her mind, that's what a testimony was. She forgot one very important aspect to having a testimony: the witness of the Holy Spirit. When those who are members say the two words, "I know," it most often follow much fasting and prayer, and a witness from the Holy Spirit.

I myself had a witness to the truth of this Church. Though I've been a member since I was a child, I had to find out for myself if this was where God wanted me to be. If you'd like to read my conversion story feel free to visit Converted to the Mormon Church at 17. Since that day I promised to stand as a witness of God, and that means never being afraid to bear my testimony. I also know that the more I bear my testimony, the stronger it will become, and the less afraid I will be to give it.

The second thing impressed upon me today was given by a member of our ward, or local congregation. He challenged us to look for the hand of the Lord in our lives today. Not just today, but every day. Do you actively look for His works in your life, or do you stand still, eyes locked in one direction, waiting for signs and wonders? If we want to find the miracles the Lord has in mind for us, we need to be an active participant. We have to knock, we have to seek, and we have to listen to His promptings. We have to recognize that His answers will not always be our answers. When this happens we need to realize He knows so much more than we, and if He gives us answers we don't agree with, it's time to put our faith in Him to the test.

May the Lord bless and keep you safe this week.