A Spirit-Filled Weekend

This was the best Halloween weekend ever.

Did I celebrate? Not in your usual fashion. (That's what I love best about this holiday being on Sunday!)

We had Stake Conference this weekend, so I spent Saturday night and most of Sunday in meetings.  Wonderful meetings. Spirit-filled meetings. Meetings where I received personal revelation and insight about my life and what my Father wants me to do. Meetings and experiences so wonderful that I came home with a heart full to bursting with happiness. Indescribable happiness ...

I made a few insightful observations this weekend. Here are the two I feel ok with sharing...

First, I witnessed a scripture in action as Bishop McMullen from the Presiding Bishopric of the Church taught us in our meetings.  From Moroni 6: "And their meetings were conducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Ghost; for as the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even so it was done."  And can I just say, this opens the door to revelation more rapidly than anything else I have ever experienced!

Second, I observed what the temple can do for us.  As I sat on the stand with the choir before the Annual Temple Workers Devotional today, I noticed something very unusual. By five minutes to the hour (when the meeting was supposed to start), everyone present was in their seats, quietly listening to the prelude music. Most meetings are preluded (is that a word???) by joyous visiting and talking and general cacophony. Temple workers sit in silent expectation, allowing the Spirit of the Holy Ghost to enter the meeting before the opening remarks. That is what the temple does for us. It teaches how to open our minds and hearts to revelation. It refines our spiritual selves so that we differentiate between the time for visiting and the time for quiet reflection. It elevates our hearts and minds to the things of heaven, and allows us to see the world from the perspective of the grand, eternal Plan of Salvation instead of just the mountainous temporal to-do lists.

Working in the temple is one of the best things I have ever chosen to do.

How Cutting Boards Are Also Teaching Tools

I was pulling out my cutting board the other day (my nice, new, rubber-edged, wash-it-only-by-hand-to-keep-it-looking-nice cutting board), and noticed some enthusiastic helper had unintentionally made large cut marks in it. For a split second, I was disappointed, and thought to myself, perhaps I should not share what I really care about...  Then, realizing what I'd just thought, I thought again (for of course, what else is a cutting board for?) - perhaps I should not care so much about the things I share. 

Fast foward two or three days. Now I'm sitting in Relief Society and we're talking about Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk from General Conference called "Reflections on a Consecrated Life."  Something our lovely instructor said reminded me of this brief incedent a few days earlier, and I pondered its signficance... If God asked me to give up my cutting board, I could do it. The more contemplative question is this: if God asked me to give up the thing about which I cared the most, how would I respond?

Wherein You Use Your Imagination

I have been enjoying cooking the past few days. Unfortunately, I always think about taking a picture after I've eaten it. So, instead, I'll try to write a thousand words about each one... or not. :-)

Garlic Spinach Pizza with a Twist... imagine pizza dough topped with a garlic cream sauce, chopped spinach, mozzerella chunks, and craisins. Yes, you heard right. Craisins! I was out of tomatoes last Sunday, and tried these sweetened, dried cranberries as an alternative for the red color.  I loved it!  So much so, I made it again today.  Mmm... The red/green/white combination is beautiful, and I love it when the cheese browns slightly to a toasty perfection.

Butternut Squash Soup... now think about a rich golden soup flavored with nutmeg and cinnamon. No cream in this one, just the mild butternut squash flavor combined perfectly with fresh tart apple. A slice of sourdough from the bakery serves as a great alternative to a spoon for the first half of the bowl.

And finally, BBQ pulled pork... this is my favorite way to eat pork. Made in a crock pot, simmered in root beer (!), and topped with BBQ sauce. It tastes wonderful as a hot sandwich on toasted sourdough with muenster cheese (but then again, that tastes wonderful by itself), or cold as a side to some fruits and veggies. A great (and portable!) lunch option!

And that, my friends, is what I've been doing this weekend.

Another Lesson

I was assigned to teach Relief Society today. The lesson topic was "Repentance."

For a week, I considered the topic and tried to figure out in my mind how to present it. For a week, I had lots of ideas, learned a few lessons, and took lots of notes. But by last night at midnight, I still didn't know what I was going to say when I stood up in front of my sisters.  I was worried.

Then this morning, I woke up without an alarm about 30 minutes before I needed to get up for church. My mind again began considering what to say and how to say it. I took the extra time to ponder and pray. As I prayed for inspiration and for the Spirit, I had two thoughts come into my mind.

1. Heavenly Father loves you.
2. Repentance is a privilege.

They were simple thoughts, really, and hardly seemed like enough to base a 30 minute lesson on, but that was what He wanted me to teach. And when I stood up in front of my class, and wrote those two thoughts on the board, and started to talk, my mind cleared and my heart knew what to say. The Spirit was present, and I was filled.

Imagine. A Father who loves you so much, He prepared a way for you to progress - a way that involves coming to earth to develop, to change in ways that make you more like Him. A way that is so infinitely all-encompassing, it doesn't matter how many times you make a mistake, or how magnificent the mistakes you make are. He has already solved that problem - His Son atoned for those mistakes - and He offers peace and healing in exchange for repentance and change.

It is such a profound principle, I think I need another week to ponder it.

I Have Faith

"In whatever country you live, however young or inadequate you feel, or however aged or limited you see yourself as being, I testify you are individually loved of God, you are central to the meaning of His work, and you are cherished and prayed for by the presiding officers of His Church. The personal value, the sacred splendor of every one of you, is the very reason there is a plan for salvation and exaltation. Contrary to the parlance of the day, this is about you. No, don’t turn and look at your neighbor. I am talking to you! ... No one of you is insignificant, in part because you make the gospel of Jesus Christ what it is—a living reminder of His grace and mercy, a private but powerful manifestation in small villages and large cities of the good He did and the life He gave bringing peace and salvation to other people."

- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

On Vision

I had a day the other day that would have been all right, if I hadn't had to get up at the beginning. 

OK, it wasn't that bad... but it was a day that came after two days of overcast rainy mist, and those two days were kind of long and a little challenging.  Then I had some news that sort of threw me off kilter.  By the end of the day, I was feeling rather blah-ish and wishing things were different. 

Like, wishing I could do everything I felt like I was supposed to be doing - exercise, study the gospel, use different time to study to prepare my RS lesson for Sunday, serve my friends, get my laundry done, fulfill my dreams, eat healthy dinners, get enough sleep - and wondering how it was all supposed to get done to my satisfaction...

Then I prayed, and basically asked the Lord for the big picture. The "tell me everything so there won't be any surprises and I can figure out how where I am fits in with where I'm going" sort of prayer. He answered... with the words from a hymn:

I do not ask to see
The distant scene
One step enough for me.

As Harold B Lee taught Boyd K Packer: "You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you."

New Wine in Old Bottles...

Last week, my directionals were broken. For those of you not on the East Coast, those are your turn signals, your blinkers, whatever else you call them. I never knew I could feel so unsafe driving as a safe driver. Every time I had to change lanes or turn, it produced anxiety.

Three days and two trips to the mechanic later, I have a new blinker-turner-on-er and I feel safe on the road again (except when it's dark and misty-raining and it's hard to see anything even when you are driving a car with directionals). Only the new one makes a plastic-y clicking sound, like you hear in cars from more recent models, instead of the old metallic clicking sound like my old one.  So if I'm not looking, when I turn on my blinker, I can pretend I have a new car.  Whee.  :-)