An Unexpected Miracle

I invite you to read the Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year. As impossible as that may seem with all you are trying to manage in your life, if you will accept this invitation with full purpose of heart, the Lord will help you find a way to achieve it. And, as you prayerfully study, I promise that the heavens will open for you. The Lord will bless you with increased inspiration and revelation. - President Russell M. Nelson

This week, I began to take this invitation to heart. Despite finding that the thing I most often sacrifice to do this (and other things our living prophet has counseled us to do) is sleep, and despite the fact that it's the beginning of week two and I'm already behind (based on my rough calculation of chapters-per-week that I need to read to finish in time), I have felt more power and strength and capacity than I typically have when I sacrifice sleep for more trivial things.

So tonight, as I am up later than usual (again) because I wanted to do something important for someone I love, I am grateful for grace and miracles and the peace the gospel of Jesus Christ brings into my life.

Some Happy Things

A darling letter from my six-year-old niece, including a few of her favorite recipes... massage... a hike with a waterfall at the end... hugs from dear friends... two successful choir concerts (and having fun singing even though I was super tired and not sure I would)... productive workdays... lunch with someone I love... a really good yoga class... freshly cut grass... accomplishing everything on the list for today (even though it was purposely short because I knew I couldn’t do everything on the longer list)... avocados... clean laundry... vacations... enough sleep. 

Happy Sabbath!

Manna and Miracles

We had an interesting discussion in Sunday School last week. We are studying the Old Testament, and we were reading in Numbers 11. Verses 7-9 say:

And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell [with] it.

Manna was a miracle, right? It's how the Lord kept hundreds of thousands of essentially nomadic people alive in the wilderness for 40 years. Every day (except the Sabbath), this manna fell with the dew in the early morning. But the children of Israel could not just pick it up and eat it straight from the ground whenever they felt hungry. This amazing miracle required the people to get up early in the morning to gather it (before the heat of the sun melted it), then grind it or beat it, and finally bake it - before they could eat it.

I imagine that probably the first few times they attempted to prepare manna for eating, it turned out less than ideal. Maybe first they tried it raw, but discovered it gave them a stomach ache. Maybe then they boiled it, but that gave it a weird consistency they didn't enjoy. Maybe then they tried something else, and something else, until eventually they figured out how to make manna into a meal that could be enjoyed (or at least tolerated after the thousandth time that year) without any unfortunate side effects.

Perhaps sometimes life's miracles are like manna. God loves us enough to bless us not with the finished product, but with the raw materials. Our job is to find and gather the raw materials, and then figure out how to turn them into something that meets our needs. The cool part of this is that it allows us to use our agency and our creative power - both gifts from that same loving God - to aid Him in blessing us.

I feel like I should share an example so that this isn't just an esoteric concept... so. Here's my best attempt. As an LDS mid-single woman, I believe that any time two people over 30 decide to get married, it's a miracle. I pray for this kind of miracle every once in a while, for myself or for my dearest friends. It occurred to me today that perhaps one of Father's answers to these prayers is to provide opportunities to attend a mid-singles ward. These opportunities are only raw materials, so we need to use our agency and creative abilities to find and cultivate relationships that lead to dating and marriage. Sometimes we are going to try a thing that only results in a stomach ache. Sometimes the end result won't be exactly what we enjoy. But, like the daily gathering and preparation of manna, we can keep making efforts and trying different things until we find the thing that works.

And when it does, that will make us all the more grateful for the miracle, because we participated in the creating of it.

A New Year, A New Me

Most likely, each of us spent some time between Christmas and the New Year thinking about how we want to change in 2018. Perhaps it was as fleeting as a hope that this year, you will be better; or perhaps it was a deliberate sitting down and writing out specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals for the entire year. (I haven't done the latter yet, but I want to.) Either way, I'm sure we can all relate to the desire to progress and improve as we journey through mortality.

I recently made a connection that has given me a new perspective on the idea of change and progression. It is this: whenever we make a covenant with God, He gives us a new identity. For example, when we choose to follow Jesus by being baptized, we also take upon ourselves the name of Christ. Thus, as I emerge from the waters of baptism, I am no longer the woman I used to be. My identity has changed – I have taken upon myself a new name, that of Jesus Christ. With every additional covenant we make, we are again given a new identity; we are changed.

Why does this matter? Our identity shapes our attitudes and our behavior. It affects how we think about ourselves and how we treat others. When we make a covenant and receive a new identity, it is as if God is saying to us, “Don’t worry about who you were before we made this covenant. You are no longer that person. You can start anew.” We can cast off any worry or guilt about who we were before we made covenants, because we are no longer that woman or man. With our new identity, we can diligently work toward keeping the commitment we made to be the woman or man God wants us to be, without concern for how different it is from who we were before.

Of course, none of us is perfect. Progression is often slow and incremental, and we sometimes (even regularly) revert back to being the person we were before we made covenants. But each week, as we partake of the sacrament, we make that covenant with God again. And again, He gives us a new identity – the name of Jesus Christ. We start fresh, not worried about who we were last week, but focused instead on being who God knows we can be this week.

And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters. ... There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ ... And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ. (Mosiah 5:7-9)

For me, this principle has some important implications. When I consider my own life, I gain confidence in the Father’s plan for my progression, and recognize how my efforts to keep my covenants are changing me. Instead of getting frustrated at my own inability to be all that I wish I were right now, I can remember that by partaking of the sacrament and regaining my new identity, I can start again as often as I need to. Perhaps this is part of what it means to "always remember Him" - to consistently keep in the front of our minds the identity we received when we made a covenant to follow Him, and then act accordingly. Also, when I consider this principle in the context of the lives of those around me, I find it is easier to see God working in their lives - they, too, are being changed as they make covenants with God and exchange their former selves for a new identity.

And there you have it. My thoughts for the new year. Here's to a great 2018!