Hi again! So, as some
people know, I've been writing about spiritual experiences, or trying to at
least. And I have a new one to add here. :) It's not often that I have an
experience that I want to write about, or I do and I forget to write about it
till I've forgotten what it was about. Not this time though!
So just yesterday (Sunday, April 28, 2013) I gave
a talk in sacrament meeting in my ward. Mind you, I don't mind talking in front
of large crowds. This was my first talk in several years though that was
actually planned out and that I had to give. The last time I gave a talk like this
was when I was in debate my senior year of high school. I got to say though, it
went pretty well. The one thing about giving talks in church though is that I
tend to get a little emotional, so I was crying a little by the end of my talk.
But I wasn't full on crying, just a few tears were leaking out.
Anyway, what my talk was
about was obedience. Bishop Stone asked me if I would talk on obedience, some
things from conference, and some personal experiences that I have had with
obedience. I agreed, and I already had an idea of what it was that I would be
talking about. As the week went by without my preparing for my talk, I would
think of things which I would like to speak about, but then they would just
leave my mind. So in walks Saturday night. I still hadn't written my talk yet
and I still only had a vague idea on what I wanted to talk about. So I started
writing things down that I wanted to talk about. It may not seem like I was
actually doing anything, but just having a bunch of writing on a certain subject
helps me focus on what I want to write about. One of the things that I had
written down was where the title of this post came from. the title of Elder L.
Tom Perry's talk from this recent General Conference. He talked how obedience
to the laws that we are given is what will bring us happiness.
Now that may seem a
little backwards to some people, to me it makes sense. It's like obey the rules
your parents lay down for you so you don't get grounded. Actually....it's a lot
like that. You obey our Heavenly Father's commandments, you will be able to
return to live with him again. For those of you who want to listen to his talk,
or read it, you can follow this link --> Obedience to Law is Liberty to
lds.org to listen.
So I talked about Elder
Perry's talk for a bit, and I also talked a bit about a scripture that came to
my mind right before I got up to speak. It was Alma 57: 20-21. It's about the
2000 Stripling Warriors of Helaman's Army and how they learned obedience from
their mothers. They learned to obey with FAITH. After I explained the story of
the Stripling Warriors, I added my own experience. I spoke of how my own mother
taught me to obey the law of tithing.
|
||
|
Now while it may not
seem like a lot to some people, but for me, this has had a HUGE impact on my
faith. I have always paid my tithing, ever since I can remember. I may not
always pay it on time, but I make sure to always pull ten percent out of my
paychecks to pay tithing first, before I use the money for anything else. While
I was still living at home, I didn't really see any immediate blessings from
obeying this law. Once I came out to Utah for school though, I started seeing
the blessings. I haven't once had to take out a loan, or go into any form of
debt to pay for school. I also haven't had to ask my parents for any money, AT
ALL, especially as they need the money more than I do at the moment
seeing as my younger sister is to be married in August. My school has paid for
my tuition and I get Pell Grants every semester in order to pay for
other items. This I know has come about because of my willing obedience to the
law of tithing. This has greatly increased my faith in knowing that my Heavenly
Father is definitely looking out for me, and my husband as well. This great
increase in faith came only because I obeyed the law like my momma taught me.
All of that extra money wouldn't have helped as much as my Heavenly Father has.
And I KNOW that for a fact!
(this is a blog post from my old blog, tinynavajo.blogspot.com. If you want to read through that, you can go there and do so.)
Talk to you soon,
Ashley
|
No comments:
Post a Comment