Thoughts from a Sunday in January

written on Monday 1/21/08

I am so thankful to Kent that he let me go to all of church Sunday. I left church feeling spiritually full. I am not sure if this comes from the effort in reading scriptures that I have put in or if it is from lessons well prepared or both. Probably a little bit of both. First off I really enjoyed the lesson we studied in Relief Society on the nature of God. I had read the lesson previously and enjoyed it, but I hadn’t been fully enlightened. The girl who taught our lesson is an EXCELLENT teacher. She shared not only from the lesson manual, but also from a talk out of the January 2008 Ensign. The talk was entitled “Our God Truly is God,” by Elder Douglas L. Callister. I came home and read the talk after she shared some very touching quotes out of it. I would like to share a few with you in case you haven’t read that article. “With its 107 million cells, connected to the brain by over 1 million neurons, the eye is more perfect than any camera ever invented. It caused Charles Darwin to humbly admit, “That the eye with all its inimitable contrivances…could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense.” Another quote that I really enjoyed, “This earth departs from its orbit of the sun by only one-ninth of an inch every 18 miles. If, instead, it changed by one-tenth of an inch every 18 miles, we would all freeze to death. If it changed by one-eighth of an inch we would all be incinerated. Did this all happen by accident?” I am thankful to know that I am a daughter of God and He loves me!

In Sunday school I really enjoyed the lesson on Lehi's vision. It was a great reminder to me that we need to hold so tightly to the words of God. I also learned (probably again) that the tree represents Jesus Christ. Which is interesting when you realize that he holds the keys to eternal life as a tree would hold on to fruit.

I loved our Sacrament meeting. The two speakers were from the older singles ward and they had some great insights. The first brother spoke on gratitude. He quoted one of the apostles in saying, "I think there's no true character without gratitude." I learned so much that I would like to share, but my notes are all jumbled and I can't seem to tie the ideas together. I guess all in all I am grateful for the gospel in my life and the peace that it brings to me. Whenever I have need to know what direction to go all I have to do is get on my knees, read the scriptures, and go to church where I can find the direction and clarity I need.