News from my notebook

Church was so good today (again), and it was cool the way all 3 meetings echoed each other with their topics. The meetings were mainly about being spiritually prepared to meet trials in our lives. I'd been thinking about this all week because when my visiting teacher came the other day she said something about a conversation with her husband about Joseph's (of Egypt) dream about 7 years of abundance and 7 years of famine. I was instantly panicked when she said this and felt that fear and dread I get when the topic of food storage and emergency preparedness comes up (which it does often), but then she said they were talking about a spiritual famine and how we prepare for that. It's silly because I felt relieved (as if being starved spiritually is easier than earthquakes and floods), but somehow it seemed less terrifying to me. I don't know if that means that I'm prepared, but I do feel like I have a strong desire to be spiritually prepared and that I am taking action to make that happen.

So some of today's church highlights regarding spiritual preparedness are:

1. When the time to perform arrives, the time to prepare has passed.
2. Every day we stand up for who we are as we represent Christ through our behavior.
3. When we prepare spiritually the Lord will help us the rest of the way. (This was particularly comforting to me as the thought of answering my kids' questions frightens me sometimes.)

4.What is the greatest calamity that could happen in our lives? (For me that would be if Randy and I lost our kids to the world, if they pursued a dark path in life and forgot why they are here in the first place.) So a follow-up to that question is, what are we doing to prepare ourselves against that calamity?

5.Do our actions take us closer to our goals or do we keep doing what we've always done and end up sliding backwards?

6. Am I doing better than I was 5 years ago? (Church attendance, Temple attendance, Fulfilling callings, reading scriptures, saying prayers, etc.)

7. Knowledge is not enough, we must apply that knowledge if we are to truly succeed in life.

8. Trials in life are for our benefit. They are the way we prove ourselves faithful to the Lord. He already knows what we will do, but the trial allows us to see what we will do.

9. For anything to be a test there has to be a sense of irony or unfairness.

10. Henry B. Eyrings Octoboer 2005 Conference Talk "Spiritual Preparedness, Start Early and Be Steady" (This is where the Relief Society lesson came from today, if you haven't read it do so, it's definitely worth the time.)

11. Start early means = as soon as you hear the command.

12. If we could truly grasp the idea of a being a daughter of God we would want to live in a way that wouldn't make our Heavenly parents ashamed of us.

13. Satan is a liar, he is quick to jump in and confirm our negative thoughts and fears, he wants us to fail. (I know this, but forget this, it would be nice to remember that when I'm spiralling down some path of negative thinking. It helps to pull out of that if we know the source from which it comes.)

14. If you are discouraged go to the temple to do initiatories, they will help you remember who you really are and the blessings you are entitled to receive.

15. Great faith has a short shelf life, it must be replenished often.

16. Tithing is a form of gratitude. We are acknowledging the Lord's hand in all things. Everything we have comes from Him, so to give 10% is a small price to pay.

I hope these thoughts weren't too overwhelming. I couldn't edit them down much because they were all so good. Plus, this blog is the closest thing I have to a journal so I don't want to leave too much out of it. I hope your Sunday experiences were good too. I love to read what you all write, and think we're lucky to have a forum like this to share our insights and struggles.

**Which of these thoughts hits home with you?**