There are many things to care about in the world. As time marches forward toward the Second Coming, there will be more turmoil and grief than we have ever known. We will be put in awkward and even dangerous situations. We will have to stand alone in a world of angry chaos. We will often be the lone voice of reason in a room of angry people. Our ethics, trustworthiness, and honesty will be tried on a daily, if not hourly, basis. It will seem as if ours is the lone voice of reason in a world of turmoil. Sometimes the only way to keep our integrity in tact will be to silence the noise.

Silencing the noise of the world may seem like a daunting task at times. It has been difficult for me the last few weeks. It takes real effort. It takes a plan. There may even have to be adjustments to the original plan, but it’s worth it. Amidst the chaos, you can find peace.

Silencing the noise happens when you watch cloud formations. It happens when you stare at the leaves blowing in the wind. It happens when you zone out staring down a squirrel in the backyard. It happens when you enjoy any of the natural beauty of the earth that was created especially for you. It happens when you pray.

As a child, I was an early riser. I remember often zoning out on nature. I loved to watch the sunrise. I loved watching the sun glistening on the dew on the grass. I loved to listen to the meadow larks. I totally zoned out when watching frost on the window, or water dripping from icicles. I’ve moved to a warmer climate now where icicles are nonexistent and frost on the window is a rare occurrence, but roses bloom eleven months of the year. We will get our first rain of the season today or tomorrow. I’m looking forward to watching the rain while wrapped in my favorite quilt and sipping a cup of hot raspberry lemonade or hot chocolate. Even in the chaos of these times, there are many ways to silence the noise.

I don’t want to give the impression that we should bury our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening in the world. Obviously we need to be a voice of reason in the world. We need to care about community issues, national issues, and global issues. The Lord needs us to participate in the world and be His voice—even when it seems like no one wants to hear Him. However, we can’t spread His message if we are so burned out that we can no longer hear Him ourselves. It is not only important to our own sanity to silence the noise; it is important to His work.

To read more of Tudie’s articles, click here.

We are all different, and silencing the noise might look different for you than for me. Maybe for you, that looks like a hike in the mountains or a walk on the beach. I like those things, too, but it’s getting harder for me these days. Listening to quiet music while sitting in my recliner seems to be more my speed lately. Maybe you like to snow ski, water ski, surf on the big waves, or ride in a hot air balloon. Maybe you silence the noise by crafting, knitting, crocheting, or embroidery. Maybe the sound of a power saw as you build furniture silences the noise for you. Maybe it’s a game of solitaire or working on a jigsaw puzzle.

I invite you to actively seek ways to silence the noise in your life. It is important to back away from the world and refill our lamps with oil and our cups with living water. Heavenly Father has given us great responsibility in these times—but He has also provided ways for us to silence the noise so we can reboot. Take advantage of the thousands of ways He has given us to keep our sanity, look within ourselves, and revitalize our spirits. We are needed in these last days, and He has provided the way. All we have to do is to silence the noise of the world and find peace.

Tudie Rose

Tudie Rose is a mother of four and grandmother of ten in Sacramento, California. You can find her on Twitter as @TudieRose. She blogs as Tudie Rose at http://potrackrose.wordpress.com. She has written articles for Familius. You will find a Tudie Rose essay in Lessons from My Parents, Michele Robbins, Familius 2013, at http://www.familius.com/lessons-from-my-parents.

That sounds rather dramatic. I don’t mean to say that my life was ever truly “out of sorts,” but rather that I never felt like I “fit in” with life since coming home from my mission. My older sister described it best when she said that arriving home from your mission feels like jumping off a cliff into a river. You crash into the water and start to float down. You always feel your faith in God keeping you afloat, but you don’t really know where you’re going. It takes quite a while to get your bearings and figure things out. Now, I can finally say I’m getting past that floating stage and moving in a direction that I want to be going.

This has happened for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that I’ve found the girl I’m going to marry. Dating her has felt like coming home in many ways, and our relationship has given me the direction that I need to be going in. Secondary to that, I feel like I’m getting the hang of finances, understanding how college works, figuring out career opportunities (I even made a LinkedIn account!), and I’m now understanding how the gospel works in the real world. If I’m being honest, high school isn’t the real world, and even a mission is not completely real world. It’s been amazing to see how all of my past experiences have prepared me for what I’m doing at 21 years old, and I know that what I do now will prepare me for when I’m 22, and so on.

A variety of lessons have stood out to me throughout this process of getting on my feet, and I’ll share one quickly. I feel strongly that the Lord is patient with us. Indeed, He is all-knowing and all-loving, so why not all-patient? He knows when we are facing something new and has patience with us as we try to figure it out. I faced a myriad of new things when I came home from my mission, and now, as I look into marriage, I’m bombarded with even more new things. This has caused me stress and I feel like I’m not as able to serve others because I’m dealing with so much on my own.

There’s a balance to this: yes, we must serve others despite how busy we are, BUT we cannot run ourselves dry. I am confident that there are times in our lives when we must focus more on ourselves, and then there are times when we have a greater capacity to reach out. Jesus Himself even took time for Himself, such as when He heard John the Baptist had died and sought alone time for prayer and recovery. We too need time for recovery, and there is no sin in seeking that time for ourselves.

In perhaps my favorite BYU devotional of all time, “Personal Ministry: Sacred and Precious,” Bonnie D. Parkin discusses the idea of having a personal ministry. For example, Elder Neal Maxwell served as an apostle, but he constantly remarked that his personal ministry was in ministering to fellow cancer patients. Even Jesus, whose mission saved all of humanity, served a personal ministry throughout Jerusalem and its surrounding villages. We too have a personal ministry, and much of it lies in one-on-one actions as we go from daily task to daily task. So long as we live in the moment and seek to serve while we get things done for ourselves, we will be fulfilling our personal ministry AND taking care of ourselves at the same time. It doesn’t have to be too much; all it takes is a willing heart and a love for people.

Another lesson Sister Parkin teaches is that we must be willing not only to serve but to BE served. I recently had my 21st birthday. Anyone that knows me knows that I typically dislike birthdays. I just hate being the center of attention sometimes! However, my mission taught me that allowing others to serve you not only gives you relief but gives others joy in service. Thus, I am trying to do better at letting others serve me, especially when I find myself weak and tired, for in their service everyone is benefitted.

To read more of Adam’s articles, click here.

What I’m trying to say is that both service and being served are required. We go through a variety of phases in our lives. Some phases will be dedicated to service, such as my mission, while other phases are dedicated to getting our own lives in order, like the 9 months since coming home from my mission. Whichever phase we are in, we can be patient with ourselves because we know God is patient with us. And then, when the time comes that we figure things out – and we will – we can enter a phase of service and truly advance our personal ministries. I know that planning my wedding and beginning marriage will be a phase of figuring things out, and it will be hard and I may feel selfish at times, but I know that that phase will soon be over and my wife and I can truly do some good in this world.

The Lord is patient while we figure stuff out. We don’t have to do everything to please Him. All we have to do is rely on and trust Him. And then, when things are figured out, we will be in the ideal place for our service to truly begin.

Adam Simpson

Adam Simpson is a man of many unique talents, from dancing to ultimate frisbee, from drumming to writing. He was born and raised in Layton, Utah, the middle child surrounded by two sisters. He served a mission in Sydney, Australia, and now attends school at BYU. His love for writing comes from a love of philosophy and a love for God.

I remember sitting on my bed as an all-knowing pre-teen and thinking this sticker was a fraud. The sticker was brown, which meant I was relaxed. I decided to trick this dot and put it to the test. I started imagining having tons of tests, quizzes, projects, and papers all due the next day. I spoke my worries out loud to make it more real to me. As I conjured up imagined stress, the dot turned blue within a minute or so.

From this colorful dot, I learned that I was in charge of my emotions. I could make myself stressed or relaxed if I wanted. There are times when we do not ask for stress or worry, and our minds start to react that way. However, I do think many of us have some control over the amount and the duration of the stress that we allow into our mind. (This is, of course, with the exception of those with mental illness. I admire those with this kind of struggle because they have learned to cope with intrusive thoughts and feelings.)

Choosing to move on in faith instead of fear is difficult. When we consider our fears, we think about all that could go wrong. But there is also so much that could go right! Most of our decisions or circumstances have things that could go wrong and right. We cannot control all the consequences or our situations, but we can control how we react to our emotions. We can control what we think about and, therefore, which emotions arise from those thoughts.

“For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves,” (D&C 58:27–28).

Years after I discarded the mood-reading sticker, I had lots of experiences where I chose to have a positive outlook — to focus on the positive outcomes. I learned to simplify a stressor by breaking it down into manageable parts in order to keep that worry or fear from getting to me.

For example, speaking in front of people used to terrify me. I would feel like I was going to pass out. I would break it down into smaller, less-threatening truths, such as: I speak in front of friends, most people don’t listen to church speeches anyway, I only talk for ten minutes, I know what I’m talking about and won’t say anything stupid, people are rooting for me, I prayed for help, and I don’t even have to look up from my paper.

I learned to think about other things to keep myself from getting more afraid. If I could distract myself from my worries and fears, I would be fine and would not feel terrified. I tried to focus on what needed to be done instead of on the fears I imagined. When I was not focusing on my worries, fears, and all that could go wrong, then there was room in my mind and heart to feel confident and peaceful.

It is a constant effort for me to have a positive perspective and not feed my fears. During some seasons of my life it comes easier to me. For a few years during my undergraduate study, choosing faith over fear was difficult. Thankfully, I learned some helpful skills to focus on faith.

Training Your Mind to Expel Fear

While studying at Brigham Young University, I took a mental strength class. My classmates and I learned how to train our minds to focus on the positive as well as specific tasks to help us perform well in whatever we did. My professor, Dr. Craig Manning, taught us to use mental cue’s to focus our mind in stressful situations. 

Cues are one to three words of action to repeat in your mind (or out loud) to help you perform well in a stressful situation. You can have a set of cue’s for one day, one event, or for a period of time.

So, for a soccer player “move feet fast” is a good cue, whereas “be agile” is not. “Move feet fast” is specific, direct and action-oriented — your mind doesn’t have to think of a next step after the cue to get to the action. “Be agile” is too broad, and from there you have to define agility, think of an action to be agile, and then do it. All of that takes too long, which gives fear the chance to seep into your thoughts. Some cues tell you what to do and others are like positive affirmations to tell you what to remember.

My cues helped me to eliminate mounting mental stress. Here are some of mine:

1. Breathe deeply
2. Remember Jesus
3. I am awesome

From this class, I learned that much of how people think, react, and perceive themselves is based on their self-talk, or what they tell themselves about a situation. Dr. Manning spoke at a BYU Devotional about using self-talk and faith to overcome doubt and fear. 

“Doubt is a mental habit and does not stay contained in one area of your life, it can and does spread to other areas of your life. Once it takes a hold of an individual . . . action is halted. I believe doubt to be one, if not the greatest, of the adversary’s tools. It is the antithesis to faith.” 

Manning also said every time he thought in a negative way, he would tell himself positive things. It is not enough to stop a bad habit. To permanently change, you have to replace the bad with a good habit, action, or thought.

To change from a habit of focussing on fear, we should replace it with thoughts of our faith in Jesus Christ. 

“Our reliance must be upon the Savior Jesus Christ as we find the power not just to turn away from sin, but to turn toward Him,” said Elder Neil L. Anderson in his book The Divine Gift of Forgiveness (p. 138). Part of repentance is turning towards Christ, and to truly repent we replace our negative thoughts and actions to become more like Christ.

Manning explained that it is a constant work in progress, a constant battle to apply the Lord’s lessons. “What is potentially the greatest lesson the Lord has taught me is that faith begins with how you talk to yourself.”

It is okay that we are still working to develop our faith so we don’t act in fear. I feel like I have been doing that my whole life. But that’s the point, isn’t it? That is why the scriptures teach that we are to constantly nourish our faith, like a growing plant. Faith does not stop growing; it keeps getting stronger.

As a person is strengthening their faith, the adversary could be targeting them. So doubts will still come up, but Manning taught another way to expel them.

“A power statement is a tool to use when the doubt comes at critical moments. It floods the mind with positive, strong thoughts and instantly squeezes out any negative thoughts and emotions.”

One of my favorite power statements is this: Jesus Christ is with me and helping me. I believe that with my whole soul, even if I sometimes forget it during fearful thoughts. There are many gospel truths, quotes, and scriptures that would also make excellent power statements. 

Developing a Sound Mind

The New Testament offers a perspective on how our mind relates to conquering fear:

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

One of the tools God gave each of us to combat fear is a “sound mind.” But what does that mean? Here is Dictionary.com’s definition:

Adjective: sounder, soundest.
1.free from injury, damage, defect, disease, etc.; in good condition; healthy; robust: a sound heart; a sound mind.
2. financially strong, secure, or reliable: a sound business; sound investments.
3. competent, sensible, or valid: sound judgment.
4. having no defect as to truth, justice, wisdom, or reason: sound advice.
5. of substantial or enduring character: sound moral values.
6. following in a systematic pattern without any apparent defect in logic: sound reasoning.
7. uninterrupted and untroubled; deep: sound sleep.

This definition, along with other verses, makes me think a sound mind could mean correct, working correctly, functioning well, calm, or reliable.

During a Relief Society lesson I attended, the teacher spoke exactly on how to overcome fear with faith. God definitely answered my prayers through the teacher and those who commented.

I learned that gaining intelligence and knowledge can help me to have a sound mind. The scriptures compare knowledge and intelligence to light, and light is compared to God. So the light of knowledge can expel the darkness of the unknown, which causes fear. Some of this knowledge can come from getting answers from God, called revelation. For me, when I know the outcome or process of something my fear is lessened because there is less of the “unknown.” 

Of course, with many of the things we fear, we cannot know the outcome with surety. Our faith in Jesus Christ’s love for us can fill our minds and hearts instead of the fear of the unknown. Jesus Christ has promised that we will be blessed and things will work out as we continue to rely on Him.

“Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven,” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36-37).

Much of the fear, worry, and doubt we suffocate under is not from God because it does not edify us, as taught in Doctrine and Covenants 50:23-24. We can choose to stop thinking about unedifying things and replace those thoughts with thoughts of Christ’s love for us and how He is helping us. These uplifting thoughts could also be mental cues. 

Another thing I learned from my fellow Relief Society sisters is that sometimes we define fear by this acronym: False Expectations Appearing Real. Is the thing I am afraid of very likely to happen? Am I trying to live up to an impossible expectation? Am I not focusing on what is actually expected from me and what is true reality? God gave me a sound mind to be able to keep situations and fears into perspective.

Using mental cues, positive affirmations, remembering Christ, and putting our fears into perspective can help us to move on instead of being paralyzed by fear.

Choosing Faith Instead of Dwelling on Fear

Elder Ronald A. Rasband spoke about having faith in Christ over fear:

“Take heart, brothers and sisters. Yes, we live in perilous times, but as we stay on the covenant path, we need not fear. I bless you that as you do so, you will not be troubled by the times in which we live or the troubles that come your way. I bless you to choose to stand in holy places and be not moved. I bless you to believe in the promises of Jesus Christ, that He lives and that He is watching over us, caring for us and standing by us.”

Each of us is powerful and in control of ourselves. It is your mind, your heart, and your body. God gave us the ability and power to choose, as well as a sound mind, so let’s choose optimism, faith, hope, and happiness. When our abilities and circumstances make expelling fear more difficult, let us remember Jesus Christ. Christ has experienced the fears we feel. He has already figured out how to live in faith instead of fear. He has figured out how to do that for each of us in our individual struggles.

This is, in part, what Christ is teaching us when He says that He is the way: He knows the way each of us can stop living and thinking in fear, and it is to remember His love and power is on our side. He is with us.

Kristine Hoyt

Here’s the scripture in context:

For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

I know change is difficult and I’ve always trusted Amulek’s words, but I hadn’t had any real, tangible way to relate to this doctrine.

Moving Revealed the “Same Me”

This week while the words flitted through my mind, a “vision” of myself moving flashed to mind. I’ve moved 64 times in my life.

In moving from one place to another, my old identity has died and a new identity emerged. I kept my name, but parts of my identity shifted. I attended new schools. I became a wife.  My job identities changed. Anthony’s job identities changed, which shifted mine to a degree. Church calling identities changed. My address identity always changed. My apparel identity changed. My who-I-get-to-hang-out-with identity changed.

But do you know what never really changed? Me. The spirit I was in the old location was that same spirit I was in the new location. Now, experiences in those locations changed me.  I shriveled and grew in different locations. Sometimes experiences shifted my ideas and beliefs. However, as I moved from one location to the next, the move in and of itself did not dramatically change me.

Trying to Change but Haven’t

There are things I’ve being trying to change for years but haven’t. I know the benefits of, say, eating healthier. I’ve told myself many times, okay, on this move, I’m going to try eating more and varied vegetables. I have the knowledge. I even have a moderate desire. I’ve moved 64 times and I haven’t ever eaten more and varied vegetables. I stick with the ones I know I like. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. It’s safe.

Every new day offers possibilities of being someone completely new. Again, I have goals I’m shooting for one small step at a time.  But if I just changed my mind, I’d jump forward and accomplish those goals. Why don’t I?  Because who I am is easy, comfortable, and safe. That same spirit I went to sleep as awakens as me in the new day. Every morning I refer to all the things that remind me who I am and I continue to be that person.

Changing That Same Spirit

This time is the time to prepare to meet God. One way we prepare is to change ourselves so “that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life” is the one prepared for eternal life in Heavenly Father’s presence. There is a Way to change.

Through a process I can’t quantify, the grace of Jesus Christ changes one spirit into another kind of spirit. An angry, bitter spirit can become loving and compassionate. A sinful or discouraged spirit can become clean and hopeful.

Being Reborn

To read more of Delisa’s articles, click here.

Jesus Christ turns even defunct hearts into new creatures. He invites all to be reborn.

And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

Through Christ, I can be changed here and now, reborn to the spirit which will inherit glory in the eternal world. And when I die, that same spirit will eagerly anticipate new eternal identities: a new address, new apparel, and a new name—the names of God the Father and the Savior Jesus Christ.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

That is the spirit I want to die with—one who knows the Lord and has become like Him.

Delisa Hargrove

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have moved 64 times and have not tired of experiencing this beautiful earth! I love the people, languages, histories/anthropologies, & especially religious cultures of the world. My life long passion is the study & searching out of religious symbolism, specifically related to ancient & modern temples. My husband Anthony and I love our bulldog Stig, adventures, traveling, movies, motorcycling, and time with friends and family.

Some of the most shocking images of destruction to me are of the Salt Lake Temple’s Annex building demolition. So familiar with those rooms and hallways, the scenes of exposed walls and hanging rebar really jar my senses.

The Temple Recommend Desk sits exposed in the rubble

A friend I worked with at the Salt Lake Temple photographs the demolition’s progress and posts them on his social media account.

These rooms and hallways felt so structurally sound to me while I walked, worked, and served in them. Built according to the best engineering of their time, the builders believed that what they built would last. Yet, here they are, being demolished to enable the temple itself to be retrofitted with mechanisms to withstand earthquakes and to give place for a more structural solid annex to be built.

As I watched the destruction’s progression during the Spring and Summer of 2020, it became such a metaphor to me.

A desk where I used to sit now visible just inside the wreckage

The uncertainties, realignments, and unrest of 2020 required (and keep requiring) an introspective look at how I defined myself. Have you felt that?

Who am I as an American? What am I as a citizen of the world? Who am I as a woman? Who am I as a member of my family and community?

How do I define myself as a churchgoer? Is my relationship with God defined by a calling or attending church every week? Do I have a relationship with Heavenly Father outside of a structured church? What is my faith based on and why?

How do I define myself as a wife living 24/7 with my beloved? How do I define expectations in that relationship? Are they really realistic and fair and loving?

How do I define my relationship with myself? Am I who I think I am? Am I happy with who I really am?

The most interesting line of thought for me was, “Am I willing to change my mind or drop an identity? Really?” Can I change to adopt a better way or will I remain where I am because it’s a comfort zone or because I fear “being” wrong?

Am I Willing to Change How I Define Myself?

The scriptures show how difficult it is for people to adopt new ways of thinking—especially when their identities were tied up in that thinking. But there is a cost for clinging to incorrect traditions and false belief systems.

A sealing room wall stands exposed

And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received

 

And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.

To me, this section of the Salt Lake Temple felt safe, secure, and sacred. I felt it represented a sure foundation.

But a prophet of God determined that foundation could be surer, firmer, and sturdier to withstand the impending storms.

To read more of Delisa’s articles, click here.

Evaluate. Prepare a plan. Close for renovation. Demolish. Make necessary structural repairs. Rebuild.

What an amazing metaphor.

I felt my foundation was safe, secure, and sacred. But by following this example of a prophet of God, receiving revelation from Holy Ghost in identifying what adjustments to make, and then calling upon the enabling power of Jesus Christ’s atonement for the ability to demolish, make the repairs, and rebuild, my foundation can be surer, firmer, and steadier to withstand the impending storms I will surely face, too.

Delisa Hargrove

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have moved 64 times and have not tired of experiencing this beautiful earth! I love the people, languages, histories/anthropologies, & especially religious cultures of the world. My life long passion is the study & searching out of religious symbolism, specifically related to ancient & modern temples. My husband Anthony and I love our bulldog Stig, adventures, traveling, movies, motorcycling, and time with friends and family.

There is always a challenge to meet and overcome before the next one comes. Some challenges are hard to handle and some are more bearable. We all look forward and hope someday to reach what we call “perfection.” Yet in the entire history of mankind, there has been only one living soul who ever attained that lofty state of perfection: Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus Christ was perfect before He dwelt on Earth, and then He completed His Father’s mission here on Earth with total perfection. The legacy to us of His monumental work is eternal life to those who continue seeking perfection — or in other words, we are to work to become like Him. The Savior even commanded us to “[b]e ye therefore perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

We are all imperfect beings and will always be so until we finish our work here on the earth and return to our Father in Heaven. Until then we will always be struggling in a constant effort to overcome our weaknesses an imperfections. The great promise we have been given is the knowledge that through our attitudes and work ethic, we can overcome or learn to cope with most of our weaknesses. In making the effort to improve ourselves, we become stronger. A weightlifter never will gain the strength he desires to compete in his field if he simply thinks about it and makes no effort to constantly lift heavier and heavier weights. All his struggles are not in vain — they make him stronger.

The imperfections we must overcome are not all the same. Some of us are born with physical deficiencies, like loss of limbs or a congenital problems that limit our physical or mental growth. Others have physical impairments come to them either by illness or accident. For many of us to achieve any degree of proficiency or skill in this life, we must expend great effort to overcome these limitations. Very few people achieve greatness without extreme devotion to their cause, and practice makes perfect. Whatever effort we chose to make will improve us and will always bear fruit.

History has shown us that physical or mental limitations do not mean we cannot grow and rise above them. Emma Smith, Joseph Smith’s wife, was quoted as saying that Joseph at the time of the translating of the Book of Mormon could hardly write a grammatically correct sentence, let alone the entire Book of Mormon. Yet it did not stop this largely self-educated man from writing countless letters and articles during his short life.

For another example, look to the great prophet and leader Moses. For forty years he led his people in the wilderness and gave us the first five books of the Bible. Yet he could not speak well in public — so the Lord gave him Aaron to speak for him. His inability to speak never prohibited him from doing the Lord’s work in a monumental way.

Finally, in our own day, who cannot learn from the example of Helen Keller? Born blind and deaf, she was destined to remain in a cocoon of darkness and solitude with no contact with the world around her. But she had the sense of touch and used it to communicate with the outside world. She learned to use her fingers to tap out her thoughts in a form of braille. In doing so, she changed the whole world.

The greatest challenge we have in life is to do the absolute best with what we have. That is all God asks of us. For many years I have had a comic strip mounted on my office wall. It’s a piece by Johnny Hart from his B.C. comic strip series which runs in most newspapers daily. I look at it often because it has changed my life. It is the most perfect explanation of this desire we all must have to do the best we can with what we have.

In the strip, an old handicapped man sits under a tree. He has one good leg and a one peg leg. The captions read:

I’m thankful that I have one leg.

To limp is no disgrace.

Although I can’t be number one

I can still run the race.

It’s not the things you cannot do,

That makes you what you are,

It’s doing good with what you’ve got

That lights the morning star.

To all of us who feel somehow crippled and as though we are running too slowly in life’s race, let us remember: “It’s doing good with what you’ve got that lights the morning star.” Never give up. The world always needs another morning star.

B.C. comic strip by Johnny Hart

George Domm

George Domm was born and raised in upstate New York around historical LDS sites such as the Hill Cumorah and Palmyra. He was very familiar with the Church long before he was baptized in 1959. Soon after joining, he found himself serving a full-time mission for the Church in Berlin, Germany. That was his first of four missions! George currently lives in American Fork, UT with his wife, Margaret, and busies himself trying to keep up with their 11 children and 42 grandchildren. He loves to do family history and play golf with “all the old men in our neighborhood.” His goal is to one day shoot his age, 74.

At 0200 while preparing for a night jump, Bryan and his platoon members were suiting up and preparing to board a C-130.  During the long flight, and after multiple Rangers had thrown up onto the deck of the plane, the air was rank and miserable. When they finally reached their destination, the men adjusted their night vision goggles, checked their parachutes for the 100th time, and secured all weapons before preparing to hook up their static line. (The static line is a chord attached to each parachute that is secured to a cable on the aircraft that causes the chute to open after each Ranger jumps.) The quick succession with which the jumping occurs can sometimes leave room for soldier error, midair collisions, or parachute compromises. Unfortunately for Bryan, this was precisely what happened during his jump. 

As the green light came on, the Squad leader yelled, “Go, Go, Go!” and one Ranger at a time jumped from the aircraft. Bryan was fourth to jump from the plane and had a successful jump — until suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw one of his fellow soldiers coming fast directly towards him. His Ranger buddy had turned his chute opposite the intended direction and was now barreling straight towards him. Within a matter of minutes, the soldier went directly under Bryan, causing him to lose his air, which made the parachute collapse. In the spinning darkness, unable to get his bearings, Bryan free-fell close to 100 feet straight towards an unknown landing zone. During this time, all he could do was plead with God to spare his life.

The first tender mercy happened when instead of hitting the dark ground flat without a parachute, he landed directly in a large hole dug to conceal tanks. This angled landing allowed him to slide down the embankment verses taking a direct hit. The second miracle occurred when even though the extreme force of the fall broke his M-4 assault rifle in half, which was slung across his right side, it cushioned his fall and perhaps saved his leg. On top of being knocked out, he sustained multiple bruised ribs, a fractured elbow, and permanent damage to his knee, but he was able to walk away from this terrifying experience alive.

From this experience, we draw the parable of “stealing air.” 

In this life we are given free agency: the ability to choose for ourselves and to act and not be acted upon. Hopefully in most cases we surround ourselves with those who use their agency for good and for the betterment of those around them, but there are times when others around us use their agency to drag us down and “steal air” from our parachute. 

We all know people who, regardless of their circumstances in life, find negativity in everything. They hate the weather, the traffic, their neighbors, the loud kids in church — just everything. They tend to criticize others in the hope that by doing so, they will somehow feel better about themselves. They are takers: takers of joy, takers of confidence, takers of air. 

Sometimes the best way to protect ourselves from these “takers” is to create distance. We find the ability to be friendly without bringing them into our daily lives. We show love by a smile across a crowded room or a wave from a car window. Protecting ourselves from harmful relationships doesn’t mean we need to be un-Christlike, but it does mean we may need to be considerate of how we interact.

Like the Army Ranger whose misdirected jump caused Bryan’s parachute to fall, they may not always know that their actions are literally stealing our air. The Savior’s plea is for us to treat others the way we would like to be treated. He asks us to “feed [His] sheep” and “love one another.” However, He also overturned the moneychangers’ table and threw them from the temple. He does not ask us to stay in harmful relationships, He simply wants us to “love those who despitefully use [us], and persecute [us].” Perhaps the best way to do this is to pray for them: pray to love them, pray to understand them, and even pray for solutions on how to help them overcome their negative attitudes that are pulling themselves and others down. 

To read more of Janette’s articles, click here.

Abusive relationships do not fall into this category. The Savior of mankind would never want us to remain in a relationship that is abusive either physically or emotionally. These relationships fall into the moneychangers category and should be quickly thrown from our lives, perhaps with the help and guidance of mental health professionals and trusted loved ones.

It is also ever important to learn how to love and uplift even ourselves. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said it this way:

“It may seem odd to think of having a relationship with ourselves, but we do. Some people can’t get along with themselves. They criticize and belittle themselves all day long until they begin to hate themselves. May I suggest that you reduce the rush and take a little extra time to get to know yourself better. Walk in nature, watch a sunrise, enjoy God’s creations, ponder the truths of the restored gospel, and find out what they mean for you personally. Learn to see yourself as Heavenly Father sees you—as His precious daughter or son with divine potential” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Of Things That Matter Most,” October 2010).

When our hearts are in the right place because we have surrounded ourselves with uplifting people, we have the ability to more clearly see God’s hand in our lives — and then perhaps we can even view ourselves a little more as He sees us. He is a loving Father who wants us to be happy and successful. 

May we ever recognize and cultivate relationships that help us to stay afloat and enjoy life’s splendid views. May we pray for the “takers” and be brave enough to treat them like the Savior would without compromising our parachute’s integrity by allowing them access to our air space. We can climb higher, see clearer, and find our true potential when we put our trust in the Savior and in His mighty power to save. 

Janette Beverley

Janette Beverley is a lover of life, family, music, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy, and has five amazing children and one equally amazing husband.

Janette is excited to be writing for LDS Blogs and sharing her love and passion for finding the miraculous among the mundane, the awe-inspiring among the obvious, and the uplifting among the underestimated.

To read more of her work, you can visit Janette’s personal blog here.

“Tell me, sir, what is a butterfly?”

“It’s what you are meant to become. It flies with beautiful wings and joins the earth to heaven. It drinks only nectar from the flowers and carries the seeds of love from one flower to another. Without butterflies, the world would soon have few flowers.”

“It can’t be true!” gasped Yellow. “How can I believe there’s a butterfly inside you or me when all I see is a fuzzy worm?”

“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked pensively.

“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

“You mean to die?” . . . 

“Yes and no,” he answered. “What looks like you will die but what’s really you will still live. Life is changed, not taken away. Isn’t that different from those who die without ever becoming butterflies?”

“And if I decide to become a butterfly…” said Yellow hesitantly. “What do I do?”

“Watch me. I’m making a cocoon. It looks like I’m hiding, I know, but a cocoon is no escape. It’s an in-between house where the change takes place. It’s a big step since you can never return to caterpillar life. During the change, it will seem to you or to anyone who might peek that nothing is happening, but the butterfly is already becoming. It just takes time!”

. . . Yellow decided to risk for a butterfly. For courage, she hung right beside the other cocoon and began to spin her own.

“Imagine, I didn’t even know I could do this. That’s some encouragement that I’m on the right track. If I have inside me the stuff to make cocoons — maybe the stuff of butterflies is there too.”

(Trina Paulus. Hope For the Flowers. Paulist Press, 1973.)

One day I was pondering this little story and I wanted to understand more about how a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. 

As ScientificAmerican.com explains:

The caterpillar, or what is more scientifically termed a larva, stuffs itself with leaves, growing plumper and longer through a series of molts in which it sheds its skin. One day, the caterpillar stops eating, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf, and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body and eventually emerges as a butterfly or moth.

 

But what does that radical transformation entail? How does a caterpillar rearrange itself into a butterfly? What happens inside a chrysalis or cocoon?

 

First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out. But the contents of the pupa are not entirely an amorphous mess. Certain highly organized groups of cells known as “imaginal discs” survive the digestive process. Before hatching, when a caterpillar is still developing inside its egg, it grows an imaginal disc for each of the adult body parts it will need as a mature butterfly or moth — discs for its eyes, for its wings, its legs and so on. 

 

Once a caterpillar has disintegrated all of its tissues except for the imaginal discs, those imaginal discs use the protein-rich soup all around them to fuel the rapid cell division required to form the wings, antennae, legs, eyes, genitals and all the other features of an adult butterfly or moth. 

As I read about what happens inside a cocoon, I was fascinated and I quickly started seeing the symbolism of our mortal life. We experience a similar transformation as we invite the Atonement to work in our lives. I used to think the Atonement only applied to us at the judgment seat when we stand before Heavenly Father and Jesus to be judged — yet as I’ve seen the gospel work in my life as well as in the lives of others around me, I understand the Atonement is the healing, strengthening, transformational power that changes us from the natural man/woman into the amazing person we were created to be. We came into mortality with the “imaginal discs” of who we really are as God created us. Part of that process is growing to the point to where we “want to fly so much that we are willing to give up being a caterpillar” — to want to be reunited with our Heavenly Parents so much that we are willing to give up being the natural man. We want to align our will to the Father’s will.

 I am reminded of something I read in a talk, “Lord, I Love Thy Holy Habitation.”

“The baptistry is the first ordinance room we can experience in the temple. We often speak of baptism as a cleansing process, but perhaps this is wishful thinking on our part. Baptism is not about cleansing so much as it is about dying, for coming to know God will require a change so radical as to be like a death. In this room we submit to the water as we would submit to a grave, a place that returns things to native element, dissolving and breaking things apart until it is all matter unorganized. This is not what we have in mind when we come to Christ for healing. When we have reached the limits of how far our old assumptions will take us, we would quite prefer that God simply make our lives work again and put them back the way they were. That failing, we hope that maybe He can change other people, or that He will change the rules of life itself. What does not occur to us is that He will ask us to change, and to change the very assumptions which we thought made us safe. Yet baptismal waters testify that old ways of understanding who we are, old ways of trying to be safe and in control, old ways of trying to get our needs met. These coping mechanisms must often die and dissolve before we can be reborn as children of Power. 

 

In the temple baptistry, the only temple room in which all the work done is for the dead, we also remember that we are products of an ancestral heritage that may include both access to spiritual blessings, and the blinding, wounding legacy of unrighteous traditions of fathers and mothers. In fact, these traditions are part of what we may have to let go of so that we can claim our birthright in the family of God. So, the baptistry does more than offer new birth to the dead; it also calls us, the living, to engage in the two mortal acts of single greatest worth to our soul: to repent and to forgive. As we repent of the sinful ways we have learned through our experience with our culture and with prior generations, I believe we help release our ancestors and others who have helped shape the culture we live in from spiritual prisons of regret and remorse which they must experience as they see their sins perpetuated in our lives. As we truly forgive them, we may also be ready to forgive ourselves. 

 

When I go looking for God in the baptistry I ask myself, “What needs to die in my life right now so that I can more fully claim my birthright within my heavenly home? To what new freedoms is God calling me? Is it time to give up on the shame that is simply another form of pride? Does my insistence on being in control need to be laid to a permanent rest? Is it time to catapult fear of failure, of loneliness, or of death — fears that enslave my life in unholy ways?” The baptistry reminds us that Jesus knows all about dying, and that we can afford to trust that the hand that pulls us down into the watery grave will also raise us again.” 

 

(“Lord, I Have Loved the Habitation of Thy House…,” Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D.)

To read more of Sonja’s articles, click here.

Processing the experiences we’ve been through is what adds to our wisdom and it’s why it is so important to repent, forgive ourselves, let go of any traces of guilt, shame, blame and judgment about the path we had to travel in order to learn from the things we experience. It was not intended that we would only use the past as a way to denigrate ourselves. 

Looking back at my life lessons, I understand that for those who resist lessons, there are additional lessons. I’ve taken tests I’ve failed and been grateful for the tests I got to take over once I learned more. All the while, those “imaginal discs” born inside each of us are responding to the gift of the Atonement. Heavenly Father didn’t leave anything out of the plan of happiness. 

The Atonement is intended to help us through this laboratory of learning. It was never intended to be reserved for judgment day. President Nelson has said, “[I]n coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.” Becoming the person we were created to be is a process that continues long after we leave mortality. It takes time, experience, endurance, patience, healing, and letting go of the person we were. As Yellow found out, “What looks like you will die but what is really you will still live. Life is changed, not taken away.”

Sonja Hopkins

Sonja lives with her husband, Dale, on Anderson Island, Washington. She and her husband are Church Service Missionaries serving in the Addiction Recovery Program, focusing on pornography and sex addiction. She is also a certified life coach and teaches “Life Skills for Emotional Self-Mastery” in her stake twice a month. She does not teach you only to process something traumatic done to you in the past; rather, she helps you learn to feel it, heal it, and LET GO of whatever you still do to yourself and to others in order to cope with what was done to you in the past.

We all want to be successful when it comes to the really important things in our lives. We understand that there will be failures along the way, but we hope they will be small failures having to do with the little things that don’t really matter. None of us wants to admit that it’s possible to fail at the big things as well. Our Heavenly Father knows our capabilities. He knows our weaknesses. All He expects is that we do the best with what we have. So why is it that we feel we must be perfect?

I had the perfect stay-at-home Sabbath day planned. The first two pandemic stay-at-home Sabbath days had gone pretty well, so I thought by the third week, I’d be able to work out all the bugs and have it perfect. Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way. By 2:30 p.m. I had cancelled the FaceTime appointment with the missionaries for a spiritual thought, and was in the fetal position on my bed sobbing. So much for the perfect Sabbath. In an effort to compose myself, I grabbed my laptop and began watching general conference talks from last October’s conference—by myself—alone in my bedroom. It took a couple of hours, but I was able to salvage some of the sacred feelings of the Sabbath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the faith-promoting family experience I had hoped for and planned, but I can honestly say it was the best I could do.

Elder Terence M. Vinson, speaking of Oliver Granger, who had been left in Nauvoo, Illinois to do the impossible task of selling property for the Saints—and then had been commended by the Savior for his failed efforts—said:

“That may be true of all of us—it’s not our successes but rather our sacrifice and efforts that matter to the Lord” (Elder Terence M. Vinson, “True Disciples of the Savior,” Oct. 2019 General Conference).

Elder Vinson goes on to explain that we should be fair dinkum (or all in) when it comes to the gospel. We can’t be half-hearted in our efforts to live our covenants. If we are all in, or fair dinkum, as Elder Vinson says, in living our covenants, Heavenly Father will forgive us of our shortcomings—the Savior has already made up the difference. All that is required of us is that we do our best.

I’ve had a multitude of challenges over the last five weeks, and for the most part, I feel good about the successes. The little failures along the way can be tools to learn from, or they can be stumbling blocks to future success, depending on my attitude and how I deal with them. The power to control my life, my successes, and my failures lies within me. I can learn from my failures. I can also learn to accept that the choices of others sometimes contribute to both my successes and my failures. I can have an attitude of gratitude, learn, and move forward. I can choose to forgive myself and others for shortcomings. I can choose to learn from my mistakes and theirs to make things better. Obviously, I also have the opposite choices I could make, but I care to concentrate on the positive.

By locking myself in my bedroom with my laptop Sunday, I learned that I can choose to have the Spirit with me, even in difficult times.

“Regardless of your circumstances, you can make your home the center of gospel learning and living. It simply means taking personal responsibility for your conversion and spiritual growth. It means following President Nelson’s counsel “to [remodel your] home into a sanctuary of faith” (Stephen W. Owen, “Be Faithful, Not Faithless,” Oct. 2019 General Conference).

To read more of Tudie’s articles, click here.

In the privacy of my bedroom, I took personal responsibility for my own spiritual growth. I didn’t completely throw in the towel—even though that’s exactly what I wanted to do. While it was not immediately possible for me to remodel my home into that sanctuary of faith, it was possible to remodel my bedroom. Baby steps—just one baby step at a time. What is the phrase we’ve heard so many times? Start where you’re planted? Something like that.

I also learned that I can feel joy in all circumstances—even after a good cry on my bed.

When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. … For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy! (President Russell M. Nelson, “Joy and Spiritual Survival,” (Oct. 2016 General Conference.)

It is up to me to focus on the Savior, do my best, feel gratitude, take responsibility for my own spiritual growth, and be joyful. Heavenly Father will be satisfied with that because the Savior has already paid the price of my shortcomings. Just do your best, Tudie, just do your best.

Tudie Rose

Tudie Rose is a mother of four and grandmother of ten in Sacramento, California. You can find her on Twitter as @TudieRose. She blogs as Tudie Rose at http://potrackrose.wordpress.com. She has written articles for Familius. You will find a Tudie Rose essay in Lessons from My Parents, Michele Robbins, Familius 2013, at http://www.familius.com/lessons-from-my-parents.

Mortality is the first developmental stage we experience since leaving our premortal stage. We will go through many other developmental stages after we leave mortality. We came into mortality primarily to receive a body, to exercise our agency, and to experience the natural consequences of our choices (i.e., to gain wisdom from our experiences). Our body is a key element in helping us fulfill eternal goals. As we consider the miracle of our physical body, we can clearly see the body was created to survive.

Our bodies are actually a combination of “four bodies” that are designed to function in a harmonious relationship with each other. We have a physical body, a mental body, an emotional body, and a spiritual body. They are designed to work in harmony; to be in balance. When they aren’t in balance, we experience pain, stress, apathy, and anger, which puts our spiritual body out of balance as well. They are designed to interact in such a way so as to make learning and developing possible. Our responsibility is to learn to remove any resistance to being in balance. That resistance is referred to as “self-defeating behavior.” Self-defeating behavior comes from a lack of skill. That skill was designed to be learned in a series of developmental stages. Each one of the bodies has essential functions we can learn and apply in order for these four bodies to come into balance. It’s all about learning what we need to know and learning what we need to know how to do.

Each body has five essential functions. 1. Input, 2. Process, 3. Strengthen, 4. Express, 5. Balance. If any one of these functions is omitted, we will experience discomfort. Pain (in any of the bodies) is an important gift that is like an early alarm system to help us pay attention and start evaluating and fixing what is out of balance. Physical pain, mental anguish, emotional stress, and spiritual apathy are important warnings that we are out of balance. Our body is our “learning” tool and it’s important to maintain it in good functioning order. 

Let’s take a look these five functions in each of the four bodies and how we address them. There are a few examples mentioned. Perhaps you can think of more to add.

Physical Body

1. Input. At the physical level, we know we have to have food, water, and air to live. If we lose a lot of blood, we have to replenish it. 
2. Process. Once the food is in our bodies, the automatic functions take over and we process the food to activate energy in the body. Water replenishes the vast ocean of fluids which make up much of our body. Air brings in nutrients and oxygenates the blood, etc.
3. Strengthen. Whenever you stress or stretch a physical muscle 10%, it weakens the muscle (i.e., you feel sore) and when the muscle heals, it will be stronger. If you routinely stress the muscle more than 25%, when it heals, it will be weaker. This is why it is important to take it slow and easy as the body builds its endurance and becomes stronger. Every day, we can engage in activities that strengthen our physical body.
4. Express. Once nutrition is processed, our bodies are nourished. Then we express (eliminate) the waste products. We also express through our sweat glands, breath, skin, tears, laughter, etc.
5. Balance. The physical body balances all the functions so that no part of our body is left out. Each cell receives needed nutrition and oxygen. If something “blocks” the flow of input, processing or expressing for a lengthy period of time, we can die if it is not unblocked. We know we would die if we don’t have sufficient food, water, and/or air, or if our body doesn’t utilize nutrients. If we were unable to express or eliminate the waste from our body, we would fill up with toxic matter and die, and if we didn’t move our muscles, would shrivel up and die. Balance in the physical body assures quality of life. A hundred years ago, most deaths were caused by infectious diseases. Today, most deaths are caused by lifestyle choices.

Emotional Body

1. Input. We provide input for the emotional body by exposing ourselves to experiences; by interacting with our environment; by developing relationships with family, friends, co-workers, etc.; by being willing to feel. Feeling is not good or bad — it simply is. Sometimes when people get their feelings hurt, they want to shut down their ability to feel. 
2. Process. We process by noticing how we feel, by allowing ourselves to feel, by celebrating our ability to feel.
3. Strengthen. It is as important to exercise our emotional body as it is our physical body, and for the same reason. The more we exposure ourselves to experience — the more we risk to feel — the stronger our emotional body becomes. We find that we are able to express joy only to the level of passion we have expressed our sadness. You cannot go “up” to a greater level than you are able to go “down.” As we exercise our emotional body, we are able to quickly move from one emotion to another without getting stuck. Being in balance doesn’t mean being afraid or unwilling to feel; rather, it means being free to feel.
4. Express. Whenever we feel an emotion, the next step is to express it in some way: laugh, cry, hug, dance, paint a picture, wear a red dress, sing a song, hit something or someone, throw a pillow, clap our hands, and scream. In some way, we are moved to express. When we don’t express our feelings, we stuff it away and we feel discomfort or unease. When we do this long enough, the effects of this shutting down will surface on the other three bodies.
5. Balance. It is important to experience all emotions as good news. One of my favorite greetings is, “Are you feeling?” The ability to feel is far more important than what you are feeling. Being willing to feel allows your emotional body to be in balance. Judging one emotion as “bad” and something to be eliminated from your life can create imbalance. Feelings are not subject to “right” or “wrong,” they simply are. 

Mental Body

1. Input. We feed our mental body by exposing ourselves to opportunities for learning by reading, watching TV or movies, listening to commentaries on everything from politics to medicine to religion, etc. In every way we interact with other people and our environment, there is opportunity for mental input.
2. Process. Once we have our “pantry” full of information, we can allow our brain to sort through and organize the information. Some information we will retain as useful and some we will discard. We analyze, match, sort, combine, and discard. It’s the job of the brain to organize information and compare it to what is already been filed away. So long as our thinking brain is functioning, we are processing in the mental body.
3. Strengthen. We strengthen the mental body by challenging our minds with new input. We allow ourselves to explore a new area of interest. We seek out opportunities to expand our field of interest. It’s how we expand our ability to think. We can come to a place where we no longer think in terms of “I’m right” and “You’re wrong.” We can honor another person’s perception without feeling obligated to claim it as our own. We are able to recognize the difference and we are comfortable with being different. 
4. Express. We express by sharing information with others. At first, we tend to gravitate towards those who agree with our view of the world. When we become confident within ourselves, we see the value of developing relationships with those who have perceptions that are different from ours. We are willing to consider the possibility there may be more to learn.
5. Balance. Understanding that multiple perceptions are valuable in building relationships allows us to balance our intellect with our humanity. Being more concerned with loving people rather than judging them allows us to rely on our intellect when it serves and to recognize when our intellect is a block to human development and humanity.

Spiritual Body

1. Input. We receive spiritual food when we quiet the inner dialogue. We take time to “smell the flowers” and to fill our soul with gratitude for the abundance we enjoy. We pray for help and guidance. We understand that when we say “amen,” that is the first part of the communication. Now we allow time to ponder and listen for the promptings that come through the Spirit from our Creator. We begin to view our life as God views it. We understand it as God understands it and we are at peace.
2. Process. We process by meditating and allowing the Spirit to break through the fog that has been facilitating our mental, emotional, and physical bodies’ learning. We process by choosing to accept and not resist the learning process. We process by choosing to feel, to live, to love, to grow. We process by choosing to trust the process which was designed by our Creator. We are willing to be subject to His will.
3. Strengthen. We strengthen our spiritual body by releasing control, fear and judgment. We strengthen by being willing to accept that everything we experience is for our learning and gaining wisdom. We strengthen by allowing ourselves to be a spiritual being being a human experience. We are no longer content to merely do a human experience or to simply have one. We choose the plan for evolving. We accept ourselves as evolving beings who are allowed to learn in whatever way that teaches us.
4. Express. Spiritual expression is love—unconditional love for self and others, and unconditional acceptance of all that is within the laboratory of learning. It is absolute trust and willingness to submit to the process of life without judgment; a sure knowledge that we are proceeding according to a divine plan and that God is in charge, and that He knows what He’s doing.
5. Balance. Spiritual balance is the allowing and honoring of whatever learning process is required for the physical, emotional, and mental bodies to fully develop. The spiritual body is the personification of balance at all levels of existence. Perhaps more than that, it is a fully aware choice to BE.

Conclusion

To read more of Sonja’s articles, click here.

One of the most interesting books I have read about this subject is It’s Not What You Eat, but What Eats You by Jack Schwarz.

When we fail to understand and apply how to take care of our body(ies), we will experience the natural consequences. I find it fascinating how our bodies are created to take care of each other when we get out of the way and follow simple rules. They are in constant relationship with each other. So get to know your body… It’s a friendly place to live.

Sonja Hopkins

Sonja lives with her husband, Dale, on Anderson Island, Washington. She and her husband are Church Service Missionaries serving in the Addiction Recovery Program, focusing on pornography and sex addiction. She is also a certified life coach and teaches “Life Skills for Emotional Self-Mastery” in her stake twice a month. She does not teach you only to process something traumatic done to you in the past; rather, she helps you learn to feel it, heal it, and LET GO of whatever you still do to yourself and to others in order to cope with what was done to you in the past.