Category Archives: Walk The Talk

Change, Holy Ghost, Relationships, Walk The Talk

Watching Grass Grow

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This started as a comment I posted on the imported Facebook Note of my blog post Simplifying Stuff that I felt deserved it’s own showing on the floor room of my blog.

So, during this last conference I had an interesting experience. I hadn’t felt solid strength in conference for some time, ESP not like in the pre-mission college institute days. But for some reason I decided to prepare for this conference by reviewing the last one. I put out the challenge to the Walk the Talk group and got some takers. So, each day for the last 3 weeks or so I spent reading a conference talk or two, quietly each morning in my back yard with my bare feet finding solace intertwined with the long blades of grass.

It happened slowly, almost like watching my plants grow back there. But compounded over time, it WAS noticeable…I was starting to “feel” again. I was spending time in prayer asking that my eyes would see what I wasn’t seeing on my own. I was indeed seeking for answers. Answers that I needed to help me find peace that I kept grasping for, but seemed to disappear just as smoke would when trying to hold it.

It was in this simple morning ritual that I started again to feel impressions or guidances, simple, but sure direction for myself. Some things I felt impressed to do were to remove all my books from my room, reduce the time I spent working so I could have more balance and connect with friends in meaningful and guided ways.

This little effort created in me a thirst and excitement to participate in conference this time around, similar to how I used to be. And during conference I had moment after moment where I would hear a phrase resonate clearly with something I had already been moved upon to think about, write or do during my backyard study. It felt clearly like a validation from heaven. In those many moments during conference I knew that I was being led. And not all things that I felt to do during my backyard sessions were explicitly written in the words I was studying.

Such an amazing place to be, a fragile one, one that must be protected if it’s important to me. But in the end all the thanks and praise must go to the God that gave us all life and who didn’t leave us without direction here on earth. “When our sacred doctrine & beliefs are challenged,” said Bishop Edgely, as mine has been recently, “this is our opportunity to become acquainted with God in a most private and intimate manner.” ((http://new.lds.org/general-conference/sessions?lang=eng&bcpid=610705729001&bctid=623525042001))

Similarly, Brad Wilcox says on a talk tape, “We don’t have to seek out others who are struggling so we feel justified. And we certainly don’t have to hate those that don’t struggle so that we can feel better. And we don’t have to surrender to addictions and hate ourselves, as easy as that is to do. Instead, we simply have to let faith be an anchor to our souls.”

I’m not sure why those quotes came to mind, I guess it’s just that it is so easy to give in to the voices that say what we’ve known to be true isn’t. And while it is so hard to see sometimes, the help we seek is always right there, waiting for us to seek. I KNOW all it takes is a little alone time with God to reestablish again the foundations of our faith and that our faith is what anchors & grounds us. That idea I really tried to express in basic terms in my post The Essence of Prayer.

Thanks to all my friends who give my life meaning. Thanks to family who has given me much joy and opportunity to grow. And thanks to God for his patience with my wandering and for always being there to embrace me when I return to him.

Faith & Religion, Walk The Talk

Preserving a Mighty Change of Heart

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I wrote not long ago about my journey to find out the truth of the Book of Mormon for myself. It was intensely powerful and I used to think that because I felt the passion and drive the Book brings that I would always feel it. I’ve since learned that’s not exactly how life works.

If we don’t feed the fire, it dies. Plain and simple. 

The insightful question of jumps from the pages of the Book of Mormon to all those who ever have felt a might change of heart in their searchings for the truth, “can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26) I just read an article entitled Preserving the Heart’s Mighty Change that helped me to think again about the answer to that question. Here were some of my thoughts:

I used to think myself invincible to learving the Church. My mother had raised me well and I had the habit of attending meetings weekly. Though, as time goes on I realize that I too am suseptable to walking away, losing the fire, letting worldly ideas convince me that there’s no God or that I am not divine and his child and am just as well off out of the Church as I am in it. Because there are daily attacks on the state of my heart, I must be careful to do those things daily that defend & protect my heart from the ever so imperceptable hardening, damagina and deadening of those slow and steady attacks.

If you’d like to feel the power of the God’s word through his living prophets and apostles I’d like to invite you to join me and many others to study a talk a week in a facebook group called Walk The Talk. It’s low key and there’s no pressure. You can go here

Christ, Holy Ghost, Hope, Walk The Talk

None Were With Him

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“Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said, ‘I will not leave you comfortless. [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].’ “

Three promises came to my mind as I began to ponder and study this talk. They stemmed from a question that I asked myself after I read Elder Holland’s words. The question is, “How can I receive the Lord’s comfort in troubled or lonely times?”

Here are the three promises that sunk into my heart:

  1. aDraw bnear unto me and I will draw near unto you; cseek me diligently and ye shall dfind me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Doc & Cov 88:63)
  2. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and aopen the door, I will bcome in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20)
  3. “I will not leave you acomfortless: I will bcome to you…If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will alove him, and we will come unto him, and make our babode with him.” (John 14:18,23)

I learned the other day in my studies that the Lord extends so many individual promises to all of us. We can know these as we seek to know his will in the scriptures. When we find them we can cling to them with hopeful hearts. AND if we “prove him” by living so that those promises have chance to sprout, we will come to know through the Holy Ghost that he loves us, we will become more fully pure and we will be full of his light.

This said, the Savior’s grace or enabling power comes into our lives and we realize our reliance upon it. None are saved in any other way than by Christ. He makes ALL the difference.

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Original Talk: Jeffrey R. Holland – None Were with Him
Discuss Here: None Were with Him @ Walk The Talk

Gratitude, Hope, Self Discovery, Walk The Talk, Words

Simplicity

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Storms & struggles

Sadness & strife

These are but gifts

Blessings of life

We ride the cycles of happiness and sorrow. With every rotation we learn more of what it is to be human, to have strains, to have challenges, to have difficulties. To recognize that these down times are but part of the whole allows us to let hope into our hearts and understand, as my grandmother used to say, “this too shall pass.”

At times we run faster than we’re able. We fill our lives, and rightly so, with good activities. But there comes a point when the busyness of life robs from us the precious gift of reflection. In quiet moments we can look back on our behavior, let the solemnity of special moments sink in and we can assess our thinking on important topics. Simplifying our lives can provide us with many such opportunities. In these sacred times we can come to accept & love ourselves as well as see life more clearly.

Shelter, food, clothes and heat. These are the few basic things that Henry David Thoreau determined were necessaries for man while he lived a simplified life on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Walden Pond. I am thankful for my meager apartment and cramped room. I am grateful that I have clothes to wear, including my cowboy boots. I am pleased that my house is warm when the weather outside has other plans. I am grateful for my 5 pound bag of pretzels and chocolate milk that sustain somehow my life.

Breaking from philosophy and entering practicality: In considering a shelter Dave Ramsey counsels to spend no more than 25% of your monthly take home pay on your monthly home payments. Also, providing at least 20% in down payment on a 15 year loan will allow you the most flexibility if you need to immediately sale the home.

Thrift, industry, economy and frugality are traits that I seek. At present time I think I’m running about 50/50 on most of them. Hopefully my kids someday will be able to learn these from their bearded father.

Finally, I’m grateful for my agency. I needn’t choose simplicity because that’s what I was advised to do. Rather, I choose simplicity because I can conceive of its benefits in a busy and rushed world.

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Thoughts taken from Let Him Do It with Simplicity, a talk by Elder L. Tom Perry in the October 2008 LDS General Conference.

Reports, Walk The Talk

The Apple Pie Challenge

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The History

So I was up last Sunday and my friend Arden popped online and we started chatting. We both recalled how great it had been to be really involved in the scriptures on a daily basis. So, without much hesitation we both agreed to a challenge of sorts that would help us in our daily reading.

The next morning I woke up and began to read my Book of Mormon and felt that I had some other friends that also could benefit from stepping it up a little in the Word of God department. So, over the next hour or so I texted many of my friends to invite them to to join me in what I called the Apple Pie Challenge.

Now some didn’t quite understand what the whole thing had to do with apple pie, and to them I apologize. Here’s what that’s all about:

I had a friend recently start reading the Book of Mormon again after a time of famine. He ate it up and said it was like home made apple pie. The Lord told us to “feast upon the word” so I thought that was a rather appropriate metaphor.

The Challenge

The Apple Pie Challenge then was to feast 30 minutes each day on the Book of Mormon for a week’s time. I asked all who accepted the challenge to report to me via text message when the day’s readings were complete and I would do the same for them. This daily reporting I learned served two purposes: 1) It was a reminder of the committment I had made and 2) It was a way to be accountable for it. I also invited those who joined to invite at least one other to join in with them.

Some Group Results

By week’s end 38 friends had joined in the challenge to step up. Reports came in throughout the week of simple, yet powerful and personal experiences. Several friends expressed a clarity that became available in the midst of their trials as they spent just a short time with their Father in Heaven daily. Many also expressed that when began it was boring or hard to get into, but as they continued in faith a change happened and they started to hunger for the word.

My Personal Blessings

While each of our experiences were very personal and sacred to us individually, I feel that I can share at least 3 benefits I received this week from studying the Book of Mormon on a consistent basis:

  1. I was given strength to face feelings of anxiety and frustration.
  2. I was able to see my situations more clearly and my tendency to be easily distracted was lessened.
  3. I felt more motivated to choose the right in the midst of the temptations I face daily.

This coming week I realize that I cannot take for granted these blessings. They are too important to me to proudly claim that I am the source of their origination. I will feast again as before, but I will also add a prayer to the routine both before and after I read.

My Invitation to You

I invite all to join me! If you’re in, just text me, “I’m in!” (361-5002) and I’ll report to you daily when I finish and expect you to do the same. We will be having a real life apple pie party in the next couple weeks to celebrate those who take the challenge and step up.