The Power of Faith

We all face challenges in life. Challenges can be anything and come at anytime in our lives.  One of the most common challenges we will face comes in the form of health.  When we face health problems or other personal challenges we can wonder "Why me?" or "Why is this challenge so hard?" Since we are human we may always ask ourselves these questions, however in the Book of Matthew in the New Testament there is a story about what we can do when our challenges come.

"And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

  For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." (Matthew 9: 20-22)

We learn from this story that our faith is the key to making us feel better.  Now that we know that faith will make us better we need to know what faith is, we learn in Hebrews 11:1 that " faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  When we have been sick all of us one time or another has hoped that we can overcome the sickness that we have received.  

Lastly we learn from James 2:17: "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."  We learn from this scripture that we have to put forth some effort in being healed from sickness.  This might mean eating healthy food and getting good amounts of rest.  Our personal effort may be the hardest to give but we can always improve.  I encourage all of us to build our faith so when challenges come they will not be as hard as they first appear. 

Great Stories from a Loving Heavenly Father

Stories play a very big role in our lives.  Stories can entertain, and inspire us.  Our Heavenly Father knows this and has provided both types of stories in a collection of books called The Bible and The Book of Mormon, otherwise known as the scriptures.  I would like share a few of my favorite stories from both volumes of scripture.

Bible: The Parables in Matthew 25 have really become some of my favorite stories in the Bible.  I have learned great lessons from The Parable of the Talents.  In this Parable I have learned that talents are given to every man according to his several ability; (Matt 25:15).  This means that we are given talents to meet our own needs and also to be able to serve our Heavenly Father.  Also I have learned that we should work with the talents that we have but also to try and gain more if we can.  This idea can be found Matthew 25:20 "Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more."  So whatever your talent may be, use it for good and enjoy your talents.

Book of Mormon: I do not have an overall favorite story in this volume of scripture, but I have found valuable advice in the Book of Mormon to help me with my physical challenges from Cerebral Palsy (CP).  The advice that I would like to share comes from Mosiah 4:27.  It states: "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."  Now that it is winter I am trying to live this scripture more than I have in the past.

I encourage all to read these volumes and find their favorite stories.

Did you think to pray?

In a world where much uncertainty lies, our loving Heavenly Father has given us a way to speak with him about our lives here on earth.  This communication between him and us is called prayer.  Since he is our loving Father in Heaven he cares about anything and everything that we are concerned about.  He wants to hear from all of us.  He is willing to hear us anytime and anywhere.

The Book of Mormon has a scripture of encouragement when we decide to pray.

"For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.  But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."  (2nd Nephi 32:8-9)

I desire all to pray and use our wonderful gift that our Heavenly Father has established for us.

Baseball: The Game of Life

As long as I can remember I have loved the game of baseball.  I desire to explain why I feel that the game of baseball can be related to our life here on earth.

A game of baseball is played between two teams who put nine players on the field.  Both of the teams goal when they are on offence is to try to hit a ball and move their base runners on their teams to the final plate on the baseball field, which is called home plate.  When any of the two teams are on defence their goal is to stop each others team from touching home plate. Our loving Heavenly Father works the same way.  He wants all of us, His children, to touch Home Plate safely.  In other words he wants us to return Home to be with him after we die. 

Just like any sporting event no two games are alike.  This is the same with our lives, no two lives are the same. We are put on earth to have different experiences to help us learn, grow, and trust in God or our Heavenly Father.  Whatever the circumstances are that we may encounter in this life, Heavenly Father's goal of wanting us to return home remains the same.

Our Heavenly Father has given us many tools to help us touch home plate when the defence comes in the form of temptation, trial, or any other personal challenge we may face.  Our job is to use the tools that he has given us to the best of our ability.  These tools come in the form of scriptures and good role models.  Let us try and remember God's purpose for our lives and the tools that he has given to us to have success in coming back to Him.

Experience: A Wonderful Blessing

All of us in life have received different experiences in our lives.  Some experiences come because of our interests, hobbies, and talents.  Some of our experiences come to us without us wanting them to, like a death of a family member.  Our life experiences can be a service to others by helping them overcome trials. Whatever the experience, they are here to help us learn and grow.  We should not be jealous of other people's experiences or take ours for granted because the experiences that we have in our lives are a blessing. I encourage all of us to be grateful for our experiences whatever they may be. 

Service

Service in my opinion is being willing to do something for someone when the giver of the service has no thought of getting something in return. I also believe that our attitude before, during, and after the project plays a big role in how we act when an service project comes our way.  Following are some positive ideas on the topic of service.  1. The awesome thing about service is that it does not have to be something big to be accepted.  Sometimes the smaller acts of service can make more of a difference to a person than a big project.  2. In the scriptures we learn that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17 Book of Mormon).  I really enjoy this scripture because it lets us know that whenever we do something nice for someone we are making God happy.  3. Service comes in many different forms depending on where you live.  The different forms of service makes service fun because of how unique the projects may be.  The more different the projects are the more skills we will obtain to help with future service projects.  I encourage all of us to be ready and willing to serve wherever and whenever we are.

The Importance of Small Things

Words like small and simple are very important.  These words are important because they represent small things we do to create our huge goals. For example we may have a goal to attend college or make it on a sports team.  For these goals to come true there will always be small things associated with that big goal to fulfil them.  Small things for these big goals could be getting good grades in school or practicing the sport.  It is okay to dream big.  In my opinion it is the big goals that help motivate us to do anything in this life.  I encourage all of us to remember the small things in life.

Choice:The Action that Brings Happiness or Sadness

The ability to choose is a wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father that can have a huge impact on everybody.  The outcome of our lives is decided by our personal choices.   There will be times in life when we will have to choose how to react to an experience or there will be times when we will choose to dwell on past experiences. Sometimes thinking about past experiences are good if these experiences uplift the individual and others around them.  However, we all have had sad experiences in our lives and these experiences  can creep into our minds very easily.  If we are not careful these sad experiences can make us forget about the positive and happy experiences that life brings us.  Let us strive to stay positive, and become as happy as we can.

Jesus Christ: The Bread of Life

One of the biggest blessings in life that can be easy to forget or overlook is knowing about Jesus Christ and His mission. Those who know about him should use this knowledge in times of testing and peace as well as times of happiness and sadness. While we use our knowledge of Jesus Christ to endure trials or enjoy the happy experiences that life brings us, we should give everybody the opportunity to know who Jesus Christ is so they can also live off of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Even Jesus Christ mentioned this:
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35)
However, we are not perfect, but it is because of our imperfections that makes His life even more meaningful.  We learn from the scriptures about His suffering. "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:11-12 Book of Mormon)

I encourage all of you including myself, to let people know about Jesus Christ and His Mission. 

The Bible and The Book of Mormon: Two Testaments of Jesus Christ

   I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the similarities between The Bible and The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. First, let me explain more about the Book of Mormon since the book might be unfamiliar to most people. "The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.  The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation." (Book of Mormon Introduction.) Now I would like to look at a few scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  The first is in Hebrews 11:1 it says: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  In Alma 32:21 of the Book of Mormon we read: "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." As we see both volumes of scripture teaches us what faith is.  Another interesting fact about both the Bible and The Book of Mormon is that they both talk about the teachings of the Phophet Isaiah. Examples in the Book of Mormon can be found in 1st Nephi 20 and 21.  Also Isaiah can be found in Mosiah 14.  Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon support what each other are saying and they both become stronger with each other's testimony of Jesus Christ. I encourage all to read and learn from these two volumes of scripture.

The Greatest Parent of All Time

No matter who raised us, whether it be parents, guardians, or ourselves, the Book of Romans in the New Testament explains an relationship that we should all grow to understand.  It says: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" (Romans 8:16)  Knowing that we are Children of God helps us know that there is someone that loves each and everyone of us on an individual level.  Since God loves each one of us personally he wants us to talk with Him everyday.  How we do this is by prayer.  Prayer is when we can openly tell our Heavenly Father anything that is on our mind.  We can pray out loud or silently.  I encourage all who read this post to begin and continue to build a relationship with The Gratest Parent of All Time.