First Pray, Then Listen, and Don't Forget to Act

My Dear Sisters,

Last month I talked briefly about praying to our Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants to hear from us each and every day. But prayer is a part of a two way communication, speaking and listening. Many people don't think our Father speaks to us but He does, all the time.

Can you imagine calling your parents and doing all the talking? Would your parents not speak back? Of course they would and so does Heavenly Father. However, we have to learn how to listen and recognize his voice and promptings, then act upon what we learn. I would like to share with you how to recognize His messages to you.



Our Heavenly Father talks to us in different ways. I have had the blessing of hearing a still small voice. I have heard it in dreams as I woke up in the mornings. I have heard it quiet places. I have heard it as I pondered my questions. It was always amazing to me to feel that love and know He has answered me.

Sometimes we feel a peaceful feeling when He answers us. As we toil over an issue in our lives we are told to research our choices and make a decision, then take it to Him in prayer. If we feel peace and good about our decision then he is manifesting it is a correct one. Sometimes we may feel a burning around our heart. But if we feel absolutely nothing or are still confused or unsettled then we need to rethink our choice.

Sometimes our answers come when we are reading something, or a thought comes to our mind. I am learning to recognize the constant companion I have in the Holy Ghost helping to understand what my Father would have me know. I can't count the times I have made a decision about something not knowing why and found later that I was lead by the Spirit. I was so happy to see that I listened to Him.

Sometimes He answers our prayers through others as they come to our aid or say something that triggers an answer to our prayers. I have stood before a congregation and bore my testimony only to find that it was the answer to a question that someone was searching for. Or vice-versa, for me, I have heard people say things that was exactly what I needed to hear.



There are so many ways that He answers us and let's us know He is listening and cares about our worries. But with that in mind how is it then that the world is in so much trouble. Our Father has given us all the tools we need to live happy and successful here in this earth. He continues to be there for us and help us, as we need, on our journey. He has given us the Holy Spirit to always be with us. He hears us and loves us so much.

I can never deny knowing He is there because He has protected me from danger. He has blessed me with the things I need in life because of obedience. He has held me in times of great sorrow and loss. He has  given me courage to walk away from things that are not good for me. He has blessed me with opportunities to see the beauty of nature. He has blessed me with joy in witnessing a new life and the passing of an old one.



I could go on and on because I have been blessed to see those things that bring the greatest joy simply by being obedient, and keeping a good communication open with Him through constant prayers as well as putting myself in a place to recognize His communication to me. I feel so loved; how can I not be happy?

But I will say there are times that I fall and have to be reminded that He is there helping me. And for that I am truly grateful. I can do anything with the knowledge that He loves me and each one of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. So all you have to do is talk to Him and then listen for His answers because He is always there.



Once you receive your answer or are prompted to do something then act upon it. Don't doubt just go and do. Everything always works out even if you don't know how to make it happen. I loved my life in Utah and wanted to live there for the rest of my life but I kept feeling the prompting to move back to Florida where most of my family were. Finally, after a couple of years of struggling with leaving my life there, I found the courage to move my family where the Lord would have us be.

I have been back for 11 years now and have found many reasons as to why we needed to be here. If I had not acted upon what I was told by my Father above, I would have missed very important blessings and direction for my life, and that of my families. It was the right thing to do and I love Him for leading me back to Florida, even though I still want to live out west.

Also, never forget to thank Him for those blessings and answers. It is easy to find the answers and forget to thank the One who sent them. Gratitude is the key to more of what we need.

Until next month, I pray God's blessing on you as you turn your heart to Him and start that journey with Jesus as your Savior and example.

All my love!!!

p.s. Next blog post will be Sept. 6th. See you then!

Act in Charity

1 Corinthians 16:14
"Let all your things be done with ^acharity."

I told my son to not worry about doing any school work today, he is home schooled, and I told him to focus on his Eagle Scout Project that was coming due soon. When I got home from work I asked how much he got done, he told me nothing.

Then he proceeded to tell me why he got nothing done. He decided to sleep in some, then when he got up he spent time hanging out with his sister. He told her several times that he needed to get this assignment started. When he was finished hanging out with her, he started looking at some stuff and got distracted, so nothing got done. Needless to say I wasn't very happy with him.

I told him this reminded me of when we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to do things but we choose to ignore the prompting. He knew he needed to being working on his project but he did not act upon  that constant reminder in his head. When the Spirit tells us we should do something we need to act upon it.

But I can't say too much about my son, there have been many times when I have not acted in service when I really could have. It's easy to make excuses and move on. The sad thing is that once I justified why I couldn't do it,  I didn't think about it again until something happened and it was too late. Then I felt bad.

I heard a story by President Thomas S. Monson when he didn't act upon a prompting to serve and well...his heart was broken because he was too late (see the link for the story). But he vowed to never disobey  a prompting again. That is a goal for me, to try and never miss an opportunity to serve when prompted.


Acting upon Promptings

As righteous women we need to put our minds in a place where we can always hear the Spirit talking to us and act upon those promptings to do good. We are the answers to prayers; people plead for help and Lord whispers to us to do something so that we can be that answer to another s prayers. If we fail then we have not shown much charity in our hearts.

We need to serve with all our hearts. We need to be like our Savior and learn to love all people and do much good in this world. This is how we help build the Kingdom of God on this earth. Act in Charity. Act in Love.

How Can We Have Charity?

Mosiah 2:17
"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

The key to charity is serving one another. There are so many ways to serve our brothers and sisters. There are charitable organizations that need volunteers. This is something that is needed all year long.

Forbes - Top 200 Charitable Organizations

There are things we can do for the elderly, or orphans, or the sick. There are things we can do for the lonely, or handicapped, or the poor of heart. There are so many things we can do if we just look around for opportunities and ask God for help.

If you want charity in your life you have to ask God to help you attain this attribute of Christ. When we live righteous lives and focus on God good things happen and we are given that gift.

Last year my youngest son started thinking of ways that he can serve. He wasn't sure what he should do so he took his question to God in prayer, asking Him what God would have him do. The very next day he received an answer in General Conference when the Prophet announced that the age to become a missionary was dropped to 18 years old. He knew this was his answer and has now been preparing for that act of service.

18 Year old missionary announcement

The missionaries call him quite often to go out on visits with them. He is really enjoying and loving what he is doing. He has begun his journey in gaining this attribute of Jesus Christ by understanding charity.

"Christlike attributes are gifts from God. They come as you use your agency righteously. Ask your Heavenly Father to bless you with these attributes; you cannot develop them without His help. With a desire to please God, recognize your weaknesses and be willing and anxious to improve." 
Preach my Gospel Manual

We as righteous women can do the same, all we have to do is ask God what He would have us do and the answer will come. If you don't receive an answer right away, then open your eyes and heart to see what good needs to be done, and act upon it, then you will see the Light of Christ shine through your example a hope and faith for everyone you serve. You will have the gift of charity.

What Does Charity Mean to Jesus?

1 Corinthians 13

I always thought of charity as showing love to people by giving to organizations that helped people, then I started reading the scriptures and found charity to show love for people by helping them in many ways and praying for them. But then when I began to really study the scriptures I found that charity is really something a lot more than showing love and helping where I could.

I love Paul and the things he taught. Reading this scripture has taught me what charity really means.

He says that charity is everything. He says that if you do everything you are supposed to do but you don't have charity then you are nothing. I thought about that for a moment, how do you do all the right things but not have charity?

I know that there were times when I would do things because I knew I was supposed to but I didn't really want to do it; like when I was learning about tithing. I wanted to take the money and use it on something else but I knew I was supposed to pay 10% of my increase. I had to learn that the blessings don't come if you do it with the wrong attitude. I knew if I paid an honest tithe and did it with a loving attitude that I was showing my love for my Father in this commandment. So this part of the scripture did make more sense to me; give it with my heart.

But charity means more than just loving through obedience; some of these were real eye openers to me.

Charity is long suffering: That means we are to be patient with others and with God, as long as it takes. We should forgive time and time again, for as long as it takes. We should continue to help people for as long as it takes. These things are not always easy but if we do this we will know charity in our hearts.

Charity envieth not: This means we are to be happy with what we have and not want what others have. There were times in my life that I wished I was blessed with certain things in my life, mostly material things, but then I realized that even though some people had materials things I had spiritual blessings which others did not, and spiritual blessings last longer than material ones. I found that I was happy with my blessings. It seemed that the more material things they had the more they wanted, they were never happy or satisfied.

Charity never vaunteth itself, was not puffed up: This means we don't go around bragging and feeling mightier than the people we serve. When we serve we have to do it with God in mind, that we are doing these things to help but not make anyone feel less of themselves for receiving. Christians are often accused of being mightier than, if we have charity in our hearts we will disprove that theory by helping people to realize that we act upon these things because we want to be more like our Savior, we want to do it because we love them. Jesus was not prideful in service to others.

Seeketh not her own: We are not to pick and choose who we give service and love to, we should be doing this every day as we go through our lives. If we see a need we help, we don't say well today I am going to do one act of service to help someone. We should be saying I will do what the Holy Spirit prompts me to do and serve where I am needed today.

Charity bearth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endueth all things: We should testify that we are followers of Jesus Christ and try to do as He did, we should testify of the truth we hold in our hearts, we should help others to hope for good things to happen, and we should help others to hold on and continue fighting the battle against evil. When we do these things, and help
others to to these things, we are showing true charity in our hearts. We are showing that we have the true love of Christ.

As righteous women we should seek for good things in our lives and find love in  our hearts for all people for they are our brothers and sisters, children of God. They are not more or less than we are. They are strong in some areas of life that we are not and we are strong in some areas of life that they are not, we can serve each other with the strengths we are blessed with: this is charity.

Paul concludes that charity never faileth, and that we should have faith, hope and charity, but the most important of all is charity.

Back to Business

Well, I need to apologize for not posting for a week but I got off schedule due to a few things.

I went out of town to visit my daughter and her family at the end of October. Then it was close week at work. Then Wednesday, we got some awesome news that my youngest daughter was accepted to be a transplant patient and was added to the list.

We went on Thursday to have a blood draw and see if she was a match with my sister. We were told that we would hear anything for a week or two, then on Friday my sister called me, hysterical, saying Life Link called her and told her she was a match for my daughter. We had a good cry together.

Then, we found out that my daughter had a second match with an aunt from her fathers side of the family. So you can see that my mind has been consumed with many things. I will be back on track tomorrow, I promise.

Life is good, God is good!!!

Simple Knowledge

Genesis 1:26-27
"And God said, Let ^aus ^bmake ^cman in our ^dimage, after our^elikeness: and let them have ^fdominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own ^aimage, in the image of God created he him; male and ^bfemale created he them."

These verses are simply said and quite clear on a few issues that seem to plague mankind. 

1) God said let us make man in our image. Here we see that there was more than one person involved in the creation of man, meaning the Godhead, which consists of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ,and the Holy Ghost. The information about who is part of the Godhead is found later in the scriptures. The point here is there is more than one was involved.

2) This verse also says that we were created in God's image and likeness, not an ape's or anything else's image. They created us to be like them. That makes us special.

3) This verse says that we, mankind, are to have dominion over everything on the earth and the earth included. What does dominion mean? It means responsibility, not dominance over things. We are to take care of the earth and it's inhabitants the best we can. 

4) God created male and female for a purpose, to be together as man and wife; to help one another through life. That's how our obedience to procreate works, it takes a man and a woman. That's simple.

God's wisdom is so much greater than ours. When we try to make sense of things from our point of view, we find  it hard to see things from His. 

As righteous women we need to stand up for what we know if truth and good. This world has too much man's wisdom and not enough of God's. When we listen to man we get confused, when we listen to the Spirit of God it becomes clear again, simple knowledge.

Ye are the Light of the World!!!

Matthew 5:14 "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."

Last Saturday, early morning, I made a short 1 hour trip to Orlando to attend the temple. On my trip to and from I spent time talking to my Heavenly Father about my trials and goals. I enjoyed my session, and cried through most of it; I was spiritual moved by my time there. I took a little extra time in the Celestial Room to clear my mind from all the difficult issues that have entered into my life recently. All in all it was a good start to my day and I was ready to meet my challenges when I left.

Later that day the sister missionaries called and asked me to meet them at the home of an investigator who was interested in family history. I did and I walked away feeling real good about the opportunity I had to share my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That evening my youngest son and I needed to run to the store to pick up a couple of items that was needed for the Sabbath Day. As we were walking into the store a very nice gentleman greeted us with this comment;
"The Holy Ghost just told me that you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ."

I smiled and exclaimed, "Yes, I am." He kept walking and then yelled over his shoulder saying, "And that nice young man with you is, too."

I agreed that my son was, too. I felt great that someone recognized my love of the Savior Jesus Christ through my countenance.

When we do the thing the Lord expects of us, through obedience, we can shine the Light of Christ in our lives. We won't be able to hide that light that radiates from our souls. We can be that beacon that others will look to for guidance in troubling times.

We do live in a very troubled world, and we as righteous women need to be that beacon. So fill your day with good things and watch how others react to you. Smile when you pass someone, say hello to someone who looks sad, and help when someone can use a hand. It's up to us to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ, so shine the light and hold it high for all to see.

4th Article of Faith

"We believe that the first principles and ^aordinances of the Gospel are: first, ^bFaith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second,^cRepentance; third, ^dBaptism by ^eimmersion for the ^fremission of sins; fourth, Laying on of ^ghands for the ^hgift of the Holy Ghost."

These are the steps we take to become members of God's Kingdom. We must have faith in Jesus Christ in order for all of the other steps to become successful. Having faith means to believe in Him and his saving grace. It doesn't mean we have to know for a fact but that there is something we feel in our hearts that cause of to have that belief that He is real and loves us. 

When we want to follow Jesus then we find we must give up on the things that cause us to sin  and do things that are not what Jesus would have done. This is where the repentance part comes in. We ask forgiveness of our past sins and promise to never do them again, but if we make mistakes we can remember that Jesus suffered for our sins so we can repent again and start over. However; the idea is that we "never" do it again.

After we have made this change in our life then the next step is to be baptized the right way and with the right authority from God. The correct way to be baptized is to do it like Jesus did, see Matthew 3:13. It says he came up out of the water, meaning he was under the water so the proper way to be baptized is to be taken under the water and brought back up like Jesus did. The proper authority is through the priesthood of God. You can only get that from God meaning He gives the authority to those who holds His priesthood.

The last step is not the least step but just as important as the rest, and that is to receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands again through the proper authority from God. What is the purpose of the laying on of hands in this process? It is to give us that promised Comforter always, to have the Spirit to guide our lives so we know we are doing the right things. Its a promise to have His spirit to always be with us. Now that is an awesome gift.

Its all pretty simple to understand, Jesus did his part now we have to do ours. We need to believe that he is our only Savior, then change our pattern in life to emulate His, become baptized, then receive our gift of the Holy Ghost. I love the Plan of Salvation. I hope you feel the same Spirit I do when I watch this short video of Jesus being baptized.

Jesus being baptized

What we believe about God

One way to teach what Mormons believe is to share the Articles of Faith. Today, I would like to share the First Article of Faith.

"We ^abelieve in ^bGod, the Eternal Father, and in His ^cSon, Jesus Christ, and in the ^dHoly Ghost."

I have included the text below which came from a talk given by Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008), given in October 1998. I hope it helps.

Question 1: What is the Mormon doctrine of Deity, of God?

Since the time of the First Vision people have raised this question, and they continue to raise it and will do so for so long as they believe in the God of their tradition, while we bear testimony of the God of modern revelation.

The Prophet Joseph declared, “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 345).

“We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” (A of F 1:1). This first article of faith epitomizes our doctrine. We do not accept the Athanasian Creed. We do not accept the Nicene Creed, nor any other creed based on tradition and the conclusions of men.

We do accept, as the basis of our doctrine, the statement of the Prophet Joseph Smith that when he prayed for wisdom in the woods, “the light rested upon me [and] I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS—H 1:17).

Two beings of substance were before him. He saw them. They were in form like men, only much more glorious in their appearance. He spoke to them. They spoke to him. They were not amorphous spirits. Each was a distinct personality. They were beings of flesh and bone whose nature was reaffirmed in later revelations which came to the Prophet.

Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision. It was the parting of the curtain to open this, the dispensation of the fulness of times. Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, nothing we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration. I submit that if Joseph Smith talked with God the Father and His Beloved Son, then all else of which he spoke is true. This is the hinge on which turns the gate that leads to the path of salvation and eternal life.

Are we Christians? Of course we are Christians. We believe in Christ. We worship Christ. We take upon ourselves in solemn covenant His holy name. The Church to which we belong carries His name. He is our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer through whom came the great Atonement with salvation and eternal life.

So, we believe in 3 separate beings but one Godhead with the same purpose which is "to bring to pass the ^cimmortality and ^deternal ^elife of man" (Moses 1:39).

They each have a part in that purpose. It was Heavenly Fathers plan to let us come here to experience earth life and prove ourselves worthy to return home to Him being successful in that plan. He wants us to come home successfully so in order for that to happen we needed a Savior, which is His son ,Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us to return home through the Atonement. And then, last but not least, is the Holy Ghost which is a comforter and helper for us while we are here on the earth so we can live our lives successfully and gain the knowledge we need to be able to return home to Heaven. That is the purpose of God for us here at this time.

There are three different beings and three different roles with one purpose, us!!!

Arguing with others over this point is of no use because its something that we can't scientifically prove. It is what we believe through our studies of scripture and experiences (testimonies) that we have gained while living life here. No one can change what you know. And I personally think as long as we believe and acknowledge that God exists then we are on the right path. The rest depends on what we learn and act upon  as we move ahead in life. These are my thoughts,

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.