Thinking All the Day

Thanks to sickness and other ailments I am a bit behind in everything but still wanted to record my thoughts on Luke chapter one, where Zacharias praises God for sending Jesus. He says something that really stood out to me in verse 74: " That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without  fear " Fear is a big part of my life. Too often I do things because I fear the result if I do not do them. Growing up I had a lot of fears in a lot of different ways. I was afraid to talk because I was afraid people would make fun of me. I was afraid to make mistakes because I was afraid that would mean I was doomed to not live with God. I was also afraid to make mistakes because I was afraid of disappointing people or causing people to get angry. I was afraid of water because I was afraid of dying in the water and dying was scary because I did  not know if I would really be with God or in some kind of hell. I still have simi...

Last night I couldn't sleep. There was a lot on my mind, as always, and one of the thing was this quote that I've seen shared a lot on social media from the Come Follow Me lesson for this week: "Perhaps you know people who never seem to lose their faith, no matter what happens in their lives. They may remind you of the five wise virgins in the Savior’s parable (see  Matthew 25:1–13 ). What you may not see are their diligent efforts to strengthen their testimonies of the truth. We must all seek diligently to strengthen our testimonies because, as the foolish virgins learned, we cannot borrow conversion from anyone else." It is totally and completely true that diligent efforts to strengthen your testimony can help you not loose your faith and can strengthen your faith. I get that is what they are saying here, and I believe that is true. At the same time, this quote pulls on my heartstrings a bit because for anyone who is working their little Mormon tail off...

Seek and ye shall find. I've read this phrase dozens of times, but for some reason this time it hit me differently. I always saw it before as Christ saying "seek me, and ye shall find me." Which is probably what he is saying but I realized the other day I can take this another way. As my husband and I were talking, he pointed out that it could even be read as warning. Seek negativity, and ye shall find. Seek a victim status, and ye shall find. Seek for flaws in the gospel, and ye shall find. A few years ago I read "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Anchor. (I totally recommend this book!) One part that has stuck with me over the years is his explanation on how the brain works. When we decide to believe something, our brain focuses on that belief and is constantly scanning for evidence of what we believe or scanning for the focus. When the brain is focused intently on something, it dumps all the extra information coming at so it seems like wha...