I loved the girls I served, and the presidency I served with in Young Women's in the Mountain View Ward. Just before I was released because we were moving out of the ward, I felt inspired to write them my parting testimony. I'm including it here on the blog because it has another story that helps to complete my conversion story.
Dearest Mia Maids,
I wanted to take a moment and share how much I have loved
feeling your sweet spirits each week, sharing moments with you both spiritual
and fun, crying with you, laughing with you and growing with you. You are all doing infinitely better in life
than I was at your age and I’m so impressed with your testimonies, your good
choices and your desires to serve the Lord!
There are so many things I still want to teach you, but I’m
positive that you have taught me far more than I have taught you this past year
and a half. Nevertheless, I still want
to leave you with my parting testimony.
Knowing that “perilous times are ahead of us”, the most
important thing I could encourage you to do is to strengthen your faith and
testimonies. Build your houses (i.e.
your lives) upon the rock of Christ.
But, there are a few things that in order to have a solid testimony you
MUST have!
These things are what will make the difference when your
faith or testimony is challenged. Here’s what they are… (quoting Gerald Lund of
the Seventy)
You must know for
yourselves with a SURETY that:
-
God is
your Heavenly Father and you are his literal child
-
He and His
Beloved Son want you to be happy and eventually come to a fullness of joy
-
They know
you intimately and love you infinitely
-
They want
to bless you, and they actually take great joy in doing so
Do you know these things for yourselves? If you don’t, or if you need to be
strengthened in this area, ASK HIM TO HELP YOU.
Pray that you can know these things with a surety and at a time that is
expedient, He WILL answer.
There once was a time in my life when I had no clue that
there was even a God in heaven, never mind that he actually knew and loved
me. As my faith as increased, I know it
is true, but even so, it isn’t always easy for me to know with a surety that
Heavenly Father is aware of me.
Sometimes Satan or the world blinds me to this truth and I have to ask
for help. When I have prayed for help
with these things, I am blessed to notice the tender mercies of the Lord in my
life. Elder Bednar said,
I testify that the tender mercies of the
Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by
coincidence. Often the Lord’s timing of
his tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them. The Lord’s tender mercies are the very
personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances,
guidance, loving kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we
receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ…I testify that
the tender mercies of the Lord are available to all of us and that the Redeemer
of Israel is eager to bestow such gifts upon us. Each of us can have eyes to see clearly and
ears to hear distinctly the tender mercies of the Lord as they strengthen and assist
us in these latter days.
Elder Gerald Lund commented on this in his book Divine
Signatures (I highly recommend, it’s available at the library): Did
you notice that Elder Bednar repeats the same point twice? He says that the Lord’s TIMING of His tender
mercies can help us discern them, acknowledge them, and treasure them. This is a very significant observation. I would add one other aspect. Sometimes, in addition to the timing, the
blessings come with such a unique combination of circumstances that it becomes
very clear they are from the Lord.
Young Women, as you pray to know for a SURETY that God knows
you and loves you, look for those tender mercies, those coincidences that let
you know it has to be from the Lord. I
will give you an example from my life:
When I was investigating the church back in Virginia, I had
reached a point where I had been going for a while, and I thought it was nice
and all, but I really didn’t want to become a MORMON! Mormons were weird! Many people where I am from thought they were
a cult. I thought they were like the
Amish or polygamists or something. They
were so super religious and wholesome. I
didn’t want to pay a tenth of my income, I didn’t want to give up drinking
coffee, I didn’t want to go to church for three hours every Sunday, I didn’t
want to change my entire wardrobe to dress modestly, and I certainly didn’t
want people to think I was weird. I
didn’t want to be baptized.
I had decided that I wasn’t going to go back to church or do
any more missionary discussions. Thanks
for the interest in me, but no thanks.
It was in this frame of mind that my friend (the one who had introduced
me to the church) and I decided to go to the park on a Saturday afternoon. We went to a park I rarely ever went to, then
decided to go exploring through the woods and find a spot by the river. We forged ahead, not knowing which way we
would go, weaving through the woods in the middle of nowhere until we found a
quiet spot on the banks of the river.
We sat still and listened to the sounds of nature. I think my friend took a nap, and I sat there
meditating how I was pretty sure I was going to stop investigating the
church. Suddenly, we heard leaves
rustling. We looked over by the river
and saw a young man riding his dirt bike along the river. I want to remind you that this was IN THE
MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. He could barely even
ride a few feet before stopping to jump over a log or weave around a tree or
bush.
“Who would be riding their bike out here?” we asked each
other in disbelief. He was heading in
our direction and as he drew closer we realized we knew him.
“Is that Tommy Nolan?
It is! What are you doing out
here?” He said that he had just decided
to go ride his bike down by the river.
We invited him to sit down and join us, still amazed that not only had
someone entered our fortress of solitude, but that it was someone we actually
knew.
Tommy was a recent convert from our home ward who was loved
by all because no one could NOT be touched by his miraculous conversion. He began to tell me,
“When I was investigating the church Satan worked on me SO
hard!” Then he proceeded to tell me all
of the things Satan attacked which were basically the exact same things I was
struggling with. That conversation
struck me to the core because I knew in my heart of hearts that Satan did not
want me to join the church. And if Satan
didn’t want me to join the church, then it must be exactly what I need to
do. At that moment my stubbornness
kicked in and I decided that I was NOT going to let Satan stop me from going
back to church!
What are the odds we would run into Tommy Nolan by the
river, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the afternoon, and at the
exact moment I decided I wasn’t going to go back to church, and that he would
tell me how Satan worked on him in the same way? A million to one at least. Not a coincidence!
The TIMING and the COMBINATION OF CIRCUMSTANCES let me know
that it was from the Lord, that he knew I was struggling with this, and he sent
someone with a message. Also, Heavenly
Father could have just prompted one of my LDS friends, or the missionaries to
say something like that to me, but instead he chose to prompt Tommy Nolan to
ride his bike by the river when He knew I would be there, then prompted him to
say what he said. Thinking about it in
this way, I realized that Heavenly Father WANTED me to know that it was from
HIM, by the way he chose to do it. It
was His way of giving me a heavenly nudge in the right direction. How or why would He have done that if He
wasn’t aware of me?
Look for the tender mercies in your lives! He knows you!
If Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know when a sparrow falls, or the
lilies of the fields and how they grow, they know you! Yes you!
Don’t let Satan fool you into thinking any differently.
If you don’t feel close to your Heavenly Father, pray that
you can. Ask him to help you. YOU are His work and his glory!
Have you ever heard of the expression, “It was his/her
life’s work?” It means, it is the work
that is most important to you and to which you give a lot of time and
effort. “Her garden was her life’s
work,” for example. Most of you know
that I used to study in Italy, which is also where my husband served his
mission, is where we met, and why we have a daughter named Sicily (after the
island). While there, I studied the
works of the artist Michelangelo, who spent a lifetime creating the Italian
Renaissance’s most famous pieces including the Pieta, The Last Supper and the
statue of David. He painstakingly
painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (the place in the Vatican where new
popes are elected) over the course of 4 years, each day standing up with his
arms above his head, painstakingly and meticulously creating a work of art. With
a total of 38 sculptures, 15 paintings/drawings/or murals, architect of 12
buildings, I should say he was probably very proud of his life’s work.
Moses 1:39 states:
“For behold, this is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality
and eternal life of man.” That’s
YOU! That’s us! WE are his ETERNAL life’s work. In order to do that, wouldn’t he have to know
you, and hear you, and be there at all times and in all things and in all
places?
I testify that He does, and He is. It is my prayer that you know it with a
SURETY.
Something amazing happens when we turn ourselves over to
Christ, and our Heavenly Father. I’d
like to quote Elder Lawrence Corbridge of the Seventy:
Just
give it up. Surrender…to Him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all
over to Him; all of your desires, wishes, dreams and hopes. Be true and
faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your behavior. Trust in
Him. Trust Him who knows all things. Trust Him who has all power. Trust Him whose
love for you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for
your sins, and for your weaknesses as well. Trust Him that He will make of you,
immeasurably more than what you will ever, in all eternity, make of yourself.
He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You
will create an ordinary [wo]man. He will create a God.
That is the promise.
Trust the Savior with everything, give yourselves to him, and He will
create a version of yourselves so beyond what you could have ever dreamed. Will He take away your problems and
trials? Probably not. But with them and other defining moments in
our lives, he will sculpt an amazing work of art that takes everyone’s breath
away.
Make your choice.
It could not be clearer in my mind.
Wholeheartedly living the Gospel of Christ will take you and me farther
than any other path offered by the world.
It has led me to where I belong.
I wish the same thing for you, and I pray for you.
Call me anytime!
I may be released from Young Women’s but I’ll never be released from
being your friend. With much love,
No comments:
Post a Comment