This blogpost features some personal thoughts from my young adult daughter and a half-sheet activity page to complement the Come Follow Me (CFM) reading for April 28 - May 4, which includes D&C 41-44. Click here for an index and links to my CFM blogposts for other weeks.
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I love how these sections of the Doctrine and Covenants talk about the pattern for receiving revelation for the whole church and how it relates to us receiving personal revelation for our own lives as well. I want my life to be filled with more of those "peaceable things" referred to in D&C 42:61 and I thought I'd share these thoughts from my young adult daughter on the matter.
FINDING THE PEACEABLE THINGS THROUGH PERSONAL REVELATION written by my daughter, in 2020
A few years ago, late one evening my family arrived in Rome. The first morning we woke up excited to get going and see all the sites. We lugged our huge backpacks to the train station, which turned out to be much further away than we thought. On top of that, our GPS wasn’t working very well, and none of us spoke any Italian. After wandering in what we thought was the right direction for a while, we realized that we were actually very lost. We eventually found someone who spoke a little English, who was able to give us directions. We started on our way again, but it wasn’t long before we got to an intersection and weren’t sure which way to go again. At that moment, the same man who’d given us the directions before, pulled up in his car and pointed the new way to go. His car couldn’t go on a lot of the paths we were taking, but he followed us all the way to the train station, meeting us at intersections, and calling out and gesturing to us the right way to go, whenever he saw us. It took us a while to get there, but that man was there the whole way making sure we didn’t get lost.
Looking back on this experience, I’ve thought about how nice it would be to have a friendly Italian man giving me directions whenever I feel lost.
In Helaman 5, Nephi and Lehi (the sons of Helaman) go to teach the gospel to the Lamanites. They are captured, thrown into prison, and are almost killed when they are surrounded by a pillar of fire and take courage and begin to preach to their captors. They are all surrounded by a “cloud of darkness” when they hear a voice. “And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul”
So, perhaps the spirit doesn’t have an Italian accent (or I guess he might if you served your mission in Italy), but I love that description of a still voice that pierces the soul. The only problem with such a small voice though is that it’s way too easy for it to get lost in this world which is pretty loud and distracting.
It can make it really hard to tell what is actually a prompting and what is not! I don’t know about you , but a lot of times I am unsure about whether something is revelation or just my thoughts. How can I discern if I’m just telling myself what I want to hear or if it’s actually the Holy Ghost telling me what I need?
Elder Bednar did a really good little video series called “Patterns of Light.” (use the arrow button to scroll through all the videos in the series). He talks about how, while everyone receives revelation slightly differently, there are three categories they fall into. The first is like when a light is turned on in a dark room and the darkness is immediately expelled so you can see everything clearly. This is like a nice Italian guy showing up at every crossroad and telling you which way is the right way. Unfortunately this kind of message probably doesn't actually happen to us very often.
The second way he relates to the rising sun. It illuminates everything gradually. You can discern the light on the horizon, but it does not come all at once.
The third way is like a foggy day. You have just enough light to see that it’s not dark anymore but nothing is brilliantly illuminated and clear. You can see just enough to take a step or two forward at a time.
Now, as much as I wish I could say that all the times I get revelation the Spirit speaks to me so clearly, but it definitely does not. Most of the time the promptings are really quiet and gradual, like I mentioned in the beginning. They require patience and work on my part to be worthy to have the Spirit with me even if I don’t feel it all the time.
I think that is one of the biggest misconceptions about the Spirit. Sometimes we really just don’t feel it. Whether it’s because we have distractions in our lives that are keeping it from us or because we just don’t really recognize it, because nothing big has happened to us like in those stories we hear in general conference or testimony meetings where people have a feeling they shouldn’t be in a certain place at a certain time and then something terrible happens and they realize that the Holy Ghost literally saved their life.
In Elder Bednar’s videos he suggests a simple reason why it’s not always easy to recognize the spirit. It’s because God trusts us. He wants us to make our own decisions and choose to follow His example and His teachings. Elder Bednar also says that “everything that invites and entices us to do good and to be good comes from God.” I think once we recognize that and start doing good and serving others like Jesus did, it will become easier and easier to identify those promptings when they come. D&C 6:23 says, “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?” In my life, I know that, if nothing else, the Holy Ghost brings peace and hope to me. I know that you can feel that peace too, whether you have three midterms this week, or have been waiting for your mission call for way long, or if you’re lost on the streets of a foreign city. I know that Jesus Christ loves me and He loves each of you so much.
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PRINTABLE CFM ACTIVITY SHEET
These
activity sheets are designed to print double-sided and cut in half.
They're perfect for reviewing or introducing the content found in the
Come, Follow Me reading each week and would be great used in a classroom
or home setting. Hope they add a little fun and pizazz to your CFM this week!
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Be sure to bookmark this page and come back every week for more Come, Follow Me material!
Enjoy learning the gospel together!
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