The Tender Mercies of the Lord!

Lately I have been struggling soo much to the point that I have just wanted to give up. I have been hurt by others. It has been so hard! I have been throwing everything I have learned on my mission on the back burner. I have been falling day by day to a place that no man wants to go! In a way I will call it the "Highway to Hell". I have been so miserable. There is a famous scripture that says, "...power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." (2nd Nephi 2:27)

The adversary wants all of us to be miserable. He is so why not drag others down to hell! What we don't realize is how easy it is for him to get a hold of us. When we drop our shield(the protection given by God) we are all on our own. We are then in the hands of the devil.

How do we drop our shield? Let me tell you. We all know the very basics. Daily Prayer,  Scripture Study, going to ALL Church classes, etc.. These may seem so small but they make us so vulnerable to attack when we don't do them! Imagine being a sniper and when you took a shot at 1 mile. Now imagine you were one small degree off. Even though it is so small, the bullet is gonna be very off at 1 mile. So when we are off by just a bit it really makes us off by huge amounts in the end. Now imagine when you let your guard down to the bigger things in the world. Pornography, Word of Wisdom, Chastity, etc.. What is gonna happen when you are really off at this point. You are not going to be in a good situation. You not only let your shield down but you dropped it in the mud at this point. Now even though you have dropped it in the mud you can still pick it up and make it absolutely clean. That is the same for us. When we fall in the mud we get back up and after showering we are clean.

How do we pick our shield up? This principle is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It is known as repentance. When we repent of our sins Christ cleans the mud off of us personally. He comes to you after the proper steps and says, "Thou art made clean." How do we know this? Christ continually invites us to become better in our lives. For example, in John 3:5, "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." So in other words unless we come unto Christ and repent and wash off our sins we cannot enter into our Father's Kingdom! We cannot become clean without the Atonement of Christ! We need His help to become perfect! How great is this principle that if we repent we can become perfect!

So how do we keep our Shield up? I love how Christ says it in St. Matthew 11:28-30,

 "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."

So as I have been sitting here watching a movie tonight I had some impressions come to me. "I will not live an average everyday life. I will live a life full of trials, hardships and maybe at times complete abandonment from others. I will live a life of service. There will be decisions that are gonna be tough, but I need to rely on the Lord for guidance in these decisions." Tears have been brought to my eyes because I have been able to feel of God's Perfect Love! It has been a remarkable experience. I have not had experiences like this since my mission. But like everyone else I need to pick up my scriptures, get on my knees and gain my personal relationship back with my Heavenly Father! I need to get back on track so that God can use me where I am needed! I am as guilty as anyone with this, maybe even more guilty.

I am so grateful that even in these struggles and rebellion God has seen fit to give me guidance and direction. He has given me the opportunity once again to become better! He has let me feel His Spirit and let me tell you it is wonderful! I am so very thankful that I had a friend to talk to today that has helped me get through this! 

Since I have returned home off of my mission I have struggled and I believe the biggest reason why I have struggled is because, 1) I haven't opened my scriptures since then 2) I haven't gotten on my knees to talk to my Father in Heaven 3) I skip classes at Church and sometimes just skip Church completely;
This is a recipe for a DISASTER. This is why I have been so miserable I let Satan guide me through a miserable path.

One of the greatest things that have kept me going is communicating with missionaries from my mission, remembering my mission, and talking to those whom I have met on my mission. Seeing these young kids teach me in my hardship whom I taught. All of these have one thing in common. MY MISSION! My mission truly is everything to me! It is the best decision that I ever made in my life. Though it was extremely hard it was worth every second. I think about it and the people I met often! I just wish I was back there in Nashville.   I love my Heavenly Fathers plan even though it is so difficult, it is perfect! I am so thankful for each and every tender mercy the Lord gives unto me!

OUR ZONE MEETING!

So today we had a zone meeting which was absolutely incredible. We talked about many different things such as the Atonement, Jesus Christ, Obedience, CHOICES, etc..Let me just tell you, it was Heaven sent! There is nothing I enjoy more than being in a meeting where we are just able to bask in the Spirit in soo much abundance. One of those meetings was today! As a zone of missionaries we gathered around as is spoken of in Moroni verse 5 which states, "...did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls." We enjoy being able to gather together and talk with one another. It is always so edifying.

Today we had a special guest who has been off his mission for nine months. He is a very inspired man. He talked about the importance of our missions and our calls. He talked about the choices we make and how they affect everything in eternity.

Here are a few points I wrote down that I absolutely loved from Chris Olive:

• You are here to prepare for the rest of your life
• You are here to be sifted through the tares of wheat(to prove yourself)
• Your life will be a reflection of your mission
• Your mission will be a direct indication of how your life will be
• Faithfully fulfilling your mission edifies you
• Spiritually these are the two most developing years
• Help and teach people to pray and to have faith
• "You have two years to serve and eternity to reflect on those two years"
• Six ways God judges us

1. How well you magnify your calling
2. Your willingness to be Obedient
3. Your eagerness to Serve
4. The righteous desires of your heart
5. The way you respond to hardness and opposition
6. The way you love your Heavenly Father

• Missionary work is a Holy work, You need to be Holy!"

We were also fortunate enough to be trained by others. Here are more points from these special individuals:

• Ezra Taft Benson said, "Greatest test in life is obedience"
• Christ could have known our sufferings and afflictions through revelation but He chose to suffer with us
• "If I chose to be here when I was in Heaven, then why don't I chose to be in Heaven here on earth"
• We are agents to act and choose for ourselves
• You can choose eternal life or captivity
• Everything you do is a choice
• When you choose to be obedient, you choose success
• We tend to live up to our expectations
• You can choose the positive side of life

Everything is your choice. You can choose bondage with sin and greater hardship or you can choose freedom in obedience to the Gospel and your Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ!

We decided to focus on a word for this transfer. We chose ACT. We came up with an acronym. It is:

Atonement
Christ
Testify

Teach about Christ and His Atonement as they are central to the plan. Then as you do follow the Spirit you will be able to testify with power from on high. You will have the Angels of Heaven taking your message to their hearts. They will truly know that that is God's plan as you prepare and teach by the Spirit. This will come back to their minds as it is not new but was decided in the pre-earth life.

"When we willfully disobey we in a sense walk on Jesus Christ. We have willfully thown Him out of our life and decided to walk upon Him by being disobedient. The Savior ALWAYS has His hands out stretched to us. He always invites us to "Come unto Him" and repent and strive to become better. As we do this we will feel His Atonement working in our lives."

Will you choose to live obedient to the Gospel and have freedom from bondage and sin or will you choose to be disobedient and suffer while in the hands of the lucifer? This is your choice and your life. You have to live with the consequences for eternity. I admonish all to come unto our Creator, Jesus Christ and become better! Do this and see if He does not bless you because I know He will.
What decision will you make?