Celestial Living

I need to write.  I just need to.  It's a compulsion. Funny, but the last couple posts I've written have started out being about topics other than what they became. I had a completely different direction I wanted those posts to go, but they kind of took their own way, and after all is said and done, I feel satisfied with that.

So, for today, I'm just going to throw it out there....Whatever's on my mind.

You know that post I wrote about Family Home Evening?  And you know how I frequently comment about lessons in my life and how they seem to be pieces of puzzles that quickly follow one another and each piece comes from a different, and frequently unexpected, place?  Well, that's happening again.

Last night, I went to ward council.  Ward council is a meeting held a couple times a month with the leadership of the ward. We had a new bishop put in on Sunday.  I've never been at a ward council with a brand new bishop.

First of all, though, I need to interject something.  This new bishop called my house yesterday and asked for #1's email address.  He shared why he needed it--that he was going to write to her and thank her for the good job she did the other night at a meeting.  I hung up the phone and cried (True story. I cry at certain commercials and episodes of "Little House on the Prairie, so whatev). I was touched that someone would go out  of his way to make such a gesture to a teenage girl when things could so easily just be noticed and let go.

For last night's meeting, we were sent instructions to read this.  This is one of those articles that you read and know there's so much to it...so much more than you're really understanding on a quick one time through. We would be discussing this article during the meeting.

And so we did.  Fascinating!  We talked about the need to be strong spiritually (not just "strong" but "powerful."  We discussed ways to do this, but then the bishop turned to this scripture (take yourself down to the highlighted portion). Does that sound familiar? This is the same principle I referred to as I talked about this to my kids on Monday night.  Seems that this must be important right now, but it dredged up so many questions.  Questions I'm not sure I know how to answer. Questions that have answers but will require a desire for change once I find them.  They will require some searching on my part and some humility to alter how I live.  Am I really ready for this?  I figure I must be being taught this because Someone who knows me better than I do thinks I'm ready for this. It's now up to me to do it.

The challenge is to live a celestial law now. What exactly does that translate to?

The bishop shared that we are to strive, seek, repent, (lather, rinse, repeat) until we eventually eventually succeed.

Near the end of the article, Ballard quotes Spencer W. Kimball when he says:

“We have paused on some plateaus long enough. Let us resume our journey forward and upward. Let us quietly put an end to our reluctance to reach out to others—whether in our own families, wards, or neighborhoods. We have been diverted, at times, from fundamentals on which we must now focus in order to move forward as a person or as a people” (“Let Us Move Forward and Upward,” Ensign, May 1979, p. 82).

Wow! If this doesn't define me! But, I don't think I'm alone in this I'm finding that one of the biggest problems we human beings have is the inability to believe that each day is a new day--a day with promise--a day to start something new, and you don't even have to wait for a new day to move to a better course. It's okay to start something better at any moment.

Why do I allow myself to get comfortable?  Why, when I feel impressed to do something I might not normally do, do I not get myself up out of that rut and start on a new path?

So the question should come...who should I reach out to today? tomorrow? next week?

The bishop asked the question:  What is celestial home teaching?

As he said that, immediately, my brain (heart?) followed with it's own question: What is celestial mothering?

Along these lines, here's what grabbed me today....A friend posted a link to this video (Thanks, Ceana!). I think this has a lot to do with being a celestial, not only mother but, person:




What was shared next was so profound....The bishop said that every time we come in contact with anyone, our main job is to "help that person feel Heavenly Father's love." In order to do this, I know that I must feel it too.  Not only feel it, but powerfully feel it! What would this world be like if everyone you ever met made you feel this way?  I kind of get the feeling that "self-esteem" wouldn't be much of a societal issue any  more.

To close the discussion, and the meeting, the bishop shared (now you have to understand that as I'm sitting in this meeting, I'm sitting with fifteen to twenty of the most amazing people I know. I'm kind of the class clown in the group--you know the song..."One of these things is not like the others....") this...we all have major struggles. He said that we're not bad because we have weaknesses. The bishop challenged us to be honest with ourselves, face our weaknesses, repent, change our current course and move on.

Wow!  Where does one begin?