You're Beautiful in His Eyes

      Recently I stumbled upon this song, Beautiful, and fell in love with it. This song came to me exactly when I needed it, and to me that's a miracle, an answer to my prayers. Miracles don't have to come in big miraculous ways, often they're small seemingly insignificant things that can change the course of your day, or help you get to where you need to be. This song was one of my miracles. I was struggling with my self-esteem and I felt alone and unwanted. I had just returned home from a a particularly bad day at school when my cousin tagged me in a facebook post that held this song in it. Curious, I clicked on it. I connected with the song instantly as it started with how we all feel weak and unimportant. Then it reminds you that there's more. How we're made for more than this, how we're His children and that He loves us. And over and over again it tells us that we're beautiful, we're beautiful because He made us that way and that's how He sees us. Overall, His opinion is the only one that matters, and when I realized that it made all the difference.

We ARE Children of God

I recently learned of somebody dear to me treating themselves very badly. I'd like to avoid writing about the details but as I learned, I felt sadder than I may have ever felt in my life. I wondered what had happened to this person to make them even want to be so cruel to themselves. I cried and I prayed for their relief from what they may not even recognize as suffering. And I was beyond grateful for my understanding of the message in this simple children's hymn. We ARE all children of God. I don't know everything, but I do know that beyond any shadow of a doubt. And despite our different upbringings, trials, and circumstances... we can find peace in knowing that our bodies were not designed on accident. They were created in the imagine of God himself. They are glorified and powerful and deserve our respect.

Gods and Goddesses

I have been reading Sheri Dew's great book, No Doubt About It, in which she talks about the amazing truth that everyone on the earth is a child of God. She quotes C.S. Lewis as saying, "it is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which...you would be strongly temped to worship...It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another...Ther are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortals horrors or everlasting splendours" (The Weight of Glory, 14-15).

Opening Our Hearts

This is somewhat of a continuation on my 'Give a Care' post. I was listening to a General Conference talk given by Gerald Lund while I was driving home from work yesterday, and I felt grateful for his perspective on the importance of allowing our hearts to be softened and receptive to the Holy Ghost:

"The heart is a tender place. It is sensitive to many influences, both positive and negative. It can be hurt by others. It can be deadened by sin. It can be softened by love. Early in our lives, we learn to guard our hearts. It is like we erect a fence around our hearts with a gate in it. No one can enter that gate unless we allow him or her to.

In some cases the fence we erect around our hearts could be likened to a small picket fence with a Welcome sign on the gate. Other hearts have been so hurt or so deadened by sin that they have an eight-foot (2.5-m) chain-link fence topped with razor wire around them. The gate is padlocked and has a large No Trespassing sign on it.

. . . I say again, the condition of our hearts directly affects our sensitivity to spiritual things. Let us make it a part of our everyday striving to open our hearts to the Spirit. Since we are the guardians of our hearts, we can choose to do so. We choose what we let in or hold out."

During the talk, he encourages us to purify our hearts and avoid setting our hearts upon the things of the world. Then we can be partakers of the Lord's promise that "the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers." (Doctrine and Covenants 112:10)

I know that God will never force or coerce us to believe in Him or to follow Him -- it is up to us to soften our hearts. When we choose to let go of our fear, our pride, our sin, our skepticism, our old hurts, or whatever it is that keeps our hearts padlocked, He will send His Holy Spirit to whisper peace and truth to our hearts. Our love for Him and for others will increase, as well as a true understanding that we are God's children and that He loves us. Again I know, and have experienced, that in yielding our hearts to God, there is nothing to fear and everything to gain. He follows through on every promise and simply desires to give us all He has.

Elder Lund's talk can be found, along with other General Conference addresses, at lds.org.

Mormon girl interviewed at Harvard

This is a wonderful clip of a discussion held at Harvard concerning the personal search for purpose. On the panel were college students of different faiths, including this Latter-day Saint girl, Rachel Esplin, as well as a Muslim, Jew, Presbyterian, and Buddhist. They all answered wonderful questions concerning their faith and religious practices. Rachel Esplin answers questions regarding her upbringing, the development of her personal testimony, women's roles in the church, her belief in Christ, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, knowledge of spiritual truths, temple marriage, temple covenants, and missionary work. This is a great clip to see!!

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

To the New Year

Today I read this inspiring quote from Marianne Williamson (A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191)). I not only thought it was amazing but very appropriate for the New Year and resolutions that come along during this time.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."