No Fear

I was reading this evening in Ezekiel and noticed a scripture that I had highlighted way back when, I don't remember. It was talking about the terrible things that the children of Israel had done to the temple, and the consequences the Lord was about to bring to them as a result of their unrighteousness. And the note that I wrote to the side was something like "Don't attend unworthily." Now I'm not sure if I wrote that myself as how I interpreted it or if a religion or institute teacher put that into my head. It could have gone either way. And the bare facts of it are that it is true. We should not attend the temple unworthily. And certainly shouldn't be doing the whoredoms and the worshiping of other gods that the children of Israel were doing. And I'll also say that it is true that we can have our other gods that might not necessarily be carved in stone, such as various worldly pleasures, and we certainly need to avoid putting anything before the Lord. However, the interesting feeling I had as I read the scripture this evening wasn't that I need to strive to live more worthy of the temple's blessings and straighten up all of my loose ends, although I have had those thoughts recently. Rather, as I read the verse, I remembered the many times that I have attended the temple recently and in the past where I have felt a very special peace in the temple. And the thoughts that came to my mind are not to fear. I know when I first went to the temple I was very nervous about living perfectly and was analyzing my life to death--literally a spiritual death--and couldn't have that peace. But after much tribulation have come the blessings of peace. I'm hopefully better, closer to perfection than I was 10 years ago when I first was preparing to go, but I believe that even then if I had been able to remove the fear, replace with love of the Lord and understanding of His goodness, I could have felt that wonderful peace that I feel now when I attend. Because the temple really is an amazing place.

Relief Society

Today the lesson in Relief Society was on Relief Society. And it was also fast Sunday, so typically the Sunday with a little time given at the end for testimonies. I didn't stand up. I hardly ever do. But I did think about it, and it was interesting timing, actually. Two weeks ago I left church after sacrament meeting because I wasn't feeling very good. So I missed Sunday School and Relief Society. Usually I do love these meetings, though I'd been having a little bit of a hard time attending all my meetings recently for health reasons, mostly. Anyway. So I don't know that I needed a big testimony strengthener about Relief Society, but I guess I did, because it was one. I really had missed it that day. Even though I stayed in my Sunday clothes all day like I usually do, and listened to Sabbath music and didn't do anything that I didn't usually do to keep the Sabbath day holy--I even wrote in my journal. But it still wasn't really feeling strongly like the Sabbath to me for some reason, and I can only figure it was because I had missed my meetings, not only not attended, but I'd missed them. So the next week, although I was still a little weak physically, I made it a point to stay for at least all three regular meetings. I did skip choir afterward, but I at least attended Sunday School and Relief Society. So, in a lot of ways it wasn't just a strengthener for Relief Society, but also for Sunday School. I missed that too. I like learning about the scriptures and about those who have gone before. But to continue with the theme of Relief Society, it was interesting because the R.S. President who was giving the lesson was basing her lesson on the talk from last general conference by Sis. Parkin, the general R.S. president, which was about Relief Society, and it also happened to be the general conference talk that I'd used in November for my visiting teaching so I'd already shared my testimony about it, and so it was nice to hear it again, and to be reminded. But as I was giving it as a v.t. lesson and preparing I noticed how one of Sis. Parkin's points was how R.S. has blessed a number of people's lives. So I asked my sisters how it blessed their lives, and their first thoughts were quite naturally how it has blessed their individual lives with Enrichment and the sisterhood and visiting teaching. But then I noticed to that in her talk, Sis. Parkin had asked of a few men how it blessed their lives, which added a new dimension to the blessings of Relief Society, to see that it not only blesses us as women, but also that the men and children in our lives, and I would imagine even others in our daily interactions are also blessed by our activities in Relief Society. Coincidentally shortly before I went visiting teaching in November, I was part of a little conversation at work with two men and another woman and the men's cooking schools came up and I was reminded of my father's lack of cooking skills. I think he has gotten better now, just to validate him, but I will always remember the time when my mother was in the hospital after giving birth to one of my younger siblings and my dad made Kool-Aid for us but put salt in instead of sugar. So, as I shared this with my co-workers, I was trying to remember as I'm sure they were wondering how we ate during those days when mother was away, particularly since she was pregnant a few times (there are 8 kids in the family), and then as I was reading the talk for v.t.ing I remembered--duh, the Relief Society brought meals! It might seem like a little thing, but as the scripture says, by very little means are great things brought to pass. And I believe that. Even the seemingly very little things the Relief Society sisters do for each other can lead to very great things. For example, as my R.S. President pointed out in her lesson from a quote I don't remember the source, the most important goal of Relief Society is for the women to gain a testimony of the Savior. Sometimes that could get lost in the shuffle of all the little things, but going back to my experience two weeks ago on how I didn't feel like the Sabbath without the Relief Society and Sunday School, I think the function of those two meetings both in the lessons and the interactions with ward members very much is to bring us unto the Savior and thus not surprising that I didn't feel as close to Him (that Sabbathy feeling) when I wasn't able to attend. So, those little things that the Relief Society does that help the sisters and their families to feel the Savior's love, really are great things! And I write this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Real Rubies 

Rubie's Believe it or Not

I don't think it's that I haven't had any spiritual thoughts over the past week. I think I have. Perhaps it's just that they're more of a personal nature, or perhaps nothing terribly profound. Or perhaps the profoundness is in the simplicity. For example, this morning I read in Ezekial the Lord telling him that whether the people chose to act upon it or not, they would still know that he was speaking as a prophet. I think that's probably true for every prophet, or everyone according to a definition of a prophet--who testifies of Christ--whenever the Spirit can confirm something said--it being true, there's not a question of believing it or not, it's just a case of choosing to act upon it.