| WHY?!? |
There have been few times in my life where I have questioned what this life is all about. Why am I here and why should I do anything? Sometimes it may feel like anytime we do something it won't really matter in the end. Well, the Restored gospel offers us hope in that in everything that we do there is a purpose.
There are some pretty good questions floating around out there like the ones mentioned above. But, we are also all individuals with our own unique set of questions that we want answered and also goals that we want accomplished. Some of mine were: Why am I out here in Montana? Why did I make the choice to sacrifice two years of my life to serve a mission? And finally, why would I give up my regular life to live life in the Jolly Swagman Inn?
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| Our actions help us to keep our... |
Those are some pretty good questions that have some pretty intertwined and intricate answers. But one thing that I think helps clear up the decisions I have made, and that we all can make, is to look at what we, as individuals, desire to become. We all have desires, things that we want or things that we want to become. But what role do these desires have in our lives? Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."
I believe that serving a mission is the right thing to do for me. I know that there are blessings associated with such service and that through my missionary experience I will have been made stronger. Now, how the heck could expect such things even though I haven't even finished my mission? Well thats where a little bit faith comes in...
Through the restored Gospel we find that faith is incredibly important. We find that the Savior Jesus Christ needed faith in order to perform the Atonement successfully. Faith is something that is necessary for many of the things that we do every day. But what does faith lead to? Well, faith inevitably leads to action. You have faith that your car will start, you turn the key, and it starts. You have faith that when you put batter into a heated oven it will become a cake, you do it and it cooks. I have faith that a mission would benefit myself and others, I started serving one, and it has.
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| If you're lucky you can combine cake AND cars... |
Whenever we use a desire or a want for something and exercise our faith in it enough to put it into action we are able to see the fruits of our labors.This is not just a physical phenomenon that only works when baking cakes or starting cars or even just in physical laws. It is an eternal pattern that is based on eternal principles and eternal laws that extend past the physical and extend on into the spiritual. But how can we know when we do something whether it’s true or not? Jesus Christ said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." -John 7:17. It is here that Jesus counsels us to try out gospel doctrine and see if it is true. And when we try out his doctrine we will be able to have his Spirit to be with us and then we will be able to know that it is true. When I was first learning about Christ's gospel I wondered what the Spirit felt like. Luckily, the Apostle Paul helps us out and tells us a little bit about it. Here’s what he says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." -Galatians 5:22-23. I know that I have been able to feel those things as I have done my best to follow the commandments. What a blessing it is to know that when we exercise faith in a principle of the gospel we are entitled to receive a confirmation of that goodness.
So the reason why we do anything is to work towards being something that we want to become. I know that our Father in Heavenly is mindful of us individually and will give us that portion of strength that we need to overcome the trials in our lives and to help bring ourselves closer to Him and his Son, Jesus Christ.
