Enlightened

Every Sunday I feel enlightened at church. What a blessing. I’m sure some of it has to do with my preparation to be taught (like reading scriptures each day and praying for the spirit), but the other part of me thinks that I still fall way short at my preparation to be taught. Perhaps I look forward to being taught and I look forward to discussing or writing about what I’ve learned and that’s what makes me teachable. So for whatever reason, I am very grateful for the blessing of the spirit at church and those who prepare to teach.

During Sunday school, we are learning in the D&C (sections in the 80s). We talked about the word of wisdom, and the importance of prophets and revelation. I know that prophets are important and I know that we have the prophet Thomas Spencer Monson as a living mouthpiece of the Lord today. I know that he has stewardship over the whole church and will only lead us closer to Christ. I’m grateful that the Lord has given us guidance through the spirit and the prophets (the living prophet and apostles). I think I’ve taken for granted what this means in my life and what it means to have a church so unified and so true. There are often times when I look around me and see the faults of other members, but when I looked around today, I was struck by the valiance of these people, regardless of their struggles in life. This is the true church of God and these are the people who believe and are here to continually be taught the lessons of God and be one with him and his people. We DO have the truth and we are a people of the Lord. This is magnificent! We are not insignificant beings pludging along life’s road, pretending that we’re something special because we go to church on Sunday. “Going to church on Sunday” is such a trite expression to me. We are not just going to church on Sunday; we’re becoming a God-fearing, faithful, obedient, and diligent people—unifying ourselves and struggling for righteousness and closeness with our Father in Heaven.

In Relief Society, Sarah Lott gave the lesson for “teachings for our times” and she spoke of Elder Holland’s testimony at this last conference. It was very powerful and full of conviction and the spirit. He gave his solemn witness of the Book of Mormon and of its truth and reality. It’s times like these that I realize, yes, these men must know it for sure. They cannot lie. God has given them this witness and wants it to be a beacon to us that we might want to exercise our faith too and follow the example of these blessed men. I know that all of the things that they testify of are unmistakably true. That means that the Book of Mormon is true and everyone who has born witness of it is also true. I thank the Lord for Joseph Smith and his efforts to bring us this marvelous work from God. I thank all of the prophets who wrote these spiritual things down in the Book of Mormon for us to learn from and grow.

Sarah was explaining how Elder Holland is a very intelligent man. I’m sure he could easily give us many analytical evidences how the Book of Mormon is true and how it is different from any other book and tell us X number of reasons so we could be sure without a doubt, but then I realized, that defeats the whole purpose of the Book of Mormon. It is there for us to exercise our faith. Just read Moroni 8. We need that opportunity to find out through the spirit that these things are true. I’m grateful for that.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (www.lds.org)