Shaping up

Have you heard the parable of the potter and the clay? I have to admit that until Sunday at our Relief Society meeting, I wasn't very familiar with it -- but it has made a huge impression on me.

The parable is found in Jeremiah 18, but Heber C. Kimball also gave a great discourse about it (which I found in an Ensign article). The entire lesson -- all about how we are like clay in the Master's hands -- was wonderful, but the part that stuck out to me the most was this point, from Elder Kimball:

"There are many vessels that are destroyed after they have been molded and shaped. Why? Because they are not contented with the shape the potter has given them, but straightway put themselves into a shape to please themselves; therefore, they are beyond understanding what God designs."

How many times do we as women want to fit into a different shape from the one the potter has given us? I don't just mean physical shapes (I always wanted smooth, straight hair and I'd rather have ankles that taper down like they're supposed to); I mean the way we shape our lives. Do we have faith in the Lord and what He has planned for us? Do we let Him mold us and make us into an incredible servant in His hands?

Or do we resist His help and shrink back into our old rough form? I know I've been guilty of this. There are so many times when I could do better, be stronger, and I fall back into my bad habits. I need to rely more on the Lord and be the person He created me to be.

Sometimes shaping up just requires a little more faith and -- as backwards as it sounds -- letting yourself go. I don't know about you, but I want to be a beautiful, smooth-as-glass vase when the Lord has finished molding me.

Moosetracks

Now that the weather has warmed up (read: it is getting hot already), we took a trip up Big Cottonwood Canyon with our friends Anthony and Brittany tonight and walked around Silver Lake. It was a nice evening, but the drive back was even better  -- we saw a moose near the side of the road and had been hoping to see one!

The photo isn't great, because he was moving FAST and got pretty far away before we could get a good shot, but he was so cute and was just munching away on leaves.

And while we were gawking at the moose, a lovely deer snapped a branch nearby (we thought it might be another moose, so we were a little sad at first) and came out of the brush, too. I love deer.

It was a nice Sunday. We had a Relief Society lesson that validated what I was so frustrated about in my recent visiting teaching post, and I was reminded of my mom's incredible visiting teacher years ago when I was battling cancer. I want to be that kind of visiting teacher and be able to serve people as thoughtfully as she did (and I'm sure she still does).

My testimony

We had a wonderful stake conference this weekend, and a lot of the things the stake president and his counselors had to say really hit home for me. This was the first time I had heard the stake president speak since we've lived in Murray, and he is AWESOME. You can tell how much he loves the members of the stake, and he makes you want to be a more dedicated member of the church.

One of the things President Daw talked about was missionary work, especially about doing home teaching and focusing on the less-active members of our stake. In our own ward, our bishopric and ward missionaries have asked us to make a Mormon.org profile for missionary work.

Unfortunately, I can no longer log into LDS.org with my username and password, and I have no idea why. Andrew has banned me from attempting to log in for the time being because I end up REALLY angry and change my password again in the hope that I can finally log in. I am not sure what's going on.

So, until I can log in and create my Mormon.org profile, I've decided to post my testimony here. I know that many of you are members of the Church and many of you have strengthened my testimony, but allow me to bear my testimony here and feel better about not being able to do it on a world website. :)

First, I know that we have a Heavenly Father and a Savior, Jesus Christ, and that They live and are aware of our needs. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and has a plan for each of us, and I know that the Savior atoned for our sins, died for us and lives again today. He has experienced all of our pain and sorrows, so He understands our suffering and can truly comfort us whenever we turn to Him.

I know that temples are houses of God, and that He dwells there. I know that doing work for the dead in the temples brings us closer to Him and is part of His plan to bring all of His children back to live with Him. I know that The Book of Mormon is a true book, and that it was translated by the first prophet of the restored church, Joseph Smith. It was written by ancient prophets, but it was intended for us, the people of the latter days.

I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and I know that he, and all of the other prophets of this dispensation, receive revelation from Heavenly Father about how to direct the Church.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sabbath day! I certainly am.

Reverence

So, as promised, here is the other half of yesterday's blog about our interesting Sunday.

Before the announcements and even the opening song were sung at sacrament meeting, our stake president went to the pulpit and (gently) chastised the ward for being irreverent in the chapel. He then told about an experience he'd had the following week with Elder Bednar.

After Elder Bednar's fireside with the single young adults in the Murray area, the congregation formed a line in the chapel to shake hands with an apostle. In a few minutes, the chapel was roaring as friends talked to each other in line. Elder Bednar left his place in line, went to the podium and said, "Brothers and sisters. This is the chapel, and you need to be reverent." The crowd was hushed.

A few minutes later, however, the chapel was just as noisy as it was before. Again, Elder Bednar left the line and reminded the congregation that they were in the chapel and needed to be reverent. But this time, he said that if they were not reverent, he and the other general authorities would leave and that "everything that had been done in that meeting would be undone."

I was completely floored and felt so ashamed. While I wasn't chatting with anyone and I wasn't at Elder Bednar's fireside, I could definitely have been more reverent and reflective in the few minutes before sacrament meeting started. Our stake president then had the organist play the opening hymn for a few minutes until we were reverent and ready to begin the meeting.

I have been thinking about that experience a lot since yesterday. How many times do we enter the chapel and begin talking with friends instead of listening quietly to the prelude music and thinking about our Heavenly Father and His Son? How many times do I sit down on a bench and not even think about the holy place I have just entered?

So here's my goal -- be more reverent in EVERY aspect of my life. I would never want an apostle of the Lord to have to reprimand me twice when I was too distracted to listen and to be quiet. I'm going to make my Sundays more special and make time each day to be more reverent and in tune with the Lord. After all, those are the times when we can receive revelation and guidance from Him.

Oh, how we need to love God!

I have a confession to make. I didn't get to listen to or watch conference talks from the Saturday sessions of the October 2009 general conference, and due to moving twice after conference and not having internet for quite awhile, I have only just begun watching the conference online and hearing the amazing words of our prophets.

Thus, you probably all heard this talk and were completely inspired by it when President Uchtdorf gave it three months ago, but it was absolutely beautiful to me when I heard it last week for the first time. The following quote really stood out to me, and I bolded my favorite part.

"God the Eternal Father did not give that first great commandment because He needs us to love Him. His power and glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny, or even defile His name. His influence and dominion extend through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration. No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become."

What an amazing statement! I've been thinking a lot about this during the past week as I've failed at a few of my New Year's resolutions (and almost failed at this one, writing in my blog weekly, because I couldn't think of anything to say). I'm really hard on myself. I want to look perfect, say the right things, be a friend to everyone and do something extraordinary with my life. I come home from church resolved to be a better person and find myself doing the same things the next few days I promised myself I wouldn't do.

That's why President Uchtdorf's words have stuck with me, because I want to love God, and I know that when I do love God, I do better at what I'm supposed to be doing. So here's my suggestion to all of you who beat yourselves up like I do every time you forget to work out or think something really mean about your coworker: Remember that Heavenly Father is a loving parent who knows you and put you here for a reason. Remember that He loves you and knows what you are capable of doing. And remember that when you love Him, you love other people and you in turn can love yourself.

So don't get down. Pick yourself up and resolve to do better. "Oh, how we need to love God." But oh, how we need to love ourselves, too, no matter how bad things get.