I am incredibly thankful that my wife married me, despite knowing that our life would be extra-challenging because of my disabilities and that she still looks to me to make astounding successes that continue to exasperate onlookers or even my own family!
I am thankful for my family--my wife, Jill, my sons, Addison, Quentin, Calvin, and my daughter, Samantha!
I am thankful for my parents and the person that they raised me to become and for helping me continue to be that person even now!
I am thankful for Stephanie for being a stalwart giant in helping me and Addison after our car accident in April of 2001 and being my advocate in retaining all that the crash could have and should have left me with!
I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for this life, for my spirit, my body, the intelligence that He raised and tutored before this life and continues to now, curing this life!
... Pride. The great sermon by Ezra Taft Benson, "Beware of Pride" explains that pride is nothing less than enmity. In the end, pride is enmity towards God. It manifests itself, though, in so many different forms. According to President Benson's talk, pride, looked-at only negatively, can be outright cocky--lifted-up in pride because of some achievement that you have accomplished or status you've obtained, an overabundance in confidence in oneself--looking down on others who haven't achieved such a status. Or, it can be the pride of looking up and thinking that others are most definitely looking down on you or the position you are in.
I hate money. I am happy to be as poor as we are...
All I know, is that in trying to work-it-out in my mind, my wife is confused over what I think and what I believe, and now, at least for right now, she is a little irritated with me and what I might think.
So, the question is: should I ask our Heavenly Father for everything you need? We are commanded to do, just that in Alma 7:23, which reads as follows:
And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.
Well, maybe I don’t even know what I should pray for—not even sure what it is that I need... Luckily, we are told in Romans 8:26 what we should do: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.“
So, to truly ask in faith, you may be concerned that you may ask for things you ought not to ask. You don’t want to ask for things for which one should not ask; like I said...
1 And he spake a parable unto them, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what theunjustjudge saith. 7 And shall not Godavengehis own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long withthem? 8 Itell you that he willavenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Joseph Smith, speaking of that parable, said, “Weary the Lord till he blesses you”!
Weary the Lord until he blesses you... Weary the Lord!
Why is it easier to have a significant spiritual experience at certain places—namely, places where other spiritual experiences have taken place? A. Because we have more faith that it will happen! We know that it’s happened before in the same place... That leads to the question: why do certain places have spiritual events occur there and are thus likely to have more experiences like said experiences in the future (i.e. Sacred Grove in upstate NY, Indepedence, MO, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Garden of Gethsemene, etc.)?
In his talk, “Snow White Birds”, Elder Packer recalls what President Harold B. Lee taught him, “Revelation is more readily recognized when you’re in the place needed for the revelation.”
Bicentennial year of what? Well, 200 years ago, in 1820, in the spring of 1820, in fact, Joseph Smith had an opening vision and heavenly manifestation that ushered in the last dispensation before the Savior of the World will return for his second coming!
What?
Well, the prophet, our prophet, your prophet, President Russell M. Nelson closed the October 2019 general conference with an invitation for Latter-day Saints to prepare for the subsequent April 2020 general conference, 200 years since Joseph Smith’s First Vision.
Del Parson’s depiction of the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. in the Sacred Grove in Manchester, New York, when he received the First Vision.
“The year 2020 will be designated as a bicentennial year. General conference next April will be different from any previous conference,” President Nelson announced at the end of the Sunday afternoon session.
“In the next six months, I hope that every member and every family will prepare for a unique conference that will commemorate the very foundations of the restored gospel.”
In previewing plans for the coming year, President Nelson recounted those “very foundations.”
“In the springtime of the year 2020, it will be exactly 200 years since Joseph Smith experienced the theophany that we know as the First Vision,” he said. “God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph, a 14-year-old youth. That event marked the onset of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness, precisely as foretold in the Holy Bible.”
He recited the succession of visits from heavenly messengers to Joseph—John the Baptist; the early Apostles Peter, James, and John; Moses; Elias; and Elijah. “Each brought divine authority to bless God’s children on the earth once again,” President Nelson said.
He continued, underscoring latter-day scripture, the restored keys and offices of the priesthood, and the organizations and callings of the Church—“all vital parts of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness.”
Latter-day Saint artist Minerva Teichart's The First Vision (1934) depicts a key moment of the Restoration. Photo courtesy of Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
President Nelson invited Church members to read Joseph Smith’s account of the First Vision as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price, noting that next year’s Come, Follow Me course of study is the Book of Mormon.
“You may wish to ponder important questions such as, ‘How would my life be different if my knowledge gained from the Book of Mormon were suddenly taken away?’ or ‘How have the events that followed the First Vision made a difference for me and my loved ones?’”
He suggested incorporating the new Book of Mormon Videos into individual and family study.
“Select your own questions,” President Nelson continued. “Design your own plan. Immerse yourself in the glorious light of the Restoration. As you do, general conference next April will be not only memorable; it will be unforgettable.”
