October 2023, Week 3

*Today at church we had some great speakers.  The youth speaker was one of my former preschoolers, and is, what I would consider, one of the "cool" kids at school.  He's also the Deacon Quorum President, and he has a very sweet testimony which he shared.  I look forward to seeing how he continues to grow in his faith.  

*The second speaker gave us a great talk about the covenants we make in the temple, and how she has seen specific miracles in her life by keeping these covenants.  I don't remember all of her examples, but I want to put this here for when I read this in the future, and ponder miracles I've seen in my own life from keeping the covenants.  Here they are, from the church's website: 

• Law of Obedience, which includes striving to keep God’s commandments.

• Law of Sacrifice, which means doing all we can to support the Lord’s work and repenting with a broken heart and contrite spirit.

• Law of the Gospel, which is the higher law that He taught while He was on the earth.

• Law of Chastity, which means that we have sexual relations only with the person to whom we are legally and lawfully wedded according to God’s law.

• Law of Consecration, which means dedicating our time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed us to building up Jesus Christ’s Church on the earth.

*The final speaker shared his thoughts about grace.  He reminded us of Brad Wilcox's talk, where he gave an example from a student that asked him who would cover the gap between what she does and all that she "could" be doing, where Jesus steps in to cover the rest.  Bro. Wilcox helped his student see that there is no gap, because Jesus has already covered everything--we don't have to do anything for salvation, because the price has been paid in full already through His Atonement.  This, however, doesn't mean that there's nothing that we need to do, because it is through keeping the commandments and the covenants and the commitments we have as members of the church that we become who Christ knows we can be.  But the speaker said, which I appreciated, is that these things are not obligations, but opportunities.  It helps me to remember my why.  He also said that it's okay to admit that sometimes you're not okay, and to ask for help whenever you need to.

*The choir sang, and I accompanied.  It was a difficult piece, but I put in a LOT of practice, and thankfully the Lord amplified my efforts.

It was a delight!