Today is our wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going to the Temple, having dinner and taking in a movie. This we did, arriving home safely shortly before midnight.
Maureen, and I had visited for about an hour. She had a gift to present to me prior to going into surgery. I unwrapped it to find a beautifully carved board with a two-sided message. On one side, it read in bold letters: BELIEVE. On the second side, the first line read, "Ask, Seek, Knock. " Below that read based upon Matt. 7:7: "Receive, Find, Opened." It is that strangely wonderful that this scripture doesn't say, 'Open' as in 'it shall be open to you,' but 'opened' as in it will be open to you. Anyway, when I saw "Believe," it just made me cry with love for this loving friend. She is such an inspiration!
Since the time that I studied and composed my Title of Liberty, I knew I would make a Covenant with the Lord. Over the past few days, it has been on my mind especially. The big question has been: For what I'm asking, what would be an acceptable offering before the Lord on my part? Certainly, I feel that I could never fully repay my Savior but at least in some small way, I will surely try!
The scriptures fell upon this morning to Alma 37:37. Its familiar verse 37 advises: “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good." Did this chapter as a whole have something else profound to say to me today? Yes, it did.
Verse 16: "..keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord doth command you, (for you must appeal unto the Lord for all things whatsoever ye must do with them)..." In my case, 'these things' I interpret to mean what I have learned and hope to share with others in the future, especially those who might find themselves 'walking in my shoes.'
Verse 36: "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever." The last phrase is a perfect life-long motto.
In verse 40 & 41, the prophet Alma is giving his son, Helaman, a history lesson in reminding him of their immigrant forefathers, Lehi and family. When Lehi and family were commanded to leave Jerusalem in order to save his family 600 B.C. (for the population would soon be scattered to the winds), he was given many insights, visions, dreams and other things to guide them in the wilderness. "...they had... many miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day. Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means, it did show unto them marvelous works. (Yet)they were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence, and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey."
These past few weeks, I have seen, received and felt many 'small miracles.' Lest they become so commonplace as to lose their astonishing content, I realize I need to make a Covenant that would remind me every day from whom all my blessing flow.
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