March 14, 2006: Tuesday – A Promise made to the Lord

"Let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever."

In Doctrine and Covenants 82:10, the Lord says, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." Also, D & C 130: 20-21 says, "When we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

A covenant is a contract between two parties that legally binds them to fulfill it. When I have approached the Lord in the past for some great blessing, I have framed it and received it as a covenant, a binding contract.

This present trial is no different. When I pondered the terms I was willing to commit to, I found to my mild surprise that they were something I want to do regardless of the blessings I have asked for regarding my surgery. I have come to feel this way about my covenant because I know in my heart that these things I covenant to will bring me joy in and of their own right. I have found this whole month-long experience to have been a sacred journey and for that alone, I would strive to live up to what I've learned and to what I've been given.

From Alma 46:20, I have known that a Covenant with the Lord is appropriate and necessary. When invaders beset Capt. Moroni’s people, he wrote a Title of liberty: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, over wives and our children.” This plea took to the townspeople prophesying, “Whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them."

Therefore, I commit to doing these things that God may bless me:
1) Every morning, I will awake and ask the Lord what He have me do that today.
2) Every day, I will send a card of thanks or do something out of gratitude for someone who has blessed my life. (Alma 37:40,41)
3) I will treat the knowledge about the spiritual part of this journey and the knowledge of how my cancer was healed as a sacred trust sharing one or both with others as directed by the Lord.