Have you ever learned something from a quote or a scripture
that was life changing. I like the LDS philosophy that anything that
is uttered by the power of the Holy Ghost is scripture. A quote that has uplifted and inspired me was authored by Lorenzo Snow,
an LDS prophet. He said,
There is a way by which persons can keep their
consciences clear before God and man, and that is to preserve within them the
Spirit of God, which is the spirit of revelation to every man and woman. It
will reveal to them, even in the simplest of matters, what they shall do, by
making suggestions to them. We should try to learn the nature of this Spirit,
that we may understand its suggestions, and then we will always be able to do
right. This is the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint. We know that it is
our right to have the manifestations of the Spirit every day of our lives.
In
Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 52.
The part that
inspired me most was the concept that I could ask God about “the simplest of
matters”. Whether it is about child
rearing, how to best use my time, or just wanting insight as to why I am suddenly feeling
stressed or fearful, I can seek the Lord's input through prayer.
That idea combined with the admonition in the Book of Mormon found in Alma 37:37 to “counsel with the Lord
in all thy doings”, has convinced me that "checking in" with the Lord is not just a
privilege, but rather a commandment. Some limit the scope of their prayers to the really big decisions in their life, and life altering questions such as who to marry, where to live, and how many children to have. But, I believe that it is in seeking the Lord's wisdom in the smaller day to day decisions that helps prepare us to recognize his voice when it comes to those all important decisions.
One of the
things that is important to me is trying to set my home in physical
order. A measure of physical order
helped me feel the spirit more abundantly.
Two years ago, we moved to a new home.
We really felt guided to our current address and felt to involve the
Lord in the decisions we were making in relation to that new home. When
it was nearing time to move in, we wanted to have our furnishings look nice,
but our current furniture just didn’t match as well as we liked. We had all shades of brown and now we had a grey color scheme to deal with. We went on lots of shopping trips, but never
felt peaceful about purchasing new bedroom furniture.
Finally, the thought came to me to refinish some of what we already had. I shared this idea with a neighbor and she
steered me in the direction of a product that didn’t require sanding
first. I felt immediately peaceful about
trying this and my husband was willing to let me try it out.
This was our first attempt. It had been a honey color.
We loved the results and ended up refinishing
countless pieces of what we already had.
The best part was not having any payments for furniture.
We had as Ethan Allen Set, but wanted a darker black brown set to match our décor. We finished all these pieces with a color called Kona. I even painted my lamps and added new shades.
About a year after we moved in that we were
able to host a daughter’s wedding reception in our home, another money saver.
The wood frame above the cake was refinished, we simply added a new black and white print.
Chris and Corinne's reception was a success!
We found a new media cabinet, but painted this frame to match.
We found that red was a perfect accent color that worked for all seasons. Yellow becomes more prominent in the spring.
I found some great upholstery fabric, I used it throughout the house for pillows and refinishing this bench.
The effect was what we wanted. Simple with pops of color.
This is a bench that comes in during the winter and returns to the porch in the spring. We added several black and white picture frames to help decorate. The coat rack not only kept with the theme, but was actually useful.
There will be mistakes made in the process of trying to involve the Lord in our doings, there always are because we "see things through a glass darkly". We
let a man who came to our door promoting his cement business, convince us to
use him in December to pour a parking strip.
It was a horrible job and we found out later, he was not even
licensed. The thought of a getting a good deal
ended up costing us more than double the
going rate when you added the removal of that cement. Inspiration can be clouded by our own desires, wisdom and pride or the persuasive voice of fear or temptation. At such times, we simply need to go back to the Lord in a spirit of humility and ask for more input. The answer isn't to avoid the revelatory process because we aren't perfect at it.
Additionally, it isn’t
always about saving money, being prudent, choosing the hardest thing or conversely avoiding all stress, or any combination of the above. We may have an answer that ultimately leads to a very challenging circumstance. We may incorrectly assume that when things are rough, we must have made a huge mistake or heard wrong. Just maybe, the Lord led us into a course or circumstance that has the capacity to give us some graduate level knowledge about life and the gospel or perhaps smooth out rough edges that could removed in no other way.
It is rather about faith and seeking each day to involve the Lord in our daily
lives and increasing our ability to hear his voice.
Repentance is that process of returning to our knees again the next day with a
desire to hear and implement his influence a little better than the day before. It is acknowledging his hand in our lives
and trading our limited perspectives in for his divine and perfect perspective.
