Category: Faith

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Faith

Because of Him

Though I am religious, I try not to be in everybody’s face about it all the time. Today, on Easter Sunday, I feel the need to share my testimony of Christ. If you have no interest in my thoughts, feel free to skip this post. Our regular posts on travel, family, and adventure (including the process of selling our house) will continue shortly.

I am not the same person I used to be. At times in my life, I have found parts of my life that I didn’t like. Very heavily in my teenage years, but even now as I learn and grow, I find myself desiring a change. Not a change of others, but a change in myself. My actions, thoughts, and desires are not always aligned with my wishes, goals, and desires for myself. As I identify the changes I would like to make, I try to follow Christ’s example and apply to myself his prompting to “go, and sin no more.” I have drawn upon Christ and His Atonement to make those changes. Through the power of the Atonement, I have left those pieces of my past self… in the past.

Christ isn’t concerned about the person we were yesterday, but about the person we are today, and the person we can become. He suffered for our sins, and died for us, to provide a pathway for us to become all we can become. Through His power, we can change, and we can be a different person tomorrow if that is what we desire.

Though in most ways I’m the same person I was as a teenager, I’m very different in some of the most important. As our life adventure unfolds in new and unexpected ways, I’m grateful for the guidance of Jesus Christ in both word and Spirit.

The video I’ve included below has been making the rounds on social media, and I love it. I even stole (borrowed?) the title for this post. Because of Christ, I am a better Son, a better Father, Husband, and Friend. If I have improved so much in the last 15 years Because of Christ, I hope I can allow him to help me as much in the next 15.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

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Faith Selling Our Stuff

A Fresh Start

Weeks ago while attending church with a friend, there was a table outside the Relief Society room (women’s meeting room) with some extra handouts from weeks past. Many times teachers will give little handouts with quotes, or other reminders of their lessons as a way to encourage us to think about the messages in the upcoming weeks. This particular one was very applicable to our situation, so I asked if I could have one. I now have it in my thought journal and see it weekly.

fresh start

There IS something incredibly hopeful about starting over. In January 2014, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote a First Presidency Message titled, “The Best Time to Plant a Tree”. He refers to computer hard drives and how clean and fast a new one is before it gets cluttered and begins to slow. In comparison, our lives can be like that. Not only our spiritual lives, but I believe also our physical lives. We can have so much stuff, so many activities, so many distractions that we forget what is really important. We forget that our family relationships and our relationship with God come first.

Elder Uchtdorf continues, “An old proverb says, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.’ There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word now. There is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment. Now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be—not only 20 years from now but also for all eternity.”

How true that is! We have decided that we want to be different. We want to be simple. Focusing on memories and relationships instead of material things. To that end, we are selling 90% of our earthly belongings, including the house so that we can travel more freely. As I look over the house, over everything we have found, bought, made, and acquired over the last 10 years, some of it is hard to let go. But, I just tell myself that there IS something hopeful about a fresh start, and when we settle down it will be exciting, new, and deliberate. I can’t wait.

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Faith

Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints General Conference Wrap-Up

I am so grateful for a wonderful weekend spent with family listening to inspired leaders! There were so many times that I felt the messages were meant just for me. Over the next 6 months, we plan to read, review, and study all of the messages given. I’m always amazed at how quickly the talks are posted online at lds.org. We can read, watch, or listen there, and I also download them onto my phone using the Gospel Library app – which makes reading and studying super easy.

I’m grateful for the knowledge that God speaks to His prophets. I’m grateful for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and that I have direction and purpose in my life.

Here are two of my favorite quotes from the weekend:

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BkgPXBYCcAAxbmR

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Faith

LDS General Conference

conferenceisforyou-family

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have a bi-annual, world-wide General Conference. Broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, the messages of those asked to speak are sent across television, internet, and radio to members of the Church as well as anyone who would like to listen. Uplifting messages about families, faith, hope, Jesus Christ and other topics are spoken about in 8 different sessions across two different weekends.

As a younger child and teenager, Conference Weekend was something I both looked forward to and dreaded. 8 hours of listening (4 sessions, 2 each on Saturday and Sunday) is a lot of religion for someone so young. But it was also a break from regular church attendance and Sunday morning my dad would always make us waffles for breakfast and we’d sit around the breakfast table listening to inspired messages from the leaders of our church. I looked forward to that tradition every time.

Now, I typically can’t wait for Conference to begin! Maybe because I have more patience, or I experience more trials and tests of faith but I love listening to the carefully prepared messages from our Prophet and Apostles. Many times I have had answers to prayers as the messages touch my heart and I apply them to my life and situation.

Last night was the first ever General Women’s Meeting to accompany the General Sessions and Priesthood Sessions which will occur next weekend. I was able to take Rachel, age 8, with me and we sat together and listened to righteous women praise virtue, keeping covenants, listening to the prophets, and a worldwide sisterhood. I was so proud of my daughter. This was the first time Rachel has sat and listened to that long of a meeting without the coloring books or church magazines we typically let them have during our weekly sacrament meetings. I loved when she stood up with girls all over the world and sang “Teach Me to Walk in the Light”. I’m so grateful she is my daughter and I’m excited for the young women she will become over the next few years.

I invite you to listen with us next weekend! Messages are available to stream over the internet from the lds.org website. If you are looking to be inspired, have questions about faith, or are in need of spiritual uplifting, perhaps one of the messages given will touch your heart.

“As you prepare for general conference, I invite you to ponder questions you need to have answered. For example, you might yearn for direction and guidance by the Lord regarding challenges you are facing.

Answers to your specific prayers may come directly from a particular talk or from a specific phrase. At other times answers may come in a seemingly unrelated word, phrase, or song. A heart filled with gratitude for the blessings of life and an earnest desire to hear and follow the words of counsel will prepare the way for personal revelation.”

-Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Sept. 2011 First Presidency Message)

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Faith

Finding Service

YW Backpack 2013_131

Second to time spent with and for our own families, serving others is something we feel very strongly about. Service is a way to make the world a better place, to lift burdens, and to get to know our neighbors a bit better.

Living on the road has changed the way we serve as we have adapted to the difficulties and advantages of constantly changing location. In the LDS Church, there are no paid clergy. All positions in the church, including the Bishop (think Pastor), Sunday School Teachers, and even Missionaries are filled by volunteers from the local congregation. No position is paid, and we usually support our service with our own money in addition to our own time. Holding a position of service in the LDS Church is called holding a ‘calling.’ (Callings are not-permanent, and length of time served varies: a Bishop may serve as a Sunday School Teacher in his next calling.)

LDS Callings are a great way for Service to Find You.

When you hold a calling, opportunities to serve find you. Often they are obvious, such as a Sunday School teacher preparing a lesson. Jess served for a few years in the Young Women, with girls ages 12-18. She taught lessons, helped plan weekly activities, and we both helped plan the overnight backpacking trip last summer. (See above picture…) I have served with the primary (younger kids), with the adult men, and various other callings as well. Special opportunities to serve also show up as you are engaged in your calling. A teacher may notice a student having a tough time, and be able to reach out to support them.

Living on the road requires us to actively find our own service.

Callings are based on service within a local congregation, and as we tend to visit a new congregation for sunday services every week holding a calling in a particular ward is not practical. We are then responsible for finding our own service.

We have served in a variety of ways since traveling. We frequently engage in gospel conversations with other travelers and with friends we visit. We spend regular time with the Billion Graves project, indexing gravestones to aid in family history work. I’ve even participated in a roofing service project, where I shuttled half a pallet of roofing tiles up a ladder. We are always on the lookout for people that we can help, and we pray that the Lord will send us where he can use us.

Another way to serve in the LDS Church is through what is called Home or Visiting Teaching. You are assigned (usually with a partner) to visit monthly another member of the congregation. This allows members to look after the needs of each other, and even engage the help of others if some additional help is needed. We have requested both to have Home and Visiting teachers as well as to be one if possible. There are many member that prefer or request non face-to-face visits and are more comfortable with a phone call or an email to check up on them. We feel like we could help serve in that capacity as well.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons, LDS) recently posted an article on their website that mentioned 10 different ways for members to serve in an online capacity. The article is a great read, but a few of the activities mentioned that caught our eye were: Indexing, Organizing images, and sharing creative talents. Jess has often mentioned she would love to use her photography talents to contribute to the LDS Vineyard project as well.

Service is a measure of a true disciple of Christ. It is important to us, as parents, that our children learn to serve others as well. The Savior taught, “And whosever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44-45). Eventually we will settle down and share and help in congregation somewhere, but for now, we joke at times that we are founding members of the Internet First Ward of the LDS Church. In any case, we are grateful for the congregations we visit, and for the opportunities we find along the way.