It All Starts With Us

As children of our Heavenly Father, we have certain expectations of us that are very important for us to accomplish. Our Armor of God can help us with that, but even before we put on our Armor of God to defend ourselves, it all starts with us: who we are, what we're about, and what our values are (both when we're around others and alone). The Armor of God can do nothing if we ourselves are not worthy to be wearing it.

The Whole Armor of God: Part 2

This is a good illustration of what will happen when you let your guard down. The Armor of God is one of those things that you should never take off. It should always be firmly attached to you. It will stay attached to you based on the decisions you make throughout the day. When those troubling times get in your way, or when difficult decisions cross your path, keep on the Armor of God.

The Football Field

Football is one of America's favorite sports, so for all you sports fans, this one is for you. I want to answer the question of why we sometimes don't receive answers to prayer. There are times in our lives when we feel as though we really need Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in our lives, more than usual. This happens to everyone at some point. When we ask for those things that we think we need, and then don't get an answer, we get discouraged. Hopefully, this will help answer and resolve that concern.

Imagine you are on a football field in the middle of a stadium. There is nobody in the stands and no distractions or loud noises. You are in one end-zone and Heavenly Father is in the other end-zone. When you shout to Him the concern or question you have, He answers in a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12). Since you are on the other side of the field, you can't hear Him, and from the distance, it looks like He's not doing anything. As you continue to shout at Him these questions, you still can't hear anything, which causes you to get upset. This is really bothering you. You deserve an answer about these things. The only answer to this dilemma, is to get closer to Him, so you can hear what He has to say.

In order to get closer to Heavenly Father, we have to start living as He would want us to live. Here are a few examples: if we aren't reading our scriptures, read; if we aren't saying our prayers as faithfully as we know we should, pray; if we are angry at something or someone, forgive; etc. We have to start living Christlike lives. Here are some Christlike attributes that we need to live so we can get closer to Heavenly Father, here on this football field of life: have faith in Jesus Christ and in having your prayers answered, have hope that this will all come out fine in the end, have charity and love for your fellow man and for God, be virtuous in all your thoughts and deeds, study out your answer and gain knowledge you need, be patient, be humble enough to receive any answer, even if it's not the answer you may want, be diligent in asking and in doing all these things, and last, but not least, be obedient to Heavenly Father's commandments (He has more than just ten of them). As you do these things, it will get you closer and closer to Heavenly Father, so that when He does speak in that still small voice, you can hear Him more clearly than you have ever heard Him before.

Unfortunately, there are always going to be other influences around us, who are going to try to confuse us. At the beginning of this parable, I mentioned that you were alone in this stadium. That was to demonstrate what we need to focus on. Now that we have our focus, let's fill in those empty seats. This represents every influence around us. There are people in the crowd who are going to cheer for you, telling you to move forward and to not give up, and there are people in the crowd who are going to be jeering at you, making you feel like there is no hope, telling you that you will never make it to the other side of the field. Never fall into that trap.

I want to make you this promise: as you start living a more Christlike life, you will start to be guided by the Holy Ghost and will be more sensitive to His promptings. As you do good, your want to do good will multiply, and it won't matter how many times people jeer at you, you will have a straight and sure course, straight into Heavenly Father and your answer.

The Song Of The Righteous...

I would like to dedicate this post to my favorite church songs, both in the main Hymn Book we use, and in the Children's Songbook. In the Doctrine and Covenants 25:12 it says, "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." There are several songs/hymns that I wanted to go over because of the power in their messages. Hopefully, I can catch some of the full meaning that some of these songs/hymns have.

Look To The Light

Have You Ever Wondered...?

As both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and non-members alike, we always want answers to our own personal questions, some of which the scriptures don't cover as a topic of discussion. It is interesting to note that sometimes we don't seem to think to pray, and even when we do, we don't always receive an answer. Though we may not receive an answer right away, or receive an answer that we don't recognize, God does answer our prayers.


Let's look at the first problem mentioned above, receiving an answer. We know that we should pray when we want spiritual truth, but sometimes we don't necessarily receive an answer. Some of those possibilities may be surprising. Doctrine and Covenants 9: 7-8 says, "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. (8) But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right." So there is the first thing we ought to do. We can't just ask, then expect God to give us the answer without doing anything for it. We have to search it out. Who knows, maybe our answer CAN be found in the scriptures. Now, let's look at a different point. Maybe you're not having the right method of receiving your answer. For example, in 3 Nephi 18: 21 it says, "Pray...unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." So there's point number one. Pray to God the Father, having your prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Another method can be found in Moroni 10: 4 which says, "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." There it is, ask God, in the name of Christ, with a sincere heart (which means REALLY wanting to know, not having the state of mind that 'That is what they told me to do'), with real intent (which means actually willing to go through with the answer that you receive), and have faith in Christ. THEN you will receive your answer.


Now let's look at the second of those points, recognizing those answers. We will feel different things when we receive answers to our prayers. Feelings, inclinations, impressions, and thoughts can be some of those answers. Feelings include such things as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5: 22-23). If you receive one or more of those kinds of feelings, you could be receiving your answer. Like I said earlier, you have to search for the answer, AND pray. If we search for the answer in the scriptures after we pray, we could "just happen" to come upon the answer we were looking for. That is also another way God can talk to us. If he has already talked to somebody else about that same thing in the scriptures, that's where you're going to find your answer.


These and many more are ways that you can receive spiritual enlightenment and find answers to many of life's difficult questions. As you pray with faith, our loving Father in Heaven WILL hear you, and he WILL answer you prayers in His own due time. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (3 Nephi 14:7).