As your new year has started, how are you feeling? 2020 was quite a year, and 2021 has already presented some real challenges.

We are grateful to know that Jesus Christ is real and knows what is happening in our lives — individually and collectively — and can help us find peace (individually and collectively!).

If you are searching for peace, we invite you to learn more about Jesus Christ. Or if you already know about Him, we hope you continue to find ways to bring Him into your life each day. We need Him more than ever!

For me, that can look like reading scriptures (like The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ), taking a deep and long breath with Him on my mind, savoring a sunset, practicing gratitude, praying for help, asking someone to share a spiritual thought, connecting with others who are seeking to know Him better, sharing the love and hope I have felt from Him with someone else.

How do you bring Jesus and peace into your life?

The post The Prince of Peace appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

There was a time — quite a long stretch of time, actually — when I would hear people say, “Practice gratitude” and I would shrivel up a little inside. Things were bone-deep hard in my life, and gratitude definitely felt more like a platitude. When people shared (felt like threw) that idea over the pulpit or the social media fence, it often felt somehow like a dismissal of the pain that was already mostly invisible to others. It left me feeling even more invisible.

It’s not that I hadn’t tried being grateful, it just didn’t quite…work?…for some reason.

So this weekend when I heard ripples about how some people are responding to President Nelson’s #GiveThanks invitation with not-such-positive feelings, I could empathize, at least a little.

Of course, I don’t know what the specific bristle is about for different individuals, but I’ve heard from some that it can be hard to see people such a flurry of posts about the things that for many represent “sorrow that the eye can’t see” in their lives. For example, posts about health or health-dependent activities and opportunities can hurt when you are sick; posts about children can trigger the ache when you are childless or mourning a loss of a child; posts about happy marriages can sting when you are single or struggling with marriage issues. And the list can go on.

And we all know that social media is well-known for being a potential vehicle for feeding that sort of “pouring lemon juice on the wound” kind of feeling when someone is already hurting. (Sometimes it can even create pain when we didn’t feel it before. Social media is a topic for another day, though….)

I don’t know how that stinging feeling might be transformed for you if you are hurting, but I can share that God did bring friends and resources and language and mentors who helped the idea of gratitude slowly start to crack through the protective shell I was living behind. Through them, God helped the idea go from a sour platitude to something more like the oil the Good Samaritan poured into the wounds of his should-have-been enemy. The oil of joy, even.

Gratitude is still something I’m practicing, but I’m understanding more why sages from all traditions through millennia have encouraged it, and why those in the modern-day medical and mental health professions also encourage practicing gratitude. I can taste that it has the potential to be life-changing and life-giving.

One of my friends who is further along the gratitude practice path, who has helped me feel and understand more of its power, gave me permission to share the following.

As a little bit of background: Alicia is two years out from a devastating cancer diagnosis (stage 4 metastatic breast cancer). Her treatments thrust her still-young-body into way-too-early menopause, mocking her desire for more children. She will have to be on treatments for the rest of her life, which life she realizes may be shorter than she had planned or hoped for. (And this is only the stuff she has felt to write about publicly. We all have sorrows that are not visible to others.)

In short, she knows something of what it is like to grieve, to lose, to yearn. She knows the longing for something once experienced in the past (like health, flexibility, fertility) or the pain taking a future dream and packing it away for this life.

This is what she wrote a couple of days ago.

Through hard chemo, I kept a gratitude journal.

One day, I was only well enough to scrawl, “I’m grateful for puzzles.” The writing is wobbly, and I treasure it.

I learned a lot about the power of gratitude with that daily practice. I learned when we pay attention, really pay attention to our lives and every blessing worth expressing gratitude, healing pours through the crevices of our souls.

Gratitude mends individuals, relationships, communities, nations! I spent my life [before cancer] unaware of the power gratitude held.

One evening after a treatment, our family went out to eat. My head was wrapped in my favorite white scarf. My family all wore telling pink bracelets. Our server paid for our meal but I found it still came with a price: he’d lost his wife to breast cancer, and he laid his grief at our feet, going into great detail about the process.

It sparked an anxiety attack.

I went back to our hotel room and while everyone else slept, I forced myself to write two full pages of things I was grateful for. Through writing, my heart slowed down, my breathing returned to normal. I was finally able to fall asleep.

So I find: When I can’t find my footing to walk by faith, I walk by gratitude.

Are you breathing? Is your heart keeping time within your cozy core? Breath and blood are miracles. Commonplace, but no less miraculous.

I’m grateful for breath.

For blood.

My blood and Christ’s.

I’ve heard some criticism over public gratitude practices…and I disagree. Full stop. Gratitude is a healer. Not THE Healer, but it is a powerful, underestimated and often untapped force for healing.

There are times when others post about what they are grateful for and it hurts. It hurts like when someone my age goes jogging by my house or announces a pregnancy, but under no circumstances do I want anyone to try to manage my pain for me. Don’t you dare NOT share your pregnancy announcement. I want a chance to practice celebrating with you AND feeling what that pain/grief has to teach me. I want to go to God with it, lean in and learn. Also keep running by my house. It’s good for both of us. Your physical practice of running is making you stronger and my mental practice of accepting my new limitations is making me stronger.

If someone else’s public gratitude practice hurts, lean into your own practice ten fold.

Write two pages when you can’t breathe.

Write one line when you don’t have strength.

But do it. Do it, and see if your life isn’t revolutionized. Miracles have a funny way of flourishing when they’re paid attention to.

Kind of like people.

The post When it is hard to #GiveThanks (or to hear others express it) appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

~by Rachel

I sketched this picture a few years ago while on the phone with a friend. I had this image pop into my mind as we discussed what it means to have the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

This is what it means to me. It means I am not alone. It means I’m supported.

It means I am filled with Peace. I know that I have the companionship of the Holy Spirit with me, that Heavenly Father is simply a prayer away, and that Jesus Christ’s name is written on my heart.

I wish everyone could taste of this. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted something more.

I will be listening to the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints today and tomorrow, and I invite all who feel lost, disconnected, sorrowful, or broken to listen too. I’ve been feeling those things pretty poignantly lately, but I can testify that God’s power and the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ are real, and the hope I feel because of them is life changing.

The post Jesus Christ walks with me appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

One of the things I appreciate about being a part of this effort is to read the words of my fellow brothers and sisters. Their perspectives and experience enrich my experience engaging the words of the prophets. Of course, we don’t want our posts to replace the words of the prophets, but we hope perhaps this project will inspire you in some way, as it is inspiring us, to engage their words with more deliberateness and faith.

The other posts from this week’s reading, which focused on the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 1972 General Conference, are at the bottom of the post.

(I was having login troubles when it was time to post for this week’s General Conference Odyssey, and even though it’s almost time for next week’s post, I still wanted to share some thoughts, mostly because I need them.)

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In the April 1972 conference, there was a lot said about the priesthood. I love this topic. I love learning and pondering about the priesthood (and the relationship of women to priesthood), for example.

But the past several months, I’ve felt more drawn to talks that can guide me in my personal relationship with God, and in my spiritual health. So it’s not surprising that the talk that caught my attention from this week’s reading was Eldred G. Smith’s talk entitled “Peace.”

In that upper room in Jerusalem where the Last Supper was held, Jesus gave his disciples considerable instructions. Among many things he taught them, he said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27.)

Again he said: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33.)

Humans crave peace. It’s been a topic in cultural and political discourse throughout the ages. And yet, as Elder Smith points out, peace is often elusive — at least in the world around us.

I’ve been noticing lately how easily agitated I can be by news stories or social media chatter or things outside of my control that my brain latches onto. I too often want to engage in topics and conversations that, in reality, sap me of energy. As Nephi would say, there is much that can “destroy my peace and afflict my soul.”

I believe in being informed and engaged in the world around me. But there’s a fine line within myself that I’m trying to learn to discern  — that place where I go from proactively choosing to be informed and appropriately engaged to being reactively distracted, sucked in, or even emotionally and mentally hijacked.

I also find that sometimes I do exactly as Elder Smith describes. Sometimes I expect the world around me and other people to make my life peaceful.

How is it that we have not discovered the secret of peace when we have been looking for it all through the ages? I’ll tell you. We are looking for someone to create it for us—to bring it to us. Edna St. Vincent Millay said: “There is no peace on earth today, save the peace in the heart at home with God. … No man can be at peace with his neighbor who is not at peace with himself. …” (“Conversations at Midnight,” Collected Poems, Harper & Row, Copyright 1937 and 1964.)

Elder Smith lists various things that can help foster peace, or hinder it. Rather than repeat his list, I will just invite you to join me in considering a list of your own, things that bring peace to you vs. things that “destroy your peace” or “afflict your soul.”

We all ache for a world and for relationships that are founded in peace. There is only one way to truly live in peace. It is to have our lives based in the principles that the Prince of Peace lived and taught. To have Him as the center of our minds and hearts and lives.

If each person would have peace within his soul, then there would be peace in the family. If there is peace in each family, then there is peace in the nation. If there is peace in the nations, there is peace in the world.

Let us not just sing, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me,” but let us mean it. Make it my goal—your goal.

When the Savior comes again—and he will come—he will bring peace only as we will accept and follow his teachings of service to others and eliminate enmity and unrighteousness. [And, I believe, as we let Him help us become more service-oriented and loving.]

Here’s a song that is helping me recenter when I’m feeling agitated or stressed. I like to also remind myself that God’s will is for me to feel His love and peace. Turning my thoughts to Christ and taking a deep breath can help me hear His Spirit and feel His guidance more in my life.

Just breathe.

All of the posts from this week’s #ldsconf Odyssey are below:

• The Peace of Knowing God by Nathaniel Givens
• Blessings in General Conference by G
• The Cure for What Ails Us by Daniel Ortner
• Peace by Michelle Linford
• “Peace Be Unto You” by Walker Wright
• To Know HIM is To Love HIM by Jan Tolman

The post #ldsconf Odyssey: Peace appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

I struggle with chronic health problems, including arthritis. One Sunday, I came home from church early, in pain and upset. It seems that when I’m in pain my mind gets involved, stirring and wrenching, agitated at dealing with something so overly consuming.

I had been easing off of some pain medication that I had been taking; it wasn’t taking away the pain enough and was causing side effects that I didn’t want to deal with anymore. I had tapered off to no medication. It wasn’t my plan to dip my lower legs in acid but that’s what I ended up feeling had happened to me. So I sat in a pew fidgeting and fighting the pain until I could go home.

When I arrived home it was sad to be in the house all alone and feeling horrid. Hoping I could sleep I took some ibuprofen and went to bed. Thankfully it worked and I slept for a while. When I awoke I laid there for a while, sorting myself out. Am I just stupid to stop taking a med that semi-worked, even with some unpleasantness? Will this pain just go on and on? How can my family put up with me? How will I manage the kids in school?

Not wanting to stand up, for fear of the pain jumping at me again, I decided to read.

When I was five years old, I became very ill. It turned out that I had polio, a disease that was completely unknown to the small-town doctor. I lay for several weeks on a WW I army cot in our front room beside a coal stove. Afterward, I could not walk. I remember very clearly sliding around on the linoleum floor and pulling myself up on chairs, learning to walk again. I was more fortunate than some. A friend walked with crutches and steel leg braces all of his life…

I found hope in my patriarchal blessing. The patriarch, whom I had never met before, confirmed to me that patriarchs do have prophetic insight. He said that I had a desire to come to earth life and was willing to meet the tests that would accompany life in a mortal body. He said that I had been given a body of such physical proportion and fitness to enable my spirit to function through it unhampered by physical impediment. That encouraged me.

This is from President Boyd K. Packer’s talk entitled “Counsel to Young Men” from the 2009 April General Conference. I have been reading the talks regularly at this time. This was the next talk on the page, after the talk I had read the night before. I was amazed that a talk to young men would hold something I needed right then.

As the kids are about to start school and I worry about what this school year will bring, the words at the close of his talk are comforting to me also:

It may seem that the world is in commotion; and it is! It may seem that there are wars and rumors of wars; and there are! It may seem that the future will hold trials and difficulties for you; and it will! However, fear is the opposite of faith. Do not be afraid! I do not fear…
…[T]he gospel plan is ‘the great plan of happiness’ and that happiness is the end of our existence. Of this I bear testimony….

The post Pain and Peace appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Some of my friends have thoughtfully picked out words or quotes to inspire them for the New Year. I think this is a fun idea, though I hesitate to pick one for myself. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m just not that organized. Maybe things have just been so crazy for us the last few years that each year feels kind of like ten. Maybe I just don’t ever know what’s going to happen next.

My friend, Megan finally pushed me over the edge and made me really think about it. She picked the word RELAX. I really like that. In fact, I was just going to go ahead and steal it from her and make it my word, but something else kept popping into my head.

It’s that scripture–you know, the one in Psalms 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”

It also shows up in Doctrine and Covenants 101:16: “Let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God.”

Of course what kept coming to mind was “relax and know that I am God.” Not exactly accurate, but I think that’s one way of interpreting those verses. The more I thought about it the more I realized that this scripture is really what I need to think about and remember for the next year. We’re going to be moving across the country (again). We’ll be buying a business and taking it over (if all goes well). We’ll have to find a new house in a new place. We’ll have to find a new school for our son, Max and go to a new ward (again).

It’s all really scary. And intimidating. It makes me feel tired and frightened.

BUT. If I can think about it all in regards to these scriptures then I can think about it in a different way. If I can be still and know that Heavenly Father is God and that He is watching out for me then I don’t have to be so scared, or maybe scared at all. I’m not the only one watching out for me and my little family.

So maybe these big things we have to do can start to look exciting and adventurous instead of so scary.

The fact that I can’t ultimately control what happens in my life can be okay. There are divine beings watching out for us. Ultimately even if bad things happen we have hope that all will be ok and that we will be able to be together in the end.

I’ve just got to have faith. Relax, have faith and do the work.

One of my favorite men in the world, Jeffery R. Holland wrote the following in a wonderful article in the Ensign this month:

“Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?
“To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews 9:11).”

Could that be more perfect and appropriate?

He writes and speaks so well. Just listening to his words brings me comfort.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

OK, I’ll try. I’ll try my best.

The post First Person: Be Still appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

My husband and I have been married for four years and while dating we learned that we both loved being in the outdoors. I grew up fishing and camping with my family. My husband pretty much taught himself to fish and went camping occasionally with his family. The first year or two of marriage we went camping a few times. After we had our little girl we apparently decided we needed to camp more often because she was born in February and we were camping in June. We went camping at least once a month that summer. Even though it was a lot of work with a little baby it was so nice to get out of our house and spend time with one another. There is nothing better than being in the mountains away from cars, houses, and noise. When we go camping and fishing we are able to reconnect as a family.  It is a lot easier to talk to one another if the TV isn’t on and the computer isn’t running.

This past summer we once again spent lots of time camping. It was more difficult this year because we were chasing our little girl around and trying to keep her away from the fire but somehow camping was still more relaxing than staying at home with all of our distractions. It was so nice after our little girl had gone to bed.  We would sit by the fire and just talk about anything that came to our minds about our life and where we want to go.

Peace is what I feel when I am in the outdoors- camping, hiking, or fishing. It is where I love to be. I am able to feel God’s love enfold me as I see the trees, flowers, and animals. I feel so blessed that I can share that time with my family. I am so blessed to have them in my life. I know that we will always go through trials as a family and that we can be made stronger because of them. We are so blessed as parents to have our little girl in our life, she is our joy and our happiness. We love her and the time spent with her. She is one of our many blessings.

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My name is Kathryn and I recently emailed my fabulous meatloaf recipe to my only daughter, but I added a warning: “If you take off your wedding ring—especially during deer hunting season–put it in a safe place.”

When my daughter was in high school, we lived for a year in a town of nine hundred people. There were no streetlights in the entire county and you had to drive over two hours just to buy fast food or a ticket to see a movie. One day I slipped off my diamond wedding ring; mixed ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, ketchup, vegetables, and spices with my bare hands; and popped it into the oven. I was exhausted by the time we had devoured that yummy meatloaf and cleaned up the kitchen.

The next morning I looked down at my left hand. Where was my wedding ring? I checked all the obvious places, but no ring. I wondered if I had set it on the counter, carelessly wiping it into the trash. I checked under the sink, but my husband must have grabbed the trash on his way to work. In this tiny town there was no trash pick-up at your home; a landfill truck randomly emptied a few black dumpsters located on the outskirts of town. I immediately called my husband at work and he offered to retrieve the garbage bag he had just thrown into a dumpster.

A few minutes later he called with the horrible news –the dumpster was empty.  However, my husband was not worried. He had seen a deer carcass in the dumpster, so if we drove to the landfill first thing in the morning, we could locate the deer carcass and the diamond ring was certain to be near by.

I felt optimistic because I believe in miracles.  I prayed fervently that I would find my wedding ring.

The sun had just barely peeked over the mountains when we pulled up to the landfill nestled in the middle of an isolated valley.  I saw a bulldozer already spreading the previous day’s trash. I began scanning the acres of shredded white garbage bags and bits of paper for some sign of a deer carcass–I saw one!  And then another and another … and another!  This was deer hunting season and we counted at least twenty deer carcasses poking out from the bulging waves of trash. The bulldozer guy thought we were crazy, but he pointed to the approximate area where our town’s garbage might be located. For one hour we rummaged through the smelly trash.

I sat in stunned silence on the ride home. I couldn’t believe it. I had lost my diamond ring.

When we got home, I threw myself on my bed and sobbed.  First I was crying for the lost diamond ring, but then I started mourning every loss in my entire life.  I cried because I lost my father in a storm when I was eight years old and because I lost my sweet mother in that same accident.  My mother suffered a traumatic head injury and I grew up with an angry stranger who barely resembled the woman who had gone sailing with her husband on date night. I cried because my ex-husband had decided he hated the Church and he hated me, so he divorced me. My three little kids and I lost our beautiful home in the divorce. I also lost all my friends when we moved to Utah to attend graduate school.

I cried because I had recently quit my full-time teaching dream job in order to marry a man who worked in an isolated town where the people hated outsiders, killed deer by the dozens, and where my children were treated like pond scum.

I wept for several hours and then I finally prayed for peace and understanding. Eventually, I realized we could survive all our losses, because the Atonement of Jesus Christ has the amazing power to heal all our wounds, to restore our peace.  I just had to ask…and so I did.

A couple days later we were eating dinner and my ten-year-old son said, “Mom, look–your ring.”

I said, “That isn’t funny. You don’t make jokes about something like that.”

He pointed to the pepper grinder sitting on the dining room table, “Look, Mom — YOUR RING.” We all leaned closer to look and sitting on top of the silver knob was my wedding ring.

I no longer live in that small town, but I still lose things. Recently I lost my good health– but just like when I lost my ring, it has become a tutoring experience. I also try not to seek for happiness in landfills anymore. When I believed that I could only be happy if I was the size of a super model–that was absolute garbage. When I believed that happiness came from having the acceptance and admiration of other people– that was like looking for a diamond ring in a stinky landfill; I only found failure and tears.

I have found happiness by seeking only to please God.  Through obedience and seeking to understand His will, miracles continue to find me.  I have also found peace by searching the scriptures. The Lord promises that “ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13)  I have searched for the Lord with all my heart and I have found Him. His light and love is far brighter and more precious than any diamond ring.

The post Portraits of Mormon Women: Kathryn appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

My name is Behka and I have been happily married to my husband for almost 13 years. Yikes! That sounds like such a long time! I have 7 children, but 2 of my sons passed away as infants to a rare genetic disease. My husband and I are carriers of the disease, so we like to refer to ourselves as ‘genetic mutants.’ So we are raising 5 children ages: 12, 10, 8, 4, and 7 months. And still hoping for more!

I was born and raised LDS, so I was baptized when I was 8 years old. I am from Auburn, WA, just outside of Seattle. Right now I live in Utah. I am in the business of motherhood – and have been for 12 years now. I love it! It’s the only career I have ever wanted. It is so fun watching these sweet children grow up. I promise it does get easier as they get older! In church, I serve as the 2nd counselor in the Stake Young Women’s organization, and it has been by far my favorite calling yet.

I live close to other LDS people, and every Tuesday and Thursday mornings I get together at one of our church buildings with other women and we play basketball. Most of us there have played college ball, so it is very competitive and very fun. We all bring our kids that aren’t school aged yet and they play together while we play. I have also found that as my children get older, whatever they are doing becomes my current hobby – I can’t count the number of basketball, volleyball and soccer games I have watched, cheered at, and coached the past year. I will never get tired of watching my kids play. I also enjoy running, reading, hiking with my husband, and spending time with the family.

I have always known that God is real and that Jesus Christ is His son. I have had many experiences in my life that have strengthened this testimony. The most powerful experience I had was when my second son was dying. I think it is in the most difficult circumstances that Jesus Christ is able to come to us and strengthen us because we realize that we cannot cope on our own, and so He can show Himself to us in an undeniable way. I would like to share a journal entry about this experience. To preface this, we brought our son Josiah home from the hospital on hospice care when he was almost 5 weeks old. They told us he wouldn’t survive the 1-hour car ride home, but I didn’t think it was his time yet. We got to spend 10 extra precious days with him. It was wonderful, but it was still very hard. Here goes:

There is a certain amount of energy required to prepare yourself for the death of your child. It is the most humbling experience to pray to Heavenly Father and tell him it is ok to take back His precious one. You have to give everything you are to Heavenly Father, to align your will with His, because accepting the inevitable death of one so dear is against all natural instincts of a parent. We want to fight it, to do something to make it all better. The times we thought Josiah was going to die and didn’t, proved to be the most exhausting experiences of my life. Partly because of the anguish associated with death, partly because of the spiritual exercise of stripping myself of all pride and selfishness, partly because recognizing if now wasn’t the time, it would be soon enough, and the stress of carrying on in life while death is knocking at the door is excruciating.

The Tuesday night before Josiah died was the worst of all, but was also the turning point in my true acceptance of God’s will. As I lay in bed watching Josiah’s ribs exposed and listening to the crackle of his lungs each time he struggled for a breath, I couldn’t contain my tears. Why does one so innocent and pure need to suffer so? His frail lungs weren’t strong enough to fight off the pneumonia. He wasn’t going to get better this time. I knelt down and from the depths of sorrow and despair I cried to my Heavenly Father. I was painfully aware of my weakness and inadequacy. I didn’t feel equal to the task of watching by as my baby son suffered bitterly, fighting just for breath. I didn’t feel equal to the task of losing him, either. I painfully realized that the only way his suffering would end would be for him to be free from his body. Each realization and admission stripped off the layers of my natural man, one by one, exposing my bare, broken soul. I knelt in a crumpled heap of darkness. In this moment of desperation, I gave everything I could to Heavenly Father. I even gave up my favorite sin of omission and covenanted that it would be a strength from now on, pleading with Heavenly Father that He would comfort Josiah and stop his suffering, knowing what that meant. The despair of death was overwhelming. I closed my prayer. “I lay this burden at Thy feet and pray thy will be done. In life or in death, Thy will be done. I pray for strength to go on, either way.” I climbed back into bed and pulled my son close as sleep overcame my exhausted body.

As it always happens, even after the darkest of nights the sun rises every morning, bringing light and hope of a new day. I sincerely didn’t think Josiah would be with us when I woke up, but he was. Peace and confidence surrounded me. Death still loomed near, but it was no longer a blackness of despair. The stress, strain, and despair were gone. I had given my broken heart to Heavenly Father and the Atonement of Jesus Christ bound it up and gave me strength and courage to go on. ‘I can do this,’, I thought, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.” I would care for Josiah until his life’s mission is complete and then I would cope with his death because I had the strength of Christ in me. I had looked death in the eye and no longer feared it; let it come when it may. For the first time since his first surgery, I was able to enjoy Josiah living without fear of him dying. Time is such a sweet and precious gift.

I am so thankful I was prepared for Josiah’s death. Through the process of aligning my will with God’s, my natural self felt peace and my spirit was able to recognize spiritual things. If I was still afraid of his death and holding on to Josiah’s life, I may have missed one of the most cherished experiences of my life as he passed away.

I know that Jesus Christ lives because every time my heart has been broken, through disappointment, despair, sin, or whatever, I have prayed to my Heavenly Father that my heart will be healed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I have been healed. There is no power of man that can do this. It is only through the power of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I have learned that it is possible to be HAPPY amidst the difficulty of life. Being a Mormon Woman does not mean I enjoy a life of ease and simplicity. But I love my life, with all the adventure and demands of a family, and I am happy!
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For more portraits of Mormon Women click here.

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There are certain things that I do that make me feel close to the Lord.

George Washington Carver said, “I like to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us, if only we will tune in.”

I’m inclined to agree with Mr. Carver, for I see evidence of God’s love as I wander in the mountains,

watch the sun rise or admire flowers growing around me.

Martin Luther said, “God writes the gospel not in the bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.”

I feel a confirmation from the Spirit that our Savior, Jesus Christ, created the earth for us. These same feelings are the ones that help me know that He lives.

I feel peace in my soul when I am in the quiet of nature, away from the sounds of town. Out here is where I know, God loves me.

He loves you, too.

Please share a time when you felt close to God while enjoying the beauties of nature.

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