Day 1030: Sacrifice?

Today was our Stake Conference.  Not to be confused with Steak Conference.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are divided up according to regional location at varying degrees.  The congregation we meet with is referred to as our "ward".  A group of congregations in an area are referred to as a "stake".  So, Stake Conference is the opportunity to meet together with several other congregations and be taught by those having stewardship over our Stake.

It was a great meeting, but the talk given by our Stake President really hit home for me.  He first asked how much faith do we really need?  He then answered this with the statement that we really only need enough faith to be obedient.

I really liked that because I often find myself worrying that I don't have enough faith, or as much faith as I should.  However, I reflected today, I do have enough faith to be obedient.  I don't think he was suggesting that we shouldn't strive for greater faith, but that having at least the amount of faith required to be obedient is enough.

And then Baby B threw a huge tantrum and I had to take him out as HH was holding a sleeping Darling A and we didn't want him to disrupt everyone else in the room.  At first, I was really mad.  I thought, "I really need to hear this talk!  It is right along the lines of things I'm working through internally.  This is so unfair that I am stuck out here with this crazy child of mine!"

And then the Holy Ghost quietly whispered that perhaps I had heard enough.

So, I calmed down.  Baby B calmed down a few minutes later and we went back in.

By this time our Stake President was sharing a personal experience of a time when he felt that he was living life as he should and then began receiving promptings that there was one thing in his life he needed to change.  He was surprised, as he didn't see that this particular thing (he never specified what) was really holding him back spiritually.  And he delayed his obedience to this prompting.  As time went on, he began to feel more distant from things of a spiritual nature and it wasn't until one day reading in the Doctrine and Covenants Section 84, verse 54:  "And your ^aminds in times past have been ^bdarkened because of ^cunbelief, and because you have treated ^dlightly the things you have received—"

And he realized that the spiritual distance he felt was because he had avoided changing this one thing.

Well, I too have recently begun receiving promptings to change something.  For me, it's giving up a particular TV show.  I think it's really funny, but it also has some inappropriate content.  I was kind of dragging my feet at this recent prompting, but sitting there today, I knew that I can't really afford to do anything that will result in distancing me from the spirit.  And that message felt like it was just for me.

Being close to the Holy Spirit is important at all times, but I feel even more so right now as I'm really trying to get better and be happy again.

And giving up a television show so that I can have the Joyful life for which I was intended, really isn't the sacrifice I was initially thinking it was.

And then I came home and finally read the article "Good, Better, Best" that I'd intended to read on Friday and it pretty much just reiterated that.  So, I'd say I've been given a clear message.

I'm listening.