Coming Full Circle
Last July I wrote a post entitled, A Tale to Tell. In it I mentioned how words from the hymn Come, Come Ye Saints had given me the perspective I needed at that time in my life.
Today Paul and I spoke in Sacrament meeting. In it I shared some of the experiences that we had in Kentucky that were applicable to the subject of my talk. With those thoughts fresh on my mind as we began to sing the closing hymn I couldn't help but smile.
As we sang I leaned over to Paul, smiled and said, "We told our tale."
My mother-in-law last weekend had expressed a real desire to be able to be there to hear Paul and I speak, and I'm sure I have peaked her curiosity with the mention of my talk. I don't normally write out my talks word for word, but I happened to for this one. So for MarJean and any others who have had their curiosity peaked I have included below some excepts from my talk. The quotes in my talk come from our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, in his most recent General Conference address.
As Paul finished up school we were ready to go where ever the Lord needed us and where ever there was a job for Paul to be able to support our family. Just over five and a half years ago we moved to Monticello, KY. A small town in rural southern, KY. As we prepared to move we were excited at buying our first home and Paul having his first “real” job and our faith in the Lord was strong, we knew we were going somewhere where the Lord wanted us to be.
If I hadn’t known with such surety that Kentucky was where our family needed to be, I would have turned back before we had even left. There were some unforeseen and unfortunate events involving our moving truck and household items. But our anchor to the Lord saw us threw and we headed to Kentucky grateful we still had a house to go to and the majority of our things would eventually arrive.
We went to Kentucky not knowing a sole, all of our family was at least a 3 days drive away, and the only thing that was a constant was our relationship with each other and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. “His constancy is something on which we can rely, an anchor to which we can hold fast and be safe, lest we be swept away into uncharted waters.” Anchoring myself to the Lord was something I learned to do over and over again as I felt the reality of culture shock as we settled into our new home. I had to anchor myself to the Lord as we experienced complications after the birth of both of our children born there. I even needed to anchor myself to the Lord with regard to our branch and our service in the branch. At times we joked that we felt like the pioneers, except we were all alone.
There eventually came a time that the demands of motherhood, church callings, and just life itself began to overwhelm me and I began to feel that the anchor that was holding me to the true gospel begin to slip, my ship (me) was growing weak and tired. “The storms will beat at our door from time to time, for they are an inescapable part of our existence in mortality. We however, will be far better equipped to deal with them, to learn from them, and to overcome them if we have the gospel at our core and the love of the Savior in our hearts."
It was in a conversation with our Stake President about a calling he wanted to extend to Paul that I realized I could not abandon what I knew to be true. I could not and did not want to abandon my relationship with Heavenly Father and the Savior and the covenants I made in the temple. “. . . there is nothing which can bring more joy into our lives and more peace to our souls than the Spirit which can come to us as we follow the Savior and keep the commandments.”. . .
. . . “We must be vigilant in a world which has moved so far from that which is spiritual. It is essential that we reject anything that does not conform to our standard, refusing in the process to surrender that which we desire most: eternal life in the kingdom of God.” And may I add that our homes and families are the best place for us to learn to be vigilant. I believe that if we can learn to keep the commandments in our homes and with our families then we will be better able to be “in the world but not of the world”.
It was doing my best to live the commandments that kept me from being “swept away into unchartered waters” when the storms of life came.
Today Paul and I spoke in Sacrament meeting. In it I shared some of the experiences that we had in Kentucky that were applicable to the subject of my talk. With those thoughts fresh on my mind as we began to sing the closing hymn I couldn't help but smile.
Come, come ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell-
All is well! All is well!
Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins;
fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell-
All is well! All is well!
As we sang I leaned over to Paul, smiled and said, "We told our tale."
My mother-in-law last weekend had expressed a real desire to be able to be there to hear Paul and I speak, and I'm sure I have peaked her curiosity with the mention of my talk. I don't normally write out my talks word for word, but I happened to for this one. So for MarJean and any others who have had their curiosity peaked I have included below some excepts from my talk. The quotes in my talk come from our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, in his most recent General Conference address.
As Paul finished up school we were ready to go where ever the Lord needed us and where ever there was a job for Paul to be able to support our family. Just over five and a half years ago we moved to Monticello, KY. A small town in rural southern, KY. As we prepared to move we were excited at buying our first home and Paul having his first “real” job and our faith in the Lord was strong, we knew we were going somewhere where the Lord wanted us to be.
If I hadn’t known with such surety that Kentucky was where our family needed to be, I would have turned back before we had even left. There were some unforeseen and unfortunate events involving our moving truck and household items. But our anchor to the Lord saw us threw and we headed to Kentucky grateful we still had a house to go to and the majority of our things would eventually arrive.
We went to Kentucky not knowing a sole, all of our family was at least a 3 days drive away, and the only thing that was a constant was our relationship with each other and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. “His constancy is something on which we can rely, an anchor to which we can hold fast and be safe, lest we be swept away into uncharted waters.” Anchoring myself to the Lord was something I learned to do over and over again as I felt the reality of culture shock as we settled into our new home. I had to anchor myself to the Lord as we experienced complications after the birth of both of our children born there. I even needed to anchor myself to the Lord with regard to our branch and our service in the branch. At times we joked that we felt like the pioneers, except we were all alone.
There eventually came a time that the demands of motherhood, church callings, and just life itself began to overwhelm me and I began to feel that the anchor that was holding me to the true gospel begin to slip, my ship (me) was growing weak and tired. “The storms will beat at our door from time to time, for they are an inescapable part of our existence in mortality. We however, will be far better equipped to deal with them, to learn from them, and to overcome them if we have the gospel at our core and the love of the Savior in our hearts."
It was in a conversation with our Stake President about a calling he wanted to extend to Paul that I realized I could not abandon what I knew to be true. I could not and did not want to abandon my relationship with Heavenly Father and the Savior and the covenants I made in the temple. “. . . there is nothing which can bring more joy into our lives and more peace to our souls than the Spirit which can come to us as we follow the Savior and keep the commandments.”. . .
. . . “We must be vigilant in a world which has moved so far from that which is spiritual. It is essential that we reject anything that does not conform to our standard, refusing in the process to surrender that which we desire most: eternal life in the kingdom of God.” And may I add that our homes and families are the best place for us to learn to be vigilant. I believe that if we can learn to keep the commandments in our homes and with our families then we will be better able to be “in the world but not of the world”.
It was doing my best to live the commandments that kept me from being “swept away into unchartered waters” when the storms of life came.
Comments