Bind My Wandering Heart To Thee

Throughout this semester of school I have been working on a "Becoming Project", which has essentially allowed me to choose three attributes of Christ that I would like to develop. I chose the attributes of gratitude, service, and charity (the pure love of Christ.) Because of this project I learned that the only way I can truly become more like my Savior is to center my life around Him, through daily personal prayer and scripture study. It takes real effort and half-hearted attempts at developing Christ-like qualities will not be fruitful. I learned that when I strive with a sincere heart and real intent to become more like Him, I will be given opportunities and I will feel impressions from the Spirit that invite me to change. I learned that if I follow those impressions and accept the invitations to change, then little by little, baby step after baby step, I will begin to recognize subtle changes and the desire to be more like Him will become stronger. Although the “Sunday School answers” of go to church, say your prayers, and read your scriptures often seem cliché or commonplace, they are in actuality, the very keys and principles that will help us develop into more Christ-like disciples.

Reading the scriptures daily, or almost daily if I'm being honest, has really helped me to keep Christ centered in my mind and in my daily life. Without consistent scripture study, I seem to slip into a pattern of putting into focus worldly things that are of no importance. The scriptures help me to stay on the straight and narrow path; they help me to remember my covenants; they help me to have a stronger desire to avoid evil; they help me recognize the temptations of the devil that are inevitable in my daily life; they help me to have the courage to resist evil and to stand up for good. Because of the work I have done with this project, I have a greater desire to serve the Lord, I have a stronger testimony of His love for me, and I have gained more awareness of my weaknesses and my reliance on my Savior for strength. I need Him to bind my wandering heart.

I think parts 2 and 3 of this project were the most successful for me because they were the areas that I needed the greatest improvement. Having a good attitude about service and having more charity towards my fellow man are areas that I have struggled with, and are qualities that I desire to develop. This project allowed me to focus daily on these things, and begin to feel real changes in becoming more cheerful in service and more charitable in my thoughts. During part 3 of this project, I was working on having more charity, especially to have more kind and generous thoughts about and towards a few key people in my life. This has been a subtle but powerful change for me and I am grateful that many of the once negative thoughts I have had towards these individuals, have now shifted to kinder, more patient thoughts. I still have more work to do, and I will continue to strive to be like the Savior who astounds me when I think of His ability to forgive and treat kindly those who hurt him, mocked him, even crucified him.

A 12-week project to develop these Christ-like attributes is not sufficient to overcome my natural man, my wandering heart. I know that I will constantly need to be striving to be more grateful, to serve more, and to have more charity. I will need a life full of gratitude, service, and charity and even then I will fall short. However, I know that the promise in Moroni 10:32 is real; if I will love God with all my might, mind and strength, then His grace will be sufficient enough to perfect even me. I believe this with all my heart.

One of my favorite hymns, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", has the most powerful lyrics that are like a bullet straight to my heart. As an imperfect human, phrases like "wandering from the fold of God" and "how great a debtor I'm constrained to be!" illustrate so poignantly how in need I am of a Savior. Please watch and listen to this powerful video of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing this hymn. The choir member singing through his tears at 3:18 represents perfectly how I feel when I hear this song, and how I feel about my Savior's perfect love.♥

"Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."

Easter Reflections

The Burial of Christ, by Carl Bloch

It is the eve of Easter and my heart is full, overflowing, with love, appreciation, and deep gratitude for my Savior and the possibilities He provides me; repentance, forgiveness, eternal life. How can I ever repay Him? The fact is, I can't. I cannot offer Him anything that is equal to His offering to me. I will always fall short and be indebted to Him, but I will also continue trying my best to repay Him, by striving to live a good life, serving others, and showing Christ-like love to my fellow man.

I have been thinking a lot lately about why difficult things happen to good people; people who try to do the right things, people who serve others. It's a silly question really, especially on the Eve of Easter. Our Savior Jesus Christ was the best person to ever walk the earth and yet, even He faced the most difficult thing imaginable. He faced all of our difficulties. ALL of them! Whenever I ponder on the atonement, my mind begins to feel overwhelmed because of the depth and intensity that He surely experienced. I imagine that I can't even scratch the surface of understanding. What He did in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then at Golgotha is beyond my capability for understanding. So, I choose to be grateful. Grateful that He lived his perfect life, and gave me an example of how I should strive to live. Grateful that He is merciful and forgiving and comforts me when I stumble over and over and over. Grateful for His unconditional love.

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me
Enough to die for me!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine,
That he should extend his great love unto such as I,
Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,
Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet

-I Stand All Amazed, Hymn #193

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
-John 15:13

Charity - The Pure Love of Christ

Greatest in the Kingdom - by J. Kirk Richards

One of my favorite things about participating in Pathway is that it has given me the opportunity to work on developing attributes of Christ. Last semester we chose just one attribute to focus on, and I chose to be prayerful. It was a wonderful experience that helped me understand more deeply my need for the Savior and the importance of communing with my Father in Heaven. Even though I spent 12 weeks focusing on being more prayerful, I am still a work in progress and will always be striving to become a prayerful person like the Savior. Nevertheless, these experiences of focusing on a specific attribute have been a powerful practice in my life, and I plan to continue working to develop specific attributes even when I have finished the Pathway program.

This semester, we have been able to choose three different attributes and focus on them for four weeks at a time. Earlier this semester I chose the attributes Gratitude and Service as the qualities of Christ that I would like to develop. It has been wonderful to center my life on these traits and as I have looked inward to develop gratitude, and outward to develop service, I have felt changes in my attitude and found more happiness in my life. Now, with the opportunity to look upward, I have chosen to work on developing Charity, the pure love of Christ.

For me, developing Charity encompasses the qualities of brotherly kindness, love, compassion, and sincere generosity. I have chosen charity because I struggle with having kind thoughts towards those who annoy me, are unkind towards me or others, and those who are unpleasant to be around. I know that the Savior lived his life with perfect love for all, even those who betrayed him, mocked him, tortured him, and ultimately crucified him. I know that if I strive to live more like the Savior and focus my efforts on becoming more charitable, I can overcome this weakness. I want to be more generous in my thoughts towards my fellow man, even those who are “hard to love”, ....like Donald Trump :)

I also want to continue working to fill my life with service and acts of kindness for others with a cheerful heart. I want to be like the Savior and have compassion on my fellow man. I want to create a legacy of love for others that my children can learn from and work to develop in their lives also.
My plan for incorporating this attribute into my life is to do these specific and deliberate things each and every day:

1. Pray each morning for opportunities to show kindness, love, and compassion.
2. Ask my Heavenly Father each morning for the ability to think kind thoughts towards others even in the most difficult circumstances.
3. Study and search in the scriptures for examples of charity. Highlight them and write my thoughts about them in my journal.
4. Make service a priority by choosing to serve someone, even simple random acts of kindness, every day and write about my progress each night in my journal.
5. When unkind thoughts go through my mind, I will make a dedicated effort to change the negative thought into a positive.
6. Report to my Heavenly Father every night on how the day went.

I expect that having generous thoughts will be the hardest aspect of this project, but it is the thing I am most hoping to overcome. Whenever I have unkind thoughts towards others, I don’t feel good about myself and know that I am judging them in my heart. I want to turn this weakness into a strength by changing those negative thoughts into kind and positive thoughts so I will work very hard over these next two weeks to see real change in myself.

I have searched the scriptures for verses that support this attribute and plan, and feel validated that this is the attribute I should work on. As I chose these verses, I felt the Holy Ghost confirm to me that this was the path I needed to walk. I am grateful for that and know that it will provide me more resolve to do my very best.

• 3 Nephi 12:44 – “But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;” This scripture reminds me of the way the Savior lived. He did these things perfectly, and I know that this is how I too need to live. If I can strive to apply these teachings to my life, I can overcome the negative and unkind thoughts I have towards others.

• Ether 12:34-35 – “And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father. Wherefore, I know by this thing which thou hast said, that if the Gentiles have not charity, because of our weakness, that thou wilt prove them, and take away their talent, yea, even that which they have received, and give unto them who shall have more abundantly.” These verses serve as a warning to me that if I do not strive to develop charity, I will not receive all the blessings my Heavenly Father has in store for me.

• Moroni 7: 45-47 –  “And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail— But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.” This passage sums up exactly how I want to live my life and when I feel discouraged, I can read this and remember how important it is to have charity in thought, word, and deed.

• Moroni 10:32 – “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.” This is my favorite scripture of all time, (and the namesake for this blog!) and is the verse that provides me the most comfort and hope. I know that as I strive to develop charity and work to deny myself of all ungodliness, that the Savior’s grace will be sufficient to perfect me. I know that this will be a lifetime of effort, and not just a four week effort, but this is the verse that gives me the strength to endure to the end and to work with all my might, mind and strength. I am so grateful for the promise of grace and the Savior’s love and mercy to make up the difference when I fall short.

I love this Bible Video that depicts Paul teaching the importance of Charity, or the pure love of Christ.

"Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them."

Throughout this week's study of 3 Nephi 12-17, the passages that stuck out to me most came from chapter 14, especially verses 3 Nephi 14:16-23[1] where the Savior teaches about how we will be judged by the fruits of our labors. He warns about those who profess to do His will, but really they are far from Him and he will know them not.

As I studied these verses, I couldn't help but think of the parable of the sheep and the goats. In that lesson the Savior taught that when we serve others we are serving the Lord. It will be because of our good works in the service of others, or the fruits of our labors, that we will be like the sheep in the parable who will be able to stand on His right side. We must be working to do His will; to serve others; to bear one another's burdens; to mourn with those that mourn; to feed the hungry, give drink to those that thirst, to clothe the naked, take in the stranger, and visit the sick and imprisoned. Then, if we bear these good fruits, He will say to us, "Come ye blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you." [2]

Because I desire to be on the right side of the Lord, and am striving to do His will, I am working to develop service as my attribute of Christ. And not just service, but service with a cheerful heart. Service without murmuring. Service that radiates the pure love of Christ. This is the desire of my heart. I still have a long way to go. Sometimes my attitude is less than perfect when it's time to feed the missionaries or clean the church building, but I am trying to remember that when I am doing these things, I am doing them for the Lord.

Of all the videos that the church has produced, this video is my #1 favorite. [3] I love this representation of the Savior. I love the Spirit that I feel when I watch this video. My prayer is that the Savior will know me, because of my works; the fruits; the service, that I give to my fellow man.

[1] 3 Nephi 14:16-23
[2] Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Matthew 25
[3] Ye Have Done It Unto Me, video

Remember Him Always

Every Knee Shall Bow - Oil on Canvas, by J. Kirk Richards [1]

This week and last week we have been studying the Helaman chapters, which have become new favorites of mine. As I read these Helaman chapters, I recognize myself in the verses detailing the wicked who have forsaken all that the Lord has done for them. I need to work harder at remembering the Lord each day, after all, I covenant each Sunday as I take the sacrament to "always remember Him." I don't want to treat that sacred ordinance as rote, but more as the sanctifying blessing it is. As I have studied the Lord's rebuke in Helaman 12, [2] I have written down some resolutions that I can personally practice that will help me remember Him and my daily hourly need for His guidance:

• Expressing gratitude: when I am diligent in expressing gratitude to my Father in Heaven and all He has blessed me with, I am much more aware of His hand and power in my life. If I strive to express more gratitude it will help me remember that all of the good in my life comes from Him. 
• Be more intentional in recognizing my reliance on Him and showing humility in realizing how much I need His guidance, this will come through prayer especially, but also in taking time each day to acknowledge my dependence on the Lord.
• Serving others and being willing to do all that the Lord asks of me. This will manifest as magnifying my calling, sharing my talents, doing my responsibilities in sharing the gospel, visiting teaching, caring for my fellow man in need, feeding the missionaries, attending the temple, etc. There are countless ways each day that we can do the Lord's work, but I tend to fill my days with things that only serve myself. I think if I can focus more on waking up each day and asking the Lord what I might do that day to serve Him, my day will instead fill with remembering Him always. 
•  Reading the scriptures daily really does help me remember Him. If I can strive to read even just a little bit each day of my life, it will help me feel closer to Him and the words I read will be influential reminders of the great power I receive from Him.

I am so grateful for my loving Heavenly Father and for my Savior Jesus Christ, who bore my sins, my griefs, my heartaches so that when I fall, I can repent and lean on Him for strength. I want to live my life in a way that glorifies Him so that at that last day I can be counted on his right side.

[1] Every Knee Shall Bow by J.Kirk Richards
[2] Helaman 12

Mothers Who Know

Back in 2007, Sister Julie B. Beck, then the Relief Society General President, gave a powerful talk titled "Mothers Who Know" [I]  in which she spoke about the eternal and powerful influence of motherhood. This talk has greatly influenced me as a mother because it impressed upon me the importance of my role as a mother to teach and instruct my children in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sister Beck referenced the 2000 Stripling Warriors, from the Book of Mormon, who were valiant, courageous, and strong. In Alma 53:21 [II] it reads, “Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.” These faithful young men paid tribute to their mothers. In Alma 56:48 [III] they said, “Our mothers knew it.”

One of my favorite quotes from Sister Beck's talk emphasizes the strength our youth need in this world filled with temptations of every kind:

"The responsibility mothers have today has never required more vigilance. More than at any time in the history of the world, we need mothers who know. Children are being born into a world where they “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). However, mothers need not fear. When mothers know who they are and who God is and have made covenants with Him, they will have great power and influence for good on their children."

I know that there is so much more I must do to prepare my children to withstand the evil forces of this world. I can do better, and I must do better. I want my children to know that I know, so that I can influence them for good.


I. "Mothers Who Know" by Sister Julie B. Beck, October 2007 General Conference 
II. Alma 53:21
III. Alma 56:48

Attributes of Christ: Gratitude

This semester in my religion course, we are studying the last half of the Book of Mormon, Alma 30-Moroni 10. This is by far my most favorite part of the Book of Mormon. There is so much to be gleaned from the first half of the Book of Mormon and I certainly feel that I learned so much from studying it last semester, but this last half contains my favorite event: Christ's visit to the Nephites [I]. Among those chapters we learn so much about who Christ is and what some of His attributes are:  

• Humble
• Obedient 
• Healer
• Kind 
• Teacher 
• Courageous
• Servant
• Submissive
• Selfless
• Full of Love

Christ lives and He embodies all of these qualities and more, perfectly. He invites us to come unto Him and be perfected. [II] As I accept that invitation, I have the opportunity this semester to choose three attributes to work on developing. The first attribute I am working on is "Gratitude: the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful." [III] I think the key word there is being; to be, or become. I am striving to be a grateful person. I have a long, long way to go. 

If I am being honest with myself, I complain much more than I care to admit. I catch myself complaining on a daily basis and complaining is one of my least favorite qualities. I abhor it in others, yet upon introspection, find it abundantly in myself. With this project, I hope to rid myself of the bad habit and turn my murmuring into gratitude. 

My plan of action for doing this is to return to a former habit I once had of listing "Five Gratefuls" each day. I know that this works because I have put it into action at different times throughout my life. In the past, whenever I was feeling down, frustrated, sad, or sorry for myself I would list “FiveGratefuls” which always has seemed to turn my attitude right around and help me focus more on the good, on the beautiful in my life. It’s amazing how that simple act of listing five things/people/experiences that you are grateful for can help you turn outward and lift your spirits. I want to develop this habit to be a daily thing so that I can feel that uplifting spirit every day.

Five Gratefuls

Today I am grateful for:   

1. A good night’s sleep last night which helped me feel refreshed this morning. 
2. Gentle promptings of the Spirit. ♥  
3. The chance to start a fresh new year with new goals and dreams for myself.  
4.  Abundant Sunshine. ☼☼☼ 
   
5. The rare treat of seven uninterrupted hours of peace and quiet all to myself.

 I love this video that portrays so beautifully the Savior's finest attributes and inspires me to try a little harder to be a little better.





I. Jesus Christ did show himself unto the people of Nephi. Comprising chapters 3 Nephi 11-26
II. Moroni 10:32 
III. Dictionary.com definition of Gratitude