"Perfect Love Casteth Out All Fear"

This last week, I have been thinking a lot about decisions which was naturally prompted because there have been a lot of decisions that I have been contemplating, specifically about school, work, future events. Naturally during this time in anyones life there are a lot of decisions to be made and when it comes to big decisions, no one wants to go wrong. Of course Heavenly Father is your best support in any decisions because he has the birds eye view and knows what will be best. So I have thought a lot about his pattern of revelation.  I was reading in the last chapters of the Book of Mormon, Moroni 8-10 which is full of instruction about receiving revelation through the Holy Ghost but one part of these chapters that really stood out to me is how often it refers to love, our love for God and his love for us. In Moroni chapter 8 verse 16 it reads, "I fear not what man may do for perfect love casteth out all fear." I always felt that this verse met that our love for God would cast out all fear but as I read it again I am beginning to think that it could possibly be the opposite of that, Gods love for us will cast out all fear. There is another important aspect that goes along with love and that is faith. Joseph Smith stated that faith unto salvation needs three things, a true belief in Jesus Christ, a true knowledge of his attributes and character, and a firm belief that the pathway we are pursuing is pleasing to God. That last one, a belief that the path we are pursing is pleasing to God, is so important when it comes to making decisions. Having faith that when the Lord prompts or gives  instruction that His love is enough for his children to never lead down a path that will not ultimately lead to good. I am beginning to see just how much He loves his children more and more everyday and how important it is that we live worthy of the Spirit to receive his guidance on the daily basis. I cant even begin to say just how much I have felt that over these past few days as questions and decisions have come. The quiet assurance from the Holy Ghost to trust in the Lord and in my ability to follow and receive revelation. There is a great power that is given when we trust ourselves and our ability to act when prompted.  I know He does guide if we will be humble enough to ask and have the courage to act on his instruction. I know that He will never lead us wrong even when we might think otherwise. May love and faith in and from Heavenly Father always be a guiding force in your live.

I Love Airports!!

I had the opportunity this weekend of attending America Future of America leadership conference in Kansas City, Missouri. I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend the weekend with some of the brightest college students all studying agriculture from all across the country. It was pretty incredible!  I ended up flying by myself via Delta airline so I got to spend a little bit of time in the airport. I am an avid fan of people watching and airports are some of the best places to do that! It is pretty incredible the number of people that would go through a airport terminal in the matter of a few hours, everyone from every walk of life and from all situations. I love it! I was impressed today with of the love of God and just how amazing it is to think that he is so aware of each of us. What a difference it makes to know of his love and how that changes every thought and action.

At the end of the conference one the peer mentors showed a video by Kid President called the Pep Rally. In the video Kid President makes a statement that really stuck with me. He talks about team work and how we are all on the same team, then after a pause he states, then start acting like it. I thought of all the people an airport, a city, a community, any group of people, are all on the same team but how do we act like it? I know this weekend we talked a lot about being competitive and extraordinary and being above average as individuals. These terms don't bring people together but in reality cause people to do everything on their own for themselves. I know I have fallen into that mind set so many times. I also realize that in the world we live in that is required and it isn't going to go away any time soon. What needs to happen to create a unifying, team culture among those around us? I think that true unity comes as everyone is being built together. That each is working for the common good of others and as a result everyone is edified. It is so individual and requires every individual to do their part. At the conference one of the speakers told us to find a mentor that we can talk to about life situations and run ideas by, a peer that we can be real with and get feed back from, and then someone that you can invest in. That is my challenge this week, find someone that you can invest in and help to build up. Be interested in what they are doing and help them to achieve the desires that they have. I can promise that if you will do this you will find a great amount of happiness in your life and you will create a culture of unity in your community and in your own life. In building others we will be built ourselves.

Who knew you could learn so much from Billy Dean?

This weekend I had the opportunity of going to a cowboy poetry gathering with my parents and a friend. We saw a few different shows and had great time. We had the opportunity to attend a show by Billy Dean, a country singer, song writer. If you haven't heard his music I would highly recommend it! He does a great job! My dad has been working with him to come to a similar cowboy poetry gathering that goes on in Cache Valley and unlike a lot of the other big name singers Billy Dean doesn't have a manger and prefers that anyone who wants him to do a show talk directly to him about it. As my dad has been working with him he has been so impressed by how real and personable he is. Yesterday at his show, he shared a little bit of his story of how he started to play the guitar and what inspired him to pursue music. He talked about a conversation that he had with his father at a young age soon after he had started to play the guitar. His father told him to pursue his music and do it for the good of the world, to help improve the quality of the lives of those around him. I started to think about the talents that each of us have been given and specifically those talents that maybe I have neglected to develop. I often think that we get so caught up in developing new talents that the ones we already have get set aside and so we end up with a whole bunch of half developed talents. I know that is the case for me.

In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about talents in his parable of the talents, which I think gives a great example of what we should be doing with our talents. Each servant in the parable gets a different number of talents. The man leaves for a time and upon his return checks with his servants so see what they have done with their talents. Two of them doubled their talents while the one that was given the least hid his talent. The master was not pleased with this servant and quickly took the talent. Sometimes I feel really bad for that last servant because his obvious fear of loosing his talent resulted in just that. There are a lot of people out there that would look at their lives and not be able to see the talents they have been given or possibly compare their talents to someones talent that is more noticeable which would cause them to keep their talent hidden. I believe that the Lord makes it very clear when he told us to improve in our time. He doesn't care how much we improve. He just wants us to be working on the talents that he has given us and be constantly improving them. One day we will each stand before the Lord and I have a feeling he will ask us about our talents. Did we use them to bless the lives of others? Did we improve them? I know when I asked myself those questions I could see a lot of improvement. I know that the Lord has given us talents for a reason. There is no talent too small or unnoticeable. No one came here without a talent! I know that if you don't know what your talent is the Lord can help you to know. If you don't want to ask him, ask those around you! Once you find it, improve it, constantly strive to magnify it! I know that Lord will give us numerous ways to use our talents on a daily basis if we desire to!

Back to Billy Dean...he followed his fathers council and has developed his talent of music to the point that he is making a great deal of money doing it. In a conversation with him before the show he talked about how he does music for a living but that isn't his primary purpose for doing it. He has seen the way that his music has affected those around him and how when he writes it brings him closer to God. I believe that is an aspect of talents that is often over looked, there ability to bring us closer to God if we will allow them too. That is improvement. Improvement is of God. We will naturally draw closer to God as we improve our talents.