Monday, January 07, 2013

These Things I Know Continued and Updated ......



I remember as a child being so thrilled with my family

.

I was particularly thrilled with family reunions. I would get so excited to visit the family reunion in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, that I would hardly sleep for days after we arrived. I would do everything possible with my cousins.

 

I really felt great to be part of a group of people who loved each other.

I also loved the security and safety of Church and its programs.

I first remember having a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a 7 year old boy running and skipping over the wooden logs that formed the parking lot of our stake center located at the Melbourne Ward in Houston, Texas. It was the lunch break between sessions of our stake conference and I was passing the time playing in the parking lot. I remember thinking as I hopped on and off the logs- “Wow whatever my parents and the people in the meeting are talking about I like! This is really a neat feeling! I am really glad to be here! This Church is true.” I remember feeling safe and good and secure and very happy and really loving my family.

I didn’t know what the feeling was but I knew I liked it. It felt like Heaven, or what I thought Heaven would be like.

That feeling repeated many times over the years as I grew up. I thought everyone felt that way too. I assumed that the feeling of love and happiness and faith in Heavenly Father was a right all children got to have. It all seemed so normal. I have never forgotten that feeling and how much I love it. For me it was always a very safe feeling that I could depend upon. I have come to count on this feeling still.

Twenty seven years later I was married to a wonderful and beautiful wife and delightfully had two little girls ages 7 and 4.

I wanted with all my heart to have peace, unity, love and understanding in our new family just as I had felt often as a child. I felt that if there was any way that I could get Heaven’s help to strengthen me and my family I might as well ask Heavenly Father to show me how, and then I would do it. I felt overwhelmed by the responsibility of raising a family of two beautiful girls, with their awesome talents, gifts and personalities! I felt a great responsibility to Heavenly Father to create in our home and family opportunities to feel the same undeniable feelings of love, truth and goodness I had felt as a child.

In my adult mind I wanted to influence these children to joyfully make decisions which would always lead back to Heaven. I knew my time of direct influence was short. I felt at the time that there were many distractions and disunifying forces impacting our family. I wanted to strengthen the love we felt for one another and for Heavenly Father. I felt that if we could feel-- for a few minutes--- every day--- as a group the Spirit of the Lord that could come from prayer and scripture study that we could feel the love I felt as a child.

I also knew that the natural seeds of faith and testimony would grow of their own accord and then I would not worry so much about every other of a million worries I carried in my mind and heart.

 If we could feel every day the love of Heaven, I felt that we as a family would always return to that feeling throughout our lives no matter what else happened.

 

I recommitted to the practice of personal, spousal and family prayer and scripture study and family home evening on a regular basis.

I continue this same feeling today over a quarter of a century later. I am so grateful for the blessing that comes from the regular observance of this simple practice.

 

Our family has increased in numbers and we are all older. I am truly grateful beyond words for each and every member of our family. I am grateful for their patience, love, commitment, example, courage, sense of humor, and joy.  

As I continue on in my life, I continue to seek the blessing of prayer and scripture study. For me this is an essential part of maintaining a testimony, renewing faith, uniting the family, uniting a marriage, receiving Divine direction, being obedient to Heavenly Father, receiving Divine inspiration, receiving Divine help, communicating with Heavenly Father, receiving forgiveness, expressing gratitude and affirming my standing before Heavenly Father.

For me, prayer is essential to living a happy life. I know that prayer works. I know prayers are heard and answered. I know that prayers bring the Holy Ghost in my heart and into my life. I know that prayers with my wife each night and morning help us to be unified and to be better people and to receive all of the other benefits of prayer. I know that family prayer brings all of the blessings that are promised. Some of the blessings of prayer include: receiving the Holy Ghost, (3 Nephi 19:9), receiving what so ever is expedient (D&C 88:64).

These things I know. I know other things too, but that is all for today.