O Remember, Remmeber

I love this clip by President Eyering, but never so much as I have in the last few weeks. I recently started a new journal for remembering the small blessings I have seen in my life each day. I have seen how the Lord is blessing my life hourly! The Book of Mormon tells us that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17). I have heard this phrase so many times in my life and am rather embarrassed to admit just how oblivious I have been to how many people are constantly serving me. These people reach out in love constantly to serve me and in so doing are serving God by providing me with needed blessings. Here are just a few examples of service that I have received recently:

1. A free loaf of bread each week from Great Harvest
2. A letter from my mom arriving at the end of a long day
3. A warm meal to nourish me for the last few hours of my day
4. A note of encouragement in my scriptures from my companion
5. A plate of pancakes to start my morning out with
6. A dentist who will look at my tooth without an appointment
7. A member coming on a visit at late notice
8. Homemade peanut brittle and popcorn
9. A warm home to live in
10. Christmas gifts full of hand and toe warmers

The list goes on and on. Some, or all, of these things may seem pretty small to the average person. But for those who look closely at their lives, it is a list of daily blessings. By serving me, others are the hands through which the Lord can bless my life. I am so grateful for those that serve and reach out to those in need, and am determined to both join the ranks and to no longer let the knowledge and my appreciation for those blessings pass by.

I have been in Montana for two months now and up until this week I was enjoying the most wonderful weather. As a native New Mexican I really enjoyed the dead looking 50 degree weather. Quite frankly it felt like home. I began to be lulled into a false sense of security. Oh I knew that this is Montana and that it would get really cold. As the days got longer and the weather maintained its warm atmosphere, however, I found myself thinking less and less about how a cold front could hit any day. Well this last week it did hit. And I am cold! Suddenly I am rushing to find the warmth I previously enjoyed.

I hear that cold is just an absence of heat which makes sense. It was so easy to float along with a jacket and the occasional glove when there was no snow. With the snow though, I suddenly have to remember a heavy coat, gloves, scarf, hat, and hand warmers. I have to create the heat, or find ways to maintain it.

I think that the gospel can be this way as well. So often we have times in our lives when we feel like we can just float along with a scripture and the occasional prayer. Maybe that is all we "have time for". Then we notice that it becomes a habit to not be consistent about searching out the words of Christ and we enter a spiritual sense of security, until we crash. Then, like I was in the Montana cold, we have to scramble for the spiritual upliftment and guidance we need by holding on to any of the spirit we have and trying to make it stronger. Suddenly that full scripture study becomes important, suddenly we attend all of our meetings at church and we are doing everything that we should have been doing before in order to feel that absent warmth.

2 Nephi 28:30 says:
"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

The Lord gives us the knowledge and spiritual growth that we can handle and promises to add to it. He promises that for every measure we receive, we can have more. However, when we are foolish and neglect what we have, we lose it and are left with that absence of heat. I am going to pledge today to be the kind of person the Lord is adding to, not taking away.