It’s my Brianna’s birthday today!🎉🥳 This photo was taken of us when she won her Emmy for doing makeup! I’m so proud of her!!! Happy Birthday, my sweet daughter.🎂I love you with all my mama bear heart.😘 I thought I would repost my message from 2022, and now she has a little boy besides her two sweet girls. Have I told you that being a grandma is the very best!!!! 😂👍❤️ Happy Sunday, and know that you are loved!!!!!
Marie’s Sunday Message
August 7, 2022
I was reminded of how important prayer has been in my life when I ran across this picture of my sweet daughter Brianna praying when she was a little girl. She now has two precious little girls of her own. Prayer is one of our greatest tools when facing trials, which fits in with what I have been studying this week - the story of Job, someone who faced incredible trials. The things Job endured are sometimes hard to read, but we can skip to the end and find out everything is restored to him even threefold! But while Job was going through it all, he didn’t know if anything would work out. Even with all the chaos in his life, Job had the knowledge that his Redeemer lives, loves, and heals.
Job 19:25-26 “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
Worms aside,😂 that sweet sentence of God having a purpose and a plan gives us all hope we can draw on when we go through the difficult challenges in our life.
As part of my study, I wanted to understand what was happening in the world during their time. In Job’s world, the popular belief was that there were many gods, and people felt that if they suffered, then they had done something wrong. They would question how they had transgressed God’s boundaries or laws, either knowingly or unknowingly. The truly confusing part for people was that they had to wonder...which ritual they should perform and to which god to give penance in order to be back in favor. That's why Job was unique; we never hear that from him. We never heard him say, “Why am I suffering if I haven’t done anything wrong?” Even amongst the terrible storms, pain, and chaos of his life, he praises the one true God, continually knowing the trials he went through would only refine his learning and bring him closer to his God because “with God, all things are possible.”
Trials can create chaos in our lives or refine us “even as silver” (Psalms 66:10). It’s our personal choice to become “bitter or better.” Hard times can become teaching moments if we let them and can help us gain a greater understanding on the road to being the person God wants us to become. The choice is ours in how we wish to utilize the Savior’s Atonement. God has a plan and will bless his children who come to him in prayer to understand that plan! When we trust in Him, He takes care of us! And not necessarily when we desire it but always waiting in faith and hope that His will be done.
When we incorporate Hope into our lives - Hope for better times, answers, peace, etc. - and stop thinking about living just for this life, there's no limit to our eternal perspective. God always has a plan, and just like He did with this world, He took matter unorganized (me!!) and organized it. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve needed a lot of organizing throughout my life!😂 God has given us that plan for this life to organize ourselves and return to Him bettered by this life’s experiences.
This quote was always the focus in our home growing up and continues in mine. “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.”
There will always be storms, but with Jesus Christ as our compass, we will have the peace He promised to guide us through. He will show us how to organize our life into something amazing. When something doesn’t make sense, my mantra is, “God is working, and we are in the process of becoming more organized." Even in this fallen world, creation continues as we become refined, even as silver, to become more like Him.
I have not enjoyed the difficult trials, but I know I have learned many things. I know, too, that without the help of my Savior, I probably would have given up! As I have used the aid of the Atonement, I feel I have become more empathetic and compassionate towards others. Instead of saying, "Why is this happening to me, God?" I’ve tried to wait patiently upon His timing for my learning. I have come to a greater understanding that with the Lord’s help, I can learn, feel, and lean on the process of these mortal experiences. I know, too, that with His love and support, we can become better and even more whole. If we trust God’s plan for us and keep the faith, we will gain more understanding of His mighty plan to help us out of the chaos because He does not want us to fail.
C.S Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciousness, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
I feel He is shouting at us now more than ever…don’t you? I pray with hope and faith that we all will commit to listening more intently. May God's blessings be upon us all. Have a blessed and beautiful Sunday!!!