Never in my life have I ever felt I was to change the world. I just figured, hey I got some pizza and a game controller, why do anything spectacular? Not for one second was my mom going to let me live that way. I was always forced into doing things that where completely ridiculous, and at first I couldn't stand it. As I tested the promises She was feeding me, I began to see that "fun stuff", as She would say, really was fun!
Fun stuff defined. From pretending (forced) to be a model, standing for hours to be twisted and prodded, tickled and poked, talked at and pestered, only to have your Mother say "okay you really need to work with me here." To spending hours in a car with two grown dogs and 8 people, having to stop because someone threw up in their car seat. When that happens, sometimes you wonder why they said car seat when it was all over your lap...It did not matter, it all became fun, especially when I heeded the words of my mom, and worked with her, surrendering my opposing attitude.
Fun not as in the, I'm going to do this again real soon, but fun as in, one day this will matter to me. It will matter that, although I really hated riding the next 4 hours of the trip without pants on, or that I felt COMPLETELY ridiculous having a "photo-shoot". I have these experiences that brought me closer to my family and allowed me to rely on what they had to say. I could trust them, because I tested the validity of the promises given of them.
Right now I am serving the Lord as a full-time missionary. I try and help people discover a better life. The hardest thing is getting them to understand, OH HEY, there IS a better way of life, the missionaries arn't full of it! Getting people to understand it is not MY promise, but GOD's promise that you need to test.
My life wasn't always walking the straight and narrow, as all the "good Mormons" do. I messed up just as any other teenager does, BUT my conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ came in the same tone of voice my mother would snicker in, "okay you really need to work with me here." Once I started working, or TESTING the words of God, did it become delicious to me and did I want more, more for myself, and more for those around me.
This pattern of trial and reward, my Mother consistently provided, came to me at a young age. I recognize now it was to help me learn how to develop a relationship with God. I was taught to "just work with me" until it became fun. God does this all to often, he says "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6). I believe those who do not have a nosy Mom, (see mothers day post to understand "nosy") can still develop this type of relationship with God. Simply by doing exactly what he says, testing or having a trial of faith with His words.
The only problem now that I seem to encounter, is not who is going to throw up on me, or what color shirt should I wear under my spiffy powder blue sport coat for our photo shoot, it is how do I help those around me better their life?
All there needs to happen is "lose the tude" and seek God. God has promises of seek and ye SHALL find, knock and it SHALL be open unto you. Ask in faith with nothing wavering, and then listen to the Spirit. By the power of the Holy Ghost ye SHALL know the truth of ALL things.
After you ask, seek, and listen to God, listen to your undiscovered missionary, HE is sent unto you to help you see how the "fun stuff" really is FUN!
If you look back on to your trials as a younger Man or Woman, you will see how God has taught you. With that, you can then mirror the way you learn, and learn how to develop a fun relationship with God. Just as the missionaries in your life are undiscovered, the blessings and amazing future you have with God is also undiscovered.
So go be Indiana Jones.
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