Slowing Things Down

Well, the last couple weeks have been full of visits with family and moving into our Reno home for the summer. We don't have internet in our apartment, and the nearest place with free WiFi is Starbucks. I figure I'll make a weekly trip down there to update blogs and upload pictures to Facebook. Anyway, the point is, I'm going to have to slow down the pace of this blog to one, maybe two posts a week. But as always, you can reach me by email (which I get on my phone) if you ever need someone to talk to, or you would like to be a contributor to this blog.

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Words of Comfort: Healed By His Power

 From Elder Kent F. Richard's talk The Atonement Covers All Pain from the April 2011 General Conference

As Elder Dallin H. Oaks has taught: “Healing blessings come in many ways, each suited to our individual needs, as known to Him who loves us best. Sometimes a ‘healing’ cures our illness or lifts our burden. But sometimes we are ‘healed’ by being given strength or understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us.” ¹⁷ All that will come may be “clasped in the arms of Jesus.” ¹⁸ All souls can be healed by His power. All pain can be soothed. In Him, we can “find rest unto [our] souls.” ¹⁹ Our mortal circumstances may not immediately change, but our pain, worry, suffering, and fear can be swallowed up in His peace and healing balm.

I really liked this quote when I heard it. We always think (or at least we want it so badly that we convince ourselves) that being healed means that our pain will be taken from us. Of course, we also think that if we are faithful, God will answer our prayers the way we want him to. But that's not how it works. I know that over the past year and a half I have received much healing in the form of strength, understanding, and patience. Obviously, I am still physically separated from my son, and will be for some time. But my pain, worry, suffering, and fear have indeed been swallowed up in His peace.

Words of Comfort: Patience, Faith, Fortitude, and Humility

From Elder Kent F. Richard's talk The Atonement Covers All Pain during April 2011 General Conference:

Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”

Orson F. Whitney, in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle (1972), 98.

I know this doesn't talk specifically about the pain of losing a child, but it does remind us that even that pain can help us grow and develop eternal qualities.

Words of Comfort: Preaching, Preaching All the Time

Father Smith [Joseph Smith Sr.] and Carlos [Smith] and Brother [Edward] Partridge, yes, and every other good Saint, are just as busy in the spirit world as you and I are here. They can see us, but we cannot see them unless our eyes were opened. What are they doing there? They are preaching, preaching all the time, and preparing the way for us to hasten our work in building temples here and elsewhere.

"Chapter 38: The Spirit World," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, (1997)

Words of Comfort: Exquisite and Sensible Happiness

We have more friends behind the veil than on this side, and they will hail us more joyfully than you were ever welcomed by your parents and friends in this world; and you will rejoice more when you meet them than you ever rejoiced to see a friend in this life; and then we shall go on from step to step, from rejoicing to rejoicing, and from one intelligence and power to another, our happiness becoming more and more exquisite and sensible as we proceed in the words and powers of life.

"Chapter 38: The Spirit World," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, (1997)

Words of Comfort: Masters Over the Power of Satan

 If we are faithful to our religion, when we go into the spirit world, the fallen spirits—Lucifer and the third part of the heavenly hosts that came with him, and the spirits of wicked men who have dwelt upon this earth, the whole of them combined will have no influence over our spirits. Is not that an advantage? Yes. All the rest of the children of men are more or less subject to them, and they are subject to them as they were while here in the flesh.Here [the faithful] shall be perplexed and hunted by him; but when we go into the spirit world there we are masters over the power of satan, and he cannot afflict us any more, and this is enough for me to know.

"Chapter 38: The Spirit World," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, (1997)

Words of Comfort: Learning, Increasing, Growing

if we are striving with all the powers and faculties God has given us to improve upon our talents, to prepare ourselves to dwell in eternal life, and the grave receives our bodies while we are thus engaged, with what disposition will our spirits enter their next state? They will be still striving to do the things of God, only in a much greater degree—learning, increasing, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

"Chapter 38: The Spirit World," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, (1997)