Forever Family

I have this irrational fear of whenever my family is apart. For some reason, if Dad's on a business trip or Mom's at a wedding or something, I always get very scared. It's not that I miss them (well I do a little ;) but I am terrified that some accident will happen and I will never see them again.

Last year my mom went to a funeral for a week in a different state. My science teacher had told us about how she can't ride airplanes because she's scared of terrorists and scared of bombs. But more people die in car crashes than airplane accidents. So I would freak out. I prayed SOOO hard that week that last night would not have been the last time I see her. Please don't let her airplane crash. Please don't let a drunk driver be on the road with her. Please don't let her have a heart attack.

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I remember playing the piano. A hymn. Over and over and over again, I memorized it. I was like, "see, I'm doing the right thing. I'm playing hymns--please don't let her die. "

Just because we are being righteous doesn't mean we won't ever experience pain.

My mom came home safely. But this weekend half my family went on a trip. Me and my sister stayed home. That heart wrenching fear came back again.

Why do I have this fear? I have a testimony of Jesus Christ, of the plan of salvation. I know that if any of my family members were to die right now, that I would be able to see them again. So why do I fear separation?

I guess I have felt my families love, and I don't want to go without it for a second.

I'm sure in heaven, we may have been a bit afraid of leaving our Heavenly Parents because we knew of their love, and didn't want to be separated from them. These two truths are why it is so important to return to heaven with our families so that we can be together forever. Death is not the end, and you will see your family again.

So right here is this incredible video. I absolutely love it. WATCH IT. it is incredible (videos don't work on iOS devices or android, so please please please don't be lazy, get up, take a little extra time to log onto a computer and watch this because you will be blessed for it!!! You truly will!!! It's my favorite!)

We can be with our families forever. We need not be afraid of God's plan for us because He loves us and will make sure that everything we go through will work together for our good. 

You will see your family again. I know it. 

<3 Eliza

P.S. For those of you who decided to skip that video, there is nothing better for you to do with five minutes of your time! Please? For me? It has given me so much comfort, and I feel the Spirit so much as I learn about it. 

Sword of the Spirit

Okay so it's time for my favorite! The sword of the Spirit!

If you look at all the armor that we've talked about, they are all for protection. Don't get me wrong, protection is wonderful and safety is essential, but it is only a covering for ourselves. It will safeguard us from the evils of the world, but it will not fight it or diminish it. Only weapons can do that.

The Spirit is the only weapon of the armor of God. Weapons are used to stop the adversary, but also to protect and help other people. With every prompting of the Spirit that we follow, we are weakening the devils forces and strengthening heaven's.

The Spirit will guide you in what is right, but it is also from the Spirit that we gain a testimony of truth. Moroni 10:4-5 says:


4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. 

 Do you hear that? You can know the truth of ALL THINGS! if you ask Heavenly Father with a sincere desire to know the truth, and really intend to act on His answer, and trust that God will answer you, then you CAN gain that knowledge for yourself.

I know that this is true because I have studied and then laid it all before my Father and asked if it was true. The Spirit testified to my heart and mind peace concerning these things. It is by following this formula that I have come to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God lives and loves me, that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that this church is true.

If you ever have any questions or doubts, go to your Father in Heaven. I do not know all things, but He does (he's the source of all truth, so by definition, he knows more than Google ;). Trust him. He will answer you and show you the truth.

I love that and am going to end with that. Sometime soon I'll talk about acting on prompting a (because that is extremely important as well) but I want you to know that through the Holy Ghost, I know by myself that this church is true. I say these things in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

<3 Eliza

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Preparation, faith, and salvation

I wanna really quickly finish up these so that I can get to the last one, which is my favorite.

Feet shod with preparation for the gospel of peace. First, think about the importance of feet. They are our mode of transportation, and with good shoes, they will not get injured and we will be able to speedily complete any assignment we are given. I think the amount of time we take to prepare for the gospel and to integrate it into our lives is important because as we read our scriptures, pray, and trust in The Lord (all ways we can prepare for the day), we will be better able to rise to action quickly. 

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Look! The shield has the tree of life on it! ;)

Next is the shield of faith. I love this one. Think of how much safety and love and peace we have, all because of our faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. As we trust them, they will protect us. Our faith can also get stronger and stronger to the point where we can withstand the blows of the adversary.

Finally, the helmet of salvation. As we keep the plan of salvation of utmost priority, we will be able to have eternal perspective. After all, we are driven by our heads, so we may as well have our head protected and guided by a loving Father's plan for us.

Alright I'm glad to be done with that. ;) tomorrow will be the fun part: the weapons :)

I'm so grateful for all the protection we have in this gospel, and for the peace and comport I feel from the Spirit everyday.

<3 Eliza

Member Missionary Marie-Rose

Hey guys! Today I decided to do something I've never done before! It's a blog swap!

Marie-Rose is going to post today! If you haven't seen here blog at Hope Always and Pray Constantly, then you should totally check it out! She is an amazing example of faith to me, and her posts are so fun to read! So check it out!

For the blog swap, I will be writing for her blog today, so go ahead and read them both (mine can be found here) (And for those of you who have been following this whole Armor of God series, well, I thought this would be a great intermission. I'll pick it back up in a couple of days. Her ideas were just too good to wait to post on another day!)

Without further ado...

Hey guys, I'm Marie-Rose from Hope Always and Pray Constantly :) I'm a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and today I wanna talk about something near and dear to my heart.

Member missionaries.

If you're not a member, don't freak out! This isn't your typical member missionaries post :) It runs along similar lines to another post I've done on the subject, but if there's anything you should know about me, it's that I will never try to push my faith on you. I'm here to talk about what I believe so you can better understand us Mormons. I'm not here to force you to convert.

To the members out there: have you ever gone all member missionary on a friend, and they just aren't interested? It feels weird, doesn't it? At Youth Conference once, a guy gave a good description of this feeling. He said that telling someone about your faith feels like you're asking them to marry you or something. Which makes you super scared of failure. Cuz, the gospel really is that important to us.

PS- Youth Conference is a church camp for one weekend over the summer where we talk about churchy stuff and play fun games and get to know people better)

Guess what, though? I'm gonna ask you to view it slightly differently. What if you asked your friend to try your favorite food that they'd never heard of before, and they absolutely hated it? You wouldn't quit being friends with them. You wouldn't be heartbroken that they didn't like the food. You'd still be friends and you'd move on. And next time they visited your house, you wouldn't serve that food.

Fun fact about me. I absolutely hate hot dogs :)

What if I told you that member missionary work is more like the food example than like the proposal example? Well, the scriptures are often called spiritual food, aren't they?

When you share the gospel with a friend, you're usually doing it because it's something that makes you happy, and you want your friend to be happy, too. And if they don't like talking about church, if they're uncomfortable with what you're saying, let them control how far you go with the member missionary thing.The last thing you wanna do is make them uncomfortable and push them away. And when I say that, I'm more concerned with your friendship than I am with their feelings towards the Church.

Remember, if they don't accept your message, that doesn't make you a terrible person. It doesn't mean your message is somehow flawed. It just means that they aren't ready for the Church at this point in time. And that's okay :)

<3 Marie-Rose

Breastplate of Righteousness

In battle, I believe a breastplate is something extremely important (well not that I've ever been in battle, but I've seen enough Merlins and King Arthurrs to know what they are ;). A Breastplate covers your chest, some of your stomach, and part of your shoulders. It is made of very strong metal so that swords will not pierce it or bend it. But the most important occupation it holds is protecting the life giving, blood pumping heart, as well as other important organs. (Lookey, you're getting an anatomy lesson too ;)

Righteousness. Righteousness.

First let me tell you something my dad told me. Have you ever thought of how faithful means obedient? Being Faithful means being obedient to and honoring someone else. But it also is literally 'full of faith.' So if you want an increase in faith, it can come parallel to increased obedience and righteousness.

How does righteousness protect us in the war of life (or righteousness. I was gonna say righteousness, but then realized that would be redundant ;) ? Well, first, our obedience must be molded perfectly to fit us so as not to injure us and become counter productive. And guess who knows us the best and can  come up with the best blueprints for our armor? You guessed it, Heavenly Father. In the long run, the blueprints for the whole war are found in the plan of salvation. But the blueprints pertaining to our personal righteousness is found in the commandments and by listening to and following the Spirit.

Then this righteousness needs to be strong and immovable, so that not even swords wielded by the devil can pierce it. We need to keep our convictions strong, and never yield to temptation. Luckily thpugh, if you mess up or if there is a chink or weak spot onyour armor, you can go to the expert to fix it.

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Jesus Christ is the ultimate hero, healer, and making-weak-things-strong-person ;). He will help you as you build your armor piece by piece so that you can fight for God and all good.

We're all in this together. As each of us works on our personal righteousness, we will be able to protect the life in all of us. But there is an even greater heart to this-- as we put on our armor, we are protecting our eternal life. Thank you thank you to God for his unspeakable gift.

Truth

Truth is the first element of the armor of God that we need to clothe ourselves with everyday.

A loincloth is a piece of fabrics used as a belt and a protection for vital organs. A warrior cannot leave home without it; otherwise, they will be vulnerable and the rest of their armor will cease to stay in place and protect them from harm. Each piece of armor is placed for a reason, and each one is important for protection.

Truth and a testimony of it is the first thing we need to reach. Truth grounds our integrity and provides a foundation for all other actions. It holds our choices, causes, thoughts, words and deeds in place so that we know exactly how to use them to come closer to Christ. Truth is also a protection, as it guards us against lies, unfairness, misconceptions and vainness.

The prophets have counseled us to read our scriptures and pray every day. Why is that so important? Because every day we face different challenges and trials, and we need the protection of the truth. As we remember who we are, why we are here, and where we are going, we will be able to withstand all of the storms of the adversary.

Truth also holds the rest of the armor in place. Even if we choose the right most of the time, even if we try our best at everything we do and want to listen to Heavenly Father, we will not stay grounded without a knowledge of the truth. In the hardest times, it is our testimony that truly keeps us going.

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It is our anchor!

Put on the Armor of God

I'm going to do a series over the next couple days about putting on the armor of God.

First as an intro though, check this out. There's an artist, Christensen I think, who paints this. He paints a template of a youth looking into the mirror and seeing their true self: a child of God, eternal and strong, and led by Christ. They are missionaries, putting on the armor of God by the little actions they do each day.

If you send in your photo to the person, he will paint your face into it and send it to you! Wouldn't that be amazing! (Future gift idea ;) check it out at celestialheritage.com

The world is so full of trouble, and Satan lies in wait behind every corner. He is ready for any weakness, and will do anything to set elect sons and daughters of God down the wrong path. Every day is so important. Put on the armor of God every day, for it will protect you and fortify you in everything you do. You will be so strong, and the winds and storms of life will have no power over you.  You will be able to do everything with Heavenly Father on your side.

11. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (New Testament, Ephesians 6)

15 Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.
16 Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you;
17 Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;
18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen. (Doctrine and Covenants, Doctrine and Covenants, D&C 27)

Where Christ is, there shall we be also. I want to be with Christ. ;)