Saturday night our church had it's worldwide women's conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake City. The women in our church 18 yrs and older belong to the Relief Society, the largest women's organization in the world. We had several speakers and their messages were inspirational, but rather than share something in particular about what they said, I wanted to share something that occurred to me just in the time I was listening. Many people who read my blog are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I hope those who aren't will bear with me talking a little spiritually today.
I think many friends and family can identify with the fact that sometimes your faith in God and the gospel message seems strong and other times it seems weak. Sometimes you are growing in knowledge and your beliefs and hopes and testimony and sometimes it just seems to stagnate. Frankly, I had such great times of growth in my teen, young adult years and serving a mission for my church that in comparison, the last 6 years have seemed a bit lacking. This is most definitely my fault as I have slacked off in my study and prayer.
I decided Saturday night during that conference that I wanted to make a list of all the experiences that led me to believe in God, that he knows me and my name, that I believe in my church and the Gospel we preach. I have had little and big experiences my whole life that my testimony is based on. Each testimony building experience is like adding another block to my foundation, something that keeps me solid in faith. I love that I often reflect on these experiences, but I wanted to see them grouped together on a sheet of paper and see how powerful they looked when built on one another. Like the memory of when I was 14 years old - I had a great experience listening to a speaker at a youth conference where I felt Jesus' love for me and just knew He had died for ME or the time on my mission in the Philippines when I prayed so hard asking God why I felt like He left me all alone out there and it was like He came up behind me and whispered in my ear that He was right there and always would be.
I know this list will be a treasure I always keep. I wanted to share this experience in church Sunday and in our Relief Society meeting there was about 2 minutes of dead space when I could have easily gotten up and shared, but I waited and I missed that chance. I just didn't want to let it go without recording it and hope maybe it would help someone else as well.
