How can you know if your life is pleasing to the Lord?

 How can you know if your life is pleasing to the Lord?

Wow!!  What a question!  As I first thought about this question, I thought that's easy, its a primary answer - faith in Jesus Christ, prayers, paying your tithing, listen to the Holy Ghost, be a missionary.  Which are all true!  But....if we dig deeper what does this really mean?

2 Nephi 9:39 we are reminded "Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal."  What do we need to do to be spiritually minded?  We must embrace the truth.  In the world we live in today that is not always an easy thing to do. Everywhere we turn there are so many things that want to turn us to carnal thoughts. President Hinckley taught in his April 1987 Conference Address "Each of us, with discipline and effort, has the capacity to control his thoughts and his actions...We plead with people everywhere to live in accordance with the teachings of our Creator". In 2 Nephi 9:40 we are taught "I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken."

How can we be righteous?  We must Come unto Christ and receive His blessings.  2 Nephi 9:40-52 tell us how we can do these things.  We are told that we must come onto the straight and narrow path, we must be humble; not puffed up, we must come unto Christ for he is the "rock of your salvation" (2 Nephi 9:45), keep our minds pure, be teachable in all things.  We will be judged for our works so we must be charitable in all aspects of our lives. Jacob uses the words of Isaiah to urge us to not waste our efforts on the pleasures of the world but to come unto Jesus Christ to have eternal happiness.  We must be a disciple of Jesus Christ, acting as if he were right here with us at all times.  Because He is and He is the keeper of the gate at the end of the path and He alone will determine if we are allowed to enter into the gate and live with Heavenly Father.

So how does this relate to my "Becoming" project?  It seems that the more I study the scriptures each week, the more I understand that every Christ-like attribute depends on the others.  We need them all to be able to walk through the gate to Heavenly Father.  But we also need them all to be charitable in different aspects.  We must be grateful to feel true charity. We must be humble to express true charity. We must be obedient to have true charity. We need to have faith to want to be charitable.  We need knowledge, virtue and patience to be able understand what charity is and to become charitable.  We must be diligent and hope that even though we are not now always charitable, if we keep trying we will be able to become more charitable.  So, although I will continue to work on "Becoming more Charitable", I know that I can not focus on this alone.  I need to work to foster each of these attributes more deeply into my thoughts and actions each and everyday.

Here are 2 of my favorite quotes I found this week:

The scripture I am "Ponderizing"

2 Nephi 1:15

But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.

The beginning

I am embarking on a new journey.  I have decided to go back to school and get my bachelor's degree. I have enrolled in a great new program offered through BYU-Idaho called Pathway.  As part of one my classes I am working on a "Becoming" Project.  I chose the Christlike attribute of Charity and will be working on developing more Charity throughout this semester.  I have decided to share what I learn on my blog in hopes that it will help someone else also.

First, I want to share my story as to how I came to the Gospel of Jesus Christ - 

The gospel of Jesus Christ has impacted my life in so many ways.  I can not begin to imagine what my life would be without it.  I am a convert to the Gospel, I joined the church in my early 20's after I had been through a divorce after one year of marriage.  I kept felling like something was missing and felt I needed to keep looking for it.  I was helping a work friend prepare for her wedding reception and spending a lot of time with her family.  Her grandparents came for the wedding and I was invited to the Sunday family dinner.  As I set at the table with the sweet family listening to the grandparents talking about their mission, a warm and peaceful came over me that I had never felt before.  I knew this was what I was looking for.  I ask this family what it was that brought this feeling into their home and the shared with me their brief testimonies and invited me to meet with the missionary, they told me to think about it and to let them know the next weekend at the wedding reception and they would be happy to introduce me to the missionaries.

I thought about meeting with the missionaries and prayed several times about it.  At the wedding reception I told them that I would like to meet the missionaries.  They took me right over to them.  The missionaries and I talked for a few minutes and made an appointment to meet that Monday.  On Monday the missionaries arrived at my home and gave me the first discussion.  At the end of the first discussion, they said that they usually didn't do this but they wanted to ask me if I wanted to be baptized.  I thought about it for a few minutes and said that I would like to be baptized and could we do it by the next Sunday.  They said that we could but we would need to meet every evening that week to make it possible. That evening as I walked through my house to lock all the doors before going to bed, I realized that I had felt completely at peace and had been able to walk through my entire house without having to reach around a corner to turn the lights on for the very first time ever.  I attended my first sacrament meeting on Sunday and was baptized that evening. 

About 6 month later I met my husband.  We were married a year later and 1 1/2 months after the birth of our first daughter we went to the temple to be sealed for time and eternity.  We will be married 25 years next month (November 3, 2015).  Life has held many challenges and trials and I know the testimony that started growing when I sat at that table with my friends family has grown to so much more.  My faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the center of everything in my life.  I have never felt like that piece is missing in my life since being baptized and am so grateful to my friend Leslie and her family.

Why did I choose Charity as my attribute - 

There are several reasons but mainly because I have become aware of how I have let my life experience and disappointments change me in a way that I do not like.  I no longer see the good in people first.  I want to see the good in my fellow brother and sisters.  I want to be someone in this world who considers others in all that I do.  

What I have learned so far - 

It is not an easy thing the change the way you think and speak.  I have started by asking for Heavenly Father's help to control my words and thoughts in my morning and evening prayers.  I have done this for several weeks now and I am starting to see improvements in my thoughts and actions.  I have also committed this week to look up a charity related scripture and quote for each day.  These are the ones that I found the most meaningful.

My favorite scripture this week - 

Leviticus 19:18 - Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself...

My favorite quote this week - 

As we follow the example of the Savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light in the lives of others. - President Thomas S. Monson