Warning!

At the beginning of this month I shared on the blog that I was feeling a need to work on my attitude of gratitude. (You can click here to read that post) I wrote that I wanted to begin a grateful journey. I did not record much of my experience, mainly because my life is just full of so many activities and finding time to write on the blog isn't always possible. But now that it is the last day of November, I wanted to write just a bit.

My "warning" is that when you embark on a grateful journey, allowing the Savior to be your tour guide, you must be prepared for what is to happen within your heart and your mind. At the beginning of the month I was worried about money. Now it is the end of the month, there have been some miracles here and there and money provided when it was truly needed but financially things are still really tight. The difference is, I'm not worried. I won't lie, I have my moments of fear. But they are just moments, not hours or days.

You know that windows of Heaven thing that is supposed to happen when you pay your tithing? "...prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that [there shall] not [be room] enough [to receive it]." (Malachi 3:10)  Oh man, I don't have room for it all- and it is what I already had! The Lord has proved Himself to me - ONCE AGAIN!. My eyes have been opened to all that I have and I feel like I'm as rich as a Queen! I'm serious! I have SO MANY BLESSINGS!!!!! I can't express that enough. And then, when you are feeling so grateful, He gives you MORE!! It is the same with my children. When they are greedy or ungrateful I give them just what they basically need but when they are grateful, heck, they can have whatever they want!  (within reason of course)

Our Father is the same. Often in the D&C the Savior says that our Father "delights" to bless us. He LOVES to give us presents. Really He does.

When I decided to work on WANTING LESS and being satisfied with what I already have and with what the Lord sees fit to give me, I began to feel that my house is going to burst it is so full of stuff. But it's not just about stuff. It is about the wonderful people in my life and the amazing experiences that have been mine and my health and the health of my children and the GOSPEL! I could write the longest post of my life just recording all of the blessings that have been given to me.

This is where the Lord raises the bar on me. He is asking me now to go further on this journey."But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. and after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good - to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted." (Jacob 2:18-19)

So what Jacob is saying to me is, "Lisa, now I want you to look around and look at your stuff and your talents and you testimony and your experiences and I want you to view them as a means to serve others. Not just to pay your bills or to make your world comfortable, but as a way to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A way to be His true disciple. I want you to get to a point where you look at all that you have and you sincerely say, 'Oh look! I have stuff to share with others! I have three pair of brown shoes. I don't NEED all of them. Someone, somewhere needs a pair of shoes today, to wear every day.' and then you allow the Lord to guide you to whomever needs those shoes, because they have none and you had excess."

So I just keep learning and growing and stretching and yes, as usual, I am confronted with my mortalness (my made up word). I will forget and I will get greedy and I will need to be reminded of all of this. That is why I write it down. It helps me cement it in my brain, but mostly in my heart. "He's writing HIS NAME on my heart. Working the change from the inside." (Kenneth Cope "His Name Is Love")

This life isn't about stuff. It is so easy for us to think it is. It is so easy for us to be distracted by the props all around us on this stage of "Life". Satan loves that. This life is about LOVE and all of us walking the journey that has been laid out for us to help us make it HOME and all of us helping each other along the way. In some miraculous way, life is about forgetting about ourselves, caring more for the needs of others and then somehow the Lord opens our eyes to who we really are and what is really within us. So many of us have so much, but even more of us, quite literally have nothing - not even one pair of shoes, let alone three brown pair. LOVE. Not judging. LOVE. Not seeing the plight of others and deciding without DIVINE insight that it is their own fault they are in the situation they are in. LOVE. Not thinking "someone else will help them". LOVE. Not making someone else feel less than because they don't have what "society" says we should "have". Society will pass away but LOVE, LOVE, LOVE NEVER WILL.

and so continues the life long journey...