Welcome.

If there is one injunction from the Lord Himself that has, over the years, blessed my life repeatedly, buoyed me up in the challenges of life, strengthened my spirit, cleansed me from worldly lusts and stains, and helped increase my faith in Christ, it is this one (repeated several places throughout scripture):

“And there was one day in every week that was set apart that they should gather themselves together to teach the people, and to worship the Lord their God, and also, as often as it was in their power, to assemble themselves together.” (Mosiah 18:25)

“Behold, it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places…” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:22)

“And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day; For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High…” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-10)

And so on Sundays, this body of mine goes out the door of my home and into the door of His. I go to church to “meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of [our] souls…[to] meet together oft to partake of bread and [water] in remembrance of the Lord Jesus.” (Moroni 6:5-6)

I most times come wanting with something lacking. It astounds me that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. the dearth is dried right up, my soul is amended, this heart recommitted.

I leave with my spiritual pulse quickened. I am more sure that it is all true and that God is in total control of all that presently feels messy, confusing, and unsettling.

In way of background, today I zoomed in for a meeting of a returning full-time missionary in our family. Since that event was happening at the same time as my ward and since I chose to attend that online meeting, I missed my regular church meeting. I can’t make it without the renewal and rebirth I experience during the sacrament, so I decided to attend in person the sacrament meeting of one of the wards in my stake that met a couple hours later.

I had my mind made up that I would attend the Lakeview ward. As I was driving down the canyon, I had the thought that I should attend the Walnut ward. Not realizing that it was an impression, I settled on the change and pulled into that building’s parking lot.

After the sweet sacrament, the first speaker stood. Our stake young women’s president, a committed, faithful servant of the Lord. She delivered a powerful message, one I needed to hear.

At Untoalltheworld.blog today, I wanted to pass along two things she shared – both of which  quieted and quickened my soul today:

Her great great grandmother, at the impressionable age of 14, was struck with a condition that rendered her lower limbs problematic. They would, on regular occasion, stiffen and contort upward so that she could not use them. Moreover, this was quite painful. Finally, the family doctor advised that she would need leg braces to avoid permanent damage or worse, the inability to walk. She was, therefore, casted from the ankles to above her knees. A couple months later, one cast was removed, and she was found to have an infection that had to be scrapped to the bone. In this condition, she had one leg free to get around on crutches.

During this time, missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to her home in Denmark. Her parents were not interested, but she was. She felt something and wanted more of it. She would tell her parents she was going fishing, and then she would hobble off to listen to the preaching elders.

She wanted to be baptized, though her parents did not share the fire of her faith (they never did join).  

She was given a blessing by one of the preaching elders who promised her in the name of the Lord, whose servant he was, that if she would be baptized and go to America, she would be able to walk off that boat.

She was, and she did.

She was carried onto the boat, and as it sailed to America, she got better and better.

Arriving in America and totally unaided, she walked off that boat. By herself. Leaving her family behind in Denmark. Beginning her journey alone as a committed follower of her newfound Jesus.

I cried as I listened to this story. What faith in Christ!

This same speaker then referenced a very powerful scripture in Alma, one I don’t know that I’ve ever read quite the way she spoke of it.

Father Alma received – from the sons of Mosiah – his son, Alma, in a speechless, weakened, and helpless state after the angel commanded Alma to stop destroying the church (see Mosiah 27:19). Alma the younger was “laid before his father.” (see Mosiah 27:19) Upon hearing what had happened, Father Alma “rejoiced, for he knew that it was the power of God.” (see Mosiah 27:20).

Then this incredible verse, as pointed out by our stake young women’s president:

“And he (meaning Father Alma) caused that a multitude should be gathered together that they might witness what the Lord had done for his son…” (Mosiah 27:21)

Catch it?

FOR his son.

Not TO his son.

For. His. Son.

Father Alma saw (better yet, he KNEW!) what befell Alma the younger as something the Lord was doing for him, for his benefit, for his growth, to help him change, repent, become.

I love this perspective!

Not to but rather for.

What challenges are you currently facing that are for your eternal growth and progress, not to your falling and failing?

How would a to-for perspective change bless you?

How do we cultivate such faith to walk off a boat when we had to be carried on it?

Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in a mind-shift.

Unto all the world: For, not to.