Sundrops through the Rain

There are some days that I am just so thankful for the Book of Mormon. Because Heavenly Father uses it to speak to each of us individually. Today was one of those days when he used one verse to speak specifically to me.

Alma 31:31
"O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me..."

The word affliction stood out to me because I am having the hardest semester I've ever had before, boy when it rains it pours. But when I reflected on this scripture and how it applies to me the spirit brought other scriptures to my mind (I love it when that happens ;) ).
First I was reminded of this scripture:
D&C 121: 7
"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;"

Then that scripture made me think of this one:
Isaiah 41:10
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Using these three scriptures created a conversation between me and Heavenly Father in my head. Alma 31 was what I said, and D&C and Isaiah are what Heavenly Father said in reply. We all have these times in our lives where we cry out to Heavenly Father for help, comfort and strength, and the wonderful thing is, and that I testify of, is that he ALWAYS answers. Whether it is through the scriptures, thoughts to our minds or through the people around us he always answers. Life is still hard, and everyone once in awhile I'll probably be angry about it, but I'm grateful for the little sundrops that Heavenly Father sends down to us through the rain. That's why I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon today!

The Precious Things

Wow I haven't posted in a long time and I am very out of practice. My Book of Mormon class this semester is fantastic. It has been so long since I have done a good study of the Book of Mormon and I am learning a lot. There are so many little tidbits in the scriptures that are easy to miss but can mean so much! One such tidbit for me this week was Jacob 1:2 :

"And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious;"

I wonder how Jacob felt to receive that charge. Overwhelmed I am sure. This made me wonder, what things would I write? What things would I consider to be most precious? This led me to think about two things; recording me life/spiritual impressions and experiences, and what is most important to me (as well as prioritizing those things). Being a family history major and all you'd think I'd be real good at keeping a personal history and journal right? Ha! My journal entries are very few and far between and rarely full of important information. I get overwhelmed at all the things I could write (and plus what crazy busy college student ever has time for that?) and when I do write is often ends up being about what I did that day. Jacob has taught me that focusing on writing the precious things (which for me is spiritual experiences or lessons I'm learning through my lifelong challenges). Because what we write should be real, and it should be things that we need to remember in the future. The second part, what is important to me and prioritizing was a good self check and a reminder that I need to be more active in making sure I put the Lord first in my life! Thanks for the lesson and reminder Jacob!