This post is from October 16, 2016 and is in place of the post I thought was ready but still needs another look. k
For weeks I have been trying to measure and define a lack of current motivation and purpose. That lack degenerated into greater distance from THE source of light and truth, Jesus Christ. It started when our domestic world turned upside down and the short term goal became much longer. So my world became preoccupied with getting an endless list of essential projects done as quickly as possible.These came at the expense of habits that kept me firmly rooted on eternal principles, ideas leading to behaviors that quiet and edify the spirit. The Lord was not quick to bring relief. I did not begin to feel His input until my heart was in the right place, asking for that which brings better lessons learned… in the long term. So my state kept me stale in purpose until I ‘came to myself’ and realized that my lost habits of spiritual focus needed strong re-emphasis.
My resulting search had me reading from Hugh Nibley and his reference to early Latter-day Saints and their struggles: “Was it expecting too much of ordinary people to turn from one world to another? They had a hard time making it: “How vain and trifling have been our spirits,… our private as well as our public conversations–too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending…” Though not to that degree, I struggled…
A few lines later he says: “The supreme revelation on authority and guidance is the letter from Liberty Jail (D&C 121). We are everlastingly talking about being ‘spiritual’; what does that mean? The highest state of spirituality is to be filled with the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, which has ‘no other effect,’ says the Prophet, than that of releasing our intelligence, ‘expanding the mind, enlightening the understanding, and storing the intellect with present knowledge’… Like other latent forces, intelligence is there waiting to be released. (p.281 of ‘Approaching Zion’)
But it takes steady, consistent effort on my part and paying attention when life throws a new twist at me. My part is to make adjustments before damage is done and choose instead the things that keep me growing closer to him.
This post is from October 16, 2016 and is in place of the post I thought was ready but still needs another look. k
