No poetry today . . . I have something else on my mine and want to get it out there. That's what this blog is for afterall . . . sharing my life and thoughts with dear friends, of which you are a few.
We had the Missionaries to our home last evening along with an investigator. They often bring investigators to our home to teach. Todd and I are also Ward Missionaries and we love sharing the Gospel. This gentlemen last evening was someone we had had over to teach before and I had gone to his home with the Missionary Sisters to teach him there as well. He is a lovely man and also from Essex, which is where Todd is from originally.
He is a man who is deeply searching for the truth . . . and in fact, he contacted the missionaries via the referral service on mormon.org. He wasn't someone that they had door knocked or otherwise tracted. I have always enjoyed our experiences teaching him, even though I've only had three opportunities myself. The spirit has always been felt very strongly in the room, so I was really excited about last night and looking forward to it.
My heart broke last night though . . . because we didn't get very far into the lesson when he said that he didn't want any of us to be offended, but . . . he had decided he was not a religious person, and that it wasn't for him. How can you make someone believe in God . . . how can you convince someone He is there . . . how can you make them feel His presence . . .
You can't. It is something they have to believe, know, feel . . . for themselves. You can only share with them what you believe, know, feel . . . and then invite them to find out for themselves if this is true. We each of us bore our testimonies to him in a personal and meaningful way. He appeared to want the Missionary Sisters to continue to visit him, but as friends not as Missionaries. It was hard to explain to him that would not be possible, because . . . well, they are Missionaries and have been charged with a job and a mission to fulfill . . . and to teach. That is a special covenant they have made with the Heavenly Father and the reason they have left their families for these couple of years . . . but Todd and I can be his friend . . . and continue to contact him because our relationship with him is not predicated on his learning of the Gospel, but merely upon our desire to let him know we care about him in a genuine way, no strings attached . . .
He is a good man. Anyone could see that quite easily. He has a gentle spirit and an openness about him that is quite lovely to see in this modern age when so many souls are deeply jaded and influenced by the world around us.
We will stay in touch. We did challenge him to spend this next week just acting each day as if there was a God. To get up each morning and say hello, and to ask each day what God had planned for him and to invite Him into his life each day, and to look each day for those small and simple miracles which we, each one of us . . . experience . . . and which can only come from our Heavenly Father.
We humans are a bit like picture puzzles . . . composed of many pieces, and at the core of our puzzle, of who we are . . . there is a special piece . . . and that is our Spirits, which come from, and are a part of . . . our Heavenly Father . . . When you take that piece away . . . that knowledge . . . there is a hole left behind, and we each of us come to this earth with that hole, having come here to discover the way to fill it again, and make us whole again, and quite like Him. We each are surrounded by lots of other puzzle pieces . . . they have names. They are things that are worldly things . . . worldly pleasures . . . treasures of the earth. Many of us try to fit those puzzle pieces into that empty hole, and yes, for a time they may even seem like they fit . . . but . . . at the end of the day, we always discover that they do not . . . that empty hole inside us is not their home. There is only one missing puzzle piece that will fit into that special space inside us which has been carved only to fit His love for us.
That's just the way it is. Pleasure is for today . . . and it will not last. Joy and happiness . . . they are forever things, and they are the gifts which the knowledge of our Heavenly Father brings. They cannot be bought. They cannot be sold. They are free for the asking and for the taking, but first you have to know that they are there and then you have to want them.
He writes in characters too grand
For our short short sight to understand;
We catch but broken strokes, and try
To fathom all the mystery
Of withered hopes, of death, of life,
The endless war, the useless strife . . .
But there, with larger, clearer sight,
We shall see this . . .
His way was right.
~John Oxenham
This is what I got up to yesterday in my craft room. I love these little scripture paintings I am doing, illustrating my favourite scriptures. They do my heart good.
Yesterday's Silver Lining . . . my mother was once again unable to make her appointment in Halifax due to stormy weather. March did come in like a Lion in Nova Scotia . . . the good thing though is that they have rescheduled another appointment for this next Tuesday, which is not two whole weeks away, but only a few days. Please pray with me that she is finally able to make this next one. Thank you so very much.
A thought to carry with you through the day . . .
Men . . . have become free forever, knowing good from evil . . . to act for themselves. They are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.
~2 Nephi 2: 26-27
Baking in The English Kitchen today . . . a deliciously scrummy Coconut Bread. Oh so yummy!
I know what I'm having for breakfast!! Happy day all!
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