Our Sacred Grove Experience

"'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.' (James 1:5). 

This scripture led the young boy, Joseph Smith, to his sacred grove experience. An experience that would transform his life, and reach farther than he could have ever imagined. Because of that one decision to heed the counsel found in the scriptures, I sit here today writing this post about finding our own sacred grove experience. For some of us, it may be found in the scriptures, on our knees, or in the calming reverence during the sacrament. For others it could be found in a low place, in the need of repentance, or in the solemnity of the loss of a loved one. It could be a single profound experience, or seemingly smaller events that bring us to the desired result. But regardless of how we come to it, we must know and have the hope that we can get there. We each can have our own sacred grove experience because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants to guide us to happiness and truth.

These sacred grove experiences are the anchors in our faith. They have helped me in times of trouble to persevere, to keep pressing forward, because I know that those experiences are undeniable. Earlier in life, when I struggled with certain points of my faith I would turn back to one specific experience in my life. I refer to this as my sacred grove experience. It was just the beginning of many actions that would bring me to the faith I only dreamed of at the time. One event in particular was unsurprisingly while I was on my flight home from my mission. I had always imagined sitting next to someone on the plane who was thrusting after the gospel; I can just imagine it, the whole flight we would discuss the Gospel and as we landed I would invite them to get baptized! But, that did not happen. Not even close. As I got to my seat and was surveillancng around to my fellow passengers, I noticed that everyone took one glance, and decided they needed to quickly fall asleep. So I huffed into my seat and dug my scriptures out of my bag. I opened up to a familiar chapter and began reading. The impressions and spirit I felt were out of this world. The commotion and combustion of the plane seemed to be stilled and silenced as I was engulfed in this chapter. The connection between God and I had never been so linear as it was in that moment. And now, that chapter became my sacred grove scripture. Daniel 3 will forever hold a special and sacred spot in my heart. 

Yet for me, the sweetest experience was not in finding my own sacred grove experience, but being apart of another's. I visited my mission at Temple Square this weekend and was able to contact some guests with another sister. It was an amazing feeling to be back at it! But afterwards, the sister and I were chatting and she expressed to me what role I have played in her mission by simply one piece of advice I had given to her. Every moment and interaction we have with another is an opportunity to be part of another's life changing experiences. What are you doing now to strengthen another? What are you learning or experiencing that can help your brothers and sisters? It is my hope and prayer that when we are able, we are looking beyond ourselves to elevate our Father's beloved children, because I know there are far greater things to gain than our own desires. 

Trials are a means to Perfection

Trials. We all have them, regardless of our age, ethnicity, education, spirituality, etc. For some of us, it drags us down. We feel alone, inadequate, and at a loss of hope. And I believe that it is natural to feel this way at times, but I hope that there are more times that we are able to look forward with an eternal perspective and recognize, maybe not all at once, how this challenge we are facing is going to help us to get one step closer to what we are intended to become; extraordinary.
Today at church, it was fast and testimony meeting, which simply means that anyone in the congregation can get up to the pulpit and bear their testimony. I felt the churning of the spirit in the pit of my belly, and I marched with a smile to the stand. I just love bearing my testimony! It was my hope to get across two points about trials; first, our trials are what help us to become perfected. If you've ever gone swimming with me, you'll see that I have many physical scars. I've had plenty of health challenges growing up that resulted in countless surgeries. And so as a young girl, I've always looked forward to the day that I would be resurrected and my body would become perfected. But as I have gotten older, and gained a greater understanding about the Gospel, I realized that even when Christ was resurrected, he still had the scars in His hands from when we was crucified. He still had His scars, yet His body was perfected. Now I'm not a hundred percent sure what will happen to my scars when I'm resurrected, but I sure hope that they are still there. Because behind each scar, whether physical, mental, emotional, or any other type of scar, is a story or experience that helped us to become who we are today. And I am beyond grateful for my scars, because they have not only been of a strength to me, but to those I have been able to share my experiences with. Which brings me to my second point, we do not face challenges so that we can learn how to overcome them and improve ourselves, but so that we can help others overcome them and come closer to Christ. Now this may seem contradictory to what I just said about helping us to become perfected, but stay with me. The reason we go through them is to help others, but one result is the process of our perfection. Christ is the perfect example of this, His whole life was an illustration of selflessly overcoming trials. He didn't suffer in the Garden so that He could be better, but so that we could. He didn't carry His cross so that He could be stronger, but so that we'd know how to carry ours. He didn't die on the cross so that He could return to Heavenly Father, but so that we could. He is honestly the perfect example to follow in ALL things, nothing excluded. Having this knowledge and striving for it will give us greater strength and hope to overcome the trials and challenges that we face everyday, because we are living for a greater purpose than ourselves. It drives us. Gives us hope. And ultimately, perfects us.