Happy and True

This blog entry is graciously brought to you by the letters A (Aciphex), P (Protonix & Prilosec), and B (Beano). As I look back on this year in early review, I'm not sure I would have believed it if I was told that by year's end I’d be living back in Colorado in my parent's basement, yet despite the change in latitude (and altitude) I can't help but be grateful to know the Lord, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, has blessed me with the righteous desires of my heart.

Surely our Heavenly Father “knoweth what things [we] have need of, before [we] ask him.” Pondering this scripture has helped me to appreciate more fully the power of prayer and how through inspiration we can ask the ‘right’ things. Knowing what things I need to learn and do gives me the greatest satisfaction in my day.

The prophets teach that men (and women) should “be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.” And if through the test of faith we feel as the prophet Nephi described, being “led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which he should do,” then rest assured that the Lord will not disparage nor leave us comfortless, for he promises the faithful, “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” This is especially true even when things don't exactly seem to be going our way as it was for the prophet Joseph Smith during some of the darkest days of his life, having been wrongfully accused by his closest friends and incarcerated in Liberty prison, and yet remaining steadfast in faith and in keeping the commandments. "Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven." I know Heavenly Father is ever mindful of our needs. He hears and answers our humble petitions and prepares a way for our deliverance out of temptation's snare.