living higher

What does it mean to live higher?

To me, it's about progress. It's about perspective and purpose. It's about getting outside yourself and serving God and your fellow man.

But wait - when I have so much going on in my own life, how can I possibly worry about purpose?! I'm barely able to even keep up on my homework every day!

It can be hard to make time for meaningful service and devotion to God. But here is what I have learned: you will find the time if you look for it. I definitely believe that God will help you make the time you need to serve Him if you are willing to make the effort.

I really admire the fact that this woman spends so much time working on a project that isn't easy - but one that helps so many people. She sacrifices her time and energy working on these dresses not because she gets recognition from man, but because she knows it is the right thing to do and it gives her purpose.

What a wonderful thing it is to live higher, to live for more. 

My very favorite scripture of ALL TIME can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants and this is how it reads:
D&C 25:10 - And verily I say unto thee that thou shalt lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better.

Friends, there is a better world out there. There is a better world that we should be preparing for. When I die and meet God, I want to be comfortable where He is. I want to live my life in a way that prepares me to dwell with God. It is my belief that I can do that by living a life full of service and purpose. I want to spend my entire life reaching higher and striving to be better than I was yesterday. 

It isn't easy. It takes work. But I know that the more I work hard to improve, the more I serve God's children, the more purposeful my life becomes, the closer I will be to God and the more prepared I will be to stand in His presence. I know that I am already blessed for my efforts now, but how much more will I be blessed when I choose to mold myself into something more, something worthy of a kingdom higher than this one?

My prayer is that we can all strive to carve for ourselves lives of purpose, and it is my sincerest hope that God feels like I am reaching higher. 

Have a great Sunday,
Haley

P.S. Totally got a kick out of the "I'm certainly ready to go anytime He wants me."

choose GOD

Sometimes it is hard to feel worthy.
A lot of times, actually.

We go through the motions, we try to do the right thing, we feel guilt over our mistakes, we repent. And yet, we never feel good enough. We always are stuck wondering, "is it enough??" "Am I on good terms with God?" "If I died now, would I go to the Celestial Kingdom?"

"In the end, after all the mistakes I've made, would God really choose me?"

This, my friends, is where we go wrong in our reasoning. Understand this: God will always choose you. Always. In reality, it is He who is hoping to be chosen by us.

It is He who is hoping that we will choose to be close to Him and choose to desire heaven. He wants you in heaven! And if you show Him that you desire heaven, that, in the end, you are willing to choose Him, Celestial glory will be yours one day! Even in spite of your mistakes!



I'll let Brad Wilcox explain:
"In the past I had a picture in my mind of what the final judgment would be like, and it went something like this: Jesus standing there with a clipboard and Brad standing on the other side of the room nervously looking at Jesus.

Jesus checks His clipboard and says, "Oh, shoot, Brad. You missed it by two points."

Brad begs Jesus, "Please check the essay question one more time! There have to be two points you can squeeze out of that essay." That's how I always saw it.

But the older I get, and the more I understand this wonderful plan of redemption, the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus, "Let me stay." No, he will probably just be saying, "Get me out of here!" Knowing Christ's character, I believe that if anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, "Please, choose to stay. Please, use my Atonement - not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you WANT to stay."

You guys, Christ's grace is sufficient. We are never going to be perfect, we won't even be close. But heaven is not just something you spend your life trying to earn. It is something you spend your life preparing for.

Choose God. Choose Him in everything you do. Draw close to Him, stay by Him. Work to please Him, and understand that when you let Him down (because you will, we all do), you can be saved by grace. You can be changed by grace, and the changes you undergo when you strive to be close to God are ones that prepare you for heaven better than anything else.

The Afterlife isn't about scorekeeping. It isn't about guilt or punishment.
It's about choosing God and being happy with your choice. Brad Wilcox also said, "Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly."

Do you think the unrepentant sinners will want to dwell with God after they die? No! They would feel more comfortable and more happy elsewhere.

If heaven is what you want - if God is whom you choose - then heaven is what you will get.



God will always choose you. He will always want you near Him.
Choose the same. Choose heaven. Choose GOD.


Haley


P.S. Read this article about our liberal (what - liberal??) theology. I really enjoyed it. Salvation is for everyone!

the strongest verb

I don't know if any of you have read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, but it's fabulous. I think it's the only book I've ever had to read in school that I thoroughly loved. I learned a lot about God and life by reading that book. I highly recommend it.
I found the following story on a website today... This story was told by Paulo Coelho, so it naturally caught my eye... enjoy.

----------

As soon as he arrived in Marrakesh, Morocco, a missionary decided he would stroll through the desert at the city’s boundary every morning. On his first stroll he noticed a man lying on the sand, caressing the ground with his hands and leaning his ears towards the earth.

“He is mad,” the missionary said to himself. But he saw the man every morning during his walks and after a month, intrigued by that strange behaviour, he decided to approach the stranger.

He knelt beside him and asked, in broken Arabic, “What are you doing?”

“I keep the desert company and offer solace for its loneliness and its tears.”

“I didn’t know the desert was capable of crying.”

“It cries every day, because it dreams of being useful to mankind and turning into a huge garden where people could cultivate flowers and tend sheep.”

“Well then, tell the desert it accomplishes its mission very well,” said the missionary. “Every time I walk here, I am able to understand the true dimension of the human being, as its open space allows me to see how small we are before God. When I look at its sands, I imagine the millions of people in the world who were born equal and am reminded that life isn’t always fair towards everyone. Its mountains help me meditate and as I see the sun rising on the horizon, my soul fills with joy and I feel closer to God.”

The missionary left the man and went back to his daily chores. To his surprise, he found him the next morning at the same place, in the same position.

“Did you tell the desert everything I told you?” he asked.

The man nodded.

“And even so it keeps crying?”

“I can hear each of its sobs,” answered the man, his head tilted towards the ground. “Now it is crying
because it spent thousands of years thinking it was completely useless and wasted all this time blaspheming God and its own destiny.”

“Well, then tell the desert that despite having a short lifespan, we human beings spend much of our days thinking we are useless. We rarely find the reason for our destiny and think God has been unfair to us. When a moment finally arrives in which we are shown the reason why we were born, we think it is too late to change and keep on suffering. And as the desert, we blame ourselves for the time we have wasted.”

“I am not sure the desert will bother to hear it,” said the man. “It is used to suffering and it can’t see things differently.”

“So then let us do what I always do when I feel people have lost faith. Let us pray.”

----------

It's only natural that a man someday wonder "what exactly am I here for??" I learned in health this week that most start their search for identity when they're a teenager. I thought this was kinda interesting, and I really sincerely hope that some of the teenagers I've met haven't found themselves yet, if you know what I mean. haha. (No one in particular!)

My point is, man's search for identity may begin as a teenager, but it takes many people a long, long time to really figure out who they are and what their purpose is. And whether or not it takes you a long time to find yourself doesn't really make a difference. Many people, like the desert, will regret their past and will wish they had come to their senses sooner. But that's the point of life.

Move on and rejoice in the knowledge of a better life ahead of you.

In English this year, we've written a couple papers where we were required to take out as many to be verbs as possible while making revisions. Yeah. Try taking every occurrence of be, being, been, am, are, is, were, etc... out of your paper. H.a.r.d.

My teacher explained that the be verb is the weakest verb in the human language. "It shows no action," she explained.

I suppose in a paper this is often true. It's probably better to use other verbs sometimes.

But the weakest verb? I think not.

Who you are, what you choose to be, what your purpose is, these all seem like very strong statements to me.

Be a faithful disciple. Be a doer of good. Be a peacemaker.

People always make mistakes and slip up. You will say things you will regret. You already have experienced this, and you will no doubt experience it again.

But when you think about someone you knew years back, it isn't the little things they said that you remember. You remember them for the kind of person they were. What they did with their life, and how they treated others.

So be a force for good in the world. Decide who you are and never look back. Keep moving forward and continue learning new things about yourself.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”

-Robert Browning

see yourself as worthy!

Sometimes I get down on myself.

And I don't feel worthy.

I don't feel good enough.


I wonder if I'm doing enough...

serving enough...

being kind enough...

being righteous enough...


And I wonder if God is proud of me or not.



And I have to stop myself in my tracks.

And I think:

Haley, do you love God?

Do you desire to do good?

Do you try?

If these thoughts are coming to you, it is obviously important to you that you are being a good, obedient child, right?

Doesn't that count for something?


I will never feel worthy of the Atonement.

I could never repay my Savior enough.

I may never feel like I am doing enough.

And I have to remind myself that even though I am not perfect, or even close, nobody is.


God is still proud of me, proud of my efforts... even if I am always falling short.

I am bad at journal keeping.

And I forget to pray some mornings.

I don't always manage my time responsibly.

I don't always think nice thoughts about myself or others.

And i am terrible at forgiving myself.



But I like to think that I am good at forgiving others.

That I am a good friend...

And good at recognizing mercies.



And I know I have a long way to go.

But I am learning how to keep my thoughts positive.


And I have found this self-reassuring technique to be good for a lot.

It comes in handy when I feel like I'm alone or I am not good enough and it also helps when I doubt.


I just have to remind myself that I already know the gospel is true. I already know God loves me. I already know that perfection is not possible in this life. I already know that there is more to the plan.

And these things will always be true. No matter what.

So I snap out of my feeling down-ness!!




God is good. The Savior forgives perfectly. It is not the Savior's job to judge, it is his job to be my advocate.

God loves everyone. Always and no matter what.

These things I know, and they never change.

it's glorious.

Glorious by Russ Dixon

There are times when you might feel aimless

And can’t see the places where you belong

But you will find that there is a purpose

It’s been there within you all along

And when you’re near it

You can almost hear it

It’s like a symphony just keep listening
And pretty soon you’ll start to figure out your part
Everyone plays a piece and there are melodies
In each one of us, oh, it’s glorious




You will know how to let it ring out

As you discover who you are

Others around you will start to wake up

To the sounds that are in their hearts

It’s so amazing

What we’re all creating

It’s like a symphony just keep listening
And pretty soon you’ll start to figure out your part
Everyone plays a piece and there are melodies
In each one of us, oh, it’s glorious

And as you feel, the notes build, you will see

It’s like a symphony just keep listening
And pretty soon you’ll start to figure out your part
Everyone plays a piece and there are melodies
In each one of us, oh, it’s glorious

Oooooh.... I love this song. I'm obsessed. It's just peaceful and... good. Yeah.

I'm not really full of words right now... so... listen again?

See ya later -
:)