Prophets

As the year comes to a close I am feeling so grateful for prophets.

Ancient ones whose stories and experiences I can read and through them learn more about how God works with his people and modern ones whose lives and teachings help me to know what the Savior wants me to be doing today.

In October our family had the chance to attend a General Conference session in person at the conference center in Salt Lake City. The spirit of that meeting was palpable and I was so grateful that the kids could have that experience to be in the same room with God's prophet as he delivered his message to the world.

God works through prophets to teach us, to direct us and to give us guidance for our day. It is the way He has always worked since the beginning of time with Adam and Eve. God reveals His will to prophets who then share it with His people. It is an act of faith to believe in and follow a prophet, especially when the things he teaches are not popular or go contrary to the wisdom of the time. Apostasy occurs whenever we turn away from the Lord and His prophets and believe that we know more than God. However, the Lord has the power to restore all things that are lost or broken and whenever His people repent and turn back to Him the Lord will receive them with mercy and love.

This year I had the opportunity to teach gospel doctrine at church. It is the Sunday class where we study a book of scripture and come to discuss the things we learned. This year we had the opportunity to dive deeply into the Old Testament and it was personally such a rewarding experience for me. I was able to overcome some of my bias about the Old Testament (it is boring, at times God seems harsh, it is hard to understand) and instead discovered that it is one of the most real books of scripture because it portrays the lives of real people that were messy, complicated and and painful, just like ours! In the midst of their living, the Old Testament shows how, over centuries of time and in so many different circumstances, God's people could choose to remain faithful to their covenant with Him and how, in turn, God remained faithful to His covenant with them. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to "consider my ways" and seek to more fully align my life and mind and heart and will with His, for in Him I have found lasting peace and joy. I know that Jesus is the Christ and I love Him. He is the author of all that is good in my life and all that I hope for in the future. In my personal life, Jesus has "arisen with healing in his wings" and has restored and bound up my broken heart. These are profound and personal miracles and have come about through exercising faith in His name and in repenting regularly when I harden my heart and I know that miracles and blessings are available to everyone who will come unto Him, even the Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

Things have happened

Hello again blogging world! If blogging is a thing that even exists anymore :) 

It has been a while and many things have happened since I wrote last.

First is the wonderful event of my remarriage to Peter Evans. We met in the winter of 2021 while I was teaching skiing at Sundance and we were married in June of this year. Pete has been a miracle in my life and his companionship, support and faith are a daily blessing to me.  I am so grateful for his three amazing sons and that his youngest son has been able to move in and live with us for his senior year of high school. 

Second is that I got in to BYU's counseling psychology program. I am currently in my second year of the 5 year program to become a psychologist. I now go to school when the kids go to school and have enjoyed being a college student again, counseling current BYU students and working on my dissertation.

Third is that I had a book approved for publication by Deseret Book. It is entitled "Because of Jesus" and is a children's picture books for kids who have lost a loved one. I wrote the words and conceptualized image ideas but the illustrator Brenna Vaughn so beautifully brought it to life in pictures. The book comes to stores in January of 2023, but is available for preorder HERE.

It is easy for me to write when I am just sharing about my experience, but over the last year and a half I have been aware that my experience has not always been the experience of loved ones around me. There are many more people involved in my life now and I have felt the need to be sensitive to that, to attend to their feelings and needs and to wait on sharing so publicly about the things that are happening in my life.

So there has been a period of quiet and accommodation and processing as we have all worked through these many changes. I am so grateful for the courage and faith of my children, Pete's children, and all of my family members. They are my heroes and I feel so grateful that we are walking this new road together. 

But lately I have been feeling again the need to share. To add my witness, to proclaim His goodness and to declare His power. "For He hath done great things for [me]; whereof [I] am glad." 

I re-read my last post- 5 years- and recognize that I continue to be living the experience of real mending, restoration and healing. 

Jesus is the reason. 

He is the author of all that is good in my life, of all that I have been blessed with, of these new experiences and opportunities that have come pouring down in such a short period of time. 

I could never have anticipated that this new direction was available for me. Just around the corner. 

The main feeling I have as I have remarried and become a step-parent and entered new extended family relationships and started to train as a counselor is that the Lord is teaching me how to love. More. To love more.

I was the one placing limits on what my love could do. How far it could stretch. What the boundaries and threshold were for my capacity to love.

And He has blown that out of the water.

Not only has He shown me that it is possible to retain and continue the relationships that I already have, which are beautiful and dear and fulfilling, He has shown me that there is more. There are more people to love, to encourage, to support and to know and this process of expanding my heart has one purpose- to make it more like His.

I am grateful for the Savior's capacity to love and to show that love through great sacrifice, obedience and submission to His Father's will. 

I love Jesus. He is the answer to all of the pleadings of our hearts. He lives and He loves each one of you. I am a witness of Him and am grateful for all the things that have happened and are happening in my life.