Pure Joy.

I think I experienced true joy yesterday morning. You know, I love watching my children in commercials or short films and such, but yesterday I was beaming watching my son help set up the chairs at church back in the overflow while I was in choir practice.

I promised that I would go to choir practice, but my husband also had to drive to church so he could take someone home after church. So, whoever was already ready when I was had the option of going to church with me (we meet an hour before church starts for choir practice). My son hurried and got completely dressed...black dress pants, white shirt, tie, black suit coat, black socks, black shoes. He even combed his hair!

When we got to choir practice, my 2 yr old sat on my lap and my 7 yr old son was sitting on a pew and then started looking around for things to do. I guess his heart is a charitable one because he made a b-line to the back of the chapel where the high priests were setting up the extra chairs. He helped set out the chairs and then he got hymnals out and spread them evenly amongst the seats. After that was complete, he got the stack of bulletins and proceeded to pass them out. At first he sat at one of the doors, but then he started noticing that if someone came in the other door without picking up the bulletin, he would walk over to them and hand one out.

He was beaming with joy in service and I was nearly in tears watching him serve others...and Heavenly Father!

H.'s Primary Talk from today

In Elder Bednar’s talk in the April General Conference in 2006, he spoke about coming closer to Jesus Christ. He said, “truly coming unto Him also requires consistent obedience and striving tobecome like Jesus in our thoughts, motives, communications, and actions.”
“One of the best ways to draw near unto Him and to both learn about and become more like the Lord Jesus Christ is to consistently study the holy scriptures—to daily ‘feast upon the words of Christ’ (2 Ne. 32:3).”

Elder Bednar gave 5 principles for making our scripture study better:
Principle 1: Pray for understanding, and invite the help of the Holy Ghost.
Principle 2: Work. –meaning actually read the scriptures.
Principle 3: Be consistent. –meaning, read often.
Principle 4: Ponder. –meaning to think about what you read a lot.
Principle 5: Write down impressions, thoughts, and feelings. –like in a study journal.

I know the scriptures are true and as we feast upon the words of Christ, we will become more like Him.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.