What do you Desire?

The Thoughts:
I have been reading in the scriptures and I wanted to share something that had a powerful impact on me. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma (Alma 30:1-7) Has the desire to preach the gospel in a powerful way. He wants to be like an Angel and cry repentance with a voice to shake the earth. That sounds like a great thing. How can wanting to do right be wrong? But then in verse 3, Alma says this is a sin. Why? Because he is not grateful for what the Lord has given him to do. And because it is not what the “Lord has allotted unto” him. So even the good things we desire to do need to be done in the way the Lord wants us to do them.

Suppose Alma did proclaim the gospel with such power that people could not dis-believe. Wouldn’t people be under greater condemnation for ignoring it? Thus, the Lord will not force them to hear and Alma sinned by wanting to.

But then Alma says something more profound. He says the Lord will grant us according to our desires. He gives us what we want. Wow! Sounds good doesn’t it? But we are responsible for our desires. If we desire good, it will be given us, to our blessing. If we desire unrighteous things: selfishness, or pride or success at any cost— even if we couch it in better terms: This car, this house, this promotion--we’ll get it, but it will be to our condemnation.

Hmm. So we need to be careful of our desires. What do we desire most? Is it according to what the Lord wants? Or not? How will we know? By being prayerful and listening to the Holy Spirit. I have come to realize that I need to carefully school my desires that they will be in accordance to what the Lord wants for me.

The Week:

Saturday we had a leadership meeting. We also had two baptisms, and then the Young Men and Young Women worked to prepare the back yard for a volleyball net. They put it up and had fun playing.

Sunday was a good day. The Young Woman’s president had a funeral to attend, so I taught the class on short notice. It went well. The girls are bright and participate. They are planning their first Girl’s Camp for Sat. Aug. 28th and it should be fun.

Monday we did the usual P-day things. I really wanted to do some quilting. I’m working on a scrap quilt for the guest bed. Right now, the blankets and covering are so short, the mattress sides are exposed. Vulnerable, I tell you. And naked. I am making the quilt in sections. Here is a part of one section.

And I wanted to make a pillow as a sample for the Homemaking group.As I was not in Relief Society on Sunday, nor was the Homemaking counselor, the Tuesday meeting was not announced and didn’t happen. But we did have a chance to meet with the Branch President. And a member came by looking for help with his ID card—sort of like a business card. So I had a chance to learn some new things on Microsoft Word. At times I really miss WordPerfect. I knew that program. And inbetween, we studied for our Institute Class.

Today, Wednesday we had District Missionary Meeting. We usually have 6 missionaries and I invited them for lunch today. But with transferrs, there was an extra missionary… and they invited a branch missionary to the meeting as well. But, like the loaves and fishes, we had enough to feed all. I had pondered what to fix and finally fixed a large bowl of potato salad and another of macaroni salad and served bread and peanutbutter and jam. And we had banana bread for desert. A little heavy on the carbs, but hey, missionaries work hard. It was a good thing I had not decided to put something on to cook. The power went on and off all morning.

The Byrds are arriving to do the Career Workshop Thursday and Friday. And we have another cottage meeting this afternoon. Saturday we do the All Africa Helping Hands Day.