He Did Deliver Me From Bondage

I am not very good at blogging because I think I need pictures and I don't take the time to download them or my kids put up pictures and tell about family outings which means I don't have to and I just don''t do it. But I do like to type and feel like this course I am taking might be worth changing, so the next few months, maybe, I will blog about my experience in this course. If you like it great if you don't well I am suppose to write, and I thought this might be a good place to share my thoughts. Of course some will be to private and will not be put here, but the basics and things that I feel important I will share here.

I have been wanting to take this course for several years and have just put it off. Once I am home on Sunday it is really hard to go out again, especially at 7:00p.m, but I just felt at this time it was worth my time and I need to do something just for me. The class is Heart to Heart. For those of you who have never heard of it it is sponsored by th church and is a 12 step recovery class. You can find it online by googling lds heart to heart.

No I don't have some great addiction. I just felt a need to understand the atonement and improve my life. My goal is not just to be happy but to reflect happiness. You know those people who you look at and that alone makes you feel happy. They just always have a smile and seem to be laughing. I am not sure that is my nature, but I really want to reflect the happiness the gospel brings in my everyday countenance. I am at peace in my life because of the gospel and my relationship with my Savior, but that doesn't guarantee an easy life or always make problems easy to deal with.

Each day there is a scripture and a question, today's being How am I carnally minded, 2 Nephi 9:39. I think I probably react to situations instead of stopping, pondering and praying I am sure my kids are all agreeing at this point. This behavior affects my relationships with others and for now just verbalizing that is a point in the right direction. I don't think that trait reflects happiness when it causes contention, or defensive reactions from others.

The other thing I learned from my reading is we need to focus on our relationship with Christ and not dwell so much on our weakness:

"When we put God (and the spiritual life) first, alll other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord (must) govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities. (Ezra T. Benson Ensign, May 1988,p.4)

This advice was given to me by a wise Bishop in 1982 when I was down and out and on a path of repentance. That advice changed my life. It worked and life has been peaceful ever since. Sure we have had our trials in our family, but peace is always found when I seek the Lord through prayer, scriptures and fasting.

The book is "He Did Deliver me from Bondage" by Colleen G. Harrison