Oil in Our OWN PERSONAL Lamps

The Responsibility for Having Oil in Our Personal Lamps

is an Individual Requirement and Opportunity.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton

"The oil of spiritual preparedness cannot be shared. The wise were not unkind or selfish when they refused oil to the foolish in the moment of truth. The kind of oil needed by all of us to light up the darkness and illuminate the way is not shareable. The oil could have been purchased at the market in the parable, but in our lives it is accumulated by righteous living, a drop at a time.

How can one share the blessings that come through visiting the sick?
How can one share in the blessings that come from assisting the widow or the fatherless?
How can one share a personal testimony?
How can one share the blessings of conference attendance?
How can one share the lesson of obedience learned in living the principle of tithing?

Certainly each must accumulate this kind of oil for [her]self. Let us not procrastinate. Midnight is so far and yet so close to those who have procrastinated.

'But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure. …'  (Helaman 13:38)

There is an urgency in this day for us to prepare for the coming of the Lord. For you who have heeded the warning and continue in your preparations to accumulate the oil of righteousness in your lamps, great blessings are yours.

...Your lamp too can runneth over with spiritual fuel if you will but let it accumulate day by day, drop by drop, in righteous service to God and man."

Motivational Reminder for Us Sisters (Click here)

Merry CHRISTmas!

Click here for All of Elder Ashton's message

Our Living Prophet's Recent Admonition On Charity

This entire talk given by President Thomas S. Monson at the September 2010 Relief Society Broadcast is wonderful.  At the 14:48 marking is when he specifically talks about Charity.  What a beautiful lesson for us all!

Click Here

Kindness Challenge

KINDNESSCHALLENGE

Kindness = one of the traits of Charity.

We find ourselves doing kind things all the time.

What if for 1 week we each make a special effort to do at least one (1)

ACT OF KINDNESS

Remember:  When you are feeling down or crummy, performing an act of kindness acts as a healing balm and gives YOU needed strength.  This healing balm comes from the Savior as Charity is the pure love of Christ. See how being Charitable not only blesses those we serve ... it blesses us as well (if not more).

Need An Answer?

Ask + Believe = Given

"And whatsoever ye shall ASK the Father
in my name, which is right,

BELIEVING that ye shall receive,

behold it shall be GIVEN unto you."

 3 Nephi 18:20

We Are NEVER ALONE!!!!

CLICK HERE

Discouraged?

"My [Daughter],

Be faithful in Christ;

And may not the things which I have written grieve thee,

To weigh thee down unto death;

But may Christ lift thee up,

And may His sufferings and death,

And the showing His body unto our fathers,

And His mercy and long-suffering,

And the hope of His glory and of eternal life,

Rest in your mind forever."

Moroni 9:25

(Mormon's epistle to his son, Moroni, yet VERY applicable to each of us)

Be Still and Know That I Am God!  CLICK HERE

Suffering/Experiences: Witnesses as He Proves His Words

The Lord Proveth All His Words

I was studying in the Book of Mormon about how the Lord, "... proveth all his words."  (2 Nephi 11:3).  Sometimes suffering is experienced so that we can witness as He proves His word.  I have seen this happen over and over in my own life.  While I was going through the experience I couldn't see what good would come out of the experience.  However, afterwards in looking back, I could see how the Lord's hand was very much a part of the process.  I could now stand as a witness/testify.  Thus He could prove His word through me.

One such example was in June of 2006 when I was in a car accident with my children.  A truck pushed our van into the truck in front of us at an accelerated speed.  I had been dealing with back problems for 6 years prior, and was coping yet praying for some kind of back relief.  After impact (without thinking as I was in shock), I jumped out of the van and yanked open the side van door to see if my children were ok.  At that moment, I felt something snap in my back.  The next several months were spent dealing with a lot of pain and frustration.  Ugh!  I just wanted to be a good mom and be able to take care of my children.  In 2007, we found a neuro-surgeon who was able to operate in March of that year, and make an amazing improvement on my back. 

There were many blessings that resulted.  One of the biggest was that because of the accident (the one thing I was so upset about), my entire surgery was paid for.  It was a huge expense completely covered.  I didn't realize until way afterwards that the accident actually turned out to be a huge blessing.  The Lord had answered my prayers in a way I wouldn't have dreamed about!  Now because of this experience (and many others), I can stand as a witness as He proves His words.  In this example, that He did indeed hear and answer my prayers.

I would love to hear other stories where because of suffering/experiences you can now stand as a witness proving His words.

Suffereth Long

Suffereth Long

(Excerpts taken from "Making Sense of Suffering" by Wayne Brickey (Deseret Book)

"The costs of growth are temporary; the results are eternal.  No matter how much we know of this world's distress, we see only a tiny, stern episode in a long and marvelous story.  We rarely get a hint of the completed product, the coming together of the premortal, mortal, and postmortal pieces of the puzzle.  But now and then we get a peek at the wondrous growth going on.

"How can we expect to receive salvation if we have not experienced a small particle of what the Savior felt?

"Sadness can turn to joy and pain to peace if we will turn our hearts to the Master.

"Mortality may also be compared to the brief time needed to purify gold or silver.  What could not happen at normal temperatures takes place in a moment under extreme heat:  the ore melts and impurities are released.  We bring the heat of mortality an ancient ore.  Dramatic change unfolds as we take our turn in the fiery furance of adversity under the eye of the Refiner.  There, we need be mortal only once, and only briefly.

"Sorrow seems to move in slow motion.  But when the moment has passed, we will move back into eternity with ease.  Time will lose its hold on our minds, and we will behold the Eternal One.

"God always sees this realm, mindful of how the temporal affects the permanent.  He sees where things are headed.  He scans the heart for spots that need cleaning, mending, building.  Of course, these spots do not show up unless we are under some stress.

"Suffering is finely connected to the versatile and permanent self, the spirit.  Suffering is a spiritual matter.

"The greatest beings in eternity gained their high ground by going uphill one step at a time.  Even our exemplar, Christ, grew in stages.

"Just what is the work of the sufferer?  Is there really a mission for one whose limbs are immovable, whose strength is gone, or whose mind is nearly expended by gnawing pain?  To those in tribulation, the Lord has given specific goals:  faithfulness, patience, and cheer.  It's all inner work.

"Faith gives us patience!

"The patience of faith is based on gospel hope, which in turn is based on gospel truth.  Knowing all things, God abounds with hope.  If we cannot know all that he knows, we can still trust what he knows and hope with him.

"Stunning blows to the life of a good soul are normal and should be expected.  But from him who overcame all things we have a commandment to be of good cheer.  It is our way of overcoming with him.

       'In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'

            (John 16:33)

"Under his watchful eye we are chastened.  The meaning of this interesting word is to discipline, purify, prune, refine, humble, subdue.  Thus, our Father's chastening is not a prison but a passage to his presence--not a forbidding wall but an inviting veil."