feasting on the Sabbath...

Even though we realized there was a chance we would be taking this week off from class I spent some time working on the lesson earlier in the week, before surgery... then when it was obvious on Friday after I got home from the hospital that expecting to feel up to attending church only 4 days after a major abdominal surgery was an overly ambitious goal... [chuckling] I called and arranged to take the week off... Sometimes I am so dense...

Nevertheless I kept working on the lesson and this morning I thought I would share a few areas that I explored in my personal studies...

Sister Allred's General Conference talk from last October is a wonderful overview for anyone just learning about the temple... I am sending it to the members of our class, as this week's "absent teacher" handout... I wanted everyone to have something new to lift them during the next week... We have all been enjoying this class so much together and I feel sorry to miss the enrichment my own spirit enjoys... Our class discussions have been really wonderful each week.

I also want to share here a talk President Faust gave almost 11 years ago. This talk is one that I have carried around for a while in my PDA... and it is especially speaking to me the last few weeks as I work at preparing myself over and over to help others learn about their own goals for temple attendance... to better understand the temple's importance in my own life... and to reach out to my own husband and children in love and devotion. Temple covenants have and should help me to connect my heart to each person I love more fully...

I remember in particular that this idea (the following quoted text) really jumped out at me when I first heard it given in April 1998... and as I was reading and studying the last few days... and thinking about family challenges that I know are being faced within my immediate and much larger/more extended family... I am overwhelmed by by Heavenly Father's love for us... He gives us the tools to love everyone we come in contact with... personally I realize I spend most of my days thinking these tools are harder to use than they really are...

Elder James E. Talmage affirmed that the true believer, “with the love of God in his soul, pursues his life of service and righteousness without stopping to ask by what rule or law each act is prescribed or forbidden.”

In a world where we and our families are threatened by evil on every side, let us remember President Hinckley’s counsel: “If our people could only learn to live by these covenants, everything else would take care of itself.”

Faithful members of the Church who are true to their covenants with the Master do not need every jot and tittle spelled out for them. Christlike conduct flows from the deepest wellsprings of the human heart and soul. It is guided by the Holy Spirit of the Lord, which is promised in gospel ordinances. Our greatest hope should be to enjoy the sanctification which comes from this divine guidance; our greatest fear should be to forfeit these blessings. May we so live that we may be able to say, as did the Psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”