How Do I Find the Truth About Me? Part Two: Patriarchal Blessings

I remember when I was living in China, I would check every morning to see if I got an email from someone in my family.  I was patiently (okay not so patiently) waiting to hear from them. Any one of them!  When I'd see I finally got one, I would be filled with happiness.  They're letters would tell of home and all that was going on in my absence, and of course encouragement! The best times were actually when I got a letter or package in the mail. Being able to rip open an envelope or a package and find the treasures inside! Some days when I just didn't know if I could make it through the day, I would be lifted by my letters and emails from home and be able to push forward and continue on my amazing journey.

Has there been a time in your life when you've felt this way?

You maybe have days where the storms and winds 

are beating down on you,

and you just don't know if you can make it 

through one more day?

For me my patriarchal blessing

is a letter from home.

I can picture my Heavenly Father

sitting at a desk with a pen and paper

writing me this letter of encouragement,

caution, protection, and inspiration.

It's a letter from the one person 

who knows me better than anyone,

in a place that is my true home.

When we are searching for 

the truth about ourselves,

we can find further answers in our 

patriarchal blessings. 

I know I've share this before, 

but here it is again: :0)

Dieter F. Uchtdorf once said,

"Our Heavenly Father sees our real potential.  

He knows things about us that we do not know ourselves."

Heavenly Father knows us

BETTER THAN WE KNOW OURSELVES!

We can discover more of what He knows about us 

as we read and study our patriarchal blessings.

There are lots of different ways to study your blessing.

Find one that works for you and study it!

Discover things about yourself that 

you never knew!

Luvz,

Meg:0)

P.S.  I'm a little bit behind with my TAM postings on my personal blog (livingincrescendo.blogspot.com),

but I am committed to catching up in the next couple of days!

How do I find the truth about me? Part One: Prayer

Hey friends! How is your Truth About Me challenge going? 

Mine has been fantastic!

It's been a good daily reminder that I'm pretty amazing!

Here are the truths about me for this week:

I am strong!

I am graceful!

I am beautiful!

I am healthy!

I am an amazing aunt!

I am adventurous!

I am perfect in my own perfect growth process!

Over the next few weeks

I'd like to share some ways

 that I've found to help me 

discover the truth about myself again.

The biggest tool and one I use the most often is

PRAYER!

 Here are some important things I've learned about prayer:

1. Be still! I have found that in order for my prayers to be effective for me, I get to be still in mind and body. For me being still in body is much easier.  I find a place where I can be without distractions around me.  I find a quiet place. I turn off my phone.  I kneel. Stilling my mind has always been more difficult for me.  My mind is always going a mile a minute.  I'm always thinking about work and how to help each of the 25-30 (next year it's about 56) children in my class.  I worry about my family and my callings.  I worry about my friends and what I can do to help them.  I think about all the little things I need to get finished before the end of the day.  It's like a hurricane inside of my head. The best way I have found to quiet my mind is to begin my prayers expressing gratitude for the blessings in my life. Then when my mind and body are still I am ready to continue my prayer.
2. Pray with a sincere heart.  Make it meaningful.  In Moroni 7:9 we read that if anyone "shall pray and not with real intent of heart..it profiteth him nothing, for God recieveth none such." We should pray "with all the energy of heart" (Moroni 7:48).  If we are repetitious when we pray, we are not going to receive the answers we are searching for.  In True to the Faith we are told to "Give serious thought to your attitude and to the words you use" (p. 119). I know that as we go to our Father in Heaven in an attitude of humility and are sincere in our prayers that he will give us the answers we seek.
3. Remember He is your father. "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part" (Bible Dictionary, Prayer). He is our father and He desires for us to tell Him all about what we desire to know and why we desire to know it.  Tell Him your whys. Talk to Him as the loving parent who wants the best for you because He is and He does!
4. Listen! When you close your prayer, take time to listen.  So many times we rush off to get busy with something instead of listening.  We might miss out on an answer that would come if we just stopped to listen.
5. Be patient! Look at Enos.  He said, "...all day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens" (Enos 1:4). Enos eventually heard the voice of God answering his prayer, but it took time. Sometimes our prayers take time.  Maybe we have something more to learn first or there is something different we need in our lives. In the case of asking what the truth about ourselves is, maybe we aren't really ready to receive the answer.
6. Act! Sometimes not getting and answer means that we get to study it further. We get to study the scriptures, prophets, and other gospel resources. When we do receive answers, we get to act on those answers so we can receive further revelation. We get to act in our truth as we were created to be, so we may help ourselves and others to find the path the Savior intended for us to be on.

I know that as we ask Heavenly Father to show

us the truth about ourselves

that we will find it!

Dieter F. Uchtdorf once said, "Our Heavenly Father sees our real potential.  He knows things about us that we do not know ourselves.  He prompts us during our lifetime to fulfill the measure of our creation, to live a good life, and to return to His presence."

Remember to share what you are learning with us!

Luvz, 

Meg :0)

P.S. I'm still posting my truths about me

on my blog:

livingincrescendo.blogspot.com

The Truth About Me Challenge

Sometimes I laugh at how good ideas tend

to come to me while I'm at the gym.  

Today I was thinking about what I wrote

about in the last post,

and I decided to start a challenge.

The Truth About Me Challenge!

I am having quite the journey already

as I work on my new goal:

I live in my Soulful Brilliance as 

my divine self through

action,

gratitude,

holiness,

and 

LOVE!

And a big part of this journey

is in remembering the truth

I know about myself.

I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father!

He has blessed me with gifts, talents,

and divine traits that all add up to 

ME!

When I remember that Soulful Brilliance

and live as that divine being each day,

I am blessed with an amazing life

and the opportunity to love and serve others!

I am working each day at remembering

the truth about me!

Here's the Truth About Me challenge:

Every day

 (or week or couple of days...

whatever works for you)

spend some time

discovering a truth about you

and SHARE IT

with us here on the blog,

on twitter (@SoulfulBrill),

the Facebook page (Soulful Brilliance),

or on Instagram (soulfulbrill).

Use the hashtags #truthaboutme and

#soulfulbrilliance

so we can check out all of the 

amazing things we can all discover

as we work towards remembering

our SOULFUL BRILLIANCE!!!

I'm excited to hear more from you!  

Please, Please, PLEASE share what you discover!

Remember that something you share

may help someone else in their life!

I LOVE you guys!

Meg:0)

P.S.  If you want to follow my day by day

Truth About Me Challenge

read my personal blog

livingincrescendo.blogspot.com!

The Truth

Okay so I've written and rewritten this post several times.  It just hasn't come out quite like I want it to. So I'm going to skip over all the explanations of how this post came to be and just get to the juicy stuff! The Truth!

The truth is that we often get so caught up in learning so many truths of the Gospel that we don't focus on one of the greatest truths that can help us get through anything.  

The truth that we are CHILDREN OF GOD! 

In Moses  1 we read about how Heavenly Father reveals himself to Moses and shows Moses the work of his hands.  He tells Moses, "...thou art my son;...And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son..." After Moses recovers from being in the presence of God, Satan appears to tempt Moses to worship him.  Moses's first reply to Satan is "...Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?"  Moses's first defense in this storm of temptation was stating his knowledge that he was a son of God. 

I am often tempted by Satan and his followers, and I am pretty good at refusing to do the big things that would destroy my peace.  Satan knows that he can't get most of us on the big stuff at first, so he tries to get us with the little stuff.  and when does he stick us most with his lies?  Right after we have had amazing spiritual experiences and learned great spiritual truths.

One of the seemingly small things that many of us, especially women, struggle with is our feelings of self worth. I know I often listen to the lies he repeats in my limiting beliefs. 

I'm not good enough.

I'm not knowledgeable enough.

I'm a failure.

I'm not lovable.

And so many more...

I have always known that I am a daughter of God,

but sometimes I'm not feeling the truth of those words in my heart.

Because I don't feel the truth of it in my heart,

I often fall in to my old patterns of believing 

my limiting beliefs (Satan's lies)

and not doing the things that I could be doing to help others

and to grow spiritually myself.

Satan tries to turn our hearts from truth

 "that [we] become blinded and understand not 

the things which are prepared for [us]."

He especially desires to turn us from the eternal truth

that we are God's children. 

When I don't feel this truth in my heart,

I fall into darkness, depression, and loneliness.

The best weapon to fight Satan in his attack

is to learn more about the truth of

being children of God

and to take it into our hearts.

As I've thought about this I realized

that we don't need to "be a light".

We already are light!

We are God's children and 

"That which is of God is light..."(D&C 50:24-25)

When we know the truth of who we are as 

His children,

we can chase away the darkness

as we shine in our own 

soulful brilliance.

The key is to wash away all those dark limiting beliefs

and remember what the truth is about you.

The one truth we all have in common

is that we are children of God,

but there is much more to each of us individually.

What's the truth about you?

What divine attributes do you share with our Father?

What gifts and talents do you possess?

What empowering beliefs can you find

to help you remember your soulful brilliance?

I know that as we learn more about the 

truth of ourselves and rediscover our soulful brilliance

that we will be able to stand tall in the face of our storms and 

to accomplish all that we have covenanted 

with our Heavenly Father we would do.

I am choosing over the next 90 days to 

work on remembering the truth about myself

and to live in my soulful brilliance.

I will be sharing my insights here each week.

If you'd like a more day to day accounting of my journey

feel free to hop over to my personal blog

livingincrescendo.blogspot.com.

Luvz,

Meg:0)