I pray...

I pray because I love the Lord.

Nelson Mandela
United a Nation

What a gift we are given to be able to speak to our maker on a daily  basis and know with a surety that He is listening. I mean think of it! Think of someone you look up to, someone of high position, someone who is the best or the greatest in their field of expertise. For me I think of someone such as Nelson Mandela or William Wilberforce. Men who made a difference in the world and left their mark.

 Now if I wanted to talk to them personally, (well first I would have to bring them back from the dead....but pretend they are still alive) I

William Wilberforce
Brought about the abolition
of the slave trade

would have to get in contact with their secretary and attempt to set up a visit, have a good enough reason that would warrant me, a commoner, to visit with him, a man of such high status. And then if that indeed did happen I am sure I would have to go through extensive security check and background check so that the people protecting them would know I wasn't a bad guy or anything. After all that I would gain an audience with them. But then whose to say they are going to actually be interested in what I have to say. They might just write me off as some silly girl who knows nothing about anything and is wasting their valuable time talking about insignificant things. And to think these men are not even comparable to the maker of heaven and earth. How incredible it is that we can talk with Him daily and we don't have to go through all of that. We don't have to have a back ground check...in fact men or women who would not be allowed an audience with someone of high position here on earth are the ones God wants to talk to!

Now some of you may be saying, "but I don't think that God even listens to me." I am here to tell you.....you are wrong. I know without any doubt in my brain or heart that God hears your prayers and that he cares about you and what you are going through. He cares about the small things in our lives just as much as the big. He doesn't write us off as some silly person with insignificant hardships. He sees us as we truly are and knows completely how we feel and knows how much these things mean to us and in return they mean a lot to Him. My mission president used to say, "God is in the details of our lives." I can testify that is 100% true.

"...Look unto God with firmness of mind,

and pray unto him with exceeding faith,

and he will console you in your afflictions,

and he will plead your cause,

and send down justice upon those who seek

your destruction.......receive the pleasing word of God

and feast upon his love..."

Jacob 3:1-2

You may also be thinking, "yeah you can only say that because you must have had some miraculous answer to your prayer once..." I haven't actually. I don't believe in prayer because of the miracles that come. I pray because I love the Lord. I love my Father in Heaven so much that I want to talk with Him. What better way to get to know somebody than to talk to them! In return God does speak to me...but it might not be the way you think. I don't hear voices and I don't have visions.....I can feel Him as I pray. Peace comes over me as I
talk with Him. Imagine if you will the joy that you feel as you witness the beauty of a morning sunrise, or the joy of a mother seeing her baby for the first time, or the peace you feel as your breath is swept away in an elegant painting....those types of feelings come over me as I talk with my Father in Heaven. That is how He speaks to me.

I pray because I love the Lord. But He speaks back because He loves me. 

I am calm...

I am calm because I love the Lord.

This is strictly to give you an idea of the truck I drive. :)
And no I was not wearing that yesterday that is from a few years ago!

The sweetest thing happened to me yesterday! I get into the old clunker I call a truck (well really I call it the Beast and I'm the Beauty but that's beside the point) and start it up. It groaned as I put it into gear which should have been an inclination to me something was up. But needless to say I was already late and didn't want to be later so I thought nothing of it. Now something you must understand about this truck is that the gas gage goes a little hay wire so I didn't really know how much gas was in the truck; on a normal car I would have known the problem just by looking at my gages. As I am driving down a twisty road all the sudden the truck just stops. I attempt to pull off to the side but imagine if you will the slim streets of Europe...that's the kind of street I was driving on so I was still taking up my fair share of the road. Hopeless and helpless I wrack my brain of what to do. I pull over as best I can, I put on the hazard lights and of course called my mom. :) Silently a prayer was being said. While I am on the phone with my sweet mother this good samaritan stops by with an equally old truck and just happens to have a gallon of gas to spare. He gets out of his truck with a cigarette in his mouth and the gas in his hand (well it was in a container.....he would have had to be pretty incredible to hold a whole gallon of gas in his bare hands..). Such a sweet act of kindness from a man that seemed a little less than friendly was an eye opener for me yesterday. And that man was my saving grace.

Through that whole experience I was as calm as a cucumber which is not normal for me in such a situation. But I realized I was calm because I love the Lord., because I trusted Him. I trust that everything is going to be all right one way or another because He is watching me. There is nothing to fear when you love the Lord and trust His promised blessings. 

"...I do know that whosoever shall 

put their trust in God

shall be supported in their trials, 

and their troubles, 

and their afflictions, 

and shall be lifted up at the last day."

Alma 36:3

Prophets of old continue to teach us this simple but pure truth that if we put our trust in the one who knows us best we will have nothing to fear. God loves you so much. So much that even when you are stuck on the side of the road He provides a way for you to stay calm and to receive the help you need. 

I am calm because I love the Lord. But I am given the aid needed because the Lord loves me. 

My List

Just a few short weeks ago I returned home from a mission in the Tennessee Nashville Mission ( I am convinced it was the best mission on the face of the planet but what return missionary wouldn't think that of their own mission). I served along side some absolutely incredible individuals!They each have taught me something about myself and about God. One in particular stands out to me.

In a meeting where leaders of the mission were gathered, an Elder (a boy missionary) gave a training on loving the Lord. And what we do because we love the Lord. He explained that our motive, especially as servants of Christ, should be to do things out of love. That was the magnificence of the Savior and what He did while on this earth, was that His motive was solely love. He loved us SO much He gave up EVERYTHING. So this Elder posed the question what do we do or have because we love the Lord? In hopes of reminding us that the real motive for our actions should be because we love Christ and not out of a "have to" attitude. This Elder then asked us to write down a "Becuase I love the Lord" list. I did so and have come to realize how much I do because I love the Lord and in return this list has made me aware of how much my life has and needs to continue to be centered on the Savior.

I don't know about you but when I was asked by my mom and dad to sweep or mop the floors out of it was my chore, my job to do that.....it was the most tedious thing I have ever done. But when I swept and mopped because I wanted to show my parents how much I loved and appreciated them all the sudden it wasn't so difficult and in fact the time flew by. Interesting how love as our motive can change our attitude along the journey.

In my mission we had a saying that went a little something like this.....

EXACT obedience is the price, 

FAITH is the power, 

LOVE is the motive,

 CHRIST is the reason,

 and MIRACLES are the result.

Love is the motive and Christ is the reason. This is what this blog is ALL about! How love being my motive and Christ being the reason has blessed my life! I have developed for myself a "because I love the Lord" list and I want to share it with y'all!! Don't hesitate to make your own list. :) I hope along this journey of writing this blog y'all will think about yourselves and how love has been your motive and Christ was your reason. And I know miracles will be the result. :)