Advice from Elder Busche

Righteous vs. Wickedness

As for the message, have you noticed that when most scripture-reading, church-going people talk about themselves, they consider themselves to be "the righteous" and others to be "the wicked?" I guess it is a natural tendency for all of us. But what kind of criteria does God use to determine if we are righteous or wicked? In 1 Nephi 16:3, Nephi lists several such criteria:
1. If we are willing to listen to the Truth.
2. If we are willing to make changes in our lives.
3. If we do not complain that God's ways are just too hard.

"And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us. " 1Nephi 16:3

If I ask not amiss...

Another great letter from my Stake RS presidency on how and what to ask for in our prayers.
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Dear Sisters,

We are promised by God that when we ask, we shall
receive...
consider 3 Nephi 27: 28-29 ...

"whatsoever things ye shall ask the Father in my name
shall be given you. Therefore, ask, and ye shall
receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for
he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh,
it shall be opened."

Now, we should ask ourselves...Do I really believe
that? Do I really believe that God will answer my
prayers every time I pray? I have to admit I was
thinking ....well...sometimes that is true and
sometimes I am just not so sure. So I prayed about
having more understanding.

This is what I learned:

1. When God says something, you can count on it. His
integrity is above reproach and He does everything He
says He will do.

2. I researched several scriptures that clarified my
meaning of asking...

James 4:3 - "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."

2 Nephi 4:35 - "...God will give liberally to him that
asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not
amiss..."

Helaman 10:5 - "...all things shall be done unto thee
according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that
which is contrary to my will."


So...now I am beginning to understand. I thought
about my children. I have a great desire to give them
a good education, nutritious meals, good advice, all
of the love in my heart, and anything else I feel
would make them happy and successful. But, that does
not mean that I will give them everything they ask
for...what if they ask to skip school? eat pizza
every night? avoid brushing their teeth? watch TV
until midnight every night? That is what they would
LIKE to do...

Of course I would not grant those foolish requests.
Our loving and omnipotent Father in heaven will not
grant our often short-sighted requests either. He has
a plan for us...it involves getting out of our comfort
zone...experiencing pain, doubt, and discouragement
(just like our kids experience when we require them to
obey our rules and do what they feel are hard things).

So...the key to having every prayer of ours answered
is to ask for the right things. Here are a few things
I found that we should be asking for:
1. Wisdom (James 1:5)
2. Deliverance from enemies (Psalm 143:10)
3. Goodness to those who hate us and have "done us
wrong" (Matt 5:44)
4. Food for the day (Matt 6:11)
5. Forgiveness of our sins (Matt 6:12)
6. Protection from the Evil One; this includes His
evil promptings to
gossip, cheat, lie, steal, avoid praying, be
selfish, etc.(Matt 6:13)
7. A clean heart (Psalm 51:10)
8. A soft heart (1 Nephi 2: 16)
9. Understanding (1 Kings 4:29, Proverbs 2:2)

This list could go on forever! My son and I have
started writing down our request for the day in our
journal first thing in the morning. Then, we offer
our morning prayer and follow up on what happened in
the evening...recording how our prayer was answered
that day. VERY POWERFUL!

What will you ask for today? Father is waiting to
hear from each of us!

Love,
Sister L., First Counselor
Alexandria Stake Relief Society

Eye Single to the Glory of God

"Generally speaking, “an eye single to the glory of God” means sacrifice. It means that instead of endlessly doing what we want to do, we have to do what the Lord wants us to do, but we have to do it in his way when he wants us to do it."

--Hartman Rector Jr.,, "Sacrifice Still Brings Forth Blessings", Ensign, Dec. 1971, 64

A great letter from a great sister...

Hello Sisters, August 16, 2007
Recently I was thinking about trying to buy a home. I never had one of my own before and was kind of excited and yet really scared. I even went looking at houses and found one I really liked. Yet, no matter how I went over my finances I just couldn't manage to come up with all of the needed money right now. I was anxious and frustrated. This was not at all the "peacefull feeling from the Holy Ghost I expected to feel. After all, wasn't this a "good thing"? Didn't I do all of my "homework" and make a decision? So why wasn't I feeling that peace? Could it be I wasn't supposed to move yet? But that hardly seemed logical since the longer I wait the more difficult it will be to get a loan and move. I wanted that house. Still I felt unsure and anxious. But was that really the spirit or just the normal I'm going to owe on this for the rest of my life anxiety?
I was perplexed and asked for a blessing. In the blessing I was told that Heavenly Father knew of my desire for a home of my own but that he wanted me to wait for awhile. I seemed to feel some relieve but also disappointment that I would never attain this goal. Why am I telling you all of this? For two reasons 1) we all face every day delimmas in which we are sometimes uncertain if it is the spirit or our own feelings and anxieties. We all want to do what Heavenly Father wants us to do so we must really trust that when we have good calming feelings our answer is yes. The opposite is also true. We must trust that when we have strong anxiety and uncertaintly then we shouldn't do as we planned no matter how much we may think we want to. 2)As I was contemplating this very thing and wondering if some day I would have a home of my own and if so how, I came across a wonderful scripture that can help us all to increase our faith and patience Doctrine Covenants 5:34 "Yea, for this cause I have said: Stop, and stand still until I command thee, and I will provide means whereby thou mayest accomplish the thing I have commanded thee." There it is sisters, all we have to do is be obedient and He not us will provide a way for us to accompish what he commands us to do. This scripture has brought me much relief and hope in my everyday problems. I hope it does the same for you.
Sister H. M.
Stake R.S. pres.

Scriptures are like a book of answers

Did you ever have one of those Sundays where you listened to the speakers or teachers and just soaked everything in? Today was one of those Sundays for me. It started off when I woke up early to study the Sunday school lesson...which actually is next week's lesson as I came to find out at church. (woops).

In Doctrine & Covenants 19:23 it says

Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you
shall have peace in me.

My question I want to throw out is this: What does it mean to "walk in the meekness of my spirit"? Learn of him is studying, reading, pondering, etc. about his Gospel. Listening to his words, speakers, teachers, etc at church, listening to the promptings of the Spirit. I get that. But how do you walk in the meekness of his Spirit???
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As we live our lives here on Earth we try to live by the Holy Ghost. Our actions and examples bear the fruit of our faith. Problems or situations will arise that we may not know the answer to. What is our first response to this? I'll admit that sometimes I want to vent out emotions or I'll run it through my head until my stress level has reached an all time high. :-o Yeah, I know...soooo not healthy!

Today I learned that if you don't know what to pray for, then pray to know what to pray for. We need to be asking specific questions in order to get specific answers. Funny thing is, sometimes Heavenly Father doesn't answer us with an answer, but with lessons that teach us. Now and then when we come to Him in sincere prayer asking in faith, he will test that faith.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you. (St.John 15:7)

Our discussion turned to how we can abide in Christ. What does it mean to abide in him? How does he abide with us? Keeping the commandments, loving thy neighbor, keeping the word of wisdom, living a life of righteousness that is in keeping with the Spirit, and most importantly, aligning your will with His. When we can do that, the promise given in the scripture above can come to pass.
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I heard this today and it stuck out to me.

If you have fear in your heart, get down on your knees.

Light of the Atonement will illuminate the truth of all things

John 7:17

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

If we want to know if His teachings are true or not, the best way to prove them is by doing them. The way I see it, we have two choices here: rely on someone's testimony of it because they have found out for themselves OR we can act upon His teachings to know for ourselves. You can't gain a testimony of tithing unless you pay tithing and reap the blessings from paying it. As we gain a testimony, our faith turns into knowledge.

Later in John (John 8:12), it talks about how Christ is the Light of the world. Something that my Sunday school teacher said was really quite interesting if you read it in the right context:

The Light of the Atonement will illuminate the truth of all things

I've tried articulating what he meant by this quote, but it's not coming out right. I guess it is one of those things where you would've had to of been there. But if you want to discuss it, by all means...discuss. I'll try to explain it as best as possible.