This is Your Gift

the day after I gave this talk, he asked to snuggle with me :)

“If ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost”- Moroni 10:4

Doctrine and Covenants; quoting parts of section 8 verses 1-3 says. “Even so surely shall you receive a knowledge of faith, with an honest heart, believing you shall receive knowledge” “I will tell you in you mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost”, “Now behold this is the spirit of revelation”

And finally in verse 5 the Lord reminds us,

“remember this is your gift”

We live in a world of commotion, movement, change, and information flowing through multiple channels each day. We can pick up our smart phones and ask our search engine endless questions and receive answers within seconds. In the last few days my search history logged these inquiries: best time to visit the Redwood National Forest, the meaning of the word proclivity, weather updates(it has been COLD here this week!), the one word movement(have you heard of that?), I’m sorry to say I looked up Super Bowl halftime show memes and I googled the question-

has intentional ever been the word of the year?

As I was formulating my talk to you today, I kept circling around the idea of  “intentional personal revelation”. This idea being that as we go about our daily personal religious habits of prayer and scripture study in our homes, can we do it with the intent of widening the channel for ourselves to receive answers to our “concerns, fears, weaknesses, the longings of our hearts” and to our heartfelt private questions. Brigham Young once said, “ there is no doubt, if a person lives according to the revelations given to God’s people, he may have the spirit of the Lord to signify to him his will, and to guide and direct him in the discharge of his duties, in his temporal as well as his spiritual exercises. I am satisfied, however, that in this respect, we live far beneath our privileges.”

Remember at the beginning of my talk in Doctrine and Covenants section 8 the Lord says  to Oliver Cowdery and essentially, to you and I, “this is your gift”.

Personal revelation is your gift.

So what would intentional  personal revelation look like?

For me it could be saying a prayer before I read my scriptures to help me understand. Taking the time to write down  thoughts or impressions that come to me as I do so. Ponder. Not worry. Just ponder. Keeping a prayer in my heart throughout the day. Creating a routine of where and when you study. Seeing people around me as children of God. Starting each day with asking the Lord, “who can I help today? Who can I be kind to?” Seek humility.  Turning on a conference talk while in the car with hope to hear something I need. Be flexible...sometimes I pause after prayer to only be met with a extra long bout of silence. Perhaps I am not patient enough but sometimes, I get a thought or answer when I am doing a rote task. Laundry. Laundry seems to be when I am most receptive.  The answer will come, and I usually answer back rhetorically in my mind…well, why didn’t I think of that? Hence, I know it is from the spirit. Learning to be flexible with how and where you receive answers can help.

How we receive and utilize this gift is a lifelong pursuit where we will encounter simple and sacred spiritual experiences. In President Nelson’s recent talk he said, “ I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation” Our prophet asks us to “listen” for answers and write them down. He also says “oh, there is so much more that your Father in heaven wants you to know.” Answers come in time, later in the day, the week, the month, the year. You cannot force the Holy Ghost. That only seems to push him away. We can only invite the learning in.

Since much of what we receive depends on what we ask, it is important to ask the right questions. When I taught a young women’s lesson a few years ago I took out the game Headbandz. I put the head band on placing a card with the answer on my forehead. The object is to ask questions to get the answer that you cannot see. First you kind of start off with vague questions like “is it a place?” and as you go question by question you narrow them down until the last few questions open up  the answer for you. Likewise, it is with our own questions and personal revelation. It takes awhile to get to those right questions. Be patient with yourself. Move forward with what you know and seek peace.

Personal revelation is your gift. I know that my personal revelation is for me and yours is for you but there are times to share when it can bless others. A dear friend shared with me an answer she received before a big move from her hometown, “it’s not where you live but how you live” I remember as she said that I felt a witness of the spirit. Little did I know that would mean something to me as we have moved from 9 homes and 7 wards between San Francisco, Los Angeles and Colorado.  I am grateful she shared that special message with me.

There are also times to not share personal revelation outside of your home because it was just for you and/or your family. We all are implementing our Come Follow Me at home differently through trial and error. This is a gift for us to focus on what our families need individually. Not to keep up with how others are doing it. Our job as leaders is to encourage individuals and  families to keep going, stay on the gospel path, prepare for covenants and bear testimony of plain truths and of our savior, Jesus Christ and to love all those we serve.

So, I was given a gift. An amazing gift for my birthday. In fact, it was my favorite present my husband has ever given me. The gift represented to me that he knew me and my heart’s desire. He really  could see what I needed to fulfill my creative endeavors. I cried. I was so touched. I was a clothing designer before we married. And my machines were breaking down. He bought me a serger. Sergers are amazing!  This machine is the one that has stitches that cover your seams so there are no raw threads hanging out on the inside of your clothing. My particular machine has 25 stitches for this specific purpose and more for clothing construction and design purposes.
25 different ways to coverstitch.
25 ways to use and create with.
I have had it almost 2 years! And I have used only one stitch. One stitch. That is all.  All of the possibilities are at my fingertips.  And I have only chosen one. I thought about this in relation to personal revelation. There is more than one way to expand your gift and receive revelation.  Pray for those possibilities! Use more than one.

I hope that as we humbly approach our Heavenly Father,  we will be intentional in broadening our understanding of personal revelation. Showing him we want and can do more with it. And if you sit here tonight thinking, I have nothing to pray for or nothing of significance challenging me in my life. Do as the young rich man asked of the Savior in Matthew 19 verse 20, “what lack I yet?” And you will receive revelation to better your life.  There is only one you in the universe. There is only one God who created you. He wants to shower you with knowledge and blessings through personal revelation to aid us in our life here on earth. This is your gift.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Here we are on our way home after I gave this talk. A few things I learned from giving it.

-pray pray pray and edit edit edit

- it is not that scary to speak before a seventy or eat dinner next to them with the stake president

-wish I would have taken a better photo of us in our fashionable duds...we looked good!

-just say yes even if it scares you

-have courage, don't worry about tip toeing around ideas, they came to you for a reason

-just say thank you when you receive a compliment on a talk

It was a very good opportunity to have to speak in our stake leadership meeting the night before the evening session and the next day. Typically it is called for priesthood brethren but since so much of the sisters are carrying the load, we were invited to attend (and speak!)

I am grateful the Lord gave me this chance. Mid week I got a text telling me the stake presidency was praying for me and to remember to keep it to 10 minutes. As I received that text I was crossing things out of my talk and then the night before one more thing. It truly was a humbling experience to have had :)