Pieces of Jesus

My husband and I were putting a wooden puzzle of Christ with a lamb in His arms together, but then it was study time. As I was saying my prayer before my study my mind went to the puzzle and how we were looking for pieces of Christ to create this picture. Shouldn't we do the same? Look for certain attributes of Jesus Christ and apply it to our lives and live it? Yes and we can! The cool thing about these puzzles is depending on what the end picture looks like, they have shapes in the pieces to match the theme. For this picture, it's an Easter one, so it has bunnies, eggs, presents, lambs, and it even spells the word Easter where His face is all the way across. We wouldn't have anything if Jesus hadn't willingly sacrificed for each of us as if we were the only one that needed it. He thought of each one of us with love, as He suffered in the garden of gethsemane, as the roman's hurt Him, as He carried our cross to Golgatha, as they nailed Him to the cross He had carried, and as He was dying He thought of all of us with love and compassion. When He rose from the grave after 3 days, He came again among certain of His disciples. Without Christ, I wouldn't be forgiven of my wrongs, to try again, and become the person I've become. I got "a new beginning" and so can you! He beckons ALL to come unto Him. He has His hand outstretched (to you) still. I testify that He lives, He atoned for all our sins, all our struggles, and all we will go through here on earth. He knows exactly how we feel as we go through the many parts of our lives. He is there for YOU! He loves YOU as if you were His only child and it is a lot of love we can not comprehend fully. I promise you that as you follow Him and imitate Him, He will do wonders with your life far above your imagination. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, Amen. 

Jessi H. 

My Egypt

We're in Numbers in "Come, Follow Me." The Israelites are, again, complaining that all they eat is manna. They look backwards to their time in Egypt. "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely." (Numbers 11:5) "I don't want manna anymore, I want flesh" and they go to Moses and cry to him. It becomes too much and he goes to the Lord. They forget the hardship they went through of being slaves, having their children thrown into the river because Pharaoh was afraid of their numbers becoming too much. They cried to the Lord for relief. "Help us out of our situation." Now they're saying "It wasn't too bad there." How many times do we do that? 

I begged for deliverance from my Egypt last night, and today I see another of my Egypts thinking "It wasn't too bad." Instead of reminding myself of the pain and affliction I endured before turning myself away from it. I just turned away from it, but it's still in the back of my mind trying to come forward. I'm now giving it to the Lord, not looking back at it with lust but with truth. It caused mental, physical, and spiritual pain. I'm good with the "manna" the Lord has given me. Don't look back with lust, give it to the Lord and see the truth. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

~Jessi Hill

Moving Boxes of Love

There is a moving box that is sitting in my living room and as I was pondering what else I could write in my journal, I realized that the handle of the box is in shape of an upside down heart and an idea for a blog came to my mind. Whenever we move, I have the bad habit of overfilling the boxes beyond capacity and they become too heavy to carry. I overstretch myself or those who have come to help me, more than they should have had to. Now let's take this imagine, but let's imagine it'swith a box that is filled just enough to do a healthy stretch (it can still hurt, but it's not overstretching like with the first box). What would be different about the outcome? President Johnson said it best during the Relief Society Broadcast "You can do hard with Jesus or you can do hard alone. That is your choice, but when you do hard with Jesus Christ the hard becomes holy". In our move of life, we have many kinds of boxes we carry like family, work, serving, infirmities, even ones we make ourselves like sins and mistakes. As you load your boxes carefully, intentionally with the Lord, your boxes are more likely going to stretch you, but not beyond what you can handle. At times they may feel like you're going to break, they are your refiner's fire. If you carry them with Jesus Christ, you grow in ways you couldn't without this trial, this hard time in your life. I'm going to get personal for a moment. This last couple of months has felt like I've been drugged through hell with only a fishers line to hold onto. For the first little while it seemed certain foods caused pain and sickness to where I couldn't eat or drink for a long time, but not the same foods every time. Slowly it got better with a certain medication but it was still there so I was sent to a surgeon to see if a scope could tell me what was going on. We decided to try Omeprazole at a higher dose to see if that would help. The first week I noticed it didn't seem to be working but I decided to give it time. I was hurting and I decided to get off of the Omeprazole without talking to my dr. first and telling him what I was experiencing. After I got off of it, things got worse and I can barely eat enough to have energy for a short time then feel like my body needed more but I struggled with the horrible pain in my stomach, nausea, and eating became my worst enemy. We finally decided to do the scope on my stomach and my stomach is red and inflamed but he expected to find more than there was and was baffled what was going on. He put me on meds to take care of the infection and we're meeting again next week. I have been on my knees begging, crying for relief more than I had been before and even though It got worse because of a careless choice I made, He is still with me through all of this and I've come to learn that the fishing line I'm holding onto through hell, is His line for me. He has felt everything I've ever felt including this. He came with comfort, with a lesson for me, and beautiful spiritual experiences I wouldn't trade anything for. There is a song by Hilary Weeks called "Beautiful Heartbreak". She says she found a mountain in the middle of her road, she couldn't do anything, but climb it. She had many nights of begging for Him to take it away, crying for relief, and she gets to the top of this mountain and she wouldn't trade one moment because she couldn't see this view without the pain. I testify that pain is apart of our mortal journey, but He doesn't leave you comfortless along your path. He's there carrying you even if all you feel is alone, afraid and forgotten. I know He hasn't forgotten you, nor forsaken you. He loves you because you are His. Keep holding on to that iron rod with faith in Him that He is there, He does love you, and He is always aware of you. This I solemnly testify in the name of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Jessi H.

Paul's Storm

Have you ever had a plan in place, you converse with the Lord if this is the right direction, and you receive a "Yes," then you assume the direction from there? Brad and I made a plan last year. Get into CDL class, complete it, find a local trucking job, and be stable. He is over halfway done in school and part of our plan is starting to fall apart. It reminds me of Paul on his way to Rome, because he "appealed unto Caesar" (Acts 26:32). He (Paul) admonished them from sailing from "The fair havens" (Acts 27:8) because of the season, but they ignored him. Soon afterwards "a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon" (Acts 27:14) came up. Brad was stressing so much in a dark depression and I felt like I was losing my husband to this storm now taking over our lives while we're trying to pack and preparing to move. What do we do? Brad opened up to me about his struggle with school, the stress and his thinking about quitting school. I was stunned but he had been trying to get his feelings across to me for weeks. I'm praying "What do I say? What do I do?" "This has to be his decision" I hear. "Okay take a couple of days to think this through before you decide" I say. I'm laying in bed thinking "what can I do to help? I can pray and fa..." I didn't put the word fast in my head. The Lord is trying to tell me something. "Let's fast tomorrow 2 meals and see what the Lord says." Now we're working together to find the answer. Fasts are hard for my, they always have been, but I was willing to do it. I got up late Friday so I suggested we do it Saturday March 14. I'm in the shower singing Gospel music. I stop and I get lost in my head. The Lord took our offering to fast and accepted it. He gave me a solution. Our day is coming, like with Paul, the soldier and crew. Why not finish school, but if he doesn't make it we let it go and say "Okay this isn't for you, let's look at other jobs and find something you're happy with and good at." No stress, no life or death keep to the plan and we move forward. The sun came out in our lives and my husband sang in the shower! (It's been a long time since he's done that.) He's lighter and happier than I've seen him in a long time. Life's plans, especially our own, aren't life or death you have to do it this way and life becomes so stormy and unbearable to live. When life becomes like that, we need to pause and counsel with the Lord to see if we have our plan and will aligned with His and what we need to do to align it with His. Is the storm we're in of our own making? How can we bring the sun out? Life can be hard but the Lord doesn't want it to be unbearable like what we were going through. So, truck driving isn't his career path. Let's look at what is. I'm grateful for this "day" on the bay of an unknown island because we all survived even if our plan didn't. There are other plans and we know the Lord knows the end from the beginning, and we learned something out of this experience. Don't let the storms of our own making take lives as well as the ship. Ships can be redone, rebuilt but people and relationships aren't worth sacrificing for a plan. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Spiritual Word Search

             
A word search is made up of many different characters, or letters, that at first glance may seem like they're just in a random order. But when you start looking closely at the letters, you will find a lot of them arranged to form words. These words are arranged in several different ways. Some words you can see just by glancing at the letters, and other words you have to focus on what you're looking for to find. Sometimes you need someone else to point out words to you that you're having trouble finding yourself. The end of some words might be the beginning of other words, and the beginning of some might be the end of others. There are some words that, within the letters that form those words, you'll find the beginning, end, or even the middle of other words. And there are yet other words that seem to be isolated on the sidelines and not connected with any of the other words at all. But no matter how the words in a word search are arranged, if every letter isn't in the exact place they are in, the letters wouldn't come together the way they do, and the word search wouldn't be complete as it is.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is made up of many different characters, or people, as well. At first glance, the Church may look like just a bunch of people doing a bunch of different things that don't seem to have anything to do with each other. But when you look at the duties and responsibilities of each member, and the role they play for the better of the Church as a whole, you will find that they come together to fulfill different goals, or purposes, that come as a result of the individual responsibilities. These responsibilities are designed in several different ways. The purpose of some responsibilities seem clearly obvious. To see the purpose of other responsibilities you have to look closer to understand. And yet other purposes, you're not going to see unless someone else explains it to you.

The letters in the word search represent the individual members of the Church. The words that the arranged letters create represent the duties and responsibilities that are performed by the individual members. The word search itself represents the Church as a whole. Some responsibilities in the Church lead to the beginning or end of others, and some intersect with each other. Others seem to be on the sidelines not playing as big a role as the rest. But just as the letters in the word search, if the members of the Church don't fulfill their individual responsibilities in the callings and positions they hold, the Church as a whole wouldn't come together the way it does, and it couldn't truly contain the fulness of the Gospel.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints contains the fulness of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We each have responsibilities to fulfill, and each responsibility is just as important as another. No matter what position you hold, or what role you play, whether it be a Nursery teacher, Primary teacher, Relief Society or Priesthood leader, Bishop, or even a Deacon's Quorum second counselor, we all play an important role. But we all need to work together in fulfilling our individual responsibilities, as well as helping each other to achieve the end goal of assisting Heavenly Father in fulfilling His work and His glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Brad Hill