The Mysterious Ways In Which He Works..

For my General Conference blog i would like to discuss a talk given at the women's conference this year by a man who never seizes to blow me away and bring me to tears.
But before so i would just like to mention that, i just barely (literally 30 seconds ago) finished hearing this talk for the first time.
i looked it up on YouTube. (thank heavens for the righteous use of technology right?)
The reason i hadn't seen it before now was because the Saturday evening that women's conference was taking place i was scheduled to work
i was very upset about it and angry with my boss.
ranting about how i didn't get enough hours and the hours i did get were so crummy and inconvenient.
i remember it was a bad night
i love conference and i love women's conference maybe most of all, it is refreshing to see so many important and wise men speaking directly to the sisters of the church and it makes me feel valued to hear.
anyways, long story short, i missed the session.
out of the car, he delved into talking about his Major and future career plans and we were set.

Last night was also a bad night for me.
Followed by a bad day today..a not so lovely piece of information left me running on high emotions and feelings of low self worth, after being sent home early from work i found myself with hours that were not dedicated to any specific purpose so i sat down to look up some of the talks that i had missed from that Saturday. First to come up on my browser was Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk about the infamous 'Forget Me Not' flowers. As i listened to this talk i couldn't help but be amused by the mysterious ways in which the lord works. The talk was incredible. it had a smart, yet inspirational message and it had a real effect on me. But i know for a fact that had i heard this talk on that Saturday night, surrounded by other talks given by other great men, it would have had a different effect on me. of course i would have enjoyed it, but it wouldn't have effected me like it has today. Today it served as a reminder that i am loved, that i should always feel self worth in the fact that i am loved by a heavenly father. It reminded me that there is no reason for me to sulk or be affected by the opinions of an earthly being when the great I AM, the creator of this world and many others, of the stars and the moon, the being who gave us these bodies and enabled them to move, thinks that i am worth something. Not only worth something, but something great. My heavenly father can see my true potential even when i, or those who i love, can not. I will be just fine, resting my head on my pillow tonight to that knowledge.

Uchtdorf used the five petals of the forget me not flower to represent five very important principals that we should never forget.
        1. Forget not to be patient with yourself
        2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice
        3. Forget not to be happy now.
        4. Forget not the why of the gospel
        5. Forget not that the lord loves you.
It seems that the main goal of this talk was to let the sisters know that they are loved; that no matter what they do or have done there are saving ordinances that can bring them back to live with heavenly father and that no matter where we are or what we are doing the lord knows and loves us. He wants us to be happy, to realize that the commandments which we live are not just set so that there will be rules but so that we can benefit from them. I will just leave my remarks on a few of the things i reacted strongly to throughout this talk, i apologize for the length, but when something truly inspires me, i see no reason to cut it short.

Forget not the why of the gospel
This to me, was of very high if not the highest importance in this talk. Forgetting the why of the gospel is something which we all do, usually every day. We get in such a pattern of things we can and can not to that sometimes we may catch ourselves wondering why we do some of the somewhat strange things we are required to do. I have heard before, in having a discussion with a member of my family who is an inactive member of the church, that it seems like we have so many commandments. and how can we teach choice and accountability and the importance of free agency when we are so restricted that we don't often have the opportunity to exercise it. My reply to them went along with this concept of our gospel having a 'why'. those commandments are not there just to be there. it was not decided one day that, since the world would be havoc without rules, we will just throw a few out there. No, they each serve a purpose; o keep our minds clear, our consciences clean, our mental ability healthy and our bodies well, or a number of other vital things. we have the free agency to live these commandments or to cast them aside and see how close we can bring ourselves to god without them. i would wager that the distance wouldn't be comfortable. We need to understand that we don't follow commandments just to follow them. Imagine for just a moment that every commandment was removed from this church. there were no rules. but all the doctrine was otherwise the same...how many of the commandments do you think we would unknowingly follow? This gospel has a why. each and every aspect of it. and the commandments followed without the realization of why they are, is a lost cause completely.

Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice
We in our lives are very familiar with the concept of sacrifice. Aside from the large sacrifices we will surely make throughout our lives for the family, gospel, or friends which we love, we make them each and everyday in small and simple ways. We sacrifice time for activity and some experiences for others. being a college student i would definitely say i am at the peak of my 'choosing foolish sacrifices' phase. for example, everyday for the last, two weeks (at least) i have chosen to sacrifice decent amounts of sleep for hours on facebook or watching a series on Netflix with my friends. I have also chosen to sacrifice hours of the precious daylight when i could be catching up on homework or cleaning my nightmare of a room, for the sleep which was lost in those evening hours. i think that the importance of smart sacrifices is underplayed drastically throughout this gospel. one thing which i feel no one should ever sacrifice, but too often do, is the opportunity to follow the promptings of the spirit. Often times we are prompted to do something, by some sensation or feeling (the holy ghost) and instead we pass it up, unsure if it was truly the spirit speaking to us or our mind playing silly games. sometimes these promptings are small and seem silly or are difficult to understand so we wave them off with no second thought. this may not always hurt us, but usually does not help us as well as it could. Small promptings i have received  lately such as, take a different way to work, put on your seat belt now (which i usually don't do, i need to get better at it), or hang up the phone, now, have all helped me, as well as slipped by unnoticed. on my way to work the other day i got a call from an automated woman who informed me that due to lack of recent use my debit card had been deactivated for security reasons and i should stay on the phone to reactivate it. This has happened before so it was not out of the ordinary. i rarely use my debit card now that i can put it all on my credit card and pay it off. the usual procedure was to type in important information such as the last four of my social and pin number then the woman would tell me the process would complete and the card would be immediately reactivated. i held on the line. the familiar voice came over the phone and said, please enter the last four digits of your social security number, and for some reason in that moment i was pressed upon to immediately hang up the phone. so i did. after doing so i was frustrated with myself. why did i do that? now i will just need to call back later and reactivate it through a person on the phone, and that was always such a long process. i was angry with myself, but i was getting on the freeway so i put it off. the next day i called Verizon and explained what had happened to the woman on the other end of the phone, and told her that i had simply been in a hurry so i couldn't go through the process at the time i got the call..after she logged into my account to fix the problem i got this response..."it seems that your account shows no sign of a hold. your debit card should be working just fine. we have been getting complaints lately about phony calls like this that have been stealing our customers information. so i guess it's good you were in a hurry" sometimes reasons do not display themselves so clearly. I was prompted to put my seat belt on, and i did not get in any sort of  a wreck, but imagine this for me. what if there was someone who was intending to take a path that would cross with mine, that would have run a stop sign or red light and hit me. what if he was prompted to put his phone down, or take an alternate route to his destination, and that is why i didn't get into a wreck. what if he would have ignored the prompting he was given, then i would have been glad i had put my seat belt on. this isn't doctrine, i am spit balling, but i am bringing to attention the fact that there are reasons for every prompting we receive. and choosing to sacrifice those promptings for our own selfish opinions on the matter is in a direct form, assuming we know better than our heavenly father does for us. which we do not, and never will.

Forget not that the Lord loves you
"No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your heavenly father has not forgotten you, in face he loves you with an infinite love. just think of it, you are known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful, and glorious being in the universe. you are loved by the king of infinite space and everlasting time. he who created and knows the stars knows you and your name. you are the daughters of his kingdom"
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf


loveisourweapon