Service Is A Pain Killer

One of the best Truth Tools of the gospel that is important in helping us jettison unnecessary pain in our lives is service. It can also help us through the necessary pain. Many years ago an article appeared in the Church News about a woman in a nursing home who was suffering from cancer. Her story illustrates how service even helped her deal wit necessary pain. The woman, in her 80s, lived in constant debilitating pain despite the medication she was on. A ward Relief Society leader brought her two dolls to fix up so they could be given to needy children for Christmas. When the Relief Society leader returned the dolls were ready and, in addition, the woman had made 11 baby quilts to be given to the poor. Subsequently seven more dolls were taken to the woman who made beautiful bonnets, dresses and coats for six of them before she died.

After her death her family found her diary and read the following entry, “3 a.m., couldn’t sleep, the pain was intense. Decided to work on the dolls, and the pain went away.” The following pages were filled with the same report, “Decided to work on the dolls and the pain went away.” (Church News, April 21, 1985, p. 16.)

As King Benjamin so aptly put it, “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17). And when you are serving God and your fellowman, you forget about yourself--even the pain you are in--and open yourself up to the gifts and joys He is trying to give you.

More About Vulnerabilty

Dr. Brené Brown

As you recall two days ago I wrote about the importance of being vulnerable. To add to this I’d like to tell you about a social worker who has spent years studying vulnerability. Her name is Brene Brown and her findings are very interesting. You can see one of hertalks here.

Brown claims that our fear of being vulnerable has made many of us go into a state of numbness in order to protect ourselves from fear and other negative emotions, but the process of numbing emotions is not selective. When we numb ourselves from the negative emotions we also numb ourselves from the positive emotions and that is one of the things that is very wrong with our world today.

At the end of this talk Dr. Brown explains some ways to help us escape the numbing and to live vulnerably. The first of these is to be grateful. I’ve talked a lot about gratitude on Good News! and you all know about the importance of being grateful. But her second idea struck me as just as powerful. She says we should “Honor the ordinary.” Doing that is something I’ve done all my life without realizing it, but now to see it as a way to open myself to life added a dimension to doing it that I hadn’t realized. When we take time to notice and appreciate the yellow of the daffodils or the sound of a bird or the delightful squeal of a toddler, we open ourselves up to the world and let joy in.

Honoring the ordinary is a way to connect with the world and with God, and in connecting with the world and God we connect with our deepest self in a very rewarding way.

I'm Being Engraved!

I have a favorite verse of scripture that I like so much I once set it to music, a very painstaking process for someone who isn’t really a musician. The scripture is found in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”


That verse repeated over and over in my head has gotten me through many a trial, but just the other day as I was reading it I opened my Bible and instead of starting to read at verse five I began at verse one and at verse three read, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.”

Several things struck me about this verse. First, I love the juxtaposition of mercy and truth. It happens in many places in scripture not just here, but while endeavoring to Live in Truth I’ve discovered that it can’t be done without mercy. The two concepts go hand in hand. If I’m not merciful to those around me I fall in the Pit of Illusion hard and deep. Mercy is the key. The second thing that struck me was the fact that I should write truth “upon the table of my heart.” But how?

As I thought about that question I realized that writing on the table of my heart is done not by studying or thinking about truth but by living it. Every time I act in Truth and Live in Truth that Truth is written not with pen or pencil or even typed, but to write on a fleshy table it would have to be engraved. That implies to me something enduring and lasting and deep. Ink can be washed away, but engraving cannot. Thus when I Live in Truth something lasting happens to me. I change and the more I Live in Truth the more I change and grow for good. I like that! I’m going to go about my day engraving Truth on my heart!

On Being Vulnerable

There is a concept that is part of the gospel and an important part of Living in Truth that I’ve never heard a single talk or lesson about. That is the concept of being vulnerable. If you are like most people just reading the word sends shivers up your spine, and yet in order to progress and become like God we need to open ourselves up and be vulnerable. The word vulnerable means “open to attack or damage.” That’s what a missionary does. That’s what teaching a lesson or giving a talk or bearing a testimony entails. That’s what loving another person involves. Nothing in life that is worth having is obtainable without being vulnerable. A person who refuses to be vulnerable, refuses life.

The hermit who hides away from people and the world is afraid of being vulnerable. They may never suffer the pangs of being rejected, but they also never experience the joys of friendship and love. The person with great talent who is afraid to share that talent is afraid of being vulnerable. They may never be laughed at or make a mistake in public, but they will never have the satisfaction or joy that comes from sharing with other. The shy person who never speaks up may never be put down, but they will also never enjoy the bonding that occurs when people share ideas, dreams, and knowledge. Refusing to be vulnerable isolates us from others and shuts us off from growth.

But most important, repentance requires a person to be vulnerable. It requires us to risk as we seek forgiveness from others and to experience embarrassment and other such emotions we don’t want to confront. But if we refuse to be vulnerable and repent, we stop our eternal progress.

Instead of cringing at the concept of vulnerability, we need to learn more about it, embrace it, and open ourselves up to the possibilities that await us.

The Power We Have

I woke up this morning to find three inches of snow on the cars and lawn, but the road, sidewalk and driveway only had a skiff of snow. That part was nice, but SNOW? Last week we had beautiful spring blue sky weather with sunshine and only a few wispy clouds and crocus smiling up out of the ground. But that’s how life goes! So I’m enjoying the snow.

The white, slushy drive to work sounded different than last week’s drive—actually much more interesting sounds. The wet cars looked different—drippy, but the water adds a sheen that is almost magical. The gray sky felt different, but I was bundled in my Eskimo coat and had my heater blowing hot air and so I was happy because I managed to remember that happy is a choice and I had the power to make whatever choice I wanted.

It’s definitely unnecessary pain to choose to be unhappy because it snows when you don’t want it to. Remembering that makes all the difference in how we live our days. I’ve been inside ever since I got to work in rooms with no windows, so I don’t know if the snow has melted or if there is more snow out there. But I’m happy!

 Isn’t it amazing the power we have over the weather!!!!

Sabbath Scripture

For it is not ye that speak, 

but the Spirit of your Father 

which speaks in you.

Matthew 10:20

Hurray for Confidence

One of the most amazing things I’ve discovered about Living in Truth is what it does to me. There is something very liberating that occurs when you acknowledge Truth and simply do what needs to be done. Communion with the Spirit, gifts of the Spirit, miracles, and blessings are all available when we are living in Truth and are absent when we are living in Illusion. One of the greatest of these blessings that I’ve experienced when living in truth is confidence.

I have a favorite quote from Marianne Williamson that sums up what I mean by confidence and the realization that comes to you when you Live in Truth. She says, “’Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

When you Live in Truth you automatically become a light to others. Without conscious effort, you naturally do what the Savior instructed when He said, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16).