Brenda Emmett

A couple of weeks ago, I started a personal challenge to share one of the 21 principles as covered in the book by Richard G. Scott.  This book has really touched my heart and I have felt impressed to share it with you and my own feelings about each of the principles.  You can read about the other principles I have covered here.   If you would like your own copy of this book, you can purchase it here.   This is NOT an affiliate link, even though I do have an affiliate account with Amazon.  I have chosen NOT to use an affiliate link as I don’t feel right about it in this circumstance.

“As you seek spiritual knowledge, search for principles,” counsels Elder Richard G. Scott. “Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.”

“A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and challenging circumstances.”

I think this principle is rather timely for me at the moment.  This applies to goals that are spiritual in nature and goals that are not perhaps so spiritual, but are worthy goals all the same.  It really depends on your perspective and what is possible and you are limited only by your mind and desire to get there.  I think that when things are hard and it looks like you just can’t attain a goal that seems impossible, that this is where we have to put our faith in God and ask Him to help us.  Which goes right back to Principle #1, where we talked about asking God and inviting Him to help us and guide us.

One of the things I’ve had a hard time remembering is that things are always done in the Lord’s time.  Sometimes our timetables do not match up with His.  Sometimes His timetable may be longer than we want or desire.  We have lessons to learn along the way, and often one of those lessons involves patience.  I’m not good at being patient.  That is probably why He finds ways to teach me that lesson again and again.  I’m a stubborn and willful child.   But one of the things that helps me to remember that I can reach my goals and potential is a quote I have loved for about 33 years now.  It has helped me to regain focus and realize that it is OK to take a bit longer to reach my goal as long as I am going forward and not backward.  These words are ones that bring comfort to my soul when things seem hard:

“Eternal things are always done in the process of time. Direction is initially more important than speed.” ~Neal A Maxwell

Our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy.  He wants us to make goals for ourselves and work toward achieving them.  He wants us to reach our full potential.  The neat thing is that He knows our full potential.  And to get there might be hard.  It might be really hard.  But if we ask Him to bless us and help us to reach that potential, He will willingly and happily guide and direct us and support us in our journey.  We just really need to humble ourselves and ask.

Last week I started a personal challenge to share one of the 21 principles as covered in the book by Richard G. Scott.  This book has really touched my heart and I have felt impressed to share it with you and my own feelings about each of the principles.  You can read about Principle 1 in my post from last week.  If you would like your own copy of this book, you can purchase it here.   This is NOT an affiliate link, even though I do have an affiliate account with Amazon.  I have chosen NOT to use an affiliate link as I don’t feel right about it in this circumstance.

“As you seek spiritual knowledge, search for principles,” counsels Elder Richard G. Scott. “Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.”

“A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and challenging circumstances.”

This principle reminds me that with God, nothing is impossible.  Sometimes He may ask us to do hard things.  But if we have faith, we will be able to accomplish what he has for us if we are diligent and keep trying.  It won’t be easy.  But this again reminds me of the first principle that we discussed last week.  We have to ask God for His help.  He wants us to ask.  Perhaps the asking is our test.  Once we practice our faith and ask our Heavenly Father for His help, he will bless us with it and then what seemed impossible now becomes possible.

This principle also reminds me that everything is always done in the Lord’s time.  The word patience sticks out to me here.  Sometimes we try to weary the Lord with our requests for things to be done right now.  We are so focused on the here and now, that we cannot see the big picture.  That’s where God comes in.  He can see everything.  He has a different perspective.  When I catch myself becoming impatient with the Lord’s timetable, I like to ask Him to help me to see things the way He sees them.  It is amazing how my attitude changes when I remember to do this.  I may not be able to see everything and comprehend the timetable.  But I do become more patient with the process when I ask to see clearly.

The other word that really stands out to me in this principle, is the word obedience.  If we do our very best to be obedient to the Lord’s will, He will bless us.  A few years ago, my husband felt prompted that it was time to change his employment.  We live in a small town, and honestly, there were no jobs available that he would be able to do and be able to support our family.  We didn’t know what to do.  There was no clear path before us.  But we knew we needed to be obedient.  A retail store was being built here and even though it was not in his field of work, he did have the retail management experience needed to be able to run this store.  This would most likely be a pay cut, and he probably would not be happy in his work.  But that was the absolute only possibility that we could see.  So he filled out the online application.  Within about two days, a job with our town opened up.  Would you believe that it actually needed someone to work in an area of his degree that he had not been able to use before?  He applied and got that job.  The funny thing is that the first place never even contacted him.  They hired someone with much less experience and we have watched some things happen in that store that has confirmed that the Lord blessed us for being obedient to His will.  The initial prompting looked impossible.  Accepting the actual job he now has looked impossible as well as it was a severe pay cut.  He makes less than half of what he did before.  But he is happy.  My son and I have enjoyed having him home every night.  And God is blessing us so that we are seeming to make the ends meet somehow.  Again, we are being blessed for being obedient.  And for that I am truly blessed and grateful.

Today I am going to start a series based on the book, 21 Principles: Divine Truths To Help You Live By The Spirit, by Richard G. Scott.  Before I cover the principle for this week, I want to tell you a little story about how I ended up with this book and how it has touched me and inspired me.

A few years ago, I was supposed to teach a Relief Society lesson to the ladies in the local care center.  For those of you who are not LDS, Relief Society is the name of the women’s organization in our church.  It’s where we meet as women and discuss the gospel of Jesus Christ,  and how to be better mothers, wives, and daughters of our Heavenly Father.  We have several ladies who are members of our church that are in our local care center.  So we take turns in the community and go up to the care center and hold meetings for them there, as they can’t leave easily.  There is a main meeting on Sundays, and on Thursdays, we have Relief Society for the women.

Anyway, I was asked to teach the lesson and it was pretty much up to me what I would teach these older and much wiser ladies.  I tossed around several topics and nothing felt right.  I prayed and worried about it for a long time.  Then just 2 days before I was to teach a lesson, I went to a local store with my husband. I always gravitate to the book section, as I am a bookaholic.  While looking things over, I saw this book, and felt immediately drawn to pick it up.  I opened it, and read just a couple of the principles as I flipped through the pages.  In that instant, I knew that this was what I was supposed to teach.  And as I have had this book, I have felt very strong promptings to share these principles here on my blog as well.

So what I have planned, is to share the principle and then share my own thoughts on it each week.  If you want to read the thoughts of Richard G. Scott on each principle, (and they are VERY inspired and uplifting), you can get your own copy of this book here.  This link is to the Kindle version of this book and it is NOT an affiliate link.  Though I do have an affiliate account with Amazon, I just don’t feel right in using it here in these circumstances.

“As you seek spiritual knowledge, search for principles,” counsels Elder Richard G. Scott. “Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.”

“A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and challenging circumstances.”

I think that this principle is perhaps one of the most important ones.  It is up to us to ask the Lord to help us and guide us and bless us with the things we need.  While the Lord knows what we need, He still needs for us to humble ourselves before Him and ask for His help.  When we do that, He will guide and direct us through the gentle promptings of the Holy Ghost.  These impressions can come as a feeling or a fleeting thought.  But the more we exercise this spiritual muscle, the better we will become at recognizing the influence of the Spirit in our lives.  We will be in tune with the Lord and His will for us.  We will be able to make correct decisions and that in turn will bring more light into our lives.

As we go through these principles each week, I will most likely point back to this one as I feel that they all point back to this one.  It is just that important for us to understand.

For me, the Spirit speaks to me in my heart and my mind.  Rarely do I ever hear an actual voice.  I know some people who do hear a voice.  But for most of us, it is more common to feel things and have thoughts that are clearly from the Holy Ghost.  In Galatians 5:22-23 we read about the fruit of the Spirit.  These are the things that are good and are how we can know we are feeling the Spirit of God.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance:  against such there is no law.”

If we are feeling these feelings, then we have the Spirit with us.  And we can receive personal revelation through the Spirit from our Heavenly Father.  That comforts me and helps me to know that I am not alone.  That my Heavenly Father has given me clear instruction on how to recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost in my life and that this influence is good.  It should make me happy.

This is a spiritual muscle that I try to work on all the time.  I am not perfect at it.  But I keep trying and that is what is most important.  I know the Lord blesses me for my efforts and willingness to try.  If we ask Him, he will bless us.  Sometimes we may not understand those blessings right away.  But the Lord knows best and will guide and direct us if we ask.

This picture is one of my favorites of the Savior.  I have lots of favorite pictures of the Savior.  But this one especially reminds me of the importance of asking Him for the things I need.  If you look closely at the door, you will see that there is not a doorknob in the door.  That is because the Lord is waiting for us to open the door to Him.  It is up to us to invite Him in.  Once we do that, He will help us all He can.  But we have the free agency to open that door or not.

It really is just that simple.  Just ask.  Open the door to your heart and mind.  He will bless you.  He will send the Holy Ghost to guide and direct you to what the Lord has in store for you.  It will make you truly happy.  This I know.  And you can too.  Just ask.