As I sat on our characteristic BACK ROW today during Sacrament Meeting I noticed our attendance was sparse -- tis the season of summer vacations! As the normal people got up to bear their testimonies I listened intently, yearning for the Spirit to heal my heart. I did feel the Spirit, but wasn't being PUSHED up to bear my own. Instead I thought about it a lot.
An experience on my mission came to my mind. I was in a town with a VERY SMALL Branch....even smaller than Effingham. Four of us were missionaries -- a senior couple and my companion and me. A family of 7, a family of 3, a mother and son, and a few others sporadically came and made up the entire Branch that came regularly. (You can do the math!) I remember one Fast Sunday EACH member getting up and STILL getting out early for Sunday School. No one joined the church in that area. It was very difficult. Not even a lot of people listened to us. In fact, when the family of 7 were transferred (he was in the military) they closed down the Branch.
It seemed with the long pauses that each member of our congregation today would have time to bear their testimonies. But not a lot were standing up. No worries for me...I enjoy the silence to ponder and think. The children were even being pretty reverent.
It was at this moment during Sacrament Meeting today that it hit me in the face. Regardless of whether or not I bear my testimony, the church is true. Regardless of whether ANYONE in our congregation bore their testimony, it is all still true. Regardless of whether ANYONE on earth knew, believed, or even testified....it is all still true. Joseph Smith DID see God and Jesus Christ in the woods behind his home...which made them a very sacred place. The Book of Mormon, regardless of how many people accept it as scripture, or turn it away, is still scripture...still the word of God. The Church has been restored regardless of how many or few accept that reality. We have a living prophet on this earth whether people believe that or not. And we DO believe in a living Christ...follow Him, love Him, honor Him...regardless of how many people say we don't. These are absolute truths....it is free from imperfection, complete, and perfect.
I'm glad that I KNOW these things. It was an interesting realization for me today. I don't know that I have ever thought of it quite that way before. But it is true! It is ABSOLUTELY TRUE! Now it is my responsibility to be valiant in my testimony....to convert my heart and act accordingly.
1 comment:
Even tho we know those things that you testified of today (or yesterday) in your blog, it is interesting how strong that knowledge is and changes our thinking when it is given to us by the Spirit! I know that I have known things before, and then they are made "known to me by the Spirit" and are so much more powerful to me evermore! I love your blog. You are such a great person! I loved seeing the pictures of your family wrestling and miss those days that Andrew did that with all of our kids. I loved the softball pictures and long for the days that I played softball too! Not very well, mind you, but I loved it all the same! Still do - just still can't play as well as I know in my mind how to play!! :) You are a true friend! I love you!
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