All the Feels

I had a great little study today, all about the feels! Which I feel like has been a pretty big theme for me for the last little while, so I'm glad it all tied together in this study. God is great. Yes indeed.

So I started off in John 11, where Christ is told by his disciples that a dear friend of his, Lazarus is sick and dying. Instead of immediately coming to the rescue to prevent Lazarus's death, Christ recognizes that there is a bigger lesson here at play. He says, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." (John 11:4)
Isn't that an interesting choice of words? For those who know the story, we all know Lazarus does indeed kick the bucket. He does not receive a "get out of death free card" from Jesus. No sir. So why did Christ say his sickness wasn't unto death? Why didn't he tell people that Lazarus would die, but that he'd bring him back to life and everything would be ok? Stay tuned to find out!
Christ receives his answer from the spirit about what he is to do about this situation. He recognizes that in order to really drive his Father's message home, he needed to stay a few extra days instead of leaving immediately for Lazarus. Talk about humility. Knowing he had the power to prevent death or even to bring him back to life, but following God's planning and timetable NOT his own. What a guy.

He greets Martha, then a little further on, Mary and others who are mourning with the family over Lazarus's death. Upon seeing Martha, he tells her that she will see the glory of God if she believes. She shares that she does believe Lazarus will live again, once the resurrection comes. She testifies that she believes Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Christ that will allow the resurrection to come to pass. He then approaches Mary, and seeing the suffering she and others around her are experiencing "groaned in the spirit and was troubled." (34) Wait a second. Didn't he just tell Martha that her brother would rise again and everything would be fine? Why was he troubled when he could tell Mary everything would be alright? And again, why wouldn't he just tell them what was about to happen? One word. LOVE. Christ's love for each one of us runs so deeply that he feels with us. The next verse has honestly become one of my favorite verses in the bible:

"Jesus wept." John 11:35

Christ wept. He was alive. He was human (well, partly). His soul was troubled. He felt the pain of loosing a brother, a loved one, and a friend that everyone else there was experiencing. He understood the confusion, pain, doubt, darkness, and hopelessness that surrounded him. He didn't try to cheer everyone up by telling them some good news, cracking a joke, or just telling them to toughen up. Christ chose to comfort and mourn with Mary and Martha in the moment that they needed him to empathize most. Because he loved them. LOVE. It always comes back to love!!! What an incredible person. Honestly, this verse humanized Christ for me in a way that none other has. I really really love it. More than I can type, so hopefully you get an idea of just how beautiful this is to me.
He knew he was going to bring Lazarus back to life shortly, but he chose to sit with these loved ones of his, mourn with them, and feel with them.

So many things I've been watching and reading lately have been coming back to this theme: IT'S OK TO FEEL. It is necessary to embrace all aspects of our emotions (in a healthy way of course) in order for us to fully learn and grow from our experience here in mortality. The Shame researcher, Brene Brown, points out that when we numb the "dark" or negative emotions, like sadness, we unintentionally numb the positive, like joy. When watching Pixar's latest movie, "Inside Out," the theme that stuck out most to me was the power sadness has in our lives. Sadness is actually what has the power to connect us in our most difficult of circumstances- it is because of sadness that others are drawn to us when we are struggling and willing to help. Once we know others care, are there to help, and understand where we are coming from or what we are going through, our level of joy is that much deeper and that much more powerful after our trial or negative experience.

Coming back to my study, because Christ took the time to FEEL the good, the bad, the hope, and the heartache with his loved ones, the miracle he performed through Heavenly Father in bringing Lazarus back to life was all the more powerful. He wants us to learn from each experience we have, whether positive or negative, and be able to fully feel each stage along the way. It's ok to feel what you're feeling. What matters is how you allow your experiences with your own feelings to help you connect and elevate/comfort others when they need it. Some times things will be great, and some times they will be the worst. And that's ok. Christ will be there through it all, and through his sacrifice, not only will we be saved from death- but we will live.

Because of his gift, how will you choose to live? Will you embrace life to it's fullest and feel all there is to feel? Will you allow your experiences to help you empathize with others?

Hope all is well! love you!
Emily

That Spirit Though

THE SPURIT.

When can I tell whether to follow and impression or not?
When do I let people figure out their own thing? When do I speak, hang back, etc?

God knows all things. He knows why we act the way we do, the physical struggles, pain, emotions, circumstances, weaknesses, strengths, personalities, fears, anxieties, desires, hopes, dreams, etc that we each experience. The spirit is capable of letting me or anyone else know what to say, what not to say, etc because he knows what's up. I don't have the whole picture. For reals.

The Spirit of the Lord:
Spirit of wisdom, understanding, spirit of counsel, might, knowledge and fear of the Lord (isaiah 11:2)

Spirit of wisdom:
(Dictionary) quality of having experience, knowledge, good judgement, quality of being wise
sagacity, intelligence, sense, judgement, prudence
Soundness of an action of decision with regard to application of experience

ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, commons sense, and insight.

Spirit of understanding
perceive intended meaning of words, infer something from information received, sympathetically aware of other people's feelings, tolerant, forgiving
insight, good judgement
compassionate, sympathetic, sensitive, considerate, tender, kind, thoughtful, patient, forbearing, lenient, merciful, humane

Spirit of counsel
advice, act of exchanging opinions and ideas, private guarded thoughts and opinions
talking WITH rather than AT

Spirit of might
physical strength (won't get physically overwhelmed by the demands of life with the help of the spirit), superior power or strength, force, power or ability to accomplish, capacity

Spirit of knowledge
creating, involving, using information, acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, study, investigation, familiarity with subject, perception of fact or truth, awareness
*Seems like knowledge is more fact based, not necessarily the same as wisdom. Wisdom is more recognizing what to do or how to act according to what you understand or know.

Fear of the Lord
*Value God's opinion/view of self more than man
*More willing to please God than man or self
*God's will above own will/will of man

So as you welcome more of the spirit in your life, you are promised that these qualities will come more naturally. These are all attributes of Heavenly Father, a complete, whole supreme being. Christ is one with His Father in these qualities and we can acquire them as well through daily doing our best to follow Christ's example. On our own, we're going to fall short again and again and again. But we are promised as we put off the natural man, we will become the best version of ourselves through the atonement of christ by following the promptings of the spirit (mosiah 3:19).

There will always be something I need to improve on or work on in my own life to welcome the spirit more fully into all I do. Keeping the commandments on an individual basis is the way God has given each one of us to more fully feel the spirit- which leads to peace, love, understanding, guidance, protection, and hope, no matter what we are going through or experiencing. The Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, prayer, scripture study, keeping the sabbath day holy, honoring our families, etc- all of these are meant to improve the quality of our lives. God give us these commandments because he LOVES us. He wants us to have the best chance at growing, learning, and reaching our highest potential. Does that mean things are going to be perfect? Heck to the no! We'll still feel sorrow. We will still have painful experiences. Things will not go the way we hoped or wanted to. We will experience heartbreak. There will be things out of our control that are unfair. These are all part of the mortal experience! However, as we choose to more fully keep God's commandments in our lives and turn our hearts to Him in all we do, our ability to love others increases, our capacity to empathize, reach out, lift others, and find peace through troubled times increases immensely. That spirit though- it can do incredible things for and with us if we are willing to live in a way that will invite it into our lives.

 I know there is a lot I need to change. I know I am definitely not perfect at consistently living each one of these commandments right now. But I know I can change that. I know it will take a lot of work on my part. I know it won't happen overnight, or even in a couple of weeks, or even within a time frame that I can see. But I do know that with God on my side, I can do anything. I know he has helped me before, with challenges and habits that seemed impossible to overcome. I know that He cares for each one of us individually. I know that having the spirit more fully in my life will affect me, and many others in a positive way. I know as I adjust the seemingly small things that aren't in line with how I want to live, they have the ability to make the biggest difference.

"Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive it in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it." Enos 1:15 ( enos has been coming up quite a lot lately. Yup)

I hope you have a lovely day!
Much love,
Emily