I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I joined back in 1964 after a long struggle with faith. I had loved the Savior ever since I could remember, but the church of my youth deserted me as it moved into the intellect movement of the 60's. Without spiritual guidance, I fell away. The Lord distinguished between the words of my mouth and the longing of my heart. He knew that I wanted to believe and so he sent a young woman who told me the story of the Restored Gospel. She bore her testimony of Jesus Christ and promised me that I could know for myself and have my own testimony.

Now forty-six years later I can only thank her from the bottom of my heart for introducing me to the church. Indeed I do have my own testimony. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, called to restore Christ's church to the earth. We have a prophet today who leads and guides us. I am so grateful for Latter-day scriptures that bear testimony of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God. It stands as another witness of the Savior and it's truths have touched my life in very personal ways.

I hope that my poetry reflects the growth of my testimony and my love for Jesus Christ.

Homesick

There is a longing within me that is universally known among people everywhere and addressed by all religions.  I call it homesickness.  We miss home - our heavenly home from which we came.  We miss our heavenly parents and the love we knew with them.  At times during my life that longing has been acute and always pushes me to want to have divine communion with God.  I have learned that such communion is readily available.  God does hear and answer our prayers.  He lets us know in very real ways that He is there and that He loves us.  Isn’t that amazing!  God knows me and loves me.  God is my loving Heavenly Father.  I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me and I love Him.  These truths have become the essence of who I am and how I live my life.  I am very grateful to have found them.

There is another aspect to homesickness.  Home was wonderful and beautiful.  We lived with God the Almighty in a place where goodness abounded.  That reality is etched in our memory.  I try to recreate it in the little world I have here on earth.  Most of us do.  Just look at how women around the world work so hard to make their homes a place of beauty.  

But the world we live in is also filled with so much that is bad.  War, famine, terrorism, random evil fill our daily news stories.  And in response, you find so many good people who are doing everything they can to help those in need.  That vision of the way things ought to be is very real in our minds.  We seem to instinctively know that life is supposed to be good and we work very hard to make it so.  Some call this the universal consciousness.  I believe along with Latter-days everywhere that it is just our deepest memory, reminding us of that place where we used to be and for which we will always strive.



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