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.

Self Honesty

As we grow older we want there to be integrity in our lives.  We all make mistakes along the way and wish we could go back and relive certain places.  But we can't and even if we could go back we would still be that same person we were then.  I fear we'd still make the same mistakes.  What we really wish is that the person we are today could go back and relive our life.  But that person is the accumulation of  the experiences we had along the way and yes, of the mistakes we made and learned from.

But if we have faith in Heavenly Father's plan for us and truly believe that our life on earth was to be instructional for our good, then we must accept that the mistakes were to be teaching moments.  They were meant to help us in our progression.  And God is cheering us on.  He does not condemn.  He only wants us to learn and to keep moving forward.

We hear this scripture often; "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  We don't often go to the next verse though and that verse is important.  "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

He loves us and sent His Son Jesus Christ so that our sins and errors would not condemn us.  When we repent those experiences become the lessons that change our character and help us ultimately become more like Him.

I personally believe it is good every once in a while to really examine our lives and make sure we are not hiding pieces that we given to us to instruct us.  Hidden places of shame and guilt can cloud our inner being. I was guided into such an examination of my inner life by the book He Did Deliver Me from Bondage.  It was a beautiful experience of communing with God as I looked at my life and talked to Him about the mistakes I had made along the way and the grudges I held and the anger over times I could not reconcile.  Heavenly Father is so loving.  He always welcomes us when we come to Him.  I have felt His love in very real ways as I have opened my heart to Him.

It is a wonderful feeling to know there are no secrets between Him and me.  But it is just as important to have no secrets from yourself.  I wrote this poem one day after such a prayer session when I felt my heart had been completely open.


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