Seek The Lord Often

As I was studying the words of King Benjamin today in chapter 5 of Mosiah in The Book of Mormon, a particular footnote caught my attention. It was the footnote to the word "covenant" in verse 5. Here is the whole fifth verse.  5 And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has been spoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God. As I read this verse, I thought of the covenants I have made. Some of those covenants are pretty substantial. They're big, and I feel it is almost impossible to fully live up to them. I'm not perfect and that's hard to accept sometimes. When I read the footnote for the word "covenant," I received a lot of comfort and hope. The footnote leads to a scripture in 2 Chronicles 15, verse 12. It reads:...

Mental illness, depression especially, is like Devil's snare. The more you fight it, the harder it squeezes. Sometimes you have to let it pass, as painful as it is, without fighting it. For when you fight, it becomes even harder to get out. But, don't we always want to fight? If we are diagnosed with cancer, are we just going to curl up in a ball and give in? No. But, we are going to come to terms with the illness and its ramifications. We are not going to fight the fact that we HAVE cancer. Anyway, I may not be making any sense, but what I know is that I had a manic episode. I had several bouts with depression. I've felt hopelessly confused and trapped in my own life at times, and now I don't. Why? I'm not one hundred percent sure. Here are some things I DO know. 1. Through all those lonely, confusing, mind bending times, I never stopped praying and reading the scriptures.There were times when the more I read, the guiltier I felt. I realized how much I had b...

I was reading a talk this morning byElder L. Whitney Clayton of the 70. He shared a story of a little girl named Sailor who lost her family in a plane crash. She survived the crash, but was left without shoes in the 38 degree weather. She chose to bravely press on through the wicked cold and go to a light that she saw in the distance. I love the following excerpt from the talk: "Gradually, as she made her way through the night toward the light, it grew brighter. Still, there must have been times when she could not see it. Perhaps it went out of view when she was in a ravine or behind trees or bushes, but she pressed on. Whenever she could see the light, Sailor had evidence that she was on the right path. She did not yet know precisely what that light was, but she kept walking toward it based on what she knew, trusting and hoping that she would see it again if she kept moving in the right direction. By so doing, she may have saved her life. Our lives can be like that too. There...