Divine Potential

May I share with you one of my favorite stories from this last general conference as told by our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. It is the account of how our Heavenly Father answered the prayers and pleadings of one woman and provided her the peace and assurance she so desperately sought?

Tiffany’s difficulties began last year when she had guests at her home for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas. Her husband had been in medical school and was now in the second year of his medical residency. Because of the long work hours required of him, he was not able to help her as much as they both would have liked, and so most of that which needed to be accomplished during this holiday season, in addition to the care of their four young children, fell to Tiffany. She was becoming overwhelmed, and then she learned that one who was dear to her had been diagnosed with cancer. The stress and worry began to take a heavy toll on her, and she slipped into a period of discouragement and depression. She sought medical help, and yet nothing changed. Her appetite disappeared, and she began to lose weight, which her tiny frame could ill afford. She sought peace through the scriptures and prayed for deliverance from the gloom which was overtaking her. When neither peace nor help seemed to come, she began to feel abandoned by God. Her family and friends prayed for her and tried desperately to help. They delivered her favorite foods in an attempt to keep her physically healthy, but she could take only a few bites and then would be unable to finish.

On one particularly trying day, a friend attempted in vain to entice her with foods she had always loved. When nothing worked, the friend said, “There must be something that sounds good to you.”

Tiffany thought for a moment and said, “The only thing I can think of that sounds good is homemade bread.”

But there was none on hand.

The following afternoon Tiffany’s doorbell rang. Her husband happened to be home and answered it. When he returned, he was carrying a loaf of homemade bread. Tiffany was astonished when he told her it had come from a woman named Sherrie, whom they barely knew. She was a friend of Tiffany’s sister Nicole, who lived in Denver, Colorado. Sherrie had been introduced to Tiffany and her husband briefly several months earlier when Nicole and her family were staying with Tiffany for Thanksgiving. Sherrie, who lived in Omaha, had come to Tiffany’s home to visit with Nicole.

Now, months later, with the delicious bread in hand, Tiffany called her sister Nicole to thank her for sending Sherrie on an errand of mercy. Instead, she learned Nicole had not instigated the visit and had no knowledge of it.

The rest of the story unfolded as Nicole checked with her friend Sherrie to find out what had prompted her to deliver that loaf of bread. What she learned was an inspiration to her, to Tiffany, to Sherrie—and it is an inspiration to me.

On that particular morning of the bread delivery, Sherrie had been prompted to make two loaves of bread instead of the one she had planned to make. She said she felt impressed to take the second loaf with her in her car that day, although she didn’t know why. After lunch at a friend’s home, her one-year-old daughter began to cry and needed to be taken home for a nap. Sherrie hesitated when the unmistakable feeling came to her that she needed to deliver that extra loaf of bread to Nicole’s sister Tiffany, who lived 30 minutes away on the other side of town and whom she barely knew. She tried to rationalize away the thought, wanting to get her very tired daughter home and feeling sheepish about delivering a loaf of bread to people who were almost strangers. However, the impression to go to Tiffany’s home was strong, so she heeded the prompting.

When she arrived, Tiffany’s husband answered the door. Sherrie reminded him that she was Nicole’s friend whom he’d met briefly at Thanksgiving, handed him the loaf of bread, and left.

And so it happened that the Lord sent a virtual stranger across town to deliver not just the desired homemade bread but also a clear message of love to Tiffany. What happened to her cannot be explained in any other way. She had an urgent need to feel that she wasn’t alone—that God was aware of her and had not abandoned her. That bread—the very thing she wanted—was delivered to her by someone she barely knew, someone who had no knowledge of her need but who listened to the prompting of the Spirit and followed that prompting. It became an obvious sign to Tiffany that her Heavenly Father was aware of her needs and loved her enough to send help. He had responded to her cries for relief.

Every part of that story touches my heart. I could imagine myself in each of those women. Tiffany the overwhelmed mom, I would hope I would be the good friend trying to help, and the near stranger Sherrie who made an extra loaf of bread and followed the prompting to deliver it to Tiffany. I would like to focus on Tiffany today.

Tiffany-

·         In retrospect we can look back and say she could have done this or that but we weren’t in her shoes. We don’t know what was going on in her head but how do we keep from getting that depressed.

·         They always say service is the best thing for depression. She was serving all the time. To her kids, and guests but she forgot one person. The person we all forget about in times of stress… Ourselves.

·         We need to refill our buckets and I find that I need to recharge myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. She was giving, giving, giving to everyone until her bucket was empty. She was drained physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. She could not give anymore because she had no more to give.

·         you can’t go full speed with no recovery time. That works in a short sprint, but life’s a marathon. No matter how determined you are, you can’t run a marathon on empty.

·         If you want to travel well over the long term, you gotta refill the bucket.

·         So how do we refill our buckets when we are so busy? Where does the time come from? How do we do it appropriately?

Knowing who you are and figuring out why that matters to you.

“Do you know who you are?” Sign over the door. First week everyone notices the sign but over time it became invisible. I am a child of God. Knowing who we are helps us live up to.

“Why should you care how you are?” As a parent… look at our kids. Story of Eagle in chicken coop. When the eagle was very small, he fell from the safety of his nest.  A chicken farmer found the eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised him in a chicken coop among his many chickens. The eagle grew up doing what chickens do, living like a chicken, and believing he was a chicken.

        A naturalist came to the chicken farm to see if what he had heard about an eagle acting like a chicken was really true.  He knew that an eagle is king of the sky.  He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting very much like a chicken.  The farmer explained to the naturalist that this bird was no longer an eagle.  He was now a chicken because he had been trained to be a chicken and he believed that he was a chicken.

        The naturalist knew there was more to this great bird than his actions showed as he "pretended" to be a chicken.  He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle, and nothing could change that.  The man lifted the eagle onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said,  "Eagle, thou art an eagle.  Stretch forth thy wings and fly."  The eagle moved slightly, only to look at the man; then he glanced down at his home among the chickens in the chicken coop where he was comfortable.  He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chickens do.  The farmer was satisfied. "I told you it was a chicken," he said.

        The naturalist returned the next day and tried again to convince the farmer and the eagle that the eagle was born for something greater.  He took the eagle to the top of the farmhouse and spoke to him: "Eagle, thou art an eagle.  Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch forth thy wings and fly." The large bird looked at the man, then again down into the chicken coop.  He jumped from the man's arm onto the roof of the farmhouse.

        Knowing what eagles are really about, the naturalist asked the farmer to let him try one more time.  He would return the next day and prove that this bird was an eagle.  The farmer, convinced otherwise, said, "It is a chicken."  

        The naturalist returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle and the farmer some distance away to the foot of a high mountain.  They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this new setting.  The man held the eagle on his arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above.  He spoke: "Eagle, thou art an eagle!  Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch forth thy wings and fly." This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings.  His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully.  With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew.

 This is not a time to be a chicken.

“Why should knowing who you are even matter to you?”

1. You are truly a unique son or daughter of God. All are great in the eyes of our HF.  Abraham is noble and great. D&C Section 138. You were born to do noble and great things, we all are.

2. Becoming your true potential will bring you joy. Adam fell that men might be… Joy is always found in living the gospel.

3. Only in the presence of the creator can you grow into your potential. It makes sense. True joy is found in living the gospel. Joy that only a rich full life can bring. He will seek to generously bless us. Do you feel that you deserve all the blessings that hf has blessed you with? No but he does it anyway. He will bless those who are humble enough.

You are destined to be noble and great.

God Loves Us with Perfect Love

Perfect love, called “charity,” is the pure love of Christ (see Moroni 7:47). Those who have felt of this love have difficulty describing it. Sister Erma Braack of the United States told of her husband’s experience with the love of God:

“Bert Braack … had taken the Bible admonition, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’ (Matt. 7:7), as his personal invitation to prayer. …

“He wanted desperately to know if there was a God. And if so, what was that God like?

“He began attending different churches and reading the Bible. The words in Matthew prompted him to ask for himself, and so, … with an intense desire to know the truth, he offered his first prayer: ‘If you are there, God, let me know and I will do what you want me to do.’ And as he knelt, he says, ‘A great peace engulfed me, my heart burned within me, and a joy such as I had never known flowed over me. I felt as if I were completely immersed in a great spiritual essence.’

“For three days this feeling remained with him, and during all that time, he says, ‘I hardly felt my feet touch the ground. The pure love of God seemed to completely encompass me, and it was wonderful. During this time I loved everything. I had never cared much for children, but now a great love flowed out from me toward them. I had cursed the rain; now, drenched in it, I loved every minute of it. If this is a small taste of the love of God that fills the celestial kingdom, no wonder the lamb and the lion can lie down together and there is nothing to hurt or make afraid.’” Bert Braack later joined the Church. (See “‘A Small Taste of Love,’” Ensign, Aug. 1976, 36.)

    •    Have class members remember a time when they felt filled with love.

    •    Why should we know that God loves us personally?

The Savior gave us the example of how to love. He was treated unjustly, yet He did not turn against His persecutors. He was hated, yet He returned love for hate. He was nailed to a wooden cross and left to die, yet He pleaded for the Roman soldiers, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He had patience with His Apostles, some of whom did not fully comprehend His mission. He had a great love for children. A moving account of the Savior’s love is recorded in 3 Nephi 17

Filling Your “Empty Bucket” By Shirleen Meek Assistant Editor                                                                       LDS women tell how they replenish their spiritual reserves.

Make Spiritual Growth a Priority

“I have discovered that you don’t ‘find time’ for anything,” writes Janet E. Buck of Loveland, Colorado. “You make time. This is especially true when speaking of spiritual nourishment. Often we do not recognize our spiritual hunger pangs for what they really are. We give them other labels: discouragement, depression, anger, resentment, loneliness, self-pity. Yet these are all indications of spiritual starvation.”

Janene Hansen of Gresham, Oregon, evaluates the real importance of a task before she does it. She asks herself, “Will this be important tomorrow? Next year? Eternally?”

Probably the most important skill for making spiritual growth a priority is being realistic. It’s also the hardest to learn. “When I was an athlete running for distance, I learned that I must go slower and take longer but fewer steps if I wanted to make it to the finish line,” says Toni Thomas, of Santee, California. “I have applied this principle to my life by doing less, but improving the quality of each action. I attempt to read fewer scriptures, but ponder them more; we have fewer extracurricular activities for the children, but teach them to excel and focus on those few. I adjust my temporal desires so that they do not smother my spiritual needs.”

Schedule Time for Yourself

“We have no qualms about scheduling our lives to accommodate our family’s obligations of lessons, meals, meetings—or even our own obligations,” says Louise Brown of Logan, Utah. “But we would sooner excuse ourselves from an activity by saying ‘I have an appointment with the hairdresser’ than by saying ‘That’s the hour I have set aside to spend on myself.’ We need to see ourselves as deserving (and needing) solitude and regeneration to replace the energy we so freely give away.”

SuZann Lund of Idaho Falls, Idaho, realized that when she was enrolled in a class, it was easy to arrange the family’s schedule around the night she would be gone. So now she goes to “a class” once a week for two hours. She leaves the house and does something “uplifting and relaxing,”

Go to the Source

“The best place to find spiritual renewal is at the source—and prayer is the key,” writes Janet Lammers, of London, Ontario. “In prayer we can find the Spirit, which will sustain us in all areas of our lives. It is a flexible ‘anywhere, anytime’ tool that needs only a sincere heart to make it work.”

Feast on the Word

“As I found myself getting lost in the mass of priorities, I turned to my Father in Heaven for help,” writes Eva Laurent, of Elk Grove, California, a single mother of six children. “What I wanted was actual physical help—another pair of hands, a strong back, a cognitive mind. What he sent me was a message: Read the Book of Mormon every day. What that book has opened up to me I still find amazing.”

When we consistently study the scriptures, it can change not only our perspective but also the way we deal with problems.

Be the Lord’s Instrument

Janet MacLennan of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, agrees. “As I give time to a neighbor or to a ward member and really listen as they shares a hurt or a concern, I am more able to ‘see as the Lord seeth,’ and I receive an outpouring of Christlike love which, to me, is the greatest spiritual reserve one can have.”

Make the Most of Church Callings

“Visiting teaching is the key to my spirituality,” reports Debbie Osborn of Anchorage, Alaska. “It gives me the opportunity to be spiritually tuned in toward another’s welfare—and I can do that only by growing myself. Even though I use the monthly visiting teaching message, I do not give exactly the same lesson to any of the women I visit, so I have to think about them day after day during the month to sense what they really need.”

Leadership meetings, too, can be a source of nourishment. “When I attend those meetings, I gain spiritual guidance I could not have had alone,” says Nora Humphreys of Simi Valley, California. “There I can learn from the example of spiritual people.”

Exercise Body and Soul

When a doctor advised Kay Salveson of Nibley, Utah, to exercise as a treatment for her frequent stress headaches, she couldn’t imagine how she would be able to do it with little time or money. In desperation, she got an old stationary bike and pedaled while her children watched “Sesame Street.” It worked. Now Sister Salveson takes brisk walks for exercise. “As I take in the view, I am uplifted by the magical changing seasons and I am humbled by God’s beautiful creations surrounding me, which seem to put everything back into perspective,” she says. “Some people say they walk off pounds. That is true—but I also walk off problems and discouragement.”

Recognize the Spiritual Things You Do Every Day

Michelle Brumm Oliver of Wheeling, West Virginia, had a similar experience in her garden. “I was murmuring about the heat, the humidity, the weeds, the bugs, and the lack of a ‘bountiful harvest,’” she says. “I began to wonder why all this was necessary—I certainly wasn’t going to preserve enough food to make all this effort worthwhile. At that moment, a merciful and loving Father heard my cries. The veil thinned, and the plan of self-sufficiency became clear for me. Though I was still dirty and uncomfortable, I was at peace; I continued my work with assurance that it was indeed worth all my efforts.”

says Barbara Stockwell of Springfield, Oregon. “As I continue to turn to the Lord, each problem becomes a little easier to face because my faith becomes stronger.”

Help!

Spending time with a spouse in spiritual pursuits is also helpful. Sherielee Quilter and her husband, Karl, of Salt Lake City, walk and talk about their feelings and ideas each night. Other couples set aside time to read the scriptures or books like Jesus the Christ or spend their weekly date night attending an institute class, a Know Your Religion lecture, or a temple session.

In the Auburn Washington Third Ward, says Gaylyn Shoemaker, after friends finish reading the current conference issue of the Ensign, they reward themselves with a potluck luncheon or dessert party.

A group of sisters in the Las Vegas Morning Sun Ward exchange baby-sitting and take turns getting away during the day. “Sometimes you can get a spiritual boost just from knowing you have helped another sister refill her well,” says ward member Tami L. Bradley.

But women don’t need to wait for group efforts to support one another—individual efforts are just as effective. For example, Dawn E. Rider of Caldwell, Idaho, schedules a temple day with a friend once every three weeks. When they have an appointment with each other, they are less likely to put off the trip.

“We need to spend more time fellowshipping with other members,” says Ruth Roberts of Atlanta, Georgia. “Several weeks ago I was feeling overwhelmed, so I called a friend and asked if I could come over. We ended up talking, laughing, and crying for more than three hours. What a spiritual uplift! If you talk with other members, you realize you’re not alone in your feelings and problems.”

Spiritual Snacks

    •    Listen to the scriptures, general conference talks, firesides, and inspirational music while you get things done.

    •    Think about your patriarchal blessing or a spiritual experience you have had or heard about, or have a gospel discussion with your children or spouse.

    •    Sing, hum, or recite hymns or Primary songs. Learn new ones as well as rehearsing old favorites. Use hymns as lullabies.

    •    Post selected scriptures and quotes from conference talks and Relief Society lessons on the refrigerator, above the kitchen sink, on the bathroom mirror.

    •    Memorize a scripture, then call it to mind several times during the day. Think of ways you can apply it to your life.

    •    Display the New Era magazine’s Mormonads or other gospel-oriented pictures.

    •    Play uplifting music.

    •    Look for specific ways the Lord helps you each day. Express your gratitude to him in prayer.

    •    Ponder while driving, exercising, showering, doing chores, or waiting. Pray beforehand that your mind will be open to the Spirit.

    •    Keep a book of scripture or a Church magazine in your purse so you can read while waiting to see the doctor or pick up children or while traveling by car, train, or bus. If other family members or friends are with you, read aloud and discuss what you are learning.

    •    Read a good book. Take a few minutes to pray before you return to bed or finish your chores.

    •    Instead of working while young children are asleep or are doing their homework, use the time for gospel study.

    •    Take advantage of opportunities to bear your testimony often.

Conclusion: Divine Potential- Individual Worth- Humility- Pride- Love

Testimony of Gods love for them.