Ask & you shall receive

Ever had that happen to you? In the last blog I asked, "How can I have more perfect faith? How will I know if I do?" Today I finished listening to the book on CD Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by Gene R. Cook, an emeritus general authority. It is a good, easy book. He uses experiences from his life as a husband and from his callings to teach about faith. At the end, he asked the same question I did. How will you know if you have enough faith? He said that you should check your reaction when you do not get what you want and pray for. It is easy to say you were faithful once your prayer was answered in the way you wanted, but it demonstrates how strong your faith is when Heavenly Father's will is not yours.

So, I thought back on my reactions. Unfortunately, I seem to often have a will of my own. I would love to know and immediately accept the Lord's will, but sometimes I have a desire that seems righteous and I pray and fast, but it isn't what Heavenly Father has planned for me. It goes back to the quote below. Do I have faith to know that he knows what is best for me? That he is in control and can change things or take away problems IF that is what would help me progress and grow? That whatever he wants me to do is absolutely what I should do without doubt or questioning? Sometimes I have felt great peace and love when things don't go as I planned. I have been faithful. Other times, I have been more rebellious and questioned what else I could have done to change the situation instead of accepting that Heavenly Father sees the end. He sees why what we go through is necessary. I don't. I am glad to have this blog to write down these thoughts so I can remind myself the next time something doesn't seem to go the way I hoped.

I was also excited to see that Gene R. Cook wrote several books in Spanish. He served as a mission president and other callings in Latin America so he knows Spanish. I love listening to books on CD or reading them (when I can), but so often I can't share the best of them with the people in my ward who don't know English. There are not very many LDS books in Spanish, especially considering how many members speak Spanish. I hope that some of the wonderful, special members who do speak Spanish can start writing some so that those members can feel uplifted and educated the way that I can.