Sunnysprite
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Posts posted by Sunnysprite
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The most common place I feel the Holy Ghost is within spiritual discussions. I do feel it at church, during the hymns, during the talks, and in primary there's often reason for us to wipe away a little tear every now and then. I have had a few dramatic experiences (especially surrounding when I first became a member), oddly enough my big experiences were not answers to prayers, or a reward for being righteous... they more of a kick in the behind to get me going in the right direction... perhaps now I only need nudges? but of coarse I would love to continually experience more than just nudges...
I like that thought, it's like the silence under the fireworks... the peace and quiet is always there, you just have to block the rest out...
..."it is like trying to savor the delicate flavor of a grape while eating a jalapeño pepper. Both flavors are present, but one completely overpowers the other...." - To Acquire Spiritual Guidance - general-conference
such a good talk.
It is not my intention to seem to try to out Christian you. I just think that we need to encourage each other because the world seeks to turn us away from Heavenly Father. I'm alone, with no one to guide me, so perhaps without the distractions of a Husband or children I am simply more conscious of his actions in my life, and well maybe he is giving me special attention. :) I am most conscious of Holy Spirit's actions in my life when I am perplexed by a situation that I can not solve. Very often a solution presents its self, sometimes with out even asking. I am thankful.
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Right after 9/11 is when most of the increase in the use of Psych Drugs occurred. Generations were brought up feeling secure that we could not be attacked on our own soil, and suddenly it happened. I think that 2/3 of the use of those drugs is a simple adjustment disorder.
I was one of those who began to take copious amounts of prescription medications. One day I realized that I just needed to act like an adult, so I stopped using them. It took almost a year to get off the drugs.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but Americans have some serious business coming up and we need our wits about us. From personal observation, you do not make good decisions when you are over medicated.
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I feel violated by my own government. The times after 9/11, I felt more menace from our own government than from the Terrorists. They took our freedom, violated sacred aspects of our constitution, and the American people bought it, yes they bought it. To Americans, watching another episode of Family Guy, and polishing that new car is more important than unlawful confinement. It will be happening to us one day, and who will we blame but ourselves.
I think that one of the main reasons for depression is that people feel so uncertain about what once seemed to be a rosy future. We've sat back, fat, dumb and happy and allowed the very rich to run our lives.
Come on Mormons, it is time to step up to the plate.
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Depression is only possible where there is a desire. It makes the unconscious mind go into a turmoil to attract the thing desired to oneself. It is never getting a thing that creates happiness but the cessation of desiring that occurs when the desire is fulfilled. But desires once fulfilled just lead to new ones. That is how satan works. First companionship, then money, then health or peace of mind and so on, endlessly. The soul is made out of happiness itself, but it is like a civet cat, unable to know itself as producing the smell that makes it happy, and thinking it comes from others and whatever it has happened to rub itself on. Until it stands still... freedom from all wants is the highest bliss. Finding God directly, rejecting all lesser joys - and how few have even tried, (much less succeeded!) ends all desires and needs, causing freedom, forever...
Glad you got a good bead on the problem there. I know two manic;/depressives in my ward. I wonder what they think about the causation of depression?
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The Holy Ghost, like the atonement, is always present. The problem is whether we are actively seeking it in our lives or not. How many members place themselves in spiritual experiences, versus waiting for one to happen? How many give due diligence to prayer, study, meditation and fasting? How many stop and listen for the Spirit throughout the day?
Then, how many have ear buds on listening to music, watching tv, texting, etc., during what could be the quiet spiritual moment?
We are commanded to "receive the Holy Ghost." It isn't given to us, as he is always present. But we are to bring him inside of us, so we can experience the constant companionship. Most of us do not notice it, because it usually is a quiet event or whisper. Sadly, many members live their lives with few wonderful spiritual experiences with the Spirit, because they only notice when a big manifestation occurs to them.
But if we ever wish to have Jesus as the Second Comforter and Companion, then we must first become well-acquainted with the Holy Ghost as comforter and companion.
Bingo !
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Most assuredly, we each have our own feelings about what constitutes the action of the Holy Spirit. Being not married, and not dating there are some very lonely times when I am not working. I need the companionship that Heavenly Father provides whether by the Holy Spirit or through other humans.
Perhaps my feelings about the Holy Spirit are what some would call magical thinking, but I doubt it. At times I feel very strong guidance, and to ease thoughts about the possibility of my having schizophrenia, I am always told to do nice things. :)
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I have heard a lot of lesson, talks etc on the Holy Ghost.
Often we hear it taught especially towards youth that if you go somewhere, watch something, get involved with someone in the wrong way "the Holy Ghost departs"
Sometimes its taught on the other end of the spectrum that your life has to be completely fine tuned into the Holy Ghost in order to receive any instruction.
Hence i believe many members feel that they are somewhere in the middle and often they don't recognise or feel they qualify for direction from the Holy Ghost. They feel they are either not worthy to have the Holy Ghost because of Sin or they are not worthy to have the Holy Ghost because they haven't reached some upper level of righteousness.
Our Gospel Doctrine teacher asked our class the other day who had felt the Holy Ghost.
3 people put their hand up and shared rare dramatic experiences from a distant time frame in their lives. Don't get me wrong im not faulting any of their experiences but one was 20 years ago and i thought the sacrament prayer only 20min ago was that we could always have his spirit to be with us.
So i would like to know: when was the last time you felt the Holy Ghost? today, last week, last month, a year ago, never...
Maybe people are inured to believe that being spoken to by the Holy Ghost is unusual. I think it is actually quite common, but sometimes we mis label it or misinterpret it.
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A Priesthood Lesson discussion some weeks ago got onto the subject of "praying" & "listening" for direction when we have major & not so major decisions in life.
20 years ago my wife & I packed up & moved. We had good job offers in 4 different states, though we felt no different about any of them as we sought to understand where the Lord would have us go.
In fact we felt very much that no one place was any better or any worse then another. That while the place would be different & perhaps the experiences we would have would be different, the end result would be the same.
We decided to return to my childhood home.
Sometimes I think we want to blame difficulties on something or someone. Yet, we make our decision, the events that follow are frequently just the natural events that follow anyone that makes that same decision.
I am now a fulltime farmer, our entire livelihood is anchored to the farm. When we move back home farming was the furthest thing from my mind, but it came so naturally & rapidly I turned from working for someone else to farming as a way of life.
2 years of severe drought has all but driven us into the poorhouse.
Adversity? Yes. But just a natural sequence of consquences of the chain of decisions we have made.
The same "consequences" would have resulted to anyone else who had made those same decisions.
Our adversity is nothing "special", how we respond to it & what we learn from it is very personal.
I have to tell this story. LOL When I became Mormon several years ago, I did not actually believe that the church did not practice polygamy, but I did believe that Heavenly Father wanted me to be Mormon. I used to daydream about somehow fitting into farm culture with many other women, and wondered how that would work out.
Well, neither the farm nor the multiple other wives ever happened.
I do agree that adversity can be very instrumental toward bringing people closer to Heavenly Father.
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Yep, Job is a classic ancient example.
I hope that I have realised that other than choosing to do the right thing, our life here is not very important in comparison with what Heavenly Father has for us after. It is hard to keep that mind set however.
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I serve on the bishopric in my ward and have the opportunity to speak to a number of people.
I have noticed over a period now how many members are suffering or receiving counselling for depression ( and it's alot ) and I'm not just referring to sisters although I get the impression the sisters are more active in seeking help but the brethren tend to suffer in silence.
The numbers are alarming especially when you start looking at the fact that the gosple is the Plan of Happiness. Sometimes I feel people leave church on a Sunday more heavier, more burdened, more to do and less uplifted. I really hate sitting on the stand and looking into the faces of the congregation alot of people look sad ( I'm glad investigators don't sit on stands )
Is this normal? Or does our ward need a major adjustment. I wonder where the atonement fits into all of this. Some people I know have been getting counselling for years and years. There was a time when people would say yes I would love to serve. Now I get maybe, let me think about it, and sometimes just no. Is all this normal? Do LDS members suffer from depression more than other people and if so why? I guess I'm trying to figure out if this is a local problem or a much broader issue.
I do not speak with the authority of a member of the priesthood, but as a sister. Here in America, we have enjoyed many years of being on top so to speak, and now I see a lot of that evaporating. I am certain that many of the oportunites open to me when I was younger are no longer present. And now, abominably, people now see a really bleak future, including myself at times.
Oh, to be sure I have deep faith in my next existence and in the Atonement. It is just this life that is bothersome at times. It pains me to see the young working two or three jobs just to live. It is sad that college graduates often owe two hundred thousand dollars in college loans and often can not find jobs in their chosen area. I lay the responsiblity for much of this at the feet of the very rich who are hiding their riches away in foreign accounts, rather than paying it forward to the culture that made them rich.
I agree with one of the posters that our environment is so polluted now that it must be affecting us. The Columbia river has astonishing amounts of radiation in it. Look at the air quality in the SLC valley. Years ago, the Deleware river was so polluted that it caught on fire. We have interfered with the environment so much that the Everglades are dying. We have huge oil spills in the Ocean, and the middle of the Pacific Ocean is full of plastic.
As church members, the best we can do is to follow the guidance of Heavenly Father in all that we do.
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I'd also like to add that within LDS understanding, that when we were spirits with God we chose sacrifice and go through suffering and sorrow so that we might end up free and better than what we were, rather than choose the free easy ticket plan.
Something that I have not seen in our church but have heard others from other churches complain about is that there seems to be a feeling that if life is going good for you, then you are right with God, but if you are experiencing hardship, then there is sin in your life.
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I truthfully think that a lot of suffering comes just because. And most of us struggle against it, wanting to find the reason, wanting to say that Satan attacked us and so on. I once read the book of Job and marvelled at the suffering of the poor man. He had done nothing wrong at all.
I remember one instance where I cried all day, cried all night and wakened crying and apologising to Heavenly Father for not being as good as Job. At the time, it felt like I was a complete failure, but in the coming months I began to realise that we are not our own and we are to serve and love Heavenly Father in good and bad.
It was very tough and I would not want to experience it again.
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Adversity is a blessing. I've heard before that the worst trial is "the trial of no trials." Sounds pretty good to me. But it's through our suffering that we are brought closer to the Lord and learn to rely on Him. Some of the most painful times in my life have been some of the most sweet and tender and revealing moments and I'm grateful for that. "..for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Cor 12:9-10)
A favorite talk on faith is Claim the Exceeding Great and Precious Promises by Spencer J. Condie
I'm not exactly sure what you were asking for here.. but I'd love to discuss it further if you'd like.
I've had some really extreme experiences yet miraculously seem to have come out of them with a deeper sense of Heavenly Father's will. I'd just like to read others stories.
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Yes adversity has deepened my faith and more than that my knowledge of my Heavenly Father and the Plan of Salvation.
When we exercise faith then we have experiences that create knowledge. Line upon line.
Its hard for some people to understand when I say I'm grateful for the adversity in my life, but I truly am. It all has brought me closer to my Savior.
I agree. I wasn't doing really bad things. But I did get way into putting my fun ahead of Heavenly Father and lost everything. It is sad that too many young people attribute every part of their well being to whether God exists or not. If things are good, then God loves them and if they come upon hard times then either God does not love them or does not exist.
I was in the wilderness last week and was listening to a rendition of "All is well" on a CD as I watched. The Lyrics are so stirring to me. It really touched my heart to realize that those who made the journey from Europe to America and then across the plains and mountains to SLC knew that some of them would not survive the trip.
One place I passed through up around the Clarno country, on a plaque, I saw the story of a pioneer family; the husband gone to tend the herd; the wife and children swept away in a flood. The wife perished but the two children survived. In looking at the illustration it seemed clear to me that the woman was swept away because of her many skirts.
It just made me feel real compassion for the suffering of that family.
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Farmer: 'It was the system that failed us' - CNN.com
In many religious circles in the world, our faith in Heavenly Father seems to be linked to how easy life is for us. What have been your experiences in dealing with adversity? Did it deepen your faith?
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Help,
For a bit now I have been having problems navigating some web pages.
An example would be, some one posts a link, I go there, and once there, I can not make the page scroll, or even click on another link. Refreshing does not help.
Or I click on EReader News Today on my FB page, once at their webpage it either does not come in totally, or I can not scroll.
At first I thought my mouse battery was near dead, so put in a new battery. Not the problem, though the battery was low, just not real low.
Then I thought I needed to clear the temp internet files/cookies - so did that. Not the problem.
Because I don't always turn my pc off - I let it run for weeks at a time before I shut down- I shut it off overnight, then turned it back on - had some updates that downloaded - but again Not the problem.
I have Windows 7, Google Chrome. HELP Please.
Just last week, had an incident where somehow chrome was partially uninstalled. So yeah, the forces of darkness are at work on the internet.
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How about that? I absolutely love Italian opera, and I cannot stand Wagner or German opera in general. (By "Italian" and "German" operas, I mean those styles, not necessarily the languages. For example, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte is a great favorite.)
Kind of strange that you would like an oratorio like Messiah, since oratorios were based directly on Baroque-era Italian opera. They were, in essence, religious operas without the acting, staging, or costuming of regular operas -- of which Handel also composed a bunch (operas, I mean), and all of which I believe were in Italian.
I agree about Bach, though I wouldn't say "fun". More like "staggeringly brilliant" or "masterful".
I may never have liked Handel but when I was much younger, I was asked to sing in a Christmas Choir and we sang The Messiah. I do not think my feet touched the ground for the entire time we practiced and then performed it!
Jesus Christ thrilled me at the time, but it would be a long time before I felt I was anything but an admirer. It would take the Mormons to convince me there was more. Now, even though I know the text that says so, it is very difficult to think of Jesus Christ as my big brother.
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This topic has come up a few times in my circle of friends and family.
I think it's extremely narrow-minded and wrong to automatically exclude any non-RM outright. (I have very strong feelings on this, and hopefully this post will clarify why.)
I do not believe that every single person is called to serve a mission. I just don't. This should be obvious by how the system works. Serving a mission is not a one size fits all calling. That being the case, then logically it would mean that the percentage of faithful LDS members who have served on a mission will always be something less than 100%.
Now, every single member of the church IS expected to get married at some point and rise a family. If all young women in the church followed the advice to only date RMs, then essentially, not going on a mission is like sentencing oneself to a single life... or to be forced to date outside the church. I find it hard to believe this is the intended result.
I have a good friend who didn't serve a mission. Is he not "good enough" to be of interest to an LDS woman? He works hard, is educated, has a good job, and has a lot to offer. Nevertheless, there are people in our church who would say he's not dating material because he didn't feel the Lord called him to serve a mission.
What are guys supposed to do? Go on a mission whether they feel called by the Spirit to do so or not? Is that really a good idea?
If I have one Hot Button issue with Mormonisism, it is that one. I will never serve a mission, though for women, the dogma is not there. I've had to struggle with what felt like a sort of caste system in the church, but right now it's not bothering me. I'll never be one of the special ones, but I am good enough to pay my tithe.
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I'm still having too much fun and able to keep my Quals up, so I'd need a man that can catch me on my bike, pin me on the mat, take the #10 out of a target, take a calf down faster than me, likes my cooking, knows where to keep the seat, will rub my back and knows the Bible better than me.
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It indeed was at one time thought that I was having sex with every available male on the planet. LOL No one is that randy. The fact was that I far too timid.
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Ideally, trying to be more Christlike - no - there is never a time for name calling. Do I do it myself? Sure I have. But that's what I'm working on. I think charity instead of venom is something mankind could use a lot more of.
Judgmentalism is the bane of my existence.
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I would consider that sexual harrassment to be told by my boss suddenly that I have to wear a bikini. I can't believe they get away with that, but then look at the attire required at Hooters.
At one time, I was working with the Japanese here in America in one of their manufacturing plants doing some very technical research.
It felt strange when the Japanese visited because these important men would bring their secretaries. There seemed to be a sort of uniform and they all seemed to conform to it without question.
The women, all very slim, wore light blue skirt suits with hems that were above the knee quite a lot, and rather tight, with very fitted jackets and white blouses. They all wore rather high heels. It was disconcerting to see the women all bowing to the men and saying "Hi". It is a cultural custom that to Americans looks very strange.
I tried to resist but found it difficult to escape the feeling that their relationship with their bosses ran much deeper than paper work. There was never any doubt in my mind that these women were anything but subservient to the men.
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Me, too. I have an appreciation for anyone that chooses morals and good ethics over temporal things. I was merely commenting on the "slut" comment. I think that was a poor way of expressing oneself.
I understand. Well, I must say that to my knowledge, no one has ever used that term to describe me. On one level, at one time, I would have found that flattering. NOT ! Those who use those terms to describe others should perhaps look within.
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It should be very apparent that even in the 21st century, women do not have equal rights, though we are constantly told we do. Such discrimination and illegal firings should be policed against, but usually are not.
It is my hope that these women will find employment where their physical beauty is not the focus of their value. Some of us have never been considered pretty. Perhaps that is a blessing?
Holy Ghost as a Companion
in General Discussion
Posted
Today, I was out with friends for breakfast, and on the way back home we saw a group of bikers (Bicycles) in the Ward parking lot and we stopped to chat. My two friends are not religious, so any time the opportunity comes to expose them to other Mormons, I'm up for it.
Well we pulled in and ran into several people that I know, so we started to have a jolly good time chatting. I am not sure what happened but someone brought up one of the Presidential Candidates and one of my friends said that he was a liar.
As soon as I could, I tried to put a stop to THAT conversation and confronted the brother that got it started. He is about a foot and a half taller than me, but I told him that he was talking to two potential Investigators, and asked him what he was doing?
That didn't stop the conversation, but we finally left with out any blood shed. On the way home I realized that I'd been really disrespectful to a member of the priesthood. Gosh, I wish the Holy Spirit carried a gag.