New Year Starts

I love this little daily calendar reminder.  Probably my favorite tool I have bought!

 Saturday we had the young women over for breakfast and to welcome our new girls turning 12 this year.  We only have three active ones joining us.  We played some get to know you games and ate together.  

I am so excited that we are studying the Book of Mormon this year.  President Nelson said that the truths found in it " have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console and cheer our souls."  I think that it is no accident that we study the Book of Mormon every four years during our election year.  This event brings such contention and division in our country that I love that the Book of Mormon can counter balance that in our lives if we faithfully study it. 

 This week as I read the account of the three and eight witnesses it made me think of the show Law and Order that I used to watch.  They placed such weight on eye witness testimony.  People were convicted on that alone.  I read these mens' eye witness account and felt the power of that.  I added my name on that page in my scriptures and it made me reflect back to that very moment where I can say that I became a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and by extension Joseph Smith and the gospel.    

When we were living in Cape Girardeau I really felt an urgency to receive my own witness as I was now the mother of two little girls 2 and 3.  I was trying to do FHE and scripture study with them, but realized that I needed to know for myself if my testifying of it would have have power.  I started reading and fasting to know if Joseph Smith's account was true and if the book of Mormon was the word of God.  I remember just like it happened yesterday being on my knees in the upstairs bedroom in the duplex we were renting.  I was praying and asking the Lord to let me know.  I had no expectation of what would happen or what I would feel, but the power and feeling that came into my body was something I had never experienced before.  I remember thinking that when I open my eyes, I will see someone in this room with me it was so strong.  There was no one there but the words of a child's prayer immediately came to my mind.  'Heavenly Father are you really there and do you hear and answer every child's prayer.  Some say that heaven is far away, but I can feel it close around me as I pray'.  I can never hear that song sung without crying as it takes me back to that time and place.  I have been retyping my journals from those years ago and there is a definite difference in my entires before this occurrence and after.  This experience forever changed me and from that time forward I have tried to be "all in".  To know that this 24 year old mom in a little town in Missouri was heard, known and loved by a God was life changing to me.  

This year the word I chose for myself is STRIVE (make great efforts to achieve or obtain something)

-strive to be closer to Jesus through daily study

-strive to be more grateful though journal and prayer

-strive to take care of my body through exercise and nutrition

-strive to be a better steward of what the Lord has blessed me with 

Here is to 2024 and all that will come my way.  I hope that as I strive to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ that I will be able to face the trials/challenges/opportunities for growth that will come my way.