6 Oct 2021, Wednesday

 6 Oct 2021, Wednesday

Prioritized Daily Task

Get 1,000 rsd on Ljubica's cell phone for parking the car in Serbia.  (Postponed until the Jelicics get back home)

Debbie and I drove the car to go grocery shopping.

I spent part of the day working on information for Alex, my granddaughter to incorporate into My Life's Story she is editing for me.  It is about my first 37 years on earth and my family present and past.

The natural man or woman is an enemy to God and is resistant to turning things completely over and trusting Him entirely. Maybe this is why we choose to stick with the narrative we have written for ourselves, a comfortable version of our story unedited by the Master Author. We don’t want anything to get in the way that doesn’t fit neatly into the story we are writing for ourselves.

Few would write into their stories the trials that define and refine us. But we love the glorious culmination of stories where the protagonist overcomes the struggle? The trials are the elements of the plot that make our favorite stories compelling, timeless, faith-promoting, and worthy of telling. The struggles that are written into my story I hope will draw my family and all who read this closer to the Savior and refine us, making us more like Him.

Comfortable narratives are not the things that cause us to muster the faith and courage to let God write our story.                                                             A desire to let God prevail, (the meaning of the word Israel) and an ear to the Holy Ghost is what allows us to defeat the enemy and save our families.

We have our agency, which allows us to write our own story.  Jesus Christ stands ready to use us as a divine instrument, a sharpened pencil, in His hand, to write a masterpiece! He is mercifully willing to use us if I have the faith to let Him be the author and finisher of our story.  This requires us to keep His commandments and the covenants we have made.  It will open the line of communication with Heaven for us to receive revelation through the Holy Ghost. 

Come let us reason, why should we want the Savior to be the author and the finisher of our life’s story? Because He knows our potential perfectly, He will take us to places we never imagined ourselves; I know He has me.  

He will stretch us and refine us and make us more like Him. The things we then achieve we, must give  Jesus Christ the credit, and if there is any glory associated with it, PLEASE make sure it goes to Him.

In 2020 our Prophet, President Nelson, asked: “Are you willing to let God prevail in your life?  “Will you let God be the author and finisher of your life’s story?”

In Revelations we learn that we will stand before God and be judged out of the books of life, according to our works.7

We will be judged by our book of life. We can choose to write a comfortable narrative for ourselves. Or we can allow the Master Author and Finisher to write our story with us, letting the role He needs us to play take precedence over other ambitions.

I want Christ to be the author and finisher of my life’s story.  I pray the Holy Ghost will witness to you of the things I have written in my weakness are true. I.                                                                                                        I have written this with a similar feeling of love as Nephi had when he wrote: ”For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” “2 Nephi 25:23”

I counsel each you who read this to write your own story, one that is on the straight path, one that is on a course leading you back to our heavenly home where we can all live together in the presence of God forever.

Let the adversities and afflictions that are part of life and every good story be a means by which you draw closer to, and become more like, Jesus Christ.

Tell a story in which you recognize the heavens are open. Ask questions to which you do not know the answer, knowing God is willing to make known His will for you through the Holy Spirit.

Let your narrative be one of faith, following your Exemplar, our Savior Jesus Christ. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

( I borrowed many of these ideas from Sister Camille N. Johnson, Primary General President October 3, 2021, 191st Semiannual General Conference, “Invite Christ to Author Your Story”)