8.24.14

Well, the kids started school this week!  We spent the first few days this week getting things ready and then they started on Thursday.  Christopher loves his teacher!  He is having a great time and is excited about fifth grade.  Annelise and Thomas are a little less enthusiastic.

Today in Primary music I got to teach the kids the Ninth Article of Faith.  We are so blessed to know that God still speaks to the world through a living prophet.  That He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  That we can know what He would have us know today, in our time, for His church.  I also used a fun new app that made picking which song for the program we were going to sing next into something everyone wanted to do.  It was kind of like Wheel of Fortune.  Fun!

Tonight I went to a singles fireside.  One thing that really stuck out for me was a story.  I found it on the internet and copied it here because they tell it better.

There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."  This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silver smith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silver smith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot--then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.

She asked the silver smith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silver smith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."

Heavenly Father is our Master Craftsman.  He is only going to hold us in the fire until we are fully refined.  Everyone's fire is a bit different.  We all have our own struggles that make us want to stop, to get out, to give up.  But we can do it with His help.  We can become the people He would have us be through His mercy and grace.  Then we will have received His image in our countenances as in Alma 5.  

The other part of the fireside that I really want to implement more fully in my life was about not waiting to be happy.  The Father's plan is called the Great Plan of Happiness.  We are meant to be happy now.  Not The Great Plan of Happiness After We Are All Resurrected.  No.  Now.  That is what I am working on.  FInding things to be happy about now, things to be grateful for now, things that are good in the world now.

I hope you all have a great week!  Go be happy!  Find some good!  Be the good!