A dear friend of mine battles intense darkness. She’s shared her furnace of affliction with me and I’ve cried and prayed for her and rejoiced at her victories. She diligently, daily studies the “Come, Follow Me” study guide for the Book of Mormon and various extra resources.
I’ve begun noticing a change in her perspective. While she still has very bad days, she’s beginning to at least start those days in grateful praise and worship! Her words have become psalms to me as I watch this transformation occur.
President Russell M. Nelson promised specific blessings for studying the Book of Mormon daily.
I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day….
Below are texts from my friend. I’ve stripped out, hopefully, any identifiers. I haven’t included all of the bad days. I hope you can feel the hope this friend is finding as she wages her very difficult, dark battles. Sometimes a little spark of hope is all we need to fan the flame of hope and change in our hearts.
That flame turns into gratitude and worship. Her poetic words create such beautiful images as I read them. And as I already mentioned, they become psalms to me, hymns of praise, from someone desperately seeking and finding her Savior’s healing balm and redemptive grace as she overcomes this mortal life.
“Good Morning!” Praises in the Morning as the Battle Rages Day and Night
How is your day? Mine is so wonderful! My heart is brim, full of joy at the happiness I feel. And the love of being all together with my family! So many tender mercies and sweet moments and miracles.
Today was a hard day.
Oh, what a beautiful morning! I’m hurrying to get ready so I can work hard…but I woke up so happy and had such a wonderful study and felt my soul join with Alma in exclaiming how great the goodness of our God, and how sweet the healing oil of our Savior that pours into our wounded hearts and heals our spirits and takes away the sting of sorrow and sin, and leaves only the soft, glowing peace of pure love to bathe in.
And I loved this quote by Elder Maxwell! “What we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity. Only by educating and training our desires can they become our allies instead of our enemies!” It reminds me to lift my eyes higher and focus only on the goodness and beauty, and that the Holy Ghost can train and refine our desires to be in tune with those of our Father, which is the only way to find rest in His eternal home and sing with all creation in heaven and earth forever. And we will be together.
It’s a sad day. I tried so hard to be brave and keep busy and be positive and reach out to others and be happy and kind but I finally just couldn’t keep going and just cried for like an hour.
Good morning! I’m grateful for a new day! And for such a beautiful gift from God, and all the birds that sing at the dawn, to praise their Creator and His majesty and power and love in the wonder of the sun rising again. I’m soaking in every good thing and basking in the knowledge that His love is everywhere. And there is beauty and grace and His fingerprint in everything, and breathing it all in to fill my soul and let it be part of me. I finally feel back to my true way.
This past night/morning has been a little hard but I’m glad to hear the chorus of birds and see the sun rise again, to have one more day to pray for strength and forgiveness, to praise Him for all the beauty and thoughtful gifts, and to try to do good, and to love, and to be kind, and gentle, and spread joy.
I have been pondering about being an instrument in the Lord’s hands and how praying for a portion of His Spirit helps us become that. And also I read “we become vessels fit to live with him who bought us with his blood” and thought how we need to completely empty ourselves of our own “blood” in order that His may fill us, and how we then share that same inner goodness regardless of what we look like on the outside.
My heart got a little hurt today…and I cried a little, but I’m OK and I know everything is much more manageable in the morning.
This morning the birds were all singing so loudly like they were praising Heavenly Father a little extra today.
I saw this and wanted to send it to you! “Keep the fire in your heart burning strong and do not ever let your flame fade away.” Don’t you just love that? I do!! It gives me such a thrill to think about! Hope you have a wonderfully happy day.
It’s just a little struggle today. Try again tomorrow.
I feel rested and happy and I’m a little distracted but still feel so thankful for one more day and trying to do all I can to please Heavenly Father and feel His love all around me and imagining how thrilling it must be to live in His presence all the time! Think of all the things that make you happy and the sweet things that make you smile and all the ways you feel loved, they all come from Him. And can you think how wonderful it must be to live with Him and Heavenly Mother and feel those things always? It truly must be the most wonderfully happy place we could dream of! And the beauty! And the music! And the things we get to create!
It does all praise Him!! It shows His glory and sings His praise and worships Him in reverence and obeys Him exactly. God is so wonderful!
And it’s another cool, beautiful morning and Heavenly Father is so wonderful to give us one more day to do as much good as we can and love as big as we can and praise Him in everything, and see Him in everything, and hear His perfectly majestical song, and feel Him lovingly guiding us always.
Sorry for being so silent. I’m slowly coming back again.
My heart is so full of gratitude for Jesus’s mercy, and grace, and love, and the excitement of one more day, and seeing the beauty in all His creations, and learning to love as much as I can. It is such a gift to have another day that I feel my soul expanding with joy and my spirit humming with music. Don’t you think our spirits remember more about heaven than we realize? Our bodies haven’t lived there yet but our spirits did and we are surrounded by spiritual things and when we are happy and grateful and in tune with the Holy Ghost, I think we hum or vibrate with those sweet tones that bring healing and love to our bodies. Like in that book Embraced by the Light, she says everything in heaven, even the flowers, seemed to be vibrating with the sound of music and I think it’s on earth too, we just have to train our new earth ears to hear the tones.
Good morning! It was another beautiful sunrise and my heart was so happy to watch the light and colors and hear the symphony of birds singing to welcome the new day. I know the feeling of singing the song of redeeming love and I hope I feel it always and never forget the words.
I’m excited for a new day and the possibility to do as much good as I can, and to love as much as I can and try again. I hope you have a wonderfully happy day!
I’m so thankful for a brand new day, aren’t you? All the possibilities and beauty to find! I love Alma 5:16! It’s one of the most precious scriptures. I love to say it over and over in my head and imagine the Savior saying that and how I would feel. To hear Him say my name, that I am His, and to “come unto me, ye blessed!” It’s enough to make me want to try and fill each day with doing as much good as I can and sharing as much love as I can.
I’m slowly learning how I need to change, in my thinking and words, in order that I can overcome the darkness that comes in me. Every kind word, every good deed, every expression of love, every act of kindness and service and anything that adds to faith or hope or love is the weapon I use to drive evil away until it had no power in me anymore. Every time I hold my tongue when I want to be mad or mean is a small victory to tip the balance so good wins. Anything that adds to light and joy makes it grow bigger and brighter until darkness can no longer linger but must be dispelled. The war in heaven was won by faith and testimony and truth and all the pure, beautiful acts, and that’s how it must be won here, too. We don’t add to goodness by using Satan’s weapons no matter how much we want to or how powerful they seem or how justified it may be. We win by thinking, speaking, and acting in love, and that’s how I’m learning to change.
Good morning! I’ve just realized I spent the past 30 minutes on my bed just looking out the window and watching the birds fly past and the leaves dancing in the breeze and praying. And my spirit is so grateful to feel free—free to feel so happy, and learn, and see so much beauty, and free to be able to share it and talk about it with others and not have to hide, or ignore it, or feel as though it’s silly or wasting time. Free to share love and feel joy and realize it’s what Heavenly Father created us to do and wants for us, not to have to bury those feelings so deep everything becomes numb and black. I have always felt so sad and like a prisoner and wondered if my whole life would be like that and just accepted it. But to finally realize I’m free and that isn’t the life He wants for me, is such a wonderful gift, my spirit soars and my heart is so full of gratitude to bursting.
And I have prayed for so long to learn to hear the Savior, and see Him, and feel His love, and have learned over the last few days that I do hear Him, in every loving name that someone calls me. It’s Him calling me by those names, too. And every beautiful thing I see has His face in it. And every time I feel the sun on my skin, it’s His love warming me, or the breeze on my face is His kiss, or loving arms around me are His arms holding me. I don’t have to wonder where He is because He is everywhere and closer than I ever understood.
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