food for thought

The downside of keeping Eva home from church until spring is really here is that I miss church every other week. (OK, it doesn't always feel like a downside!) The upside is that, when I am at church, I'm not holding a baby and so I can take notes in my church notebook -- hooray! Today I was home and decided to look over the notes I took last week. Here are the highlights:

• The sacrament meeting theme was taken from Mosiah 2:41: "...consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God, for behold they are blessed in all things, both spiritual and temporal..."
• A recently-returned sister missionary recounted the trials of living in Venezuela in a 7th floor apartment. More often than not, they would come home after working all day, hot and sweaty, walk up the 7 flights of stairs, and find that they had no electricity and no water. They couldn't shower, couldn't do much of anything, and had to go to bed all gross and sweaty. She discovered, to her great surprise, that there are good things in everything. She could bake cookies in the gas oven. She could talk with her companion and become closer. She was still in a blessed and happy state. (Reminds me of The Hiding Place and being grateful for the fleas!)
  
• All who seek full happiness can find it in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Happiness comes through doing small things that build us up and increase our faith and testimony. These small things give us the strength to keep further commandments.
• In Sunday School we talked about Joseph (son of Jacob) in the Old Testament. Like Nephi, he was hated by his brothers and highly favored by his father, as well as his Heavenly Father. Brother Rhodes, an older man in our ward who is a religion professor and all-around good/funny comment-maker, said: "There is nothing harder to endure than a good example."
• Genesis 39:23 says, "The Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper."
• "The ability to turn something bad into something good, even in dire circumstances, is a godly attribute." --Hartman Rector Jr.
• Joseph Smith is an example of this -- his life was filled with trials, but it was also filled with joy.

This was all very interesting to me. I love that scripture from Mosiah. I know that in my life, I do feel blessed and happy when I am keeping the commandments and living up to my covenants as best I know how. This doesn't mean that I don't have trials, though! So I am reflecting on how I react to the trials in my life. I want to be the kind of person that can turn something bad into something good -- how exciting that would be! I want to qualify to be blessed in all things, both spiritual and temporal -- I need those blessings.