Always Remember Jesus Christ
Preparing to hear Him through sacrament prayers.
Hello everyone! I am coming to the point in my blog where I have published many posts. I want to organize them into topics you can find on my navigation bar! I am still pondering what these tags would be called, so I’ll look into my posts and understand what I usually write about to appropriately name them.
I have also felt inspired to create certain somethings (maybe templates?) for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am also open to creating other things for Christians all around the world. These templates would look like open guides to enhance your relationship with God—NOT in any way shape or form is it to replace the guidance of church leaders or professional help. I still don’t know what this could look like, but your thoughts would be most helpful!
Let me know what you think!
Yes, I am hoping these “maybe templates” would be on my navigation bar.
My husband and I recently decluttered our storage. It was something that he and I have been putting off since we’ve been so busy on the weekends—we’re either too tired or gone all day or we just look at each other with the guilty face of “I don’t really want to do that right now.” Our little storage room has a delicate system inside that helps maintain our home, and the room is pretty small. We have to be mindful of what we put in there and not let it pile up too much or it would be hazardous.
Our leftover Amazon packages or anything that would not fit in our small space goes into storage. We live in a small basement. So, you can imagine that if we put off decluttering it for several months, it looked like a hungry monster that we feed every time we mindlessly threw more stuff in there. There were many times that we were looking for something and we felt this awful feeling when we figured that it was somewhere in the depths of our storage room—and almost always, it was true.
Well, one day, my husband and I scheduled the day to clean it. We mentally prepared ourselves, even reminded each other that we needed to nurture the storage room more. So we did! We decluttered it, donated, discarded, said hello to old treasures, and in due time the storage room was sparkling. At least to both of us it was. It was still dark and cold, but now it was more spacious! We labeled and organized everything, for the most part. I even found my SD card filled with my once-a-full-time-missionary memories (which I’ve been looking for everywhere in the storage room!). . . haha! A familiar feeling came over me of how much I loved my mission.
My point is, as humans, we forget. A lot. Frankly, more than we can count.
During a sacrament meeting on my mission, one young lady who I’ll call Jane, shared her testimony in the pulpit. She told of the things she learned at a youth event and how preparing for the sacrament was and is essential in living the best life we could live, a life with God.
BLESSING ON THE BREAD
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
BLESSING ON THE WATER
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this water to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
Note that in the sacrament prayers, we are asked to do things in remembrance of Jesus Christ. With this in mind, Jane mentioned, “. . .in order to remember, we must first forget.”
When I first heard this, I thought about it all day. Our Father in Heaven knew we would forget, which makes preparation for the sacrament even more important. Parallel to how I felt when I found my mission SD card again—we forget how events felt when they happened, even the details. We forget how to make something we used to make all the time. We forget some chores. We forget to take care of ourselves. And we forget the Lord.
We forget most of the time because we put it off. The Lord knows that and He wants to help us. We forget until we do something to help spark the memories and feel old feelings again.
The Lord is perfectly aware of the things we want to put off to the side, our imperfections, weaknesses, and afflictions—but He is also aware of our capabilities when we accept and do everything in our power to remember again and again the graceful truth of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Which is, the miracle of starting over through daily repentance, to try and try again, progress and become more like Him.
What is something you’ve been putting off that needs more of your attention?
What can you do to better prepare for time with the Lord?
What can you consecrate in order to do things in remembrance of the Lord, Jesus Christ?
How can you stay close to Him?
Exodus 14: 14
14 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Where did you serve your mission? I served in the New York Rochester mission in the mid-90s.
This is a fabulous article, by the way. I needed it today.