About a year ago my husband and I flew out to Albuqurque, New Mexico for him to interview for his current job. As he attended to his interviews I had an opportunity to explore the area to see if I found it livable. Housing prices and school evaluations all tended to point to Rio Rancho, and so I input the addresses of a few houses for sell on the web into my TOMTOM and went exploring. I was born in the mountain west- which has a fair amount of trees and grass- and had been living in the Midwest for the past 12 years- which is green, green, green! So seeing houses set on lots of sandy dirt, sagebrush and rock was so different. I think what I felt can only be called dismay.
However, for reasons I won't delve into here, we did make the move. And as I sit here now looking out my office window at a backyard covered in sand, sagebrush, and tumble weeds, I see so much that is beautiful. I have little artistic talent, but I am so enthralled by what I have seen called the "crystalline quality" of the air here. The play of light and shadow, especially on the mountain ranges. The deep rich colors of the sunsets and sunrises. So, what changed? Obviously not New Mexico. What changed was my perception of the situation. That change in perception happened very quickly after we arrived, and it parallels and was dependant upon, a much more gradual expanding perspective of life that started when I first began to seriously study the gospel of Christ. It seems that with the gospel of Christ at the center of my life, there are wonderful people and beauty and joy wherever you go.
Once I saw the world quite differently- a place to step carefully with your guard on full alert. I have a clear memory, probably one of many, of a time I firmly declared that idea of lasting love and a happy marriage could only be God's practical joke on the human race. How wrong that perception was! How did this miraculous, burden lifting, change in perception happen? It came just as the Lord says it will, line upon line; but I do recall one realization that brought a dramatic expansion in my vision- that of knowing, really knowing deep in my soul that I am a beloved and cherished daughter of God. President Uchtdorf's description of that love, given a few weeks ago in General Conference, left me breathless:
However, for reasons I won't delve into here, we did make the move. And as I sit here now looking out my office window at a backyard covered in sand, sagebrush, and tumble weeds, I see so much that is beautiful. I have little artistic talent, but I am so enthralled by what I have seen called the "crystalline quality" of the air here. The play of light and shadow, especially on the mountain ranges. The deep rich colors of the sunsets and sunrises. So, what changed? Obviously not New Mexico. What changed was my perception of the situation. That change in perception happened very quickly after we arrived, and it parallels and was dependant upon, a much more gradual expanding perspective of life that started when I first began to seriously study the gospel of Christ. It seems that with the gospel of Christ at the center of my life, there are wonderful people and beauty and joy wherever you go.
Once I saw the world quite differently- a place to step carefully with your guard on full alert. I have a clear memory, probably one of many, of a time I firmly declared that idea of lasting love and a happy marriage could only be God's practical joke on the human race. How wrong that perception was! How did this miraculous, burden lifting, change in perception happen? It came just as the Lord says it will, line upon line; but I do recall one realization that brought a dramatic expansion in my vision- that of knowing, really knowing deep in my soul that I am a beloved and cherished daughter of God. President Uchtdorf's description of that love, given a few weeks ago in General Conference, left me breathless:
Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you.
God does not look on the outward appearance. I believe that He doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely.
He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.
What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us. (http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1117-7,00.html)
There is so much I wonder about, so much I have yet to learn, but I have learned this one thing and it has brought me to understand that this mortal experience is an opportunity beyond compare provided by a loving Heavenly Father. As Nephi testified, "I know that he loveth his children" and "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world." (1 Nephi 11:17, 2 Nephi 26:24) That in turn has changed my perspective on so many other things- especially words in the scriptures I used to struggle with, like anger, evil, vengeance, chastisement, discipline, and punishment. The more I've explored from a perspective of confidence in the Lord's love for me, the more I have found that even these words are rooted in the Lord's love for us. It truly is as Joseph Smith taught:
Happiness is the object and design of our existence. . . .(A)s God has designed our
happiness– he never will institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature to promote the happiness which He has designed, and which will not end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of his law and ordinances.—Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.225
So good! Sent you a link from a Truman Madsen article on Meridian. Good stuff to think about.
ReplyDelete