Learning to Dance in the Rain

These are some thoughts from the talk “The Doer of our Deeds and the Speaker of our Words” by M. Catherine Thomas.

“Is
it not obvious that we, created out of the very stuff of truth and
permeated by his power, cannot live against our own natures of light
and truth and intelligence without setting up conflict and spiritual
dis-ease within ourselves? The quality of our emotional and spiritual
existence is absolutely governed by divine law, and whether or not we
know about these laws, or observe them, we are continually and
profoundly affected by them. I suggest that at the base of much low
self-esteem lies not only spiritual conflict but a deep
selfdisapproval, whether conscious or not, over neglect of the
spiritual laws that govern happiness and freedom.”

True
true. We are at the core spiritual beings who rejoiced when Heavenly
Father presented this plan to us for coming to earth.

“Often
doors have closed before us that seemed to lead to the opportunities we
thought we had to have. We assumed that the closed door was a
reflection of some inadequacy in ourselves. But perhaps the closed door
had nothing to do with whether we were good or bad or capable or
incompetent. Rather, a loving Father shapes, even now, our path
according to a prearranged, premortal covenant.”

As a
missionary I was twice in a situation where I was a zone leader and
“demoted” to a district leader. Both times I partly resented the
change. Both times I later saw the wisdom behind the assignment.

I have become aware of how demanding of attention the self is. What a lot of prayer
and deliberate living it will take for me to remove my self as the force in my life. I
have
become aware that all my sins rise out of the self-absorption of my
heart—impulses rising like the ticking of a clock in their persistent
quest for self-promotion, self-defense, and self-gratification. It
seems as though a change is needed at the very fountain of my heart out
of which all thought and emotion rise. Could I actually come to the
point where I could act without calculating my own self-interest all
the time? Could I really live my daily life so that I was constantly
searching out the Lord’s will and drawing down his grace to accomplish
it?

This is the changing of our motive, that is so desireable.

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