HELLO HOME!
I hope you enjoyed your time on Trek! I super loved Trek. Did you get to go to Martin's Cove again? Hopefullly Grandpa Wood was able to get all of his projects done on the house while you were away hahaha I love him.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY next week! I LOVE THE 4TH and I hope you all have the best day ever. Something that I was thinking about on Sunday is why I love the 4th of July. I love it because of the BBQ's of course, the fireworks, the music, basically everything.....? But I also love the meaning of the 4th of July. Because of our country's freedom, we have the opportunity to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. July 4th played a part in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. HOW COOL IS THAT? So, when we all see Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson one day, make sure to say thanks. (I haven't been in a history class for awhile sooooooooooooo yeah. It's fine.) We live in a land of freedom and choice because of so many people's sacrifices but it's also all part of God's perfect plan for His children. Okay moving on.
This week was fine. We are super busy but what else is new....I have so many thoughts I don't know what to do with them all....So here we go. I've been thinking about the book called "You Are Special" by Max Lucedo. (Seagull Book sells it if you want it hahaha) but it's a story about all these little wooden people who put different stickers on each other. The gold star stickers represent all the good things about that person and the grey dots represent all the things wrong with that person. The main character (his name starts with a P and I can't remember it.) he has ALL grey dots. Sometimes people would just put grey dots on him for the fun of it. But he meets another wooden person who doesn't have any stickers on her. He asks her how she doesn't have any dots or stars and she said that they don't stick to her because she doesn't let them. Her advice was to go and see Eli, the woodcarver. He goes and see's Eli and tells Eli about his problem with all the grey dots. Eli tells him that the dots only stick if it matters to you. The little wooden guy leaves as Eli tells him "I love you because you're mine. I made you. And I don't make mistakes." My take-away from this is that we all need to ease up on the self-judgement. Our Heavenly Father doesn't make mistakes. He made us the way that we are for a specific reason. Nothing good comes from being self-critical. I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT. The grey dots only stick if we let them. The book "You Are Special" always makes me reflect on a couple of questions.
1. Does God love me?
2. Does God know my name?
3. Does God care?
I feel like a lot of the time these 3 questions cause so much trouble in people's minds in the modern world, but they're the most important questions to know the answer to. IT'S BASIC DOCTRINE. We grow up singing I Am a Child of God and learning about these questions throughout our lives. We know all the answers to these questions, yet it's SO easy for us to forget them-- I have, even as a missionary. In my experience, it all comes down to pride. I have this problem of having a "I know it all" type of attitude AND I DON'T. I don't know all of God's purposes but just as Nephi said "I know that He loveth His children." If you want to feel God's love and see His hand in your life, ask for eyes to see and for your heart to understand. It takes a whole lot of faith and a whole lot of humility. But I know that when we ask to see those miracles and when we ask to feel His love, OUR PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED. We'll come to know that we are SO special to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that because He loves me, I can be at peace with the fact that all things are in His hands.
I love you all so so much and I hope you have the best week FULL of miracles!
Love always,
Sister Bain