Faith to act. Our choices!

Psalms 82:6
 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are ^achildren of the most High.

My sister tells me a story about my niece when she was just four years old. Vanessa was sitting in the backseat of our parents’ Suburban. Our brother MacCary was in the front passenger seat. Vanessa was mad at her dad for something and claimed, “It doesn’t matter! I have another daddy anyways!” My sister was sitting there thinking, who is feeding this kid with lies…. She said to Vanessa, “No, Vanessa you only have one daddy and it’s him,” pointing to our brother. Vanessa, a very smart, and yes, sometimes a smart aleck, four year old said, “No, I have a daddy in heaven too Aunt Natasha!”

My niece’s unquestionable faith that she is a child of our Heavenly Father is a great example for all of us. We are all children of God and knowing that should affect the choices we make in our lives.

In my experience children are full of faith. They are receptive to the feelings of the spirit. They usually are the first to love and the first to forgive. Often in the scriptures we are taught to be like a child.

Mosiah 3:19
For the ^anatural ^bman is an ^cenemy to God, and has been from the ^dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he ^eyields to the enticings of the Holy ^fSpirit, and ^gputteth off the ^hnatural man and becometh a ⁱsaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Our ultimate goal is to return to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father. The only way we can do that is by having faith in Jesus Christ.

A lot of people tell me they already have faith in Jesus Christ. So I ask them what they are doing about that faith. A lot of them respond I have been baptized, I’m saved there is nothing more to do. Or I believe. Well faith isn’t just believing. Faith is a principle of action and power that should motivate our day to day choices.

If I didn’t have faith I would be here on a mission working hard to teach all of God’s children about the gospel.
A farmer wouldn’t plant if he didn’t expect to harvest. None of us would go to work each day if we didn’t hope by doing so we could accomplish something. Each day we act upon things we hope for when we cannot see the end result. This is faith.

From the very beginning we had agency. Our choices, small or large are all important. I believe if we made choices based on an eternal perspective and not on a now perspective, our choices would be more aligned with God. There are good choices, there are better choices, and then there are the best choices. Most of life I didn’t really understand that. I thought that if I was making good choices that I was doing fine. But good isn’t good enough. I recently learned that there is more. There is always more we can do.

Our Faith should be reflected in our choices. The true faith we have in our Savior and His atonement is the only way we can be cleansed and return back to the presence of our Heavenly Father.

President Spencer W. Kimball explained, “There must be works with faith. How foolish it would be to ask the Lord to give us knowledge, but how wise to ask the Lord’s help to acquire knowledge, to study constructively, to think clearly, and to retain things that we have learned”

Faith involves doing all we can to bring about the things we hope and pray for. President Kimball said: “In faith we plant the seed, and soon we see the miracle of the blossoming. Men have often misunderstood and have reversed the process.” He continued by explaining that many of us want to have health and strength without keeping the health laws. We want to have prosperity without paying our tithes. We want to be close to the Lord but don’t want to fast and pray. We want to have rain in due season and to have peace in the land without observing the Sabbath as a holy day and without keeping the other commandments of the Lord.

We want a lot of things without doing anything about it. We need to do something if we want something.

I know that if I want success as a missionary and that because I do I have to WORK for it. I can’t just ask for it and then not do my part.

One of my favorite scripture about faith is Ether 12:12
For if there be no ^afaith among the children of men God can do no ^bmiracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.


I know that if I have faith to act and do the things I am suppose, that according to God’s will I can be part of Miracles. We all can be. We just need to make those BEST choices.

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that through God’s power He translated the Book of Mormon. I know the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible is the word of God. I know that we are all children of God and that he loves all of us.