Perception

I share these things with a grateful heart and hope that you can receive them with that same feeling.

Once again I see things differently than before ...

I was preparing for my primary lesson this week and found a message HERE that spoke to me in a different way than it might have earlier in my life. I do not consider this good or bad, just different. It's one of those "line upon line" things or "had to be there" things. It's just the way it is now for me as my perception of things has been altered due to the changing conditions around me.

Our primary lesson is The Sermon on the Mount. (what a great sermon it was and continues to be)

The message that touched me is The Beatitudes: Pattern for Coming unto Christ, by Robert E. Wells (Dec. 1987)

2. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.(Matt. 5:4.) Of all the Beatitudes, this one appears at first glance to be the most unusual and contradictory. How can it be a blessing to be in mourning? To mourn is to show grief or pain at the death of a loved one. This intense feeling cannot be hidden from the world or from God; it cannot be eased or pacified except with comfort and consolation from God through the Holy Ghost.

So why would the Savior say that it is a blessing to mourn? It may be that pain and suffering at the death of loved ones is an essential part of our mortal experience that obliges us to face the question of the reality of the spirit world and the hope of the Resurrection. It is through suffering that we discover what is eternally important.

It might be that it is a blessing for us to become more fully aware that God’s ways are not always our ways, and that we must trust him when things don’t go as we believe they should. When we can see the Lord’s purposes fulfilled in our sorrowful moments, the Holy Ghost can console us and the Atonement and Resurrection can become the cornerstones of our faith. Again, both the Joseph Smith Translation and the Book of Mormon accounts indicate that the mourner is truly blessed only if he comes unto Christ.

I have mourned before, for the loss of beloved family members, but never to the depth of what I mourn now. Experiencing the loss of my beloved husband and best friend ..., my everything, is the deepest sorrow I have ever felt.  My sorrow has been compounded because of things that have happened after Terry's passing, but there has not been one thing harder than that one loss and I expect that there will not be anything worse than it in my future.

However, every night when I retire to my bed I feel the most precious peace that I have ever felt before.  I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and that He is aware of me and that He is there for me.  I feel it and I love it.  It is tangible and it is awesome.   I know that this feeling comes from God because of a blessing given me earlier and I also recognize Terry's hand in it as well.  I know that he too desires for me to find some comfort and peace during this time of pain and suffering at the death of my loved one.

I am so grateful for these special blessings, tender mercies, small miracles - these times of comfort and consolation from God through the Holy Ghost - that come my way and I am so grateful for the promised eternal blessings that we all have to look forward to.