Well, it’s been a good week! I have definitely felt more comfortable with my life, especially after going to the temple with my roommate Saturday morning. I have kinda readjusted my motivations and desires to get myself back on track to where I want to go and what I should be focusing on. Now I am really trying to do my best with just working hard in school and finishing out this semester. (Only a little over a month left before summer!)

This is a good time to blog about something that I have slowly been learning about over the past little while, and over the past few years. The blessing of having righteous desires. I believe that the Lord blesses us with our desires, when we choose to have righteous, realistic desires. I believe this is a blessing of grace, that is sometimes completely given to us out of love. I also think that these blessings of righteous desires are predicated on us being completely obedient for a diligent amount of time. This diligent obedience, coupled with faith in receiving blessings from the Lord, will bring the grace of the Lord to give us those desires.

A memory that often comes to mind when I think about this is from when I was a missionary in Japan. I had a companion, Elder Farnsworth, that I worked with for 5 1/2 months. He was a great missionary, and he knew how to be completely obedient to the Lord. He also loved sweet cars. And a lot of times he would talk about his favorite car, a candy-apple red Ferrari 350. Now I never thought much of it, and he always spoke of how much he would love to see one in our town of Sendai, Japan. Japan isn’t the best place to see sweet cars, at least not the northern Tohoku Japan region where we were. But! One day we were waiting at a light, and out of nowhere a candy-apple red Ferrari 350 drives right up next to us! It caught me off gaurd! We had never seen it before, and we never did after that.

So that first time gave me the idea of the Lord just blessing us with our desires, and after a few other events just like that I started believing it. I know that a Ferrari is kind of a silly example, but it is a great summary of what the Lord will really give us if we are obedient. Elder Farnsworth didn’t get the car, he didn’t get to see it for more than 10 seconds, but his desire of seeing one was fulfilled. I love this scripture that Alma says in Alma 29:4 “… for I know that [God] granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that He allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.”

If we righteously desire eternal salvation, then we will reach it. It sort of is the secret shortcut to living life. The more we choose to desire something good, like salvation, or obedience, or seeking for the Lord to be happy with us, then the more we will reach that desire. Have you ever desired something so much that every night you pray for it? I often measure my real intent by how quickly I forget to keep praying for it. If it is just a one night thing then it pretty quickly doesn’t seem that important to me. But, if there is something on my mind so strongly that I end up sticking to it for days then I know it is something really meaningful to me. I can’t expect the Lord doesn’t see that same level of intent too. If we ask once and turn it away, then how can we really expect any kind of answer or blessing to our desires and our prayers.

Surely when Joseph Smith prayed to know which church to join it wasn’t just one thought he randomly had one day. Often in the Joseph Smith-History Joseph says “at length” and explains it took a lot of soul searching and deep contemplation before he decided to take it up with the Lord. That answer was a strong desire of his to receive. We need to build that same desire up within ourselves too. We can’t be saved in ignorance, and we can’t be saved accidentally. We need to choose our righteous desires, and we need to be obedient to earn them, and faithful to bring them to us from the Lord. That’s how the Lord has set it up. So that we do everything we can, and then He will “open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3).

I’ll leave it there since I need to get to bed. Do you ever want to go to bed but not want to wake up? Probably a lot, eh? I can’t wait for this week to be over 🙂 Get through my tests and papers and I’ll be content. Maybe I should try and enjoy the journey instead of hold out my joy until the destination.

Anyway, much love to you all! I am grateful for a Gospel of Jesus Christ that leads us to understand all truth in the universe and understand where to find the peace within the chaos. Until next time.