Do it, and do it now

Before coming to this earth, I'm sure we heard it all - all the trials we would face, all the hardships this mortality would bring, and you know what? We were excited about it. We couldn't wait to get down here and learn our little hearts out, become who our Heavenly Father wanted us to be, to struggle, to grow, to cry, to laugh, we were ready for it all.

And then we got here.

And now what do we do? Well, ok, it's not like we do this all the time, but we complain. We complain about what? Mortality? Yeah. Mortality. It hurts. It's hard. We don't understand things, and people don't understand us. And then there's this guy called Satan. And he just makes everything about 10 billion times worse. That's an approximation, don't quote me on it.


The truth is, life is hard, and it's only going to get harder. Satan doesn't want any of us to succeed, and he definitely doesn't want us to be happy in this life. In my own life, I see him trying to disrupt something every single day. Sometimes he succeeds, because sometimes it's something that I have no control over. Sometimes he attacks us through other people. Just like the Lord uses other people to bless our lives, sometimes Satan tries to get other people to make our lives worse. Sometimes Satan tries to confuse those same people that the Lord brought into our life for good. See how frustrating this life can be? And you know, it is confusing because we are mortals, and we are imperfect.

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between spiritual promptings and our own thoughts. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the devil and the spirit. Sometimes, the thoughts are our own.

These things are true, but this is the part that matters most - your time with your Father in Heaven to sort those thoughts and feelings out. Regardless of where those thoughts and feelings come from, it's the most important thing to figure out what Heavenly Father wants us to do with them, and where they really came from. That's one reason we should constantly be praying, and one of the reasons we are asked to go to the temple so often.

I love the temple for so many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because I know I can go in there and Satan has no influence on the feelings, promptings and impressions that I get there, so I know, without a doubt, that whatever I feel there is the spirit speaking to me.

I guess I'm writing this more for myself than for anyone else, but it's so easy to lose hope. As mortals, we want things now; we want to be happy right now, and we think we know how to do that best, but the truth is, we don't. Heavenly Father does.

His will for us is often not what we want for us. Sometimes, we have it set in our minds to do things one way, but He wants us to do it another way. We want to do something five years down the road, but He wants us to do it in five months. We want to go here, but He wants us to go there. It's so important to listen to the spirit and do what it tells you when it tells you to. From personal experience, I can tell you that when you ask the Lord so many times if you can do something your way, even when He's already told you to do it another way, there comes a time when He will stop telling you to do it His way, and He always lets you choose, but then you end up suffering the consequences. I'm sure Joseph Smith would tell you the same thing. Remember those lost pages? Yeah, I thought you might.

Yes, life is hard, but life is wonderful. Do what the Lord wants you to do, and do it now, and follow the inspiration you get exactly when you get it - don't wait!

Till next time, readers <3 :)