Sunday Talk!

So Chad and I were asked to speak today! I really do not like it I get way too nervous, I felt like I was going to pee my pants LOL... Anyways I wanted to post it so others could "enjoy"! So here you go..... Oh the first part about my family wasn't exactly what I said. I changed it up a bit but you get the Jiffs of it :) Faith in Every Footstep First I would like to tell you a little about our family… Chad and I met during the typical ‘come to my rescue scenario' after I had got a flat tire in front of his house. Later my friend and I took him some donuts for payment for his help, he told me that he didn’t like donuts but I now know that he does. My friend then proceeded to ask him what he was doing that coming Friday and if he wanted to take me to a dance that was going on at our High School, he said yes and she told him “by the way you have to pay”. From then on out we saw each other everyday. I did however know the minute I saw him that I was going to marry him. We were married in March of 97 and now have 5 beautiful kids. Shelby is our oldest she is 11, Dakota is 8, Savanah 7, Dallas is almost 6 and Samantha, the baby, is almost 3. We moved here last September and absolutely love it. We have an Amazing ward and the best neighbors which make it even better. We believe that we were meant to be here with such amazing people around us because it was something that we needed at that time in our lives. The topic Brother Peine gave us was Faith in Every Footstep and with the holiday it makes me think of the Pioneers and how much Faith they must have had to walk many miles for months to follow the prophet and go where the Lord wanted them too. As they walked they had many trials to overcome including sickness, famine and even death. But because of their Great Faith in the Lord they continued their Journey. They knew what they were doing was the right thing even with all those trials they had. Elder M. Russell Ballard said: “We are the inheritors of a tremendous heritage. Now it is our privilege and responsibility to be part of the Restoration's continuing drama and there are great and heroic stories of faith to be written in our day. It will require every bit of our strength, wisdom and energy to overcome the obstacles that will confront us. But even that will not be enough. We will learn as did our pioneer ancestors that it is only in faith, real faith, whole souled, tested and tried that we will find safety and confidence as we walk our own perilous pathways through life.” To me this means we are going to have our own share of trials throughout our lifetime and some we have had already but unless we go through our trial with “real faith” then we will not be able to overcome them. We cannot learn without these trials we have in life, we may not like them but they are there to help us. We are here to be tested and without these trials we can not be here and learn so we can live with our Father in Heaven. Chad and I have had our own trials throughout the years and we continue to have trials today. We have been struggling with our jobs, we may not like it but unless we have Faith in Heavenly Father that he knows the reasoning behind it we will not overcome them. Our trial may actually help us in the end because it is giving Chad a reason to go back to school and to pursue a career that he has always wanted to do but hasn’t had a reason to do it. Faith means to hope for things which aren’t seen but are true and to have faith is to have confidence in something or someone. We need to have confidence in our Heavenly Father that our trial is going to be for the better and not for the worse which at times it may seem. We need to hope that when our trial is over it will benefit us for the better and make us stronger in our faith. I would now like to share an experience with you that my little sister had to go through. A couple years ago my sister got pregnant as an unmarried teenager. She was upset, depressed and very much afraid. She also was confused because she wasn’t sure if she should keep the baby or place her for adoption. In the beginning she really wanted to keep her because she was scared of all the emotions she would have to go through by placing her for adoption. So she decided to keep the baby. As the months went by she struggled with feelings on how she was going to provide for the baby and give her everything she would need when my sister was struggling financially already. One day she was home with just my dad and she was having a really hard time with everything. She was really confused she wanted the best for her baby but she didn’t know how she was going to do it. My dad sat her down and according to her had a very spiritual talk. I don’t know what they talked about but I know it was something she needed to hear at that time in her life. After her talk with my dad she went into her room and got on her knees and prayed to Heavenly Father to help her know what she was supposed to do. She said she knew immediately what she was supposed to do and decided that the best thing would to place her baby for adoption. She went to LDS Family Services and began the process of choosing a family. During that time she prayed about a family that she had found and knew it was the family she would place her baby with. As the months went by she went through many tears, prayers and had extreme Faith in our Heavenly Father that what she was doing was the right thing. Her placement was the most emotional and hardest thing she has ever gone through. She then saw the family with her child and saw how much joy and happiness that it brought into their lives and the wonderful life her baby was able to live. It was then that she finally understood that this is the family that her baby was supposed to be with and those feelings she was having eventually were replaced with feelings of joy, happiness, peace and comfort. President Faust said “If you take each challenge one step at a time, with faith in every footstep, your strength and understanding will increase. You cannot foresee all of the turns and twists ahead. My counsel to you is to follow the direction of the Savior of the world: “Be not afraid, only believe.” My sister was dealt with many challenges during her trial but she had Faith and continued her journey, soon afterwards was able to find someone she could marry in the temple and I have seen her life change in many ways for the better because of it. We may be scared and confused as my sister was but we need to have Faith in Heavenly Father and believe that things will be for the better then we can grow too. President Faust also said “as we live on earth we must walk in faith, nothing doubting. We have much reason to hope. Joy can be ours if we are willing to sacrifice all for the Lord. Then we can look forward to the priceless possibility of overcoming all the challenges of this life. Then we will be with the Savior forever.” I don’t know where I and Chad’s current trial will take us but if we have Faith and believe in our Heavenly Father we will learn and be able to overcome the challenges we are facing. I know it will be for the better eventually but we need to finish our trial to understand what it is Heavenly Father has in store for us. I want to leave you with one more quote by President Faust “If we believe and are faithful, we are promised all that the Father has. If we receive all that the Father has, there is nothing more for us to receive in this life or the life to come. We should remember that in our challenges and struggles against the powers of evil and darkness, “they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”