God's rain.

I'm filled with gratitude to God, and I want to share with all of you dear friends who read this blog!  I need to let you know that I know God is here for us personally, in every moment, in every situation, in whatever emotion and circumstance we find ourselves.

In my journal this semester I've been writing, writing, and writing some more about how I've seen God in my life; the more I look around me, the more I see His blessings. I see His infinite, unconditional love for all of us.

I want to testify that because God loves us, He makes us strong AFTER we demonstrate faith.  Moroni explains this principle so well in one of his most beautiful prayers: "...thou [God] workest after men have faith.  For thus didst thou manifest thyself unto thy disciples; for after they had faith, and did speak in thy name, thou didst show thyself unto them in great power.  And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared" (Ether 12: 30-32)

God manifests Himself to us in our lives after we demonstrate faith; we first have hope and we then act in hope--then the blessings come.  But sometimes the blessings don't come right away, because often God wants us to stretch ourselves to our limit. If God didn't stretch us and let us struggle and grow, how would we grow in the first place?  Even throughout all the pain, though, He's there all along, shouldering our burdens with us.  Sometimes it's so hard we don't even realize He's here; we cry and plead, and we think we're getting nowhere.  But after we continue to hang in there and get by--doing the best we can--things come together.  That's when God pours blessings like RAIN!  And it's not a sprinkling of blessings; it's a STORM of blessings.  I'm experiencing this right now.  God is flooding my life with blessings.  And the greatest blessing of all is that He's given me so much of His grace over the past few months that I've grown in ways I can't explain.  He's changing me.  Our souls are, as the scriptures say, like soft clay being shaped by a potter.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is our Potter; He died so we might live--and not live in sorrow, but in HAPPINESS as we live in His love, experiencing the miracles of His light and peace. :)