quote:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues
Are these gifts available to all-- men, women and/or children-- equally?
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posted
I think ALma 32:23 & 3 Nephi 26:16 answer that.
The gifts of the Spirit are for every human that Heavenly Father chooses to grant a specific gift. Little children may not have the maturity, physical strength, speech ability, etc., to put all those gifts to immediate use. But I don't think that makes each person's gifts any less real, whatever their age.
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posted
I've had one Brother from the local ward tell me that women are not given the gift of healing, that this gift is reserved only for the priesthood, while a Sister from the ward said that she has known women that have had the gift of healing.
Hence my question, in broader terms, to a larger group.
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posted
I know women who have the gift of healing, and I knew one women whose Patriarchal Blessing specified she had that gift.
Also, we are told we are all to seek after every good gift, not just that men should seek after every good gift, and women should seek after all of them except healing.
I do think the gifts are equally available but not equally given out. In order to get many of the gifts we really have to strive, for example, we need to strive and pray with all our heart to get charity. Sometimes we are also given gifts needed to fulfill our various life missions.
It doesn't matter though for now if we don't have all the gifts, because the scriptures tell us Heavenly Father spreads out what he gives so if we are all cooperating together we will all have access to ALL the gifts. Unfortunately, we don't always work together that way.
There is an excellent book on this topic by Carlos E. Asay, but I can't remember the name. It goes into the topic in depth. Maybe someone here will know the one I am referring to.
posted
Priesthood blessings for the sick can generally only be done by those who hold the priesthood, but healing can come in other ways than just through priesthood blessings. I mean look at Nitasmile - surely she has a gift for helping heal people's physical and emotional ailments! Healing doesn't just mean physical healing; many many women are blessed with the gift of healing in ways that heal our souls rather than our bodies.
I have heard of women who on rare occasion were able to "miraculously" heal others when there were no priesthood holders around, although priesthood blessings are reserved for those who hold the priesthood. But since those blessings are not the only way to be healed, surely there are many women who have a "gift" that allows them to heal.
I think often when we think of these "spiritual gifts" we assume they mean gifts to do things in a miraculous way that everyone would recognize as a spiritual gift; but often they aren't that way. The gift of tongues, for example, is often given to missionaries to understand a foreign language. The gift of healing may be given as knowledge of what to do in a medical emergency. It wouldn't seem like a "miracle" to an outsider, but the one who received the inspiration might recognize that it was more than their own skills that got them through.
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posted
A man died and went to heaven and St. Peter told he would show him hell first before going on to heaven. They walked down a halway to a door and opened it and looked in. Inside there tables loaded with the most delicious food and all the people had no hands but the had spoons and forks on the end of their arms but they were so long that they could not reach their mouths with them, so there they were starving in the midst of the most wonderful food in the universe. It was a terrible thing to behold and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then they went on further down the hallway to another door and St. Petter opened it and the man looked in and saw the exact same thing as he saw in hell but the people were joyously singing as they used their own spoons and forks to feed their neighbor and in turn to be fed by him.
Spiritual gifts we are given are for the benifit of others and theirs are to benifit us. The gifts are available to everyone male and female but to be blessed by a gift must come from someone else. We dont bless ourself we bless others and others bless us.
posted
Except it doesn't necessarily work with all gifts. My gift of faith sure blesses me, whether or not it blesses those around me who may have the gift to believe others.
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posted
I think it also may be important to understand what the various gifts are and are manifest as... I certainly believe that many medical professionals, even those that are not members of the church, regardless of if they are male or female, have a certain degree of the gift of healing bestowed on them... not all, but certainly there are those that are humble enough to acknowledge they have received insight and inspiration how to proceed in treatment and diagnosing things that was not their own...
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quote: Except it doesn't necessarily work with all gifts. My gift of faith sure blesses me, whether or not it blesses those around me who may have the gift to believe others.
I think there is no such thing as faith that does not bless others because faith without works is dead.
posted
Catherder, that's exactly what I was trying to say with my earlier post.
Tim, funny you should mention that analogy - my Activity Day girls are doing that as an activity tonight! (Have to eat a bowl of cereal without bending their elbows.) I think I'll bring bibs. Posts: 5841 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
My wife has the gift of Healing, our best friend does too.
WE know a young girl that exhibits ALL the gifts. She has had many blessings that have told her as much too.
There are many more gifts to be had than the ones that are listed in the scriptures, or should i say, they can exibit themselves in very diverse manners.
FOr example, this girl has the power of communication by the spirit. She lives far away from some of her family, but she can contact the regularly jsut by connecting with thier spirits. They actually have conversations from 2000k miles away, hug each other, etc.
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posted
Frankly, I’m losing faith in blessings (a more correct statement would be in MY ability to give inspired blessings). I had a very, very bad experience one year ago involving giving a priesthood blessing that still has me very soured.
A sincere question: Why do we need to give blessings? Why can’t I just pray for myself to be healed, directed, inspired, etc., etc.?
Another sincere question: Why are some (many?) blessings not brought to pass?
I am very leery of giving blessings (and in fact will get out of it if I possibly can) because of my bad experience last year.
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quote: Why can’t I just pray for myself to be healed, directed, inspired, etc., etc.?
We ABSOLUTELY can. And I have had many, many miraculous blessings occur this way. BUT, it to do that takes WORK!!! Hard, exhausing work. Sometimes it is nice if you have access to it to someone who literallly is holding Christ's power in him. I know that that power is so strong EVERY SINGLE THING in the entire Universe obeys it. Another thing is, we are supposed to share our talents and gifts with others. I don't always easily have access to a Preisthood holder for blessings. SO I have to use the power of faith only instead, or maybe I am viacariously given some access to the Preisthood from my relatives who are not near me. I don't know. But if I have access to the Preisthood I would always want to use it because it gives us access to Christ's power.
quote:Another sincere question: Why are some (many?) blessings not brought to pass?
Maybe they will be brought to pass, but maybe in a different way than you anticipate. Also, I think it is almost a skill or gift in some ways to call down miracles in blessings. I used to know one man who always did that. To me it if we need something impossible it doesn't seem too much to ask it, allowing that it is OK with Heavenly Father, and it doesn't seem to odd for that miracle to immediately miraculously plop down right in front of us. Whether it is a cat falling out of the sky or anything.
But I have noticed other people I've gotten blessings from don't seem to expect any dramatic miracle or at least never pray for it for some reason. I think it is just what they have come to expect.
Maybe it just takes time building up the skill of feeling the right things and sayihng them. For some reason, my Patriarchal Blessing was very strange because the Patriarch who was a big fan of my (secretly) VERY abusive step-dad was mad at me because I did not bring him with me for the blessing. And the Patriarch disapproved of me and even said some things in the blessing about my stepdad that just aren't true. I wonder what he would think if he really had known what was going on in that house? Awful as it may sound, I have decided that not all Patriarchs have the same access to revelation.
Since that time though, I did have some very miraculous events happen, kind of making up for what happened in my blessing, that stepped in and really turned those awful experiences into something almost sacred.
quote: I know that that power is so strong EVERY SINGLE THING in the entire Universe obeys it.
I'm not trying to be disagreeable, but I have a hard time feeling that it is so cut and dried and definitive. Certainly not every single thing in the universe obeys me. More often than not people are not healed at my hands. I'm either uninspired or unworthy and I honestly don't think it's the latter.
quote: Awful as it may sound, I have decided that not all Patriarchs have the same access to revelation.
I certainly believe that is true.
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posted
Temp: Do you think it's easy to invoke the power of God? Perhaps the very reason why we are expected to give blessings is because it is hard, and demands we live worthily, and places a great responsibility on our shoulders, and requires us to LISTEN to and become familiar with the Spirit and not other Spirits.
I don't think you should get down on yourself if a blessing has not worked out, though. It isn't like such things are intuitively easy, it's part of life and learning to become like our Heavenly Father.
quote: but I have a hard time feeling that it is so cut and dried and definitive. Certainly not every single thing in the universe obeys me.
The thing is maybe giving blessings is also partially a gift. Now that could be something you were not given super strongly, BUT there are three good things about that:
1. If giving blessings isn't a big gift area for you, it is certain you have at least ONE OR MORE strong gifts in other areas. EVERY SINGLE PERSON is given gifts. The point is to use them together to help each other. So you very possibly have some other type of more rare, but needed gift. Maybe you just haven't figured out what it is yet, or maybe it comes so naturally for you you assume everyone else has the same ability.
2. Heavenly Father has said our weaknesses can become our strengths. Maybe this is just a skill Heavenly Father wants you to learn about and develop so you become even stronger and more proficient in this area than you would have been otherwise.
3. Eventually, I think we will all have ALL the gifts. So sooner or later it will come easier for you. It may just be you are being too hard on yourself. Or maybe Heavenly Father wants you to learn something from this. Maybe if you overcome this challenge it puts you in a place to better help others overcome the same thing.
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Would you like to talk about your bad expierence, maybe someone could help. I also hesitate to do the whole blessing thing as I never really feel worthy to do it. They say you should just listen to the spirit and say what comes to you, well nothing really comes to me or I am never sure it is the spirit. Also on testimony day people always say they know the church is true and some even say without a shadow of doubt they know it is true. Well I am not sure I really know anything, I believe some things but I don't know them. I am still there though and I keep trying to understand God and what He wants from me and how I stand in His eyes. I always feel though that being saved by grace after all I can do will leave me out because I never feel I have done all I could do. Anyway working out my salvation in fear and trembling really describes me I think.
A woman requests that I go give her a blessing. She has nearly every untreatable medical problem known to mankind and has been to every doctor in the county. She’s found a new doctor, made an appointment and wants a blessing before she goes.
I go over there, bless her to have the strength to make her doctor’s appointment and the wisdom and ability to understand what he’s telling her.
She gets up the morning of the appointment and can’t go because she’s caught a cold or something.
While one may say this woman has emotional problems, I do believe she is sincere in wanting some relief. Perhaps she really doesn’t want to be healed although I don't think so. I simply do not know.
My concern is that she appears to have faith to ask for a blessing. I earnestly strive to honor the priesthood and keep my covenants. I’m not into porno, wife beating, or anything else of that nature. Yet, I do not have the gift of healing.
My thought as I was driving home after the blessing was, “This woman seems sincere. Why can’t she be completely healed by the power of the priesthood since no other earthly treatment has improved her condition one iota.”
This same sort of situation happened a year ago only much, much worse. The woman died after the blessing even though she was promised a return to health (and I don’t mean in the spiritual-realm sense).
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I feel for you. This is a difficult question. I struggle myself with this issue. Why do we give/receive blessings, if God is going to do His will anyway? Why do we sometimes see blessings given where promises are made that are not fulfilled? Is the Elder or HP giving the blessing not being inspired?
About the only answer I have right now is this: as a sick or afflicted individual, asking for and receiving a blessing is a way to openly exercise our faith in God and in the Priesthood. As a priesthood blessing giver, we are to exercise our faith in the performance of the blessing, and we are to strive to live daily in a way that makes us worthy to give blessings.
It is rather like Prayer--I think it has more to do with changing ourselves, and making ourselves humble and open to God, than it has to do with God hearing what we have to say.
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posted
Frequently it is God's will that a person be healed after receiving a blessing. Often it is not. And yet why would we want to cut off that possibility just because it doesn't work 100% of the time the way we want it to? President Kimball said that the Lord was wise to not give him the power to heal all the people he wanted to heal, because President Kimball would have used it to relieve everyone's sufferings, and prevent all deaths, and thereby thwart the purposes of God.
To me, determining the will of God is impossible almost all of the time. And yet I give blessings when asked to do so, knowing that if God wants a person to be healed by that blessing, I would be amiss to refrain. Since I do not have that gift of prophecy, I am surprised when a miraculous healing occurs. But still it occurs when it is God's will that it does, regardless of whether I am able to predict it or not.
I believe that there is always a benefit to the receiver of the blessing, regardless of whether the person is healed, and also regardless of whether that person survives, and also regardless of whether the giver of the blessing is able to discern the will of God. The benefit will not always be obvious to the skeptic, but it will always be felt by the receiever if he or she receives it in faith.
Just my opinion, though.
[ March 24, 2006, 02:16 PM: Message edited by: Randy ]
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posted
Temp, different priesthood holders require different levels of preparation before they feel ready to give a priesthood blessing. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable taking more time to prepare beforehand when you're asked to give a blessing. I know some very good righteous men prefer a couple hours or a day to get in the right frame of mind. I feel that if I am trying to live so that I can feel the Spirit and am worthy to enter the temple, then I am probably pretty good to go on an impromptu basis with perhaps only a few minutes reflection and prayer to ready myself and get more in tune with The Holy Ghost... but that is just me, and I would always prefer to have more time.
When a blessing is given by the power of the priesthood and what the blessing consisted of is that which was whispered by the Spirit, then the realization of the blessing is as much dependent (if not more so) upon the faithfulness of the recipient as it is upon the priesthood holder giving it, Temp. It is important to remember that the priesthood is used and exercised in specifics, not generalities. While the macro is impacted, it operates at the micro level.
In the example you gave, you blessed her with strength to go to the doctor and understand what she was being told. You didn't bless her with healing or any particular level of health. When she woke up not feeling well, did she really not have the strength, or did she simply lack the faith (as in the action form of faith) to do her part in the realizing of the blessing given her?
My mother often wondered in the last several years of her life why she couldn't simply have a miraculous healing from her health conditions. She had been righteous, she had faith, she and my father had kept their covenants, so why wasn't some miracle happening? For a while, it really tried her faith as she didn't understand why the blessings I and others had given her weren't calling for it or promising it. The answer was, as she finally came to understand, it was not what The Lord intended for her in the waning period of her mortal learning and experience. The Doctrine and Covenants explicitly tells that one will be healed when it is the Lord's will, as in if they are not appointed unto death. I think that sometimes chronic conditions fall under that classification of "appointed unto death." Sometimes, certain health conditions will not be made whole until the resurrection. So, it is not a matter that the blessings didn't turn out to be true, it is a timing matter of when they come to pass.
I can understand your being gun-shy as it were. My father, when he was a bishop, started feeling that way when he was asked to give elderly members blessings or whenever he would go out of town. He would feel inspired to give blessings that would allow the individual to rest and be at peace rather than be healed. And, they would be at peace and would rest... they would usually end up dieing peacefully within a day... And, for a while, whenever he would take a vacation or be out of town on business, someone in the ward would die...
I guess in a rambling sort of way what I'm saying is, maybe you don't have the specific gift of healing, but that doesn't mean you don't have the power to pronounce blessings of health by virtue of the priesthood you hold if you are worthy of exercising the priesthood and are in tune with the Spirit.
Faith, young brother! Faith!
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quote: I feel for you. This is a difficult question. I struggle myself with this issue. Why do we give/receive blessings, if God is going to do His will anyway? Why do we sometimes see blessings given where promises are made that are not fulfilled? Is the Elder or HP giving the blessing not being inspired?
I've been sitting and thinking of this for awhile. I would venture to say, and I'm still thinking it through totally so forgive me, that HF isn't always going to just do his will. That there are times where he wants to heal us but we have to have the faith to ask. And there are times where it really doesn't matter whether or not we're sick.
Shiz, I don't know if you remember when your Grandmom died, your mom had the elders come give her a blessing. They blessed her that she would recover and then she died. Your mom said that for her it was a matter that she had tried everything and wasn't going to go through life wondering if she should have done something and didn't.
posted
Temp, I don't know about your particular situation, of course, but having had a lot of blessings in the recent past, I can say I've learned a few things: - When you give a blessing, you are merely the conduit. The blessing is between the other person and the Lord. There are many things that you might not see because you won't have the full knowledge of that person's trial. I've had men tell me that when they gave a blessing, they assumed that the things said meant one thing, but to the person blessed, they meant something entirely different. - A blessing is based upon the person's free agency. As to life-and-death issues, I have known a case where a woman in a coma was told that she could be healed, and the whole family assumed it meant she WOULD be healed. But she was my best friend, and I told her daughters that if, during the coma, she had even a moment where she would have a "near death experience" and be free from her body, she would choose to go Home rather than stay. Her daughters were grown, and she had been in chronic, deep pain for a number of years. I truly believe that she did have the choice and that she chose to go Home. I don't think all situations are like that, but in many cases, we may not know. - My thought as I was driving home after the blessing was, “This woman seems sincere. Why can’t she be completely healed by the power of the priesthood since no other earthly treatment has improved her condition one iota.” If sincerity was all it took, we'd ALL be healed. Some of us actually need those trials, actually need to struggle through health issues or pain or fear of death. It may be lousy going through it, but we wouldn't be fit for heaven if we didn't have struggles, and people are at different levels. Sounds like the woman in this situation may have been in graduate school rather than at kindergarten level, so to speak. - As hard as it is to believe, there are priesthood holders who are unworthy. And if they are unworthy, they may unknowingly cause a burden to be put on those for whom they perform blessings by saying things that are not in accordance with the Lord's will. I do NOT want to imply that anyone in particular is unworthy, just want to mention that these things unfortunately happen and that when they do they can cause a crisis of faith for those affected. - I also think that different people give different blessings. Some are more flowery and others more sparing of speech. Some have more of a gift than others. The best blessings I've received have been from men who took the blessing seriously, even fasted, in one case dressing in Sunday clothes to better help himself feel the Spirit. Then there are those who don't seem to feel that any personal preparation is necessary and are occasionally even flippant. The blessing's essense may be true, but maybe I received a bit less information than I would have? I don't know. I can say that in all the blessings I've ever received, I may have received blessings that haven't yet come to pass, but as to completely being wrong...never. And I've written down the main points of every blessing I've had in the past 4 years. I would highly recommend doing this...many, many times I have been sure that I was told one thing only to go back and see that it wasn't quite the way I thought it.
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quote:Temp, different priesthood holders require different levels of preparation before they feel ready to give a priesthood blessing. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable taking more time to prepare beforehand when you're asked to give a blessing. I know some very good righteous men prefer a couple hours or a day to get in the right frame of mind. I feel that if I am trying to live so that I can feel the Spirit and am worthy to enter the temple, then I am probably pretty good to go on an impromptu basis with perhaps only a few minutes reflection and prayer to ready myself and get more in tune with The Holy Ghost... but that is just me, and I would always prefer to have more time.
Your point is well taken. The interesting thing with the woman who died is that I had over a week to prepare. I fasted, I went to the temple, I begged the Lord for help. Truly, I don't know what more I could have done.
I understand, too, that all blessings shouldn't be granted (referenceing President Kimball's statement). However, I should be able to know what the Spirit would have me say even if the person isn't going to be healed or is going to die.
My only conclusion can be that I am uninspired.
My only comfort is that I feel I am trying to keep the commandments. It's in the Lord's hands.
That said, I don't want to give blessings any more and will get out of it whenever possible.
posted
Many of you know that I have a son who is severely afflicted with a disabling condition. For all the years of his life I had prayed fervently for him to be healed. When he finally received a blessing from someone whose faith and worthiness I could not doubt, a promise of direct healing was not pronounced upon him. Instead, he was told that the powers of heaven would be poured out upon him. I was still looking for physical healing, and hoping that "the powers of heaven" meant an eventual miracle that would bring him to a state of normalcy. I knew that between us there was enough faith for healing. The months dragged on. Outwardly, nothing changed, until many months later when my son's tenuous ability to respond on a keyboard stabilized enough for him to communicate that there were records in another state, in immediate jeopardy of being discarded - - - records that had been prepared for ordinance work for ancestors whose names I had never heard, records long forgotten. The records were recovered and ordinances were performed in three temples in two states. With the introduction of needed drugs into my son's treatment, his ability to communicate eventually died out. To this day, my son remains severely disabled. Though he wasn't healed, I am profoundly grateful for the blessing which was granted him, and I have come to accept that he has a place in God's great plan that is larger than the scope of my ability to comprehend.
I learned that faith does not always translate to healing in the ways that we define it.
I learned that the "gift of tongues" can be granted to a child in certain circumstances, and in this case, a child unable to speak.
quote: My only conclusion can be that I am uninspired.
Temp, that is not being fair to yourself. Perhaps you didn't recognize what The Lord was actually saying because you were too fixated on what you felt you needed to say.
quote:My only comfort is that I feel I am trying to keep the commandments. It's in the Lord's hands.
That is indeed a comfort, and it is in the Lord's hands. Seek His will, and it will be made known to you in the very hour you need it.
quote:That said, I don't want to give blessings any more and will get out of it whenever possible.
As a holder of the higher priesthood, don't seek to avoid exercising the various aspects of that priesthood. We learn through experience, and the use of the priesthood is about serving others. As others have hinted at, have faith, patience, and true humility. Remember, you won't be rewarded until after the trial of your faith! Posts: 2402 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I remember being asked to confirm my nephew. Knowing from experience that I lack the gift of prophecy, I hoped that this time would be the exception, and that the Spirit would finally decide to tell me what to say. We're told over and over again that that's what's supposed to happen to priesthood holders when they give blessings, and yet it never happened to me.
I confirmed him. I said "Receive the Holy Ghost." That's when I felt something happening. I went on to give him blessings that I was confident that God was willing to give to him, and to give him counsel that I was confident that God wanted him to understand, and yet that powerful feeling did not return. On later reflection, I realized that the Spirit testified of the most important element of the confirmation. The meat. The rest of it was just the frosting. God had not given me any unique words to bless my nephew with, so it would have been easy to conclude that I was uninspired when I gave that blessing, and yet the part that God cared the most about was the memorized part, the part you always have to say.
If you're living your life the best you can according to your conscience, obeying the commandments, it is my belief that you are inspired, even if you don't know whether the person you are blessing will be healed or not. God can still work through you to accomplish a miracle. You don't really have to declare a complete physical healing if you don't feel led to do so. To a frightened, sick person, a reassuring, authoritative voice that reminds them that God loves them and is mindful of them can in and of itself begin the healing process, whether it's a physical healing or a strengthening of their spirit. God will take over and do what He needs to do after you have done your part.
I once gave a blessing to a woman who was in severe pain, and when I learned what her problem was, I was utterly convinced that she was headed for some unspeakable grief. Yet I gave her a blessing, in the process making two or three technical errors that would have earned a rebuke had the other priesthood holder cared about doing it perfect. I didn't feel any better afterward, when she and her husband looked at me with a glowing faces and shining eyes, in gratitude to me for what I had done. Even though I felt I'd done nothing. When I learned that her problem cleared up quickly after that, I became conscious, as I never had before, how very little the priesthood holder has to do with the healing, and how much God has to do with it. And yet the blessing is a requirement that God has given us to do, whether it's easy or not.
[ March 24, 2006, 04:44 PM: Message edited by: Randy ]
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quote: I had a very, very bad experience one year ago involving giving a priesthood blessing that still has me very soured.
I had a very, very bad experience involving a priesthood blessing, personal revelation, and prayer that has left me very soured. I was absolutely sure God intended for me to follow Plan A, so I threw myself into it wholeheartedly and never looked back. I still have no doubt that's what God wanted me to do and I did it. I was assuming that if I was following God's will, he would make it all work out. But it ended in a real mess, and my confusion about the whole issue threw me into depression (and, no, it wasn't one of those things you can explain away by saying that someone used their free agency wrong). I ended up on anti-depressants and eventually had to quit my career and so on and so forth. Why would God give the green light when he knew the road was going to end in crash? I have no idea.
I don't ask God very much for his opinion anymore. I ask for comfort, and I ask for character attributes like patience. But I don't ask him what I ought to do. If I'm going to crash again, I'd rather crash all by myself than involve God and wonder why he sent me that direction.
The strange part about the priesthood blessing that set me on that road (given by my father) is that it's all been fulfilled. I wrote it down, and there were several promises made that were unrelated to the Plan A issue. Sometimes I think God meant for that particular disaster to happen, and that I needed to go through it. But that thought scares me off so I try not to think about it very often. I've turned into somewhat of a spiritual coward. It takes a lot of courage to trust God and I'm not very brave anymore.
I don't think the powers of heaven can be communicated and controlled as easily as we think they can. I think we figure that if we're living a decent life, then we've been obedient to the law upon which the blessing is predicated, so God owes us one, and he's bound because we've done what he said. I just don't think God is that predictable. Our puny efforts don't put God in a box where he has to give us a blessing. Maybe Joseph Smith could read God that well, but I sure can't.
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posted
You are right. We don't hold God ransom on blessings earned, but, at some point He will provide the blessings to us when we've been obedient to the law, because He must obey His own law. It is usually just a matter of timing. We only see the here and now. He is the one who determines the when in the blessing bestowal.
quote: I've turned into somewhat of a spiritual coward. It takes a lot of courage to trust God and I'm not very brave anymore.
I don't know your situation, and you don't need to share it. I am sorry that you have had a hard row to sow, Janey. But, He knows what you need most to grow and develop and loves you enough to allow things to hurt for you. FWIW, as strange as it may seem, maybe this is/was part of His helping you realize some of your weakness, so that you can grow and come to Him so He can help make your weaknesses strong like your strong points! Posts: 2402 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote: FWIW, as strange as it may seem, maybe this is/was part of His helping you realize some of your weakness, so that you can grow and come to Him
Well, yes, I believe you've hit the nail on the head. But I'm still sulky about it. Since I'm one of God's children, I reserve the right to act like a two-year-old every so often. I hope to get over it in the next couple of years.
Thanks for your kind words, catherder.
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quote:I reserve the right to act like a two-year-old every so often
You and your DH are always welcome to do so in The Fortress with the rest of us kids... in fact, we have a whole mini-beserker warrior team you two can help train! Posts: 2402 | Registered: Oct 2005
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And since I appear to be plan B, I for one am quite glad Janey's :Kiss" Plan A crashed. After all if she had still been happily practicing Law she may not have been willing to date someone who made less than half what she did in a year. Posts: 2912 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I can't pretend to know why God allowed you to go through those trials, but here's another possibility at least.
You have gained a lot of knowledge and experience that may very well be of great use in the future, perhaps for your family. Perhaps a few decades from now you will find that knowledge to be indispensible in a situation that you have no ability right now to foresee. If I were a betting man, I would wager that there are people in situations right now who would be in better shape if they had knowledge that you gained in your experience.
When my wife was prompted to learn sign language, she assumed that we would have a deaf child. That didn't happen, but she passed the skill to our daughter, who was able to befriend the deaf girl next door. Also, signing skills were an important, arguably indispensible part of our initial efforts to begin to communicate with our autistic son, although we don't have any need to use sign language with him any more. You just can't always foresee why certain knowledge and skill may be needed down the road.
Just a thought, for what it's worth.
Posts: 3403 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote: You have gained a lot of knowledge and experience that may very well be of great use in the future, perhaps for your family. Perhaps a few decades from now you will find that knowledge to be indispensible in a situation that you have no ability right now to foresee.
As more and more time separates today from my own personal disaster, the more I'm able to see that I did learn a lot. And what's most surprising is that I can admit I learned a lot more from failing than I ever would have learned by succeeding.
It's just such a shock to have to change all your expectations and assumptions. I think that may be a lot of the difficulty anyone might experience in giving (or receiving) a blessing that isn't fulfilled. We had certain expectations for God, and he didn't live up to them. It changes your whole outlook on religion and life to have to grapple with being disappointed by God. The story of Mary and Martha does a good job of illustrating the betrayal you can feel when God disappoints you. When their brother Lazarus died, both women greeted Jesus with the accusation, "if you had been here, our brother would not have died." And he wept with them, because they hurt. Then he raised Lazarus from the dead. But for a while there, Mary and Martha were truly disappointed that Christ let something bad happen to them when they knew he could have stopped it. Why would he do that?
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And DaKnife darling, the fact that you turned out to be Plan B has made it a lot easier to come to terms with the failure of Plan A. What a happy alternative. Posts: 4767 | Registered: Jun 2004
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For me, I never necessarily equated "gifts of healing" to always mean priesthood blessings. I think it decribes a larger sense that all of us , though maybe not in the same capacity, can provide "healing" to others. If we are kind and a true friend to others, we are "healing" their hearts. If we introduce our friends to the gospel and they join the Church and repent,they are "healed" through the Atonement. If we help someone who's been injured or abused to being the path of healing in their own lives, then though our "gift of healings" we can help them along.
In other words, I don't think we need to get caught up this being a man vs woman thing. All of us have the capacity to heal others.
Posts: 2308 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote: It's just such a shock to have to change all your expectations and assumptions.
Yes. This process of maturing can be very painful. In a very different way than yours, my family underwent some shocks that have led other people who have undergone similar shocks to lose their faith in God. We had to go back and re-examine our previous assumptions, and realized that they were based on naive expectations as to how much we thought God would protect us from devastating tragedies. This wasn't really based on revelation from God as it was in your case, but simply on the common youthful feeling of indestructability. Or maybe just fervently wishful thinking. But it was surely very wrenching to have all of our assumptions turned on their head when we found out that death and severe disability were not out of the question for our children. That certainly changed all of our expectations.
[ March 24, 2006, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: Randy ]
Posts: 3403 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Janey's :Kiss" Plan A crashed. After all if she had still been happily practicing Law she may not have been willing to date someone who made less than half what she did in a year. ![[Big laugh]](graemlins/biglaugh.gif)
