Discipleship

In all of my lesons that I've learned over the years, the one of discipleship is likely to be the one I cherish the most. I will cotinually be working on this one throughout my life. It also seems to be the one I still struggle with regularly. However, I feel this one is the central piece to the purpose of life. Over the past couple of years, I've grow spiritually and have found  out for myself how religion will play a crucial part in my life. In doing so, that means for me to put Heavenly Father at the head of my life and make my relationship with Him my first priority. Now in the past I would have considered myself a religous person. I would have told you that God and religion were important to me and that I wasnted to raise a family to believe the same principles. I was raised to highly value families and religion and saw the benefits to these values and beliefs. The only problem was that while I "believed" it, I didn't really have my own deep down commitment to it until these past 18 months or so. I would go through the motions and generally made good decisions with my life and treated people well. When you do right by others and live your life well, I believe that good things will happen for you. I was no exception and enjoyed blessings in my life. But, have you ever gone through life and the day to day activities and wondered why you're doing what you're doing and if there's more to life?

Regardless of what religion you are, there are higher laws and principles that will impact your life for the better when you live by them. I believe that discipleship is at the head of those. If my goal and purpose in life is to become more like Christ then I will be happier in my life the more I follow Christ's example and strive to become more like Him. One of the greatest commandments that we are given as Christians is to Love One Another As I Have Loved You". This is both simple and complex and something that I for one didn't fully understand, embrace or live. Our Heavenly Father loves us, more than we can possibly imagine. When (not IF) we fall and make mistakes, He's waiting with open arms for us to go to Him for help in making things right and getting back on track. We are all in this life together. We are all trying and struggling to figure things out on what makes us happy. We are all on different paths and at different speeds. Why are we so impatient with others weaknesses when we have our own? Why do we sometimes get pleassure from seeing others in pain or with their weaknesses exposed, as if it somehow makes us feel better about our own? Why do we feel that if we put others down, we will somehow look better to ourselves and/or others? We compare ourselves to others and feel better when we are doing better than them. We also compare ourselves to others and then feel that we will never measure up or be good enough. I know I fall into these traps all the time. When I am in a good place myself (spiritually), I've noticed that I don't do this as much and that I become more concerend with my own progression than anyone else's. My concern with other's ends up coming more from a loving place and not a judegemental one. That's when I know I'm in a better place. I also have more peace and love in my life as a whole and can see things more for what they really are, and not to justify my own actions/inactions. In seeing others more like Heavenly Father sees them, I'm also able to better see myself the way He sees me. I'm more patient with myself and others and allow for mistakes, knowing it's a part of life. I don't feel the need to be perfect, but strive to be growing and improving. I then naturally want others to feel the same way I do, so that they too can be happy. They say misery loves compay, but so does peace and happiness. Again, this isn't a lesson that I have down and have mastered by any means. I do have a testimony however that when I am working on this principle, I am happier with myself and everyone else around me. I'm not easily offended and I'm personally growing.

He Truly Loves Us http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/he-truly-loves-us?lang=eng&query=%22he+truly+loves+us%22

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng&query=%22beware+of+pride%22Beware of Pride