"First promptings are pure inspiration from heaven. When they confirm or testify to us, we need to recognize them for what they are and never let them slip past. So often, it is the Spirit inspiring us to reach out to someone in need, family and friends. The Lord knows the needs of all His children—and He knows who is prepared to help. If we let the Lord know in our morning prayers that we are ready, He will call on us to respond. If we respond, He will call on us time and time again and we will find ourselves on what President Monson calls “the Lord’s errand.”19 We will become spiritual first responders bringing help from on high."
Take the challenge to become a Spiritual First Responder~Mom
I have been better at this during different phases of my life. I find it often comes hand in hand with doing things for my family or for others as I serve in my calling. It is very humbling when you do follow through with one of those promptings and realize the Lord was using you to do something He needed done for one of His children who was struggling that day.
ReplyDeleteI have also had blessings come for myself as I've responded to promptings the first time I received them. For my teaching job, I get observed twice a year for my yearly evaluation- one is scheduled, and the other is unannounced. When observed, my supervising administrator doesn't just watch me teach. She looks through all my files, IEP's, checks my blog to see that its updated, looks through all my data to make sure I'm doing it weekly, analyzes my lesson plans-every aspect of job performance is scrutinized. As you can imagine this is very nerve-wracking! For the scheduled one, you have time to prepare and get everything ready. Not knowing when the other one will be adds a whole new level of stress and anxiety. This past school year I would get promptings to work on getting things prepared and ready for my unannounced observation. Luckily I followed through with them, so that the day she did arrive things were in order and organized the way they should be. I was so thankful and grateful!
Having an experience when you recognize that you were a "first responder" makes you more alert and aware of the spiritual promptings you receive. It makes me want to keep responding and helping the Lord to get His work done, because I know He will also help me with mine in the process.
I loved this talk. It is now my goal for the year. It is so humbling to know that you can have the spirit to guide you all the time. The at principle is amazing when you thing that you could have an actual member of the Godhead to be with you 24 hours a day.
ReplyDeleteI think one reason why I love to go on missions so much is that I feel the spirit so strong. It guides me where to go and what to day.
I want to be a person who Heavenly father knows my name and can depend on me to go and do his work with his children because he is not here. It is so humbling to know that we can gain that kind of trust. It only comes as we have our life in order, then we can receive promptings to go and help others. That example Jen gave is so true. He prompts you to help yourself. When your life is in order he will give you more errands to help others.
I pray everyday that I may know someone to help in some small way. For a few years I have kept a gratitude journal of these acts where I knew I was an answer to someone's prayer. I hope I can always be worthy to be trusted by our Heavenly Father to do his work.
President Monson's "to the rescue" theme and Elder Rasband's "first responder" theme make for a dynamic dual approach to following the spirit. I've not been a consistent first responder, but when I have it has been a rewarding experience. I've also had those who were first responders to me. It seems that in either case it is a true testimony of just how the Lord works through everyday people to bless those that need his help. He could do it all without our help, but the blessings are doubled when he works through one of us to respond to the needs of one of His other children.
ReplyDeleteI really like this a lot and we need to heed to our Prophets words and his council too. We dill get blessed be being obedient to his words from General conference too. I hope you all have a great week and those are my thoughts for this week !
ReplyDeleteMariah Sparrow
Many of you noticed mom's comment about the rose. Here's the story as it relates to being a first responder. Last week on Monday I was shopping in Smith's with my boys. As we passed the floral area I felt a strong impression to buy a flower. So I looked and was thinking about just getting a single flower...but then my eyes were drawn to the 6 yellow roses. Normally I don't think buying roses is worth the expense, but I knew I would find a away to share these flowers. My first impression was the sisters I visiting teach, check! Then I got thinking about a friend at the church office building that just shared with me and Gary the passing of a close friend to cancer. She shared her heart break and sorrow with us, but the sweet peace. Then I remembered a favorite quote from President Monson, "God gave us memories so that we could have June roses in the Decembers of our lives." I knew I needed to drop of the next rose to her. Then the next person came to my mind of a struggling young mother in our ward who also works at the church office building. Then I couldn't pass up the opportunity to give a rose to Mom. Sometimes we just simple need to act and wait for the spirit to guide us. All the recipients of the roses have commented on how surprised they are at how long the rose has lasted. Yet another reminder again of the lasting affect of simple acts of kindness.
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