Laid Upon My Heart

Occasionally I am asked to speak to Church and other local groups.  The most recent opportunity was last week.  Each time I speak, as I interact with those present, I feel as if I gain so much.  The men and women I meet are so incredible; they have such strong and valiant spirits.

I have felt unmistakable Spiritual promptings that have led me to this work.  My youngest and his wife would say that God has laid this mission upon my heart.  I love that. I do feel the Lord's hand in the work that I do - through this blog, with my speaking, and with the individual work I do with those who come seeking relief from the pain of a hurting heart.  I don't know what these people need, but the Savior does. 

As I look upon others as if through His eyes, He gives me the love I need and the insights that lead to words of comfort.  Together we apply the balm of the atonement of Jesus Christ: tender mercies for tender hearts.  I always feel its tremendous cleansing power in my own life as a result.

I cannot demean another without demeaning myself.  I feel small and mean and lessened somehow when I let this happen.  However, when I feel compassion and charity; when I apply patience and understanding; I feel lifted up as if on angel's wings.  I - who am rarely at a loss for words - find it difficult to describe this feeling.  I feel the limitations of earthly words.  It makes me want to be more like Him.  It makes me want to reach upward and outward beyond myself.  In the words of the poet Kahlil Gibran: I am a lute strung with strings but I am not the lute player.

 I love the words of the Apostle Paul:

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity,   I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.  (1st Corinthians 13; KJV)

 

Words by which to live.  Words laid upon my heart.

 

Text © 2012 Gebara Education

Picture from www.ptl2010.com