I adore the topic of Personal Revelation! I was electrified by general relief society president Julie Beck's statement in April 2010 General Conference that "The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life….Those who earnestly seek help through prayer and scripture study often have a paper and pencil nearby to write questions and record impressions and ideas….Because personal revelation is a constantly renewable source of strength, it is possible to feel bathed in help even during turbulent times."
I know this to be true. Some time after that talk was given I was asked to give a stake conference talk on personal revelation, and taking Julie Beck's advice, for about two weeks I carried around a notebook with a pen tied to it and I jotted down every time I had a personal revelation. I counted everything from feelings of peace to ideas to spiritual truths to impressions to calls to action. I was stunned to discover that I averaged about a dozen distinct instances a day and when I charted them on the computer and printed them out it was twenty pages long! I taped the pages together side by side and while delivering the talk had members of the stake presidency hold it up behind me while I stood at the podium. There is not room to do this here, but trust me, the heavens are open, and they are open to every single one of us who wants to try this.
I have a lot going on around me. Sam has been home from school since March and although he is delightful, I was used to having some alone time and knowing that other people besides me were giving him attention. We have a major remodel going on at our house so it is very noisy here from 6:30am-4:30pm Monday through Friday. Henry's lovely parents moved to our neighborhood in June and we have been busy helping them get settled.
I'm constantly praying because I'm either constantly in need of help or grateful for the help. And I am truly bathed in help.
In addition to feeling sadness for those who have lost their lives in this pandemic or other world events, I'm sure I'm not the only person who wakes up in the morning in a panic that we're all going to die of Covid19. And if I go to Home Depot to buy flowers am I putting my family at risk?
God, through the Holy Spirit, constantly comforts, assures, and guides me so I can move forward with life. As I have tried to pray and read my scriptures every day, He has blessed me with an overwhelming sense of peace in spite of current events.
Sudden Strokes of Ideas
Often I receive personal revelation in the form of "sudden strokes of ideas" as the prophet Joseph Smith taught. One of my favorite love messages from God is a good idea, and He cares about what I care about.
For example, I love to create and design, especially with flowers and home interiors. I also need to drive Sam around in the car for at least an hour every day to support his sensory needs. To make this more fun for me, I "shop" for wildflowers along the side of the road. But it seems like the best flowers are always along a busy street with no place to pull over. One day I said a little prayer to find a safe place to stop, and immediately the idea came to me to go to the La Costa Park and Ride lot and I found a treasure trove of blooms!
My daughter, J, and her boyfriend, S, lived with us from April through August to help with Sam and get the house ready for Henry's parents. One day as S was dismantling a whole bunch of old shelves and cabinets, the idea popped into my head to use that reclaimed wood to make a giant table for my back patio. And I even remembered I had an old set of casters so I could put it on wheels and easily move it into shadier spots as the sun moved. That table is now sacred ground to me. We ate there, yes, but we also used it as a sacrament table when my daughter, Alena, came to visit with her husband and kids, S and J wrote on their laptops there, we had many profound discussions while sitting there.
These examples of creative strokes of ideas are not trivial and are vital to my mental health, but I also have need of strokes of ideas that are more overtly of the "life and death" variety. I have a special connection to Mindy H in the ward (my "name twin") and a few months ago when she was pregnant with baby C and having serious digestive issues, I was racking my brain to come up with ideas for things she could eat. Almost daily ideas for new ways to combine her "allowed" ingredients would plop down into my head and they were delicious and almost always exactly what she needed.
God Winks
Another category of personal revelation is what I call "God Winks". These are just sweet, serendipitous things that happen that make me smile. Earlier in the year when you couldn't just buy face masks, I was sewing as many masks as I could for my pharmacy and front line friends and I also made some for my elderly neighbors. One day I got a text from my neighbor that said she was just in Home Depot and ran into someone who was wearing an identical Hawaiian print mask! They talked and found out that they had both gotten their masks from me, and the other gal was my friend who works at the VA hospital. It still makes me smile to recall this memory!
Next Steps
I am often paralyzed with fear about how I'm going to accomplish the tasks before me. But when I take a deep breath and pray, I am given encouragement to just take the next step and not worry about the rest. In the case of moving forward with writing this talk, my next step was to email my notes to myself, and then eat breakfast.
Water
Prayer and scripture study are important keys to facilitate personal revelation, but running water is a really helpful tool as well. I find that the flow of water while doing dishes, taking a shower, or watering my garden encourages the flow of ideas.
Journaling
If you want to be more aware of personal revelation in your life, it helps to keep a "hand of God" journal. In his beautiful October 2007 conference talk, Elder Henry Eyring said, "Tonight, and tomorrow night, you might pray and ponder, asking the questions: Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life or the lives of my children? I will do that. And then I will find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him."
Don't overthink this. This can be as simple as a note on your phone or a little notepad you carry in your purse. Noise and people are almost constantly around me and sometimes it is hard to remember. I am so grateful that since quarantine started in March I have kept a little journal on my notes app on my phone because going back and reading about those experiences and feelings and words of wisdom is like having past Mindy come to the future and comfort current Mindy.
The Biggies
I've shared about little bits of help every single day, and occasionally I will get a biggie. My autistic son, Sam, can't speak with his mouth and has difficulty doing things with his body that most of us take for granted. Until a few years ago I thought he was just as disabled inside, and church policy and our bishop said that he had no need of baptism. But in April of 2017 he started learning to spell to communicate and I started to discuss baptism with my husband but we couldn't come to a decision about whether it was necessary. Then in October 2018 I was reading the Book of Mormon in response to present Nelson's Book of Mormon challenge and I came to 2 Nephi 31:5-7 that explained why Jesus needed to be baptized. It hit me so strongly and clearly that if Jesus needed to be baptized, why not Sam? I talked to my husband and we decided to have Sam start taking the missionary lessons! The missionaries were wonderful. It took a year for Sam to get clear enough on the letterboards to spell that he wanted to get baptized and spell the answers to his baptism interview questions. Samuel was baptized on Thanksgiving Eve 2019 at the age of 17, and now he is preparing for a service mission and I will be his companion!
And speaking of missions, our full time missionaries Elder T and L have been teaching us mission prep classes which Sam absolutely loves and the elders are incredibly inspired as they customize their teaching to Sam's unique abilities. The spirit that the missionaries bring to our home (or in this case, our patio) is sweet and profound. There is nothing like it.
The Lord has promised:
"I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." D&C 84:88
"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." Mosiah 24:11
"And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led." 1 Nephi 17:13
During this unique year I've been challenged in many ways but also bathed in help. I love the song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", especially the last verse: "He is always near me though I do not see him there and because he loves me dearly I am in his watchful care...." I know that this is true. I know from experience that God is right beside us and that he cares about what we care about and all we have to do is pray, listen, and act.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
