To Love God

Yesterday in Priesthood Meeting we were studying Chapter 1 of the Ezra Taft Benson manual, The Great Commandment – Love the Lord. During our discussion we reviewed the following paragraphs:

To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all-consuming and all-encompassing. It is no lukewarm endeavor. It is total commitment of our very being—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—to a love of the Lord.

The breadth, depth, and height of this love of God extend into every facet of one’s life. Our desires, be they spiritual or temporal, should be rooted in a love of the Lord. Our thoughts and affections should be centered on the Lord. “Let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord,” said Alma, “yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever” (Alma 37:36).

This really made me stop and think about my love for God. I thought I loved Him, but do I love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and into every facet of my life? No, I don’t, not really. I want to, but l realized something about my relationship with God: I know He’s there, and that He loves me, and His teachings are true – but He’s distant, and hard to read, and slow to answer. And so, I have not invested that much time and energy into the relationship, because I wasn't getting much out of it.

And then I realized that I am transferring the stories I tell myself about my earthly father on to God. And I give Him the same rote, obligatory, and distant respect that I show my dad. Maybe that is why I haven’t always been obedient to His commandments as I should have been.

I need to change that.

I didn't want my children to have the same kind of relationship with me that I had with my father. I made sure that I was available, and open, and quick to love physically and emotionally. I know I wasn't perfect – far from it – but I hope that my kids have learned to love God enough that will give them the desire to always want to be obedient to Him.

My current crib in Roanoke

So I thought I'd chronicle where I'm currently living in the Dallas area. Actually, it's about 30 miles northeast of Dallas! I really like the area from what I've seen so far, except it's so far away from everything. I'm in a 3-month contract, so I'm here at least until the end of January. I then can renew my contract 3 months at a time - so I'm guessing I'll be here at least through the end of April. We'll see.

This is what the house looks like. The owners (a mid-30s couple, recently married) have the master bedroom, and rent out the remaining 3 rooms to me, a man about 15 years older than me, and another guy about 30. Everybody pretty much stays to themselves. I have kitchen/laundry privileges and I share a bathroom with the other 2 renters. It's not so bad now that I spent an hour cleaning it - ugh! 

 

The following shots are from my room. It's pretty nice. I love the furniture in it. I wonder if they'd notice if I take it with me when I move out?

The door on the right is the entrance. The door on the left is a walk-in closet - very spacious - lots of place to store things. I love this chest of drawers - it's gorgeous.

That little black box on the floor is a space heater. . . They keep this house so cold and my room is about 20 degrees colder. I asked my neighbor if his room was cold, too, but he uses a space heater, too - he said the previous owner complained of the cold. The space heater makes a big difference.

I was excited about the TV in my room until I learned that it's not even plugged in, let alone hooked up to cable or anything. I guess I can hook up a cheap DVD player if I wanted. Not a priority right now.

This is my commute every day. This shows it's 22 miles, but my Garmin only shows 14. . . hmm. Anyway, it only takes about 20 minutes to get to work - that is if I leave between 6:30-7:00am. . . If I leave any later, it'll take me about 45 minutes! Ugh.