Seeking Mentoring from the Master Week 3

For our family mentoring this week we are talking about Obtaining the Mind of Christ found in 1 Corinthians 2:16. We discussed two ideas to go with this Mastering your mind and Minding your master. Controlling your thoughts is one of the most important skills for success in all areas of your life 

One way to do this is with the three E's and the three R's 

E's stand for Elevate, Eliminate and Educate

R's stand for Remember, Review and Renew

These two questions will give us the guidance we need to fully consecrate ourselves to the Lord

1. What am I now doing that I should stop?
2. What am I not doing that I should start?

Let's talk about each one. 

Elevate- This applies to our speech, our thoughts and our actions. What we allow to be around us in media or posters on our wall all help to elevate or degrade us. Each time we choose things that Elevate we are choosing more light and truth. 

Something interesting Wendy Watson Nelson said at Roots Tech goes with both Elevate and Eliminate for me was about a Patriarch.  She asked him what he did to prepare to give a blessing and expected him to talk about going to the temple, studying about the Tribes of Israel, or something like that. Instead he said "I get out the vacuum".  I have been thinking about how cleanliness is next to Godliness and the more our home or environment is clean and orderly the more we are ready for revelation and inspiration.

Some of the things on my list of Elevate was to have my home second only to the temple in sacredness. This meant that I had some work to organize and get rid of things that no longer served our family or brought us joy and to start adding things that would be symbolic or in other ways bring us joy and light. I created a new thing for our wall that has done both and wanted to share it. It is a wall hanging basket that says Joy on it. I loved it immediately when I saw it and brought it home. But couldn't decide what it was for or how to use it. This year my one word is Joy and so everything I have found that says Joy on it I have brought home to remind me of this one word I am seeking this year. 

1 Nephi 11

So this week in Young Women's we did a fun craft that was inspired by a member of the Stake Young Women's presidency. We created Tree of Life replica's to go in each girls room. It was a fun activity and I knew what I needed to do with my Joy basket. It reminds me that the Fruit of the tree (the Love of God) is the most joyous to the soul and that it is what every human heart is seeking.

I have also been starting on one side of the house and ending at the other trying to vacuum throughout the whole house. This of course requires me to pick up and put away along the way. And required several days of one hour at a time stretches to get to where I could go from one side of the house to the other in one hour. But progress is being made. It has been interesting to me to find that the creation, at the beginning of this process, of a sacred space has inspired changes throughout the house. Creating a physical place in my home to talk to the Lord has allowed Him to help me make the whole house a place He can be welcomed.

Educate and Remember have gone together to some degree. We have been working on our memorization book. The video I shared had a 3x5 card box that was a good idea but we use a 3 ring binder instead. I used the same idea to have daily, even and odd, and days of the week and days of the month. But have done it on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper instead of cards so we can all read it together. It is working well and makes me super happy to have things to memorize as we have down time or waiting time. My youngest has done amazing and I am loving the ability to pull up scripture when I am discouraged or need a way to "elevate" my thoughts. I am also listening to "As a Man Thinketh" on audible and thinking about how that applies to elevate and eliminate. Things I think that need to go and how to add light and truth to my thoughts on a consistent basis.

Still working on Review and Renew. Would love your input on what you think it means. Have been asking the question "What am I holding back?" as a spiritual question for the Lord to help me answer the two questions at the top. What do I need to start doing and what do I need to stop doing?  Will work on these with Review and Renew.

Last but not least I found an amazing scripture this week. It was in a book I have of Simon Dewey's art work on the Savior. It had a picture of the woman who had the issue of blood reaching out to touch the Savior and being healed and said "We know from the scriptures that later, after word was spread abroad concerning this miracle, that as many as touched the  Savior's robe were healed." I thought ?What?? When did that happen. I don't know about that??  So I went to the scripture that he also gave on the page Matthew 14:35-36 and was so blessed by this scripture. It helped me see that the Savior can heal now those who reach out to Him in faith!! This was a comfort to me as I have been praying for many years now for the healing my family and I need. This video is of Matthew 14:35-36 in ASL and was a great joy to me!!

Here is a video about Prayer-- Did you think to Pray? By the Mormon Tabernacle Choir