Rejoice in Christ--part 2!

I lead the choir in our ward!  I am the Choir Director!  This Sunday, we had the whole Ward organized before me and my companion and I led them in a lot of songs none of us have ever sung before.  In order to get them all to energize, come alive, look at their audience instead of books, and to smile and brighten up to match the  message.... I SUPERSMILED (one of my SuperHero Powers) and would conduct while dashing quick and unexpectedly from one part of the chapel to the next so they all had to follow me with their eyes and take them off the books.  I kept moving so they would look up.  They all laughed and we all had a wonderful time.  That was the first time in my life a Bishop has ever given me permission to run around on the benches of a chapel!  I reached back in my memory to things that Sister Cramer used to do in our Manassas 2nd Ward choir.  Her tactics worked wonderfully applied here.  Thanks, Sister Cramer! This  was also one of the hardest days of my mission.  We literally gave all our souls to the work and faced some crushing discouragements... and as we were walking to church, we faced all these black clouds and said aloud, for the next kilometer, I will only smile.  I choose to look to Christ and re-harness myself to the only power of light that is always available--Joy.  Eyes and minds are only designed for one thing: looking to and following Christ!  It at least certainly is the most productive thing we can use them for; so why not use them only for it?

We can always rise and choose joy if we fall to our knees and choose Christ.  That's the way to live life as a triumph-er!

​No stone will remain.  No wall is ours alone to climb over.  No burden can block or drag down--only give traction and strength to bring you to the top.  No endings.  No sorrow of ANY kind that can't be swallowed up and transformed if turned all the way over to the Savior Jesus Christ.  Nothing but dead-ends until we choose His path.  No emptiness, loneliness or rejection He doesn't understand.  Nothing but fullness of life and hope. "And what is it that ye shall hope for?  Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." Moroni 7:41 "In Christ there should come every good thing.  All things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them. ... they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing" "Cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, He shall come to suffer and die to atone for your sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that you shall stand before Him to be judged.  All your burdens may be light, through the joy of Christ." paraphrased Alma 33:21-23.  "It is easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point you a straight course to eternal bliss ...the words of Christ, if we will follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better life. ... As much as you put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up.  Cry unto the Lord Jesus Christ and find mercy, a remission of sins, peace to your soul." paraphrase of Alma 36-36. 

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He had no debt to pay.  He had committed no wrong.  Nevertheless, an accumulation of all of your guilt, your grief and sorrow, struggles, heartaches, temptations, sufferings, rejection, disability, infirmity, depression, illness, disease, pain and humiliation, all of the mental, emotional, and physical torments known to man--and more importantly; known to you and your individual life--He experienced them all.  So that you can and will overcome them all.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Until next week!

Elder Howard