Two things can get in the way of your ability to find and fulfill your various life missions: Distractions, and Lack of Resources. But there is one thing that can help you clear the fog: knowing who you really are.
Resources mentioned on the audio:
The Visual Aid that Changed Everything
Hidden Treasures book free download
TRANSCRIPT
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the Rare Faith Podcast, where the solution to every problem is only an idea away, and where the same activity with just a little more awareness, always yields better results. Award-winning, best-selling author Leslie householder brings some of her best information to this inspiring series of life-changing episodes that you won’t want to miss. Show notes for this episode can be found at ARareKindofFaith.com
Leslie: When you do focus on your vision, where you’re going, seeing it done, where you’re trying to go, seeing it done, that is one of the most understated, powerful things you can do towards finding and fulfilling your mission. Let me explain why.
As we did that something just started to shift in our world and we couldn’t see it, we didn’t know it was happening, but I believe in unseen help. We know that that’s what faith can initiate in our lives is unseen help when we have faith. So, as we’re focused on what things are going to be like in ten years, we (my husband and I) finish our dinner, we pay the bill, we walk outside. We go to the car, he’s opening my door and just at that point we hear this noise and we turn around. Coming out of the restaurant was one of the server’s waving a paper in his hand and he says, “wait a minute, wait a minute. The manager says that because it’s your anniversary the meal is on us. This was, remember, at the end. This was like $200 left in the bank and not sure how we were gonna make ends meet. We get focused on where we’re going, seeing it done, feeling what that’s gonna feel like and another resource came to us. This was at Macaroni Grill. We didn’t know the manager. I don’t think we even told the manager. The manager didn’t know it was our anniversary. The server must have overheard it and we had already paid the bill. They decided to void it. That, to me, is just a real testimony to the power of vision. So that is what we’re going to talk about today.
I mentioned, at the beginning, what are two things that get in the way of finding and fulfilling our mission? This is information, number one, you’re all here at a homeschool conference so you probably homeschool. So it’s about finding and fulfilling your mission, but also knowing how to teach your children to find and fulfill theirs. Isn’t that what we’re all about as parents. And so, two things get in the way, distractions and lack of resources.
Distractions and lack of resources
We’re going to talk about first the distractions. And I’ll tell you there are all kinds of distractions. What are some of the distractions that you guys have faced this week, maybe even in just getting here? This is an open forum.
WOMAN ANSWERS (inaudible)
LESLIE: All of your kids getting sick. Yes.
WOMAN: well six of seven.
LESLIE: It’s only a matter of time! (laughter). No, absolutely. Did that kind of throw your schedule a little bit? A little bit
WOMAN: My husband kicked me out the door.
LESLIE: Your husband kicked you out the door this morning to get here. Just so that you could be free to do that. Good husband.
ANOTHER WOMAN: I had an experience this morning, it was like everything was last minute, and time was running out. Stress was starting to mount. My little one was sitting on the counter. My husband was cooking eggs. He jumped off to grab a plate. His shorts got caught on the edge of the counter and he flipped upside down. He’s hanging from the counter on the cupboard thing and I’m like…I was filling a glass jar and I just drop it to grab him. We have shattered glass, water everywhere, and my child hanging upside down and I’m like. Hey I guess we really need to go today.
LESLIE: There’s a sign. A little bit crazy. So for the audio we have an audience participant who said her child jumped off a counter got his shorts caught and was hanging upside down so you break the glass trying to save him and a little bit of a distraction towards why we’re really here. Right? We’ve got things to do. I don’t have time for distractions, but that is life. So we’re going to talk a little bit about the distractions and we’re also gonna be talking about lack of resources.
First of all…all distractions fade when ___________________. Finish this sentence. I have one thing in particular, but think. What in your life all of the distractions fade when______________. When are they no longer a distraction for you?
WOMAN: When I seek my Savior.
LESLIE: When you seek your savior. Excellent. Just as a side note, every obstacle we have, every challenge we face is part of the experience we need to go through to become who we’re supposed to become. It’s those challenges that shape us as we seek our Savior and responding to them as we should. But, I’ve just noticed and this is kind of a theme on my mind recently. And, that is that if we know who we are, if we really have a testimony of who we are as a daughter or son of God then it’s a lot easier to be focused on our life’s purpose and our mission and are we here doing what we were put here to do. So all distractions fade when you know who you really are. We go through cycles; we go through times where we’re asleep, consciously. You know on a spiritual level we’re a little bit asleep to who we are and to what we’re here to do. You can know that you’re asleep to it if you feel inferior next to somebody else or if you feel incapable (and we all feel that, we all feel that). But, when you know that you are a child of God and you really have a deep testimony of what that means, an awakening, a realization, then what comes with that is the confidence that you don’t have to be enough. You don’t have to be superior. You do not have to be any of those things, because as you move your feet. He is working through you.
So, what you’re gonna see here is a picture of me when I was 10. 9 or 10 and my friends and I we were just goofing around we thought it would be really fun to take mug shots of ourselves. Why? Why would we do that? We’re trying to figure out who we are. Well maybe we’re gonna be criminals! I don’t know. But, this was before my first real awakening to who I was. When I was 12, this was a couple years later; I went to a conference at BYU for young women. Imagine this. It was two weeks with just the girls, so we didn’t have boy distracting us and we’d have really really awesome speakers in the morning. People like Brad Wilcox and John Bytheway, and people like Hank Smith. We would be pumped up with who we are and strengthening us to be different when we go back home, and it’s okay and then, during the day we’d have activities. We’d have good food. We’d go play at night. All right so when I’m 12 we’re at this conference, I’m there with my friend and our counselor, at night we would have a devotional in her room before we’d all go back to our rooms. And this night she had music, she had a scripture, she had a message and she shared with us what she called the 20-minute Challenge. “What this is”, she said “I want you to know who you are as a child of God, but what I’d like to challenge you to do is go back to your room after we’re done here don’t say anything to your roommate, just go back quietly, go to your room, turn off the lights and have a 20-minute prayer. And I’m like 12. 20 minutes! What are you gonna say for 20 minutes? But, I did this. My roommate and I went back to our room. We turned off the lights, we didn’t say anything to each other, and we just knelt down, and I watched the clock. Just kind of set the timer there. So I’ve been told to be grateful first. All right. So, thank you for this day. Thank you for our conference. Thank you for my roommate. Thank you for my Mom and Dad. Thank you my brothers and sisters. Thank you for Marcy, Dan. Whatever, I’m just trying to stretch it out. Thank you for the grass. Thank you for blah, blah, blah. I’m just trying to think of anything I could possibly be thankful for. And I look at the clock and it’s been six minutes. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” Right. Well, please bless (I start going through my requests) da-da-da-da-da. I look at the clock and I’m not even halfway done and my mind goes blank. There’s nothing left to ask for, nothing left that I hadn’t been thankful for that I could think of, and so all that there was left to do was imagine myself really kneeling in front of God. What would it be like if I really kneeling in front of God? That’s a hard exercise to imagine that because it’s so beyond my comprehension. But I tried. What would that really be like? And, as I worked to imagine that, something shifted and I felt it and I was and I realized he was listening. He was really there and this overwhelming awakening, this awareness, just came over this little 12-year old. He’s Dad. This was Dad, my Heavenly Dad. I still remember that feeling because suddenly I saw my life in this whole new perspective. I’m away at summer camp and I’ve got a dad at home. I’m away at life camp and I’ve got a Dad at home. And I just called home and he answered and I knew it, and I felt it. And I tell you nothing will change your perspective on life faster than realizing who you are. And we are all that. I challenge everyone now to take the 20-minute challenge. Because when you run out of things to say you’re gonna have nothing left to do but just imagine and try to feel and when you feel that inferiority just vanishes. You can’t feel inferior next to anyone when you know who you really are. It’s impossible.
So, that was a pivotal point for me and I remember being there at that conference and hearing these amazing speakers and I’m like they’re changing lives. I want to do that when I grow up. You know I had that seed planted that I wanted to be a speaker one day. So suddenly it wasn’t, I just want to be a mom, it was like, yeah but somewhere in there I want to be a speaker too. I don’t know what my message will be but somewhere I’ll find one. It was after I got married and then finances were such a mess that that message was being developed, because then the answer came and I had something to say. And so it’s been an interesting ride. And I can say that for a while there my mission was absolutely clear. I knew I had to get the message out in an effective way that would help people put aside the fear and worry of the things that life really distracts us with.
And so on your quest to finding fulfilling your mission, which is going to evolve over time, it’ll change throughout your life, but one day, imagine this…(how’s this for a vision?) Well done thou good and faithful servant. That’s a vision. If you ever feel confused or doubtful or concerned or weak and you need some inspiration on what to do next, remember, like at the restaurant (project out ten years) how about project out to that moment when you hear “well done thou good and faithful servant”. If that’s your focus, if that’s what you allow yourself to imagine and feel, then you’re gonna instinctively know what’s next. You’re not even going to realize you’re being led as much as you’re being led. But, it’s going to be happening automatically. And the truth is you’re already on the path. It doesn’t have to be a frantic search for a mission. Trust that Heavenly Father is already guiding you to it. Going about regular life and doing well. All that you’re already doing is sufficient to bring you there. Your job is to roll and you will be steered. You cannot steer a parked car. So, when you’re uncertain just go.
There is a video that Elder Holland shares. When he and his dad were out in the desert and on their way home they came to a fork in the road and they didn’t know which one to take. So they prayed about it and they both felt impressed that it they needed to go right. And so they did and it was a dead end. So they went back and went the other way and it was the correct way. And the son was like, “Well, dad, why is it that we both felt like we needed to go right when it wasn’t the correct answer?” And his answer was, “I believe the Lord is merciful enough to guide us in the wisest way possible.” His words were different, but he said by having us take the wrong road first we very quickly were able to discover that it was the wrong road and go with confidence, confidence the other way. Isn’t that powerful? That the wrong road could be the right answer. That’s really really interesting to me. But, as long as we’re rolling, as long as we’re moving, He can steer us. He can make…we’ll go far enough and quickly enough to discover our error so that we can turn around before it’s too late, to go the other way. So many of us get frozen in fear, frozen in uncertainty, frozen in doubt that we don’t dare move. We don’t even dare move. When the Lord would rather us move in the wrong direction than not move at all, because then He can steer us. I think that’s a powerful principle.
So, at the end of our days we’ll only remember the things that really mattered. And that’s why we need to think about and focus on what really matters now. And I don’t mean, necessarily, focus on what’s happening now, but focus on what’s going to matter, right where we are. Again, it goes back to having the vision. Holding on to the vision.
So, one of the things we can do to overcome distractions is to spend more time pondering and to remember that you are being prompted already, and lead more than you know. Sometimes we feel so lost. Sometimes we feel so alone. But, we are being guided. We are being prompted. That is part of our birthright. That is part of what we were promised when we came here, that we would have that. And most of the time it’s unconscious. We’re not conscious of it. But, if we ponder and imagine it happening, we will see it more, we will be grateful for it more.
And, as you ponder sometimes, instead of getting answers, you’re gonna get questions. Here’s an example. This last fall I was trying to break through a certain line in our genealogy. I haven’t found a single new person in our tree ever. And I’ve had a little bit of an interest in genealogy for 20 years. And so it was always very frustrating to me to go to the tree and say it’s already been done. Which is so not true. But, I didn’t know how to break through. So, I was inspired by a friend who made a suggestion and I felt led to one particular line that I ought to focus on. Long story short, I did, I made it through. I found the parents and this was a huge, huge breakthrough for me. Massive breakthrough. As I’m looking for the parents of the parents, the grandparents, I found who I thought it was and I had like five points of evidence that said yes this is the right one, this is the right one. But, there was this niggling doubt that’s like, but it’s not conclusive. It’s possible that these could be coincidental. It’s just not quite right. I thought…I have exhausted everything I can think of to prove this relationship. I have nothing left to do so, I decided to go to the temple and just get a confirmation. If I can just get a confirmation then I won’t worry about it being inconclusive because that’s good enough for me. And so I fully expected to get a confirmation. I went and I said this is what I’ve come to. Is this right? And I didn’t get the confirmation. Instead I got three questions. Find out, this find out this, and find out this. I’m like, okay. Darn, okay. Because what I went through to find them was so exhausting, I thought…oh it’s going to be really discouraging if I have to start all over. If it’s not them, but okay I’ll go back and get the answers to these questions. And it was like, who was this Morten guy at the wedding? Find out who that was. Or, you know just different little things that didn’t have answers yet. So, I went home and as I’m trying to get the answers to these questions it opens up this this resource that I didn’t know existed. It blew that family tree clear back to like 400 AD with about 300 names on a website. Whereas, I was spot checking, none of them were on family search. And not only that but, it also confirmed those grandparents. The ones that I thought, it confirmed them to be right. But, because of those questions it led to this instead. So, as you’re pondering on what to do, sometimes you’ll get questions instead of answers. And you can look at those questions as an answer and follow it. It’s a really cool experience.
So another way to overcome the distractions is to clarify. And you can clarify, I mean we all have a general sense of where we’re trying to go, right, but it’s when we when we are faced with specifics on what to do next that we can get tripped up. So, to clarify, number one, I recommend the 20-minute challenge. For sure. But, also to practice yes and no questions in your prayers. Because, I’m not going to do it in this class; it takes too long. But, I taught this class to a group of youth up at a homeschool conference in Utah Valley some years ago. And I posed a riddle. And the riddle was, it was kind of like a murder mystery. Here’s the evidence, what happened, and they had to figure out what happened. And the answer to the riddle was, I mean the details were just so, you don’t just guess something like that, you really have to dig to get those kind of details.
But, they were able to get every one of those details just by asking yes and no questions. And so when we’re confused about where the Lord’s trying to take us or, if we want answers to what we’re supposed to do in this situation or that situation, sometimes we go in prayer and say what should I do? And in order to answer that He’s got to deliver a sentence, or a vision, or a picture, or something like that. And as mortals sometimes it’s harder to distinguish those answers from our own thoughts. But, you take a yes and no question, and you say you know, like it’s like we’re told in the scriptures, study it out in your mind, and then take what you believe to be right and ask if that’s right. And as I’ve practiced that, a little tidbit, if you’ve ever struggled with that, here’s something that may help. That is, when I am asking a yes and no question, this is what I’ve decided, this is what I think, is this right? I pay attention to the very first impression that I get. The first feeling. The one that shows up faster than I can invent it. Because, there is that split moment, you know, if I’m gonna create an image or if I’m gonna experience a feeling that I’m generating myself, it takes a minute to get it underway, but the one that God has for me is instant. So, that’s the one I look for.
And then when I notice it, then I’ll ask was that right? And I’ll just kind of make sure. But, the other thing is, if it’s a no answer, I used to think that a bad feeling meant no. And I later found that the stupor of thought that he talks about, that you will either feel this, this confirmation, or you’ll have a stupor of thought. To me this is what a stupor of thought looks like. “I’ve decided that I need to go to…what’s for dinner?…oh, I mean…I’ve decided that what I need to do is…I wonder where Nick went.” And I just can’t hold the sentence. I can’t complete the sentence. I start the sentence and I can’t get to the end of the sentence without my thoughts just being all jumbled. And, some of that’s a matter of focus. That takes practice too. Sometimes it’s just a mental discipline to get through a sentence. But, literally there is a point where you just can’t even get it out.
And it’s not the feeling, it’s not a bad dark feeling, it’s not a feeling of fear because God is not the author of fear. He will give you peace or an absence of peace. But it’s not that fear. And so I’ve noticed that’s really helped me discern answers a little better, is that when I’m feeling fear, to recognize that that maybe the adversary trying to prevent me from finding the right answer. And so you can always phrase it a little differently, like I’ve decided that I’m gonna go to this or I’m gonna accept this position that’s been offered, or whatever and if you’re not getting peace then try the opposite. I’ve decided not to and see how that feels. And, of course, to act. Do what you know is right day-by-day, step-by-step. It’s the little things. And one day you’ll look back and be amazed at what you were led to accomplish. Sometimes we think we have to make a big, huge splash. But, it’s the little things. It’s the little moments with our children. It’s the little moments in our pondering that lead us step-by-step. And then adjusting as needed.
There is a play, have any of you heard of the play called The Actor’s Nightmare? All right. If you can imagine, The Actor’s Nightmare is a play. It’s a one-person play for the most part. He’s up there on stage and he doesn’t know why he’s there. He’s like in a dream and he knows he’s on stage. He knows he’s supposed to be somebody, but he can’t remember who he’s supposed to be until he gets context clues from the other actors around him. Then he realizes, “Oh, I’m Hamlet. Okay…okay, I guess I’m Hamlet.” And they throw him, you know, they passed the moment to him. And he has to give his soliloquy or something, and so he does. He does his part and then suddenly he turns around and the scene’s changed, and the people are different, he’s in a different play and he has to try figure out who he is now.
And that happens over and over and over again. It’s kind of funny, because at the end you know he’s getting the hang of it. He’s getting the hang of adjusting to whatever’s happening. And in the end this executioner is coming to chop off his head and he’s like, “Okay this is a dream, I’ll just wake up; this will be fine.” And then the guy kills him, and he doesn’t wake up, and he’s a dead body on the stage, and that’s the curtain closing. And I’m like, “That was a really stupid play!” But, then the curtains open again and it’s a new play that needed a body for a prop. And so he was the prop. And it was just kind of a funny, funny presentation. But, it just made me think about how we go through life. What is our role? What am I supposed to do here? I didn’t expect this to show up with my child. I didn’t expect to have to face this challenge over here in this situation. But, we get good at adjusting to those things as we rely on the Savior and trust that he is leading us in times of change. The learners inherit the earth while the learn-Ed will find them beautifully equipped to deal with the world that no longer exists. (Eric Hoffer) The only real constant in life is that there will be change. And education isn’t about memorizing and regurgitating, it’s about learning how to solve problems. And let me tell you how I know this. And with ten minutes I’m probably not going to be able to take this story deeply.
Let me skip ahead… So, when I was in school math was my hardest subject. But, I was determined to get rid of math. I didn’t want math in college so I took as much math as I could in high school, so I could test out of needing to do college math. Which is really, you know, glutton for punishment, right? But, my senior year the lights went on and I decided I love math after all. And so, then I became a math major, which is really funny cuz it’s still hard for me. My kids will ask me to help them with their math and I’m like, I don’t remember, I don’t know, it’s hard. But, I remember my favorite experience probably in all of my math studies was a class in college called non-Euclidean geometry. It was awesome!
(inaudible audience member)
Leslie speaking to audience member: “Did you have Harry Wicks? Okay. That’s a cool question.”
Leslie: All right, so, for example, what are these? [shows a drawing] What are these? Parallel lines. Yeah, parallel lines. Good job. How many points are on the line? Infinite. Right? This is Euclidean geometry, what we’re talking about. Infinite. How many points exist at the intersection of these lines? 1. 1. ding ding ding ding (imitates ringing a bell). Yep. Exactly one, to be precise.
All right, so then they changed all the rules and this class was called non-Euclidean geometry, which says… for example, all right, in regular geometry if I have a line here and I have a point how many parallel lines can I draw through that point? One. There’s only one parallel line that can pass through that point. Right. Well in non-Euclidean geometry there could be two, there could be ten, it doesn’t matter. Just because they don’t look parallel doesn’t mean they aren’t.
Like what?? You can’t change the rules on me. And it got crazy. I mean, for example, this was like an example of one of the problems. If this and this and this are true, prove these things; that in the whole universe there’s only six points. Well, in the universe, as we know it, there’s infinite number of points on a line, which means there’s an infinite number of points on a plane, which means there’s even more infinite points in space. But, they’re saying, well prove that there’s only six in the whole universe. That doesn’t make sense. Well it’s non-Euclidean geometry.
(inaudible audience member)
Leslie: Yeah and that maybe once but, see you’re still thinking in Euclidean space. And what I realized from this class is that the point of geometry wasn’t to learn about shapes and points and lines and everything, it was problem solving. It was like, given a very specific amount of information, with this information only, prove this. That’s really what it boiled down to.
And so they were saying okay, this new problem, here’s a problem, given that every line has exactly two points. First of all process that one. If I were to tell you every line has exactly two points. Meaning there’s no points between them, there’s no point to this way or that way, there’s only two points on that line. It doesn’t have to make sense. They’re just saying this is the information we’re giving you.
If there’s only two points on the line, and there exists only six lines in the whole universe, how many points exist in the universe? You know what I’m…so you’re just working with your logic and trying to figure out this limited information, drawing these conclusions. So, where is this going? These could be parallel lines. These could be…it doesn’t matter, whatever they tell you it is for that problem, that’s the information you have to work with. So, it was really kind of a fun exercise.
Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape. But, what is the point of that? The point of that is that education is to help us solve problems. And, sometimes we just have limited information to go on. But, with that limited information we have all that we need.
Now, obtaining the resources you need. We talked about two things that get in the way of our finding and fulfilling our mission. First one was distractions, which we will be coming back a little bit to that. But, the second one being lack of resources. The first thing that you can do, if you feel like you’re lacking resources, is to relax. And a visual I’d like you to ponder is…you’ve heard of people that teach their kids to swim just by throwing him in the water right? Cuz they’ll figure it out, well whether or not that’s a wise way to teach someone to swim, I’m not going to speak on that. But, if you’re in the water and you think you’re drowning how are you going to be responding in the water? Frantically. You’re going to be frantic in the water and your teacher is going to say what? Relax. Why? Why is it important to relax? What’s going to happen if you don’t relax? You’re gonna sink. And this is true spiritually too – it’s true emotionally too. So, when you feel like you’re sinking emotionally, spiritually, in whatever way, relaxing is the first step to making sure you don’t sink. And it’s very literal. It’s very literal because, as you relax your mind, as you let go of the fear, just for a moment, then the solutions can make it to your mind. Again, it’s in that fear place that you put this shell around your spirit in your mind, that you can’t receive the inspiration that you need to solve the problem. So, relaxing and then also if you’re going to try to float, if you’re teaching someone to float on their back you have them relax and you lay them on their back. What’s the next thing you make sure they do? Keep your chin up. What happens if they keep their chin down? Isn’t that metaphorical too? Keep your chin up and relax and you’ll float. As you stay relaxed it will be easier to know what to do. That inner voice will say it’s okay; it’s part of the plan. There’s a reason for this. It’s shaping and preparing you for what is to come. And by the way, if you haven’t received your copy yet, we have Jack Rabbit Factor for free, as a download. That’s the first half of this book. Portal to Genius is the sequel to it. They’re both, this one and Hidden Treasures, are at my booth. I’ve got cards that show you where to get the free downloads. We also have the hard copy if you prefer that.
The reason I bring that up is because I want to talk briefly on the laws of thought. Doctrine and Covenants says, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before then foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated- and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. And, I told you that I had attended seminars for seven years and it was this one, at the end, that finally, just, I get it. It’s because the gentleman who was speaking, he was not LDS, that he opened his presentation with that scripture. He says there’s a verse in the Mormon scriptures that says… And he had my attention. There are laws attached to prosperity.
Well what would those be? So then he just very matter-of-factly said, “look, you do this, this, this, and this; you’ll have this. It’s that simple.” All the other seminars have been, “you can do it, and rah rah, and all this hype” and everything, and this one was really kind of boring. In fact, the first time he spoke I didn’t pay attention and everybody in the room (there was 3,000-10,000 people…it was a big room) a conference center thing and I was distracted. I wasn’t listening.
Yeah, I went there going for answers, but I didn’t believe I was going to get any so I was tuned out. And at the end everybody was in a buzz about, “oh my gosh, I can’t believe what I just learned.” I’m like, “what did I miss? What’d he say?” You know two hours of presentation, I’m wanting the sum up, and I was so mad. I’m like, “this was going to be my last seminar and I missed it. I missed it.” And three months later people are still talking about that event and what they learned there. I really messed up.
And, not only were they talking about it, but they were getting results. Things were changing for them and so later he had come back to expound on what he had taught. And I was there ready, taking notes, and what we learned there is what ended up helping us triple our income in three months. And it’s principals. It’s just true principles. He shared a diagram, a visual aid that helped me see, like boiled down into its most simplest form how our thoughts have an effect on what goes on around us, and the results that show up. And the difference between two people doing the same thing but getting to different results is because of what’s going on up here, and he helped me understand that. I have that presentation. I trained with him to teach it after things kind of turned around for us. So, I have a copy of that presentation for free on my website. Come to my booth and get one of my cards and you can go watch that video that changed everything. It’s on www.thoughtsalive.com. It’s the visual aid that changed everything. Also known as the stickman video.
Two of the laws that I want to just touch on briefly…how am i doing on time? How many? Ten? Okay. There are actually eight laws described in this book. This is also another free download. Two of the laws I want to mention right now.
First one is perpetual transmutation. The law of perpetual transmutation says, it’s just a fancy way of saying that everything is either coming into physical form or going out of it. Anything you can think of in our world is either in a state of growth or decay. Can you think of anything that does not fit into that? Even these chairs, as solid as they seem to be, they’re oxidizing. You know what I mean? So everything is either in a state of growth or decay. Now our ideas are included in that. In other words an idea of vision of what we’re trying to accomplish with our family is an idea that… ideas are things. Ideas are things and that thing is either growing or decaying. That idea is either growing or decaying and as we hold to that vision and believe in it, it’s growing and eventually will become real in our life. Because, as we focus on that it will lead us to think of solutions that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. It will cause us to take actions that we wouldn’t have taken otherwise. It’s the vision in our mind that we have that guides and steers the things we do. When we’re picturing the disaster at the end of the month that we’re trying to avoid. What do we do? We get fearful. We go put our head under the covers. We don’t answer the phone calls. We don’t return the bank’s messages. You know what I mean? We do the very things that caused the disaster at the end of the month and so holding to the vision is so important. The law of perpetual transmutation – it compares those ideas to vapor. And here’s just a little image. I don’t have it on a slide, but vapor is water in the air and as it starts to gather it becomes a cloud and as that cloud gathers it becomes heavy and begins to rain. And even in its most solid state it can be ice. But at any point along the way in this process it can reverse. It can become a cloud and then it can dissipate again to vapor. It can come to rain and never become ice. Right? Perpetual transmutation, depending on the conditions that it is in. And by the same token, our ideas are the same way. First of all, a thought we have, it’s really non-existent, but as we think on it, it becomes an idea. And as we nurture that idea it is created spiritually. And as we hold that with faith, in time, by law, it becomes physical in our world. And through this process we are constantly affecting the outcome in our life. And so the minute we…the minute we lose hope for the wayward child all of the conditions that we’re preparing to bring that tile back start to back up again because our faith wavered. The good news is that the atonement allows for imperfections in this process. Like, for example, I set a goal to accomplish something with my family. I know that by planting the seed in my mind, the idea, that it’s beginning to be created and that unseen things are helping. The resources are starting to line up for me as long as I hold to the faith. But, one day I’m having a bad day and I just don’t think it’s gonna work. I’m throwing a fit and I’m just depressed and sad and angry and blah,blah,blah. And at the end of the day I can think, oh I just killed the idea seed, and it’s dead. Or, I can think, man I really blew it. Repent. It makes up for that. And, because you decide I think it’s still coming, that’s enough for it to still be coming. You see how it’s more a matter of how do you feel about it than it is about the fact that we have ups and downs. Is this making any sense? Okay. That is the law of perpetual transmutation. It’s powerful.
The law of vibration is another very powerful one. And that one says that everything around us is in a state of vibration. Everything is in a state of vibration and vibration is a medium for transferring signals. So, if you think back to ninth grade chemistry we know that we were taught that all things vibrate. Everything on a molecular level is buzzing around and vibrating- solids, liquids, and gases. They’re all made up of molecules that are in a continual state of movement. Our personal vibration is controlled by our thoughts. If we think hopeful, faithful thoughts we emanate a different kind of energy. You walk into a room and someone’s mad. You don’t have to be told that they’re mad. You can feel it. Would you agree? You can’t you…you know, you…can you…can say, “well what’s wrong?” Well nothing’s wrong. Well I know something’s wrong, the dog knows something’s wrong. He can tell. Right? Something that’s invisible, but it’s real. And, we do not attract that which we want, but that which we are. And, so if we are trying to improve our life, but we are holding ourselves in a low vibration; then those two things will be…you will repel the very thing you’re trying to achieve. And so it’s a deep chapter, but it does explain how that works, and how understanding it can help you stay on the path to achieving the goal. By allowing ourselves to feel the new circumstance. Or, by allowing ourselves to feel, what would that feel like for God to say well done thou good and faithful servant. You imagine that, you feel what that’s gonna feel like. You hope it might feel like…do your best. That feeling is changing your vibration to become the kind of person that will qualify for that kind of thing. Because, your vibration is like a radio. If I have a radio here in the room and I turn it on to a station; I’m hearing country music. Did the radio suck the music into the room? No. The radio just made it audible. All the resources you need are already in your environment. But, by tuning in to the right vibration, being in that right place, that state of being, that feeling. Or, feeling is a conscious awareness of a particular vibration. So, when I say vibration it’s just an emotion. But, when you’re in the motion of faith. When you’re in the motion of hope or faith and gratitude, that keeps you on the station that receives the broadcast that’s already in the room that tells you how to solve the problems that you’re trying to solve. That was deep. That was deep. Trying to go fast.
So…so, when you’re facing problems you gotta take the lid off. Think outside the box and, and again you can go to my booth to find out how to get the free downloads, if you don’t want to buy the paperback. So, again if you need to make parallel lines meet; in other words, if you must do the impossible, look to the horizon. Look where you’re going. See it done. Because, as you look to the horizon you’ll see that they already have, the parallel lines have already met. The thing you’re trying to accomplish is already done. All things are before God at the same time, so even though we haven’t experienced it yet we can see it and believe it it’s as good as done and you achieve the impossible. President Packer said, “There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience. It gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen, but there is another kind of faith rare indeed this is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding and it calls forth things that would otherwise not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things. It comes by gradual growth. It is marvelous even a transcendent power a power is real and as invisible as electricity directed and channeled it has great effect.”
So, I want to close with two things. Any of you have seen the movie Apollo 13 or know the story? Their mission was to land on the moon and on the way to the moon there was an explosion and they lost some of the functionality of their ship. They were going to die if they didn’t get home, so they used the gravitational pull of the moon. They abandoned the mission and their next objective was to get home alive with the limited things they had available to them. And what they did down at Mission Control was they had a model of the ship on the ground so that they could do simulations and and try to solve problems for the people up in the air so that they could solve the problem and then give them procedures on how to solve the problem. And the leader came in with all this stuff and he dumps it on the table. He’s like this is what they have to work with and they need to make this square peg fit in the round hole or whatever and clean the air because they were going to die a carbon monoxide poisoning if they didn’t. They needed the scrubbers to work. And so with that limited amount of resources, they figured out a way to make it work. They had all they needed and so do we. We already have all that we need to get started to do the next thing. Sometimes we get paralyzed because we think we need to have it all right now. But we don’t. We just need a little bit. A little bit and trust that what we need will be there as we come. You do have a mission to fulfill and the world wants you to think you’re not good enough or smart enough.
In closing I’m going to share a story by Richard Bach. He says,
“Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all — young and old, rich and poor, good and evil — the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current was what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last, “I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.”
The other creatures laughed and said, “Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!”
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, “See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies…” (Letting Go, by Richard Bach)
And this is what learning to live by these laws, eternal principles, laws of thought. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen has been quoted by the prophets and it’s a powerful read. It’s 150-year-old book that explains the power of our thoughts. And that’s where it begins. And as we live these principles we become a partner with God and creating miracles. Miracles will be realized in our life and it will inspire others. And as parents what more do we want then for our children to grow up with peace with these kinds of understandings and become examples and inspiration to the rest of the world.
Announcer: This concludes today’s episode of the rare faith podcast. You’ve been listening to Leslie Householder, author of the Jackrabbit Factor, Portal to Genius, and Hidden Treasures: Heavens Astonishing Help with Your Money Matters. All three books can be downloaded free at ARareKindOfFaith.com. So tell your friends and join Leslie again next time as she goes even deeper into the principles that will help you change your life.
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