Lessons Learned.

Yesterday I was searching through some of my issues of The New Era for music that I could try to play to try and put on here. I couldn't find any. Instead, I got sucked into reading all the articles and stories in the magazines. This was a blessing to me. My testimony grew a lot. I found several scriptures I am going to look up. Actually, I'll share them with you, and we can read them together. The first one is 1 Samuel 15: 22. It reads, "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." It is better to obey The Lord's teachings than to sacrifice something while you are not following The Lord entirely. 

The second one is Helaman 12: 1, which reads, "And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him." If we listen to the Holy Ghost and trust Heavenly Father, He will bless us. 

The next ones have to do with how to best use your freedom to choose. 

The first one is Jacob 4:10. "Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works." This one is saying that you shouldn't counsel (or question) The Lord but instead take His counsel to you, because he wisely, justly, and mercifully counsels us. 

The last one is D&C 58:26-28: "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." This one is saying that if we do good, we'll be rewarded, and that The Lord doesn't command all things because when we're told to do things, we tend to do things just because, or we don't do them at all, and we don't learn from the experience. 

There's a song by two of my favorite artists, Kristin Chenoweth and Carrie Underwood. It's called "Lessons Learned." My favorite part is the chorus. It goes, "Every tear that had to fall from my eyes, Every day I wondered how I'd get through the night, Every change, life has thrown me, I'm grateful, for every scar, Some pages turned, Some bridges burned, But there were lessons learned." And I love this. Throughout your whole life, you get to make the choices. "Not me, not Hermione, you." You get to make your own decisions, whether good or bad. And, yes, there will be consequences, good or bad, and often they won't always match the decision: a good decision may not have good consequences and vice versa: bad decisions may not have bad consequences. But there will be lessons that you learned. You may have learned that some decisions are better than others, or that you can't always do everything by yourself. But if you ask for, and listen, and follow God's teachings and inspirations, and make the best decision out of good, better, and best, you will receive blessings and more experience. And, in the end, you will be able to always tell the difference between the good, better, and best decisions.