Can I Find Truth?
Here's the answer: You betcha. The answer to that question is a complete, definite, absolutely undeniable YES!
Revelation and Racing
Last Friday I had my last region swim meet. I'm in my senior year of high school so it was the last meet I would ever compete in. The team arrived up at the South Davis rec. center at least a good hour earlier than we actually needed to, because that's what we like to do for big meets. We sat in the hall, ate lunch, and played card games for a while. Then we changed into our suits and got ready to warm up.
The pool looked crisp, clean, and crystal clear; we were all pumped and ready to go. But as I was kicking down the pool during the warm-up, something bad happened... I accidentally inhaled a little too much water. Pretty quickly I started feeling that queasiness that chlorine water gives you. I finished the warm-up but I wasn't feeling too good. I was hoping the feeling would go away by the time I had to race but as my race got closer and closer it wasn't getting much better.
I was getting more nervous about it so I decided to pray. I asked God what I could do to get feeling better. Was there something I could eat that would help? Maybe finish my Powerade? Well, His first answer was to go ask my mom for advice on what to do. So I went down into the stands where she was sitting and asked for her advice. She didn't have any ideas for what to eat or drink but suggested I do some relaxation exercises. I thought it was pretty sound advice but I felt like now that I had obeyed God's prompting I should ask Him what to do again. As I prayed the answer came that I should do 2 pretty specific things. 1) Go fill your water bottle but only drink it small sips at a time. 2) Eat half of one of the PB&J's in your lunch box but again, just take little nibbles at a time. I thanked God for the revelation and did exactly that. As I sipped and nibbled away, I did indeed start feeling better. I never got back up to feeling 100%, but because I followed God's direction I did get feeling much better.
Once I drank my water bottle and half of my sandwich was gone, I put my cap and goggles on, swam a small warm up, and I was ready to race. It was the 100 butterfly, my best event. Soon enough the buzzer sounded, I dove in, and had an awesome race! I shaved almost 3 full seconds off of my previous best time! I went from a 1:08.74 to a 1:05.90! It made me happier than eating a Costco muffin!! Now as a side-note, I don't take the credit for that great race. The credit goes to our Father in Heaven. I am confident that I couldn't have done that without Him.
Now back to the beginning of this post. Through this experience, it became more crystal clear to me than the pool we swam in that, "by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." If God can tell me to snack on a sandwich and slowly sip some water so I can have a super solid swim, then certainly he can tell you and me anything. Absolutely anything.
The Eternal Perspective
If we take a look at the Plan of Salvation we can see why the Holy Ghost can tell us the truth of all things. We know that God designed his plan for us to have the maximum amount of happiness possible. What if the Holy Ghost could only tell us the truth of things gospel related? That would mean we would be missing out on some things and not have all of the happiness possible. The Holy Ghost will testify of ALL truth, not just some of it.
It is important to realize however that just because the Holy Ghost CAN tell us anything, it doesn't mean that he always WILL tell us anything. We know that sometimes for us to be happy in the end we have to go through hard or confusing times now. In fact, if we were just told everything we wanted to know, that would defeat one of the main purposes of life, to learn and grow. If we ask God for knowledge often times he does let the Holy Ghost tell us. We just need to realize that God's will for us is better than our own, and because of that, his will is what's going to be done.
What Can We Do About This?
- Pray for revelation about a question you have.
- Practice aligning your will with God's.
- Learn even better what the Holy Ghost feels like to you.
Great story Matt! I enjoyed your message!
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