Do You Know Your Purpose?

So for the past 6 months a postal worker at the Syracuse post office has been telling me he wants me to meet this lady that comes in as often as I do. He said that she makes humorous cancer T-shirts and has battled four types of cancer so far. She comes in to mail out shirts and I come in to mail out books. He just has really wanted to introduce us for some reason.

Then my sister has been telling me about a Utah blogger (who was recently on Oprah) who survived a plan crash with her husband and her face was disfigured. I haven't had the chance to learn more about her but I've been hearing about her everywhere. Well, I found out recently that these two women Linda Hill and Stephanie Nielson are winners as well for Wasatch Woman of the Year for other categories. I will finally be meeting these two amazing women that others have been trying to get me to cross paths with all year. This is just another confirmation to me that everything happens for a reason.

You can visit this link to read Stephanie’s story on Oprah, watch the video and also visit her blog. In her interview on Oprah, referring to her time spent in a coma in the hospital, Stephanie said,

“I was with somebody who told me that I could choose to live and have a hard life, you know, embarrassing at times and painful. Or, I could just stay there, and there's lots of work I could do there too," she says. "But I thought of my children and my husband, and it was easy. An easy choice."

I think about amazing individuals like Stephanie and Linda who are given tough burdens to carry in life and yet they have such a clear understanding of what life is all about, why we are here and they know their purpose.

In her blog the Nie Nie Dialogues Stephanie refers to her circumstance as, “Part of the deal I chose”. This profound statement is another testament that we were aware of our life and the challenges we would face before we were born.

Sarah Menet, whom I refer to quite often, learned of this knowledge in her brief encounter with death. She says,

“When it came time for us to come here, we were given the choice, once again, as to whether we wanted to live as mortals for a time on earth or to remain in God’s presence. No one was ever forced to do anything. It was all a matter of agency. After our choice was made to become mortal, we formed Usually we chose to be with those spirits to whom we were closest, the spirit friends we loved the most and from whom we could learn the most.

As we made this choice, we were shown some of what our life on earth would be like. We were given small glimpses into our future life. God could somehow look into the future and show some of the things that would happen to us. He was able, to a great degree, to show us some of the joys, some of the suffering, and some of the challenges we would face. Even with that we were still excited for the opportunity to come to earth and experience mortality.

Our circumstances differ with the families we come into, the time when we are born, and so on. All this was measured for our good. All of us chose to come to earth because we knew the experience as mortals was the plan of God for His children to achieve their greatest potential, with the possibility to eventually become more like Him and Jesus. God showed us some of the bad and unhappy circumstances so that our decision to be born would be a choice based on complete understanding of what lay ahead.”

So, leading into the topic of today’s message Sarah goes on to say,

“Almost everything that happens to us in our lives, including every person that we meet, is part of a plan for each one of us. Very little is by accident. Our lives and the surrounding circumstances are all part of a huge plan that we are part of. What we do and how we react when those trials happen is up to us, and so the choices we make have a great deal to do with it as well. But there are forces working hard to arrange circumstances for us and then influence our decisions in responding to them. Both good and evil spirits pull strings in our lives to make events happen. ..God arranges things so that everything that happens to us can work for our benefit. If we allow it to.”

Knowing that we chose to come to earth at this time, and we chose to support our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness, and we accepted the trials that lay ahead as well as our purpose and all that we could do for the good of others, ourselves and God, gives our life more meaning.

All of us have a mission here. We are all a part of an intricate design, and are put in certain places at certain times for certain reasons. We came here with the desire to return to our Father’s presence and be more like him. Do we still have that desire?

Nephi testifies of the importance of this truth and the blessings that come if we are faithful.

2 Ne. 31: 18, 20

18 And then are ye in this ^astrait and narrow ^bpath which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which ^cwitnesses of the ^dFather and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

• • •

20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

I believe that were fired up, excited and anxious to come here and reach our full potential. We were strong spirits held in reserve to come to earth at this time where we could do the most good. Now, there are pros and cons to being a strong spirit. If you choose the good path in life you will be strong in righteousness and be blessed. However if you follow the path of sorrow (Satan) you will be strong in all that he stands for. The forces of righteousness are strong and Satan knows this. He needs strong armies to compete with the strength of the Lord so he is always recruiting. Choose carefully in life what you are willing to do and who you are willing to follow. The world and God are two very different teams.

After passing through the veil our memory of our prior life was erased and we became subseptible to the temptations and false truths of Satan and his angels. If we could really remember the reasons why we are here and the conversations we had with our Father in Heaven before we left His presence, if we could remember it like it was yesterday we would never have the desire to stray from the straight and narrow path. There are many confusing, scary, and lonely roads in this world, but there is only one path that leads back to God - it is straight and narrow.

You have a purpose and you need to know this. If you are not sure what it is then you need to seek after it. If you are living your life in a way that is pleasing to the Lord and all that He stands for then He will make that purpose known to you. This life is short and what greater regret will you have in the next life than that of wasting your time here.

I challenge everyone to evaluate your life as it is right now. Why are you here? What really matters most? If you were to die today would you feel worthy to stand in the Lord’s presence? What are you going to take with you when you leave this world? Are you focusing on this each day of your life? Does this knowledge influence your daily decisions? If not, change what you are doing and you will be blessed.

I know this to be true with all my heart. I can personally testify of the peace of mind, comfort and security that comes from knowing this and living it.

This is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.