FAIR's Rising Generation

In our lives we have time of fear, pain, anger but we also have times of true joy. I’m not talking about the temporal joy of beating your high score on a video game or something like that. I’m talking about the spiritual joy that you get when you do an act of service, or when you read the Scriptures; it’s when the joy that you’re feeling comes from heaven. These moments of true joy are the moments when Satan has almost no influence over us, those are the moments when we are at our best, because that joy comes from choosing the right.

A few years ago I moved to Mesa AZ. I was feeling pretty down because I was attending a new school and had to make new friends. My self-pity made me forget about reading my scriptures like I should have been, and I fell into the pattern of not trying very hard on anything in general. I had no friends and I felt so alone.

One day I went to a ward service project with the attitude that it would be better than doing nothing for another Saturday.  Well as I went I enjoyed doing the service and I felt like I was at peace with everything; I felt joyful.  When that feeling came over me I realized that everything in my life was going to be alright.

After contemplating these thoughts for a few minutes, I saw a  group of young men working and laughing and just having fun.  I kept having this thought: “Jesse go over there and talk to them.”  I recognized that it was the Holy Ghost telling me to go so I went over to where they were and started to talk to them.  I became great friends with those young men, and today they are some of the most valuable friendships I’ve ever had.  It all came about because I had chosen to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  This was a valuable lesson to me.  If I had not performed service on that day, then I might never have gone over and talked to those young men, and would have missed out on some great friendships during my time in Mesa.

The best time to feel the holy ghost is when we feel spiritual joy, because it opens out hearts to the still small voice. It brings us closer to our heavenly father and it helps us to make the right choices.  When I feel that joy it makes me want it more. That is why it is one of mankind’s greatest assets.  In wanting to feel it more it helps me to go out and do the things that I need to do, to do what the lord wants us to do. So as you leave your computer think about a time when you felt this kind of joy and how much you enjoyed that feeling and go out in to the world and do what you can to bring that feeling in to your lives.

until next time Jesse