BOOK OF MORMON: DAY 205: Ask. Believe. Receive. -

Today’s Reading: Alma 32: 20-43

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

One of the prophet Alma’s greatest legacies can be found in his teaching and testifying of one of the most fundamental processes that we can learn while here on earth. It’s a process described often throughout the scriptures. It’s a pattern that a young Joseph Smith immortalized within our church history. It’s the process of manifesting righteous desires.

Ask. Believe. Receive.

It’s an eternal and universal formula that we must turn to in order for each and every limb of testimony to grow with deep roots on our tree of spiritual testimony. Ask with a discerning heart, then act in ways that show you feel this will happen–that you believe!, and live in gratitude as you wait to receive.

Branch by branch, challenge by challenge, we are confronted with scenarios in life that can better acquaint us with who God is and how He works with us as a co-creator in our personal lives. Because He’s so perfectly consistent, so are his laws and therefore, so are the patterns that are required for gaining our most valiant heart’s desires in this life. What a gift we have that we can learn to rely on Him thanks to consistent processes!

Ask. Believe. Receive.

Nearly 18 years ago, after having finished a session at the Mesa, AZ. temple, the Spirit impressed upon me the need to dramatically change some very well laid-out plans in my personal life. My greatly anticipated graduate studies were to be put aside and our young family was to be started immediately. The Spirit whispered with an unmistakable feeling in my heart, “It’s time to do something different than what you had planned.”

To say that the wind got sucked out of my sail that day was an understatement. I knew that I had been led through my college years towards the career path that I was pursing. I was anxiously preparing to embark on the next phase of that journey. I had come to know that it was a personal life-long calling. Why was He asking me to put this aside now? Why couldn’t children wait just a few more years? To further add to the situation, I had recently discovered that due to some health issues, I would not be able to carry a baby full-term and would need to rely on adoption.

This was a perfect storm of sorts in putting the process of ask, believe, receive to the test. It would be an experiment upon the word that had come as revelation for me. As newlyweds, my husband and I had no idea how this would all work out and as super broke college students, adoption wasn’t even on our radar at that point.

Ask. Believe. Receive.

Exactly one month later, against medical advice, we were expecting a baby whom I would miraculously carry to full-term (two additional children were born a few years later with few complications as well). Our family was underway, but I often secretly wondered if I would ever make it back to school. I asked often during those years of raising young children and did my part to act showing my belief that it would be possible to fulfill this part of what I felt was my life’s purpose. I waited to receive while often finding myself discouraged that the timing wasn’t right and felt that perhaps it never would be.

A few years ago, after many failed attempts at getting my feet back on that path, the gate suddenly swung wide open. It was time and things began to fall into place one by one.

As of today, I am a few short weeks away from starting the graduate program that I had laid aside all those years ago. I had no idea then, at the age of 22, that I had so much more to learn and could be even better prepared now for the next part of this journey. Whether it be seeking an answer to a question, the pursuing of a dream, or the solving of a problem, we have a consistent God-given process for manifesting these things.

Ask. Believe. Receive.

Come learn more from this post about what it means to be a good receiver. Have a great week!