I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

Someone posted a picture recently that said, “I miss the toilet paper memes/stimulus check part of quarantine. Things are just getting dark now.”

I laughed, and then I got a little sad.

Everyone’s been navigating the past few months seemingly blindfolded – and then thrown a bunch of heavy social, political, and moral conundrums on top of that.

So what are we letting everything do to our souls?

At the end of the long, drawn-out, devastating war between the Nephites and the Lamanites, Mormon noticed two groups of people who emerged:

• Many people became hardened.
• Many people humbled themselves before God.

Same war. Different personal outcomes.

I’m sure each Nephite had different individual experiences with the war. Some had family members in battle, some lost loved ones, some were displaced, some dealt with political turmoil and rebellion, some had to change jobs. Some barely had anything change.

But at the end of the day, some people chose to harden their hearts because of the war.

And others chose to humble themselves.

Have you felt your heart get a little harder or a little softer these past few months? Have you made more enemies or more friends? Have you empathized more or judged more? Have you been a creator of joy and peace or of confusion and anger?

I think it’s perfect, not-so-coincidental timing that we are studying the end of the great Nephite-Lamanite war right now.

How will we reflect on our 2020 when it’s all over?

Which group will we be in?

The good news is that we’ve still got plenty of time left.

If we’ve felt hardened, if we’ve felt less love for others, if we’ve felt distant from God, we can practice humility.

And boy, does it take practice.

Praying to remove any pride. Feeling true empathy. Turning to our Savior.

And when presented with the ever-growing variables for the future, we can face them with love and faith. We can reach out in love and kindness to our neighbors. We can serve with love to our God.

The outside circumstances? Really, “it mattereth not.”

What matters is how our heart responds.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post What is the year doing to our soul? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

There’s no such thing as standing still on a downward escalator.

You are either working to take steps up, or you are slowly being brought down the staircase.

In Helaman’s epistle to Moroni, he talks about all of the energy and strength it took his army just to maintain the cities they had already taken back.

There were times where they couldn’t put any thought into offensive strategy because they just had to maintain.

It takes a lot of work to “maintain”.

I know this as a homeowner, as someone who gets her hair done, as a car owner, as someone with small children living in a home…

And as a lover of the gospel.

Maintaining takes a lot of effort.

When I take a vacation from keeping myself close to the Spirit, I can feel myself slipping farther away, even just a little bit.

But the cool part is that the escalator analogy starts to break down when we look at the big picture.

Because we are on a never-ending escalator. There is no “gone too far”, and there’s also no “you’ve made it” in this life.

The very moment that we desire to take a step forward, the moment we send off our troops to just maintain the city…

Our Savior is there to help give us a boost.

Sometimes we are walking much faster than the escalator is moving. We are taking back cities and busting sins and growing that testimony.

And other times, it takes all of our effort to just hold on to the ground we’ve already made.

Just like those Nephite soldiers, giving everything they had, and waiting for more strength to be sent their way.

So here’s to the maintainers.

Those who do the unseen work. Sometimes not even noticed by ourselves.

The reinforcements will come, the strength will come, the growth will come and you will win the war.

But, for now, we maintain.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post To the maintainers first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Knowing that Moroni is getting angry and assuming a whole lot of things very incorrectly, just makes this epistle interesting to read through.

But this time, verse 33 made me do a double take.

Moroni tells Pahoran that the Lord told him to go to battle against the governor if the governor didn’t repent of his sins and iniquities.

What? Pahoran wasn’t committing sins and iniquities. Moroni was receiving revelation to battle Pahoran even when he wasn’t actually doing anything wrong?

Why would the Lord prompt Moroni with incorrect information?

And then I got to Pahoran’s response in Alma 61.

“I was somewhat worried concerning what we should do (about these rebels taking over the government and pushing Pahoran out), whether it should be just in us to go against our brethren.

“But ye have said, except they repent the Lord hath commanded you that ye should go against them.”

And then Pahoran calls for Moroni to join him and bring troops for a battle against the capital.

Pahoran had been praying to know whether or not he should go to battle against his own people.

He had been kicked off the judgment seat, but he wasn’t sure what to do next.

And Moroni’s inspiration that Moroni totally thought was about going to battle against Pahoran, was actually God’s way of answering Pahoran’s prayers – by telling him that they should go to battle against the people who had kicked him out.

So this whole misunderstood letter from Moroni? The false accusations and warnings and calls to repentance?

They were all really just a messy vessel for God to answer Pahoran’s prayer.

And AMAZING and HUMBLE Pahoran was able to overlook the misunderstandings and offensive phrases in Moroni’s letter in order to find the truth within it.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not just a cliche. God really does only have imperfect people to work with.

And sometimes we have to just ignore and forgive the messy parts in order to find the gold we need in each other.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Hidden answers first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Why did the Ammonite sons not even have a shadow of a doubt that their mothers had faith in God?

At first, my mind goes to doing EVERYTHING.

I’ve got a two year old and a six month old, and yet I think I’m not doing enough.

Should I be preparing more for our family scripture study?

Do I need to have more elaborate lessons planned for when we have home-church?

Do I need to be likening scripture study stories every time we are playing together?

How can I make sure my kids KNOW that I have a testimony?

And then I picture these Ammonite women.

They had believed in false traditions as Lamanites.

But when they heard about the true gospel of Jesus Christ, they took a covenant to help them stay far away from sin.

They uprooted their families and moved to a safer location.

They didn’t give a second of their time to the anti-Christ Korihor when he came to town.

These women took in poor Zoramites who had been kicked out of their city.

They uprooted their lives and moved again to give room for the Nephite armies to protect them.

They taught their sons and their daughters that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

And why would their children believe their mothers?

Because their words were backed up by their actions.

Keeping covenants with exactness, turning away from evil, serving with their whole hearts…

There was no way to doubt that their mothers knew that God would provide, because the proof was there over and over throughout their lives.

Of course, these mothers explicitly taught the gospel to their kids.

But the most important part was that their actions backed up every word they may have said.

So what example am I showing my kids?

How do I treat them when they do something they shouldn’t?

How do I model service and kindness?

How do I emanate joy from staying close to and worthy of the Spirit?

That’s how they’ll know that I know.

Yes, I’ll teach them. We’ll keep up scripture study, and I’ll share lessons.

They’ll know the gospel.

But they’ll know that I know by the way I choose to live my life.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Do they know that I know? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

They had integrity.

My favorite definition of integrity is “doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

The 2,000 young men that Helaman called his sons were described as:

“true at all times in whatsoever things they were entrusted.” (Alma 53:20)

“firm and undaunted” (Alma 57:20)

And they did “obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness.” (Alma 57:21)

They weren’t looking at their neighbor, waiting to see if he would do what was right.

They each had that conviction of integrity.

Which is interesting for me to reflect on.

Do I sometimes only do things because I know other people are watching? Or because they would notice if I didn’t?

Ugh. Unfortunately, sometimes, yes.

But, more often, I think I’m building up my integrity.

I’m not looking to cut spiritual corners.

I’m not looking for praise.

I’m just fulfilling my covenant with the best integrity that I can.

When no one’s paying attention to me, I still watch the same shows and listen to the same music. I still read my scriptures and pray.

My standards don’t change based off of who I am with.

And I feel like I am in the great company of the sons of the Ammonites when I make these commitments.

I’m not sure what the Ammonite daughters were doing, but I imagine they were using their strong integrity to serve and support their brothers, to do the hard labors their brothers would have been doing at home while they were out fighting.

I am always drawn to people with integrity. To the people who do what they say they will do, and who will do it in an honest way, or communicate if they can’t get something done.

Whenever I want to make grand statements about, “The world needs more people with integrity”…

… I stop and bring it back to myself.

Where can I be filled with integrity even more?

How can I make sure my beliefs and my actions align at all times?

How can I be just as proud of what I do when no one is watching, as I am when everyone is watching?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Filled with integrity first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.