By Friday, I had gotten to know the girls in my group extremely well, but I was still a little nervous about this lesson.

I mean, I had taught them tons of times by that point, but I felt the weight of this particular lesson for some reason.

I prayed a lot and pondered a lot, and eventually I had a story pop into my mind to share and center my lesson around.

Friday came, and it was a beautiful experience. The Spirit was felt, girls opened up about their feelings, and I knew that I had followed the promptings of the Spirit.

The next week came, and I felt so excited for Friday’s lesson that time! I had the thought to re-plan my lesson, but I pushed it aside, because the previous week had been so successful.

Friday came, and I taught the lesson the same exact way.

And it was a total flop. I didn’t feel the Spirit, I could tell my girls weren’t feeling it, and I just felt confused.

Until the Spirit quietly reprimanded me:

“I am not a calculation.”

I’ve thought about that moment a lot.

The Spirit will not always tell us to do the same things.

It isn’t some exact calculation that tells us that if we sing this hymn, or read this scripture, or tell this story, or conduct our meetings in this exact way, we will automatically bring the Spirit.

Some of us might be in leadership or teaching callings right now that require us to constantly ask for the Spirit’s guidance on how to fulfill our assignments.

But I also thought about my role as a mother. As a wife. As a daughter of God.

Am I clinging to, “This is how it worked for me in the past, so I’m going to keep doing it!”?

Or am I constantly relying on the Lord to teach me through His Spirit how to best study my scriptures TODAY?

How to best pray, how to teach my children, how to grow my marriage, how to serve others… today?

Because I think it changes all the time.

Effective scripture study today looks a whole lot different to me than it did 2 years ago.

And that’s just fine.

So my reflecting question is – am I guessing I know exactly what the Spirit wants me to do?

Or am I waiting for His constant recalculation?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Recalculating the Spirit first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

You know, when someone says something like, “And she never even said anything about it! So rude!”

And you instinctively want to say, “Oh yeah! Crazy!” or something.

I didn’t like that feeling that came after I “kept the peace” in the moment, while sacrificing my integrity.

And so I committed to just not say anything in return. (Unless I felt strongly that I needed to speak up.)

But then, the very next day after making this big commitment, I found myself in a conversation with a coworker where I was just agreeing with some negative things they were saying.

I felt so disappointed when the conversation ended.

Because I had completely forgotten in the moment what I previously had felt such a strong conviction for.

Remembering is strangely difficult, right?!

It took me weeks and weeks and months and months before I made progress on remembering.

And now, it’s pretty natural to me. I remember it virtually every time.

We promise our Heavenly Father that we will always remember His Son.

We KNOW so much about Jesus. We learn of him all the time.

And yet, it can be so weirdly difficult to ALWAYS REMEMBER him throughout the week.

I even feel myself moving along a continuum. Some days, I think very often of my Savior, and my heart is humbled in constant prayer.

But other times, I’m just doing so many things, that I honestly forget to remember him all of the time.

And it feels a little weird to say that – but I’m guessing that since promising, yet again, to always remember the Savior is a part of our weekly sacrament prayers, I’m probably not alone in this.

Remembering is weirdly difficult, despite how much we know about a topic, or even how committed we feel to “remember”.

The only thing I’ve learned that helps?

Practice.

And a lot of prayer.

And slowly, we’ll build up how quickly and how often we can remember.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Trying to remember first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

In March, it seemed crazy that we would be going a few weeks without church.

And now…

I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’ve really had to examine my “why” for attending church.

If the sacrament can be administered at home, if we take away many of the social aspects from church, if the way we fulfill callings has dramatically shifted…

Why do we go to church?

Moroni reflected on this exact question at the end of his life.

He said that after being baptized, the members of the church would meet together for these reasons: (Moroni 6:4-7)

• To be nourished by the word of God
• To pray and fast together
• To speak about their welfare
• To take the sacrament
• To get rid of all iniquity

Elder Christofferson added in his 2015 talk, “Why the Church?”:

• To be called out in our faults and then repent
• To combine our efforts for more effective responses to poverty and disasters
• To take the gospel to all the earth
• To take part in essential ordinances
• To perform temple work for those who have passed on
• To build up the kingdom of God on the earth

I’ve come to a new realization this year of the separation between the Church and the gospel.

Because they aren’t the same thing.

We can love the Church, but we become converted to the gospel.

Even though the Church’s functions have changed dramatically this year, the gospel of Jesus Christ has never been shut down.

We certainly apply the gospel principles as we interact with our family members, but the Church helps us take that to the next level.

Working and serving with imperfect people, trying to learn and teach from different perspectives…

It’s the perfect place to put all that we know in our head about the gospel into practice.

Now, the thought of corralling two young kids to sit still on a chapel pew for an hour is never one that I think will excite me.

But I’m laying that foundation for my kids.

I’m teaching them the doctrine the best that I can – but I’m showing them that the best applications can come from the way we choose to show up at Church.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Why the Church? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Was this a time that I needed to hold her accountable? To teach her about rules and consequences? To help her learn and grow a little bit more?

Or was this a time that my little girl needed my grace and immediate forgiveness? A break? Compassion, fun, ignorance, and distraction?

My brain quickly scanned through everything I know about child development, from what I’d learned in college courses, my teaching experience, and even parenting social media accounts.

I honestly couldn’t figure out which way was the best way to go in the moment.

And then I remembered, for the millionth time, that I could ask for the Spirit to guide me.

The Spirit could tell me what was best in that moment, for this exact daughter of God.

I didn’t have to tough it out with my knowledge alone.

I could certainly use my knowledge, but also call upon the Spirit to give me the nudge in the right direction.

These thoughts were all flying through my head in the split second following my daughter’s poor decision.

And so I closed my eyes, said a quick prayer, and felt one option come to mind, with a few specific changes.

Having the Spirit with us constantly is THE biggest blessing I could ever hope for.

The constant, personalized, and godly guidance, comfort, and impressions are my lifeline to heaven.

That is the point of partaking of the sacrament each week.

To repent and change our hearts in the ways that we need so that we can qualify to ALWAYS have the Spirit with us again.

That is what makes the sacrament so essential, and what makes our Savior’s great atoning sacrifice so profoundly important.

We need to have completely pure intent in order to feel Divine guidance in our lives.

And we need to have that reset every single week in order to turn us back to the Savior.

Having the Spirit with us is the best gift that we have been given – and so we have to do our part to re-qualify each week, and then call on that heavenly guidance.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Keeping his spirit with us first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Because that seems kinda weird. And also a little cliche.

But Moroni’s life and his own commentary reveal that he was going through pretty much exactly what brave Anna was experiencing in her dark cave.

Can you imagine not knowing what was going to happen to you next?

After having lived a life of general predictability, being thrown into a situation where you have absolutely no idea what tomorrow might bring?

Moroni had been honest ever since his father died.

He didn’t think he was going to live very long.

So he hurried and wrote down his father’s last teachings.

But then… he was still alive.

So he looked at the Jaredite records again, and had a prompting that he should abridge those.

Halfway through, he said goodbye again.

But after still being alive, he kept going until those records were complete.

And then he was still alive.

As unpleasant as it might seem, Moroni was actually expecting to be killed, time after time.

And so when his plans changed and he was left with unexpectedly large amounts of free time, what did he do?

He did the next right thing.

He didn’t spend his days wasting away, thinking that his death would come eventually.

And he didn’t wait to see the whole big picture before jumping in.

He just took a step. And then another step. And then another, not being able to see the next step until he had taken the one right in front of him.

I’ve had plenty of times where my life has turned upside down. Searching for a job that wasn’t coming, leaving a job that I loved, or even having some summer plans completely change.

On a much, much smaller and less dramatic scale, I have often needed to remind myself of this same lesson.

I can’t see the whole plan. I can’t know the purpose for every action.

But I think I can figure out what the very next right thing is, and take that step. And that keeps me moving forward, through the darkness of uncertainty.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The next right thing first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.