That’s one of the questions that I get asked the most in my DMs.

Anytime I mention how the Savior is my friend, people start asking.

Because I think so many of us crave that kind of relationship with Jesus.

We all want more friends, right?!

And we all want to be friends with the one who knows us better than anyone else because He experienced it all.

But… how?

My first answer is a question:

Am I a good friend to the Lord?

Do I only contact Him when I need something from Him?

Do I want to learn everything about Him and what He’s done for me, or do I only want to talk about my life?

Do I think of Him often, in both casual and more serious times?

When I’ve focused on becoming a better friend to Jesus, then I’ve discovered a powerful sense that He is my friend, too.

But my second answer is a bit more honest:

I’m never going to be a “good enough” friend to my Savior.

At least not here on this earth.

I’m going to forget about Him. I’m going to be selfish. I’m going to need to take a whole lot more than I give.

And yet… I still believe He is my friend.

“He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly Friend”.

“I will call you friends, for you are my friends”. D&C 93:45

I can’t earn that friendship.

But I can still do what I can to discover my part in it.

He is already my friend. And your friend. And anyone’s friend.

It’s in those moments when I decide to reach out and build our relationship that I feel the friendship starting to grow.

When I treat my Savior as I would a friend, I gain the best, most forgiving, most reliable, kindest, most loving eternal friend that I could ever imagine.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post He is my friend first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

This short message from our prophet in the most recent General Conference stuck out to me the moment he said it.

That analogy of watching workers dig out debris from the Salt Lake temple during its enormous renovation.

And then a prophet of the Lord asking me to pray to discover what I can remove from my life.

My thoughts and prayers used to center around what I was doing wrong that I needed to change.

The music that I needed to clean up, the prayers that I was forgetting to say, the visiting teaching assignment I wasn’t doing.

And slowly, this phrase started being added to more and more of my prayers:

“Please let me know what I can let drop out of my life that will help me to feel the Spirit more.”

And that’s why I loved President Nelson’s short talk so much.

This idea that we all have the junky debris that is keeping us from our full potential.

It’s not straight up sin or filled with evil.

But it’s keeping the Spirit from being as present as possible in my life.

It’s keeping me zoned out and enjoying a dramatic storyline, instead of having that thought to text a friend.

It’s keeping me scrolling through a feed looking at pictures I don’t really care about, instead of spending a few more minutes in the scriptures being taught a lesson I need to hear.

It’s keeping me with frustratingly impossible standards for my family members, instead of learning how to love unconditionally.

The debris blocks out a lot if I let it pile up.

The Lord also gave this advice to Joseph Smith’s own family in D&C 93:48:

“Your family must needs repent and forsake some things”.

Repent = change

Forsake = forget

Your family needs to forget some things they are doing, and make some changes.

Don’t we all need to hear that message?!

I want to build so many great things in my life. I want to build places of beauty, of love, and of safety.

I want to build sacred places in my life.

But even with the best intentions and the perfect building plans…

The first thing I have to do is clear out the debris.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Clean out the debris first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Section 93 talks all about light and truth.

Light and truth is knowledge and intelligence.

Light and truth are powerful ideals, that I don’t think I can even begin to fully comprehend right now.

But boy, do I want more light and truth in my life.

And the Savior seems to paint this picture of these universal laws and elements, and that everything is in accordance with this eternal light and truth.

But He also makes a point that we have our agency to do what we will with this light and truth here on the earth.

We started off innocent at birth, and we have agency to do whatever we choose with light and truth.

D&C 93:39 caught my eye though, because here the Lord teaches:

“And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.”

In this grand physics lesson, it’s not so much that the adversary adds darkness into the mix.

Because… darkness doesn’t really exist.

Darkness, like a dark room, or a dark night sky, really just means the absence of light.

And that’s what the Lord sticks with here.

The wicked one takes away light and truth.

That’s how he creates his darkness— by removing the light.

And did you catch HOW the adversary takes away light and truth?!

Through disobedience.

We gain light and truth through obedience, while the wicked one takes away light and truth through disobedience.

Obedience isn’t the most popular word.

Our hearts need to be in the right place for obedience to be as powerful as it can be.

Want more light and truth?

Take it to the Lord and ask, “How can I become a little more obedient today?”

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Light and truth and obedience first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Like literally, what do you picture in your head when you hear that phrase?

In some ways, this phrase is really big, and can encompass so many different actions.

But in other ways, this phrase is really vague and can easily not really translate to anything at all.

That’s how I’ve felt for the longest time.

What does it really mean to “worship Jesus”?

This is why I love Section 93 so so so much.

Because we are being taught more about the Savior.

Not just what He did on the earth, although that is important (head to the New Testament for all those beautiful details!).

But we are learning more about who He is, and how He grew, and what He is really really like.

We learn new titles for Him, we learn about different roles that He has played, and we learn about the power that He holds.

And SO MUCH MORE.

Why are we learning so much about Jesus?

In D&C 93:19, the Lord Himself tells us why in some of the most plain wording:

“I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.”

Through studying these words, we learn HOW to worship, and we learn WHAT we worship when we worship the Savior.

The more we get to know Him, the more natural it is to worship.

For me, the more I know about His nature, His involvement, His power, the more I see Him everywhere.

In the physical world around me, yes.

But also in the small little miracles, the fun moments between friends, the magical moments with a child.

My worship becomes gratitude, love, passion, music, prayer, happiness, and service.

So if your mind drew a vague blank when I asked what it looks like to “worship Jesus Christ”…

Studying Section 93, in addition to any time we learn more about our Savior, can teach you.

It can teach you what you are worshipping, and how to do it.

Because the more we learn about Jesus, the better we can worship Him.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Who do you worship? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I love learning new things, and so the prospect of walking across campus and sitting down in various classes to learn from people who are experts in these subjects was just fascinating to me.

Looking at a syllabus to see how we could fill an entire semester with hours of learning about different facets of one subject was exhilarating.

Call me a nerd, I know.

And it’s not like I totally loved the act of reading every assigned book and writing every research paper.

But ultimately, I felt the spirituality that was inherently intertwined with learning.

Gaining knowledge was spiritual to me.

The thing that made me sad though were some of my fellow classmates who learned from the same classes that I did and eventually reasoned their way out of their gospel beliefs.

Gaining knowledge had become a worldly pursuit that pulled them further from God.

“The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.” D&C 93:36

The ultimate glory of God is intelligence.

Intelligence is vital and it is championed by God.

And what is intelligence?

It’s not just knowledge. It’s not just getting a good test score.

Intelligence is light and truth.

Intelligence is the light of Christ, the presence of the Spirit, at the same time as the acquisition of truth.

It’s learning under the influence of the Spirit.

And then it leads to intelligent action that is completely congruent with what we’ve learned.

We are created to crave learning.

Maybe it’s math. Maybe it’s music. Maybe it’s recipes. Maybe it’s emotional strategies. Maybe it’s history. Maybe it’s education pedagogy. Maybe it’s public service. Maybe it’s the scriptures.

When we are truly aligned in our spirituality, when we are inviting the Spirit into our lives with every action and thought, I believe that our curiosity is ignited.

There is so much knowledge out there.

And God is looking for righteous, spiritual individuals who are going to learn and then act.

I want to hear— when YOU are aligned spiritually, what is an area you feel your curiosity is led toward?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Intelligent people first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.