Every time we obey, love, and perfect ourselves, we can expect blessings.

Sometimes, when I mention looking for blessings, I’ll get people telling me:

“Hey we shouldn’t only want to do good things and become good people because of the blessings. That’s a little selfish.”

I totally agree, 100%.

But also, I think it’s okay for me to want blessings.

Life is rough.

Sometimes in big, dramatic ways.

And other times in small, obnoxious ways.

Like having to clean up a whole lot of vomit from various places around your house, pregnancy symptoms kicking my trash, falling behind on work deadlines… it’s been a week around here.

And I’m not afraid to say that I want some blessings right now.

I need some blessings.

I pulled out those scriptures even when I was exhausted and in the worst mood ever, and I read them.

I pushed myself to serve in a couple of new ways.

Because I need those blessings.

And by “those blessings”, I don’t mean that I’m expecting Heavenly Father to take my problems away because I’m having a rough week.

They are all still waiting for me, trust me. 

But after studying the scriptures, I know that I can expect a few things:

Peace in my heart.

Strength to endure.

Inspiration for changes that need to be made.

And a greater dependence on and love for my Savior.

“When we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” D&C 130:21

We absolutely should want to obey the commandments because we love God and want to become more like Him.

But, on the off chance that you need some blessings right now…

On the off chance that you had a rough week, or a rough day, too…

Then think about how you can add a booster of obedience into your life.

And if we are obedient with a willing heart, then we can expect the blessings to follow.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Blessings and laws first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

That’s what I used to think this scripture was referring to:

“Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.” D&C 130:18

Learn as much as you possibly can from school and classes so that you can still be super smart in the next life, too.

As if you aren’t going to be able to learn anything new in the next life.

But that doesn’t make sense, because I sure hope I learn tons more after I leave this life!

So what could this mean?

What about emotional intelligence?

Social intelligence?

Spiritual intelligence?

There are so many different kinds of intelligences.

I think the Lord is telling us to become well-rounded people.

To grow in any area we can.

To figure out how to handle our emotions and not get so angry and reactive.

To figure out how to make friends and reach out to others in ways that connect.

To recognize when the Spirit is prompting us and when prayers have been answered.

To learn about new subjects that are interesting to us and keep us engaged.

To master the right tone while you sing, to get the perfect bake on the cake, to improve your mile time, to finish that difficult project…

Gaining intelligence in any area is encouraged!

And won’t that make the next life so much more amazing?!

An expanse of people who used their time on earth to grow in so many different ways!

And then can you imagine meeting people from other dispensations and exchanging knowledge?

I have absolutely no clue what things will be like, but I imagine something beautiful like this.

Knowing things is always better than not knowing things.

But we also don’t have to know it all. (Because I have no clue how to get a perfect bake on a cake.)

But I believe that any effort we make to improve any area of intelligence will be worth it because it helps us become more like Him.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Intelligence for everyone! first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

“Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore let this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter.

“I was left thus, without being able to decide whether this coming referred to the beginning of the millennium or to some previous appearing, or whether I should die and thus see his face.”

These are from Joseph’s own words, as recorded in D&C 130:14-16.

Joseph keeps praying and asking the Lord when the Second Coming will happen.

The Lord finally says, listen, if you live until you are 85, you’ll see Jesus Christ. Please don’t ask again because that’s all I’m giving you.

And my absolute favorite part is how Joseph responds!

He knows the Lord.

He knows how the Lord teaches and reveals.

And so Joseph knew better than to think that the Lord just told him the Second Coming would happen when he was 85 years old.

I mean, it COULD mean that.

Or it could be referring to another appearance of Jesus Christ, since the “Second Coming” wasn’t specified.

Or it could mean that he is going to die before he reaches 85, so he’ll see the face of Jesus in the next life.

The Lord doesn’t give us the answers in specifics and literal details.

I can see that while reading Christ’s teachings in the New Testament.

I can see that while reading the covenants He makes with Abraham and Noah in the Old Testament.

Joseph saw it as the Lord gave him instruction about when he would see Jesus’ face.

I’ve seen it in my life in much smaller ways when I get a strong prompting to “apply for that job because it will change your life.”

Only to not get the job… and then be led in a completely different and completely better direction.

When I’ve felt, “yes, this is the time to serve a mission, so start preparing”.

Only to have my life go in a different direction, one where I am blessed by my preparation to serve a mission every day.

The Lord isn’t always literal and obvious…

And I love that.

It’s like this giant, exciting, God-led mystery that’s about to unfold and I get to see how all the clues fit together as I act in faith and move forward.

God is not giving us the exact answers on everything.

He’s not even giving them to His prophets.

Which means, all those details aren’t all that important to get right, anyways.

We can head into the unknown and take direction the best that we can.

And we can have faith that we will always be able to look back and see how everything fit together perfectly.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post 85-year-old Joseph first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I literally told my husband: “This week is rough. I’m having a hard time feeling inspired from these scriptures.”

I was trying, and this usually comes very naturally to me.

Normally, I come up with tons of post ideas, and then painstakingly narrow it down to the 5 ideas that I will post on Instagram that week.

But every scripture that I read seemed to be about something so random that it didn’t seem applicable to anything… or it seemed to be about an uncomfortable topic that I wasn’t finding inspiration in.

I wasn’t going to even be able to come up with enough ideas to post on Instagram.

I kept praying and praying, and I still wasn’t getting very far.

And then my eyes were pulled to D&C 132:3, which I had already read, but hadn’t connected with yet.

“Prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you”.

Boom. That was the answer that I needed.

I needed to prepare my heart a bit better to receive whatever I needed the Spirit to give me in these scriptures.

I prayed for a softer, more prepared heart.

I humbled myself and was ready to be taught.

And then I read these scriptures again.

Some of them still seemed random and irrelevant, and some of them still covered uncomfortable topics.

But I found what the Lord wanted to teach me.

At least, I found what He wanted to teach me right then, because I’m sure there is much more that I can learn.

Sometimes, we just need to prepare.

Prepare our hearts to be sensitive to hard things.

Prepare our hearts to not worry about the stuff that we don’t need to worry about right now.

Prepare our hearts to be a little more humble and submissive to the Spirit.

So that’s what I learned.

Scripture study isn’t always easy. Finding inspiration isn’t always easy.

Maybe this week will be easy for you.

Maybe you’ll struggle a bit as I did.

It’s all good.

But there is still always something to learn, and my testimony of that was strengthened even more with this reading.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Prepare your heart first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.