Most of us, I think, try to do everything in our power to avoid adding more obstacles to our lives.

And yet, still they come.

On Monday I shared one reason why I feel like we sometimes have to suffer through “pointless” trials.

And today I want to talk about the other reason.

My heart gets so heavy every time I read this scripture:

“I have heard their prayers, and will accept their offering; and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith.” D&C 105:19

This group of saints had just marched from Ohio to Missouri.

They had hoped to relieve their brothers and sisters from their suffering. They wished for a big battle with God on their side. They had suffered quite a bit on their own while making the journey.

And now… they were being sent back home without any final ending to their march with the insight that this had all been for a “trial of their faith”.

What trials has your faith had to endure?

It can be easy to sit in a nice church with people who are our friends and say that we believe in God and Jesus.

It can be a lot more difficult to do that when you don’t feel like you have any friends.

When you are suffering physically and emotionally.

When you feel like you aren’t doing anything important.

When someone you love is taken from you.

Does your faith stay?

Was it really rooted in nice people and pleasant experiences?

Or is it faith that seems to say, “Come what may!”

God knows how deep our faith really is.

So then why do we have to experience a trial of our faith sometimes?

I think WE need to know just how far our faith will carry us.

I think we are the ones who need to see what it’s really like to actively choose faith every day, even when it’s difficult.

The trial of our faith is for our benefit, to give us more knowledge about what we really believe, deep down.

What do you think? Have you experienced trials you felt were meant to just try your faith?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post A trial of your faith first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I found that hard to believe.

But it was true.

Receiving my own endowment in the temple was unlike anything I imagined it would be.

I honestly felt pretty neutral about the entire experience. It was just different. Unexpected.

I just felt a little whisper deep down of, “You’ll figure this out. You’ll love it.”

Going back time and time again brought familiarity.

And with familiarity, I was able to start learning. To feel the spirit. To feel the power. To study what I was experiencing.

I don’t have a big “a-ha” moment when the temple clicked for me.

It was a gradual, month after month, step by step process where I was suddenly able to say: “Wow, I absolutely love the temple and the covenants I’ve made there.”

In the temple endowment, we receive knowledge and power.

When I meet people who love the temple, I immediately want to be more like them.

To me, it’s almost obvious to see the power that flows from people’s lives who attend or work in the temple regularly.

It’s priesthood power flowing in everything they do.

That’s the power, that personal priesthood power, that the Lord knew the saints needed desperately in 1834.

“For behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them”. D&C 105:12

And it’s the power that’s available to us today.

To gain personal priesthood power, we need to make and keep covenants.

Which means, we need to know what those covenants are, remember them, and renew them each week at the sacrament table.

Understanding and loving the endowment of power I have received has been a journey for me.

But it’s also not a journey that’s complete.

Accessing God’s power is a continual process, a daily commitment. It’s a little bit vague sometimes and harder to measure than whether or not I’m reading my scriptures.

But deciding each day to keep my covenants brings me access to a blessing and a priesthood power I never want to lose.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The endowment of power first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Like… I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with this baby!

Wasn’t someone going to make sure she was being fed and tighten up her swaddles when they fell apart?!

Giving birth sure didn’t make me feel qualified to be a mother.

Talk about a trusting Heavenly Father right?!

My daughter is as much His daughter as I am, and yet I’ve been given the huge blessing of being her mother here on earth.

I have been given solemn stewardship over this daughter of God for the next little bit.

She is His, but He is giving me an opportunity to show what kind of a steward I can be.

Some stewardships, such as parenting, are pretty long-term.

But other stewardships, such as callings we receive or possessions that we own, are much more temporary.

And yet… everything is His.

The Lord taught in D&C 104:57: “But, verily I say unto you, I have appointed unto you to be stewards over mine house, even stewards indeed.”

We’ve all been appointed a little bit of stewardship over a corner of God’s house.

Stewardship does not mean ownership, but instead implies a solemn loan in which we get to show our responsibility, maturity, and agency.

Today, I invite you to reflect on the people and things that you currently have stewardship over.

Am I being a good steward?

Not a perfect steward, but a good one who is trying my best to take care of the things that are His?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Am I a good steward? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I had finished up my freshman year, and had to make the pretty dramatic decision, at least to a 15-year-old, about which school to attend.

I knew my two options.

And I had faith in the power of prayer, so I prayed all summer long.

But… no answer.

But I knew the answer would come at some point, right? So I kept just praying.

Still… no answer.

My parents started to counsel me that I needed to get some more information about the two schools.

I needed to learn information, and that as I did, I would probably feel inspired for which school to attend.

I ended up getting course lists for both of the schools and mapping out my grad plan.

And all of a sudden, one of the schools seemed like a way better fit.

I was drawn to their huge offering of elective classes that matched my interests, and it just seemed like the right way to go. It seemed obvious!

And that’s when I realized… that was my answer.

When Joseph and other leaders were trying to make a decision together, the Lord taught them to make their decision: “inasmuch as it shall be made known to him by the voice of the Spirit, and according to the counsel of the order, and by the voice of the order.” D&C 104:36

Did you catch that? The Lord wanted them to come to their answer by listening to BOTH the voice of the spirit and the counsel of the people in the room.

President Nelson has even recently said: “I know that good inspiration is based upon good information”.

I’ve seen this time and time again since my teenage years.

Praying for inspiration AND learning from people who may know more than I do is the way that my mind is usually enlightened.

My husband sees this in his calling, too.

So, if you’ve been waiting for inspiration to strike, it might be worth it to start gathering information, and see where that takes you!

Have you had an experience like this before? Where good information or counsel led to better inspiration from the Spirit?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Information and inspiration first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

So many times, a trial gets thrown my way, and I start to think, “What am I supposed to learn from this?”

There’s a part of me that thinks if I learn my lessons quickly enough, then the trial might end sooner.

But sometimes… the trial is just the worst.

It’s heavy. It’s no fun. There’s no end in sight.

And I can’t find even a shred of a lesson to be learned anywhere.

Except… just endure.

Several years ago, I endured a few months of a severe trial.

It was kicking my booty.

And then, the trial was over.

I felt so much better, lighter, more free…

But I still didn’t know what lesson I was supposed to learn from it.

I thought I would get clarity afterwards. But the trial just seemed dark still, even looking back.

Hmmmm. Maybe there wasn’t a lesson to learn other than that life is just hard sometimes.

One day, a friend called me and told me about her latest trial.

It was exactly what I had experienced.

I turned into full-on empathy mode. I told her to complain to me. I constantly checked in with her.

I told her that I knew this was the worst, and that there wasn’t much that was going to make it better and that I was so sorry.

And then I heard about someone else I didn’t know super well who was going through the same trial.

It felt a little awkward at first, but I knew I needed to reach out and lend an understanding listening ear.

Finally one evening, I reflected.

What if THAT was the blessing?

What if the blessing of my trial was the empathy that I gained for others? For the future acts of service I could perform because I perfectly understood how crushing it was to endure?

The Lord taught in D&C 103:12: “For after much tribulation… cometh the blessing.“

Sometimes the blessings are evident during the trial. Sometimes they are evident right afterwards.

But sometimes… sometimes it’s not until after.

Long after.

That we begin to see what the blessing might have been.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Where is the blessing? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.