It wasn’t impossibly far away, but it was just far away enough that we usually did two youth trips a year to go and do baptisms and confirmations.

We would make a whole day of it, and, of course, grab ice cream at Fenton’s afterwards. (If you know, you know.)

When I went off to BYU, I was suddenly in very close walking distance to a temple.

What a shift!

I upped my attendance from twice a year to once or twice a month, because that’s when roommates would go.

After my husband and I got married and moved to Arizona, we lived about 20 minutes from the Mesa temple.

And suddenly, we realized… we were on our own for temple attendance.

No more youth group trips. No more roommates going with us. If our ward had temple trips, they were often during times when one of us was working.

We had to grapple with the question:

Why do we really attend the temple?

I didn’t love my reasons at first.

But throughout the years, my answer has shifted.

When I read D&C 97:13-14, I was reminded of some of my favorite reasons.

The Lord was teaching these saints, pretty passionately, about why they NEEDED to get to work in building that temple.

Throughout these verses, He mentions 3 things:

1. For a place of thanksgiving for all saints
2. For a place of instruction
3. That they may be perfected

Thanksgiving, instruction, and perfection.

It’s hard not to be filled with gratitude while sitting in a beautiful building surrounded by beautiful reminders of all that God has done for us.

Instruction is given every single time we are in the temple, and the more that I’ve tried to pay attention and learn, the more my eyes have been opened to the wealth of knowledge that is available.

And as we learn more about the power of God and His priesthood, we become perfected. When we do work for our ancestors, we become perfected. When we sacrifice any item on our to-do list for time in the temple, we become perfected.

Isn’t that a beautiful trio of reasons why we need temples?!

Right now, what is your biggest “why” for wanting to be in the temple?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Temple habits first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

It’s a question I’ve certainly asked myself.

It basically is another form of the question:

“Am I good enough??”

How am I supposed to know?

I’ve had friends who deal with perfectionism who have wondered about this.

I’ve had friends who deal with great anxiety and depression who have wondered about this.

I think we’ve all been here at some point.

Here’s a comforting answer I’ve encountered again and again, both in personal prayers, through messages in General Conference, and in the scriptures:

Where is my heart?

Because THAT is a question that I actually know the answer to.

One place the Lord reiterates this idea is in D&C 97:8:

“All among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me.”

I know the state of my heart.

Do I actually yearn to learn and study from the scriptures? Or am I only waiting to see if my spouse is going to see me studying or not?

Do I actually want to serve others more? Or do I feel like “things are great” and that other people are an inconvenience?

Do I work on becoming more Christlike every single day? Or do I think I’ve got other more pressing issues on my to-do list?

Is my heart sincere?

Is my heart honest?

Is my heart broken and turned to the Lord?

Is my heart yearning to keep my covenants?

And when my heart isn’t… do I quickly try to repent and get back to a soft, moldable, loving heart again?

…and then repent again and again and again every time I fall off the track?

Then I am accepted of the Lord so far.

This doesn’t make me complacent.

In fact, it makes me feel quite the opposite.

But I think it’s important for each of us to take inventory from time to time:

Where is my heart?

And as we do this under the influence of the Spirit, I believe we can get an accurate picture of our standing before the Lord.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

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

My sisters and I all got brand new kites, and we spent the day flying them on the always-windy beaches in Northern California.

My dad would run and throw the kite up, and if it caught the wind correctly, I would have to dig my feet into the sand in order to hold the kite.

It always amazed me how tight I had to hold on to my handle.

As I would turn the handle and give the kite more string, the kite would fly higher and higher, until the string stopped.

And, as a kid, I would look up and think, “Man, this string is just holding the kite back from flying even higher.”

It seemed like that string was restrictive.

The kite could fly so much higher without me.

And so, one time, I let go.

The kite turned every possible way before nose-diving into the sand far down the beach.

It turns out, the string that I thought was so restrictive was actually the only thing helping the kite reach its highest point.

This is what the commandments look like to many people, right?

People are shocked when they find out we give 10% of our income as tithes. That we abstain from alcohol. That we don’t do playdates on Sundays.

What foolish ways to bind ourselves down! Just like a silly, restrictive kite string!

And yet, I have found that while these “restrictions” look like they would hold us back, they create the perfect amount of tension to let us reach our highest potential.

In D&C 95:11, the Lord promises the saints who didn’t think they could build a temple: “If you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it.”

The commandments were going to give them power.

And the commandments continue to create power in our lives.

So to me, this “restrictive” religion is actually creating the greatest freedom I can imagine!

And I’m grateful for the tension on the string, even if others view it as holding myself back.

Because I know that without it, my “freedom” wouldn’t help me get to become the person I know I can be.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The kite analogy and power first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Everyone talked about how the teacher ran her class just like a college class, and that she would write all over your essays.

But I was excited.

Because for years before this class, my English teachers had always passed back essays with: “Great writing, Cali!” written across the top, with a few “good!”s and “nice!”s sprinkled in the margins.

I mean, I knew I was pretty good at writing.

But I also knew I had room to improve, and I was ready for a teacher who could show me how instead of patting me on the back.

So when my new teacher passed back our first essays of the year, I was ecstatic to find her pen markings all over.

“What a fascinating thesis! Do you ALWAYS think this is true though? What about…”

“This isn’t as strong of a reason as your others. Make sure you’ve got evidence to back it up.”

“This concluding paragraph is FILLED with platitudes. Give more substance.”

THIS was what I had been waiting for.

Someone who knew how to push me.

And I loved how each correction also gave me a way to get better next time.

In a much more serious and all-encompassing way, I am also grateful for a Savior who doesn’t let me coast.

One who calls me out with guilt or with promptings when I’m not at my best spiritually.

One who tells me how to get rid of things that don’t belong anymore.

But my favorite part?

“Whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance”. D&C 95:1

He always prepares a way for us to change.

Not just: “Hey, you’re doing this wrong, hope you can figure out how to fix it!”

But He has PREPARED and PLANNED a way for us to improve.

He has already sweat and bled for the consequences, and now He invites us to get back on the right track.

I’m grateful for a writing teacher who helped completely prepare me for writing at the college level by teaching me how to be better.

And I’m even more grateful for a Savior who takes the time to chastise me, and prepares a way for me to become even more like Him.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Ready to improve? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Did you know that if you’ve made a covenant with God under priesthood authority, then you have constant access to priesthood power in your own life as you keep up your end of the covenant?

From baptism to temple covenants, there are so many of us who have access to personal priesthood power in our life.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

When I access my own personal priesthood power:

I can get personal guidance.

I can receive specific inspiration for how to serve other people around me.

I can have the strength to overcome and endure.

My abilities can be magnified by gifts of the Spirit.

I can receive revelation to know how to fulfill the work I have been given to do.

I can have help and strength to become more like our Savior.

Those are just a few ways that personal priesthood power can create real blessings.

Aren’t those beautiful?

And in order to get all of these blessings, each of us needs to do a little better at keeping our end of the covenants we make.

Whether we hear them repeated at the sacrament table, or whether we are reminded of them in the temple, we need to know what our covenants are so that we can live up to them.

To me, this is what I think of when I hear the Lord teach:

“They are walking in darkness at noon-day.” D&C 95:6

Yes, people who commit intentional sin are blocking themselves out from all of the light available.

But… I bet a lot of us are still walking around in 5pm light.

We see the light. We can move around just fine.

But we aren’t receiving the fullness of what’s available to us.

We are living below our priesthood privilege.

We have access to so much more Godly power than we could even imagine.

There is guidance, peace, strength, inspiration, revelation, and gifts that I believe Heavenly Father is just waiting to pour down on us.

But we have to ask. We have to keep our small end of the bargain with endless retries through repentance.

When we make and keep covenants, we are endowed with priesthood power, and THAT is when I believe we are walking around in the brightest light of noonday.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Living below our priesthood privilege first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.