To always be led by the Lord?

To know where He wants you to be and where He wants you to go next?

Okay, okay, I see where this spiritual thought is going.

The Lord didn’t just lead the children of Israel and then tell future generations that we are out of luck from having that same guiding influence.

He may have led them in a more physical sense.

But He undoubtedly still leads us today.

I mean, General Conference is the perfect weekend to reflect on that.

“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night”. (Exodus 13:21)

Day and night, His light and His guidance are there.

Now, seeing His hand, finding His guidance, listening to the whispers of the Spirit… I think that is part of our challenge now.

The other part is humbling ourselves enough to want to look for the guidance in the first place.

So here’s what I’ve been reflecting on:

1. Am I humble enough to actually seek God’s guidance and will in my life, or am I plowing forward just with what I want?
2. How am I able to listen and hear when I do receive divine guidance?

Those answers change around day by day.

But if I keep the questions in mind, I find that my heart is led a little easier.

Molded a little more thoroughly.

And turned toward God’s guiding cloud and fire, both day and night.

He still leads and guides us. Where have you felt led this weekend?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Leading and lighting the way  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Kids would ask me a question and I felt like I needed to know every answer.

I needed to be the knowledge authority in my classroom, right?!

But the best and worst part of teaching sixth grade is that the kids would start to (respectfully, for the most part) call me out when I said something incorrect.

It took a few months, but I finally realized how ironically empowering it was to admit that I didn’t know something to my students.

“Mrs. Black, why did you say THAT part of the story is the climax? Wouldn’t it be THIS part instead?”

I figured out that it felt SO much better (and by the way, MUCH more effective for teaching) to say:

“Oh interesting! Why do you think that? I could totally be wrong!”

The discussions that comments like this would spur were AMAZING. And tons of class members would start to chime in with their opinions, too.

Real learning would occur.

I loved it.

And I feel like right around this same time at the beginning of my teaching career was when I started to adopt this humility into my personal life, too.

Instead of thinking I had the right answer in my marriage, or in my church callings, or in other decisions that I had to make, it was so much more empowering to recognize that I COULD be wrong.

Replacing pride with humility one little step at a time has brought nothing but peace to my life.

In a gospel context:

“Humility enables us to have broken hearts when we sin or make mistakes and makes it possible for us to repent.” —Elder Steven E. Snow

I have found that it’s actually so freeing to acknowledge that I’ve been wrong.

I’m not perfect at it at all.

There are some sins that I want to cling to, like an insecure middle school teacher who insists they know the right answer.

“How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me?” (Exodus 10:3)

I hope I don’t take too long, though, to loosen my grip on those favorite sins, those rationales, those prideful tendencies.

Humility is much more freeing than pride.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Humility and teaching middle school first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

It’s actually super cute.

Anytime he sits down at the table, no matter what time of day it is or what he’s doing at the table, he insists that we all say a prayer.

Or if he catches me folding my arms in any casual situations, he insists that we stop and say a prayer.

Of course, I can’t say no to a prayer, so we are saying a lot of short and sweet prayers nowadays.

But my 4 year old is starting to get to the point where she doesn’t just do things because mom and dad tell her to.

She wants to know WHY we are doing them.

And so as we’ve worked to develop our family habits of praying and reading the scriptures together, I’ve started trying to be more conscious in how I talk about these habits.

Instead of: “It’s time to read and pray before we go to bed.”

I’ve been trying to do more of: “It’s time to read scriptures so that we can learn more about Jesus!”

I was actually pleasantly surprised to see how explicitly the Lord tries to teach this to the Israelites, too!

After He taught them about repeating the Passover ordinance each year, He says in Exodus 12:26-27:

“And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.”

The Lord wanted the people to not just celebrate the Passover each year after this first initial miracle–

He wanted His people to teach their children WHY they were repeating this Passover ordinance and celebration.

It can be so easy to get caught up in just trying to get our kids to cooperate in saying prayers, in staying quiet at church, in paying tithing, in setting goals, in serving and showing kindness…

But the Lord wants us to also teach the WHY.

Why do YOU try to be reverent at church? Why do YOU say prayers, and pay tithing, and attend the temple?

When we can share our own testimonies and our own “why”s with our kids, we are sharing our hearts and truly teaching our values in authentic ways.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Teach the WHY first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I also remember him teaching me that when I was dunked under the water, it was as if I was being buried and then coming back to life, just like Jesus.

I thought that was pretty cool, because it’s as if we were acting out what was happening!

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that a lot of ordinances are accompanied with physical actions.

Like when we take the bread and water for the sacrament!

But I’ve also learned that the action itself isn’t what causes me to make a covenant.

Just eating bread and water itself isn’t what’s renewing my covenants each week.

Yes, ordinances are formal acts that are super important.

But we also have to make sure our mind is engaged with what we are actually promising!

Our heart and our mind have to be involved with some level of intention.

When Moses was instructing the children of Israel on how to perform the Passover to avoid their firstborn sons dying, he referred to the act of painting their door frames with lamb’s blood as an “ordinance”.

So the Passover was an ordinance for the children of Israel!

The physical act of what they did was so important… but so was what their hearts were doing at the same time.

Look at what they were thinking about as they reflected on this ordinance:

“It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt… And the people bowed the head and worshipped.” (Exodus 12:27)

They worshipped.

I think it is so cool that so many ordinances have physical acts associated with them that can help us ponder even deeper on the covenants being made.

But I also know that just “going through the motions” isn’t what saved the firstborns during the Passover.

And “going through the motions” isn’t what will help our hearts become molded to what the Lord wants them to be.

The sacred action + engaging our minds = true worship and lasting change!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Ordinances and actions first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Sundays have been kind of rough for me recently.

I love Sundays. I love feeling refreshed and renewed. I love learning and being social with my ward family.

But having a husband with a super busy calling, having two young kids, and then having the energy drained from me while being pregnant has added up to lots of rough Sundays.

They end up being exhausting, pretty lonely, and not quite as spiritually rejuvenating as I would like.

It’s hard to see the blessings of the Sabbath.

So I recently tried asking for help in prayer specifically about seeing blessings.

I’m supposed to be seeing the hand of God in my life, and I needed a lot of help seeing where it was on Sundays.

And this is exactly what happened.

“I witness that Jesus Christ loves us and can give us eyes to see—even when it’s hard, even when we’re tired, even when we’re lonely, and even when the outcomes are not as we hoped.” -Michelle D. Craig

I asked for the eyes that could see the hand of the Lord, and I was given them.

I’ll be honest, I’m still tired. Still by myself a lot. Still exhausted.

But I am also blown away by the little blessings that are absolutely everywhere.

Making life just a bit easier. Helping me to still feel love. Giving me opportunities to connect and serve.

“Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them”. (Exodus 8:19)

Pharaoh’s priests decided to see the hand of God in the miracles that Moses and Aaron performed.

And Pharaoh decided to harden his heart and not see any evidence of the Lord.

It’s not always easy. I can attest to that.

But the Savior wants to give us eyes to see the hand of God in our lives, no matter what our circumstances are.

Because His power and influence and miracles are truly everywhere.

We just have to be willing and humble enough to look.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Seeing the hand of God first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.