Ever felt that way before?

I have.

I have followed through on a prompting, just to have to deal with a lot of emotional pain from all the fallout.

I’ve decided to keep sticking to church standards and lost a friend because of it.

I’ve reached out and offered service, only to have a super awkward result that left me feeling frustrated.

Can’t you just hear the emotion in Moses’ voice here?

He had been asked BY THE LORD to go talk to the pharaoh and request that he let the Israelites go.

The Israelites were looking up to Moses as the prophet who would free them from captivity!

And how did the pharaoh respond?

He increased the burdens on the Israelites to the point where they couldn’t even bear them anymore.

And so Moses went to the Lord in frustration.

He did what he was supposed to do, and things got worse for everyone.

“Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.” (Exodus 5:22-23)

The Lord didn’t deliver on His promise.

Or so it seemed.

Doesn’t obedience = blessings?!

It’s like that cartoon online I’ve seen tons of times—

We think that obedience to God’s commandments, revelation, and inspiration is going to lead us in a steady, straight, upward climb.

… when obedience often looks like a path filled with lots of mountains, valleys, and steep drop offs.

I’ve learned that it takes a lot of faith to believe that following promptings and keeping commandments will always work out in the long run.

Because no matter the short-term difficulties and obstacles

The Lord knows what we need to fulfill His plan. 

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post This was not the plan first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I stayed up late, I had extra babysitters come during the day, and I hit my deadline.

I love writing and creating, so I truly enjoy these last minute work times, which probably reinforces my habit of procrastinating, but oh well.

Everything was on schedule to be published at the perfect time.

The rest of the process was out of my control.

I pressed “submit” and waited.

And waited some more.

Days went by.

And suddenly, I was having to wait longer than I have ever waited before for my work to be approved.

And then it was twice as long as I’ve ever had to wait.

And then three times as long.

I had a great real-life practice of my mantra about not worrying about things outside my control. But boy was that a tough wait.

I was to the point where I almost expected it would never get approved and published for some reason.

And then!

I opened the email. It was approved! Published! Good to go!

My immediate first thought was pure gratitude.

I bowed my head and said a quick but super sincere prayer of overwhelming gratitude.

So so grateful and so so blessed. God is good.

And immediately after this gratitude, it hit me.

I’ve never been grateful for publishing services before.

I’ve never given a second thought to having my work “approved” and “published”.

But having to wait for such a long time allowed my heart to feel such gratitude and dependence on the Lord.

The Israelites had suffered for a long time.

And so when they saw Moses and Aaron’s signs and heard their testimony that they had been sent from God to free them,

“The people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.” (Exodus 4:31)

When I have to wait for a blessing for a long time, my gratitude increases exponentially.

Maybe that’s why the Lord likes to let us wait sometimes. He knows that our hearts need the training.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Waiting on a deadline first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

A holy place, to me, is a place where I feel closer to God.

It is different than the ordinary. It is special.

Unique.

And when I think of holy places, there usually is something different that I do with my outward appearance in order to reflect the holiness that I feel.

One of my favorite parts of learning about Moses seeing the burning bush is one of the first things that the Lord says to him:

“And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

Moses was asked to make a change, a symbolic change, to reflect how his heart felt about entering a holy place.

My church building is a holy place to me, a place where I partake of the sacrament and renew powerful covenants.

And so I dress a little nicer than I do the rest of the week.

When I attend the temple, I also dress nicer as I enter, and I prepare for more opportunities to make my outward appearance reflect the uniqueness of the temple spirit.

I know that God is with me in the casual moments, in the messy house and the undone hair and the random sprinkles of shredded cheese that somehow always make it on the floor. (Anyone else?!)

But I also love being able to take opportunities to show God that I am willing to make an effort to show my gratitude for the holy grounds that I am able to walk on.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Holy places first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

⁣⁣I was of absolutely no use that day, since I had recently found out I was pregnant with our first, and I was beyond sick.

⁣⁣But my husband was doing great!

⁣⁣My heart sank as I looked at our completely empty apartment, though. ⁣⁣

Because even though our stuff was all gone, there was so much CLEANING that still had to happen before we handed the keys back to management the next day.

⁣⁣And my husband’s grad school schedule meant the cleaning would all fall to me. ⁣⁣

Even though I was so sick and so tired.

⁣⁣I remember my husband suggesting we just give the apartment back as it was, willingly forfeiting our deposit.

⁣⁣But it was a huge deposit, and I wanted to get that money back. ⁣⁣

I prayed that night that I would feel well enough to clean. ⁣⁣

That next morning, I woke up to a text from a lady in our ward that we were leaving:

⁣⁣“Hey Cali! I heard you are feeling really sick! (Congrats!) My family wants to come clean your apartment today so that you don’t have to. We’ll bring all our own cleaning supplies and make sure it’s super clean. You just rest and relax today!”

⁣⁣I never set foot in that apartment again, and we eventually got our full deposit back.

⁣⁣I’ve thought a lot about this lady’s ridiculously kind offer, her teenage kids that probably weren’t super happy to learn about their family activity that evening, and her charitable heart that acted immediately after hearing a need.

⁣⁣I also have thought about how the Lord COULD have given me strength to clean my apartment. He could have caused my sickness to subside. ⁣⁣

But instead he gave this family a chance to serve and to act.

⁣⁣“We will surely be blessed with opportunities to be instruments in His hands”. -Elder Ulisses Soares ⁣⁣

It’s a blessing to be able to do what the Lord would do. ⁣⁣

He could make it all happen on His own, without any of us helping.

⁣⁣But He generously gives us the blessing of being able to act in His behalf. 

⁣⁣Moses got this blessing, too. ⁣⁣

There were many ways the Israelites could have been freed. ⁣Yet the Lord was loving and kind enough to let Moses lead the way.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Cleaning the apartment first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I mean, they kept growing and multiplying, and who knew what would happen next?!

And so what did this king do?

“He said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them… Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.” (Exodus 1:9-11)

The pharaoh was literally so afraid about the hypothetical military power this group of people could have in the future, that he did everything he could do to keep them oppressed.

Do you know what I can’t help but think about here?

“Unity requires effort. It develops when we cultivate the love of God in our hearts and we focus on our eternal destiny.” – Elder Dale G. Renlund

One of the biggest messages our modern church leaders have been teaching over and over again is:

UNITY

We can have cultural and social differences and still find unity when we realize that we are all identified as children of God, first!

Can you even imagine if the new king said:

“Hey Israelites! You keep growing and growing, and we love you guys. What can we do to help you feel more included? Do you have any new ideas for how to make our kingdom even better?”

And yet, this king chose division and labeling people as “others”.

Which then led to him inflicting pain and burdens.

So how can you create unity where you live right now?

Who are you tempted to think about in divisive ways, and how can you turn that into love and unity instead?

Kicking other people out or purposefully increasing their burdens just to keep another group comfortable isn’t the way the Savior worked, and it’s not how He wants us to work, either.

Unity looks like hard work. It takes effort. It requires people to get uncomfortable.

And the end result is so much more love, peace, and Christlike charity.

Unity is worth the effort.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Unity is worth the effort  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.