Up the mountain with the thunder and the storm.

Days passed.

Weeks.

Moses was nowhere to be found.

Slowly, panic replaced faith amongst the Israelites.

“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods”. (Exodus 32:1)

And in their panic, they turned to the worship of something that was familiar to them, more concrete, unchanging and easy to understand.

(I know, I know, a golden calf seems weird to us but it was a comfortable and logical move for them to make.)

I’ve learned in my life that patience and faith in God are completely intertwined.

“When we exercise patience, our faith increases. As our faith increases, so does our joy.” —Elder Jeremy R. Jaggi

Attending the temple hasn’t always made perfect sense to me.

After first receiving my endowment, there were a lot (A LOT) of things I was confused about.

But I had heard that the more often you go, the easier it is to gain a testimony of temple worship and work.

And I clung to that.

President Nelson has even recently counseled that if we don’t yet love temple work, to go more often.

And slowly but surely, trip after trip, drop by drop, I’ve learned to love attending the temple. I’ve learned, I’ve worshipped, I’ve served, I’ve received priceless revelation.

But it took a lot of patience. And waiting.

AND it took faith in God in waiting for the answer and the testimony to come.

I can think of so many more examples of this in my life with the law of tithing, keeping the Sabbath holy, fasting, following the prophet…

Patience in God’s timing and in His laws and principles takes a whole lot of faith.

Faith that He will actually reveal truths, or fulfill promises, or give us a testimony, or keep His covenants.

But keeping that faith while I wait has always resulted in long-term joy.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Patience and Faith first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I’ve noticed that there are times when I start to get really down on myself for how often I’m making the same mistakes over and over.

But I can feel the Spirit whisper that I am facing the right direction.

I feel remorse when I sin.

I want to become better.

I don’t give up on trying to become more Christlike.

Sure, I might be taking steps forward and backward.

But I am still facing the Savior.

One thing that I noticed about the Israelites though, is that they seemed to have made some pretty big mistakes while they were waiting for Moses on the mountain.

Breaking covenants, not keeping commandments, those are all not super awesome things to do.

But even more concerning is what we learn in Exodus 32:8:

“They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them”.

They were facing the wrong direction.

They needed a whole lot of support and intervention before their hearts desired repentance. Before they desired to try to do better.

The Lord knew what kind of commandments and priesthood they needed, what kind of temple worship they needed, what kind of ordinances and covenants they needed in order to keep their hearts facing toward Him.

We will all take plenty of steps both forward and backward along the path back to eternal life.

But when we make those mistakes, what are our desires afterward?

Do we want to keep trying to go back to that comfortable sin? Do we want to be sneaky so others don’t notice? Do we want to find more situations to do the same thing?

Or do we desire to do better?

Even if it takes an entire lifetime filled with sinning and repenting, a desire to repent shows us which way we truly face.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Which way do you face?  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

My sister was playing with a toy that I wanted, and I took it out of her hands.

Immediately, I knew I had done something wrong, and I felt so badly!

I had already messed up!

I had made a promise at baptism to always remember Jesus, and now I had forgotten.

Aaaaand I’m pretty sure this was the evening after I got baptized, so I hadn’t lasted very long at all.

The Israelites made such an eager promise when Moses read what the Lord had taught him:

“All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” (Exodus 24:7)

Spoiler alert: the Israelites did NOT keep this promise.

They broke it many times, just as each of us break the promises and covenants that we have made.

But the good news?

Repentance and the sacrament make it possible to re-commit to those promises!

So have you re-committed recently?

Have you thought about what covenants you’ve made, and decided to keep them again?

Do you trust in the Savior’s ability to really cleanse?

And can you draw on the Savior’s strength to re-commit over and over?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Messing up first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.