“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit

“—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.” (D&C 19:18)

The final phrase of that scripture has always stood out to me.

Because the Savior of the world, faced with a truly painful and unpleasant task, asked not to have to face it.

At that moment, He did not want to drink the extremely bitter cup that had been placed before Him.

It is okay to ask.

It is okay to ask for our pains and sorrows to be taken away.

For our trials to end.

For our miracles to transform us.

But then, our perfect example said:

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father.”(D&C 19:19)

Nevertheless…

God’s will be done.

We can ask for what we want…

While also submitting to the Father’s will if it is different from ours.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to not always love whatever life throws at me.

I can wish and pray that it was different.

But ultimately, I have found the most peace when I give glory to my Father, no matter the circumstances.

And when I do hard things, the greatest blessings await on the other side.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post I don’t want to have to do this first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

This was a question that I asked myself over and over again a few years ago. ⁣

Every General Conference where I knew I needed to have a question in mind, every sacrament meeting, every Fast Sunday…⁣

I just felt so confused by this elusive “atonement”.

And yet every time I asked the question, I didn’t feel like I was getting much of an answer. ⁣

I didn’t feel like God was giving me wisdom liberally in response to my asking. ⁣

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5)

And then one Sunday, I was asked by a teacher to share my thoughts on “the atonement” for a few minutes in a church lesson. ⁣

As I nervously spoke to my class, I suddenly realized what a large testimony I had gained of Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice!

I discovered how much clarity I had gained over the past few years, little by little. ⁣

Even though I felt like I hadn’t received any wisdom, I recognized that I had learned to always refer to the event in reference to the Savior (“the Savior’s atoning sacrifice”). ⁣

I knew when I had repented, His atoning sacrifice was what made that possible. ⁣

I knew it wasn’t necessary to know the details of what the Savior’s sacrifice looked like in the moment. ⁣

I had been given such wisdom about the Savior’s atoning sacrifice, and I didn’t even realize it because it didn’t all come at once. ⁣

I keep thinking about Joseph right after the First Vision. ⁣

While we look back at that event as the start of a very large stone that now fills the whole earth, Joseph likely saw it as a small step. ⁣

He had asked about the state of his soul, and which church to join. ⁣

He was told that he was forgiven and that he should not join any of them. ⁣

But he wasn’t given any further instruction in that moment. ⁣

He had no clue about the Book of Mormon. No clue that he would organize an entirely new church. No clue that he would help restore ancient ordinances and covenants.⁣

Because sometimes, receiving liberal amounts of wisdom from God looks like tiny baby steps in the moment.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Rays and pillars  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I can still distinctly remember her cries waking me up shortly after I had just fallen asleep.

My immediate instinct was to soothe her in any way possible in her bassinet.

I put my hand on her chest.

I fished around for her pacifier and tried to put that in her mouth.⁣

And then quite often, I’d realize she wasn’t going back to sleep, and was ready to eat.⁣

I’d pull my body up from the comfy sheets, prop up my pillows, pull her from her bassinet, and feed her for a half hour in the dark. ⁣

Motherhood is a sacrifice.

A sacrifice of my body. My comfort. My sleep. My time. My mental resources. ⁣

But this sacrifice has refined me into a more selfless, more kind, more fulfilled, and hopefully more Christlike person. ⁣

Could I ever ignore or forget my baby’s cries in the middle of the night?

It’s hard to even imagine. ⁣

And yet, our Savior will forget us even less than a mother and her newborn child.

“For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.” (1 Nephi 21:15)

He has given us a greater sacrifice than even a mother who has birthed a child.

His body was broken for us. His emotional energy was depleted for us. His mortal life was ended for us. ⁣

He has sacrificed so much for us, that He could never forget us. ⁣

He has graven us upon the palms of His hands. ⁣

Do we remember that we can cry out to Him?

Do we trust that He really will respond every time in exactly the way that we need?

Do we know that His sacrifice for us forges a connection that can never be lost?⁣

The Lord will not forget us. He has never. And He will never. ⁣

He is aware of our every action and thought and move. He knows when we are in pain. He knows when we are confused. He knows when we just need a break. ⁣

All we need to do is trust that He really is there.

At 1:00 am, or whenever we need Him, He is there.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Sleepless nights  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

“The atonement”

“The enabling power of the atonement”

“Applying the atonement”

“Being strengthened by the atonement”

They are all phrases that President Nelson has asked us to STOP using. ⁣

Why?⁣

Because they completely take Christ out of the picture!

President Nelson has encouraged us to use terms like “the Savior’s atoning sacrifice” that keep our focus on Jesus.

I used to attend church and learn about lots of different topics:

Service, church history, families, spiritual gifts, my Savior, peace.

But I remember it clicking in my mind one day that everything is actually tied back to Christ!

And I think we could all try to do a bit better at making sure our lessons, talks, and thoughts always connect to Jesus.

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14)

Our faith needs to be in Jesus Christ, and our preaching needs to point others to Jesus Christ.

We go to church to partake of the sacrament as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice.

We learn about service to become more charitable like Christ.

We study church history to see how others turned to Christ during their trials.

Everything is connected to and possible only because of Jesus!

Give it a try– the next church lesson, class, or talk that you sit through, make an effort to see how it is all possible only because of Jesus Christ.

And then share that testimony with others!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post How do we connect it all to Jesus?  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

The atonement isn’t some event that had its own power that we worship and revere.

Instead, it’s all about the Savior!

It is the Savior’s atoning sacrifice.

He is the one who made the amazing, selfless sacrifice and chose to atone for our sins.

We worship the Savior, not “the atonement”!

Now I was recently at our stake conference where our visiting general authority taught us that President Nelson has also started teaching about another angle of this same truth, all focused on:

The temple!

I love the temple.

But we often mistakenly attribute the power of the temple to the temple itself.

As if the building has power because it is a temple.

But why are temples so amazing?

It’s because they are the literal houses of the Lord!

Jesus Christ’s spirit is even more present in the temple walls, and that is what the “special spirit of the temple” is really all about.

Isaiah taught us in Isaiah 2:3:

“And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths”.

The temple is where we go to learn about Jesus, to be taught by Jesus, in the home of Jesus.

It’s all about Jesus.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The temple’s power first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Like ALL over.

Before washing the shirt, I treated it with some stain remover.

When I pulled the shirt out of the washing machine, I realized you could still totally see the stain.

I started googling all the tips and tricks to get this kind of stain out, and realized we probably weren’t going to have much luck.

I tried a few different cleaners, but I wasn’t having much luck on this light-colored shirt.

Eventually, the shirt had to get tossed in the trash.

When something is stained, it takes so much work to get the mark out.

And let’s be real, even if you “get” the stain out, there is usually some sort of faint marking that never lets you forget what used to be there.

I think that’s what makes this famous scripture so powerful:

“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

Repentance is so complete and whole, that after we feel sorrow and turn our heart back to God, the place where the sin used to be is now as white as snow.

No stains left behind.

No lingering remnant of when “we used to…”

No discernible difference than something that had never been stained in the first place.

From large sins with life-altering effects, to smaller omissions or changes in attitude.

The Savior can help create a future with us that has no trace of what we are willing to leave behind.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Scarlet to white first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Listen to your first thought or prompting, and act on it right away.

I have been working on that as much as I can these past few weeks, and some days are better than others, but I’ve had some pretty cool experiences.

Using my time wisely has become a little more natural. I’ve found more opportunities to fit good things into my life. I’ve had some cool teaching experiences with my kids.

It was exactly the advice that I needed to gain a little more clarity in my life, and invite even more spiritual promptings to come.

“What lack I yet” is a question I ask pretty often in prayer, and it’s a principle I even use to guide my scripture study and look for personal applications.

(Elder Lawrence’s talk in Oct 2015 on this subject is FANTASTIC by the way, if you want some reading/listening!)

The reason I love asking this question so much is because it keeps me focused on improvement.

It’s so easy to think that I’m doing just fine, I’m doing all that I can handle, or that I can’t even keep up with the things I have right now.

But I’ve found that the Spirit is always eager to bring my attention to one area I can focus on in particular.

Instead of being overwhelmed by everything that I lack, I can be shown what one thing would get me started in the right direction.

When I was reading about the Lord’s comments about Sidney Rigdon this week, I was really intrigued by this connection:

“I, the Lord, am not pleased with my servant Sidney Rigdon; he exalted himself in his heart, and received not counsel”. D&C 63:55

Sidney was exalting himself in his heart, which is definitely a problem.

But what an interesting side effect, right?!

Because of this pride, he didn’t receive counsel!

He wasn’t asking “what lack I yet?”— he was thinking, “I’ve got it all figured out. I’m good enough.”

Pride is so sneaky.

The adversary wants us to stay as we are, and reject any advice that’s given to us, whether through prayer or through other kind loved ones.

And yet our Savior invites us to change. His atoning sacrifice is the reason we CAN change.

But we don’t have to tackle this impossible task of “becoming Christlike” all on our own.

The Spirit can whisper to us exactly what the next step is. Being so gentle and kind in giving us just what we can handle next.

All we need to do is ask.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post What lack I yet? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I mean, I had heard all the lessons and talks on it and what it meant, but I felt so confused that what it actually was.

I think it was my “General Conference” question for like four years straight.

My question was slowly answered in me becoming less concerned with what my Savior’s atoning sacrifice looked like, and instead what it meant to me personally.

But I also have grown a great love for this scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants because it gives us the only first-person account of the Savior’s atoning sacrifice.

This is Jesus describing what it was like for Him to atone for the sins of all mankind.

“Which suffering caused myself,

even God,

the greatest of all,

to tremble because of pain,

and to bleed at every pore,

and to suffer both body and spirit—

and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” – D&C 19:18

God the Son trembled because of pain and bled at every pore.

But the last line of that scripture is one of the most powerful lessons to me.

Because the Savior of the world, faced with a truly painful and unpleasant task…

Asked to NOT have to face it.

In the moment, He did not want to drink the extremely bitter cup that was placed before Him.

It is okay to ask.

It is okay to ask for our pains and sorrows to be taken away.

It is okay to ask for trials to end.

It is okay to ask for miracles.

But then, our Perfect Example said:

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father”.

God’s will be done.

We can ask for what we want, while also submitting to the Father’s will if it is different than ours.

Christ did difficult things.

And because He willingly went through with an excruciatingly painful act, my life has been completely changed.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to not always love whatever life throws at me.

I can wish and pray that it was different.

But ultimately, I have found the most peace when I give the glory to my Father no matter the circumstances.

And that when I do hard things, the greatest blessings await on the other side.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Christ’s sacrifice- in His own words first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

The event that saved the souls of everyone who had lived or would yet live upon the earth.

One of the “three pillar” most important events in the history of the world. ⁣

An event that is important for literally everyone, yet still feels so personal and intimate.

And despite its grandiose significance, here is what my big brother’s atoning sacrifice means to me.
⁣

• Because of my Savior’s atoning sacrifice on this day in the Garden of Gethsemane, I know that I WILL mess up, and I WILL get to try again. ⁣

• ️ Because of Him, I know that I am always loved. ⁣

• ️Because of Him, I know that I will be judged with grace and understanding for everything I have done. And I can extend that same grace and understanding to those around me. ⁣

• ️Because of Him, I know that I can keep working on my weaknesses. ⁣

• ️Because of Him, I know I can do hard things. ⁣

• ️Because of Him, I know how to love and serve others better. ⁣

• ️Because of Him, I know exactly the person I am striving to be, and I won’t give up until I get to become her. ⁣

• ️Because of Him, I have direction and peace in my life. ⁣

️⁣I would recommend taking some time to write down some things that our Savior’s atoning sacrifice means in your life sometime today.

If you’d be willing to share some reasons, I’d love to hear them too.

Let’s #sharegoodness and get our minds prepared for a historic and solemn fast for Good Friday. 

 Artwork: “The Agony in the Garden” by Frans Schwartz

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Garden of Gethsemane – THURSDAY first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.