How to walk into a room and not worry about who you are going to sit by— just sitting down and knowing you’ll be fine no matter what. ⁣

How to make decisions and feel confident about them. ⁣

How to plan events and host. ⁣

And it’s not like these things aren’t important… ⁣

Being confident has blessed my life in many ways. ⁣

But I’ve recently been starting to get a glimpse of something much more important. ⁣

Love and service. ⁣

Walking into a room and looking for someone I could sit next to who might need a friend. ⁣

Not always making the most efficient decisions because they would leave some people out. ⁣

Hosting in a way that I’m still able to connect with others, and not in self-serving ways. ⁣

With this idea sitting in my mind a lot recently, I couldn’t help but see a new perspective to this pretty popular verse:⁣

“For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect.” D&C 128:15⁣

Why can’t we be perfect without performing proxy ordinances for every single person who has ever existed?⁣

Because that is the loving and compassionate thing to do. ⁣

It isn’t enough to just be righteous and confident people who keep to ourselves. ⁣

It isn’t enough to just worry about ourselves. ⁣

Why?⁣

Because Jesus isn’t just worried about Himself. ⁣

So if we are asked to become like Jesus…⁣

Then we can’t just worry about “our own salvation”.⁣

Because “our own salvation” requires us to become Christlike. ⁣

Which means we are filled with so much compassion and love that we HAVE to, no, we WANT to do the work for absolutely everyone else. ⁣

We would never be content with just our own perfection. ⁣

Because Christ isn’t content just with His.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Better than confidence first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Your life on earth has ended. ⁣

You get to meet God the Father, face to face. ⁣

You are waiting right outside the door. (Or gate? Or garden?)⁣

What is your mind doing?⁣

Really think about that for a second. ⁣

What are you thinking about?⁣

Maybe your mind is going to some of your shortcomings on earth. The times you forgot about Him. ⁣

Maybe you have some stories you want to tell Him that would make Him smile. ⁣

Maybe you have questions you want to ask. ⁣

Maybe you don’t know if you’ll say anything at all. ⁣

Maybe you are excited out of your mind. Maybe you are nervous. ⁣

I’ve thought about this reunion a lot, and how it will go changes pretty dramatically in my mind all the time. ⁣

But I’ve always been fascinated by this promise of what we can feel in God’s presence:⁣

CONFIDENCE⁣

Not pride or superiority. But a righteous and humble confidence. ⁣

And where does this confidence come from?⁣

“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God”. (D&C 121:45⁣)

The confidence comes from our thoughts. Virtuous, loving, God-focused thoughts. ⁣

But it’s actually not so much about that future, glorious moment, as it is about right now. ⁣

We can be in God’s presence here, even though we may not see Him. ⁣

So what are our thoughts like on a daily basis? What are our thoughts like in the temple? What are our thoughts like at home?⁣

Because we can’t fake those. Our thoughts often reveal our heart. ⁣

And the great news about thoughts? If our thoughts aren’t always where we want them to be right now, if they aren’t always virtuous and loving, we can change them. ⁣

And when we slowly change our thoughts to reflect the most important things on our heart, we gain confidence before the Divine.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Confidence wax strong  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.