I’ve had this overwhelming emotion in my life plenty of times – where there are so many people that I know who are in need of help or love, but there’s no way that I can reasonably help everyone.

And yet, my heart shows me the way.

I truly believe that our natural desires and intuitions are often Heavenly Father’s way of showing us our personal path.

I usually feel drawn to just a couple people who I know that I can help.

My heart is turned toward them.

I feel that godly love for them, I feel compelled to action, and I know my energy is being spent in the right way.

Family history work is not a topic that I am amazing at. At all.

But I want my heart to be turned to my predecessors.

I want to feel that pull, to love them, to be compelled to action on their behalf…

Why?

Because I think it’s a beautiful concept.

Starting from Father Adam and Mother Eve, God has done nothing but pour out blessings and covenants upon those who remember Him.

And yet, I feel that the adversary tries to convince me that I am completely isolated in my faith journey – I can only look at what has happened to me and what miracles I’ve seen as evidence.

But when my heart is turned to my mothers and fathers, from immediate to distant relatives, I remember that I’m not alone.

Just as I hope my children can rely on the strength of their family members, and so on.

We have help. We have people, both on this earth and on the other side, cheering us on.

And when we allow our hearts to be turned, filled with love and action, we can feel that tender reminder that we are not alone.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Where is my heart turned? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Among the fantastic theories and advice that I learned in that class was the idea that every single culture is just one generation from becoming extinct.

Especially when you use the word “culture” in relation to individual families: every single family has a different set of traditions, hobbies, values, language patterns, shared experiences, specific food, etc.

Every single family’s specific culture is just one generation from disappearing.

And this is why it become so essential to learn about our ancestors and predecessors.

Because we are teaching the importance of our family culture and helping the next generation learn the patterns, values, and events that have shaped them.

When Alma was preaching in Ammonihah, he got a little frustrated:

“How have ye forgotten the tradition of your fathers”! Alma 9:8.

How can you possibly forget the miracles that brought Lehi across the ocean?

How can you possibly forget the countless times that God has saved us from our enemies?

It sounds like the people in Ammonihah had stopped learning about their history – both from spoken record and from reading scriptures.

How are we doing at remembering the traditions of our fathers and mothers?

We all have family culture to study. And the cool part is that we can prayerfully and wisely decide which parts of our culture need to continue.

And which parts need to stop with us.

And we ALL can use the scriptures to see even more examples of how God has helped the people who turn to Him.

This helps convince us more fully that He will still help us as we turn to Him today.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Keeping our culture alive first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.