And I said “Yup, yup I do.”⁣

Between the two of us, we had a broken A/C, broken water heater, weeds galore, car damage, pregnancy pains, broken garbage disposal, crazy work schedules and hectic personal schedules. ⁣

And all of it had happened within the last week. ⁣

Isn’t that how life is?⁣

All at once or nothing at all. ⁣

I’m sure Father Jacob felt this “all at once” emotional pain overcome him when he saw his sons return from their first trip to Egypt. ⁣

Joseph had been gone for years, but I’m sure the pain was still fresh. Simeon was now imprisoned in Egypt. And they wanted to take Benjamin with them when they returned?! He would surely be taken from him, too!⁣

It’s no wonder that he cried out, just like many of us have:⁣

“All these things are against me.” (Genesis 42:36)⁣

Sometimes, it sure seems like this is the case. ⁣

You can’t catch a break, the struggles keep piling up, and you can’t seem to find a tender mercy anywhere. ⁣

Why is everything against me?! ⁣

Guess what we get reminded of in Psalm 56:9?⁣

“God is for me.”⁣

THINGS may be against us. Air conditionings and garbage disposals may be out to make our lives miserable. ⁣

Or just the natural circumstances of living as a human in a fallen world make life rough. ⁣

But GOD will always be FOR US. ⁣

Do I believe that? ⁣

Do I really believe that?⁣

Honestly, I do. And it’s gotten me through plenty of rough weeks. ⁣

It’s kept me focused on gratitude. It’s kept me grounded in prayer. It’s kept me KNOWING that things will work out, even if it doesn’t look like it in the moment, and even if “work out” looks differently than I hope. ⁣

Everything might be against me. ⁣

But God is for me. ⁣

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post All these things are against me first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Dressing up nicely?

Caring for the things that we own?⁣

These are the questions that swirl in my head when I read Mormon 8:37:⁣

“Ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel…”⁣

The remainder of verse 37 seems to have the answer, though.⁣

“MORE THAN ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.”⁣

What do we love MORE?

Looking great and making lots of money? ⁣

Or caring for the less-fortunate around us?⁣

As with almost every gospel principle, it’s a subject that’s difficult to judge from the outside, looking at others.⁣

(Actually, it’s pretty easy to judge other people about this, but very difficult to ACCURATELY judge, no matter how well we know them.)⁣

There are wealthy people with beautiful homes who open up their house for every occasion, give generously, and love the Lord. ⁣

And there are wealthy people who let their abundance turn into fulfilling selfish desires and stinginess.

There are people who love enhancing their beauty with makeup and cute clothes, but aren’t afraid to get dirty in the name of service, or donate items they no longer need.⁣

And there are people who let their pride keep them from being seen in ways that wouldn’t keep up with their appearance.⁣

It’s okay to seek for a better-paying job in order to create financial stability, to buy new clothes that help you feel amazing, to enjoy your latest gadget that you saved up for…⁣

But it’s when these things become MORE THAN our love for God and our fellow man, that we can’t possibly imagine living without them, that we lose our gratitude and humility…⁣

That’s when they become sins.⁣

So what can we control?

It actually doesn’t matter how much money you have in your bank account, or how many clothes are in your closet, in order to fall victim to LOVING them more than God and others.⁣

Which makes this a beautiful month to use our gratitude to reflect on what we’ve been given from God, and how we can use however little or however much we’ve been given in order to build up the kingdom of God.

Make sure we can always confidently say that we love God more.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Which do we love more?  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I really wanted it.

And I didn’t get it.

I was devastated.

It was a really tough time for me to figure out what had gone wrong.

Have you ever prayed for something, and it didn’t happen?

From little “please help my baby fall asleep” prayers to much more serious and bigger prayers, it’s always a bit of a blow to not have a prayer answered the way we hoped it would be.

But I’m going to take a step back and get logical here:

That actually makes sense for not all of our prayers to be “granted”, right?

Even if we have righteous desires, we will never see the whole picture as Heavenly Father does.

In this instance with the job, God knew that I needed to find a different employment that would be perfect for my family and lead me to lifelong friends.

So why pray if we know not all of the things we desire in our prayers will align with God’s will?

Paul teaches us how the Spirit can help us know what to pray for!

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26)

The Spirit can help us know what to actually pray for.

“Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other.” —“Prayer”, Bible Dictionary

⁣It’s okay to pray for what we want.

But the Spirit can also help nudge our hearts toward what our Heavenly Father desires for us.

Our desperate prayers for a particular job all of a sudden start ending with “if it be Thy will.”

And then we feel prompted to start praying for new job opportunities to pop up.

And then we are praying for acceptance at a new job!

It can be a slow process, but a powerfully humbling one to see WHAT we pray for shifting over time as our sincere desires change.

One of the roles of the Spirit is that He can teach us what to pray for.

When we start changing our prayers into beautiful experiences where we listen to inspiration and follow the Spirit, we end up aligning our wills with God.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post How do I align my will with God? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I love coming up with really good plans.

Whether it’s been for callings at church, my next career move, or ideas for how to help my child, I think of a lot of stuff.

And sometimes, God says, “no” to my carefully crafted plans.

Paul experienced this, too.

Paul really wanted to travel to certain areas to share the gospel. ⁣

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7)

His desire was perfectly righteous!

And it made logical sense for them to preach to the people in Bithynia as they travelled, too.

Maybe Paul had travel arrangements or contacts there to make it super convenient.

But he prayed, and the Spirit told him, “no.” ⁣

For me, “no” answers usually come with stupors of thought.

I feel like the next step is not available to me.

Or I feel “off” as I pray about it. ⁣

It takes a lot of faith to NOT go through with something we want to do.

And then the trickiest part of all?

Usually the promptings for what we should do instead do not come until we have shown the faith not to go down the first path. ⁣

I’ve known that an idea I was really excited about was no longer right.

But it wasn’t until I took actual steps away from that first idea that the much better, much more powerful second idea came into focus.

It took a LOT of humility.

But I think that’s the point.

Slowly removing that pride, layer by layer.

It takes faith to align our will with God and accept that His “no” will bring the greatest future imaginable.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Accepting a “no” from God  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

And Jonah needed both of them.

He needed the storm to humble him.

And he needed the great fish to save him.

“The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” (Jonah 1:17)

And God provides both.

He provides everything that we need to become good, godly, Christlike people.

The calls to go and do good things.

The humbling moments when our pride has gotten in the way.

The mercy to save us in our own self-inflicted trials.

The opportunity to reflect and repent.

The call to again, go and do good things.

The teaching.

The love.

The safety.

He does it all.

He is so good.

Because I need it all, just like Jonah.

That all-encompassing divine teacher who changes my curriculum to be exactly what I need in exactly that moment.

I am grateful for a God who does it all.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The storm and the whale first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

YET

We talked a lot about how we often think we can’t do something, like solve a tough math problem, or dance ballet, or write an essay.

But the truth is, we can’t do those things YET!

If we put in the practice, learning, or training, we could technically do almost anything we wanted to do.

And of course, this message doesn’t only apply to sixth graders.

I can’t bake. I’m not good at drawing. I don’t garden.

And that bleeds into our spiritual development, too.

I’m not good at praying with real intent. I don’t like ministering to others. I don’t see the purpose in attending church. I’m so bad at studying my scriptures. I can’t forgive that person. I won’t feel charity toward those people.

I think Jeremiah had one of these realizations when the Lord called him to preach.

Jeremiah did NOT think he could be called as a prophet.

“Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am as a child” (Jeremiah 1:6)

And the Lord basically responded to him by pointing to the big sign on the door that said YET.

You may feel like a spiritual child right now.

But, especially when the Lord is involved, there isn’t anything we can’t do!

What new skills or strengths do you feel God wants you to learn right now, no matter your age?

Because God always adds YET.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post God adds YET first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

And it’s absolutely true.

“Be still, and know that I am God”. (Psalm 46:10)

But I can’t stop thinking about the second half of this phrase.

Like, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head all week.

“Know that I am God.”

Do we know who God is?

Do we know what it means for the God of the Universe to also be our loving Heavenly Father?

Do we know that God knows everything?

That He knows the end from the beginning?

He knows our divine worth and our weaknesses.

He creates.

He orchestrates.

He loves.

Do we know who God is, what He knows, what He does, and who He loves?

Because when I reflect on the glimpses of truth that I know about my God, I want to find even more still moments.

My problems don’t seem as big.

My priorities become sharpened.

My desire to share selfless love with others is strengthened.

My distractions seem silly.

Yes, it is vitally important for us to find stillness in the craziness of life.

But I think it’s even more important to know what to do during those quiet times.

Ponder.

Worship.

Love God.

Be still.

And know who God is.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Know who God is first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I asked her how she’s doing and she said, “You know those weeks where everything just seems to be going wrong?!”

And I said “Yup, yup I do.”

Between the two of us, we had a broken A/C, broken water heater, weeds galore, car damage, pregnancy pains, broken garbage disposal, crazy work schedules and hectic personal schedules.

And all of it had happened within the last week.

Isn’t that how life is?

All at once or nothing at all.

I’m sure Father Jacob felt this “all at once” emotional pain overcome him when he saw his sons return from their first trip to Egypt.

Joseph had been gone for years, but I’m sure the pain was still fresh. Simeon was now imprisoned in Egypt. And they wanted to take Benjamin with them when they returned?! He would surely be taken from him, too!

It’s no wonder that he cried out, just like many of us have:

“All these things are against me.” (Genesis 42:36)

Sometimes, it sure seems like this is the case.

You can’t catch a break, the struggles keep piling up, and you can’t seem to find a tender mercy anywhere.

Why is everything against me?!

Guess what we get reminded of in Psalm 56:9?

“God is for me.”

THINGS may be against us. Air conditionings and garbage disposals may be out to make our lives miserable.

Or just the natural circumstances of living as a human in a fallen world make life rough.

But GOD will always be FOR US.

Do I believe that?

Do I really believe that?

Honestly, I do. And it’s gotten me through plenty of rough weeks.

It’s kept me focused on gratitude. It’s kept me grounded in prayer. It’s kept me KNOWING that things will work out, even if it doesn’t look like it in the moment, and even if “work out” looks differently than I hope.

Everything might be against me.

But God is for me.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Everything is against me! first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I had my degree, and was totally ready to finally teach professionally full-time and make a full-time salary!

But transferring my teaching license to a new state, waiting for background check results, and applying for jobs in the middle of a school year were leading me to getting a total of ZERO job offers those first few months.

I immediately started applying for substitute teaching jobs while I waited, and roadblock after roadblock kept popping up with delayed trainings and orientations and fingerprint cards.

My plan of supporting my husband and myself financially while he was in school was starting to fail, and our savings account slowly dipped lower and lower.

This was one time in my life where I really felt the concept that faith = action.

I knew that God would provide for us and that things would work out, but it was also really difficult sitting there without any income for a while, with many factors outside of my control.

I kept moving forward on every path I could find, and each time I would hit a roadblock, I’d think of another path and go that way.

And overall, there was this pervasive peace, this faith that I knew everything would work out okay.

When Abraham led his beloved son Isaac up to the mountain with all the supplies to make a burnt offering, except the lamb itself, Isaac started to wonder.

Where is the sacrifice? What were they going to do?

His father Abraham so wisely testified: “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. (Genesis 22:8)

Abraham had pure faith that God would provide that offering, no matter what that looked like.

But I love that Abraham was also teaching Isaac of what was going to come in the future:

God would eventually provide a sacrificial lamb for all of mankind.

God has always provided for us.

When we really believe that God will provide, what can that give us the faith to do?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post God will provide first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

All my plans, my new-year-organization strategies have been thrown out the window as I’ve been knocked sick.

I do a lot each week that requires everything to run pretty close to clockwork.

There were many times this thought has run through my head as I’ve seen deadlines pass, work pile up, house projects left undone:

“This has all gone wrong.”

This isn’t how my new year, just a few months away from having a new baby, was supposed to start.

Have you ever thought this before?

“This has all gone wrong.”

There have been a few, much more serious times in my life when I’ve thought this, too.

But what I’ve learned is one of the most comforting, eternal truths:

“All flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.” (Moses 6:32)

God is in control.

And if God is in control, nothing is going to “go wrong”.

Now, don’t misunderstand: I’ve learned this does NOT mean that nothing will ever go wrong in my little mortal point of view.

But in the grand, eternal scheme of things, God isn’t letting any little decision I make, any sickness, any bump in the road throw a wrench into any of His plans.

God can do anything at any time.

So if I believe that, then how can I change my perspective right now?

“If I give this all to God, nothing can go wrong.”

Nothing goes wrong when I give it to God.

Deadlines will work themselves out. Or maybe I’ll miss them and things will be fine. Or maybe I’ll get clarity on things I need to drop anyways.

And it feels SO much better to think this way.

He’s got my back.

Nothing can go wrong.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post It’s all gone wrong! first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.