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.

I had a friend say this recently when I did some service for them during a rough time. ⁣

But it wasn’t hard work for me, honestly. ⁣

I love this friend, I wanted to make their burden lighter, and I even felt like I hadn’t done enough. ⁣

But… I can also think of other times when I’ve served out of obligation or assignment, and it sure has felt like a burden to me. ⁣

My “service” becomes another thing added to my to-do list. ⁣

I think Jacob can teach us a lesson about what the difference is between these two scenarios. ⁣

He loved Rachel. ⁣

So when her father requested Jacob work 7 years for her hand:⁣

“Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.” (Genesis 29:20)⁣

Love. ⁣

I think love is the difference. ⁣

Have you noticed this? ⁣

When I focus on how much I love my kids, the service I do for them seems much lighter— not even like service! I’m just helping them out. ⁣

When I focus on how much I love my husband, I want to serve him and make his life much easier because I find joy in it. ⁣

When I’m filled with love for people in my community, I have a natural desire to serve them and make their burdens lighter.

Love makes service a joy!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Love and service  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I couldn’t wait!

Until the process started and I realized that we’d have to basically live upstairs with small children for the week.

The upstairs hallway was lined with snacks, drinks, toys, my laptop, puzzles, games, garbage bags… anything I could think of. ⁣

(Because of course it was also super rainy and cold for those days, so park visits were suddenly out of the question.)⁣

EVERYTHING WAS A MESS. ⁣

Upstairs, downstairs, the garage that had basically become a temporary storage unit for everything… all of it. ⁣

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard plenty of times that it’s easier to feel the Spirit in clean and orderly places than messy ones. ⁣

This was the thought running through my mind one evening as I sat, exhausted, and looked at the chaos. ⁣

I just wanted a clean home where I could feel peace! ⁣

“Heavenly Father,” I pleaded. “There’s no way I can get this house clean right now.” ⁣

Almost immediately, I was filled with this calming peace. ⁣

I felt a strong spiritual presence, and I felt like everything was okay. ⁣

Here’s what I know: ⁣

God doesn’t wait until our house or our room is clean until He speaks to us. ⁣

When we see Jacob wandering in a wilderness and making a pillow out of stones, this is where the Lord visits him and blesses him with great power. ⁣

And Jacob’s response? “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” (Genesis 28:16). ⁣

The Lord is wherever His righteous people are, whether they are sleeping on stones, or whether their house is covered in dust, crumbs, and toys. ⁣

The Lord can be anywhere, as long as we take a moment to look for Him.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Can you feel the Spirit in a messy home? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Am I showing good results as a member of the Lord’s restored gospel?

I try to study my scriptures each day.

Say prayers.

Serve others.

Fulfill my calling.

Keep the sabbath holy.

It can start to become too much. I can start to become weighed down.

Yes, it’s good fruit.

But when it starts to outgrow my roots, that’s when there’s a problem.

When I study the olive tree allegory, the Lord of the vineyard seems the most concerned with two parts of His olive trees:

The roots

AND

the fruit.

“And this I do that, perhaps, the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil.” (Jacob 5:59) 

Sometimes, I’m so focused on producing “good fruit” that I forget it’s impossible to do so without strong roots.

And roots need constant nourishment.

Instead of just checking off my scripture study for the day, I try to really connect with God and feel the Spirit in order to nourish my soul.

I turn off the fun TV show and listen to a conference talk, really focusing on connecting with God.

I find meaning in my church service instead of just getting things done.

And it makes a world of a difference.

When I feel “exhausted”, I’m usually not taking care of my gospel roots. I’m usually only focusing on the “good fruit” that other people might see.

But when I start taking care of nourishing my “roots” a lot more, feeding them a steady stream of scripture, doctrine, and goodness, guess what starts to happen?

When my roots are strong, my “fruit” is naturally good, too.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Roots and branches  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

He was doing his best. ⁣

Preparing powerful sermons, sharing meaningful allegories, listening to the Spirit’s promptings. ⁣

But many of the Nephites still were not fully converted unto Christ and righteous living. ⁣

And then Sherem came. ⁣

He was smart. He was flattering. ⁣

He convinced many people to fall away from the gospel of Christ. ⁣

This was surely making the situation worse, right?! ⁣

Jacob’s prayers were not being answered. ⁣

Jacob and Sherem met. Sherem said there is no Christ. Jacob said there is. Sherem asked for a sign. Sherem “fell to the earth” for many days. ⁣

When Sherem woke up, he asked for all the people to be gathered together so he could speak to them before he dies. ⁣

The multitude came to listen to Sherem. ⁣

Sherem spoke about the reality of Christ. The power of angels. Of the Holy Ghost. ⁣

And the people listening were overcome by the power of God. They all fell to the earth. ⁣

The result when they woke up?⁣

“Peace and the love of God was restored again among the people; and they searched the scriptures”⁣. (Jacob 7:23)

Jacob’s prayers were answered. ⁣

“Now, this thing was pleasing unto me, Jacob, for I had requested it of my Father who was in heaven; for he had heard my cry and answered my prayer.” (Jacob 7:22)

In a completely unexpected way. ⁣

Things had to get much, much worse in order for the prayer to be answered. ⁣

But the prayer was answered.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The worst answered prayer  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.

Not gonna lie, this question has crossed my mind a time or two recently. 

Why is there so much opposition?

Not even just good vs. evil, although there certainly is a lot of that.

But just the mortal struggles that each of us has to deal with at different times.

We’ve all heard the platitude that we need the hard times in order to grow.

But what does that really look like?

Because sometimes it just feels like the hard times make things hard, and that’s it.

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” (Genesis 32:24)

“Jacob wrestled with a serious challenge.

“His agency was tested.

“Through this wrestle, Jacob proved what was most important to him.

“He demonstrated that he was willing to let God prevail in his life.” -President Russell M. Nelson

I’m not sure about all the intricacies of “why” we have to go through the hard things, especially the draining and the mundane and the painful.

But I have learned that each struggle is an opportunity for us to choose to let God prevail.

Will we still say our prayers when life is tough? When we are in pain? When we are tired? When we are overwhelmed?

Will we still find ways to show gratitude and to think of our Savior?

Will we be willing to let God’s will prevail, even when that means enduring even more?

I’m not perfect at this.

But luckily, I get lots of different chances to wrestle with different things.

And each time, I get to try to show God again that He will always prevail.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Wrestle and let God prevail first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

It might have been fast and immediate, like turning on a lightbulb.

Or maybe it was more like a sunrise, where one day you realized you already had that full light inside of you.

Or maybe it’s been a series of light switches, sunrises, and strobe lights as you’ve reconnected with God over and over.

I’m not sure what Jacob’s testimony was like before his journey in the wilderness.

But it sure seems like his experience with seeing a vision of the ladder was his big conversion moment.

He reflected after this big vision:

“If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God”. (Genesis 28:20-21)

In other words, if God is doing all of these amazing things for me, then I will absolutely choose for the Lord to be my God.

Isn’t that the crux of most testimonies?

The moment we realize and internalize just how much God has actually done for us individually.

The blessings we have. The love we feel from the Savior. The sacrifices that we appreciate. The peace that He extends to us.

But I think a “testimony moment” is a lot more than just having this realization.

It’s a moment where this realization is coupled with this immediate desire to stay as close to the Lord as possible for the rest of our lives.

“… then shall the Lord be my God.”

Have you chosen to make the Lord your God yet?

And if you made that decision and felt that conversion a long time ago, have you felt it renewed in your heart recently?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Jacob’s testimony first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I remember a few years ago being in this situation. Things were starting to get messy.

Finally, I knew I needed to have this important conversation, and I was trying to mentally prepare myself for it and the accompanying uncomfortableness.

I had my point that I needed to make, and I practiced how it might go over and over in my head.

I realized that I should probably pray in preparation as well.

As I knelt down the night before and asked for help in this awkward situation, I suddenly felt prompted to take a different approach.

It didn’t really make sense to me, but it also totally felt right.

I knew I needed to drop a lot of my “points” and instead ask more questions, being totally open to any answer.

The conversation the following day was definitely awkward at first.

But… it resolved much quicker than I thought.

And I had been making one big assumption that ended up being completely wrong.

I have learned that God is really good at preparing hearts.

Laban did not want Jacob and his family to leave him.

So when Jacob followed through on a prompting and left with haste and secrecy, and Laban found out about it, he was not happy.

He gathered his men and pursued Jacob until they met up.

But that night, the Lord came to Laban in a dream and spoke words that softened his heart.

When Laban and Jacob had the confrontation, Laban said: “It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” (Genesis 31:29)

God prepared Laban’s heart to take a different approach to dealing with his son-in-law, and it resulted in everyone being content and respectful of each other’s boundaries.

God can prepare our hearts for the tough conversations we have to face, too.

And God is probably also trying to prepare the heart of the person we need to speak to, too.

We’ve all got our agency, of course.

But I believe God is always working to prepare our hearts for what we will need to face next.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Preparing hearts first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I’ve been super excited, as it’s an upgrade we’ve been waiting to make for a while!

Until I realized that prepping for getting the floors redone in half of your home looks exactly the same as moving half of your home.

Our garage was a hot mess with everything it could hold, and my husband and I were sorting and cleaning through so much stuff. (Luckily he did all the heavy lifting!)

And then it was time for the crew to do the floors!

Which meant… living upstairs. With two kids.

The upstairs hallway was lined with snacks, drinks, toys, my laptop, puzzles, games, garbage bags… anything I could think of.

(Because of course it was also super rainy and cold for those days, so park visits were suddenly out of the question.)

EVERYTHING WAS A MESS.

Upstairs, downstairs, the garage, all of it.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard plenty of times that it’s easier to feel the spirit in clean and orderly places than messy ones.

This was the thought running through my mind one evening as I sat, exhausted, and looked at the chaos.

I just wanted a clean home where I could feel peace!

“Heavenly Father,” I pleaded. “There’s no way I can get this house clean right now.”

Almost immediately, I was filled with this calming peace.

I felt a strong spiritual presence, and I felt like everything was okay.

Here’s what I know:

God doesn’t wait until our house or our room is clean until He speaks to us.

When we see Jacob wandering in a wilderness and making a pillow out of stones, this is where the Lord visits him and blesses him with great power.

And Jacob’s response? “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” (Genesis 28:16).

The Lord is wherever His righteous people are, whether they are sleeping on stones, or whether their house is covered in dust, crumbs, and toys.

The Lord can be anywhere, as long as we take a moment to look for Him.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The Lord is in the mess first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.