This is where we keep any shoes that are used often enough to stay downstairs. ⁣

It’s a good-sized basket, which means that sometimes shoes fall to the bottom, making them difficult to find. ⁣

When it’s time for our family to leave the house and put shoes on, sometimes I’ll notice that one of my son’s shoes has fallen to the bottom of the basket. ⁣

I’ll quickly dig his shoe out and place it on top, and THEN I’ll ask him to find his shoes and put them on. ⁣

He will then see his shoes near the top of the basket and put them on all by himself.

He still finds the task difficult sometimes,

And gets frustrated when he can’t easily find his shoes.

But he has no idea that I made his task much easier and much more appropriate for his abilities. ⁣

This is similar to the spiritual foresight that the mighty prophetess and judge Deborah had. ⁣

Barak was terrified to go against the powerful Canaanite army. ⁣

It seemed like a difficult task. ⁣

He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t see the path forward that would end in success.

But Deborah wisely said:⁣

“Is not the Lord gone out before thee?” (Judges 4:14)⁣

She knew that if the Lord was asking them to accomplish a task, then He had made it doable. ⁣

She knew He had prepared the way, removing obstacles that they might not ever be aware of. ⁣

She knew He knew exactly what their abilities were, and what they needed in order to be successful. ⁣

It’s fun to see the obvious hand of the Lord preparing our paths— when the house suddenly becomes available, or that person returns your call, or that teacher has a change of mind. ⁣

But other times we just have to trust that the Lord is preparing our paths in ways that we aren’t aware of. ⁣

He is before us, and He will prepare a way to help us accomplish anything we are asked to do.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Preparing the shoe basket first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I wanted to be someone who “loved Conference,” even though I had no idea how to get to that point.

But I figured it would take a lot of effort, so I got to work.

I spent time reviewing previous talks. ⁣

I prayed with very specific purposes beforehand. ⁣

I did a lot of work beforehand so that I wouldn’t have to run errands or anything during that weekend. ⁣

And guess what happened when General Conference weekend arrived?! ⁣

I felt so immersed in every talk that I heard! ⁣

It truly was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, and I felt like I was hearing the Lord speak, quite literally. ⁣

There was something powerful about really PREPARING for a spiritual experience. ⁣

The Lord even warned Moses to “Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.” (Exodus 19:10-11) ⁣

The Lord wanted the Israelites to PREPARE for the amazing spiritual experience that awaited them. ⁣

He didn’t want to just spring it on them. ⁣

He gave them three days to prepare. ⁣

Preparation takes work. It takes effort to do things ahead of time. ⁣

But Bonnie Oscarson put it perfectly when she said:⁣

“Where much is required, much more will be given.”⁣

We choose how much to prepare. ⁣

How much to ponder about our covenants BEFORE sacrament meeting starts. ⁣

How much to do physically and mentally BEFORE walking through the temple doors. ⁣

How much to do BEFORE we open our scriptures to study. ⁣

How much to search for intention BEFORE serving in our calling.

But I have found that the more that I choose to prepare before what I anticipate to be a spiritual experience, the more that the Spirit is poured out upon me. ⁣

Preparation is for my own benefit.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The effort of preparation  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

This has come to my mind a few times recently.

I LOVE connecting with God through the scriptures.

But things have felt a little… off?

Then I read a very simple scripture I know I had read many times before:

“Prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you”. ⁣(D&C 132:3)

Boom.

That was the answer that I needed. ⁣

I needed to prepare my heart a bit better to receive whatever I needed the Spirit to give me in these scriptures. ⁣

I had grown lax with my preparation.

So I prayed for a softer, more prepared heart. ⁣

I humbled myself and was ready to be taught. ⁣

And then I read the scriptures again. ⁣

This time, I found what the Lord wanted to teach me. ⁣

At least, I found what He wanted to teach me right then, because I’m sure there is much more that I can learn. ⁣

Sometimes, we just need to prepare. ⁣

Prepare our hearts to be sensitive to hard things. ⁣

Prepare our hearts to not worry about the stuff that we don’t need to worry about right now. ⁣

Prepare our hearts to be a little more humble and submissive to the Spirit. ⁣

So that’s what I learned. ⁣

Scripture study isn’t always easy. Finding inspiration isn’t always easy. ⁣

Maybe the scriptures will be easy for you. ⁣

Maybe you’ll struggle a bit as I did. ⁣

It’s all good. ⁣

But there is still always something to learn, and my testimony of that was strengthened even more as the Lord taught me about the power of preparation.

“The condition of our hearts directly affects our sensitivity to spiritual things.” – Gerald N. Lund

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post When the scriptures don’t inspire  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

But something finally clicked:

Do as much work as possible the night before.

Bam!

When we prepare the night before, there is so much more PEACE in the morning.

And when I taught 6th grade, I always tried to plan my weeks out ahead of time. ⁣

That way, when it was time to prep for the specific day, I knew exactly what to do. Peace. ⁣

And when I performed in piano recitals, I would practice over and over so that the notes settled into muscle memory.⁣

When it was time to play my piece? Peace. ⁣

We can’t prepare for everything.

But when we know something is coming, using our mature sense of delayed gratification to prepare NOW for what we will need LATER is what will bring us peace. ⁣

The Nephites and Lamanites in the land spent at least a few months gathering all of their families, supplies, livestock, and food into one place. ⁣

They prepared enough for seven years. ⁣

“The Nephites being in one body, and having so great a number, and having reserved for themselves provisions, and horses and cattle, and flocks of every kind, that they might subsist for the space of seven years”. – 3 Nephi 4:4

And so when the robbers attacked?

Peace.

They turned to God in prayer rather that turning from their enemy in fear. ⁣

And their preparation ended up being exactly what caused their enemy’s demise. ⁣

Because the robbers had not prepared. ⁣

They couldn’t live on “borrowed oil”. ⁣

So what can we do right now to prepare for the future? ⁣

Whether we need to get something organized, send an email, or strengthen a part of our testimony, the principle of preparation is a beautiful lesson in using our hard work NOW to make room for peace LATER.

“The great blessing of being prepared gives us freedom from fear.” – L. Tom Perry

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Crazy mornings  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 literally told my husband: “This week is rough. I’m having a hard time feeling inspired from these scriptures.”

I was trying, and this usually comes very naturally to me.

Normally, I come up with tons of post ideas, and then painstakingly narrow it down to the 5 ideas that I will post on Instagram that week.

But every scripture that I read seemed to be about something so random that it didn’t seem applicable to anything… or it seemed to be about an uncomfortable topic that I wasn’t finding inspiration in.

I wasn’t going to even be able to come up with enough ideas to post on Instagram.

I kept praying and praying, and I still wasn’t getting very far.

And then my eyes were pulled to D&C 132:3, which I had already read, but hadn’t connected with yet.

“Prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you”.

Boom. That was the answer that I needed.

I needed to prepare my heart a bit better to receive whatever I needed the Spirit to give me in these scriptures.

I prayed for a softer, more prepared heart.

I humbled myself and was ready to be taught.

And then I read these scriptures again.

Some of them still seemed random and irrelevant, and some of them still covered uncomfortable topics.

But I found what the Lord wanted to teach me.

At least, I found what He wanted to teach me right then, because I’m sure there is much more that I can learn.

Sometimes, we just need to prepare.

Prepare our hearts to be sensitive to hard things.

Prepare our hearts to not worry about the stuff that we don’t need to worry about right now.

Prepare our hearts to be a little more humble and submissive to the Spirit.

So that’s what I learned.

Scripture study isn’t always easy. Finding inspiration isn’t always easy.

Maybe this week will be easy for you.

Maybe you’ll struggle a bit as I did.

It’s all good.

But there is still always something to learn, and my testimony of that was strengthened even more with this reading.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Prepare your heart first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

You can start with an anticipatory set to pique interest, you can read from a common piece of literature and analyze different components, or you could go inquiry-based.

And… I love them all!

To me, crafting a lesson plan is exactly that— a beautiful craft of mixing creativity and teaching concrete topics.

After my formal teaching training and degree, I finally had the first opportunity to teach a full lesson in church to a youth Sunday School class.

I jumped into “lesson planning” mode and crafted prompts and stories that were going to perfectly take these kids through the concept of “tender mercies”.

Sunday arrived, and I was so excited to teach the lesson.

I walked into the classroom, and within five minutes, I knew what I had prepared was not going to work.

These kids needed something different.

A common teaching mantra popped into my head:

“Teach the kids, not the lesson.”

I said a silent prayer and felt prompted to share a lengthy personal story with the kids— one that I would usually avoid because it involved me just talking for a long time, which isn’t always engaging.

I have no clue why I was prompted to share that story. No kid ever said anything to me afterwards, other than a customary “thanks for the lesson” as they walked out the door.

Maybe I was the only one who needed to learn the lesson that day.

Because I learned that the Spirit gives me words to say and to write.

That was the first time that I can remember having my formal plans being completely overthrown by a spiritual prompting.

But it’s happened time and time again since then.

I plan out a post to write, and as I start writing, I completely change direction.

I think of a testimony to bear, and while speaking, I share completely new thoughts.

But letting the Spirit guide me doesn’t mean throwing caution to the wind and relying on Him to do all the work.

I still prepare.

I still lesson plan and craft and create.

But it’s the calm feeling that I know I might follow my plans to a T, or I might throw them out the window.

And either way, it’s all good.

Amazing preparation + being filled with the Spirit = the best teaching possible.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Preparation and the Spirit first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.