God loves us so much. ⁣

He wants us to become more like Him and His Son. ⁣

That can seem a bit vague and overwhelming, so He also gives guiding commandments that help keep us on the right path of truth.⁣

Most of us start our gospel journey because we realize how much we love God. ⁣

Whether you realized that as a young child, learned it as an adult, or anything in between, most of us have felt love and wanted to give love. ⁣

So then we start keeping the commandments to make sure that our “love” is actually developing us closer and closer into the Divine. ⁣

And then we sometimes get stuck here. ⁣

Keeping the commandments. ⁣

Just keep the commandments. ⁣

Tick those boxes. Get a perfect score. ⁣

Ahhh, totally fell off the track there. Try to keep the commandments even better. ⁣

And we slowly start to lose sight of the WHY. ⁣

Why are we keeping commandments?⁣

Why are we given commandments?⁣

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)⁣

He wants our heart. He wants our soul. He wants our might. ⁣

But only if we are ready to willingly give them to Him. ⁣

Just to be clear, commandments are amazing and absolutely necessary, and doing our best to keep them is essential in molding our character. ⁣

But we’ve gotta keep that WHY in mind. ⁣

Does your heart really want to do what Jesus asks you to do?⁣

Does your whole soul desire to be able to enter God’s presence?⁣

Do you use all your might to listen to the Spirit and follow revelation and commandments?⁣

THESE  are my life goals. To be able to firmly answer “YES” to all three of these questions. ⁣

It’s a huge, lifelong task, but what God really wants is my heart. ⁣

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Losing sight of the why first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Anytime we sat down at the table, no matter what time of day it was, he insisted that we pray first. 

Sitting down to play a game? Pray first.

Sitting down to eat a snack? Pray first.

Sitting down just to sit down? Pray first.

But as he grew older, he started to ask many questions about “why” we do what we do.

His insisting on praying turned into asking WHY we always pray before we eat a meal together.

As we’ve worked to develop our family habits of praying and reading the scriptures together, I’ve started trying to be more conscious of how I talk about these habits. ⁣

Instead of: “It’s time to read and pray before we go to bed”

I’ve been trying to do more: “It’s time to read scriptures so we can learn more about Jesus!” ⁣

When the Lord taught the Israelites about this new Passover ordinance, He warned them that their children would ask about it.

“Your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?” (Exodus 12:26)

The Lord wanted His people to teach their children WHY they repeated this Passover ordinance and celebration. ⁣

It can be so easy to get caught up in just trying to get our kids to cooperate in saying prayers, in staying quiet at church, in paying tithing, in setting goals, in serving and showing kindness…⁣

But the Lord wants us to also teach the WHY. ⁣

Why do YOU try to be reverent at church? Why do YOU say prayers, and pay tithing, and attend the temple?⁣

When we can share our own testimonies and our own “why”s with our kids, we are sharing our hearts and truly teaching our values in authentic ways.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Mom, why are we praying?! first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

But do you know what I love??

Logic and reasoning are huge parts of the gospel, too.

For me, a HUGE fan of logic and reasoning, when I take a step back, the whole Plan of Happiness is filled with order and reason.

If we do what we have been commanded by God to do, then we will be blessed with eternal life in His presence.

It’s even completely reasonable that we need to experience hardships and trials while here on the earth.

We’ve gotta learn and grow, so we’ve gotta have obstacles to overcome.

Totally makes sense.

And the Lord even teaches us many times that certain blessings are predicated on our obedience to certain laws.

Obey the law of tithing? The windows of Heaven will be opened.

And it makes sense that we can make covenants through ordinances that we perform here on earth.

If we always remember Him, then we will have His spirit to be with us.

It even makes sense that we needed some kind of a Savior to perform an atoning sacrifice that would satisfy the needs of justice so that He could extend mercy to us when we repent.

Reasonable. Logical.

I love it.

The Lord teaches in D&C 45:10 that:

“With him that cometh I will reason as with men in days of old, and I will show unto you my strong reasoning.”

And again in verse 15:

“Wherefore, hearken and I will reason with you”.

The tricky part is when I lose sight of this in day-to-day living.

When I wonder why the spirit isn’t my constant companion, completely forgetting that I have to make a greater effort to keep my Savior in my thoughts and heart in order for that to happen.

When I wonder why God is punishing me with some difficult trials, completely forgetting that He has never ever promised that I would be given an easy and comfortable life.

And there are many moments, unspeakable and sacred moments, where logic is defied and miracles are performed.

But overall, God’s logical and reasoning nature is a great comfort to me.

It always makes sense. And most of the time, when I step back, I can see that.

And for the moments where I’m not quite sure how everything fits together, then faith and hope and trust step in to bridge the gap of my understanding.

I am grateful for a Lord who reasons with me.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post A reasonable gospel first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.