With so many good, important things here on the earth, I personally believe that God gives us desires or allows our own desires to point us in the direction where we can do our part and make a difference.

And I believe that these desires and focuses can change throughout our life, too. ⁣

Nehemiah was a man who had never been to Jerusalem. ⁣

And yet he started feeling great concern about the walls of Jerusalem. ⁣

“Neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:12)

Nehemiah believed the Lord had put this desire in his heart.

And so he acted, and was able to rebuild the wall. ⁣

What desires are in your heart?

“‘Great and powerful convictions of truth’ are found in the hearts of Latter-day Saints in nations across the world. This strength of faith carries the work of the kingdom forward.” – Neil L. Andersen

How do you believe you have been asked to build the kingdom of God in your own way?

How have you found ways to make this world a better place in a way that you feel particularly passionate about? ⁣

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

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

I love teaching, I knew I connected well with my students, and I felt really fulfilled from my job. ⁣

So when I prepared to return to work after taking maternity leave with my first child, and I received a strong prompting to resign from my job at the end of the school year, I was shocked. ⁣

That wasn’t my plan. ⁣

That wasn’t what I wanted. ⁣

But I also could not deny that prompting— resign from teaching at the end of the year. ⁣

I realized that when I told people about my resignation at first, I would “blame” it all on God. ⁣

“I wanted to keep working, but I got a super strong prompting to quit so I guess that’s what I’m doing!”⁣

I had my own will.⁣

I had learned God’s will. ⁣

And I guess I was going to let His will win. ⁣

Then one day, it clicked. ⁣

God didn’t want me to grudgingly follow this prompting, blaming Him for giving up what I really wanted. ⁣

He wanted me to do it willingly. ⁣

And so I started to pray.⁣

I prayed for the desire to WANT to quit my job. ⁣

(Kind of weird, I know.)⁣

But that desire came. Pretty quickly, too. ⁣

And suddenly I felt so much more at peace about my decision. ⁣

I wasn’t “giving in” to what God wanted for my life. ⁣

My will and God’s will had become one. ⁣

We wanted the same thing, even though I wasn’t sure about the WHY yet. ⁣

“Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it”. (Exodus 35:5)⁣

God doesn’t want us to come dragging our feet and blaming everything on Him. On His promptings, on His commandments. ⁣

He wants us to come and sacrifice willingly. ⁣

And I’ve learned that if I truly come to the altar of prayer with a desire to have our wills become the same, He will always help my heart get to the right place. ⁣

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Praying to want to quit  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit

“—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.” (D&C 19:18)

The final phrase of that scripture has always stood out to me.

Because the Savior of the world, faced with a truly painful and unpleasant task, asked not to have to face it.

At that moment, He did not want to drink the extremely bitter cup that had been placed before Him.

It is okay to ask.

It is okay to ask for our pains and sorrows to be taken away.

For our trials to end.

For our miracles to transform us.

But then, our perfect example said:

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father.”(D&C 19:19)

Nevertheless…

God’s will be done.

We can ask for what we want…

While also submitting to the Father’s will if it is different from ours.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to not always love whatever life throws at me.

I can wish and pray that it was different.

But ultimately, I have found the most peace when I give glory to my Father, no matter the circumstances.

And when I do hard things, the greatest blessings await on the other side.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post I don’t want to have to do this first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

In both a priesthood blessing and a group prayer that were offered while waiting for emergency medical personnel to arrive, while the fate of this individual was still unknown, there was a unique experience. ⁣

No one prayed for nor was this person blessed with healing. ⁣

All of the blessings were for comfort for family members and for those of us in the room. ⁣

Everyone knew, in an unspeakable, powerful way, that healing was not what we should be praying for. ⁣

Some of my most holy moments have been similar, in much less dramatic ways.

Where it wasn’t me praying for my own will, but instead feeling my will being distinctly pulled to my Father’s will. ⁣

Moroni promised us that:

“Whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him.” (Mormon 9:21)⁣

But Moroni also clarified how we know that our prayers will truly be answered. ⁣

We must “ask with a firmness unshaken”. (Mormon 9:28)⁣

That is what the “unshaken firmness” feels like to me. ⁣

It’s when I’m praying with such pure intent and faith that I feel my will being gently molded and aligned. ⁣

Father and child. ⁣

I know what to ask for, and what not to ask for. ⁣

The job, the friend, the mission, the child, the opportunity. ⁣

My will is aligned. ⁣

And with firmness unshaken, I know that the prayer will be answered.

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

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Firmness unshaken first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

When I sit down to write, and my mind goes completely blank.

I write a lot of things to share on social media.

There was one time where I had a scripture that I really wanted to post about, so I pulled out my phone to write a caption.

But……. As much as I loved the scripture and wanted to share it, my mind was completely blank for what to write.

I tried to think of personal stories, other perspectives I could add…

Nothing.

I looked at the time and realized I only had 5 minutes left before I needed to go somewhere.

Yet, I still couldn’t think of anything!

I quickly prayed.

“Heavenly Father, help me to be able to type this post while I have the time!”

I waited a bit.

And still, nothing.

I finally gave up and moved on to my next activity.

Honestly, I was a little frustrated that Heavenly Father hadn’t helped my brain focus when I needed it the most.

Fun fact, this particular event happened in the beginning of March 2020.

When I frustratedly put my phone away, unable to access divine power to blast away my writer’s block…

I had no idea what was going to happen over the next 48 hours.

That “sickness” I had vaguely heard about on the news, completely shut the world down.

The world had changed in an instant.

And that scripture that I couldn’t write a caption about?

It took on a totally new meaning. What I had thought about writing wouldn’t have even seemed relevant. The changes in the world gave me a perspective that allowed me to write a lot of my thoughts.

Many of us have learned:

“Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand.” (Jacob 4:10)

I was trying to “counsel the Lord” with my bad attitude about Him not ending my writer’s block.

I was getting frustrated that He wasn’t doing what I asked!

And yet, I was missing an opportunity to hear His real message to me.

Maybe He was trying to calm my heart and let me know that my writer’s block was a blessing that would make sense in a few days.

Maybe He was gently urging me to become more humble.

Maybe He was prompting me to move to a different task.

What messages might you and I be missing right now?

What answers are we waiting for so loudly that we unintentionally miss the Spirit’s calm voice? 

“We ought not to think of God’s plan as a cosmic vending machine where we (1) select a desired blessing, (2) insert the required sum of good works, and (3) the order is promptly delivered.” – D. Todd Christofferson

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Counseling the Lord 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’ve had my heart prepared to not be accepted into a program at school.

I’ve had my heart prepared for a struggle my son would have to face.

I’ve had my heart prepared before receiving a big calling that would affect our family a lot.

And as I’ve talked with others, I’ve had them share other personal, sacred experiences where their hearts have been prepared for a huge financial setback, and even the death of a loved one.

I know that God prepares our hearts in ways that are sometimes indescribable, and for experiences that we may be the only ones to know about.

God prepares hearts.

I also have learned that I can do my part to prepare my own heart for situations that I do know are ahead of me.

I’ve found literal priesthood power when I prepare my mind before entering the temple.

I’ve discovered genuine love when I prepare my heart to love and serve someone who seemed difficult to love and serve.

I’ve experienced great peace when I’ve prepared my soul to expect miracles.

“Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it”. (Ezra 7:10)

Life is busy and stressful and crazy.

But taking time to prepare our hearts or listening to promptings from God that prepare us for large tasks ahead will bring much more love and peace in the long run.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

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

I love teaching, I knew I connected well with my students, and I felt really fulfilled from my job.

So when I prepared to return to work after taking maternity leave with my first child, and I received a strong prompting to resign from my job at the end of the school year, I was shocked.

That wasn’t my plan.

That wasn’t what I wanted.

But I also could not deny that prompting— resign from teaching at the end of the year.

I realized that when I told people about my resignation at first, I would “blame” it all on God.

“I wanted to keep working, but I got a super strong prompting to quit so I guess that’s what I’m doing!”

I had my own will.

I had learned God’s will.

And I guess I was going to let His will win.

Then one day, it clicked.

God didn’t want me to grudgingly follow this prompting, blaming Him for giving up what I really wanted.

He wanted me to do it willingly.

And so I started to pray.

I prayed for the desire to WANT to quit my job.

(Kind of weird, I know.)

But that desire came. Pretty quickly, too.

And suddenly I felt so much more at peace about my decision.

I wasn’t “giving in” to what God wanted for my life.

My will and God’s will had become one.

We wanted the same thing, even though I wasn’t sure about the WHY yet.

“Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it”. (Exodus 35:5)

God doesn’t want us to come dragging our feet and blaming everything on Him. On His promptings, on His commandments.

He wants us to come and sacrifice willingly.

And I’ve learned that if I truly come to the altar of prayer with a desire to have our wills become the same, He will always help my heart get to the right place.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The will to quit my job first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

It was stake camp, so we had helped the girls create their banners, make gifts, create cheers, and pretty much every kind of crazy preparation you could think of.

And then the word came– wildfires in Arizona suddenly shut down the state land, including where our stake YW Camp was to be held.

Camp was canceled at a stake level and turned over to the ward level with less than 2 week’s notice in the middle of the summer.

Girls were disappointed. Leaders were disappointed. Parents were disappointed. No one was happy about having to create camp from scratch with basically no prep time.

A wise leader spoke to us at church that Sunday as frantic plans for a ward camp were being thrown together, and the message was one that we all needed to hear.

This had not surprised God.

This was not a wrench in the plan that He had no clue would happen.

As we wrote skits and painted posters and designed t-shirts, God knew it wouldn’t come to fruition.

And He would sanctify every sacrifice we thought we had been making for the stake camp to bolster our ward camp instead.

And it was 100% true. The ward camp came together in miraculous ways, and everyone was spiritually uplifted.

But that lesson has stuck with me.

God can’t be surprised.

Joseph even taught this about baptisms for the dead:

“The Lord ordained and prepared before the foundation of the world, for the salvation of the dead who should die without a knowledge of the gospel.” D&C 128:5

Baptisms for the dead wasn’t an ordinance of, “Whoops, a lot of people are missing out on essential ordinances! I guess we should come up for a way to kind of get the same blessings, too.”

Nope.

THIS WAS THE PLAN FROM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.

Proxy ordinances have always been the plan, because they are the only way we all make it back together.

God will not be surprised!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post God will not be surprised first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

This was a question asked during a Q&A held during our 5th Sunday lesson yesterday.

There was a fantastic discussion that followed this question, including the ideas that we have to be acting and using all our resources to get rid of the bad habit, reaching out to others for help, and learning the doctrine behind the change we want to make.

But ultimately, someone shared:

“God could absolutely take away your weakness right now.

“It is entirely up to whether or not that is His will.

“So have you prayed to ask what God’s will is with your bad habit?”

What a tough thing, right?

Doesn’t God want my trials to disappear? My bad habits to slide out of sight? My weaknesses to become strengths?

Because that’s what most of MY prayers are focused on.

“Help me fix this.”

But I can think of scriptural examples of prophets and other good people who did not get everything “fixed”.

Who endured a “thorn in their flesh” their entire lifetime.

Whose weaknesses stayed as weaknesses.

Now of course, sometimes He does help to take these trials and bad habits away.

He could do absolutely anything.

So… have I followed up my pleas of “Please help me overcome this!”

With, “But, what is THY will for this weakness”?

It’s a small but powerful shift.

And I think I’m ready to be led to the answer.

“What is the will of the Lord…?” D&C 125:1

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post What is the will of the Lord? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.