The armor of GOD

Here is a guest post

I share Yvonne Withers Russell post on  here with her permission. I will add my thoughts and ideas on a different post called "The Armor Of God Meditation- time with Heavenly Mother."   I just love her line of thought here. She is teaching in UT  so if you live in the area check her out. http://www.energyhealingconference.com/classes.html  and This liberatinglight.com is the website for her energy healing  practice.

On Sunday in Gospel Doctrine we were discussing putting on the Armor of God. I started to realize that each piece of the armor of God protects certain chakras AND that the type of spiritual armor becomes MORE significant when you understand what each chakra influences in your life. I never quite understood the traits/qualities/principles used to protect each body part in this lesson until this past Sunday.
Loins girt about with truth.
*This piece of armor protects the base and sacral chakras. A balanced Base Chakra gives you a sense of security, stability and a feeling of a balanced existence. Truth protects our sense of security, stability and of feeling balanced. The sacral chakra is your pro-creative powers, your ability to co-create children and it also represents your posterity. Truth protects our posterity. When we can recognize the lies we have believed about ourselves and others and instead accept the truth into our lives, we shed the false traditions of our fathers and protect our children from false and limiting beliefs.
Breastplate of righteousness.
 * This piece of armor protects the Solar Plexus (personal power) and the Heart chakras. When we protect our Solar Plexus chakra with righteousness, we do not exercise unrighteous dominion or control over other people. When we protect our Heart chakra with righteousness we increase our ability to have unconditional love for others. Doctrine & Covenants 121: 34-46 comes to mind and a re-reading of those scriptures with an understanding of these two chakras is really insightful.
Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
 *Carol Tuttle teaches in her Chakra 7 series that there is actually an 8th chakra that isn't directly on our physical body. It's purpose is to help us follow through or see our ideas to completion, manifest what we want, and to keep us grounded during meditation or other spiritual pursuits so we don't lose focus.
Preparation of gospel of peace
* This protects our foot chakra by helping us identify clearly the direction we should take in life so that can see our inspired ideas to completion, manifest what we want (a true Zion society fulfills not only needs but also wants), and help us develop the focus needed to meditate or pray.
Shield of faith.

 *Roman soldier armor does not have a piece of armor that covers the throat. And so it is with the Shield of Faith that we need to protect our Throat Chakra. The Throat Chakra is linked to our ears, and our ability to hear – both physically and intuitively. It is linked with understanding and being understood.
Our throat chakra is also a gateway or bridge between our psychological and spiritual selves. Our lower chakras represent our physical body (first chakra), emotional body (second chakra), mental body (third chakra), and relational self (heart chakra). Our third eye and crown chakra are linked to our intuitive, occult, and spiritual levels of being. Our throat chakra serves as the bridge between these two groups of chakras, just as our neck bridges our torso and head. When it is blocked we may feel as if we can not integrate spiritual experiences and insights into our daily awareness. For example, we may feel peaceful, calm, and wise within meditation or prayer, but not experience an increase in these feelings when we are off our meditation cushion or away from a house of worship. It is through exercising faith and sharing our testimony that we hope to be understood by those not of our similar religious beliefs. It is through faith that we gain understanding of all eternal truths. It is through exercising faith that we create spiritual experiences throughout our daily lives.
Helmet of salvation.
 *The helmet protects the Brow/Third Eye chakra and the Crown chakra. The Brow/Third Eye chakra is responsible for our intuition, or our ability to listen and heed the still, small, voice. The Crown chakra is our conduit to Heavenly Father. By protecting these two chakras with "Salvation" or through the Atonement of Christ, we can ensure that we are our lines of communication to and from the Godhead does not become infiltrated or corrupted by Satan's counterfeits.
Sword of God’s Spirit and His word through revelation. This does not directly "protect" our individual chakras, but by the Spirit and His word through revelation, we are better able to support each other. An enemy that is charging at my neighbor on the battlefield can be stopped by the sword I wield as I rely on the Spirit and God's word through revelation.


Watch  Carol Tuttle's  Chakra 7 series mentioned above  HERE

Connections

One day  I heard about a sister in my ward whose husband was deployed for the first time leaving her home with her two  young sons.  The news came that her mother had died.  I just ached for her.  I wanted to scoop her up, and  let her cry, and  bear her burdens with her. But  I  didn't know her well

enough and  all though I would have had no problems doing this I felt like with her personality she would not feel comforted but more uncomfortable because we were not close at all. I did everything I could for her ... gave her a long hug at church, placed her name on the temple prayer roll, prayed for her night and day. My thoughts were always with her.   After asking God how I could best help her and bear her burden and make it light and mourn with her in a meaningful, way the way we covenanted to to when we are baptized. (see Mosiah 18: 8-9) He taught me about  connections.
 Here is a bit of background on connections. When you are doing Energy Work for someone you are connected.  In fact you can with permission of the other person assume that persons energy for a while to help you do you work and muscle test in their behalf.
Because I knew a little bit about energetic connections  God was able to teach me about  certain connections that we can pray for. Here are my notes from that night

Energy Work Connection

This is a connection established with God or Christ as the center link in the connection. I am connected to Christ and  then Christ is connected to the person I want to heal. All healing and questions are transmitted through the center link. I know this is not the way every one does it, but it is the way I prefer to do it.  I know that God and Christ know the answers I need even better than the patients subconscious  does so I  ask for God or Christ to be the connecting link when I work with others.
This connection should be severed or  broken when done.

The Comforting Connection
  This is different than your typical healing energy connection in that it is not a two way connection. When you pray and ask Heavenly Father to give you a comforting connection to a person, you are connected to them, but they are not connected to you.  This connection is  temporary and only sends your  comfort and love and allows you to mourn with those who mourn and  comfort them. The connection breaks at night  when the giver is  asleep and therefore must be prayed for every day that you want to send love and comfort. You can also send out  this connection to more than one person at a time. I will interject a little caution here though. This  does pull from your energy so if you try to connect to too many people you will feel drained. So be prayerful and follow the spirit when you make this  connection.
I made this connection with this sister every day for weeks.  Some days  I could feel the comfort and love just being sucked out  of me. Her  FaceBook posts at the end of those days were full of discouragement and sadness with a  little  note at the end that she could feel comfort from the Lord.

A  few  days  after being told about the comforting connection  I read farther in  the Emotion Code and read this.

 "On one occasion, I had been using the Emotion Code to help a woman who lived in Cleveland. Her sister had been a patient of mine for some time at my clinic in California, and would act as proxy for her sister on occasion.
I once made the mistake of not breaking the connection between the two of them at the end of a session. The next day my patient came back to the office and said, “Something is wrong. I feel like I’m turning into my sister. I’m feeling her emotions, I think. It’s weird. Could I still be connected to her?” I immediately realized my mistake, broke the connection, and she felt like herself again. When you are finished, thank the person who has acted as proxy. To break the connection, simply have the proxy state their own name and muscle test them until they test strong. "pg 311 

 This really got me thinking about taking on energy of others and emotions and attitudes of others. I noticed when I meditate I feel like Im connecting with God or some days my savior, and I feel full  of love and light, and I am a better person. But the feelings only seem to last during meditation and they fizzle  as the day goes on.
 I had pondered on the things I had read and the things I knew and meditated on it. I then had this great idea. I wanted to be connected to Christ. An Open connection that was not severed. I wanted to  feel what he would feel for others, I wanted to see others the way he would.  I prayed about this desire of my heart and got an answer called the Christ Consciousness.

Christ Consciousness
Pray and ask Father in Heaven to  connect your consciousness with Christs. Then leave this connection  open with the intention of becoming more Christ like.  I found that when I do this I am flooded with love for myself and others. I am more patient, and I can see other peoples point of view more clearly than I could before.  I also noticed when I would lose my temper, or be judgemental or think bad thoughts about others this connection would dissolve. I would have to repent and ask to be reconnected.  This connection also only lasts for the day and needs to be asked for daily and then reinstated if broken through out the day by sin.

I then asked Heavenly Father if there were more connections out there. The answer was yes and I learned about three more  that I would like to share.

The Testimony Connection
 I have a loved one who is no longer living the gospel.  He has distanced himself  pretty far from the church and its teachings.  Sometimes I want to  take him by the shoulders and shake him and say  with all the love in my heart for him "You KNOW the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, please come back." But  that is not going to be effective. Like Alma  the Elder(Alma 27:14) I spent years praying for  him to remember the testimony that once burned inside him and be brought to the knowledge of the truth.  I know that I am stirred inside by others when they bear powerful testimony when guided by the spirit.  I also know, when guided by the spirit, my testimony has changed others and strengthened their testimony as well.  This is what God told me to pray for. A Testimony  Connection.  You ask God to make this connection to a specific person. This sends  the person the light and energy of your testimony.  I like to think of it in my mind as me standing there sharing my testimony with him all day long :) Over time this helps them remember their own testimony , and can strengthen it.  Again this is a temporary connection and will be lost once the sender falls asleep and needs to be asked for every time you want to send it.

The LOVE Connection
This one was interesting here are my notes.  The Love connection communicates love for that person. Mothers have a love connection with their children that does not need to be established each day. It is permanent from conception. This  connection is a gift from God to all mothers.  Even though fathers do not have a permanent love connection to their children they do have a permanent ( as in it does not  need to be asked for each day) connection to the mother of their children.  Wifes must ask for a connection  to their husbands and Fathers must ask for a connection to their children.  A childs love for both parents is a permanent connection.  This is not to say that  fathers love their children any less than mothers do, or that wives love their husbands less than husbands  love their wives.

Scripture Connection
When you read the scriptures ask for this connection and  you can get specific with what you want. You can ask to read between the lines or see the intent of what was  written. Ask to connect to the prophet who wrote the record.   Ask that the words connect with  your spirit, mind, and memory. Ask to connect with the past or future and see with  spiritual eyes what is/was/will happen(ing) at the time the record is being written or what the record is about.

 There are many more connections out there that we can pray for and obtain. I would  love to hear of any that you know of.
  

Jesus Savior Pilot Me

Today I am frustrated!  There is so many  new things I want to learn and do but there is not time in the day  or $ to spend to learn it all. I feel like a cat chasing 300 mice!
It was super windy out but the sky  was clear and the sun was shining down with a  warm radiance that felt like it came  from heaven. I  knelt down on the ground outside and shivered from the wind and began to feel the warmth of the sun as I prayed.
As I prayed I was taken to  the middle of the ocean in a ship, my ship.  I was at the helm looking at a range of 360 degrees of direction I could steer.  Behind me was choppy sea and rocks and many things that I had just navigated through.  I stood on my deck and looked up to heaven and said "I dont want to drive my boat. I dont want to steer any more." In my heart I had the feeling of knowing that God could steer my ship much better than I ever could. I knew he could, and I knew I could ask Him to take the helm.  I let go of  the helm and stood back waiting for God to take over.

Then Christ came.
 He put his right hand on the helm and what he did next surprised me.  Without saying a word he put his left hand at the small of my back and directed me to stand in front of the helm. He  then took   my hands and placed them on the helm and placed his pierced hands over mine. I stood for a few minutes with Him behind me helping me gently  guide my ship. We sailed East towards dark clouds with lighting dancing all through them, but I felt at peace.
The vision faded  I was onceagain aware of being outside in the sunshine with tears on my face. Then the words of one of my favorite hymns flooded my memory.

Lyrics

1. Jesus, Savior, pilot me

Over life's tempestuous sea;

Unknown waves before me roll,

Hiding rock and treach'rous shoal.

Chart and compass came from thee;

Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

2. As a mother stills her child,

Thou canst hush the ocean wild;

Boist'rous waves obey thy will

When thou say'st to them, "Be still!"

Wondrous Sov'reign of the sea,

Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

3. When at last I near the shore,

And the fearful breakers roar

'Twixt me and the peaceful rest,

Then, while leaning on thy breast,

May I hear thee say to me,

"Fear not; I will pilot thee."

Text: Edward Hopper, 1818-1888

Music: John Edgar Gould, 1822-1875

Prayer- and how to get more out of it.

So Grandpa says "It's time for prayer! Everybody be  reverent!"
So what happens when this is said at your house?- Well on a good day what happens?  The men in the room remove their hats, everyone is  quiet,  the moms  rush to the side of their  noisy children to help keep them from ___ ( insert whatever you want here... any thing from eating the food before the blessing is said, to picking up  flatware and  using them as drumsticks, or talking loudly about how they have a dog that goes to the bathroom in the back yard.).  OK  but what else happens?

What is everyone doing?  Well on a good day in your house  they would be bowing their head,  folding their arms,  closing  their eyes,  and doing  whatever they need to do to keep their feet still. Right? Does that sound like your house on a good day?  That used to be my house too until I discovered a better way.
So did you happen to go to college and then get lucky enough to take communications class?  Well lets go back to  the communications basics and then we will expound from there.   What did you learn?  You learned about  enunciating, turn taking, showing attention and interest, leaving a conversation, and other basic manners.  Then they had you practice on each other Right? Well  in my class they did. The teacher put  us in groups and said  #2 you are the speaker here is your topic ... toothbrushes. #1,3,and 4 show great interest in whatever #2 has to say.  Then we would  review afterwards. #2  how did you know  they  were interested in your toothbrush information?  Then #2 said something like, They were looking at me,  they were facing me,  they took notes, they asked questions or  gave me nods or whatever to show they were understanding me. Good! the teacher would say.  Now lets do it again #3 you talk about your favorite book or movie.  #1,2,4  you pretend you don't care one bit about  anything she has to say.  Okay #3 how did it go?  What did they do that made you feel like you just didn't want to talk to them any more?  Well  they didn't look at me, they started talking about other things, they crossed their arms and legs and ducked their head.  Right!  So then you have this big discussion about  open communication and closed communication body language.
 We reviewed that  open body language means opening the heart center or the area of the chest.   Back is straight so not slouchy,  hands are open, the face is not down. Check! We got it. Then we reviewed closed body language. And that is folded or crossed arms,  slouchy back, tucked chin, crossed legs.
Now you know where Im going with this.  Look at the poor boy in the picture above. Now most of us would say  look at how relevant that is. But if you look at the nonverbal communication ... he is totally closed off.  You know we as LDS members are the only people I know  who pray like this.  Why?  It started way back in primary somewhere as a way  to get kids to be still.  Being still is great and I recommend it, but being reverent does not mean  hugging yourself into a little ball.  Being reverent means showing respect. We do this by being  open and still and good listeners as a prayer is said.
Are you feeling closed off when you pray to God? Do you feel like you have open communication with him? Do you feel like you are hearing anything He has to say to you? Maybe you are closing yourself off from the communication you could be getting if you were more open when you pray.
Take a look at this and see what you think.

Now praying with  your hands at prayer pose with your shoulders back and your spine straight might feel uncomfortable at first.  You can also sit in receptive pose. Its like sitting criss- cross- applesauce (Indian style) but then uncross your legs so the ankles lay side by side instead of  on top of each other. Sit with a straight back, and then cup your hands lay the back of your hands on your knees.
Try this one simple change in how you pray and see how it makes a difference for you.  If you want open communication with God then get in an open position to talk to Him and to listen to Him.

Read more about Bowing Here
Read about becoming a living prayer  or praying always  below

Become a Living Prayer for the Aquarian Age By Catalyst Yogi

"The head is a computer. The heart has the power of 108 suns. The Heart Center is the strongest of all centers. Whenever you pray with the head, it will take so long—you have to go through the intellect, thought, circumstance, environment, space and time. Whenever you sing or pray from the heart, it will be timeless, spaceless and absolutely effective." –Yogi Bhajan
In these tumultuous times on planet Earth, there are many who are suffering and in some kind of distress and it can seem as though we are moving far from peace. You too may be feeling a general sense of unease, or know others that are going through extremely challenging times.
As a teacher and leader of the Aquarian Age, the most effective tool you have to bring peace to our planet is your power of prayer. Prayer is not begging or pleading or even asking for help. This is the ego's version of prayer, “Get me out of this problem and I promise I will go to church every Sunday.” The ego sees prayer as pleading with God as a savior that you need to negotiate with in order to get yourself out of trouble.
Prayer is your divine gift to be used to help your fellow brothers and sisters. When we pray only from our mind, it lacks ‘oomph’ because it takes a long time to penetrate through the Maya. Bring in the frequency of the heart and look out – your prayer has just received a rocket booster.
Prayer is a frequency of energy that is created when the heart and mind are one. In prayer, the frequency of the heart and the thoughts from the mind are in perfect harmony. This alignment of energy calls on the power of Grace that does not obey the laws of time and space.
Prayer brings you to a state of Shunyia. It zeroes the ego so that your mind, body, heart and soul are consolidated as one. That is why we bring our hands into prayer pose when we pray. Palms come together and this connects the left and right brain hemispheres and connects our masculine and feminine energies. This mudra sits at the heart center at a 45 degree angle which links the heart energy to the Infinite as well as brings our infinite and finite selves together.
The next time you pray, zero yourself in this way by becoming an empty receptive vessel. Feel the frequency of your heart and simply allow the words to surface without mental force to your lips. Then send your prayer out as a ray of love into the infinite.
Have a prayer on your lips as you move through the world. I remember being on a bus once and people were loudly talking on their cell phones, arguing, and the general energy was ungrounded and negative. Instead of listening to the mental complaining of my ego and feeling powerless to the situation, I chose something different.
I closed my eyes and went deep within and brought each person on the bus into my heart. Then, it seemed as though my soul started to spontaneously pray that each person be at peace. As I came closer to my stop, I opened my eyes and it felt like a buddha bus—people were quiet, grounded and smiling.
Don't underestimate your power of prayer. Your prayers create miracles in a hopeless world. Your prayers are a vibration of love that clears the path of obstacles for others. Your prayers bring you to the YOU inside you—a living prayer for the Aquarian Age.

Intentions

Lets define it first shall we. Websters Dictionary  tells us that the root word for Intention is Intent and that is defined as : the thing that you plan to do or achieve : an aim or purpose.
Many of us have set Goals before -New Years Resolutions- though most of us are not  very resolute in those resolutions.   When we think of Goals we think   of something you are trying to do or achieve
Or we might  think of  a motion that needs to happen or a space. Sports illustrate that well. Think of  an area or object into which a ball or object  must be thrown, hit, kicked, etc.,  into in order to score points.   To me Goals are focused they are contained. I think of  a Soccer Goal its a designated boundary or space, it is  resolute it doesn't move, and it is the same for  every game. There are specific steps that are required to achieve that "goal"  in sports those are called "the basics" or fundamentals. So lets think beyond goals for a minute and discuss  the difference between goals and intentions.  Intentions unlike most goals are broad, all encompassing, and can be achieved in any number of ways with many different  outcomes.  Intentions are more relatable to art or music than sports.
 A piece of  art or a piece of music  can have  the intention of making people happy or sad or think or or, or, or, or, or...  there are  millions of trillions of possibilities on what  the creator WANTS to happen when you look at, hear, or experience their  art.   They can  use any combination of notes, instruments, voices or any combination of paint, clay, or pen  to create their art.  Yet  they can  produce the same intention using different modalities.  Think broad, or expensive, but effective.

Why we need an intention when we meditate?
Because you get what you project.  This works for goals too... in sports they say "visualize the ball going in the net".   Intention adds power to your meditation. You have added reason, motivation, and incentive to your meditation. Well that is all well and good but WHY? Why should I do this? So I will answer that  question with a new one. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect?  Edward Lorenz who was a mathematician and meteorologist  is accredited with the theory of the butterfly effect.  So in his theory a butterfly flapping his wings in ( pick any place ) lets say  Beijing  changes the weather in Kansas.  Or as Wikipedia puts it

in chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependency on initial conditions in which a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state

So the small act of setting an intention can manifest great differences in the future, In many different parts of your life.  So set a broad intention something Macro. Here are a few examples:

•  I want to have and exercise more faith
•  I want  to recognize and live  up to my divine potential (A side note:  I did that one for my very first intention- wow- it was wonderful !!!)
•  I want to see the world/people with my spiritual eyes or how God sees
•  I want to act with more charity...

These are all broad statements that can be realized any number of ways and can be manifested in all parts  of your life.

When Should I Set my Intentions?

I love how sprouting seeds look like a brain.

The new moon is a great time to plant seeds. The  pull of the moon (you know the  pull that causes the  tide change in the ocean)  pulls the  moisture  from the earth  to the surface of the soil making the ground more moist, thus making it a great time to plant seeds because there is more moisture.  Or the conditions are more favorable for seeds to sprout when the moons energy is influencing the water in this way.  Ideas are the seeds of  the mind and  fully formed intentions are  good seeds  to plant.  A good time to plant your mind seeds is the  new moon it happens  once a month so its a good reminder and it comes often  enough for you to check up on  your intention and  see how it has manifested itself or see if you  need to tweak it or not.  The  new moon  is the beginning of the moon cycle so think of  birth  or rebirth of new ideas and a  new and better you.

How often should I Change it?
 Its good to keep an intention for at least 40 days. Give it time to stick its OK to tweak  it a bit but keep the basic concept the same long enough to feel its influence strongly.  A great way to do this is pray. Ask God to help you  find something to focus on. God has Great Intentions for you and they are all over the scriptures. Ask God to help you find one that would be best and then stick with  it until  you feel prompted to change.  This could be a  long time so review it now and again.

How often to I need to  review my intention?
Just set your intention and  then think about it when you think about it.  That is the power of the subconscious you don't have to think about it every min of the meditation you can set it at the start and then  not think of it for weeks but it will still influence your  meditation and out comes of it. But  a honest review of it on the  new moon,  or full moon, or every 3rd Tuesday, or whatever works for you would be good too.  The point being you don't need to have it at the front of your brain for every meditation and during every moment of the day.  Writing it down in a journal and  writing down ways you have seen it come to pass is  a great way to review.

Can I set MORE than ONE intention?
Yes! Its good to have an Overall intention - lets say that its to recognize and use the atonement more  in my life. But  a few weeks  into  meditating with this intention and I have a family member who  is sick. I can  set a underlying intention  of  sending  light, love, and healing to  this family member as I  meditate.  Both intentions are in effect but  I will drop  my intention on  helping  Jethro or Skippy or whomever  once he is better. Oh, and don't over do it. You Can set Too many intentions. Keep them Small and few.

Caution
OK now that you have done all that I will caution you against setting intentions and then planing  out results or how  this intention will come about or be displayed. If you place limitations  or  plan a road map for your intentions than  that is most likely what will happen and you will miss out on  filling your life with  blessings of this intention in every angle of your life.  Think of it this way. Say your intention is to fill your life to the brim with good things.  So lets make your life a cup a great big tall

cup. After setting this intention you decide the best way to fill your  life or cup  up is with  a steady stream of  scripture study.  So you turn on the tap and  read your heart out and study until you are  full to the brim with the good things of the gospel  that are contained in the scriptures. There!  Intention was met! Hurrah,  my cup is full and all is good!!!  -True- your cup is full- True you are full of good things- True you met your  intention.
Now lets do this differently. Lets take the same intention Of filling your life with good things and the same cup and lets  let God fill it.  He takes your cup/life and rolls you  down to  Antarctica.  What!?  That wasn't part of the plan-  its OKAY because we have no plans, we let God fill our intentions. Then  he takes our cup and plunges it into the ice cold waters. These waters are pure and filled with more than just scripture study.  They are complete  they have service opportunities, temple work, self love, repentance, faith, love, charity, new ways to understand the magnitude and importance of the atonement, and much MUCH more.  These pure,cold, clear waters don't just stream in  the bottom of my cup, like it does from the tap, They flow over the rim of every side of our cup, they run down the edge of the glass and come crashing at the bottom of the cup they continue to mix and connect as they rise in our cup , enveloping and filling the cup with  goodness, clean pure goodness from every angle of our lives.  When we are done we are full just like we were when we filled our cup up to  the brim with the tap, but  we are filled more completely.  Every aspect of our life that could be touched and reached is influenced.  So don't map out your intentions let God "fulfill" your intentions and make note when he does.

MORE FUN READING
The Intention Experiment 
5 Steps to Setting Powerful Intentions
Set the Tone for Your Meditations with an Intention

Be Still, and Know That I Am God

Here Elder Ballard  talks about  Being Still

Here are a few quotes that I thought applied here

As an Apostle, I now ask you a question: Do you have any personal quiet time?
I have wondered if those who lived in the past had more opportunity than we do now to see, feel, and experience the presence of the Spirit in their lives.
Seemingly, as our world gets brighter, louder, and busier, we have a greater challenge feeling the Spirit in our lives. If your life is void of quiet time, would you begin tonight to seek for some?

Everyone needs time to meditate and contemplate. Even the Savior of the world, during His mortal ministry, found time to do so: “And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.”2
We all need time to ask ourselves questions or to have a regular personal interview with ourselves. We are often so busy and the world is so loud that it is difficult to hear the heavenly words “be still, and know that I am God.”3
In addition to finding time to contemplate and meditate, we also need to find a place, as mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, that will be “a defense, and … a refuge from the storm.”6
We need a special place of refuge where we can wean ourselves from the distractions of our electronic devices by unplugging them so we can connect to the Spirit of God.

 I know that my life has changed greatly by being still. I can hear the Holy Ghost because I am  more in tune and  quiet enough to listen to the small voice.   My spirit  comes to the surface and I view my world more through the eyes of my spirit and  with an eternal lense.  Even the  most busy day feels calm and  quiet because of setting my day up right by starting my day  quiet with prayer, meditation,  and  scripture study.  The being still and meditating has amplified my prayers and my scripture study  it magnifies  their power in my life.  Now I never want to be with out it. 

Words and Thought are Energy

So we did this for one of our  Family Home Evenings. 

   

So here are our Jars  The Happy Jar, the  Sad  or Hate jar, and The Good words bad tone of voice. 

Here is what they look like  almost a month later

The happy jar  still has  big rice particles its hardly broken down at all  the water is clear and it has a sweet smell to it. 

Here is the  Yell or use a angry tone with happy words jar. The  water is more  yellowed and the rice is not as complete  some of it is very mushy and it smells a bit. 

Here is our Hate or sad jar.  CAN I JUST SAY IT SMELLS LIKE  PUKE!!!  Very yucky smell comes from the jar.  It started to  ooze and turn brown and black  there are no rice fragments it is all mushy from top to bottom.  AND did I mention that it stinks?!  My girls started feeling sorry for it and started saying I love you to  the jar at about week two so that kind of  messed up the experiment but it was exactly what I wanted them to learn. To say  nice positive things to fix "sad jars" and to not say mean things or you will hurt other people.  When  mean words or tones are flying through the house  its now common to hear  One child say to the other "Remember the three jars!" 

Mosiah 4: 30

 30 But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not. 

3 Nephi 12:22 or Matthew 5:22

22 But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of his judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Here are some other Great Videos to Check out on the water study and just sound and thoughts in general and how they affect us. 

How Thoughts Affect Our Reality LINK to youtube

There are SOOO many of these  but not all of them have  clean language (you would  think after doing the experiment they would clean up their mouths but no such luck.) This one is clean.  You can look at others if you like. Just search  rice experiment and see what you get. 

And if you STILL want more on how to apply this to the Gospel check out  my teacher's post  HERE