Come further up, come further in.

I've been uplifted, inspired, and enriched today.

I'm grateful for Christ and for the Atonement. For the gospel. For inspired leaders. For purpose and meaning. For family. For all these things and so many more.

“If there are any principles which have given me strength, and by which I have learned to live more truly a life of usefulness, it seems to me I could wish to impart this joy and strength to others; to tell them what the Gospel has been and is to me, ever since I embraced it and learned to live by its laws. A fresh revelation of the Spirit day by day, an unveiling of mysteries which before were dark, deep, unexplained and incomprehensible; a most implicit faith in a divine power, in infinite truth emanating from God the Father.”

-Sister Elizabeth Anne Whitney

I'm especially grateful for all the worthy priesthood holders in my life. They blow me away with their diligence in not only keeping themselves worthy, but also  in their willingness to serve. Teachers. Leaders. Home teachers. Friends. 

"The blessings of the priesthood are available to every righteous man and woman. We may all receive the Holy Ghost, obtain personal revelation, and be endowed in the temple, from which we emerge ‘armed’ with power. The power of the priesthood heals, protects, and inoculates all of the righteous against the powers of darkness."

-Sister Sherry Dew

President Uchtdorf just gave a talk in the Relief Society Broadcast in which he gave the sisters five things to "forget not." All five were so ridiculously simple; incidentally, they were also things that I needed to hear. 

1) Forget not to be patient with yourself.

2) Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice.

3) Forget not to be happy now.

4) Forget not the "why" of the gospel.

5) Forget not that the Lord loves you.

I've always loved C.S. Lewis. In The Last Battle, as the Pevensie children and many of the other beloved characters of the series explore the new Narnia, the unicorn exclaims,

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!"

I feel like lately I have been getting all these little glimpses of "the land I have been looking for all my life," of "my real country."

There's only so far you can go or understand in this life. At the same time, life is a learning process--and I don't think God puts up walls. Rather, for those who earnestly seeks, He knocks them down. As Christ said in Luke 11:9, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

If that's not an invitation to "Come further up, come further in!", I don't know what is.