Lesson for January 3, 2016

Lesson for January 3, 2016 Today our lesson was given by our Relief Society president, Suzy Sullivan, about thoughts she has had. We are preparing to become what we want to be. What you will be you are now becoming. She wants to share some thoughts and discuss each other’s thoughts. Scriptures about thoughts. For as he thinketh in his heart so is he. Whatsoever things are anything good, think on these things. Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly. Our words and our thoughts will condemn us. God says for my thoughts not your thoughts, but are higher. God knows how people learn because He made us that way. He knows that thinking of good things will affect us neurologically into physically becoming better people. Suzy was reading a talk by Brother Larson from the 1970s when he said that what we let into our minds can uplift us or poison us. What we put into our minds has a great deal to do with what comes out and what we persist in thinking has a great deal to do with what we become. Emily Campbell is going to her daughter’s grief therapy and they say that we are not victims of our thoughts, so we must practice having good thought. If you have obsessive thought patterns, you have to replace bad things with good things and put out the effort to keep on saying good things until they become real. Even thoughts you are given, that come from outside, can be controlled. Katie Lamb said she visualizes a stop sign and then moves forward. Christelle Boyadjian said you have to retrain yourself to have the outcome that you want. You have to give yourself a pep talk. We can help each other. Adele Hickman says she whispers to her grandchildren, “I love you and you make me happy.” Even the one-year-old knows she makes her grandmother happy. We can choose to develop bonds that make us free by not blaming people and giving people the benefit of the doubt. We must understand that we can retrain ourselves to become our potential positive person who can deal with any problem. It is more important to gain positive thoughts. Suzy worked with a young man who was always so positive. He was not that way initially, but he said he trained himself to be positive. We can choose a theme for the coming year that we can live by. The Relief Society motto is a good theme, as well as a scripture so we can have a guide. Even if other people are mean, we can say that Heavenly Father is the one to judge all of us so we can leave others alone and concentrate on what we should become. We are children of God and meant to shine and make manifest the glory of God that is within us. That knowledge liberates us. It is our responsibility to make that light shine. By practicing sustained constructive thinking we can fill our thoughts in an offensive rather than a defensive way. Shannacy Critchfield found that when she studied her scriptures, rather than just reading them, it affects her whole day positively. Katie Lamb said that if you can get the Spirit with you, then you can have more positive thoughts. Vira Bahr said that if our bodies need exercise, so to do our mind and spirit need exercise. If you want to change and the Spirit is involved then your heart can change, then even our basic needs can change as well. We need to let the Spirit in so we can be changed. We have to submit to our Heavenly Father and let Him heal us. Brother Young in Sacrament Meeting compared our lives to learning to play the piano. One mistake is not going to keep you from being a good piano player, but practicing the good will eventually help us develop. The Atonement can help us become better. Suzy read from The Secret Garden, so long as Collin shut himself up in his room and concentrated on his illness, he could not walk. However, when he thought agreeable thoughts, he saw the color and growth and became well. The challenge is to change our thoughts and have happy lives.