How to Grow Spiritually. A Lesson on Building a Testimony.

How to Grow Spiritually

A lesson on building a testimony

Book Recommendation of Journey to the Veil by John Pontius, compiled by his wife Terri after his death.

A collection of blogs from John Pontius's "unblog", as he transitioned from healthy to dying, and the spiritual lessons learned.

Since I loved his other book, Visions of Glory, I knew this one would be good, but I didn't realize how much doctrine and how many new spiritual insights I would gain.

This book instantly vaulted to my Top 10 best books of All Time.

Because immediately after the first couple of chapters, Pontius invited me to pray differently.

So I did.

Then he invited me to fast--seeking more wisdom and light.

So I did.

And he invited me to listen to the spirit and be more obedient.

So I've tried.

And my life has really changed.

It's been several weeks since I got to the fasting part, but just as he mentioned in the book, once a person asks for more wisdom, if they diligently seek it, it'll come, 

bit 

by 

bit.

I've now fasted dozens of times, off and on, over the course of the past few weeks, as the spirit directed.

I'm amazed at how much stronger--spiritually, I became.

Well, actually, physically too, in that I was able to "put off the Natural Man" and my spirit was given priority over my body's constant whines and demands for care and attention.

Fascinating.

I've been blessed with dreams and ideas and thoughts that previously weren't my own, nor did they have any other way to come into my mind other than the spirit. It's been quite the bunch of tender mercies, or blessed insight.

I've felt my testimony grow. I've felt my spirituality grow. It is wonderful, I want it to keep growing, and keep going. I can see I've still got a long ways to go, and it's exciting.

Yes, reading the scriptures is excellent, and a person will surely grow simply by reading them, but there's something in the way John Pontius shares stories from his life that leave an impact. His stories and direction point us upward, they invite us to become different--better.

The part I'm still working on?

Actually jumping and moving fast on the instructions I'm given by the spirit.  Taking Action.

Often I'll get a command to, "do that, go there, or write that blog."

And I just delay, procrastinate, and put it off---don't know why, just the darky powers seem to struggle against this increase in light and truth too. So it's been a battle I've been able to witness. The sad part is, sometimes I do give up, give in, and fall.

But then later I get picked up and on we go.

For me to try it again.

The next time, it goes lots better.

I'm still working on being quickly obedient.

Once, it was hilarious, the spirit woke me up twice in one week, early--4 am early, and told me to get to the temple. So I did. Jess was not that pleased. I went, and it was terrific.

That was cool.

Now, I'd also like to incorporate, "Who can I serve today?"

asking the question, "Who needs my help today, dear Lord? What will thou have me do?"

and as I go on my way, act on the promptings. 

This book was so wonderful, I've got to read it again.

In the end of the book, Pontius lists his way of learning scripture mastery scriptures--with a wonderful chart. It's so terrific, I'm going to incorporate it into our daily school life as we work on memorizing and learning more from the scriptures.

I recommend this book to you, as you search for your own wisdom, light, and truth. This book shows you one man's journey. Yet he teaches principles that apply to all of us--in a way that we feel as if we've feasted upon the word.

It's so good, buy a copy for you, and a copy for a friend and family member.

Enjoy. Happy Reading.
In love, light, and peace,
Charlotte Reid

Summer Reading Books from July

Books We've Enjoyed this July

Here are our favorite books we read for the month of July.

--incidentally one book is missing, as I loaned to to a family member

A bit random, but these are the top picks that we enjoyed for the month of July.

(HOLY COW! This Blog Post sat on my desktop for 3 weeks--as now we are almost through with AUGUST!!! . . . . . Guess I better start working on our August book reads now, too, huh? lol, hang in there, more on the way)

I have a deep love of reading.  My cowboy husband enjoys reading too--but his books aren't on here. He goes through his list of books quite rapidly.  As a family, we enjoy a large variety of books and subjects. My children love books--I think it's because we have so many books in the house, we are often seen reading as parents, and we share our love of reading by reading to the kids.

Children should be read to--and often. 

Each evening we read one of the Little House on the Prairie books as our bedtime story. Then we came to these two books, a couple of rainy days, and we ended up reading some of The Long Winter and Little Town on the Prairie during the day--they were SO Good.  I just love these books.

Pioneer life was tough. But the ladies actually didn't do as much physical labor as they could have--they pretty much just tended house. They would sweep the floor daily. 

Really?

For goodness sakes, go out and help your husband farm.

Okay, the constant cooking, child nurturing, laundry, sewing, and house tending is demanding.

But where's the outdoors-pioneer-woman?

The Long Winter for winter's sake was horrible. I pray we never have to endure something that cold, hungry, dark, dreary, and miserable, and oh so long. That was yucky. 

Made me want to make sure I have prepared every needful thing prior to winter.

I think it was the Little Town on the Prairie book---

I was completely taken aback when Laura Ingalls wrote in the book about some of the things she was learning at school--at the age of 15, and how she had to pass the teacher examinations to teach school at 16. The things she knew at 16 BLEW MY MIND.

For instance, she could dictate the history of the United States, naming the Presidents, and what happened of major consequence during each presidency. She could name all the wars and battles that happened on this American Continent.

Laura Ingalls could add multiple 6 digit numbers in her head. She could multiply the same too.

I bet her cursive penmanship was a work of art--as it was "cool" to write beautifully back then.

Laura Ingalls knew more about grammar and how to construct a variety of very complex and lengthy sentences at the age of 16 than I learned all through high school and college combined. And I still don't know all the grammatical structure she was talking about as she "parsed a few sentences."

She taught school at age 16, without "proper teacher certification training" according to our day. And her students learned well, just as she did. It was something they all just "got" and passed on.

Unbelievable.  

Could it be that today's teacher training and colleges are quite a bit far off? 

Could it be that someone who is well educated and self-taught properly (as that's what Laura's education looks like to me) in turn, teach others as exactly the way they were taught?

My Mind is blown.

And I actually spent time analyzing my paradigms and philosophy of education.

Which fits the other two books on the list--The Core, and The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen.

With these two books I've been able to look into a different angle of education than I've seen before. It's actually funny that all these books came together at once--I didn't even know what they were, nor how I would react when I selected them.

From The Naked Communist book, I find it interesting how people can be sucked into the socialist/communist agenda. They are so completely delusional.

Yet I also see that there are many elements of our culture that have been "socialized" and we have been carefully influenced and even now we don't even recognize it.

Like abstract modern art.

Ha. Consider that idea.

Or how our educational system has changed to fit that view as well.

I could go on--it's just so fascinating, makes me stop and wonder about our freedoms, especially as we so willingly give up more liberty to trade for "safety."

So sad.

Switching things up a bit to be more positive, The Core --which actually I haven't finished yet, as it's become quite dry through the middle, helps me see education from the opposite spectrum from my college education and years in the classroom.

Interesting.

This book has invited me to look at education, what I've been taught, and how things work. What's spooky crazy is that Leigh Bortins, in the book, brings up nearly all of my previous struggles and problems I've had with the traditional system. She nails my grief with the system, and then she shows what can happen, what can exist, and how we can create it.

It's exciting and gets me fired up again about education.

Aside from daily scripture study, The Ensign reading, and other little random stuff here and there, I also read Journey to the Veil by John Pontius (compiled by his wife, Terri, after his death), and the other book, A Greater Tomorrow by Julie Rowe. This latter book I had loaned out to family members who also loved it as much as I did.

As for lessons learned in Journey to the Veil? I really must save that for another blog, because it's just simply too amazing to make this one any longer.

So, until next time.

Cheers, and happy reading.  --Remember, read to your kids, no matter their age. Share the love of learning with your next great book.

Charlotte Reid