I am a child of God...(Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**Note--Ryan wrote this the same night he wrote about his vegetable nightmare. I loved that he could be silly one minute, but serious the next.** PAM

Saturday, June 23, 2007

2nd of two blogs (this one is more serious)

A friend of mine just reminded me of some of the most important things in life.

I am a child of God.

Perhaps one of the most empowering phrases ever to be penned. Naomi Randall was most definitely inspired. It tells me that God really is my Father. And because He is my Father, I can take comfort in the knowledge that He loves me, as any good father would. This does not mean that He gives me everything I want on a silver platter. Infact, it's usually quite the opposite. The most difficult things in my life have taught me more and meant more to me than anything else. It never ceases to amaze me as I look at my own life, or when I hear of other people's experiances, just how much our Father in Heaven loves us. He knows us each individually, inside and out, and has prepared for each one of us a personal plan of salvation.

I would just like to take a moment to share one experiance that helped build my faith in our Heavenly Father and the Savior, who is Jesus Christ, and helped me come to a more excellent knowledge of just how much they are watching out for us. The experiance I had was my service as a missionary. Now, let me say that I cannot do justice to how great of an experiance this was for me, nor can I even begin to list all the blessings. I am only going to be listing one (the timing of it) and I don't want to go into knitty gritties. I am just trying to express how grateful I am for the gospel in my life...and I don't quite know how to say it.

My mission was filled to the brim with wonderful, spiritual, fun, and faith building experiances. There are simply too many to even attempt a partial list here, and some are too personal and sacred that I would not even consider listing them here. Instead, I would like to share how I got on my mission in hopes that it might be something positive for someone else.

Growing up in the Church (the LDS church) I was always taught, and I looked forward to, going on a mission. There is nothing better that a young man between 19 and 26 can do than to dedicate two years of his life to the Lord. Naturally this was my goal. As I grew older, some of the things necessary to prepare for a mission were difficult and long, but I made those preparations so that I could go and serve.

In high school I played football and basketball. It was in football that I sustained a back injury. It later required surgery after I graduated from high school. The surgery I had was not successful. My mom says it was because it was done on Halloween. I had to have another surgery a couple months later. These surgeries came at the time when I was supposed to be getting ready to serve my mission, I even spent my 19th birthday in the hospital! The recovery from them was long and difficult. If I was going to be able to seve a mission, I would have to wait at least a year, and even then, I probably would not be able to go for health reasons.

It was during this recovery time that I became very discouraged. I had worked hard up to this point, and it seemed to be flying out the window! I also got really scared of what being a missionary would entail. I never have been very good at talking to people and I'm so flippin' shy all the time--there was no way I was going to be able to carry on a gospel conversation, let alone knock on some random person's door! It got so bad that I didn't even want to go anymore, even if I was cleared. I began to attend college, thinking I would just go on with life. It was there that a friend of mine, who was not a member of my church, encouraged me to go. She told me, by word and example, that I should always follow through with what I believe in. Otherwise, I shouldn't believe in it.

That stuck with me. I did believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. I believed that I was a child of God and that He loved me and continued to watch over and help me through His servants the prophets and latter day revelation including the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. So I thought I should follow through with that.
After a long rehabilitation period I was cleared to go on a mission. I was called to serve in the Illinois, Peoria Mission, and I served honorably.

What amazes me most out of all that, was the timing. The time in my life at which I served could not have been better. I thought I was I ready to go at 19, but the Lord saw something different. I cannot even begin to imagine how my mission would have been different had I gone at 19 (or not gone at all). Everything would have been different--that long list of experiances I mentioned earlier, would never have happened. The Lord knew exactly what I needed, and he knew exactly when I needed it. The things I saw and learned, the people I met...EVERYTHING! The good as well as the bad. I would not trade it for the world. Oddly enough, I am very grateful that I had to have a couple of surgeries, not only did I learn from those experiances, but they got me into the mission field at the best time. You see! Our Father in Heaven is aware of us! Our Father in Heaven loves us, He is our Father. The Savior also loves us and He will never forsake us because He has engraven us upon the palms of His hands. And even though we go through trials, they are always for our benefit and our experiance because of this perfect love.

Bad things happen to good people, it's true. But through it all is the love of God.
Faith: Trust and confidence in the Savior and that He loves us
Hope: Confidence that all will work out in the end. Hope also conquers disapppointment.
Charity: the pure love of Christ, it never faileth

Those are three of my favorite attributes! I invite anyone, regardless of your faith, to learn of them, study them, and apply them in your own lives. They have helped me tremendously in my own life and I hope that they can be a blessing to you in yours.

I gotta go to bed! Good night!