What is My Will?

Today's lesson is “I Seek Not Mine Own Will, but the Will of the Father”.  I have been evaluating myself recently on the subject of pride and have been recognizing how my pride had influenced my decisions to my detriment.  Here are some quotes from the lesson that are giving me insights into moving forward with no regrets.

"When we seek God’s will, we follow a course in which there will be no failure."

"There is a course for every person to pursue in which there will be no failure. It will apply to temporal as well as spiritual matters. The Lord has given us the keyword in these verses that I have read from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants:

“If your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you, and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God.” [D&C 88:67–68.]"

I want to be filled with light and comprehend all things, or even just more than I understand right now.  This scripture tells me how I can be filled with light and filled with happiness--seek God's will first in all things.

Even our Savior, Christ the Lord, our perfect example said:  “I can of mine own self do nothing.” [John 5:30.]

Lorenzo Snow commented:

"It is remarkable that the God who made the worlds, who came down here clothed with flesh, performed mighty miracles, and sacrificed his life on Mount Calvary for the salvation of the human family—that He should say,“I can of mine own self do nothing.” And He goes on to say:

“As I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” [John 5:30.]

That is a wonderful saying, and there is a great deal in it. Now, what we want is to have that spirit in every act of our lives and in every undertaking, whether temporal or spiritual, and not think of self. We should try to ascertain how we should spend the money and the information that God has given us. The answer is simple—for the glory of God. Our eye should be single to the glory of God. That is what we left the other life for and [came] into this. We should seek to promote the interests of the Most High God, and to feel as Jesus felt, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” Inasmuch as we act today and tomorrow, this week and next week, in the interest of God, and have our eye single to His glory, there can be no failure.2 "

I need to make sure that my prayers aren't just a laundry list of things that I need, but instead ask God how I can be in His service and what is His will.  A couple of weeks ago I recognized that service was missing in my life.  I hadn't been serving others as I could because I was too busy or couldn't afford it.  I realized how many blessings and feelings of goodness I was missing out on and how I had also prevented the Lord from blessing others by avoiding these opportunities.  It's true that I was busy and money was tight, but I realized that my faith was not sufficient to believe that "all things are possible" through my Lord and Savior.  So about a month ago I began praying for opportunities to serve and told my Heavenly Father that I would accept these opportunities without hesitation. It was amazing how opportunities came at me everyday.  I was able to clean my friends house when she was sick and unable to. I was driving out of my neighborhood and saw my neighbor walking, clearly out of breath and struggling up the hill.  I'm so glad I recognized this opportunity and turned around and went back and asked her if she wanted a ride somewhere.  She said she was walking to the car repair shop to pick up her car.  She had only accomplished a few hundred feet and had another mile or two to go.  She climbed in my car and we were there at the shop in 3 or 4 minutes. This walk would have taken her an hour or more.  It was on my way to where I was going and wan't even an inconvenience at all, but I recognized what a huge help it was to her that day.  And I felt joy that I could help my Heavenly Father.  With my kids' school year coming to an end my busyness exploded with all the end of the year parties and field trips.  Writing this today has helped me recognize that I have fallen back into the trap of busyness and have once again missed opportunities to serve.  I need to seek out these opportunities again in prayer.