i have been feeling the spirit nagging(probably not a good word or even an accurate word to describe the spirit, but its how i feel right now)me to do something i DO NOT want to do. kind of like that feeling that you should get up and bear your testimony, but you know you will probably get emotional-so emotional that you might break into the ugly cry. kind of like that, but worse. those urgings to bear ones testimony usually end if you successfully ignore it til the end of sacrament. not this one. i wake up with it and it bugs me all day. i negotiate a lot in my prayers explaining WHY i dont want to do it and why it probably WONT work out the way i want it to. its kind of big and scary to me and a few days ago i thought of jonah who ran away from what the Lord wanted him to do. look what happened to that guy. i thought to myself "i dont want to be a jonah." a few days later i happened to be in a small group meeting with the stake president(new calling)when he says "dont be a jonah." to say this took me by surprise would be an understatement. those four words echoed in my head to the point that i dont even remember what he was talking about that prompted him to say that. crazy, right? i mean, how often do YOU think about jonah? i can tell you that i rarely, if ever, think about jonah outside of a sunday school lesson or sacrament talk on the subject. neither which has happened recently. if they covered it in gospel doctrine last year, i totally missed that lesson.
coincidence? i think not, but i would love to hear what you guys think. tell me if you have had something similar happen.
Be like Jonah and do the right thing, he eventually came around and was pleasantly surprized by the result of his labors. Until then, stay away from the ocean :-) I think most people have had similar experiences, it easy to follow prompting or impressions when it's something we want to do, much harder when we don't want to do it. I think it's all part of the learning process.
ReplyDeleteWell I guess you better do that thing you don't want to do. If you do then it will probably work out for the best. We know the Lord knows what He's doing. Can't think of a similar type experience right now, but I'm sure one will come to me. As President Kimball always said," Just do it."
ReplyDeleteBut you didn't give us any insight into why you are feeling like a Jonah. What is it you feel you are prompted to do?
ReplyDeleteI guess we all feel prompted to do things. But that is way different from what Jonah experienced. Jonah was a prophet. And he was called to preach repentence to a wicked group of people by God. I think that promptings of the Spirit and a direct commandment from God are two very different things. Are you really being a Jonah if you don't want to do something? I say no.
i did it. i wasnt a jonah(i the loosest sense of the word. not claiming to be a prophet, tripp)and i did what i did not want to do. i am glad i did. i know it was the right thing and the rest is out of my hands. thanks for chiming in and giving my your advice. it is appreciated for sure.
ReplyDelete