15 Feb 2026, Sunday

15 Feb 2026, Sunday

Prioritized Daily Task

12:00 Noon - Church Lehi 7th Ward

Note: This thought came to me this morning before I got up:   But without faith it is impossible to please Him (God): for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 1:6                                                                                                              The "noble and great" spirits (as mentioned in Abraham 3:22-23) earned that distinction through their righteousness, faith, and exercise of agency in the premortal life, long before they came to earth.                                                      “In the premortal spirit world, God appointed certain spirits to fulfill specific missions during their mortal lives. This is called foreordination. Foreordination does not guarantee that individuals will receive certain callings or responsibilities. Such opportunities come in this life as a result of the righteous exercise of agency, just as foreordination came as a result of righteousness in the premortal existence” (“Foreordination,”  True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference).                                      “Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These will I make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou was born” (Abraham 3:22-23).                                                                Elder James E. Talmage wrote, “We affirm, on the authority of Holy Scripture, that the Being who is known among men as Jesus of Nazareth, and by all who acknowledge His Godhood as Jesus the Christ, existed with the Father prior to birth in the flesh; and that in the preexistent state He was chosen and ordained to be the one and only Savior and Redeemer of the human race” ( Jesus The Christ, 6).                                                                       Quoting again from True to the Faith, “Before the creation of the earth,  faithful women were given certain responsibilities and faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood duties. Although you do not remember that time, you surely agreed to fulfill significant tasks in the service of your Father. As you prove yourself worthy, you will be given opportunities to fulfill the assignments you then received” ("Foreordination,"  True to the Faith, 70).                                                             Listen carefully to Alma’s words: “And this is the manner after which they were ordained – being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such. And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this, they might have had as great privilege as their brethren” (Alma 13:3-4).            President Ezra Taft Benson said, “We once knew well our Elder Brother and His and our Father in Heaven. We rejoiced at the prospects of earth life. …We could hardly wait to demonstrate to our Father and our Brother, the Lord, how much we loved them and how we would be obedient to them in spite of the earthly opposition of the evil one. Now we are here. Our memories are veiled. We are showing God and ourselves what we can do. Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar His face is to us” (“Jesus Christ – Gifts and Expectations,”  Ensign, Dec. 1988).                                                                                                                       When I was a child and heard the preachers at the church my family attended, preaching that if we did not repent, we would spend eternity burning in hell.  I have written about this in my journals and how the Lord told me by the Holy Spirit, "You will not go to hell."  As I learned more and knowing a veil has been drawn across my mind, I do not want to have any regrets about my performance in this life when it is compared to my previous life.                                                                                                             A  dispensation of the gospel is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth.” There have been many gospel dispensations on the earth. We often speak of the seven great gospel dispensations which are the dispensations of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Apostles in the meridian of time, and this, the dispensation of the fullness of times, the final dispensation that began with Joseph Smith’s first vision.     Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said, “We are making our appearance on the stage of mortality in the greatest dispensation of the gospel ever given to mankind, and we need to make the most of it. …We have a responsibility to the Church of the Lamb of God to receive the Lamb of God – in person, in triumphant glory, in His millennial role as Lord of lords and King of kings.  No other dispensation ever had that duty” (“Terror, Triumph and a Wedding Feast,”  CES Fireside, Sept. 12, 2004).  Russell R. Watanabe President, Waipahu Hawaii Stake   March 11, 2014      

I was up this morning at 6:15 am and had prayer.  When Debbie woke, we had prayer together and got ready for church.  I wrote some thoughts that came to me as I was waking up this morning, and put them in a note and sent them to Elder Ethan Hobbs and another to Elder Baylen Johnson.  I included their parents in each email.  I called the children and was able to talk to Matthew and Beth.   I left voice messages for Michael and Rae Lynn.  I called and talked to Alex and Carter, who are at the cabin in Heber, before they went to church.  I copied them on the email to Elder Ethan Hobbs.  Debbie and I attended Sacrament and Sunday School.  Debbie gave the opening prayer in the Sacrament meeting.   Debbie made a nice Valentine's Dinner; stake, potato, corn, and salad.   I listened to some podcast Old Testament stories before having prayer with Debbie and going to bed about 9 pm.