It's A Lifestyle, Not A Trend

Because I am throwing myself back into the Gospel I have recently discovered a new point of view on the Church.
It's something I have always heard and said and kind of understood but now I really understand!

I've talked before about my Brother and FSIL and how they are coming back/investigating the church, as well as my husband (And I am extremely grateful for that!) but over the past month or so I am seriously starting to see why living the Gospel and not just skimming the Gospel is really how it works.

For example, my husband who is really putting in the effort these past couple of weeks, has been finding it difficult to find the motivation to go to classes (after Sacrament) because he doesn't know people. Now I know a way to overcome that is to meet people, but C isn't the most outgoing of people. That's actually one of the reasons I love him so much, I get to do all the talking :)
So every week he asks his best friend, being my brother, if he's coming to church. And each week my brother says yes (except for when he is in Sydney). And then each sunday my husband gets a call or a message with a reason as to why they (my brother and FSIL) are not coming. It cuts C up every time.

But more recently it have been more annoying, than hurtful, to him. Which I found interesting. C is more annoyed now about it because he hears all this talk about re-activation and the Priesthood, and doing all these things but when it comes down to it, C is by himself. And that is hard. It's hard to go and do something when the whole time you've been buddying up with someone else to do it as a team. It's one of the reason C started to fall away in the first place, because he saw all these people say all the perfect things but never saw thier actions support it.

This "team effort" thing has really frustrated me though because I don't want C to get his testimony from someone else, there is no substance with that, you need to have your own testimony. You need to make decisions by yourself and act on your own sometimes, not hold hands with someone else (unless its your wife and kids, that's ok.). But these past couple of weeks I have seen that C is building a testimony of his own because my brother isn't coming. Because he is forced to do things on his own, he is having the experience, the feeling, the learning on his own. I was expecting to hear "I don't wanna go now" after we found out it was just us today (we also got a message from my SIL saying thier son (our nephew) had the flu so wouldn't be there today.) but instead I just heard a bit of frustration then he started getting ready. No prompting from me.

That showed me that I need to have more faith in his faith. More trust in his desires. He showed me today that he does have a testimony, and he is working on it, and he is hurt that he isn't doing it with who he had planned to do it with, but he's still doing it. I love him, and I love that he is coming to church and making an effort. He even helps me with preparing my Primary lessons. He is a wonderful man and I am grateful for him in my life. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he could be an immovable pillar of Faith and Righteous Example. I can see it in him, It's like we just need to break the glass to release it, it's so close.

But back to my original point, this Gospel requires us to not just talk the talk but also walk the walk. It's all well and good to be full steam ahead with your progress but if you don't build and work on your testimony, your own personal testimony, that drive and passion will just wilt and fall away untill it's gone. This Gospel is true, and that's why it is important that we treat it as a lifestyle, not this month's latest thing.

One month won't get you Eternal Life.