Scripture Sunday: Feeling

For me, today was one of those days when my attitudes before and after church were about as different as night and day. I stayed up too late last night. In the morning I yelled at the six-year-old, and I wish I would have been nicer and more cheerful. My nap after church helped me feel less irritable, but attending church meetings was what really did it for me. On any day of the week, when I draw near to Jesus Christ by studying and living His gospel the best I can, I feel Him draw near to me. Sundays are even better because partaking of the sacrament in remembrance of Christ's atoning sacrifice renews me. I know, through the Holy Ghost, that as I repent Heavenly Father forgives my unworthiness. I feel more pure.

Today's combined Relief Society and Priesthood lesson got me thinking about how important it is for us to pay attention to how we feel. Brad, the ward mission leader, said that when planting seeds about the gospel (see Alma 32) we need the individuals we talk with to feel something. "It's not what they know, it's how they feel." I've already used the word here. I feel different when I go to church and when I repent. I could feel the influence of the Holy Spirit during the church meetings, and I feel it now. There are many general conference talks, scriptures, and articles that address this topic; I'll share a few.

President Eyring has said:

• Such a feeling of responsibility for others is at the heart of faithful priesthood service. If your companion feels an impression to urge change, watch what he does. ("Man Down!" Ensign, May 2009)
• It is not surprising that when we feel the influence of the Holy Ghost, we also can feel that our natures are being changed because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. (Gifts of the Spirit for Hard Times, Ensign, June 2007)
  
• How could I become better at sharing my faith with those who do not yet feel what I feel? (A Child and a Disciple, Ensign, May 2003)
• If I had the chance to teach one thing, it would be what it means and how it feels to exercise faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance. (The Spark of Faith, Ensign, November 1986)
  

In Margaret S. Lifferth's talk (Ensign, May 2009) she quoted the Primary song that tells us reverence is "a feeling I get when I think of his blessings."

Kathleen H. Hughes said (Remembering the Lord’s Love, Ensign, November 2006), "tonight I invite you to remember with me what it is to feel the Lord’s love in your life and to feel encircled in His arms."

In lesson sixteen of the Family Home Evening Resource Book, a woman named Rose says "a feeling engulfed my whole being; and I knew that this man whom I had never met before, never spoken to before, nor even heard speak was a prophet of God."

1 Nephi 17:45
. . . Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words . . .

Alma 5:26
And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

D&C 9:8-9
But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong . . .