I delight in desire.

In the past couple of days, I have read a lot of different things.  I've read from the Book of Mormon, I've read about the Lidcombe Stuttering Program, I've read all about protecting human research participants and all sorts of things on the NIH website, I've read about phonological disorders and about syndromes affecting speech and language development, I've read some of the book A Single Voice by the inspiring Sister Kristen Oaks, wife of Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in other words, I've been reading lots of very different kinds of things.

The interesting thing is that in all the reading I've done one word has continually come to my mind.  

Desire.

As a missionary, one of the most influential district meetings I was able to attend was about educating your desires.  At the time I remember thinking...what in the world does that even mean?  As the years have gone by since then, and starting within hours of that meeting I began to diligently reflect on what that phrase meant and what it could mean for me.  

Its definition has changed over time and today at this moment it means something like this to me:

What is the desire of my heart? And, do my current actions match those desires?  And if not, then what do I need to change?

In Relief Society today we talked about Advancing the Work of the Lord.  That is done in so many ways today, more ways than ever before.  As we brainstormed all the possible ways there are to share the gospel my mind kept coming back to the fact that first we have to start with the desire. Being aware of what we are desiring is crucial.  

Somedays, my desires get a little lost.  Somedays the desire for sleep seems to be overriding to all other desires.  Somedays the desire to be successful at work/school overcome the desire to be the places I ought to be instead.  Somedays the desire to be lazy overrides the desire to serve others. 

However, if I am constantly thinking and educating the desires I ought to have and truly deeply want to have, then I am more likely to achieve those desires.  Alma, in the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon Chapter 29 says this: "...for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction."

Point of the story?  Desire counts.  It counts to us and it counts to the Lord.  Educating our desires and knowing what we really want more than anything else is an active daily process that is reflected in our day-to-day actions. 

What's my goal this week?  Thinking and recognizing what desires my actions are reflecting.