Seminary Graduation
Hi, my name is Meghan Case. I am a member of the Spencer 1st Ward. I have had the opportunity for my sophomore, junior, and senior year to take Early Morning Seminary. Early Morning is a very unique experience as opposed to released time seminary. It requires a sacrifice of something that all high school teenagers hold very dear. That being: sleep. Early Morning is full of many students who actually want to be in seminary and want to learn. Being surrounded by them and their amazing spirit is such an amazing way to start off the day. I had many times that I was tempted to skip class so I could sleep, but I could never actually bring myself to do that. It was on those days that I always felt like the lesson was speaking directly at me. I never once regretted not skipping class. . I am very grateful to have been able to have been a part of EM. It is an experience I will never forget.
I was assigned the topic of my junior year of seminary where we studied the Doctrine & Covenants.
We talked earlier on the theme for seminary this year about trusting in the Lord. In all 4 years of seminary everything we learned was centered on trusting in Him and his timing. The theme for my junior year was D&C 6:36: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
I’d like to share a couple personal experiences I had last year that are very dear to me.
In seminary there was someone that I was friends with that I began to realize was not the kind of friend I should have and he and I slowly began to drift apart. I was having a really hard time figuring out what to do. How was I supposed to just stop being his friend? He was pretty much the only one I felt really close to. I cried and prayed about it a lot and every time I felt comfort that if I just went about my life normally that everything would work itself out. It seemed to be working out, but at one point it started to really bother me and I was back to letting it get to me and trying to decide what to do. In seminary we were told that if we wrote down any question we had in our journals and then picked one of a series of references that Brother Williams had written on the board that our question would be answered right then in class. I wrote down in my journal my question regarding this person and how to move past them. I looked at the board and really gave it thought which reference I wanted to read. I felt very strongly that I needed to read D&C 6:22-23. It reads: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?” I read that and immediately the response I had received to my prayer not long before came flooding into my mind and I just started to cry. The Spirit testified to me that all I needed to do was let the Lord handle it and I needed to not get in the way. I did just that and even though I felt lonely sometimes I never regretted listening to the counsel. Less than 3 weeks after that experience a new student transferred into my class. He and I became very close friends and I was no longer feeling like I was alone. The lesson I learned from this experience was that when He gives me an answer to my prayers I need to accept it the first time and not challenge or doubt it. He knows exactly what He is talking about. J
The single greatest experience I had was one that went over the course of the year. During that time I was really struggling in my self-confidence. I continually felt so worthless and inferior. Couldn’t see how I was able to make a contribution to anything. After all I was just one person right? I had lots of great friends that recognized my lack of self-confidence and tried really hard to turn me around and help me to recognize the potential I have as a daughter of Heavenly Father. Being the stubborn person I am I wouldn’t listen. In the Doctrine and Covenants Heavenly Father reminds the Saints very often that He loves them and that they are all His beloved spirit children. Towards the beginning of the year we were studying the scripture mastery in D&C 18:10 that says: “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” Brother Williams testified of his knowledge of our divinity and worth as Heavenly Father’s children. He rarely, if ever, ended a class without testifying of that principle. At the end of this particular class he challenged every one of us to gain a testimony of that if we had not yet received it. I realized that I had not yet found out the truth of this principle for myself. I knew that if I was going to gain a testimony of it I would have to do two things. 1. Really study out what it meant to be a daughter of God in the scriptures and in the words of the General Authorities and 2. Ask Heavenly Father if it was true and also ask for His help in finding it out. I started to watch out in my daily scripture study for verses that testified of it I would mark them and then write them down on a sticky note which I kept on the inside cover of my scriptures. During this time in seminary we continued to find more proof of our divinity and I slowly began to gain a testimony of that principle. One morning before I left for class I said my prayers and like always I asked for help in realizing my potential. That class I don’t remember what the lesson was on or what we did. All I remember was receiving this sudden warm feeling of love and a thought entered my mind that Heavenly Father loves me. That knowledge is often times the root of my life and my testimony. I don’t feel like we can ever really comprehend or really understand the other principles of the gospel until we have a firm grasp on who we are. Once I began to truly understand who I am life was easier and no trial was too hard to handle.
I really feel like seminary helped me grow as a person. With every seminary year I can think of something that I was struggling with that seminary helped me through.
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