In order to be likable, in order to be attractive, in order to be happy, in order to make others happy, in order to love others, one first needs to take care of and love themselves.

So be kind to yourself, take care of yourself, and clean yourself, because how you see yourself is how others see you, and how you treat yourself is how you treat others.

Just like a tiny little rudder can change the entire course of a sailing ship, the solution is simply taking care of oneself.

- A thought inspired from the Lord to me.

For scripture study there are very little to no rules or regulations. I mean there are some, but it's not supposed to be this rigid robotic experience, it's supposed to be intuitive, inquisitive, sometimes linear, sometimes not, and you're just supposed to learn the Word of God. There are so many ways to do that. Sometimes you can read one or several chapters in a linear fashion. Sometimes you can dedicate the whole study session to a single verse. Sometimes you can read for an hour or two. Sometimes you can read for only 15 minutes. Sometimes you get what you put into it, and sometimes we need to study for less time so we have time to serve others. This is how study is. According to President Faust, an hour would be optimal, but 15 minutes, although meager, can be surprisingly uplifting and informative.

"Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven-

These should then be attended to with great earnestness,"

- Doctrine and Covenant 123: 13, 14

Sometimes things take time. Let all things be done on the Lords timing.

- The Lord (to me)

"Thy adversity shall be for a small moment, and if thou endure it well, thou shalt be [rewarded from on high...]"

- The Lord to Joseph Smith

Sometimes we can be cast down, but not destroyed, broken, but not defeated.

Let your light so shine before this people that they may glorify your Father who is in Heaven.

- The Lord (to me)

You can find yourself by losing yourself in the service of God.

- The Lord (to me)

I was pondering over whether I should allow myself to use my art skills and 3D and special effects software skills, considering the fact that they all seemed to me working for that which "rust and moths do corrupt" I received the following revelation:

"In terms of your art skills, special effects & 3D programming, - you should use these skills, as they were given to you by God."

- The Lord (to me)

"Minus the sin, you're basically the same you from the pre-mortal existence, almost exactly. You have the same strengths and you have the same weaknesses.

You're basically the same you that's been developing for an indeterminately long time before you were ever mortal. You've existed for how long and you've only been on earth for what, less than 100 years? Why would you be any different?! How much can you really change in less than 100 years out of potentially hundreds, thousands, millions, trillions, eternity, what mortal knows?? How different are you really?"

This isn't church doctrine, but it's what I believe to be a revelation, so I would strongly advise praying about it and finding out for yourself.

When it comes to daily scripture study, family scripture study counts as scripture study. It's studying isn't it?

The Lord (to me)

At the same time, the sons of Mosiah undertook the work with the knowledge that things might not work out, that "perhaps they might bring them into repentance," so keep in mind that we are not rewarded in Heaven just by the fruits of our labors, but because of our labors.

A fruitless field does not indicate failure.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

"Just as the sons of Mosiah had to endure much hardship in order to do such a GREAT work in converting so many Lamanites, even so will we be required to endure in order to save the lives of those we intend to."

- The Lord (to me)

"5 Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their journeyings, for they had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit.

...

13 ...they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken.

14 And assuredly it was great, for they had undertaken to preach the word of God to a wild and a hardened and a ferocious people;..."

- Alma 17: 5, 13, 14

(My favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon!)

Give to the poor!

You can do so by getting rid of all the stuff you don't need.

- The Lord (to me)

I was introduced to the coolest idea on how to improve my spiritual life, or life in general.

Basically you create a chart with two columns and several rows. In ONE column you write down things you need to improve on, and in the second, you write about how to resolve that issue or how to do better, and write down your answer! It's really cool, and the Lord gives HUGE blessings in helping and answering every question. Just him giving so many answers is a huge blessing beyond belief.

Here's how mine (Kinda) looks:

What I need to improve on	How I can do better
Go to bed early	Have patience with yourself. Remember sleep affects all that you do.
Use talents - Practice	Say prayers of gratitude, be charitable.
Go to temple more often	Actually PLAN temple trips. Do family history
Prayers of gratitude lasting too long	Set 30 minutes a day aside on your knees for this
Etc...	Etc...

But that's what I do!! It really helps clarify things, and we're nowhere near perfect, so actually completely following the list does take time, just be patient with yourself and get er done!!!

You should do better at starting to do family history by studying your family. This is more important than using your talents.

- The Lord (to me)

Nevertheless, you must use your talents, just like reading scriptures is more important than doing chores, but we still MUST do chores.

- The Lord (to me)

I was moving to Moscow Idaho with little to no planning or preparation and the Lord told me; "Ye will lack nothing."

Your talents are the means by which you may prosper you and your family and/or succeed in helping the world on a grander scale.

- The Lord (to me)

Without charity, those in dire monetary doom cannot receive the full blessings of the Lord, especially those that significantly help them, for with great power comes great responsibility, and where much is given, much is required.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from Heaven.

The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever."

- Doctrine and Covenants

"He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall find life eternal."

- Jesus Christ

The Lord has given us skills to use for that which is good. The Lord wants us to serve first and foremost, but he also wants us to be happy. In such he's given many blessings, many of which temporal or carnal, such as delicious food, comfortable couches, cars, and so on.

The use of these things is no more sin than entertaining oneself with their God-given talents is sin.

Use your talents for others and oneself, but most of all, SERVE HARD!!!!!!!!!

The Lord asked me to consider being a cop just for 1 year so that I could better see and understand the hard, mucky, brutal, miserable, and poor part of society, that I could understand how I can better serve them.

Something I want others to think about:

What could you do to with the skills you have to bless the world immediately around you?

I was pondering over the commandment to "put yourself last" and wondered that if I really wanted to put myself last, then I should therefore avoid a job I would enjoy, thereby allowing someone else to have the opportunity for the same.

I know this sounds like I'm thinking too hard, but this is a prompting I received in reply:

Get a job you like that makes use of your talents because if you are the right man for the job, you'd enjoy it, and thereby contribute better to your employer.

By working in a field you're passionate about, that passion pushes you much further and harder in the workplace, and you're capable of contributing that much more to your employer.

- The Lord (to me)

Stop trying to stop and discern the Spirit in every single instance. Just go forward and act in your best judgment, and the Spirit will guide and direct or redirect you as needed.

- The Lord (to me.)

Your family comes before your job, your school, your hobbies, and even helping the homeless. You must do ALL of these things, but when it comes down to having to choose one over the other, family always comes first. 

DO NOT NEGLECT THEM. EVER.

- The Lord (to Me)

Sometimes we need to think ahead and balance our time in such a way where we put off things that we know are going to get done almost regardless of circumstances (mostly) for things that are important that can only be done when we put time aside just for that thing.

For example, I just put off vacuuming the living room floor because I know it's going to get done eventually, so that I could set time aside to draft out an experimental education system I've been developing, something that I would probably only have started if I put time aside for it.

Use your skills to further the Gospel cause. They have a bigger impact on people than you know.

- The Lord (to Me)

The Lord wants you to be happy. I spoke earlier to Randall Bennet of the Seventy and he told me that there needs to be a balance of service vs. self help because the Lord wants you to be happy. He also said that he likes a "good burger" as an example of such.

This was his response after asking if "lust" referred to any desire other than service or fulfilling certain commandments such as being clean, or helping others.

The Lord just told me to be a bit less harsh on myself. I can tend to be that way whenever I mess up one way or another.

What about you? How can we love others if we don't first love ourselves?

What about the poor? The hungry? The shelter-less? The forsaken? The uneducated? The much less fortunate?

The dreams you dream of saving the world are given to you by the Lord for a REASON.

- The Lord (To Me)

Lust not after everything that is thine; Thy house, thy talents, thy food, thy car, and all other things that are thine, for they are not yours, they are mine.

- Words from the Lord to me

Leaders always eat last!

I've been developing a model for an alternative education system for quite some time now, but just recently received revelation to try to develop this system as a means to serve others.

What can you do to serve others? What do you know that you could share with the world?

Interesting experience with an odd context:

I was feeling really itchy for some reason, and felt prompted to pray that it would go away, since it was making quite the distraction from my prayers. (I was trying to pray, but was like "I'M ITCHY!!" and it wasn't really working out.) So I went ahead and prayed for the itchiness to go away.

The next thing I knew It just stopped. One moment my whole body was covered in pins and needles, and the next it wasn't.

AWESOME RIGHT????

That's the power of faith!

The Golden Rule states that we should treat others the way we like to be treated, but the Platinum Rule states that we should treat others the way they want to be treated. Both teachings I believe are from the Lord, but which one takes priority over the other, because the Platinum Rule does seem to make more sense than the Golden Rule to me, but the Golden Rule is what Christ taught in his ministry, so what do we do?

Pray about i!

Every cursing, just like every weakness, you have can be, and will be, turned around into a blessing if you endure it well. It is like unto when Adam & Eve partook of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, and were cursed with seemingly harsh curses; Having to eat bread by the sweat of the brow, thistles and thorns, sorrow entering the world, sorrow in a womans conception, and her desire towards her husband as a ruler. 

All of these things seemed harsh, but without all of these, we wouldn't have families or be capable of conceiving, we wouldn't be able to reap the health and happiness of working for a living, we wouldn't know how to work, and we wouldn't know how to endure. We wouldn't have the family roles and structure that we now enjoy for our use and protection, and without sorrow in the world, we could literally never experience joy.

I realized this in my own life. Looking back and thinking over all the years in grade school, middle school, and high school, where I literally couldn't focus on anything except what I wanted to do, I often thought to myself, "What a cursing!" or "I wish it wasn't so!" I literally had the inability to stay awake when working on subjects that disinterested me. I tried soooo hard, but to no avail. I subsequently did poorly in school.
What I didn't probably realize was that if I had the ability to focus on all my schoolwork and had actually DONE all my homework, schoolwork, and was an actually active and attentive student, I would most likely never have became as good an artist as I am now.
(For those of you who don't know me, art is my staple skill. It gives me an edge in many alleys of my life.)
If it weren't for my academic weakness, I wouldn't be anything like the character I am today, and I wouldn't have ever developed the creativity, zeal, inspiration, talents, and personal rigor I now enjoy.
Something similar occured with my social skills. I literally grew up with none. I DID NOT know how to communicate. DID NOT. I struggled with loneliness and sometimes bullying for most of my adolescent life,
BUT
Without that weakness, I would have never tried so ridiculously hard to understand the human psych and social mind, and wouldn't have prayed so ridiculously hard for the same.
Well, study and prayers have paid off. I didn't just learned how to socialize, but I became very good at it.
(If you have struggled or struggle with the social skills, I have a resource for you to read at the end of this article that basically explains, aside from a LOT of prayer, how I figured it out.)

I am SO THANKFUL for my weaknesses, and I am SOO THANKFUL for all the strength I get from them!

In the sacred name of my savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Your talents are given unto thee, you should use them.

 - The Lord to Me

Eat healthy! That means eat what you need. Don't overeat, but you don't need to under eat unless special circumstances require, such as ridiculously short lunch breaks or extreme poverty. Bottom line: put your self last. Eat and be healthy, because you need to be healthy to provide for your family just as much as you need sleep. So eat healthy, but put yourself last, and put yourself last by eating healthy. 

It's easy to assume that one shouldn't eat because those who share their fridges and food pantries with them will thereby have more food for themselves, and this is true to some degree, and very well intentioned, (I salute all those who willingly do so because they believe it the right thing to do. Very selfless of you!) But when you are the one providing for your family, or you are helping and serving others regularly, or you are doing chores around the house, or you and needed, then you need to be healthy and eating enough. 

Don't be selfish and always put yourself last. Don't be that person who selfishly overeats or gluts on every delicious thing before this fellows or family can have anything, but be healthy.

- The Lord to Me.

Pray for very large groups of people, such as the nation, the world, foreign countries, groups, tribes, governments, political parties, anyone. (Be willing!)

Pray for charity. ("With all the energy of heart.")

Weakness in one alley of life, (Physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, etc..) automatically carries over into every other alley of life. This means that when you don't get your sleep, you lose strength physically, AND mentally, AND emotionally, AND spiritually. This pertains to sleep, eating enough, developing seemingly insignificant or trivial bad habits, and even physical fitness! Bottom line: take care of yourself!!! Put yourself last, but take care of yourself! Amen.

Your body is a temple, so be healthy and take care of it!