Jeremiah 29:11-13

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
Jeremiah 29:11-13


This scripture is about the gathering of the Jews after they have been scattered... but Nephi says we should liken all scriptures unto ourselves, and this one seems pretty appropriate to me today.  I think that we've all been scattered in some ways... whether the Lord did it to give us time to think, or whether we've taken ourselves apart and can't quite get all the pieces back together yet. :)  God loves us, and isn't out to get us.  He wants to give us the happy, unexpected ending... not the one that we've seen for ourselves when we are at our worst.  God will listen to us, and we will be able to find him... but we have to give it everything we have.  We can't search for him, expecting nothing, or search for him half-heartedly while planning our lives around something else.  When we come to God, we have to give him our full attention and our full effort.  When we get our full, undivided heart into it, then we'll be able to find God.  What kinds of things divide our hearts?  When we try to be different people on different days... or change who we are for our audience.  We can't be Christians at home and not at work.  It doesn't work to be good only for people you want to make a good impression on.  When we divide up our lives like that, we are guaranteeing that none of the parts receives our whole heart.  When we can be the same person at home and at school... when we can talk to people openly without hiding the spiritual part of ourselves... then our whole heart will be God's.  Today, let's think of what parts of our hearts we are holding back from God, and try to reunite those parts with the whole... it's very tempting to justify our division instead, but let's not.  Instead, let's work on finding God.