Personal Progress: Faith - Learn more about the Sacrament

For the past 3 weeks I have been pondering during the sacrament as value #4 says to do. I try to do this every Sunday, but I wanted to make a very concerted effort this time. I love the sacrament hymns as they always set the tone for receiving the emblems of bread and water. As hard as I try to ponder and focus, I find that I am easily distracted. When I close my eyes it is even worse, as I tend to fall asleep or my mind really wanders all over the place. I get as far as thinking about what I might have done during the past week that I need to ask forgiveness for in my prayers, and then try to think of ways I can improve. Then my mind just starts to wander. One week I sat in the choir seats all meeting because the choir was singing. I didn't dare close my eyes as I could easily fall asleep and anyone looking would see my head bobbing. If I looked out in the congregation then I would see particular things that would make me wander like: oh look at that pretty dress, or that child is being kind of rowdy...I'm sure you get the drift. Today, there was a toddler that kept crying. I felt for the poor parents, as they tried and tried to calm him down, but he was having none of it. Having been there as a young mother with small children, I remember how awkward it is to wonder, do I stay with this crying child so I can take the sacrament, or do I take him out and risk missing out. Finally the poor mother took the crying toddler out. I noticed that I was having a really hard time focusing and when the sacrament prayer was said, I was trying so hard to focus on it, but the crying child was so loud, it drowned out the words. After he was taken out, I noticed a tremendous difference. One thing I noticed in particular is that the Spirit is truly felt in quiet times. It is much harder to feel or recognize the Spirit when there is noise around us. I have believed for a long time that Satan uses noise to distract us. It is an easy tool for him to use on us and we must be very careful in our every day lives because we tend to fill them with popular music, Television, IPods blaring in our ears and just general noise from cars, crowds, etc. I have found that when I take some time every day and put on some quiet relaxing music I feel so much better. I am thankful for this personal progress value to help me try once again to focus more on the sacrament and constantly work on keeping my mind focused.