Emily Freeman - Becoming His: A Daily Journey Toward Discipleship

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Freeman, Emily, author.

Becoming his : a daily journey toward discipleship / Emily Freeman.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-60907-054-0 (hardbound : alk. paper)

1. Christian lifeMormon authors. 2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsDoctrines. I. Title.

BX8656.F774 2012

248.4'89332dc232012013829

Printed in the United States of America

R. R. Donnelley, Crawfordsville, IN

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For the friend who asked me for a nickel

Acknowledgments

Many of these chapters started as letters to a group of friends who were experiencing firsthand a daily journey toward discipleship: Chad Loiseau, Brennan Stringam, Mike Babcock, Houston Wright, Caleb Freeman, Weston Jensen, Devin Davis, Eythan Barney, Brannen McEwan, Isaiah Balter, Joshua Freeman, TJ Murphy, Mitchel Giles, and Craig Sanderson. Watching each step of your journey, whether here in Lehi, Utah, or upon foreign soil, taught me an important lessonevery journey toward discipleship is individually mapped out to fit the need of the traveler. It has been remarkable to watch the transformation in all of you. Your testimonies of the Lord have strengthened mine. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey.

Heartfelt appreciation to David Butler, Spencer Apsley, and Dallin Manningthree powerful teachers whose lessons have changed my life.

Words cannot express my gratitude to the amazing team at Deseret Book: Jana Erickson, Emily Watts, Tonya Facemyer, Sheryl Dickert Smith, Richard Erickson, and Ashley Arnold. I am always awestruck by the ability you have to take simple words on a sheet of paper and transform them to create an inspirational experience stitched up and bound together between two covers. I am so grateful for your creativity, attention to detail, and enthusiasm for each project.

This particular book has been a lot of years in the making. It is filled with stories and experiences from moments in my life when I have been taught, lifted, and strengthened. There is not enough room on this page to list those who have touched my life and left an impression there, but for those of you who find your stories captured within these pages, please know the profound gratitude I have for your friendship and your influence for good.

To my familyGreg, Caleb, Josh, Meg, Grace, and Garettthank you for taking this journey with me... one step at a time. The learning has been sweeter because you have been there.

Just a Little Book

The first step on the path of discipleship begins, luckily enough, in the exact place where we stand!

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

As I begin to write this manuscript, I have just finished reading an antique book titled Flower of the Dusk, by Myrtle Reed. The book begins with a conversation between two friends who are discussing their hopes. One asks the other, What would you do, if you could choose?

Id write a book, the friend replies, and then she describes the most wonderful book I can imagine. Just a little book, she says. The sort that people who love each other would choose for a gift. Something that would be given to one who was going on a long or difficult journey. The book a woman would take with her when she was tired and went away to rest. A book with laughter and tears in it and so much fine courage that it would be given to those who are in deep trouble. Id soften the hard hearts, rest the weary ones, and give the despairing ones new strength to go on. Just a little book, but so brave and true and sweet and tender that it would bring the sun to every shady place.

In the inmost part of my heart, that is the book I wish this one would be. So I place that heartfelt desire into the hands of the Lord and simply pray that I might be the writing instrument that will allow His words to fill these pages.

If you are in the middle moments of a long or difficult journey,

if you are tired and in need of a rest,

if you just want to laugh a little and cry a little,

if you are yearning for something more,

if you are in deep trouble and you are looking for courage,

or if your heart is weary or despairing and you are looking for strength to go on,

then hopefully this book is just what you need.

Before you begin, let me make one thing clearas much as I wish they could, in and of themselves the simple words that fill these pages cannot offer you the hope, courage, or strength you seek.

But the Savior can. Of this, I am certain.

I pray this book will lead your heart to His.

The Beginning

We do not really grasp who we are

until we know whose we are.

Truman G. Madsen

Becoming is an interesting process. It is what takes us from where we are to where we want to be. Oh, there are so many things I want to becomemore intelligent, more filled with discernment, more kind. But there is one desire that fills my heart with longing over and above any other. I want to become a disciple of Christ, and in the course of my lifes journey I hope to become His.

It is a process I have been studying for years, and although I havent discovered all of the answers, I have found an interesting pattern that could perhaps be applied to each of our lives. I recognize this pattern as a journey toward discipleship. My studies have encompassed the lives of Paul, Nephi, Caleb, and Joshua, along with many other ancient and modern prophets. I have studied the progression of the early Church in Jerusalem and the journey of the modern-day pioneers. My research has filled notebooks, covered paper napkins, and been penned within the margins of my scriptures.

Inspiration leads me to share this journey with you, but I am confident that the writing upon these pages will be only a simple roadmap along your own journey to discipleship. I believe that He who authors the course will carefully guide your steps, just as He guides mine. The path to discipleship is a very individual process, a deeper journey than simply coming closer to the Lord. As we follow this pattern, we will come to understand that becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ is a lifelong process that will ultimately define who we are.

For the purpose of this book, this pattern of discipleship has been broken into twelve parts. Each part highlights one piece of the pattern. Within every part you will discover four common themesto consider, to act, to ponder, and, finally, to become. Considering, acting upon, and pondering each principle within the pattern gives us an opportunity to walk the path of discipleship. Each step leads us closer to becoming His.

Elder Robert D. Hales encourages us to