Yearning for the Living God

I just finished a wonderful book & wanted to share! - Yearning for the Living God, by F. Enzio Busche.
It's an autobiography, and includes so many amazing, faith-building stories - not only from his life, but the lives of those around him.
He grew up in Germany and was a member of the Hitler Youth. That alone was pretty amazing to read about. And the miracles of his life, his conversion story...wow.
I am including a few of my favorite quotes/stories below.

-"My spiritual insight let me see that we as human beings live far below our potential from day to day. One day we will be confronted with our true potential; and we will see what we have missed because we have not embraced the ultimate help offered to us from our Creator."

-"I believe one of the greatest challenges for members of the Church is to ensure that our lives are not led by routines. When we are governed by routine, we tend to become insensitive to the need to walk with the companionship of the Holy Ghost. When we are blessed with the companionship of the Holy Ghost, we are protected in dangerous situations, and we become capable of making right decision and overcoming all fear."

His entire "Quiet Heroes" chapter is so faith-building. Just a couple that touched my heart:

-He talked about an extremely poor, elderly woman whose entire family was killed by the Russians. She walked 2 hours to church each way. He decided to ask her if he could drive her and this was her response: "Brother Busche, you cannot do this to me. I'm an old lady. how can I ever show the Lord how much I love Him, how much I adore Him, how much I depend on His atoning sacrifice for my salvation, and my desire to serve him? I'm too old and too ugly and too forgetful to serve as the Relief Society president or even as a teacher. The greatest joy of my life is on Sunday when I can get up early in the morning, walk to church, and take the sacrament. Yes, it is a long walk and, yes, my legs hurt and my back hurts, but every step I rejoice. Every tree and every shrub is my friend. I know every person behind every window. I greet them all with my heart and with my testimony. As I walk, I sing the hymns and when I arrive, I'm through the hymnbook and my heart of full of joy and gratitude because my walk is a celebration of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And you want to take this away from me? You can't do this to me. Let me walk."

-He talked about a man named Brother Birkhahn. He said he was "vigorous, positive, and full of enthusiasm for the gospel...He was a man who never permitted himself to be without the Spirit."

I could keep the quotes & stories coming. It was a truly uplifting book. And now I must take this knowledge and ask:

1. What am I sacrificing to show the Lord how truly thankful I am for this gospel and especially for the atonement of my Savior? I'm obviously not walking 2 hours to church each way. What can I do more? How can I serve more? What more can I give? These are all questions I am pondering...

2. Am I sleeping through my routines as a member of this church? Am I taking my birth into it for granted? I need to recommit myself and WAKE UP to the Spirit! He talks a lot about people around the world and their amazing faith and how they are so EXCITED about the gospel. This is something I am going to work on!

3. Am I listening to & OBEYING the promptings of the Holy Ghost? I read about these miracles that have happened when they have obeyed the promptings of the Holy Ghost & I wonder why I haven't experienced anything so miraculous from a prompting. And then the other morning, I woke up at 6:30 and the spirit was prompting me to get out of bed and seek my Savior. Instead I turned over & went back to sleep. How can He trust me with an important prompting when I can't even obey a prompting to just get out of bed? Another thing I'm going to work on...

Reading this book just reaffirmed to me that the Lord loves us! He watches out for us! He wants us to just listen and obey and He will make miracles happen!