Connections to the Divine

I've been noodling on this thought for a few weeks now. Let's see if I can get it out.

Several weeks ago I got to attend a missionary discussion with DH and a family whose husband is preparing to be baptized. The husband was asked about his experience at a niece's baptism and he said that it seemed to him like baptism, like attending the baptism provided a connection to the divine. That phrase of his has stayed with me ever since. I visualized myself as a large ship, with every spiritual experience I have as an anchor tying my spiritual ship to heaven, to Home. Attending church, feasting upon the scriptures, praying and fasting and serving in the Kingdom are all things that anchor me to God a little bit more. Covenants, ordinances, seem to me to be thicker cables, anchoring me more steadily in the making and keeping of serious and sober promises. I envision my children's ships as I help them to cast their own anchors, linking their spirits to God and to us as a family. When I keep this vision in place, my efforts seem more substantial, more successful and less sisyphean, less futile. I want to increase my connection to the divine, I want my ship to be bristling with anchors connecting me to the divine, to heaven, to Home.

And then this morning, I found an old note in a bunch of church stuff that had once been stuffed in my scriptures. I remember it came from a particularly enlightening Sunday School, but I no longer remember where or when. It underscores to me this connection to the divine I'm seeking.

In the Old Testament times, they had sin, burnt and peace offerings--the Law of Moses was the filter through which they partook of the Atonement which was to come.

With the completion of the Savior's part of the Atonement, we partake of it by exercising faith, hope and charity. We follow the first principles and ordinances of the gospel: faith repentance, baptism and receipt of the Holy Ghost. We endure to the end: obedience, sacrifice, gospel living, purity, and consecration. We prepare for and make covenants in the temple and we keep those covenants to eventually enter full fellowship with God.

Somehow writing out these elements, each of them their own connection to the divine, helps me to see a map, a checklist, more anchors to get me Home.

How do you connect to the Divine?