Learn Of God

Learn of me, and listen to my words:  walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.  (Doctrine and Covenants 19:23)

My next Relief Society lesson is "Gaining Knowledge of Eternal Truths."  It seems that everything I read or listen to points me in the direction of gaining knowledge.  I was just setting here trying to think of something to blog about.  I was thinking that my pondering was running a bit short.  Nothing was coming to mind.  I looked over and saw the back of my True To The Faith reference guide and there was the above scripture.  I thought. "Wow there is my lesson in one sentence.    Now that I have my lesson prepared I wonder what I will do the the rest of my 30 minutes?"  

Not really.  It is a good lesson and I can hardly wait to give it.  I really do love that scripture.

I am grateful that the Lord has given me this opportunity to teach.  I am grateful that He is mindful of me and shows me so many little things that can help me with His message.  The other day as I was reading a passage by Joseph Smith I could not help but be amazed that this unlearned boy had turned into such a knowledgeable man.  I had to actually look up two words in the paragraph so I could make sense out of the statement.  Joseph Smith's understanding was truly quickened by the Spirit of God.  

Lifelong Learning

I just listened to a talk by Robert D Hales entitled "The Journey of Lifelong Learning."  He gave the talk at BYU Education Week this past August.  Wow that was a good talk.  I liked it enough to download it so I could listen to it anytime.  I could not believe how well it goes with the lesson that I will  be teaching in Relief Society this month.  It seems like as I prepare my lesson I always find a talk that goes right along with it.    

When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade

I am feeling a little heart broken at the moment.  It seems that over the Christmas break two young people have decided that life is not worth living and have committed suicide.  While I did not know either of these young people my heart is heavy with sorrow as I find myself shedding tears for them and for their families.  I hope that peace can find it's way into the lives of the families left behind.

I can honestly say that I have never suffered from depression to the point that these two have.  I have never even considered suicide.  While I have no idea of how they may have suffered before they came to this point in their lives, I do know one thing...  When life gets you down and you feel like you can no longer cope, CALL someone.  A mom, a dad, a brother, a sister, a friend, a stranger for that matter but whatever you do you need to talk to someone now. 

Breath of Heaven

Forgiveness--The Greatest of all Gifts

May I truly learn to forgive.

Awake, Arise, And Come Unto Christ

I listened to a talk by Sherri Dew. It is about 30 minutes long. I wish I had heard and listened to this talk 30 years ago. But so much for what is water under the bridge. This is an excelent talk. I wish I knew how to download the video here but I don't know enough about that kind of stuff to make it work. You will just have to go to the link and download it yourself. I promise it will be worth every minute that it takes you to download and listen to.

http://www.byub.org/findatalk/details.asp?ID=5770

Save, save, save!

I like to save things.  No, it is worse than that.  I hoard things.  Oh no, I'm a hoarder!  OK, so what is wrong with me?  Why can't I throw things away?  I always hear myself saying that I might need it for school, or I could use this in scouts.  Those 5 gal. ice cream buckets are great when you need to take a meal into a family.  They are just the right size for a large pot of soup and the family does not have to worry about returning the container.  So is there a reason I need ten of those?

I decided it was time to clean my pantry.  I had to.  I couldn't get the door to close.  I really had to give myself a talking to.  "It is time to throw some things away," I told myself.  Let me see what can go?  The margarine containers!  The margarine containers?  Now why was I saving margarine containers?  Oh, yes, they are nice for leftovers.  Then you can just take it to work, heat it up, and throw away the container when you finish eating!  So why do I keep bringing them back home and washing them?  I call it recycling.  No, it is called hoarding!  At any rate I have talked myself into throwing way the old margarine containers.  One garbage can full of margarine containers later I can close the door.  You will never believe what else I threw away.  Oh that's right you will believe it, of course you would have thrown it away a long time ago, it is me that can't believe it.  I went through the dry goods.  Those #10 cans that you get in dry pack.  I threw away two cans of fruit drink, one chocolate pudding, one vanilla pudding, raspberry flavored dried apples, and part of a can of macaroni.  Why?  Old.  Really old.  Plus Joe can't have the sugar in the drink and the pudding.  Now I keep going back to the pantry and opening the door just so I can see it shut again.  Wow that is so cool.

Now as I type I am looking at the stack of phone books.  Why do I need 5 phone books in the kitchen?  It looks like something else needs to go.