Ministering

 We invite you to minister with your powerful influence for good in strengthening our families, our church, and our communities. You are a much-needed force for love, truth, and righteousness in this world. We need you to nurture families, friends, and neighbors. It is through you that God’s perfect love for each and all of His children is made manifest.  Silvia H. Allred 

Swing Set

 

Sometimes when we’re bad, my mother goes downstairs and silently exits through the back door. We press our noses against the bathroom window upstairs, the one that looks out on the backyard, watching her. We turn to each other and say, “She must be so mad!” Then we watch, cannot help but watch, as she goes over to the swing set and sits on the black rubber seat. 

Her legs never leave the ground, she just pushes herself back and forth, straightening and bending those hourglass legs. And then, maybe it is condensation on the window or maybe something else, but we think we can see tears rolling down her cheeks. When she buries her head in the crook of her arm, it is over. Lisa Van Orman Hadley 

The author went on to say her mother was punishing herself after she'd punished her children. To me, it feels like this mother of six children was seeking solace and pulling herself together so she could go back and mother her children.

Pooh to Piglet

 “If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.”

 

― (Pooh to Piglet) Carter Crocker, writer for Disney’s The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (goodreads.com)

Interruptions - Making Room

 

We do things differently at Christmas time. …. We interrupt the ordinary rhythm of life to make room for something holy. We make room for remembering, for giving, for forgiveness, for hope, for love.  We make room for Jesus. Just like those first witnesses when he was born. The first Christmas was an interruption that made room for something more, something better. If you could choose to have been there that night I wonder who you would choose to be. Would you be the tender Joseph who approached the night with quiet care? Would you be the gentle mother who pondered the things of holiness in her heart? Would you be the humble shepherds and run with the sound of good news or the wise men from the East journeying far to worship.   Each of them experienced the first Christmas differently and their stories remind us that anyone may serve as a witness, …. We can all add our voices, just like that first choir of angels did. Perhaps you would choose to be one of them.  … Together they sang the song that still echoes through hearts today, a song inspired by a gift. And Christmas is a time of gifts. ….

What makes Christmas so special is it was the giving the most unobtainable gift of all, the gift of a baby boy who’d offer his life for all of us. … Sent straight from heaven, wrapped in swaddling clothes on that first Christmas… .  May we all acknowledge and share our witness of the greatest gift the world has ever received and may that gift interrupt our lives and lead us to live differently. 

 David Butler in closing remarks for “Witnesses of Christ” 
(starts about minute 43)

Christmas Message

 When we sing “Silent Night,” we know the life of that Babe of Bethlehem did not begin there, nor did it end on Calvary. In a premortal realm, Jesus was foreordained by His Father to be the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all humankind. He was foreordained to atone for us. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). 

He came to make immortality a reality and eternal life a possibility for all who would ever live (see 1 Corinthians 15:20–22; 3 Nephi 27:13–14).

At this sacred Christmas season, we testify that our loving Heavenly Father “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 

Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring (November 26, 2021) First Presidency, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

 

Gift Inside Hardwhip

"Trust yourself. You’re stronger than you realize, and you’ll make it through this. And the most horrible experience often has a precious gift wrapped inside, if you are willing to receive it.” Jeannette Walls

May each of us find the precious gift that’s wrapped inside our hard experiences. 

image pixabay

Time

 “Either we use time wisely or it uses us; either we manage tasks effectively, or we are pushed about and prodded by them....

Since our impact must be selective [we must] do some goal-setting in terms of the outcomes we wish to achieve. Such goal-setting needn’t be a hassling, hustling experience but rather a calm, periodic reasoned assessment of what we cherish enough to choose to do with our time.”  Neal A. Maxwell, The Smallest Part

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.   Luke 12: 34

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watch belonged to Harry E. Floyd

Magic of Fireflies

 

I grew up seeing fireflies. When we moved to Washington state, I met people who have never seen them because fireflies don't live in this part of the country. I miss the magic they bring to a summer evening.

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“Alice’s breath stopped in her throat. The mountainside opposite was alive with light, a wall of glinting fairy lights, three-dimensional among the trees, winking and twinkling as they shifted, illuminating the shadows of the inky dark. … Alice couldn’t quite take in what she was seeing. The clouds parted and the fireflies glinted, mingled, traversed upward from the illuminated shadows of the trees, and their million luminous white bodies melded seamlessly with the starry night sky above, so that it seemed for that moment that the whole world was carpeted with tiny golden lights. It was such a ridiculous, unlikely, insanely beautiful sight that Alice found herself laughing out loud, both hands pressed to her face.” 

 

Fred says “You know what’s really wonderful about those fireflies? …. Sure, they live for just a few weeks. Not much at all in the grand scheme of things. But while they’re there, the beauty of them, well, it takes your breath away. … You get to see the world in a whole new way. And then you have that beautiful picture burned onto the inside of your head. To carry it wherever you go. And never forget it. …  some things are a gift, even if you don’t get to keep them…. Maybe just to know that something this beautiful exists is all we can really ask for.”   (The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes) 

image from pixabay

 

 

Past, Present, Future

 

“The human experience makes no sense without exploring the stories from our past, imaging those from our future, and being clear-eyed and honest about our present.” (Kirsten Alexander)

Scrapbooks are a gold mine of material about our pasts and hints about the future. 

These are items from Joe's scrapbooks. 

Perspective

The gospel is not part of our life, but our life is actually part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.   Chi Hong Wong

What a difference this perspective makes. 

Chance To Be Brilliant

 “But it’s during those times, when we feel like we’re at our lowest, that we have the chance to be brilliant. The chance to be great. ... the one thing I was always certain about is that I would cling to my faith in Jesus Christ, ... I decided that I would control all other outcomes to the best of my ability. I would put 100% effort wherever I could.” Mason Wells*

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*Mason Wells was injured in the 2016 Brussels terrorist bombing. He recently graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. 

Remembering the Ordinary

"Ordinary people do extraordinary things just by doing what they are supposed to do at that moment, and it's worth remembering." Ardis Parshall

Parshall is an amazing person who has devoted her life to preserving and sharing people's stories. She is an inspiration. 

As I go through our family's letters and photographs, I'm often struck by the importance of what many would call ordinary events of the lives of those who came before us. Looking back, it's those ordinary things, done by ordinary people, that resulted in an extraordinary legacy of faith, family, and friends. I am thankful for the artifacts that help us remember our people and the lives they lived. 

Who I Want to Be?

This sign was in my work area for years and years. 

It made the trek across country with us.

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"We become what we want to be 

by consistently

 being what we want to become each day." 

 Richard Scott

Prayer, daily conversations with God, helps us know how we are doing in our efforts to become more like Christ - do what He would do, say what He would say, love as He loves. 

Looking Back, Embers Not Ashes

 As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.  Jeffrey R. Holland

Attention

 

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love.

Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.

Simone Weil

Interesting to think about this and multitasking. 

Questions

 

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little this mystery everyday. Never lose a holy curiosity."            Albert Einstein

image pixabay

Opportunities - Limitless & Perishable

 "...  our opportunities to love and give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. Today there are hearts to gladden, kind words to say, deeds to be done, and souls to be saved."  Thomas Monson

Where and to whom do we give our hearts, our time, our service?

So many choices, so many opportunities. 

Be God's Kindness

 “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” Mother Teresa 

We Believe in Christ

 

“We believe in the historical Jesus who walked the dusty paths of the Holy Land … We testify that He is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the Three being One: one in spirit, one in strength, one in purpose, one in voice, one in glory, one in will, one in goodness, and one in grace—one in every conceivable form and facet of unity except that of Their separate physical embodiment (see 3 Nephi 11:36). We testify that Christ was born of His divine Father and a virgin mother, that from the age of 12 onward, He was about His true Father’s business, that in doing so, He lived a perfect, sinless life and thus provided a pattern for all who come unto Him for salvation.

 

We bear witness of every sermon He ever gave, every prayer He ever uttered, every miracle He ever called down from heaven, and every redeeming act He ever performed. In this latter regard we testify that in fulfilling the divine plan for our salvation, He took upon Himself all the sins, sorrows, and sicknesses of the world, bleeding at every pore in the anguish of it all, beginning in Gethsemane and dying upon the cross of Calvary as a vicarious offering for those sins and sinners, including each of us.

 

We declare that three days after the Crucifixion, He rose from the tomb in glorious immortality, the firstfruits of the Resurrection, thereby breaking the physical bands of death and the spiritual bonds of hell, providing an immortal future for both the body and the spirit, a future that can be realized in its full glory and grandeur only by accepting Him and His name as the only “name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Neither is there, nor can there ever be, “salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12).

 

We declare that He will come again to earth, this time in might, majesty, and glory, to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the Christ, whom we praise, in whose grace we trust implicitly and explicitly, and who is “the Shepherd and Bishop of [our] souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

 

Joseph Smith was once asked the question, “What are the fundamental principles of your religion?” He replied, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”

 

We rejoice with the Apostle Paul: “Thanks be to God, [who] giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). In that spirit, as one Book of Mormon prophet wrote, “We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ … that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins … [and] may look forward unto that life which is in Christ” (2 Nephi 25:26, 27)."

Jeffrey Holland - Standing Together for the Cause of Christ

We Are Children of God

 "In today’s world, no matter where we live and no matter what our circumstances are, it is essential that our preeminent identity is as a child of God. Knowing that will allow our faith to flourish, will motivate our continual repentance, and will provide the strength to “be steadfast and immovable” throughout our mortal journey (Mosiah 5:15). Donald L. Hallstrom

"One of the great adventures of life is that of finding out who we really are, where we came from and then living consistently in harmony with our identity and the purpose of our existence... Become who you really are. Your happiness and ability to find balance in your life will occur as you find, recognize and accept your true identity as a child of our Heavenly Father, and then live in accordance with this knowledge."

Gerald Jean Causse