Twenty years ago in March!!!

I woke up this morning and realized that the end of March will be 20 years since I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I am so grateful for my Baptist upbringing that taught me to communicate with God and to treat my body like a temple and so many more truths that I still hold dear.  I left none of those behind when I accepted the gift of this church that Heavenly Father was offering to me.... 20 years ago!

The person I am today is due to the softening influence of the fullness of the gospel in my life.  I just read in 3 Nephi this morning about other churches that are built on the works of men or on the works of Satan. The disciples in the New World asked Jesus about what to call the Church.  He asked why there would be disputations among the people about this when the scriptures were clear that His Church would take among them His name.  He went on to teach:

 3 Nephi 27:

9Verily I say unto you, that ye are built upon my gospel;therefore ye shall call whatsoever things ye do call, in my name;therefore if ye call upon the Father, for the church, if it be in myname the Father will hear you;

10And if it so be that the church is built upon my gospel then willthe Father show forth his own works in it.

11But if it be not built upon my gospel, and is built upon the worksof men, or upon the works of the devil, verily I say unto you theyhave joy in their works for a season, and by and by the endcometh, and they are ^ahewn down and cast into the ^bfire, fromwhence there is no return.

12For their works do ^afollow them, for it is because of their worksthat they are hewn down; therefore remember the things that Ihave told you.

13Behold I have given unto you my ^agospel, and this is the gospelwhich I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the^bwill of my Father, because my Father sent me.

14And my Father sent me that I might be ^alifted up upon the^bcross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the ^ccross, that Imight ^ddraw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by meneven so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me,to be ^ejudged of their works, whether they be good or whetherthey be evil—

 It struck me that however noble and good intentioned we are, if we are doing the works or men and not God, we aren't drawing unto Him on His terms, but ours.  This profound truth is obvious.

I knew the Book of Mormon was true a year after someone gave it to me to read...  I had started to read it and remember saying outloud that I just didn't know how to know if this book was true....  We ask people to read it, ponder it, pray to know it is true and the truth will be made known unto them....  I knew, not by reading it or using my intellect to figure it out, but because the Holy Ghost witnessed unto me that the Book of Mormon is true scripture given to us from a loving Heavenly Father.

I want to go to Nauvoo to celebrate the Relief Society's birthday in March.  The Relief Society is the organization of women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I posted on Facebook asking if anyone else might want to go, too.  One friend posted that they were going later in the month because it was her tenth anniversary of when she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I realized it will be 20 years for me and maybe that is why I feel such a pull to do this THIS year.  One friend can go with me, but if I go alone, I am planning to go...  It is important.

This morning before I got up, I realized that Ed will beat Cole Thies' record of not being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and still married to a member for 20 years.  He said in jest that he wanted to beat Cole's record... He has (or nearly has) and it is indeed time for him to be baptized.  The bishopric invited Ed to take the temple prep class at the end of last year and we just finished the before the temple classes.  There has been a noticeable difference in Ed since we started these classes...  The bishopric were really thinking outside the box when they asked us to take these classes.  :-)

There are so many opportunities that will draw Ed nearer unto our Savior.  Ed is helping with a totally AWESOME experience for our young men tonight.  Our youngest son will be going tonight and our older two have done this in the past.  He also is going with the young men to Nauvoo to hike the martyrdom trail on spring break.  I felt earlier this month that I needed to gird up my spiritual armor and was prompted to add a couple of things to my daily routine.  I am also making it to the temple more often and taking friends.  :-)

I would like to invite everyone that reads this to pray for our family.  We are truly building our eternal family and I know it'll take the prayers of all.  I am grateful for being able to see God's hand in my life and knowing that He loves me.

Blessings of a Fast

As is the monthly practice in my Church, we fasted and prayed this week.  We celebrate the fast with a fast and testimony meeting on Sunday.  To introduce the fast, we fast from water and food for 24 hours (or two meals).  The money we save from this fast is given to the Bishop as a fast offering for the poor among us.  I have medicine that needs to be taken with a full glass of water and do not considering do this on Sunday to be breaking my fast.  We also partake of bread and water (the sacrament), which is similar to the Lord's supper in some other churches in our sacrament (Sunday church service) meetings.

As I began my fast yesterday, I decided that it was appropriate to make this fast one of gratitude.  Every prayer was filled with thanksgiving, when I found myself asking for blessings, I rephrased the thought to thank Heavenly Father.  I was thrilled to be hungry, but not irritable with my sweet class of 5-year olds.  I even passed out a snack of cheese and veggies without mindlessly eating some... lol  I discovered so many things for which I was grateful....  What's so awe-inspiring is how God has opened the windows of heaven and poured out more blessings without my asking for a single one.....

One practice our church leaders have taught us is to hold family home evening lessons.  These are wonderful, fun times for us to teach gospel and temporal lessons in our family.  Monday evenings are reserved for us to hold family home evenings, though we may hold them according to our desires.  An opening song, opening prayer, scripture, lesson, activity, closing prayer, closing song, and snack are common components.  We've been inconsistent doing a formal family home evening and it has been one of those things I knew was important, but when it seemed to be me against my family, I just couldn't muster enough "fight" to get it done....  I confided this to a friend on Thursday when we came back from the temple.... My dear, sweet husband came home today from church and said he wants to do family home evening tomorrow (if we go bowling, then on Tuesday)!  Wow, I am so thrilled!  With him on my side, how can we fail!

I experienced several other blessings today, too, which I don't want to detail here.  I will say that there are treasured missionary moments that I could never have engineered.  God's hand is evident and I am grateful to be able to be nearby to watch and see what He orchestrates!

snopes.com: Cartoon Character As Facebook Profile Picture

snopes.com: Cartoon Character As Facebook Profile Picture

How Do You Know?

How do you know what is real or what you can trust?

The information highway - the Internet - flows with increasing access through nearly every fiber of our society.  How do you know which information to trust?  We could become jaded and believe and trust no one, but that seems extreme.  Snopes.com ( http://snopes.com/ )  was a great help until I lost faith in it, too.  As I've reconsidered today, I've decided that I can use Snopes as a tool.....  I can take what they say as one voice, one source.  I do not know the creators, but you can learn what they have posted online.   My husband says to Google anything and everything.  I always try to examine the credibility of the links, depending on the subject.  It isn't always easy to decide which links are worthwhile.  I am not sure how one becomes adept at spotting misleading or false claims, but I hope to be able to choose wisely.

Giving is such a good thing to do, but everyone wants money.  Some charities are worthwhile and use proceeds to truly benefit those they champion.  However, too many are either inept at managing the money or downright dishonest.  Rather than just giving to all or denying all, it seems prudent to be active in making sure that your donations will go to make a difference.

Things I Wished I'd Learned Sooner

     As a newlywed and even as a young mother, I often felt like I was having to reinvent the wheel.  There were so many things that I did not know and felt that others knew.  What was missing was a way of transferring that knowledge to the younger generation.  With our society being so mobile and so many women working outside the home, we may be losing some essential homemaking and nurturing skills that really make a house a home.  My mom did a great job of teaching and letting me practice skills before I left home.   However, you often don't learn a skill until you need to use it.  I guess this is the motivation for this post.  I'd love to see this page grow with added comments of things you wished you'd known sooner, too.

    FOCUS....  One thing that I've learned to do that I wished I'd learned sooner is to focus on the task at hand and stick with it until it is finished.  On the days that I am busy all day with nothing evident, it could be that I ran from one fire to another as "emergencies" crept up.  However, it is generally because I would start one task and then putting something away in another room would draw my attention to something else that needed doing.  When we lived in Tucson, I enlisted the help of my son's wagon to help with this problem.  I stayed in the room I began.  Anything that needed putting away else where went into the wagon.  Sometimes James would help my pulling the wagon and putting away the "escaped" toy or lost shoe.  Often, I'd pull him and or Matt as I'd finished the room and went to put things away.  It made it a game for all of us.

     THREE MINUTES...  Have you ever felt that you just don't have enough time to get your house cleaned? Having enough energy has been a challenge in recent years.  However, do you think you could always find three minutes???  I decided that I could always find three minutes.  It only takes three minutes to empty the dishwasher.  I am not sure what else she said only takes three minutes.  When I've had a dishwasher, I find myself reminding myself to stick (focus!) with it for the three minutes and get it emptied.  As I reflected just now, I realized that my kids will pick emptying the dishwasher over other jobs....  It's one job that needs doing often, but the end is in sight when you begin the task.  The dishwasher is not like Mary Poppins carpet bag.  With each dish you put away, you can see you are closer to completing the task.

     SCHEDULES....  I must admit I began my married life abhorring schedules....  I am not sure why and I am still not a stickler for one.  I have, however, learned to respect and value schedules to some extent.  When we homeschooled, I found an absolutely wonderful scheduling tool that helped each one of us know what we should be doing and when we should be doing it.  The schedule helped us accomplish so much more.  Keeping up on the housecleaning chores has been easier, too, with kind of a loose schedule.  Without a schedule, I'd clean when I noticed it needed cleaning.  With my loose schedule, I can generally get things done before it's noticeable that they need doing.  It's a tool that works for me.

     EXERCISE...   Though not an athlete my any means, I've always tried to stay active.  When I had my second child, life just seemed too full and I decided that I'd do those post-pregnancy exercises when life slowed down.  Well, life NEVER slows down.  lol  I lost a good habit with that choice and one I've been fighting to regain ever since.  Even if you have to exercise in three minute increments, DO IT.

     What am I doing today to be physically fit?  I went to a TIME OUT for WOMEN http://deseretbook.com/time-out conference several years ago.  One of the speakers was about my size and ran marathons.  She inspired me with the desire to run.... The road to beginning this journey was been full of road blocks, but I finally feel like I can begin training to run a 5K with my family.  I may never run a marathon, but I am going to take it one step at a time.  For me, this feels like the answer to keeping me fit as I grow older.  If not, there are so many other worthwhile activities form which to choose.  :-)