Waiting Upon the Lord

 

Keep Fully Immersed

 

#GiveThanks - I Love This Prophet and Am Taking His Thanksgiving Challenge:

I am so grateful for a living oracle who leads and guides all of God's children, including me individually, under the direction of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the personal peace that brings in this beautiful though fraught and frenzied world. I am grateful for my dearest friend and husband of 30 years and for the way in which he tirelessly works to improve himself and "us," and diligently desires to be a disciple of Christ. Always, but today specifically (because it is my daughter's birthday) I am grateful for my beautiful children, all of whom are full of love, kindness, compassion, generosity, family loyalty, and respect. And, I am grateful for a support network of extended family who have all been part of such an incredibly solid foundation and friends who add such depth and meaning to relationships. Today, I am grateful for the people in my life!

Why Not Now?

"The Thick of Thin Things"

Finals are next week and I just want to be invested in Christmas preparations, not worrying about exams, but learning is always valuable. In my Life Skills class last week, we studied Entitlement and all of the different, but always selfish, faces it can take, This week our lesson material focused on Giving Back. Pondering them side by side, I have realized that I too often let myself get pulled into what President Monson referred to as "the thick of thin things," especially, and ironically, during holiday seasons.

 “Often we live side by side but do not communicate heart to heart. There are those within the sphere of our own influence who, with outstretched hands, cry out, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”

“I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.” How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that “oh, surely someone will take care of that need.”

“We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”

On our class discussion board, one of the prompts asked what service we would render if time and money were not a barrier. One of my classmates had a whole list of things she wanted to help with because of the experience of particular trials (the death of two babies, and a deaf son with a cochlear implant) in her life, and I realized that I often get so consumed with my own trials and the busyness of just daily mortality that I spend too much time looking inward and downward and miss seeing the important ways that I could make a difference if I would just take more notice of others by looking outward and upward. There is so much suffering around us that needs to be relieved, and it seems natural to look big and far, but as Charles Dickens so aptly portrayed with the disillusioned Mrs. Jellyby, there is no better place to start than in our own families. I need to try harder.

30 Days of Conscientious Gratitude. Day 30: I Am Grateful for...Prophets, Past and Present

"The Lord has placed prophets in the land. They speak the truth. 

In whatever subject the prophets choose to speak, LISTEN.  Listen with your ears, 

with your minds, and with your hearts. Do not analyze their mortal preparation to speak upon the subject. That's not where their strength comes from. It is the power of God coupled with his call to them that qualifies them to speak--on any subject. The united voice of the First Presidency and the Twelve will never, never, never lead us astray."

--L. Aldin Porter

Both personally, and with my family I am coming to the end of a challenge to read the Book of Mormon, in its entirety this year. It is a goal that I have fulfilled at least once every year, for many years. The words of the Lords early prophets, on those pages, have been a boon to my soul, in sunshine and deep waters, as have the counsels of His latter-day prophets who I have been listening to, studying from, and pondering, since my youth. As mouthpieces of the Lord, they have anchored my testimony, strengthened my faith and helped me to feel, understand and cherish my place and purpose as a child of God, who I know, undeniably, is a personal and loving heavenly Father. How I love and honor Him and His Son. How I love and trust these inspired men who have led me to Them!

30 Days of Conscientious Gratitude. Day 29: I Am Grateful for...Eternal Perspective

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; 

we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." 

--C. S. Lewis
"...Gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter

 as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer."

--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Hard day--grateful for selfless friends, and faith that life's trials are a temporary, but needful refiners fire.