Put out that fire!

26 September 2010

How do I teach my family that contention is  
CONTAGIOUS...
DEADLY...
QUICKLY SPREADING...
GETS OUT OF CONTROL VERRRRRYYYY EASILY...

Prepare by giving each his/her own fuel for fire...paper towels work well.
Start a fire with one small match.
Add another match to the small fire.
Have each throw in their paper....
watch the fire grow....
this works especially well outside...in a safe area of cement where nothing else is able to catch fire...

Happy

When the baby feels cross and sounds grumpy, I'll take out a pen or water marker and draw a little "Happy" on the bottom of her foot or across the back of her hand.

This little "Happy has come a long way. Just take a look.

This is what happens when older siblings take this a notch up.

Doing Good Continually

5 June 2017

Tonight, I read this verse from the Book of Mormon.

"And (Shiblon) was a just man, and he did walk uprightly before God; and he did observe to do good continually, to keep the commandments of the Lord his God; and also did his brother."

What did it look like, that "he did observe to do good continually?"

Perhaps, in today's time it would look like a faithful home teacher. The kind that Elder Jeffery R. Holland describes: 

"Brethren, the appeal I am making tonight is for you to lift your vision of home teaching. Please in new, better ways see yourselves as emissaries of the Lord to His children. That means leaving behind the tradition of a frantic, law of Moses-like, end-of-the month calendar in which you rush to give a scripted message Church magazines that the family has already read. We hope, rather, that you will establish an era of genuine, gospel-oriented concern for the members, watching over and caring for each other, addressing spiritual and temporal needs in any way that helps.

Now as for what 'counts' as home teaching, every good thing you do so report it all! Indeed, the report that matters most is how you have blessed and cared for those within your stewardship, which has virtually nothing to so with a specific calendar or a particular location. What matters is that you love your people and are fulfilling the commandment 'to watch over the church always.'"

Perhaps it is the good neighbor, 

Accept and Act

written 20 March 2010

This line jumped out at me: We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family...

So, first...

Accept
1 a : to receive willingly
2 : to give admittance or approval to
3 a : to endure without protest or reaction b : to regard as proper, normal, or inevitable c : to recognize as true : believe
4 a : to make a favorable response to b : to agree to undertake

Using these definitions, accept is GOOD!

Act
1 a : the doing of a thing : deed b : something done voluntarily
4 : the process of doing : action
8 : a display of affected behavior : pretense

Acting on what has been Accepted shows my Faith in Christ.

So the Values I ACCEPT as a Daughter of God are:
Faith • Divine Nature • Individual Worth • Knowledge • Choice and Accountability • Good Works • Integrity • and Virtue

And in turn they help me "be prepared to strengthen home and family".

WOW!

I SO see the fit of Y.W. and R.S.

Thoughts about thoughts

Originally started 29 Septermber 2011

So, I was in the kitchen and I started thinking some mean thoughts. Condemning kinds. The ones that stir pots and fester cankers of anger and irritation inside me. Remember the cartoons where the character is in a quandry and suddenly a lightbulb appears...an idea to resolve the quandry! Well, my lightbulb moment came, while I was talking to myself.

The light illuminated inside my mind and I realized that mean, rebellious, unkind, comparative, rumorous, murmurous, irritative, contentious...and so on and so forth...are perfected by the devil. And that he owns them and wants me to own them too. NO THANKS! The dilemma is I have been listening! Too often.

And then I thought about the scripture stories of people that lived peaceably. This scripture came to my mind.

Mosiah 4:12-13

10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.
 
11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing gsteadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.
 12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.


13 And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.

Which led to this thought from 4 Nephi...

13 And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land; but there were mighty miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus.


And then this last connection of scriptures from  Jacob 3

2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.

So, there is a cure for this epidemic. 

*******************************************************************************

And unfortunately, this is where I ended my aha! Why I didn't finish the post, I don't know.

But, I can add what I've learned since the original draft on 29 September 2011.

The answer is Jesus Christ, ALWAYS Jesus Christ. Words of living prophets invite me to repent, to change, to love deeper, to forgive more freely, to think of Jesus always. I am taught to pray always, more often in more places, always (thank you President Holland). My temple covenants direct me to Him. He is the source of light, truth, forgiveness, healing, exaltation. Because of Him, my heart has undergne changes. He is everything to me.