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Saturday, August 23, 2008

LDS Gems!

We'd better want the consequences
of what we want!

(Ensign, November 1995, p. 23.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell

My Thoughts:
Many people think that they can do anything in this world without having to pay a consequence for their choice. Consequences can be good as well as not so good. When you pick up one end of the stick, you also pick up the other. It might be a good idea to think all the way through to the end of the choice we are considering to make. If we like it, then go for it, if we don't, we may want to make a different choice. Thus, "we'd better want the consequences of what we want!"

Thursday, August 21, 2008

WATCHEMEN on the tower: Our living Prophet and Apostles

Pres. Thomas S. Monson, Living Prophet, Seer and Revelator

Home and Family
"Perhaps most significant of all classrooms is the classroom of the home. It is in the home that we form our attitudes, our deeply held beliefs. It is in the home that hope is fostered or destroyed. Our homes are the laboratories of our lives. What we do there determines the course of our lives when we leave home. Dr. Stuart E. Rosenberg wrote in his book The Road to Confidence, 'Despite all new inventions and modern designs, fads and fetishes, no one has yet invented, or will ever invent, a satisfying substitute for one's own family.' "

Sunday, August 17, 2008

WE BELIEVE: Third Article of Faith

CLICK to enlarge

The second and third articles announce our belief in the Atonement of our Lord and Savior, that through Him all mankind will be blessed with immortality [to live forever without ever having to die again along with having our body and spirit reunited, never to be separated again]. They state that we have the responsibility for accepting Him as our Savior, and we will only be responsible for our “own sins and not for Adam’s transgression.” Elder L. Tom Perry

MY THOUGHTS: I believe in the power of the Atonement which enables us to rise from the dead, reunited with our bodies and spirits, along with the possibility to live with God. This last part is conditioned upon our repentance and obedience to the Lord's gospel, ordinances and commandments that He established on the earth today; not by man's. Since the Savior paid the price, He has the right to establish the conditions and the 3rd Article of Faith clearly establishes the conditions, which, if followed, will enable us to be able to return one day and live with our Father in Heaven. The Atonement to me is truly Love and Mercy in action. "For God so loved the world [so much] that he gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16. That scripture says it all to me. God loves me, the Savior loves me and if I believe and do what is required by accepting Christ and His gospel, I can return to live with God. This is so comforting to me. I just need to do the work.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Mormon Tabernacle Choir: I Believe in Christ



Words written by Bruce R. McConkie

Jesus Christ as told by Bruce R. McConkie--part 1



This was the last talk Elder McConkie gave as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was on the 6 Apr 1985. He passed away June 1985.

Jesus Christ as told by Bruce R. McConkie--part 2

Jesus Christ as told by Bruce R. McConkie--part 3



My Thoughts:
I heard this talk originally when Elder McConkie gave it in 1985. I have never forgotten it either. What he said penetrated my soul and shall never be removed. There is nothing anyone could say to me that could erase the feelings and knowledge that penetrated my soul when he spoke.

Have you ever not known and yet know? Well such was the case with me. When he spoke, my soul KNEW that he KNEW. I will always know that there is a Savior and Redeemer of World. At times when I have been down and have wondered, this soul penetrating experience that I felt in 1985 comes back to me and renews my faith and hope. That is the effect the Spirit has on one. Spirit speaks to Spirit and that cannot be easily removed. I KNOW my Savior Lives. I KNOW that He died to save me and everyone else in this world! Of this I know to be true with all my heart.

STORIES: Lessons Learned

3 Towels and .25 cent Newspaper

In 1955, after my freshman year of college, I spent the summer working at the newly opened Jackson Lake Lodge, located in Moran, Wyoming. My mode of transportation was a 14-year-old 1941 Hudson automobile that should have received its burial 10 years earlier. Among the car’s other identifying traits, the floorboards had rusted so badly that, if not for a piece of plywood, I could have literally dragged my feet on the highway. The positive is that unlike most 14-year-old cars in this time period, it used no oil—lots of water in the radiator, but no oil. I could never figure out where the water went and why the oil continually got thinner and thinner and clearer and clearer.

In preparation for the 185-mile (298-km) drive home at the end of the summer, I took the car to the only mechanic in Moran. After a quick analysis, the mechanic explained that the engine block was cracked and was leaking water into the oil. That explained the water and oil mystery. I wondered if I could get the water to leak into the gas tank; I would get better gasoline mileage.

Now the confession: after the miracle of arriving home, my father came out and happily greeted me. After a hug and a few pleasantries, he looked into the backseat of the car and saw three Jackson Lake Lodge towels—the kind you cannot buy. With a disappointed look he merely said, “I expected more of you.” I hadn’t thought that what I had done was all that wrong. To me these towels were but a symbol of a full summer’s work at a luxury hotel, a rite of passage. Nevertheless, by taking them I felt I had lost the trust and confidence of my father, and I was devastated.

The following weekend I adjusted the plywood floorboard in my car, filled the radiator with water, and began the 370-mile (595-km) round trip back to Jackson Lake Lodge to return three towels. My father never asked why I was returning to the lodge, and I never explained. It just didn’t need to be said. This was an expensive and painful lesson on honesty that has stayed with me throughout my life.

Sadly, some of the greatest missing values in today’s world are honesty and integrity. In the past few years an increasing number of business leaders have been exposed for dishonesty and other forms of bad behavior. As a result, tens of thousands of loyal, long-term employees have lost their livelihoods and pensions. For some this has resulted in loss of homes, change of education and other life plans. We read and hear of widespread cheating in our schools, with more concern about receiving a grade or degree than learning and preparation. We hear of students who have cheated their way through medical school and are now performing complicated procedures on their patients. The elderly and others are victims of scam artists, often resulting in the loss of homes or life savings. Always this dishonesty and lack of integrity are based on greed, arrogance, and disrespect.

Story by Bishop Richard C. Edgley, 1st Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric

Scripture Thought:
“Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight”
(Proverbs 12:22.)


My Thoughts:
There are values which have been in this world from the very creation. These are values which if honored help us to become a better person and one which, if honored, pleases God. What pleases God, should please us. Having morals and values which have been tried and tested and proven over the eons of times is what our lives should reflect. Trying to incorporate values when maybe it has not been role modeled in our lives can be a very difficult thing to do. But I know that when we do, we are a happier person. This happiness is what we all should seek for and that comes when we please God. There is a calm and peaceful feeling to one's soul as his life is in harmony with what God wants us to be. What He wants us to be is Happy and to have morals and values.

Like Bishop Edgley said, sometimes in order to learn the lessons of life which are extremely important to learn
can be very painful and expensive. But in the end, if we have learned the value, we are the better for it. This lesson on honesty and integrity truly shows the value that was so strong in his home that was taught.

I believe that what is important to parents is often what becomes important to us, whether they have values or not, it oftentimes shows up in our own lives somehow.