Thinking All the Day

Thanks to sickness and other ailments I am a bit behind in everything but still wanted to record my thoughts on Luke chapter one, where Zacharias praises God for sending Jesus. He says something that really stood out to me in verse 74: " That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without  fear " Fear is a big part of my life. Too often I do things because I fear the result if I do not do them. Growing up I had a lot of fears in a lot of different ways. I was afraid to talk because I was afraid people would make fun of me. I was afraid to make mistakes because I was afraid that would mean I was doomed to not live with God. I was also afraid to make mistakes because I was afraid of disappointing people or causing people to get angry. I was afraid of water because I was afraid of dying in the water and dying was scary because I did  not know if I would really be with God or in some kind of hell. I still have simi

Last night I couldn't sleep. There was a lot on my mind, as always, and one of the thing was this quote that I've seen shared a lot on social media from the Come Follow Me lesson for this week: "Perhaps you know people who never seem to lose their faith, no matter what happens in their lives. They may remind you of the five wise virgins in the Savior’s parable (see  Matthew 25:1–13 ). What you may not see are their diligent efforts to strengthen their testimonies of the truth. We must all seek diligently to strengthen our testimonies because, as the foolish virgins learned, we cannot borrow conversion from anyone else." It is totally and completely true that diligent efforts to strengthen your testimony can help you not loose your faith and can strengthen your faith. I get that is what they are saying here, and I believe that is true. At the same time, this quote pulls on my heartstrings a bit because for anyone who is working their little Mormon tail off

I just heard some really, super exciting news about the temple. I don't want to talk about it here because I do regard it as sacred, but I will just say, I cried and cried when I heard the news. I can't wait to go. Whenever the temple changes, there are always people that get frustrated and say God is unchangeable, and so why do things change so much in the church. I do believe God is unchangeable, however, humans are VERY changeable. As a parent, I know that all three of my children have very different personalities and needs. As a home school mom, I know my oldest daughter loves structure and check boxes. She loves getting things done. My second child, needs to MOVE. Constantly. Or no learning happens. Personally, my character isn't changing and WHAT I am teaching isn't changing but HOW I am teaching changes according to the needs of my little ones. I think that is one way to look at changes through out gospel history. I also think our Heavenly Parents are hearing

Seek and ye shall find. I've read this phrase dozens of times, but for some reason this time it hit me differently. I always saw it before as Christ saying "seek me, and ye shall find me." Which is probably what he is saying but I realized the other day I can take this another way. As my husband and I were talking, he pointed out that it could even be read as warning. Seek negativity, and ye shall find. Seek a victim status, and ye shall find. Seek for flaws in the gospel, and ye shall find. A few years ago I read "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Anchor. (I totally recommend this book!) One part that has stuck with me over the years is his explanation on how the brain works. When we decide to believe something, our brain focuses on that belief and is constantly scanning for evidence of what we believe or scanning for the focus. When the brain is focused intently on something, it dumps all the extra information coming at so it seems like wha

Those of you who I talk to often know I have had a lot of questions on the role of women in the gospel. Personally, for the most part I have never felt like men have dominated over me in the church. For the most part. I had some struggles on my mission and in some callings but it was never something that was a huge deal. However, while there are many like me who have never or rarely felt unequal in the church, there are women who have felt extremely unequal. As I have listened to their heart breaking stories I've felt a renewed determination to understand what are the doctrines from God and what are the philosophies of men when it comes to women and how they participate in the gospel and in family life. I won't go into what I've learned so far right now, but I do want to plead with those faithful and who have never had questions to please listen to your sisters. The New Testament and the Book of Mormon both make it clear that we are to mourn with those that mourn . (Rom

I finished the Book of Mormon challenge today. Barely made it! In October our church had a big conference and our prophet who leads the church challenged all the women to read the Book of Mormon (our companion scripture to the Bible) by the end of the year. It's 531 pages. I like a good challenge so I accepted it and finished up today. (I got super behind but lucky for me my baby has been a horrible sleeper the past few weeks so it meant a lot of middle of the night reading. Yay!) Anyway, it was good. Yes there are some weird things in the Book of Mormon that I don't get (like, why do certain parts sound exactly like the same translation we have King James bible? Or what is going on with all the skin color changes or lack there of according to wickedness or righteousness? I am hoping that one was just what FAIR says-an expression like "thick skinned" or something. Not sure.) There are some pretty weird things I don't get in the Bible as well (eh hem, the bald