Good Changes

Well, I know that since we moved I haven't been good about posting on here...I have to admit I haven't been reading my scriptures everyday. However, I think I have been better than I was before I started this blog, and I have decided that my purpose in creating the blog has been fulfilled in that I have been reading on more of a daily basis. I have decided that for now I will discontinue writing here everyday, and instead I will post about my reading on my main blog once in a while. I think it will be easier to keep everything in one place. Thanks for those of you who followed daily and motivated me to read and write when I thought I "didn't have time." I hope you will continue to follow me on A Few of My Favorite Things!

THANKS!

The Little Blessings

Last night I was thinking about my busy week and how I HAD to finish my lesson today. I decided that I definitely needed to pray for help (since I probably have a small case of ADD and have a hard time sitting down and doing something without getting distracted, and since Allie can be pretty needy sometimes.) So, this morning, after getting Allie and myself some breakfast, I sat down and I was done in an hour!!! That never happens. It is amazing to me how Heavenly Father really cares about the small things and will bless us if we just ask!

Family

I am just preparing for my lesson this week and I have an awesome chapter :

Family: The Sweetest Union for Time and for Eternity

I am excited for this lesson.

Can any of you tell me what you like to discuss the most when it comes to family? (ex. being sealed and blessings of the temple, family activities and traditions, parenting, keeping the spirit in the home and the gospel at the center...)

Thanks for your input!

What Matters Most to You?

Last night we had an um...interesting experience. At 11:30 I was on my laptop, Allie playing in the room with me and Trey studying in our bedroom, when I started hearing a few dogs barking outside. We have neighbors with a dog, so I didn't think much of it. A minute later we heard the doorbell and right after some knocks on the door. I yelled to Trey, because I don't like to answer the door late at night without him there, and heard some urgent-sounding conversation from our neighbors. In one second Trey was telling me to get Allie's jacket and get out of the apartment. Our neighbors said there was a fire in the building and to get out NOW. They said NOW a few times, so I thought it must be a really serious fire and we are probably going to lose everything in our apartment. I grabbed Allie, her pants, and her coat, put on my shoes, grabbed my most prized possession (my camera) and looked outside. I could see flames coming up right outside of our stairwell...it looked like the side of our building was on fire. I yelled to Trey to hurry up because I didn't know how close the fire was to the stairwell and didn't know if we were going to be trapped. We ran out and went down the stairs, hearing the sirens of the fire truck not too far away. Then we saw the fire. It was only a car fire, but it was parked right next to the building and we wondered if it would explode. Luckily, just minutes after we got outside the fire truck got there and put it out.

This experience made me think about a lot of things. First, I was thinking we were going to lose everything we owned and we decided renter's insurance was a good idea. But, mostly, it made me realize that our earthly possessions really aren't important. I really wasn't that sad about the fact that we were going to lose everything, I was mostly thinking about my family's safety and that Allie was going to be warm. I also decided that I probably needed to have multiple copies of my family pictures in different places, and that I need to start digitizing my journals and scrapbooks. :)




Here are some scriptures for today that go along with my thought:

“Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and, behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.” (D&C 11:7.)

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:19–21.)

My Patriarchal Blessing

Well, Allie has been sick and I missed a day of scriptures, and today she is still pretty needy and things just keep coming up...so I decided to read the first thing I opened to in my scriptures...which was a copy of my patriarchal blessing.

I know that these blessings are very personal and should not be shared with many people, if any. But, there is one thing I wanted to share that I thought of while I was reading mine. I remember that day VERY vividly. I was fourteen years old, and it was in the summer. I remember being SO hungry from fasting all day long. I remember that I was only listening to church music that day and that I was reading scriptures a lot and praying. I remember being excited and nervous while driving to meet with the patriarch and didn't really know what to expect. I remember the overwhelming feeling of love and comfort that came over me when the patriarch started speaking from the Lord. But, the thing I remember the most, the thing that put that huge lump in my throat and brought the tears to my eyes was that the Lord let me know he was pleased with me. It was the best feeling in the world, to know that at that moment my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ was pleased with the way I was living my life.

There have been a few times I have had this same impression: the day I was sealed to Trey, the early morning Trey and I welcomed Allie into our family for the first time, and sometimes when I am just doing what I should be, like attending the temple and church, or even just at home with Allie. I think that all of us needs to know once in a while that we are exactly where we need to be, doing what we should be doing, and that Heavenly Father is pleased with us.

Alma 27

In the talk I gave on Sunday, one of the things I brought up was the commandment to "pray always." I listed ways that we could do this:

Silently pray
Keep a prayer in our hearts
Include the Lord in everything we do and recognize his hand in everything we do
Thank the Lord for everything we are given and blessed with

I think that Alma 27 shows a good example of how including the Lord in everything we do will bless us in so many ways; both temporally and spiritually.

Preparing for General Conference

Well, after working on my talk all last week and studying about Christ, I thought I would read the Ensign for some of my studying this week to do something different. The funny thing is that the First Presidency message is about obedience and following Christ! I love the way President Monson writes and speaks. I can almost hear him talking when I read his talks. I also read the second article in the Ensign called "Guided by Modern Revelation." It is a good one to read right before General Conference this weekend. I am excited for conference! Every 6 months, when conference is about to come on, I get really excited about it and think "this time I am going to get SO much out if it and listen to every word from every speaker." I always get a lot out of conference, but I always find myself spacing out during some of the talks and not getting as much out of them as I planned (maybe I have a little ADD :) Anyways, I think this time I will be more realistic...I will take notes on some of the talks, not all of them, but the ones that have topics that relate to me best at this time. I think I will get more out of conference if I am focusing more attention on some of the speakers rather than just casually listening to them.

A Variety of Blessings

Isn't it neat how the Lord blesses you in so many different ways? Lately we feel we have been blessed both in HUGE ways ans in small ways. I have been working on my talk this week, but I have been a little stressed since I don't usually get a lot of time to sit and read and study and write. As I have been writing I have been able to organize all of my thoughts so perfectly so that the writing process has been so easy and quick. I know that this is the Lord helping since usually when I write, my thoughts are so scattered and the thing that takes me the longest is just organizing them and making my transitions smooth. This is just one of many examples I have been blessed in a little way lately.

Decision

Okay, so I started reading some conference talks on the Savior and following his example and I definitely want to speak on this. I just really hope that I don't cry a lot during my talk...I swear I have gotten 2x as worse since I've had Allie. So annoying. So, thanks Crystal, for your opinion...I definitely agree with you and sometimes I think we don't hear enough about the Savior in church :)

I Need Your Opinion

So, this week I have been reading from Alma (mostly with Trey) and also trying to figure out what to write my talk on... Trey and I were asked to speak in a branch the last Sunday of the month and we can choose our topics. We just need to talk about a subject from Doctrine and Covenants or something about Christ. I was thinking that I might talk about the characteristics of Christ and how we can become more like him. Has that been spoken about too much? What is everyone's opinion?

Happiness and Knowledge

Ammon glorifies God in chapter 26. He brings up a few great points:

Verse 13 Behold how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?

“Happiness comes from what happens on the inside of you, not on the outside.”

Verse 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

Rather than being depressed, be patient!

Verse 22 talks about what we need to do to know the mysteries of God:

1. Repent
2. Exercise Faith
3. Good Works
4. Pray continually

Cross-reference D&C 76:6-10

Prophecy and Promises Fulfilled

In Alma 25:1-12 Abinadi's prophecy about the priests of Noah was fulfilled.

In Alma 25:17 the promise from the Lord to King Mosiah was fulfilled. The Lord had told King Mosiah that many would believe his sons' teachings and that he would deliver them "out of the hands of the Lamanites."

Joseph Smith's POV

These last 2 days I have been reading out of Alma 22 & 23. For some reason I have been thinking about Joseph Smith while reading them. I was thinking about how he must have felt while he was translating the scriptures...how amazing it must have been to be the first one to read them. There were a few parts in these scriptures that talked about the sufferings of the Sons of Mosiah as they were trying to preach the gospel to the Lamanites. I was thinking about how a lot of Joseph Smith's strength must have come from the Book of Mormon and reading these stories. Of course, as Latter-day Saints, we should also be using the Book of Mormon as a source of our strength to get through trials and tribulations.

A Lot Like Today

While I was reading in Alma 21 I noticed a scripture that sounded a lot like the people in our world today...

5 Therefore as Aaron entered into one of their synagogues to preach unto the people, and as he was speaking unto them, behold there arose an Amalekite and began to contend with him, saying: What is that thou hast testified? Hast thou seen an angel? Why do not angels appear unto us? Behold, are not this people as good as thy people?
6 Thou also sayest, except ye repent ye shall perish. How knowest thou the thought and intent of our hearts? How knowest thou that we have cause to repent? How knowest thou that we are not a righteous people? Behold we have built sanctuaries, and we do assemble ourselves together to worship God. We do believe that God will save all men.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Aaron has a good response we can all learn from:

"Believest thou that the Son of God shall come to redeem mankind from their sins?"

The man said "We do not believe that thou knowest any such thing. We do not believe in these foolish traditions. We do not believe that thou knowest things to come..."

Now Aaron began to open the scriptures unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and also concerning the resurrection of the dead, and that there could be no redemption for mankind save it were through the death and sufferings of Christ, and the atonement of his blood.

Tsk tsk

I have been so bad about updating my scripture blog, but I promise I have been reading. Lately I have been continuing the story of Aaron and King Lamoni and the other sons of Mosiah. I am just getting into the story of the other brothers so I am excited. For some reason reading it this time around it is SO interesting to me. The story seems so real to me - I can picture it perfectly in my head like a movie. That doesn't always happen when I read my scriptures, although I guess it should...