At this Christmas season, it is extra awesome to me to speak of Christ and rejoice in Christ and hear others doing the same so often. I love the sincere "Merry Christmas"es that have been given to me this week and especially today in church by friends I've made here over the past couple months.
This month in our family, we have had each lesson of Family Night centered around the symbols and events of the Savior's birth. I'm not sure I remember which topics we spoke of each week, but our lessons have been on Luke 2, angels visiting the earth (and we always remember that angels' first words to those they visit are, "fear not"), the shepherds, the wise men, the star, ornaments, green, white, lights, etc. All the good stuff. Today I remembered at lunch that we didn't talk about the color red so I brought it up and one of my kids said it reminds us of Jesus' blood. Excellent answer. It's what I thought of too, but I don't remember really talking about that symbol each Christmas season.
Today our lesson in elders quorum was on receiving patriarchal blessings and living by them as our personal scriptures. The room was filled with a thick sense of the Spirit. I love my patriarchal blessing and I read it often. Sometimes every few months, sometimes more often. Our teacher today told us that he hasn't received his blessing yet and he is going to get it now. He's thought about it for a long time and with this lesson he decided it was time. He also said that (one of) the presenter(s) in our Christmas program in sacrament meeting today is our stake patriarch. "One more thing about me getting my patriarchal blessing," he said. The brethren who participated were excited and felt blessed to have received their patriarchal blessings. One quorum member said his dad got called as a patriarch about ten years ago. I shared my experience of fasting with my patriarch before receiving my blessing. The Spirit was so strong. Feeling the Spirit is the best feeling ever and it tells me I'm doing the right things in life. Here's the General Conference talk our lesson focused on: President Monson, Oct 1986 General Conference.
This Christmas season has passed by very quickly with our moving into a new home and the associated busy-ness. We are buying a few presents for each other (Angie and I) and we are getting a few things for our boys. It's a very non-commercial kind of Christmas, something we have strived for in years past and are getting better at it. My feeling that is we save for the things that we want and Christmas is a time to try to find something that we want someone else to buy. I'm feeling more than a little wasteful about it. But this is our best year so far. I feel really good about that.
PS - it's snowing outside. It's the kind of slow, gentle snow that makes me feel like it's Christmastime. Much better than the driven, sideways snow that takes my mind off Christmas and turns it to survival mode.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Conference is in the air
The first weekend in October is coming! What an awesome time of year this is. I think I subconsciously associate General Conference with the chilly morning air of September. It's an awesome time of year for a few reasons like no more summer heat, trees change colors (well, lots of trees in this area just go to sleep, but stay green), and the dark mornings will soon brighten with the end of Daylight Savings. All cool stuff.
Of course, I've been waiting for 6 months for General Conference. Ever since the last amen by President Monson in the Sunday afternoon session in April I have looked forward to October. And for 6 months I have read conference talks and have lessons on them in sacrament meeting talks and in elders quorum meetings. I also listen to talks in my car on my way to school. There were tons of awesome talks last conference and I'm re-reading some of them now and loving them. You know what's funny? I notice a big difference in how I feel when I read talks for my morning scripture study compared to when I hear them in the car. The Spirit is stronger when I read. It's probably because it's quieter and because I'm not distracted by details of driving.
This last week or so, I read and heard some really cool talks. When I really concentrate on them, I feel the Lord reaching down from heaven and filling my mind with directions for all aspects of my life. He helps me in my research, especially when I'm stuck on something. He helps me be a loving and kind husband. He helps me see how to teach my kids the gospel so they will be happy, both in our home now and for the rest of their lives.
The most important part of listening to conference talks, of course, is to feel and recognize the Spirit and learn how to become like our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is a tasty side to General Conference for our family. You may remember that we make peanut butter popcorn! T&L, if you're watching, thanks again for that recipe. :)
We have started talking with our boys about conference weekend. This helps us to look forward to it and also to settle down and prepare our minds for the weekend. It's like a marathon mixed with a fire hose. It really takes a few months to digest all the talks properly. And I'm thinking now about ways I can adjust my scripture study to make it for efficacious. This time I want to read through all the talks and mark them up. When I've done this in the past, I get more out of them when I hear them in the car. It doesn't go the other way for me.
Last night Angie brought up taking notes as she was heading to the Relief Society session of General Conference. It is something I used to do a lot more than I do now. I was on the extreme end in my younger years, to the point that only be able to summarize the talk and the stories therein and miss the real meaning or the principles that the Lord would have me learn right then. Now I'm on the other extreme and I hardly take any notes. Today at church, my friend JO said (and if it wasn't him, it was someone else in our joined meeting) that he takes notes just so he can pay attention. The debate for Angie and me is whether or not it actually helps because we don't go back and read the notes! I know that taking a few notes will keep my mind on the talks so that's a good reason for doing it. The times I take notes on what impressions come to me are the times I take away a really important theme for me to work on. It's really important to me and I love working on things and improving myself.
Maybe taking notes like that works for you too. If you'd like to share your thoughts on how you take notes, please do. As for me, I'll have out my little notebook and watch and listen for the Lord's direction in my life.
And eat some peanut butter popcorn.
Of course, I've been waiting for 6 months for General Conference. Ever since the last amen by President Monson in the Sunday afternoon session in April I have looked forward to October. And for 6 months I have read conference talks and have lessons on them in sacrament meeting talks and in elders quorum meetings. I also listen to talks in my car on my way to school. There were tons of awesome talks last conference and I'm re-reading some of them now and loving them. You know what's funny? I notice a big difference in how I feel when I read talks for my morning scripture study compared to when I hear them in the car. The Spirit is stronger when I read. It's probably because it's quieter and because I'm not distracted by details of driving.
This last week or so, I read and heard some really cool talks. When I really concentrate on them, I feel the Lord reaching down from heaven and filling my mind with directions for all aspects of my life. He helps me in my research, especially when I'm stuck on something. He helps me be a loving and kind husband. He helps me see how to teach my kids the gospel so they will be happy, both in our home now and for the rest of their lives.
The most important part of listening to conference talks, of course, is to feel and recognize the Spirit and learn how to become like our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is a tasty side to General Conference for our family. You may remember that we make peanut butter popcorn! T&L, if you're watching, thanks again for that recipe. :)
We have started talking with our boys about conference weekend. This helps us to look forward to it and also to settle down and prepare our minds for the weekend. It's like a marathon mixed with a fire hose. It really takes a few months to digest all the talks properly. And I'm thinking now about ways I can adjust my scripture study to make it for efficacious. This time I want to read through all the talks and mark them up. When I've done this in the past, I get more out of them when I hear them in the car. It doesn't go the other way for me.
Last night Angie brought up taking notes as she was heading to the Relief Society session of General Conference. It is something I used to do a lot more than I do now. I was on the extreme end in my younger years, to the point that only be able to summarize the talk and the stories therein and miss the real meaning or the principles that the Lord would have me learn right then. Now I'm on the other extreme and I hardly take any notes. Today at church, my friend JO said (and if it wasn't him, it was someone else in our joined meeting) that he takes notes just so he can pay attention. The debate for Angie and me is whether or not it actually helps because we don't go back and read the notes! I know that taking a few notes will keep my mind on the talks so that's a good reason for doing it. The times I take notes on what impressions come to me are the times I take away a really important theme for me to work on. It's really important to me and I love working on things and improving myself.
Maybe taking notes like that works for you too. If you'd like to share your thoughts on how you take notes, please do. As for me, I'll have out my little notebook and watch and listen for the Lord's direction in my life.
And eat some peanut butter popcorn.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Wherever you are
This morning I was reading in Helaman 7:7-9 as part of this week's Sunday school lesson. This is the chapter when Nephi was praying on his tower and the wicked Nephites (Gadianton's robbers) gathered around to hear him pray. Kind of a funny scene in my mind, but it set some awesome events in motion over the next few chapters and lots of people get converted.
Anyway, these verses have an attitude that will bless any person in whatsoever circumstances they find themselves in life. This might be the place they live, the job they have, hard things to deal with, or anything else that's hard to handle.
Nephi was having a hard time with the wickedness that his people had fallen into. In verse 7, Nephi wishes that he had lived centuries before when the Nephites were "easy to be entreated" and "were quick to hearken to the words of the Lord." What a great time that would have been!
However, Nephi is quick to say next that he knows he has been called to live in his own time. This is the part that caught my attention. It reminds me that the Lord has put me here on earth and given me the life that I have. There are some things that I wish I could change about my circumstances. But this verse teaches me that life isn't meant to be a breeze and that I need to learn from the difficult things. In fact, it is actually those hard things that give me cause to remember the gospel, our Savior, repentance and being the best husband and father I can possibly be. At Judgment Day, it won't really matter that my kids grump before school or stay awake past bedtime. I will be judged for my actions and desires.
I love the gospel and the blessings that come to me and my family for living it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His plan of salvation is so amazing! :)
Anyway, these verses have an attitude that will bless any person in whatsoever circumstances they find themselves in life. This might be the place they live, the job they have, hard things to deal with, or anything else that's hard to handle.
Nephi was having a hard time with the wickedness that his people had fallen into. In verse 7, Nephi wishes that he had lived centuries before when the Nephites were "easy to be entreated" and "were quick to hearken to the words of the Lord." What a great time that would have been!
However, Nephi is quick to say next that he knows he has been called to live in his own time. This is the part that caught my attention. It reminds me that the Lord has put me here on earth and given me the life that I have. There are some things that I wish I could change about my circumstances. But this verse teaches me that life isn't meant to be a breeze and that I need to learn from the difficult things. In fact, it is actually those hard things that give me cause to remember the gospel, our Savior, repentance and being the best husband and father I can possibly be. At Judgment Day, it won't really matter that my kids grump before school or stay awake past bedtime. I will be judged for my actions and desires.
I love the gospel and the blessings that come to me and my family for living it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His plan of salvation is so amazing! :)
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Dejunkification
Yesterday was a long, busy day. And I got a sunburn. But it was so worth the effort and effects.
When we moved here we had two kids and considerably less stuff. Skyler was 22 months old and Wes was 3 months old. We brought what I'd say was too much stuff. I say that now, but back then it seemed about right. It all fit in our small apartment back then so it couldn't have been all that much.
The amount of stuff we own has changed.
A lot.
In our years here we have purchased a lot of stuff. Some of it is for the boys, some for Angie and me, some just because we ... well, actually, I have no idea why we have some of this stuff.
When we moved from our apartment into a 3-bedroom mansion, we felt like we had all the space in the world to hold stuff. I have to tell you that the spaciousness of this house is due partly because there is less storage space than typical homes. Each room has a little closet, but that's it. No game closet or linen closet. I even busted out my inner handyman one year and put up some shelves above the washer, dryer and deep freeze. That was about a 15% boost in our storage capacity. And it felt Grrrreeeat! (Think Tony the Tiger.)
Time went on. So did our purchases. We filled every nook and cranny in our domain. I still remember the day at the store when we were deciding on buying something for Wes. I think it was the activity center we got when he was ready for it. Anyway, there we were in the store and since I was the one who kept reorganizing our stuff so it could fit in all our closets and under beds, I knew we were out of room. And this type of toy thing is pretty big. I remember turning to Angie and saying, "where are we going to put this thing when it's time to put it away?" Her answer and my acceptance has haunted me for years.
Yes, years.
She said, "We'll find somewhere." I guess I thought she knew something I didn't know. Well, that began our life of not putting everything away. It has been a stressful topic for me. The more time goes by and the more stuff we have accrued for our growing family, the deeper it hurts.
So let me tell you what we did yesterday. We dejunkified our shed! I better rewind a bit and tell you that we bought a shed kit and got some help putting it together in our back grassy area (it's no yard). This was a life saver at the time. I guess I thought that would act as some sort of magical bag of holding and solve all my storage problems. It didn't. It couldn't have. Not when we just kept buying things.
With a potential move on the horizon (after graduation and finding a job...no news yet), the question on our minds is, "How much room will we have for our stuff?" It is so stressful. Partly because we have looked into the cost of living in expensive places where tiny homes will be all we can afford. And it basically comes down to how much stuff do we want to keep. Sure, there are things we can get rid of. But if we move into a house that can hold it all, why get rid of the stuff in that gray area? You know?
We've debated having a Yard Sale or a Yard Free. We've talked about donating stuff or giving it away to friends. Or listing things on craigslist. We ended up deciding that the best thing to do for our emotional state and the speediest solution would be to go through the shed and quickly decide if an item was for keeping, donating or garbage.
We spent about an hour pulling everything out of the shed and putting it into piles. The result was thrilling! The pile of "get rid of" was huge! I felt that dormant organizer wake up inside me. I could see where things might actually be moved from our living space out to the shed! The end result wasn't so quick to come though. It took a few hours to go through boxes, throw away certain portions and get the rest ready for recycling. That included breaking down boxes so they fit in my car. It was a tight fit, but so worth it in the end. The van was chuck full, too, with everything going to donation. I spent the next hour driving both vehicles to their respective destinations, finalizing the freedom of space.
I do love space.
Empty space.
Living space.
Outer space.
(That's been a joke lately about where we could move to get away from our 10 days of power outage, another partial day of power outage, 5 days of losing our Internet connection, etc.)
We would benefit from taking the counsel of modern-day prophets to "live within your means" and apply it to the volume of our home. I'd like to enjoy the stress-free lifestyle of fitting in our house just as I enjoy living within our income.
Any stories you'd like to share about dejunkifiying your life?
When we moved here we had two kids and considerably less stuff. Skyler was 22 months old and Wes was 3 months old. We brought what I'd say was too much stuff. I say that now, but back then it seemed about right. It all fit in our small apartment back then so it couldn't have been all that much.
The amount of stuff we own has changed.
A lot.
In our years here we have purchased a lot of stuff. Some of it is for the boys, some for Angie and me, some just because we ... well, actually, I have no idea why we have some of this stuff.
When we moved from our apartment into a 3-bedroom mansion, we felt like we had all the space in the world to hold stuff. I have to tell you that the spaciousness of this house is due partly because there is less storage space than typical homes. Each room has a little closet, but that's it. No game closet or linen closet. I even busted out my inner handyman one year and put up some shelves above the washer, dryer and deep freeze. That was about a 15% boost in our storage capacity. And it felt Grrrreeeat! (Think Tony the Tiger.)
Time went on. So did our purchases. We filled every nook and cranny in our domain. I still remember the day at the store when we were deciding on buying something for Wes. I think it was the activity center we got when he was ready for it. Anyway, there we were in the store and since I was the one who kept reorganizing our stuff so it could fit in all our closets and under beds, I knew we were out of room. And this type of toy thing is pretty big. I remember turning to Angie and saying, "where are we going to put this thing when it's time to put it away?" Her answer and my acceptance has haunted me for years.
Yes, years.
She said, "We'll find somewhere." I guess I thought she knew something I didn't know. Well, that began our life of not putting everything away. It has been a stressful topic for me. The more time goes by and the more stuff we have accrued for our growing family, the deeper it hurts.
So let me tell you what we did yesterday. We dejunkified our shed! I better rewind a bit and tell you that we bought a shed kit and got some help putting it together in our back grassy area (it's no yard). This was a life saver at the time. I guess I thought that would act as some sort of magical bag of holding and solve all my storage problems. It didn't. It couldn't have. Not when we just kept buying things.
With a potential move on the horizon (after graduation and finding a job...no news yet), the question on our minds is, "How much room will we have for our stuff?" It is so stressful. Partly because we have looked into the cost of living in expensive places where tiny homes will be all we can afford. And it basically comes down to how much stuff do we want to keep. Sure, there are things we can get rid of. But if we move into a house that can hold it all, why get rid of the stuff in that gray area? You know?
We've debated having a Yard Sale or a Yard Free. We've talked about donating stuff or giving it away to friends. Or listing things on craigslist. We ended up deciding that the best thing to do for our emotional state and the speediest solution would be to go through the shed and quickly decide if an item was for keeping, donating or garbage.
We spent about an hour pulling everything out of the shed and putting it into piles. The result was thrilling! The pile of "get rid of" was huge! I felt that dormant organizer wake up inside me. I could see where things might actually be moved from our living space out to the shed! The end result wasn't so quick to come though. It took a few hours to go through boxes, throw away certain portions and get the rest ready for recycling. That included breaking down boxes so they fit in my car. It was a tight fit, but so worth it in the end. The van was chuck full, too, with everything going to donation. I spent the next hour driving both vehicles to their respective destinations, finalizing the freedom of space.
I do love space.
Empty space.
Living space.
Outer space.
(That's been a joke lately about where we could move to get away from our 10 days of power outage, another partial day of power outage, 5 days of losing our Internet connection, etc.)
We would benefit from taking the counsel of modern-day prophets to "live within your means" and apply it to the volume of our home. I'd like to enjoy the stress-free lifestyle of fitting in our house just as I enjoy living within our income.
Any stories you'd like to share about dejunkifiying your life?
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Friends
I am so grateful for good friends. I've had some really good friends throughout my life and this past month or two has been a time of constant reflection on the good friends that I've made over the past several years.
Angie and I met some of our very bestest friends six years ago. T&L were moving for graduate school just as we were. Another person who would become a great friend gave me their phone number so we could move out to graduate school together. We rented a truck together and drove out in a two-party caravan. One memorable part of the trip was that a tire needed to be replaced on the moving trailer at the truck rental store, even before we pulled off the lot. The other three tires on that thing were replaced in Wyoming (in the middle of nowhere, let me tell you), I think in Nebraska, and the last one in Indiana. Anyway, T&L are our very best friends. It's hard to imagine life without them right now. We have been through the last several years of life together and shared many happy moments with them. If you know them you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say they are amazing in every way. If you don't know them, it would take a dissertation (besides the one I'm writing) to explain it all to you. I wish you could know them.
Anyway, we got to our destination safely and were very happy and grateful to arrive. T&L were the first to unload their stuff from the truck. We hadn't closed on our home yet and our stuff was loaded in the truck first. When we got here, there were tons of branch members literally waiting around for us to pull up so they could greet us and help unload. I'd been calling ahead to give our ETA. The last tire repair was so delayed that, from what I remember, our 7pm estimate turned into 10pm or so. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many people were there waiting for us. It was awesome.
Well, that was on a Saturday night. We went to church the next day and we were all invited over to a family's home for lunch. They knew we weren't prepared to fix a meal for ourselves. It was the biggest spaghetti meal I can ever remember. It was so nice of them.
The next day we closed on our house and I, somehow, maneuvered the monstrous truck (the wrong way, oops!) up our winding, narrow road and positioned it to be unloaded right at our porch. So many people showed up to help us move. It was awesome.
And then we began our adventure here with a 22-month old and a 3-month old (who was on oxygen at the time). The first week went by in a quick blur with all the orientation meetings I had at school and in my department.
Then, on the next Saturday, we went to help a new family unload their pod. All the same people, it seems, showed up to yet another move. All to help a family they'd never met. And it didn't matter. This was the gospel in action.
Little did I know that the man who stood before me would become my best friend who I'd nickname JP a few years later. We hefted their things up two flights of stairs for a while under that hot sun. I remember the pizza toward the end of the move with a watering mouth. Yum.
If you've been keeping a running total of how many best friends there are in this story, you may be asking, "How can someone have more than one best friend?" When I was a kid, I thought you could only have one best friend. I used to keep track of who that person was. It changed often in my early years. I also kept track of my favorite song, car, color, sword, karate style, scripture, sport, sibling, etc.
I came to realize for myself that my "best" whatever was really a class, a level. It was not a pedestal with just enough space for one person, idea or sound. I have many favorite things now and the list keeps growing with time. Just for music (and you can ask my wife to verify this), I have said, "This is my favorite song" so many times that I now have to say, "It's in my top 100."
I'm just saying there's room in my heart for more than one best friend.
A year went by and then another. We helped people move in and move out. A new family moved in at that point that we became pretty good friends with too. Even though this guy was the newcomer, we became friends over time for lots of different reasons. We talked about all sorts of different stuff from football and business to "alogarithms."
"What?"
"You know, patterns for doing things."
"You mean, 'algorithms'."
"That's what I said."
"No. You said a mix of 'algorithm' and 'logarithm'. They're not the same thing. Please, never say that word again."
We also talked about astronomy and other cool things. I got to know him over four years and am really, really glad I did. He's great. But this reminds me, he never told me about Big Foot. I only heard reference of it from other people. Please, tell me!
Our family has just watched JP and his family move about as far away as one can move and still live in the United States, Mr BF Alogarithm has gone (but not too far) and this week we just said goodbye to T&L. And this is where the tears start to flow.
Goodbye, my friends. Better yet, "See you later."
I love you. We love you.
Angie and I met some of our very bestest friends six years ago. T&L were moving for graduate school just as we were. Another person who would become a great friend gave me their phone number so we could move out to graduate school together. We rented a truck together and drove out in a two-party caravan. One memorable part of the trip was that a tire needed to be replaced on the moving trailer at the truck rental store, even before we pulled off the lot. The other three tires on that thing were replaced in Wyoming (in the middle of nowhere, let me tell you), I think in Nebraska, and the last one in Indiana. Anyway, T&L are our very best friends. It's hard to imagine life without them right now. We have been through the last several years of life together and shared many happy moments with them. If you know them you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say they are amazing in every way. If you don't know them, it would take a dissertation (besides the one I'm writing) to explain it all to you. I wish you could know them.
Anyway, we got to our destination safely and were very happy and grateful to arrive. T&L were the first to unload their stuff from the truck. We hadn't closed on our home yet and our stuff was loaded in the truck first. When we got here, there were tons of branch members literally waiting around for us to pull up so they could greet us and help unload. I'd been calling ahead to give our ETA. The last tire repair was so delayed that, from what I remember, our 7pm estimate turned into 10pm or so. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many people were there waiting for us. It was awesome.
Well, that was on a Saturday night. We went to church the next day and we were all invited over to a family's home for lunch. They knew we weren't prepared to fix a meal for ourselves. It was the biggest spaghetti meal I can ever remember. It was so nice of them.
The next day we closed on our house and I, somehow, maneuvered the monstrous truck (the wrong way, oops!) up our winding, narrow road and positioned it to be unloaded right at our porch. So many people showed up to help us move. It was awesome.
And then we began our adventure here with a 22-month old and a 3-month old (who was on oxygen at the time). The first week went by in a quick blur with all the orientation meetings I had at school and in my department.
Then, on the next Saturday, we went to help a new family unload their pod. All the same people, it seems, showed up to yet another move. All to help a family they'd never met. And it didn't matter. This was the gospel in action.
Little did I know that the man who stood before me would become my best friend who I'd nickname JP a few years later. We hefted their things up two flights of stairs for a while under that hot sun. I remember the pizza toward the end of the move with a watering mouth. Yum.
If you've been keeping a running total of how many best friends there are in this story, you may be asking, "How can someone have more than one best friend?" When I was a kid, I thought you could only have one best friend. I used to keep track of who that person was. It changed often in my early years. I also kept track of my favorite song, car, color, sword, karate style, scripture, sport, sibling, etc.
I came to realize for myself that my "best" whatever was really a class, a level. It was not a pedestal with just enough space for one person, idea or sound. I have many favorite things now and the list keeps growing with time. Just for music (and you can ask my wife to verify this), I have said, "This is my favorite song" so many times that I now have to say, "It's in my top 100."
I'm just saying there's room in my heart for more than one best friend.
A year went by and then another. We helped people move in and move out. A new family moved in at that point that we became pretty good friends with too. Even though this guy was the newcomer, we became friends over time for lots of different reasons. We talked about all sorts of different stuff from football and business to "alogarithms."
"What?"
"You know, patterns for doing things."
"You mean, 'algorithms'."
"That's what I said."
"No. You said a mix of 'algorithm' and 'logarithm'. They're not the same thing. Please, never say that word again."
We also talked about astronomy and other cool things. I got to know him over four years and am really, really glad I did. He's great. But this reminds me, he never told me about Big Foot. I only heard reference of it from other people. Please, tell me!
Our family has just watched JP and his family move about as far away as one can move and still live in the United States, Mr BF Alogarithm has gone (but not too far) and this week we just said goodbye to T&L. And this is where the tears start to flow.
Goodbye, my friends. Better yet, "See you later."
I love you. We love you.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
So, it's Father's Day
After we came home from church and had lunch, we settled down into quiet time at our house. It's a marvelous thing, that quiet time. I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about my blog and didn't know what I'd write about yet today. "How about Father's Day?"
Oh, ya. It's Father's Day.
Sweet.
That means awesome dinner, presents and extra family love. Ya, baby! Our family tradition is to choose dinner on our special day. Normally I'd go with lasagna, but I slaved over buying and heating one up for Mother's Day so I went with something Mexican. I said I wanted burritos with chicken. Then Angie went to town on the supporting feast. She's so awesome! We'll eat it soon so ask me later how it was.
My wife is so rockin' awesome for many reasons. I'm glad I married her and I'm glad we have an awesome family together. I'm looking around the house at my little kiddies right now and I am so happy to have them in my family. She and I make a great team. We work hard and are on the same page with just about everything. She makes my life worth living. When I get a quiet moment around the house I like to look at her for a minute or two. Sometimes she catches me, sometimes not. I'm so lucky to have her.
On to the rest of what makes today a special day.
One of my kids doesn't have any teeth. I really like that about him. No, seriously. He's sooo cute! I kinda forget that he doesn't have teeth until I see in his mouth. Otherwise I don't think of it. When his first tooth comes in it's going to change him a lot. Or so I think. I'm trying to love him up every day just in case his look changes too much. I think I'll still love him. He's rolling around next to me and I think that's so cute too! His cackle is my favorite sound. His smile is about the best thing there is to look at. I should post a picture so you can see it. Stay tuned.
The next closest child in the room happens to be the next oldest boy, Mr Wes. I love Mr Wes. He's silly in the morning, energetic in the afternoon and unpredictable in the evening. He brought a lot of love with him from the celestial world when he came to join our family. He's great. He's frustrating sometimes, but that's not his problem. From his point of view the only problem is when he can't open his fruit snacks. "Dad, I willy, willy need your help!" He is growing up so fast right now. His speech is improving a ton and so is his vocabulary. He has impressed me with him mobility lately too and climbs the stairs pretty well. He's awesome. And silly. Silly, silly Mr Wes!
My oldest boy (who is now the closest one in the room; no, wait, now he's in the other room) also brings a lot of happiness into my life. According to one of the great sacrament meeting talks today (quoting from a recent General Conference talk), parents learn more from their kids than kids learn from their parents. This has been the case with Skyler. Putting it another way, the Lord has scrubbed my soul and rounded off some of my rough edges with this child. There have been lots of ups and downs with this little fella. The downs drown out all else in life and the ups make me realize how good it is to be a dad and father in a gospel-centered home. He's also naturally talented! I love seeing him pick up new things so quickly.
Now for a surprise Father's Day treat. My younger (and taller, he would have you know) brother sent me some of our childhood family videos on DVD and they arrived yesterday. It had footage of all my family members from my younger brother to my four grandparents. This so cool for Father's Day because I got to see my dad and both grandpas. It had more of one of my grandpas, the one that I knew as quiet. He was pretty jovial in these videos. That was so cool to see. He died when I was about 15 and I don't remember him being very verbal before that. He had a stroke, I think, when I was little so I didn't see the side of him that I watched yesterday on DVD. It was awesome. I love that man.
I got to see my dad in the videos too and it was so cool to see how sweet he was to my siblings and me. I was about 5 in these videos and don't remember much of it from back then. My older siblings are 4 and 6 years older than I am and I'm excited to see what they think after they watch it. Anyway, I called my dad today and talked to him. He is happy to hear how close I am to graduating and finding a job. He's getting on in years. Hopefully we'll be able to visit him soon. The transition from here to my next job could be a good time, but we don't know which direction we're going yet. He really wants to see us. It will be good for my boys too because they don't remember seeing him before. Sounds like we need to head over to One Man Band again. That's where we'd always go eat together. Navajo tacos. Mmm, boy!
Oh, ya. It's Father's Day.
Sweet.
That means awesome dinner, presents and extra family love. Ya, baby! Our family tradition is to choose dinner on our special day. Normally I'd go with lasagna, but I slaved over buying and heating one up for Mother's Day so I went with something Mexican. I said I wanted burritos with chicken. Then Angie went to town on the supporting feast. She's so awesome! We'll eat it soon so ask me later how it was.
My wife is so rockin' awesome for many reasons. I'm glad I married her and I'm glad we have an awesome family together. I'm looking around the house at my little kiddies right now and I am so happy to have them in my family. She and I make a great team. We work hard and are on the same page with just about everything. She makes my life worth living. When I get a quiet moment around the house I like to look at her for a minute or two. Sometimes she catches me, sometimes not. I'm so lucky to have her.
On to the rest of what makes today a special day.
One of my kids doesn't have any teeth. I really like that about him. No, seriously. He's sooo cute! I kinda forget that he doesn't have teeth until I see in his mouth. Otherwise I don't think of it. When his first tooth comes in it's going to change him a lot. Or so I think. I'm trying to love him up every day just in case his look changes too much. I think I'll still love him. He's rolling around next to me and I think that's so cute too! His cackle is my favorite sound. His smile is about the best thing there is to look at. I should post a picture so you can see it. Stay tuned.
The next closest child in the room happens to be the next oldest boy, Mr Wes. I love Mr Wes. He's silly in the morning, energetic in the afternoon and unpredictable in the evening. He brought a lot of love with him from the celestial world when he came to join our family. He's great. He's frustrating sometimes, but that's not his problem. From his point of view the only problem is when he can't open his fruit snacks. "Dad, I willy, willy need your help!" He is growing up so fast right now. His speech is improving a ton and so is his vocabulary. He has impressed me with him mobility lately too and climbs the stairs pretty well. He's awesome. And silly. Silly, silly Mr Wes!
My oldest boy (who is now the closest one in the room; no, wait, now he's in the other room) also brings a lot of happiness into my life. According to one of the great sacrament meeting talks today (quoting from a recent General Conference talk), parents learn more from their kids than kids learn from their parents. This has been the case with Skyler. Putting it another way, the Lord has scrubbed my soul and rounded off some of my rough edges with this child. There have been lots of ups and downs with this little fella. The downs drown out all else in life and the ups make me realize how good it is to be a dad and father in a gospel-centered home. He's also naturally talented! I love seeing him pick up new things so quickly.
Now for a surprise Father's Day treat. My younger (and taller, he would have you know) brother sent me some of our childhood family videos on DVD and they arrived yesterday. It had footage of all my family members from my younger brother to my four grandparents. This so cool for Father's Day because I got to see my dad and both grandpas. It had more of one of my grandpas, the one that I knew as quiet. He was pretty jovial in these videos. That was so cool to see. He died when I was about 15 and I don't remember him being very verbal before that. He had a stroke, I think, when I was little so I didn't see the side of him that I watched yesterday on DVD. It was awesome. I love that man.
I got to see my dad in the videos too and it was so cool to see how sweet he was to my siblings and me. I was about 5 in these videos and don't remember much of it from back then. My older siblings are 4 and 6 years older than I am and I'm excited to see what they think after they watch it. Anyway, I called my dad today and talked to him. He is happy to hear how close I am to graduating and finding a job. He's getting on in years. Hopefully we'll be able to visit him soon. The transition from here to my next job could be a good time, but we don't know which direction we're going yet. He really wants to see us. It will be good for my boys too because they don't remember seeing him before. Sounds like we need to head over to One Man Band again. That's where we'd always go eat together. Navajo tacos. Mmm, boy!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Journals
Do you ever miss writing in your journal? I do. I used to write in it like crazy. When I was young(er) I was in the habit of writing in it every day. There were times where I went without it being daily, but I liked it so much that I always went back to writing in it every night.
I've been in grad school for 6 years now. For the first few years I was pretty good at writing in my journal. I probably wrote a bunch of days every month. But for the last few years I have written just a time or two per month. It's easy to keep track of because I open a new document for each month and I label them by month and year. Lately, more often than not, I have skipped a month, written once in the document, then skipped a month before writing again.
Bummer.
There are lots of things about this stage of my life that I will want to remember so I feel bad for not writing about more of it. There is one redeeming claim on these memories. Besides writing for the intent of posterity reading about my life, I have a habit of writing down a list or snapshot of what's going on in my life. You know me: I try to do too many thing at once. It has been my practice to offload my thoughts onto paper or a list that I title, "What's going on." I do an emotional/brain dump and get it all out. So there is a separate record of what I've been up to.
I've been thinking about getting back into my journal more again. Honestly, it probably would have started already except there really are a lot of things going on right now with graduation and hunting for a job. ("Hunting," ha! Sounds like I'm tracking down an animal. Actually, there are similarities...) I also think of this blog as a sort of journal. I tend to write about what's going on in my life and tie it into gospel principles so it's not a comprehensive look at my life.
Let me tell you about my favorite memories of writing in my journal. In 6th grade, my teacher Mr. Abegg forced us to write in our journals during class. Yes, forced. That's what I thought back then. I still have that journal. The cover is a picture that I drew in pencil about a castle LEGO set that I had back then and I drew a moat around it with a drawbridge. The castle guards are standing around talking about how boring their job is. The lead guard overhears them and he says, "I heard that." I get a kick out of that every time I read it. There are also my favorite entries that I look for every time I open that journal. I remember a day at recess playing football with a new student named Joey. We had organized recess football teams and we were on the same team. He was also on my competition soccer team. 6th grade was the only year I play competition and we won 1st place in the league! Woo!
Another fun journal memory is of my grandma. She would pay me for writing in my journal. It sounds too good to be true for a kid, but I am grateful that she did it. Her method of payment was gummy worms. She gave me 1 worm for every 5 lines I wrote. Totally awesome. My dad also got me to write in my journal in much the same way. I felt like he got it from her. Maybe I told him about it and he kept up the good habit.
I love writing in my journal. When I read about my ancestors I feel connected to them through their words. I think the same will happen with my descendants. Who knows! There are some embarrassing things I've written in my journal, but I hope it shows that I'm a normal person with weaknesses. Maybe it will help someone out.
I've been in grad school for 6 years now. For the first few years I was pretty good at writing in my journal. I probably wrote a bunch of days every month. But for the last few years I have written just a time or two per month. It's easy to keep track of because I open a new document for each month and I label them by month and year. Lately, more often than not, I have skipped a month, written once in the document, then skipped a month before writing again.
Bummer.
There are lots of things about this stage of my life that I will want to remember so I feel bad for not writing about more of it. There is one redeeming claim on these memories. Besides writing for the intent of posterity reading about my life, I have a habit of writing down a list or snapshot of what's going on in my life. You know me: I try to do too many thing at once. It has been my practice to offload my thoughts onto paper or a list that I title, "What's going on." I do an emotional/brain dump and get it all out. So there is a separate record of what I've been up to.
I've been thinking about getting back into my journal more again. Honestly, it probably would have started already except there really are a lot of things going on right now with graduation and hunting for a job. ("Hunting," ha! Sounds like I'm tracking down an animal. Actually, there are similarities...) I also think of this blog as a sort of journal. I tend to write about what's going on in my life and tie it into gospel principles so it's not a comprehensive look at my life.
Let me tell you about my favorite memories of writing in my journal. In 6th grade, my teacher Mr. Abegg forced us to write in our journals during class. Yes, forced. That's what I thought back then. I still have that journal. The cover is a picture that I drew in pencil about a castle LEGO set that I had back then and I drew a moat around it with a drawbridge. The castle guards are standing around talking about how boring their job is. The lead guard overhears them and he says, "I heard that." I get a kick out of that every time I read it. There are also my favorite entries that I look for every time I open that journal. I remember a day at recess playing football with a new student named Joey. We had organized recess football teams and we were on the same team. He was also on my competition soccer team. 6th grade was the only year I play competition and we won 1st place in the league! Woo!
Another fun journal memory is of my grandma. She would pay me for writing in my journal. It sounds too good to be true for a kid, but I am grateful that she did it. Her method of payment was gummy worms. She gave me 1 worm for every 5 lines I wrote. Totally awesome. My dad also got me to write in my journal in much the same way. I felt like he got it from her. Maybe I told him about it and he kept up the good habit.
I love writing in my journal. When I read about my ancestors I feel connected to them through their words. I think the same will happen with my descendants. Who knows! There are some embarrassing things I've written in my journal, but I hope it shows that I'm a normal person with weaknesses. Maybe it will help someone out.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
A boy's service
Last week my whole family got sick, including me, and it was bad. We laid around, each on our worst days, looking very pathetic. It was not our normal routine for getting sick. Usually the boys get sick first, Angie might get a little of it or maybe a medium dose of it. I often get a little something in my stomach for a couple hours and then it goes away. Just as often I don't get anything at all. Then we get better and get back to life as normal.
Last week was horrible.
The boys got sick, but it wasn't obvious that they were hit any harder than normal. They get fevers and runny noses pretty easily. They asked for blessings and we talked about faith, priesthood blessings and service. Then Angie got sick. It came fast and hard. In hindsight, I should have taken something to boost my immune system. I take vitamins every day and that often keeps me out of trouble so I don't have to do any last-minute defense. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. But I digress.
Angie was bed-ridden and didn't walk around much for a couple days. One of those days was Saturday and I was feeling pretty poorly too. Skyler wanted to do something sooo nice for Angie. It's something he's been planning to do for weeks, but it hasn't worked out. Angie and I are so impressed with his initiative. And his love.
He asked if he could make Angie lunch in bed (or on the couch) since she wasn't going to join us at the table. He wanted to make scrambled eggs on a cookie sheet (and wanted to grease it first) and then hand deliver it. It was the sweetest thing. Now, I had to help him and he wanted to go way faster than I could handle. He got the eggs out of the fridge and was about to start cracking them into the cookie sheet by the time I got myself off the couch to stop him from cracking the first egg. This at least shows that Skyler has lots of guts and is willing to do hard things. Most days it's hard enough to keep up with all he wants to do. That's just how he is and we love him for it.
I helped him crack eggs into a bowl so he could fish out bits of shell. Then he had a hand in cooking the eggs, but before they got done he tried to spray the cookie sheet (again), thinking that we'd pour the eggs onto it like a plate. It was awesome. So I encouraged him to get out a plate to put on the tray. He didn't understand why. It was so funny!
Well, it was a great thing and we praised him highly.
On Friday morning I heard him in the kitchen and went out to see what was going on. Sounds in the kitchen usually mean trouble. Today it meant I caught Skyler doing another good deed. He was disheartened that I found him making my lunch. Surprise! He made me a peanut butter and honey sandwich, carrots, trail mix and chocolate-covered blueberries. What a little stud! It was awesome!
Last week was horrible.
The boys got sick, but it wasn't obvious that they were hit any harder than normal. They get fevers and runny noses pretty easily. They asked for blessings and we talked about faith, priesthood blessings and service. Then Angie got sick. It came fast and hard. In hindsight, I should have taken something to boost my immune system. I take vitamins every day and that often keeps me out of trouble so I don't have to do any last-minute defense. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. But I digress.
Angie was bed-ridden and didn't walk around much for a couple days. One of those days was Saturday and I was feeling pretty poorly too. Skyler wanted to do something sooo nice for Angie. It's something he's been planning to do for weeks, but it hasn't worked out. Angie and I are so impressed with his initiative. And his love.
He asked if he could make Angie lunch in bed (or on the couch) since she wasn't going to join us at the table. He wanted to make scrambled eggs on a cookie sheet (and wanted to grease it first) and then hand deliver it. It was the sweetest thing. Now, I had to help him and he wanted to go way faster than I could handle. He got the eggs out of the fridge and was about to start cracking them into the cookie sheet by the time I got myself off the couch to stop him from cracking the first egg. This at least shows that Skyler has lots of guts and is willing to do hard things. Most days it's hard enough to keep up with all he wants to do. That's just how he is and we love him for it.
I helped him crack eggs into a bowl so he could fish out bits of shell. Then he had a hand in cooking the eggs, but before they got done he tried to spray the cookie sheet (again), thinking that we'd pour the eggs onto it like a plate. It was awesome. So I encouraged him to get out a plate to put on the tray. He didn't understand why. It was so funny!
Well, it was a great thing and we praised him highly.
On Friday morning I heard him in the kitchen and went out to see what was going on. Sounds in the kitchen usually mean trouble. Today it meant I caught Skyler doing another good deed. He was disheartened that I found him making my lunch. Surprise! He made me a peanut butter and honey sandwich, carrots, trail mix and chocolate-covered blueberries. What a little stud! It was awesome!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
500 Dates
Angie and I have been on about 500 dates. Sounds crazy, right? It does to me, but it's true. We aren't keeping track, exactly, but we make it a point to go on a date each week and have done so ever since we were first married. I think we've missed some weeks and I remember going twice some weeks (when we went out for lunch spontaneously and didn't need a babysitter).
We've been married for 10 years now (in March). Multiply that by 52 weeks/year puts us over 500 dates just since we got married. We saw each other almost daily while we dated, but I don't know if those count as dates. If they do, add over 100 more (that's rounding down). We dated for over 4 months, including our engagement, before getting married.
Our first date was on Nov 3, 2001. We went bowling with some of Angie's friends. I knew Kristi from the singles ward we attended. All the other people were their friends. The guys were Dave and Davey, which is easy enough to remember. My other memories of that night were mostly about Angie and how I really, really loved being with her. I still love being with her. There was some leaning going on at the bowling alley. She sat on a table between turns and I only had the guts to lean my arm up against her leg as I sat on the seat next to her. She wanted to reciprocate some contact (she told me later), but we were both pretty shy about it.
After bowling, we went to her house and watched Shrek. Angie's dad was there with us. He must have been coming and going and I'll tell you why I think that. During the movie, Angie and I started leaning. Ya, leaning. It was pretty awesome. I really wanted to hold her hand and was getting up the, well, I can't call it "courage," to do so. It's more like I was building up a whole bunch of "anti-regret" and I didn't want to look back on the night wishing I'd have held her hand.
Let me tell you, this was very forward for me!
We leaned more and more until our hands were touching back-to-back. I faked a pretend hold in the hopes that she'd think I was going for her hand and then she'd hold mine. She didn't bite. Then it was just a flop attempt and I decided to just grab her hand. So forward for a first date! But I really, really liked her and there was crackling energy in the air. It was magical (for both of us). It was the awesome-est feeling.
I still get that feeling around her. Ya, she's that awesome.
So anyway, we were holding hands and this must have been when her dad left to make poopcorn (ew, that would be gross). How about popcorn? Let's just say he made popcorn. Because when he came back I could see his surprised reaction in my peripheral vision.
After Shrek, we watched Iron Chef. It was one of their family's favorites, but was new to me. What a fun show! We have lots of inside jokes from watching that show over a year or two before it was taken off the air. Anyway, let me jump to the end of the date.
Angie asked me out on this date so she came to pick me up. When she dropped me off, I didn't want to shake hands in the car or hug across the arm rest. I didn't want it to look like I was going for a kiss or anything! That's way beyond what I could have gone for. So I asked her if I could give her a big hug. I went around to her side of the car and gave her a hug. The hug she gave me back was 10 times more magical than holding hands during Shrek. It was bliss. Pure love. And I still feel that way when we have some peace and quiet and give each other a sweet hug.
In everyday life we still have a lot of good feelings for each other. We work hard at our marriage and parenting. We have good days most of the time. There used to be more hard days than we have now. We've come a long way and still have a long way to go. This weekend's stake conference was uplifting and I love how the Spirit teaches us what we need to do to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him and our Father's plan of salvation that we can find true happiness in life.
And it's so good going through life with my wife and best-est friend, Angie. I love you, Babe!
We've been married for 10 years now (in March). Multiply that by 52 weeks/year puts us over 500 dates just since we got married. We saw each other almost daily while we dated, but I don't know if those count as dates. If they do, add over 100 more (that's rounding down). We dated for over 4 months, including our engagement, before getting married.
Our first date was on Nov 3, 2001. We went bowling with some of Angie's friends. I knew Kristi from the singles ward we attended. All the other people were their friends. The guys were Dave and Davey, which is easy enough to remember. My other memories of that night were mostly about Angie and how I really, really loved being with her. I still love being with her. There was some leaning going on at the bowling alley. She sat on a table between turns and I only had the guts to lean my arm up against her leg as I sat on the seat next to her. She wanted to reciprocate some contact (she told me later), but we were both pretty shy about it.
After bowling, we went to her house and watched Shrek. Angie's dad was there with us. He must have been coming and going and I'll tell you why I think that. During the movie, Angie and I started leaning. Ya, leaning. It was pretty awesome. I really wanted to hold her hand and was getting up the, well, I can't call it "courage," to do so. It's more like I was building up a whole bunch of "anti-regret" and I didn't want to look back on the night wishing I'd have held her hand.
Let me tell you, this was very forward for me!
We leaned more and more until our hands were touching back-to-back. I faked a pretend hold in the hopes that she'd think I was going for her hand and then she'd hold mine. She didn't bite. Then it was just a flop attempt and I decided to just grab her hand. So forward for a first date! But I really, really liked her and there was crackling energy in the air. It was magical (for both of us). It was the awesome-est feeling.
I still get that feeling around her. Ya, she's that awesome.
So anyway, we were holding hands and this must have been when her dad left to make poopcorn (ew, that would be gross). How about popcorn? Let's just say he made popcorn. Because when he came back I could see his surprised reaction in my peripheral vision.
After Shrek, we watched Iron Chef. It was one of their family's favorites, but was new to me. What a fun show! We have lots of inside jokes from watching that show over a year or two before it was taken off the air. Anyway, let me jump to the end of the date.
Angie asked me out on this date so she came to pick me up. When she dropped me off, I didn't want to shake hands in the car or hug across the arm rest. I didn't want it to look like I was going for a kiss or anything! That's way beyond what I could have gone for. So I asked her if I could give her a big hug. I went around to her side of the car and gave her a hug. The hug she gave me back was 10 times more magical than holding hands during Shrek. It was bliss. Pure love. And I still feel that way when we have some peace and quiet and give each other a sweet hug.
In everyday life we still have a lot of good feelings for each other. We work hard at our marriage and parenting. We have good days most of the time. There used to be more hard days than we have now. We've come a long way and still have a long way to go. This weekend's stake conference was uplifting and I love how the Spirit teaches us what we need to do to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him and our Father's plan of salvation that we can find true happiness in life.
And it's so good going through life with my wife and best-est friend, Angie. I love you, Babe!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
See your ancestors on createfan.com
Our ward has been talking about family history and sharing our own conversion story or that of our ancestors. Our bishop has been telling fun stories of one of his ancestors. And he's been talking about our ward members printing off our fan chart (createfan.com) and finding out how many people in our ward have common ancestry. It sounds so awesome.
Angie and I printed out our fans and have been having fun reading names. Here's a cool line in Angie's family. Jens Ottosen, son of Otte Nielsen, son of Niels Jensen, son of Jens Vogensen. Cool, huh!
She's also related to Parley P. Pratt. There's an asterisk there so we're not sure about what that means yet. I really love the fan and how it shows nine generations. The efficiency strikes a chord in my inner mathematician.
Here's another sweet line Angie has. Christian C Christensen, son of Anthony Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of yet another Christen Christensen. Awesome, baby!
I didn't think I knew any conversion stories of my ancestors so I didn't think I could contribute to the "ancestory show and tell" minute in priesthood meeting today. But I thought of one! It's my grandpa Ragozzine. Let me tell you about it. My aunt submitted this story in the Ensign (several years ago). If I find it, I'll definitely post a link to it. I'll paraphrase the story because it's been a while since I read the details.
My grandpa Ragozzine married my grandma (she was a member of the church, he was not) and they raised a family together. I think he went to church, but not sure for how long. Anyway, the part that I remember most is that my aunt would ask him when he would get baptized and he kept putting it off for his own reasons. My aunt went on a mission and was elated to receive a letter from him (during her mission) saying he was finally ready to get baptized. So cool. What a letter to get on your mission!
I remember my grandpa Ragozzine. He was a quiet, loving man. I remember playing checkers with him when I'd go to their home in the summer. He beat me every time. He might have shown some mercy, meaning the game would be prolonged, but he always won. I think he'd play canasta with my grandma and me too, but I don't remember that happening too many times. Just the memories of losing at checkers. A lot. He always tried to find a football game on TV when I was over at their house too. He'd call me to the living room and try to find a game when it wasn't even football season. I was so naive that I thought he'd find a game on some channel anyway. Grandpas are awesome like that.
I love my grandpa and I know that I will see him again. I wonder if he gets to see glimpses of his descendants or if he has a wireless connection to the Internet and can read this blog post. Care to comment, Grandpa?
Sorry for shooting out those windows with your BB gun. I thought you said I could.
Angie and I printed out our fans and have been having fun reading names. Here's a cool line in Angie's family. Jens Ottosen, son of Otte Nielsen, son of Niels Jensen, son of Jens Vogensen. Cool, huh!
She's also related to Parley P. Pratt. There's an asterisk there so we're not sure about what that means yet. I really love the fan and how it shows nine generations. The efficiency strikes a chord in my inner mathematician.
Here's another sweet line Angie has. Christian C Christensen, son of Anthony Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of yet another Christen Christensen. Awesome, baby!
I didn't think I knew any conversion stories of my ancestors so I didn't think I could contribute to the "ancestory show and tell" minute in priesthood meeting today. But I thought of one! It's my grandpa Ragozzine. Let me tell you about it. My aunt submitted this story in the Ensign (several years ago). If I find it, I'll definitely post a link to it. I'll paraphrase the story because it's been a while since I read the details.
My grandpa Ragozzine married my grandma (she was a member of the church, he was not) and they raised a family together. I think he went to church, but not sure for how long. Anyway, the part that I remember most is that my aunt would ask him when he would get baptized and he kept putting it off for his own reasons. My aunt went on a mission and was elated to receive a letter from him (during her mission) saying he was finally ready to get baptized. So cool. What a letter to get on your mission!
I remember my grandpa Ragozzine. He was a quiet, loving man. I remember playing checkers with him when I'd go to their home in the summer. He beat me every time. He might have shown some mercy, meaning the game would be prolonged, but he always won. I think he'd play canasta with my grandma and me too, but I don't remember that happening too many times. Just the memories of losing at checkers. A lot. He always tried to find a football game on TV when I was over at their house too. He'd call me to the living room and try to find a game when it wasn't even football season. I was so naive that I thought he'd find a game on some channel anyway. Grandpas are awesome like that.
I love my grandpa and I know that I will see him again. I wonder if he gets to see glimpses of his descendants or if he has a wireless connection to the Internet and can read this blog post. Care to comment, Grandpa?
Sorry for shooting out those windows with your BB gun. I thought you said I could.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Mosiah 4:9 is one of my favorite scriptures. I don't think about it very often, but when it's quoted, I instantly remember the reference. The message is powerful and I just came across it in my Book of Mormon reading. I love its message. This scripture reads:
9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
This scripture is true. I know that God, our Heavenly Father created all things through Jesus Christ. I know that when I pray, I am speaking to my Father in Heaven and that He knows all. It is a gift and a blessing to be able to approach Him in prayer and to ask for divine wisdom. He knows and sees all. It is humbling to feel that I can communicate with my Creator and get direction for my life here on the earth.
And I'm learning the latter part of the scripture about how man cannot comprehend all the things that the Lord does. It seems like I have to keep reminding myself of that as I pursue many interests and take the next step along the path of my career. I'm following what I feel He has in store for me. Some choices are not the choices that I would make. Sometimes my opinion of what to pursue (such as where to live and the cost of living of such places) is not what the Lord has in store for my family. It has caused a lot of groanings in us to understand that He is in charge and knows all. He can see the whole path that we will trod and the blessings and pitfalls we will face if we trust Him or not.
I love the Lord and trust Him. I am grateful for the gift and promptings of the Holy Ghost. My life is rich. Not because I have attained blessings by my own wisdom or strength. Quite the opposite. It is when I give up my own opinions and ideas, and align myself with God's ways, that I am blessed with abundance.
What scripture(s) strengthen you?
9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
This scripture is true. I know that God, our Heavenly Father created all things through Jesus Christ. I know that when I pray, I am speaking to my Father in Heaven and that He knows all. It is a gift and a blessing to be able to approach Him in prayer and to ask for divine wisdom. He knows and sees all. It is humbling to feel that I can communicate with my Creator and get direction for my life here on the earth.
And I'm learning the latter part of the scripture about how man cannot comprehend all the things that the Lord does. It seems like I have to keep reminding myself of that as I pursue many interests and take the next step along the path of my career. I'm following what I feel He has in store for me. Some choices are not the choices that I would make. Sometimes my opinion of what to pursue (such as where to live and the cost of living of such places) is not what the Lord has in store for my family. It has caused a lot of groanings in us to understand that He is in charge and knows all. He can see the whole path that we will trod and the blessings and pitfalls we will face if we trust Him or not.
I love the Lord and trust Him. I am grateful for the gift and promptings of the Holy Ghost. My life is rich. Not because I have attained blessings by my own wisdom or strength. Quite the opposite. It is when I give up my own opinions and ideas, and align myself with God's ways, that I am blessed with abundance.
What scripture(s) strengthen you?
Sunday, February 26, 2012
I, Nephi, having been born of...
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| Artist: Arnold Friberg |
"I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents..."
Nephi's parents were goodly because they were righteous Jews who kept the commandments and followed the Spirit. Lehi was a prophet and had visions from the Lord to know how to protect his family. He lead his family away from the impending danger that befell Jerusalem a few years later. That would have been difficult to leave the comforts of home and live in the wilderness. It would be difficult for me.
The verse continues, "...therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father."
I have always taken this verse to mean that Lehi was a good dad and wanted to teach his kids about life, the universe and everything. With that in mind, I try to teach my kids stuff that I know as well as let them learn things on their own and explore their own talents. I have a feeling that Lehi did all this and much more.
Well, this verse was in our first Sunday School lesson this year. I happened to be in Texas at the time, but I shared something that we don't often think about with this verse. It's this:
Laman and Lemuel were also born of goodly parents.
So, what happened to them? The short answer is that I don't know. The long answer also involves me not knowing. It's just interesting to see that some of Lehi and Sariah's children were obedient and others were not.
That's really all I wanted to say in this post, but it seems like it's not enough. Maybe I'll say that Nephi didn't just follow his dad into the wilderness. Here's a verse that makes Nephi seem more like us, in that he had to gain a testimony for himself.
1 Ne 2:16, 19 show that Nephi wan't born with a testimony. He sought one. Verses 17-18 show that Nephi loved his brothers and shared his testimony with them. I'm proud of Sam for listening to his younger brother. That's not easy for some people to do. He (and I'm sure he wasn't the only one) also tried to help Laman and Lemuel understand the will of the Lord. We also know there are some sisters involved here because they married the sons of Ishmael. Striving to live the gospel was a family affair. Some just did better than others.
I want to be a goodly parent and a goodly son. I am grateful my parents taught me the gospel when I was young. They must have taught me from very young. I don't have any memories like, "Ya, that's when Mom and Dad started talking about church stuff." I hope to be a goodly parent by teaching my kids gospel principles. We already talk about baptism, dating and courtship, the law of tithing, fasting, the Word of Wisdom, temple sealing and eternal life. Angie and I love it when our boys teach us their understanding.
We are all very blessed. The Lord has showered many tender mercies upon us.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
My Son's Happy Tears
If you are new to my blog I must begin this post by saying that we recently had our third boy. Now you're pretty much caught up. We heard it was a good idea to give presents from the newborn to the older kids. This worked out way better than we thought it would when our second child was born and we hoped for at least a neutral welcome into the family this time around. It seems that most siblings are jealous and we wanted to minimize those hard feelings. Now you new viewers are all caught up.
Our newest boy gave presents to his older brothers that they would like. Our intent was to soften the blow a little (in their minds, at least) that we spend a little less time with them than before. The first time we did this, our oldest fell in love with our second and they have been the best of buds ever since. I think he remembers what toy he got, though I don't know which of the gazillion things laying around our house it actually is.
Fast forward five years and imagine how much fun it was for our older boys to get cool presents from baby and from Mom and Dad. The scenery of the hospital with Mom laying in bed with tubes in her arms was probably pretty weird for them so my wife included games and stuff for them to pass the time. They loved opening the presents and all that, but now I realize that something even greater was going on that neither my wife nor I fully understood.
Our older boy was so excited to see his baby brother right from the beginning! He wanted to hold him and play with him.
All. The. Time.
He has shown so much love toward his baby brother that we are continually amazed that a child (and a boy, nonetheless) has this much affection and awareness to give it. He picks him up all the time and tries to walk around the house with him (that makes us really nervous!), loves to give huge smiles to him and even plays games and activities with him (and helps the baby write down scores).
Angie and I have loved watching all of this unfold. And this leads me to the point of this post. The other night we were gathered around the baby, watching him laugh and coo at us. It was the best, from our perspective as parents.
And then I looked at my oldest boy and noticed something totally amazing. He had tears in his eyes. They were those kind of tears that one sheds out of pure love. He noticed that something was different too. He wasn't laughing hard so I knew it wasn't laughing tears. He looked at me and said, "My eyes are watering." He is very aware of himself and is also capable to describing things like this to us. That is amazing all by itself. We had a tender moment telling him that those tears come from the deep love he feels for his family (and especially for his baby brother).
It was a very sweet moment. I'm glad I got to see it.
Our newest boy gave presents to his older brothers that they would like. Our intent was to soften the blow a little (in their minds, at least) that we spend a little less time with them than before. The first time we did this, our oldest fell in love with our second and they have been the best of buds ever since. I think he remembers what toy he got, though I don't know which of the gazillion things laying around our house it actually is.
Fast forward five years and imagine how much fun it was for our older boys to get cool presents from baby and from Mom and Dad. The scenery of the hospital with Mom laying in bed with tubes in her arms was probably pretty weird for them so my wife included games and stuff for them to pass the time. They loved opening the presents and all that, but now I realize that something even greater was going on that neither my wife nor I fully understood.
Our older boy was so excited to see his baby brother right from the beginning! He wanted to hold him and play with him.
All. The. Time.
He has shown so much love toward his baby brother that we are continually amazed that a child (and a boy, nonetheless) has this much affection and awareness to give it. He picks him up all the time and tries to walk around the house with him (that makes us really nervous!), loves to give huge smiles to him and even plays games and activities with him (and helps the baby write down scores).
Angie and I have loved watching all of this unfold. And this leads me to the point of this post. The other night we were gathered around the baby, watching him laugh and coo at us. It was the best, from our perspective as parents.
And then I looked at my oldest boy and noticed something totally amazing. He had tears in his eyes. They were those kind of tears that one sheds out of pure love. He noticed that something was different too. He wasn't laughing hard so I knew it wasn't laughing tears. He looked at me and said, "My eyes are watering." He is very aware of himself and is also capable to describing things like this to us. That is amazing all by itself. We had a tender moment telling him that those tears come from the deep love he feels for his family (and especially for his baby brother).
It was a very sweet moment. I'm glad I got to see it.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
President Benson reminded me that the coming forth of The Book of Mormon was preceded only by the First Vision of Joseph Smith, which was the visitation by God the Father and Jesus Christ to the boy prophet. The Book of Mormon preceded the restoration of the priesthood from the hands of John the Baptist and from Peter, James and John. It was published a few days before the restoration of Christ's church in the latter-days. It was given to us before the revelations of the degrees of glory, celestial marriage and work for the dead, which were given in the Doctrine and Covenants.
It surprised me to read this order of events. I don't normally think of the exact order in which these important events occurred, but have been surprised each time I remember that this is how it happened.
The Holy Bible (the "holy" was for Emily :) ) contains the Old Testament and the New Testament. Another word for testament could have been translated as covenant from the Greek text. A covenant of what? The promises that God has made with His children in different ages for their salvation, based upon their obedience. The Book of Mormon's title was extended to include Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It contains the fulness of the gospel or all we need to know about God's commandments for our eternal salvation.
Awesome.
Actually, "awesome" doesn't exactly cover it. There are times when my favorite word comes short of capturing the magnitude of my feelings. This is one of them. I guess I should say "eternal awesome" and that might do it. You be the judge. :)
President Benson summed up the gift of The Book of Mormon in a way that really hit home to me. He said that it is a gift from God to us that is greater than the industrial and technological advances of our time (and remember, he said this 25 years ago), medicine, flight and space travel. I marvel and wonder at how far technology has come and what we as a human race have achieved with it. And this book of scriptures is much greater than all of that. Why? Because it will bring us to God when none of these other things can or will.
For 1000 years, Book of Mormon prophets poured their hearts and souls into writing their testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ onto golden plates for our use. They lived a long time ago - from 600 BC to 400 AD. The truths they wrote are for us today, not for their descendants back then. In fact, Nephi knew that the civilization of his posterity would come to an end and be destroyed by the Lamanites (we talked about that in Sunday School today). These ancient prophets wrote to us, the gentiles and the members of the house of Israel. Wow, what faith that these children of our Heavenly Father had!
I have committed myself to reading through The Book of Mormon again this year. There are 239 chapters and 531 pages so I plan to read about one chapter per day in my personal study. Our family has been reading one column per day for a while now and we're on page 189. The other day we talked about finishing for our first time as a family. We can do this by increasing what we read to two columns and we'll finish by the end of the year.
We talked about the blessings we have received from reading and how many more blessing we'll enjoy from the Lord's hand. Our kids are excited about it and that makes us (Angie and me) very happy!
Awesome!
I love The Book of Mormon. It has changed my life and it strengthens me every single day that I read it. The more effort I put in, the greater the reward. I know it is a true book of scripture and contains the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for this talk from President Benson. It has strengthened my testimony.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Family Home Evening: New Year's Resolutions
We have family night every Monday evening. Last night we taught our boys about working on goals and personal improvement. We talked about what talents we are each good at and what we might want to work on this year. Angie felt that we should focus on improving something that we are already good at and really excel at it. Many other years we work on things we are weak at, trying to become better at something important. Both seem like good ideas to make a well-rounded person. I was actually pretty surprised at the suggestion, but it was a very great lesson and we set some really great goals.
Part of our lesson focused on saying what talents other family members have. It's great to praise others for what they bring to the family and to the world. Everyone feels special and important. It's also easy to see that we are all different. We are all created in the image of God who gave us these talents.
Then we taught the parable of the 10 talents to our boys. Jesus gave this parable to teach that we are all given different talents, or skills, and that we are responsible how we use them. We believe that we'll one day report to the Lord on how we used our talents. Here's the parable as we told it to our boys.
A rich man went on a trip for a long time. Before he left, he gave his servants some money. One servant was given five talents, the next two talents and the other one talent. The servants knew the master would come back and ask what they did with the money. The first servant worked really hard and earned another five talents. The second worked really hard and earned two more talents. The last guy was really nervous about losing his single talent and getting in trouble. He hid his talent so he could give it back when the master returned.
When the rich man returned from his trip, he asked his servants to report. Two men doubled what they had been given and were each blessed by their master. "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matthew 25:23). The fearful servant gave the talent back to the master. He got quite the rude awakening. He thought he would be praised for not losing the money, but heard this reply. "Thou wicked and slothful servant" (Matthew 25:26).
Ouch.
The lesson we should learn from this parable is that we have all been born with different talents (and a different number of them). We will be blessed for using our talents and we should work at improving ourselves and earning/learning more talents. Imagine how amazing it will feel to hear these words from the Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matthew 25:23).
Part of our lesson focused on saying what talents other family members have. It's great to praise others for what they bring to the family and to the world. Everyone feels special and important. It's also easy to see that we are all different. We are all created in the image of God who gave us these talents.
Then we taught the parable of the 10 talents to our boys. Jesus gave this parable to teach that we are all given different talents, or skills, and that we are responsible how we use them. We believe that we'll one day report to the Lord on how we used our talents. Here's the parable as we told it to our boys.
A rich man went on a trip for a long time. Before he left, he gave his servants some money. One servant was given five talents, the next two talents and the other one talent. The servants knew the master would come back and ask what they did with the money. The first servant worked really hard and earned another five talents. The second worked really hard and earned two more talents. The last guy was really nervous about losing his single talent and getting in trouble. He hid his talent so he could give it back when the master returned.
When the rich man returned from his trip, he asked his servants to report. Two men doubled what they had been given and were each blessed by their master. "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matthew 25:23). The fearful servant gave the talent back to the master. He got quite the rude awakening. He thought he would be praised for not losing the money, but heard this reply. "Thou wicked and slothful servant" (Matthew 25:26).
Ouch.
The lesson we should learn from this parable is that we have all been born with different talents (and a different number of them). We will be blessed for using our talents and we should work at improving ourselves and earning/learning more talents. Imagine how amazing it will feel to hear these words from the Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" (Matthew 25:23).
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The 12 Days of Christmas
For the past twelve days, our family has been the happy recipient of Christmas love and cheer from an unknown Do Gooder. We really have no idea who it is. There was a lot of sneakery and staying up late at night for them to put all the gifts on our porch without us hearing them. Angie is up late every night with Briggie and I wake up early in the morning to start my routine.
One night was a little different, though. We heard what sounded like someone tripping on our wooden porch and making a loud thump! We didn't want to run outside to see who it was and spoil the fun. A minute later there was a loud knock on our porch window.
That's odd.
I slowly rose from the couch and looked out the front door's window. There was a plate full of sugary delights. That's when we realized the purpose for the non-sneakery for one night. Those home-baked goodies would have been enjoyed by Ohioan fauna (namely, raccoons and neighborhood cats) before we found them the next morning. Nice move, Do Gooders! And well made!
Our Christmas season has been one of the best that I can remember because of the love and care shown to our family. We have, in turn, decided to help others more than we normally would have. And we tried extra hard to teach our kids that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We talked about the symbols that remind us of gospel truths and signs of Christ's birth. We also taught our boys to be grateful for what gifts they do receive on Christmas morning because it won't be everything they asked for.
We are so blessed. We see the tender mercies of the Lord all around us and feel the love of...someone...doing good and spreading Christmas cheer.
One night was a little different, though. We heard what sounded like someone tripping on our wooden porch and making a loud thump! We didn't want to run outside to see who it was and spoil the fun. A minute later there was a loud knock on our porch window.
That's odd.
I slowly rose from the couch and looked out the front door's window. There was a plate full of sugary delights. That's when we realized the purpose for the non-sneakery for one night. Those home-baked goodies would have been enjoyed by Ohioan fauna (namely, raccoons and neighborhood cats) before we found them the next morning. Nice move, Do Gooders! And well made!
Our Christmas season has been one of the best that I can remember because of the love and care shown to our family. We have, in turn, decided to help others more than we normally would have. And we tried extra hard to teach our kids that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We talked about the symbols that remind us of gospel truths and signs of Christ's birth. We also taught our boys to be grateful for what gifts they do receive on Christmas morning because it won't be everything they asked for.
We are so blessed. We see the tender mercies of the Lord all around us and feel the love of...someone...doing good and spreading Christmas cheer.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
It's a Good Day for Ice Cream
Even though my kids are young and small, I believe the two pieces of advice that older parents have given me about teaching the gospel. 1) Kids are never too young to learn and 2) out of all the things you say, you never know what will really stick in their minds. So teach them continually and begin when they're young.
Here's the habit that came back to
I've been taking my boys to service projects and to help families move in/out of our ward for several years. I started taking them before I thought they could even be any positive use in the actual project. In fact, I thought it was so important for them to see service in action that I took them to activities where I would have to watch out for them and be of little use myself. It was a tough internal battle as I made that decision, but I'm glad I did it.
Now my boys are (well, my older boy is) excited to do service. A few weeks ago I was headed out to help with a move and I thought there would only be a couple people there. I only told my wife ahead of time because I didn't want my kids to go. On this particular day, we ate lunch and I got my shoes on to head out of the door before everyone else was done. My older boy asked where I was going. To my great surprise, he said, "Dad, I want to go!" Why would I say no to that? He finished up his lunch and got his shoes on.
And we were off.
I thought that I was going to be a kid watcher and not a super mover, but I was ok with that. On the way down, when my boy told me it was a "good day for ice cream," I just thought he was trying to sneak in a plug for a sugary treat. I wanted to say no, but first asked him why. "Because we always get ice cream after service!"
Wow.
Awesome.
And that's my story. Well, there is more. I have to say how complimentary everyone was of his hard work. He kept picking up big stuff and actually carrying it without tipping over or dropping anything. We even carried out a coffee table that really belonged to the apartment. Even though it was really heavy for him, he helped me in a big way. However, when we found out that it had to go back he didn't think he could handle it so I carried it back myself. It was really funny. And he did a really great job.
I believe that when we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God (Mosiah 2:17).
Does anyone have a service experience that they want to share? or a gospel lesson that kids have learned and repeated back to you?
Sunday, November 13, 2011
By Their Works Ye Shall Know Them
As you saw in my last post, we had a baby last week. There are several things on my mind about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the service that we have received and the love that has been shown to us since even before little Briggie was born. I'd love to name names, but when I describe the acts of love and service you'll know who you are.
From the moment people started finding out that Angie was in labor and that we were at the hospital, we started feeling the love. Luckily, I posted something on FB about Angie's water breaking before I left home because we didn't get any Internet signal in the rooms we were in. I really wanted to let people know what was going on during the day...but it didn't happen.
We got phone calls while we were at the hospital to congratulate us and someone brought us a Hospital Survival Kit with treats and some items that came in really handy; stuff like shampoo and hair elastics. Great thinking! Some friends started calling the hospital room before Briggie was even born. So nice! We felt so much support from family and friends near and far.
One friend picked up our boys from the bus stop and fed them dinner before bringing them to the hospital to see their new little brother. A couple families even offered to let our older boys sleep at their house so I could stay the night in the hospital room. That was a huge expression of sacrifice and we appreciated it a whole lot.
There are many good-hearted people in this world that love to serve others and do kind deeds. Some of these people belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and others belong to other denominations. I am grateful for the love of God that comes to my family through others, no matter what church they attend (or even if they don't attend!).
The phrases that come to mind that relate to gospel living are these:
Service in action
Faith without works is dead (James 2:20)
Faith, hope and charity with an eye single to the glory of God (Doctrine and Covenants 4:5)
The gospel of Jesus Christ truly moves people to serve others in love. In many ways I wish we had not had the baby until my mom was in town. Her flight was booked months ago and Briggie was born earlier than expected. But, now that we're past those difficult days, I am very grateful that my mom came after we received so many acts of love. We would have missed out on so much. Many people have offered to bring us meals. As the husband and father of three, I think I appreciated this the most out of any of us. It was nice knowing I didn't have to make meals with so much on my mind! Someone volunteered to come over one night to watch our boys so I could spend some quiet time with Angie in the hospital. Guess what she did? She washed the dishes and cleaned our nasty stove. Thank you!!!
My testimony of service has increased. Each person that did one of these small or large acts of service said it was no big deal to help us out. Added together, these were literally more than I was able to do. The next time I help someone out and they thank me for my time and effort, I will remember what it was like to receive.
The title "By their works ye shall know them" comes from Moroni 7:5.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Multiply and Replenish
Several lucky things happened as far as timing goes:
1. Delivery on a Friday, that's about as good as you can ask for because of the weekend ahead.
2. Full night's rest before the water broke...I was pretty wiped out by the end of the day and I'm not even the one who was in labor! It was a pretty emotional and busy day.
3. The end of Daylight Savings time. You're wondering what Sunday morning has to do with a Friday delivery? Getting kids ready for church all by myself is trouble, but the extra hour was bliss. :)
Since it's football season, I've been thinking about things in common with our kids/births in terms of Win-Loss records.
Boys: 3-0
Girls: 0-3
Strong wife up to delivery: 3-0
Placenta luck after delivery: 0-3
Yanked outtie belly buttons: 2-1
Average umbilical cord length: 1-2
Eensy Weensy umbilical cord: 1-2
Longest umbilical cord, ever: 1-2
Dad cutting umbilical cord: 2-1 (partial correlation with yanked outties)
Home births: 2-1
Hospitalization: 2-1
C-sections: 1-2
In a recent blog post I mentioned how I feel so, so stressed over adding too much to my schedule. I keep thinking about my time priorities and how family should be at the top (next to relationships with Deity). Well, spending time in the hospital and having my third boy has been a really good time to re-focus, re-prioritize and relax (relaxing from work, anyway).
Sunday, October 30, 2011
My Friends, the Scriptures
I have started to read/study the most recent conference talks and Elder Scott's talk was the first talk this time. (Now that's very weird. President Monson was the 4th speaker and he made some comment about wondering how things would go if he weren't there. I have a feeling he wasn't there when it was time to broadcast. And the meeting began without him.)
So the part of Elder Scott's talk, The Power of Scripture, that meant so much to me was how the scriptures are like packets of light (ooh, that resonated with my inner physicist) and that memorizing scriptures is like having a host of friends go with us everywhere and can be called upon at any time. What an analogy! He quoted a whole bunch of his favorite scriptures and I'd like to do the same. He quoted from Proverbs 3, which is among my favorites. And he quoted from Moroni 7, which teaches us how to acquire the love of Christ in ourselves.
These are my "go to" scriptures that I turn to when I need consolation, guidance, direction, strength to do what is right, and to be uplifted when I feel down. These are some of my best friends.
1 Ne 3:7
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
Psalms 3:5-6
Psalms 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Psalms 46:10, D&C 101:16
Psalms 46:10, D&C 101:16
Be still and know that I am God.
Moroni 7:45-48
And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
D&C 121:45-46
Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.
Alma 37:37
Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.
Ether 12:27
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Moroni 10:5
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
1 Ne 4:6-7
And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth
Moroni 7:45-48
And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
D&C 121:45-46
Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.
Alma 37:37
Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.
Ether 12:27
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Moroni 10:5
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
1 Ne 4:6-7
And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth
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