We Can Live with God Again

What a touching video. This short video shows families who have lost loved ones and how the gospel of Jesus Christ has strengthened them here and now. Life goes on beyond our mortal death. Through the atonement of our Redeemer all mankind has been given the gift of the resurrection and immortality after this life. That makes me so happy!

Life has been busy for the last 6-8 months with family life, a new baby, job hunting, etc. Even though I've been consistent in scripture study, I can tell that spiritual matters have been squeezed out by the mundane. My mind wanders to what I'll do after I'm done studying or what I have to do at work that day. Watching this video has brought such a sweet, peaceful feeling and the reminder that life really does go on. We have been born on earth to see what choices we will make and to see if we can live by faith and follow our Heavenly Father's plan for us. It makes me really think about what I spend my time doing and how I can change to have this feeling with me more often. The happiest times I've ever had in my life were accompanied by this Spirit.

There is nothing better. It makes good men better and I want to be a better man.

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).

Welcome to the New Address

Welcome to the new Rise Up! O Men of God. I've updated the image of the Salt Lake temple and changed the address. This new image is a lot crisper and I'm a lot happier with it. Nobody complained about the old image, but it was pretty blurry and it bothered me a lot. I've looked for a new image almost since I uploaded the first one. With some fancy editing I can probably make the text in the image look better. If someone has advice for how to do that it would be a great help.

When I started this blog during the October 2011 General Conference weekend I tried to think up some awesome web site names and addresses that would convey uplifting messages. I thought that "shake off the chains" (2 Ne 1:23) was really cool as well as "Rise Up! O Men of God" (LDS Hymn 324). Both are inspiring messages so I used the first for my address and the second as the title.

After further reflection I have decided that it would be better in the long run if the address is the same as the title. I made sure this address was available on blogspot and then read how to make the move. Angie told me I could export my posts and import them here so that saved a lot of time! I thought I'd have to manually recreate each one and I didn't want to do that for a large number of posts.

The visits that got tracked on shake-off-the-chains.blogspot.com aren't going to get converted here so the counter has started over at zero. I was really, really happy with the success and the positive comments I got from family and friends in the first three months of blogging! I'd say there were several times as many hits per post as I imagined there would be. Probably close to ten times as many. Really, thank you all for visiting and leaving comments. Some of you have emailed me personally and I appreciate that too.

I have some goals to increase the number of posts I write and hope to attract a lot more attention in the coming months. With your help Sharing, Liking and commenting, these messages can reach more and more people. If you like a conference talk that I write about or a personal story that I share, feel free to pass it along to others. In this information age, the gospel of Jesus Christ can truly reach the four corners of the earth.

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.

Sariah, Concerned Mother of Four Sons

Lehi, the first prophet in the Book of Mormon, was commanded to leave Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and take his family with him. We know that Lehi's two oldest sons, Laman and Lemuel, went grudgingly. They had a rebellious streak a mile wide all their lives. Lehi's two younger sons, Sam and Nephi, were obedient and often reminded their older brothers to keep the commandments.

Well, today I read the part in the Book of Mormon where Lehi and his family were far from Jerusalem and he was commanded to send his sons back to get some important records. What did Laman and Lemuel do? You guessed it. What did Sam and Nephi do? Correct. 

What did Lehi's wife do? We don't find out until the boys return from their trip. It was going to be very dangerous and Sariah was very worried about them. She complained to her husband, the prophet, for sending all of their sons to their death. She told her husband "that he was a visionary man; saying: Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness." (1 Ne 5:2)

Lehi replied to Sariah and I can hear the tenderness in his words. "And it came to pass that my father spake unto her, saying: I know that I am a visionary man; for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision I should not have known the goodness of God, but had tarried at Jerusalem, and had perished with my brethren." (1 Ne 5:4)

Lehi had a testimony of the Lord's commandments. He also knew his sons would be safe on their journey. When the boys finally returned with the records, "their joy was full, and my mother was comforted. And she spake, saying: Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee [and] hath protected my sons." (1 Ne 5:7-8)

It is very interesting to me that Sariah didn't have a testimony of the Lord's command to leave Jerusalem and find the promised land until after they had set out and faced some challenges. She must have been a remarkable woman of faith and after this trial she was blessed with greater understanding of the Lord's will.

We all gain testimonies at different times and in different ways. I know that if we listen to the Lord and follow His prophets we you will be comforted, blessed and strengthened.

I Am So Excited About Christmas!

Our decorated Christmas Tree, plus boys.
Ya, that's a Santa hat on the angel.

I just love Christmas. My favorite parts are 1) the music and 2) that people are a lot nicer to each other than during the rest of the year.

I listen to lots of Christmas music starting the day after Thanksgiving until some time between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. I don't really have anything against listening after the new year, but I do try to be thankful for Thanksgiving and give it every day it deserves. So I respectfully wait until I wake up Friday morning to begin listening to my favorite music. It's one of my ways to be thankful for Thanksgiving. But this post is about Christmas!

So I crank the Christmas music for hours every day. We have lots of CDs at my house with a variety of musical goodness. I had my favorites before I got married. They were pretty much what I grew up listening to at home. After I got married I also listened to a bunch of my wife's favorites. Now, with free music sites like Pandora and a host of other sites, the variety of songs keeps me going longer before I feel like I just can't listen to them any more.

When Christmas is over and the cheer wears off a bit, so does my desire to keep hearing the songs. Part of the magic for me is looking forward to Christmas Day. So when the Day is over and thoughts set in of going home from vacation or going back to work, I ease up on the listening until I stop all together. It's just a natural change of focus so there's no set day for me.

Now, fast forward to July. There's a bio-clock that goes off inside me in July to hear more of my favorite Christmas songs. Maybe it's subconsciously bestowed upon me by song Christmas in July. Maybe. But probably not. I'm not sure. But I do hum or sing a few songs to myself in the heat of the summer. Then I tell myself it's just silly and I get on with my non-December, non-Christmas life.

Every year, after the summer ends there is a fun build up of holidays and celebrations. I'm not sure why I get so excited during the fall, but I guess my birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving are enough to get me over the dreary fact that the days are getting shorter and colder. But the week or two before Thanksgiving I'm chomping at the bit for some happy Merry Christmas tunes.

Aaaaaahhhhhh........

Christmas is coming!

Someone Paid For Your Food

Angie and I have gone on a date nearly every week since we got married. Spending time away from home and from the kids each week is a great way that we have found to relax from the day to day busy-ness and to enjoy each other's company. We put a high priority on our marriage and family happiness and this does wonders for us. Most of the time we go out to eat and talk about stuff that has been going on. Stuff for her, stuff for me, stuff about the boys. There have been times where we run out of things to talk about and we just stare at each other and snicker.

I just love it. Sometimes I just watch her when she's cutting her next few bites of burrito and she thinks I'm doing the same. She's so nice to look at and she warms my heart. Only when she looks up does she catch me showing my affection toward her with a big grin on my face. "What are you laughing at?" she usually asks. Then I tell her that I love her tons and we go on with our meal...talking or staring. :)

Well, there's an awesome Mexican restaurant where we eat often. This place is really popular and busy. We see someone we know there every few times we go, which is a lot of fun. This week saw two families that we know. We visited briefly with each of them and then got down to business.

The business of eating.

We were the last to arrive and we were the last to leave. After we ate we asked for some more chips and salsa. Yum. Then we talked for so long that we figured the waiter forgot about us. It was really weird. After a really long time, a different waiter came walking along holding fried ice cream. It's really good stuff, but he made eye contact and I didn't want him to ask me if we saved any room for dessert so I averted my eyes. He marched right up to our table and said, "Someone paid for your food and they bought you this."

We were floored.

This is the kind of thing that you do to be sneaky and nice for someone else, not the kind of thing that happens to you! But it did happen. And it happened to us.

So we approached the Nice-Doers today at church. We thanked them for their surprise and she said, "Actually it was his idea." I shook his hand and he said, "I remember what it was like to be your age and in school. I thought it would be nice."

Thank you both. You made the world a better place. You strengthened our testimonies. You showed service in action and the love of the Lord toward your fellow men.

May the Lord bless you richly!