Shape the Back to Bear the Burden

I was going through stuff today and found a list I made when I was called to be a ward Relief Society president the first time.
It’s "101 Reasons Why I Can’t Do This Job." (Actually there were only 33.)
There was another list of reasons why I didn’t want the job.
And a third: reasons why I needed to take the job.

A few weeks ago when I was called be to stake Relief Society president, I made similar lists. It’s just something I have to do.

So finding my old list today was interesting. The substance of the “Why I can’t” list hasn’t changed much. But some. Being a RS president changed me more than anything I've done in life. It changed my very personality. Obviously not enough.

The reasons why I don’t want such a job have increased.
I'm older. I'm tired.

But most significantly, the list of reasons why I am willing to take the job got bigger. It is because of the things I learned from the first and second go-around.

This is what I know:

This is without doubt the Lord’s kingdom, and His work, and He is in it.
God lives, and reveals Himself, especially to worthy Priesthood holders.
This Church is run by revelation in every corner, even mine.
Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. He “shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it (TS Monson via sweet Jill).”
Perfection comes not in staying home and reading scriptures but in serving our fellow men.
I have been blessed too much and am too indebted to the Lord to refuse Him.
I love the Lord and know that to help His children is the most important and rewarding work of all.

I was set apart last week. It was a powerful and humbling experience.

I finally met today with the outgoing RS President. I felt again like a dumb little kid, and sick to my stomach all day. I felt before, but never more acutely than today, in dire need of help, and that, of myself, I am nothing.

The image that keeps coming to mind and that has gotten me through is that of a yoke.

I feel that a yoke has been put upon me, or that I have willingly stepped into it. That yoke is shared with the Lord and His servants, and as He moves forward, in a straight and steady fashion, sure of where he’s going, not distracted or deterred, we can walk together, our burden lightened by the shared load, to a glorious destination.
I am so grateful I’m not alone.


Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you; For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matt 11:28-30

The Party's Over, or We've Only Just Begun

This week I unpacked the last box from the quilt show and for me the "show season" is officially over. I thought life would be easier. Wrong again. I didn't even get to heave a sigh of relief.


Tomorrow night I will officially be set apart to be the stake Relief Society president. We've already had our first presidency meeting this week.

(My brother told me that his stake RS president is Anne Madsen, the wife of Truman G. Madsen. Was that supposed to make me feel better?? He said I was in good company.)



There seems to be a lot of changes happening in my life right now.

I went to church in a new ward last Sunday. They moved our neighborhood again into a different ward. From our little neighborhood my old ward lost their RS pres and counselor, the Primary president, and the ward clerk. That’s some neighbors I have, huh?
My new ward is small but includes the stake YW pres, now the stake RS president, the just-released stake Primary president, the stake YM Secretary, 2 high councilors, and several stake seminary teachers . Especially for a stake with 17 units, that’s a pretty high concentration. Some ward I’m in, huh?


Today I had a farewell lunch with the stake YW presidency that I've been serving with. I have loved them and learned so much. The president said the saddest thing she had to do all week was take my name off her YW e-mail list, but this last get-together was saddest for me.


For the first time in my married life I have someone coming in to clean house for me. I've always said I'll feel like I have it made when someone else cleans my house. Do I feel like I have it made? Not in the least. It's a limited cleaning, but it frees me up to have book club and study group and presidency meetings and do all I have to do with less stress, and it makes my husband happy.


We've been in a drought so long that torrential rains have caused severe flooding, destroying hundreds of homes and 5 lives; people are still missing. One county alone had 75% of the corn and wheat crops damaged, and $27 million in property damage. Part of that area is in our stake. Oh, wait, isn't the stake Relief Society president supposed to do something about that???


Guess I better go read my handbook, and my book club book, and my scriptures and my Ensign and the newspaper and my e-mail and 5 years of World-Wide Training books and -- yikes! what am I doing sitting here? I gotta go.....




Be of good cheer.

The kingdom is yours and the blessings there of, and the riches of eternity.

And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious.

And he that is a faithful and wise steward shall inherit all things. D&C 78

From the Frying Pan into the Fire

I was finally released from my calling in the stake YW.

I was happy about that---for about 2 seconds. Then I was called to be the Stake Relief Society President! I was so stunned I couldn’t even respond to the Stake President.
The fact that I had absolutely no premonition about this ought to be evidence that I’m not the one for this job.
I already have 10 pages of journal writings about my roller coaster ride of the past few weeks, most of it spent in abject mortification.


However, it didn’t take me long to realize, that though I may not want it, it is a great gift that is being given me:

• the gift to be better than I am,
• to get outside of myself and be useful,
• to make a lot of great new friends,
• to associate with the best people in our stake, and
• to open the door to the inspiration and blessings of God, for me and my family.

How can you turn down such gifts?


Today I was sustained, and no one objected.

Recently I was led to these words that Jesus spoke:

I do nothing but what I see my Father do.
I do nothing but what my Father taught me.
I speak only that which my Father has told me to speak.
I do only those things which please my Father.
I am in Him and He is in Me; we are one.

I’m not like the Savior or have the same mission, but, like Him, I am a child of the same Heavenly Father, and have been given a mission to perform. Like my Older Brother, it’s not about me, but about the Father’s work. We are on His errand.

No one knows better than I, that I am nothing without Him.

But I know a little of what the Father can make of us.

I hope I can be a good errand boy, a pencil in his hand, an instrument through which he can work to accomplish his purposes.

I hope that as I come more fully unto Christ, that with his help I might be of some help to others.

I hope, as Marion G. Romney once said, that I don't do more harm than good.

Wish me luck.

All prayers accepted.

Stormy Weather

I came home from work early today because we're having yet another storm and we lost all power.

We've had three major storms in the past month. According to the newspaper:
April 13: at least 4 tornadoes and widespread hail caused $100 million in damages.
April 24: Widespread flooding and tornado caused almost $10 million in damages.
May 2: Straight-line winds caused an estimated $75 million in damages.

Luckily my neighborhood was spared any significant damage.

It has been forecasted that in the near future Texas will have conditions similar to the great Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, and that it will be a permanent situation.

We won't soon forget the hurricanes of the last few years, or fail to notice the proven increase of earthquakes.

It makes me wonder about The Last Days. Will we all go merrily along thinking that these things are just natural occurrences, or will we have spiritual eyes to see them as Signs of the Times?

I also wonder if these events really do bring people closer to God, or not?


I can't do anything about all those other people, but I can wonder about myself.

I wonder if I don't need a few more storms to really turn my heart.

Over the Hump(s)

I'm finally over most of the humps of what has turned out to be the busiest spring of my life. Youth Conference is over, and the other stake events, and most of our quilting shows.
I'm not out of the woods yet, as our biggest quilting show is just a month away, my work hours and load will increase dramatically next week, and I've decided to head up our RS Enrichment study group. But for now I can take a breath. I don't know when my mind will clear enough to really blog again, but I wanted to check in.

I am always amazed at how utterly distracted we can get from eternal things as we bog down in daily demands. We so easily get caught in the thick of thin things. How quickly we forget.
Luckily for me, many of my activities were church-related, and in that process I had some great spiritual experiences, which do much to help me remember and stay on track. What a blessing that is.

So this week I will try to clear the clutter from my projects, watch a couple of movies to clear my mind, and get some rest. I'll be back, if not this week, then in another month.

Easter and the Temple

There’s been a few Easter Sundays in my life when I wrote the Easter program or was the main speaker, so I was immersed for weeks in the Easter story. It is a glorious and enriching experience. This year I hardly remembered it was Easter.

Instead, I have been preparing to lead a discussion in our RS study group this week on understanding the temple. So on this Easter Sunday I thought about the connection between the temple and the Savior.

When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was rent, signifying that the Holy of Holies, the hope of entering into God's presence, was now open and available to all men--because of Him.

That's why it is the temple and not the cross that is the symbol of our Church membership.

Today we ponder His atoning sacrifice, his suffering, and his triumph over death that bring us life. But it is his power and his priesthood, the blessings and glories of the temple, that bring us Life Eternal, back into the presence of God.

I think that alone deserves a Hosannah shout!

From the Rooftop

“Their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their secret acts shall be revealed.” D&C 1:3

I don’t understand why people willfully sin, because it seems like every time I make a mistake it gets shouted from the rooftops. Some little imp sees every little slip I make, grabs a megaphone, runs to the roof, and shouts it to the world.

That happened to me again. I had a normal, casual conversation with someone this week, and then this conversation turns up on an internet newsletter that goes to all the sisters in the biggest ward in our stake—not even my ward! It came across as an announcement from me, and quoted me several times.
I’ll admit I probably shouldn’t have been blabbing about this subject, but no one would consider it abnormal or inappropriate given the privacy of the situation. How does this happen?
It’s the little imp.

I don’t need the threat of jail, or of a fine, or even of ending up in the newspapers to keep me honest. Even Hell doesn’t scare me.
I know that whatever I do, however private or hidden I think a thing is, it never is. And even if it is hidden from the world for a time, Someone knows. And I know.


I’ll try harder to remember the proverb:
Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. Prov. 21:23


Meanwhile, don’t kill the imp. He’s just the messenger.

Testimony

What a glorious General Conference! Manna from heaven, for sure.
I have other things I need to do, but by way of letting you know I am alive and well, I will leave you the brief testimony I bore last week, nothing extraordinary, but how I felt:


When I was younger my sisters and I used to talk about the fact that we knew God heard and answered prayers—for other people. We weren’t so sure about ours. The past couple of weeks I’ve had occasion to think about the times and the particular ways the Lord has answered my prayers. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s that our prayers are heard and answered, even mine. And I love Heavenly Father so much for that—for being aware of our very thoughts and feelings, our desires and our needs, and for caring about them, and responding to them in very individual ways. I don’t know how to thank Him for that. I hope that by sharing my love and testimony today my gratitude to Him might be magnified.

I know that Jesus Christ is His Only Begotten Son, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind. I know that He is my Savior as He saves me from hopelessness and despair. I love Him for that, for all He has done and is doing and will do for my personal happiness, and yours.

I have tender feelings about Joseph Smith and the part he played in the restoration of the gospel. I have no doubt at all that this is the Lord’s Kingdom, that this is His work we are involved in. Every day of my life I am grateful to live in a time and place where we can enjoy the fullness of the blessings of the gospel and of the Church.

I have no words to express my gratitude for the Holy Spirit, that bears witness to the truth of these things, that guides and directs us and keeps us on the path that will lead us to our fondest dream, that of returning to that Heavenly Father who loves us so much and so well, of Whom I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ.




"To write the love of God ... would drain the ocean, though the sea was ink, and the earth paper and every stick a pen and every man a scribe. When I try to praise Him in beauty, honor and magnify the name of God, I find I have no language at my command that will do justice to the case, but when I lay aside this weak, frail body I expect to praise Him in beauty and holiness." --Sarah Studevant Leavitt


"...because of the love which he has to my testimony I, the Lord, love him."
Doctrine & Covenants 124:20

thanks..and thanks...and thanks

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in church reflecting on the times and the very particular ways that the Lord has answered my prayers in my lifetime, and most especially lately. I also realized I have been in this ward for over a year now and have yet to bear my testimony. So I felt a desire to be given the words and the Spirit to acknowledge the Lord’s love and bear my testimony of Him on Fast Sunday.

This past week I worked about 60 hours instead of my usual 20, didn’t have a single day off, wasn’t home a single night, never had a regular dinner, and the milk in my fridge is sour it’s been so long since I’ve been to a grocery. I’m exhausted.

I dragged in late to sacrament meeting this morning, missed the sacrament, and plopped in my pew expecting to rest. As testimonies began, I realized that the theme that was developing was --could it be?--receiving answers to prayers. Hmm. and then I got that you-have-to-bear-your-testimony feeling from head to toe.

“No!” I thought. “Not today! I’m so tired. I'm just not ready. And I truly don’t deserve it."

But, wait, I asked for this, didn’t I? It couldn’t have been more clear to me that the Lord was directly and specifically answering that prayer uttered in my heart weeks before.
It was a very busy testimony day—no quiet times that needed to be filled; I had to fight for a place in line. But I couldn’t NOT bear my testimony now, could I? With heartfelt gratitude, I did.


A testimony was borne by a sister who just returned from Utah where her son got married. She was not at all happy about this girl or this marriage. When she went to pick up a rental car, the agent, in their casual conversation, delivered a message to her of forgiveness in a way that when she stood next to her son and his fiancé in that special circle in the temple, she was cleansed of all hard feelings. She bore testimony, as did I and others, of the lovingkindness of a Heavenly Father, and of the angels of mercy he sends to us.



I don't know how to thank Him, for what He does for me, and for you.

There are no words sufficient.

Just thanks, and thanks, and thanks, --

and more...









“Write [thy] blessed name, O Lord, upon my heart
there to remain so indelibly engraved
than no prosperity or adversity
shall ever move me from thy love.”
Thomas a Kempis 1500 A.D.

What, me worry?

I think I am officially stressed.

That may not sound unusual, but for me it is.
It is a rare event.



People ask me why I don’t stress, or how not to, and this is the speech I give them:

1. Stress doesn’t usually change the situation that is stressing you. Whether or not you are stressed, the situation is the same. So why do that to yourself? If stress will help the situation, then by all means stress your little heart out, but usually stress does not make it better; it makes it worse for you and those around you.

2. Stress is something we do to ourselves. It is what we tell ourselves. Instead of telling ourselves we’re stressed, what if we changed our self-talk? What if we said things like, I can do this, I can handle this, this is not that big of a deal? It would be so much kinder, more productive and easier on our adrenaline system.

3. You can only do what you can do right now. You cannot act in the future or for people you can't do anything about. You can only do what you can in the moment. With foresight for the future, deal only with present.

4. I believe God will give us strength, but not for unnecessary or excessive worry. I don’t personally have the energy to always be stressed, and it gives me a stomach ache.

5. This too shall pass, and probably some good will come of it. Have faith in God, in yourself, and in the process of life. It will be okay. If not, when the time comes, well, worry about it then.


So, why don’t I take my own advice?
1. The one thing that does stress me is to be asked to do something that I feel I don’t have the ability or talent to do, made worse when there's not enough time to work it out, and it has to be done in front of other people. I have several of those things on my plate right now.
2. Sometimes the demands of life and pressures of time really can be overwhelming. It's almost enough to turn me to chocolate.

But not to worry. I'm taking my own advice, doing what I can do, and having faith for the rest in its own due time. All is well.

Oh, one more thing:

There is a Helping Hand. Put your hand in His.

That is my best advice of all.

Passport to Perfection

I was asked on Saturday night to pinch-hit for the Relief Society teacher on Sunday. I didn't want to do it because I didn't have the usual 100 hours that I like to prepare, and it would be the first time teaching in my new ward. But I agreed, and for my small sacrifice of time and willingness, I was richly rewarded.

I was downright giddy when I got my first passport last year. For me it opened up whole new vistas of places I could go, things I could see, experiences I might have.

In dreaming of places you'd like to go, of things you want to see and experience, do you ever think of destinations that are not geographical, but spiritual? Are there places you would like to go spiritually, things you'd like to see and experience that you haven't yet?

The passport to those places, according to President Spencer W. Kimball, is prayer.


In addition to the glorious knowledge that God lives, that we can communicate with Him, and that He will respond to us, there are blessings that come to us through the very process of prayer:

When we thank God for our blessings, we become more grateful, more mindful of our need for Him.
When we pray for loved ones and friends, we become more charitable, more apt to help.
When we pray for forgiveness, we become more repentant, more changed.
When we pray "Thy will be done," we become more submissive, humble, patient.
When we pray for missionaries, our own desires to do the work increase.
When we pray often, asking for help, we are kept from sin.

Prayer is not an optional activity for saints.
The very process of prayer aids us on the road to perfection.
The Lord's help we seek will see us through.


I think I've always believed that God hears and answers prayers. There is surely ample evidence.
But I have not always believed that He would hear and answer mine.
Now, when I think of the times and particular ways He has answered me, I feel such overwhelming gratitude for the tender mercies of Him to whom we pray.

One of Spencer Kimball's mottos was, Lengthen Your Stride.
Even kneeling, it applies.
Whatever level you are at with your prayers, there is higher ground to go to. There are spiritual places to go, miracles yet to be seen, experiences yet to be had. The passport to these places is earnest and sincere prayer.

So, fellow sojourners, pilgrims on a journey far from home--but not left alone--I bid you, "Bon Voyage!"

Have a good journey.

Go with God.

Seedlings

One Sunday when I was in high school, I was lying on the living room floor reading through a Christmas cantata the ward choir was singing that year. There began to form in my mind words for a narration for the cantata. I was surprised, but thought little of it and did nothing.

As a newlywed, some older women in my ward asked me to join them in writing and producing programs for the ward. Wherever would they get the idea that I could write or perform anything?

Years later I found a poem I wrote to my mother when I was 12 years old. I was surprised at my use of word play, even then.

I still do not think of myself as a writer, but over the years of my life I have written a few programs, speeches, silly word plays, and even poetry. I did not know it was in me; I simply did what I was asked to do.


It has made me wonder what seeds are in each of us that may go unrecognized, that with time, experience and opportunity, might blossom into something bigger and grander than we can imagine?

We might hold seeds of talents untouched. We might hold seeds of personality traits undeveloped. Who can know what a grand and glorious person we could become? or what possibilities lie within us?

C.S. Lewis wrote,
“There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.”




Do you ever wonder, who are you really?

And what might you become?

Change in Pressure

To Be Constant

When I was growing up, my father had a barometer hanging on his bedroom wall. A barometer measures the changes in external air pressure, predicting weather changes, and it helped Dad know if it was a good day to fly his small aircraft.

I was always fascinated with this instrument. I have since wondered if we aren't sometimes like a barometer, and change with the pressures outside ourselves. I hear a lot of talk about 'peer pressure' as if it's a given. I never felt slave to it, choosing instead to follow an internal compass, but know that we are affected a great deal by the climate around us.

I like to think about those for whom the external pressure changed drastically, and yet they were constant: Adam, Abraham, Job, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Joseph Smith, Joseph F. Smith (“true blue, through and through”), and Sir Thomas More, to name a few.

Robert Bolt, in my favorite play A Man For All Seasons, describes the self as “an equivocal commodity.” His main character, Sir Thomas More, says: “We speak of being anchored to our principles. But if the weather turns nasty you up with an anchor, let it down where there’s less wind, and the fishing’s better. And ‘look,' we say, 'look, I’m anchored.'”

Sir Thomas More didn't move his anchor when the tides and winds changed, and was executed because of it when he refused to utter the words that would have saved his life but were contrary to his beliefs.

The moral climate of the world has changed a great deal in my lifetime. Sometimes it can change in a moment.

One virtue we seldom hear about any more is constancy, the quality of staying true to one's self and one's beliefs no matter the pressures outside.

I suspect it's a virtue the Lord values.



“We do not have to live, but we must be true to ourselves and God.”

Integrity, the Crowning Jewel

If I were to choose a favorite Young Women value, it would be integrity. And not just because I like the color purple.

Integrity. Integrate. Integral. Integer --to be whole or complete.

In all of us, there is a gap between what we know and what we do. The gap can be small or large, depending on the person or the issue. To me, that gap, or break in the wholeness, is a lack of integrity.

Have you ever found yourself saying, "I know I should do that, but...." ? That's a sure sign of a gap. Sometimes we feel guilty about that gap; sometimes we don't. Sometimes guilt leads us to do something about that gap; sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we don't even recognize the gap.

Jesus came to earth to accomplish the Atonement, the at-one-ment, to help us bridge the gaps and become whole, or perfect. When we integrate the values, principles and attributes of perfection, when we do that which we know to do, then we come together in a whole and complete, or perfected being. We can’t do that completely on our own or in this life, but we can try.


When the Primary song, "I Am a Child of God" was first written, the chorus said, 'Teach me all that I must know to live with Him someday."
Spencer W. Kimball asked that it be changed to "Teach me all that I must do," as a reminder that it's not enough to know.
It has since been suggested that we change it again, to "Teach me all that I must be," to teach us that we must, on the inside and out, be, as Jesus taught, "Even as I Am."

To be honest with ourselves, with others, and with God --
to live as we know, --that is integrity.

To rephrase an old saying,
There are many tools of perfection,
but integrity is the handle of them all.




"Do not write a check with your tongue that your actions cannot cash." Neal A. Maxwell

Prayer; It's the Real Thing

There was a movie in the 1970's called "Oh, God!" starring George Burns as God. He appeared to a mortal (John Denver) and wanted him to tell the world that he, God, was alive and well.
One of the questions he was asked was, "Do you listen to everyone's prayers?"
His answer was something like, "Oh, no, just the ones that mean it."

There is a difference between saying a prayer and praying.
I thought it made sense that God heard only the ones we really mean, the ones prayed "with all energy of heart."

I was surprised when a teacher once asked, "When you pray, do you expect an answer?" At the time, my honest answer was, No, I don't think I do.

Fast forward a few years to a quote I found:
"There is not a single prayer offered by young or by old, offered in times past or in the present, or ever will be offered by any of Heavenly Father's children, that will not be heard and answered in the due time of the Lord." (Author Unknown)


I don't pretend to know how prayer works, but it has ceased to be a stumbling block to me. I'm glad that I've lived long enough to learn that prayers are heard, and answered, --even mine, and that at any given moment we have a Father in heaven anxious to hear from us.

I love what Julie Wang, a convert from Taiwan said.
She said, "I pray like this. I say, 'Hello, God, this is Julie Wang.'
Then I wait, and He says, 'Hello, Julie.'"


It's nice to know there's Someone on the other end of the line.




No time for God?
What fools we are,
To clutter up our lives with common things,
And leave without the Lord of Life.

Take time for God,
Or a poor misshapen thing you'll be
To step into Eternity and say,
'I had no time for Thee.'"
Anonymous

Tagged

When I realized the list was six things, not four, I about gave up.
I don't think I could do a "100 Things about Me" list!

Without a lot of thought, here goes:

Six Weird Things about Me:

1. I eat rice cakes in bed at night, and if I still can't sleep I have hot apple cider and buttered graham crackers.
2. I don't like to be called "Mrs. Sauter" because I feel like I'm not old enough.
3. I prefer to wash my hair in the sink, not the shower or bathtub.
4. I feel like I'm in the same mood almost all the time.
5. I always wait until the last minute to buy a birthday present.
6. I love mellowcreme pumpkins and think chocolate ruins everything.

(Does admitting I can't ever remember how to spell "weird" count?
Also, I like peanut butter toast with Miracle Whip.)


Six Things that Make Me Happy (right now):

1. Brownies
2. Going places I've never been.
3. Falling asleep on the couch after work.
4. Seeing my grown children be friends.
5. The last 50 pages of a good book.
6. Studying up on a topic.

And, of course, blogging--when I'm in the mood.

I did it!

Don't make me deaf with your thunderous applause, please.

The Grass IS Greener

Thoughts on my return home:

Florida is skinny.
It takes 2 hours to cross the state; it takes 2 days to cross Texas.

Florida is green.
Texas is brown.

Florida is flat.
Texas is too, but Florida is lush and beautiful.

Florida has lots of water -- seas, gulfs, lakes, bays, inlets, waterways, rivers, everglades, etc.
Texas has a few ugly man-made lakes.

Texas is bordered on one side by the Gulf of Mexico.
Florida is too, but surrounded by the beautiful Atlantic Ocean on the other.

I think there might be more yachts in Florida than there are longhorns in Texas.

My skin loves Florida, but my hair hates it.


I was happy when I lived in Las Vegas, until I drove out of the city. When I realized I was living in a desolate desert, I’d ask myself, Why am I living here?
I’m happy enough living in Texas, but when I saw Florida, I asked myself again, Why am I living here?
Sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side.


In Florida we experienced the four theme parks, resorts and Downtown of Walt Disney World, saw Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, rode airboats through the Everglades and water taxis through city canals, drove the amazing Florida Keys, 25 degrees from the equator, ate alligator and papaya, saw beach after beach, water park after amusement park, and fun thing after fun thing to see and do.
There’s very little to do in Texas.

If we had kids traveling with us, they would have been endlessly entertained just in the car by counting the number of toll booths on the turnpikes, of license plates from all different states, of foreign languages heard and people met from Canada, alligators and egrets, and even by playing the alphabet game since Florida seems adept at getting those hard letters on their license plates.



Alas, I am home again in Texas.
The grass isn’t green, but it’s home.
And I got to cross a few things off my list of Things I Want to See or Do Before I Die.


Maybe you are green with envy.
Maybe someday you will get to go to Florida, where the grass is green.

I certainly hope so. It's a beautiful and fun place to go--that is, when there's not a hurricane.

TTFN

The Travel Bug has bitten and I'm off again. This time for Florida for two weeks and for my very first time. We will do Disney World, visit my long-lost brother-in-law, and drive through the Everglades to Key West. I'm stoked.

Whenever my sister-in-law would leave on one of her many trips, she would leave a note on her fridge telling her children that if anything happened to her, to be sure they got married in the temple. Well, her children, and mine who are married, are all married in the temple. I wonder what she says to them now.

Whether we travel across the country or across town, something could happen to any one of us at any time. What message would we like to leave our loved ones?

I would want to leave a note so my children would know that the Gospel is the most important thing in life, and it is worth every sacrifice in giving it your all.

I do have a sign on my fridge. It says, "You can't fire the cook; slaves must be sold."

No, not that one. It says "Let there be No Empty Chairs in our Heavenly Home."

It would be my hope that my children would be clean and dressed, spotless and in white, and present to share in that heavenly feast.


So, TTFN (ta ta for now), and I hope to see you soon.

If not, then I'll be holding your seat at the table!

Standards

We just had our stake Young Women basketball tournament. I’m always surprised how many girls come out to play basketball. It’s a sport I have never enjoyed playing; I don’t think any of my girls liked it either.

Maybe I would have like it better if they lowered the standard so I could make more baskets. It was just too high. I have since learned that they almost never lower the standard for any age or circumstance. It is called a standard for a reason: because it is always set at a standard height.

I like that word “standard”. It reminds me of the standards we are supposed to be living. We wish those standards could be lowered to a level that is easier to reach. But those standards never change—not for any age or circumstance. They are Celestial standards; they are God's standards. It is not meant for them to come down to us; it is for us to come up to them.


I love the promises given in the pamphlet, For the Strength of YOUth, to those who try to live the standards:

▪ You will be able to do your life’s work with greater wisdom and skill.
▪ You will feel good about your self.
▪ You will be a positive influence in the lives of others.
▪ Your opportunities and strength will be increased.
▪ Your vision will be expanded.
▪ The Lord will make much more out of your life than you can by yourself.
▪ He will give you the help you need to meet your trials and challenges.
▪ You will have the help of the Holy Ghost.
▪ You will find true joy as you come to know the Lord and feel His love for you.
▪ You will build the Kingdom of God and prepare the world for the Second Coming.


Are the standards set too high?

I don’t think so.

Look at what points we can score.

Look at the Game we can win.


It will take some practice, and some high reaching,

but I’m ready to play.



A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or else what's a heaven for?
Robert Browning

Bite-Size Lessons

Today I came across a children’s book called COOKIES - Bite-Size Life Lessons — a book that uses cookies to teach virtues!

I don’t know what I would have thought if I hadn’t chosen the word "Virtues" to focus on this year, but because I did, I thought this book was written just for me.

Here’s a few examples from the book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal:

COOPERATION means “How about you add the chips while I stir?”
PATIENT means waiting and waiting for the cookies to be done. "Aren't I waiting so nicely?"
MODEST means you don’t run around telling everyone you make the best cookies, even if you do.
RESPECT means offering the very first cookie to your grandmother.
PESSIMIST means “How awful how absolutely dreadful I have only half my cookie left."
OPTIMISTIC means “This is great – I still have half my cookie left."
ENVY means “I can’t stop looking at your cookie – it looks better than my cookie. Boy, I wish it were mine."
TRUSTWORTHY means "If you ask me to hold your cookie until you come back, when you come back, I will still be holding your cookie."
COURAGE means "It was not easy for me to tell you that I took the cookie, but I took a deep breath . . .and made the words come out."
WISE means “I used to think I knew everything about cookies, but now I realize I know about one teeny chip’s worth.”

Aren't those great, simple bite-sized lessons anyone can learn?

Why, then, is it so difficult to do?

I've found that as I have pondered and tried to implement virtues more consistently in my life, the word that keeps coming to my mind is discipline. Our natural self wants to be selfish, mean, envious and lazy, and it’s hard work to do the opposite. It takes great discipline to be virtuous!

From the same root word comes discipline and disciple. And isn’t that what we are trying to do in being virtuous, to be a disciple of Christ? --To follow Him, to be like Him, so we can live with Him? For a mere mortal, it isn't easy.

Discipline is a virtue in and of itself, but without it there is no virtue at all.

That's my bite-size lesson for today.


Now I think I'll go have a cookie.



I'm trying to be like Jesus. I'm following in His way.
I'm trying to love as He loved, in all that I do and say.