Life! Isn't It About Family?

My heart is always full, but today it is overflowing. Saturday our 30th grandchild was born. Both mother and son are doing well and John Gregory Ferguson’s three siblings are excited to welcome him home. What a miracle birth is!

I know that many sorrow because they can’t have children or don’t have as many as they want. I don’t pretend to understand why so many wonderful people who would be such amazing parents can’t have children, but I do know that God will bless them and that at some point they will have many, many children. As the Psalmist said, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalm 127:3). I have been blessed with many children and grandchildren in this life, and I rejoice greatly in that blessing. But I also know that because children are “an heritage of the Lord,” those of you who now sorrow for the lack of children will be compensated in this life and blessed in the next with the reward of children.

There is so much we don’t understand. That’s where faith comes in. But this much I do understand; God loves us and will make everything all right if we just trust in Him. We don’t understand, but He does. We can’t see the end, but He can. We can’t begin to comprehend the marvelous blessings, but He is waiting to bestow them upon us. Because of Him my heart is full!

Guard Your Heart

In Proverbs I found a piece of advice that I like. It says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The Complete Jewish Bible translates that same verse as, “Above everything else, guard your heart; for it is the source of life's consequences.” And the NIV translates it, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

This past few months as the Swine Flu scare has taken the spotlight I’ve wondered what the world would be like if we spent as much time worrying and striving to keep our hearts healthy as we do our bodies healthy. When negative things like jealously, anger, resentment, grudges, or fear enter our hearts do we seek for ways to inoculate ourselves against them? Many of us stock up on cold and flu medicine at this time of year. But are we seeking out and storing up knowledge of how to rid ourselves of spiritual illnesses? When we feel negative things creeping into our hearts do we act immediately and fight off the negative emotions or do we sit back and say, “Well that’s part of life” And let it fester and grow?

Negative feelings are sickness to the heart. But the Truth Tools are medicine that heals the heart and keeps us living in Truth. It takes effort, but it is worth it. There is only bitterness to be had by drinking from the sickspring that is found in the Pit of Illusion. Instead, we can drink from the Wellspring of Living Waters and be filled with joy and peace.

The Day After

I ate way too much yesterday! But I was grateful the whole time I was eating. Does that count for anything? The house looks like a train hit it, and the noise level is beginning to pick up again after dying down for a few of the night time hours. But what do you expect? As a friend of mine told me last week, "Your family is big enough to be one of the lost ten tribes." I love it! The only sad thing is that Thanksgiving Day won’t come again for 364 more days.

I hope you all had a happy day. If not, figure out how to make today happy and make up for it! Much love to you all.

HappyThanksgiving!

Today's the day! My favorite day of the year. And now I want to hear how all of you thankful people felt all month as you daily gave thanks.

I thought I knew how wonderful it would be, but it turned out even better than I thought. My heart would start out the day so full that sometimes I felt like I'd burst with joy. I've enjoyed this gratitude state of being so much that I hope I can keep it up. The other thing that surprised me is that I didn't even begin to run out of things to be grateful for. There is so much!!! I am so blessed!

So now you tell me. How did your thanksgiving month go? What did you experience?

Oh, the Joy!

Most of the time when we think about living the gospel of Jesus Christ, we think in terms of behavior. For example, We think in terms of “Thou shalt not steal.” However, if a person wants to steal and thinks stealing would get him what he wants in life, but has been taught he shouldn’t steal, then living the gospel is very difficult. He is always having to control the urge to steal and tempted with thoughts about how the gospel is so difficult to live and is a burden in his life.

But Jacob teaches us that living the gospel isn’t about behavior; it is about thoughts. He tells us, “Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal” (2 Ne 9:39). Behavior is born out of our thinking. If we are carnally-minded and want to steal from others then living that commandment is very difficult, and eventually those thoughts can be so strong we end up stealing. But if we are spiritually-minded so that the thought of taking something that belongs to someone else is repugnant to us, living the commandment is easy.

It is this way with all gospel principles and commandments. It starts in the mind not in the behavior. We need to learn to control our thoughts and direct them so that we are spiritually-minded and then our actions will be righteous and living the gospel a joy instead of a burden. Maybe that is why the phrase, “spiritually-minded is life eternal” forms the acronym SMILE. When you are spiritually-minded the joy you feel makes you smile!

Thanksgiving Has Begun!

My favorite holiday is here! It has started! And the best part is that this year I have family. Two of my daughters and their families arrived last night and my son and daughter who live in Utah will be here most of the week. I have five grandchildren in my house at once and am loving it. Kirsha is staying at Mariah's house, but everyone was here for dinner last night so there were eight grandchildren in my house at one time. (I hope the excitement is echoing through the Internet!!!!) This doesn't happen to me often!

We have so many plans--a talent show, puppet shows, reading Shel Silverstein together cuddled up in the Inglenook, going to the Children's Museum together, touch football in the backyard, and especially Thanksgiving dinner! Chaos, noise, laughter, music, rowdy fun!!! That's what I have to be thankful for. (And also an endodontist that fixed my toothache today!)

Powered by Truth

One of the big problems that comes from living in the Pit of Illusion is that we become ineffective. Let’s use an example of mothering. You have a child that isn’t doing well in school and you begin to think things like, “I should be a better mother. I have failed my child. He’ll never get into college. I should have learned more in school so I could help my children. Why did I play so much instead of studying?” And with those thoughts you spiral deeper and deeper into the Pit but nothing happens to solve the problem.

But what is the simple truth? Your child is struggling in school. Does that mean you are a failure as a mother? No! So deal with the truth. Stay in the Realm of Truth. In that Realm, with the help of the Spirit, you can determine if you can help the child or if you need a tutor or if you need to get the child into a different class or whatever.

When we wallow around in the Pit of Illusion, we experience pain—unnecessary pain. But in addition we fail to help the people we were sent here on earth to help. There is no limit to the good we can do when we live in Truth because it is in the Realm of Truth that all good happens.