Antidote for Troubles

It seems like every where I’ve turned the last few days I’ve heard sad stories. Is trouble getting more prevalent or am I just hearing more about trouble? I hope it’s the latter. But which ever, I don’t like hearing about trouble. Yesterday I told Mr J that I needed someone to call and tell me some good news. But then I got to thinking that this blog is Good News! and that the Good News! is Jesus Christ. Despite the terrible things going on in the world and around us, the everlasting Good News! is that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

The word savior means “one who saves from danger or destruction” and Jesus Christ will save this world and everyone in it from danger and destruction. He is the Healer and the answer to all the troubles. It is what the Lord told Joshua in Joshua 1:9 when He said, “the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

He walks with us in trouble and in peace. And while we don’t understand the troubles, we can be assured that He will at some point make them all better. Perhaps the best Truth Tool ever is simply to think of Jesus Christ, trust in Him, and move forward knowing that all will be well in the end.

Lighting Their Eyes

Today in class we are discussing the Isaiah chapters found in 2 Nephi 17-24. We start by going through chapter 17 verse by verse. We usually cover 17 and 18 and then touch on 19 and 20, but there isn’t time for much else. But the exciting thing is that chapters 17 and 18 can only be understood by first discussing the historical context that is found in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. The students come to class a little discouraged having read the Isaiah chapters and finding them as clear as mud. But then we discuss the history and lights begin to go on as the meaning starts to click and becomes easy to understand. That is the most rewarding part of being a teacher. It is so fun to watch their eyes light up with understanding.

But isn’t that one of the best parts of being a parent also? The lights coming on isn’t always as obvious with parenting as with teaching for many reasons. Sometimes the lights come on when you aren’t around. Other times a child purposely doesn’t want you to notice the lights are coming on and hides the fact. He or she doesn’t want to admit that anything is being learned from you! But there are times when you see and realize that you are getting through to them and they are learning from you. For example, whenever we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy there were usually a few arguments and kids trying to push the limits. But then days would pass and suddenly I’d overhear one of them explaining the Sabbath rules to a friend and they would be defending the very rules they had described as “stupid” before.

As parents we have to watch and savor those moments. Those times are wonderful times and as the children grow older you find out that there were many, many more moments of lights going on than you ever realized at the time.

10-10-10

Today is 10-10-10 and how perfect that it falls on a Sabbath. The number ten represents a "whole or complete unit existing within a greater whole." There are 10 commandments, we pay 10 percent tithing, there were 10 plagues in Egypt, there are 10 Lost tribes and each of these things while being a complete "thing" are also a part of a larger thing. Another way to put it is that 10 symbolizes "a whole part, but not the whole itself."

The Sabbath is a whole thing, a sanctified, holy day. But it is only a part of the week. But it is from this part of the week that we gain the peace and power to make it through the rest of the week.

(The qutoes are taken from Alonzo Gaskill's book, The Lost Language of Symbolism, pp. 132-133).

I'm Still Rejuvenating

We’ve been so busy lately painting and repairing and getting our basement ready for new carpet. They finished the carpet yesterday and everything looks so nice. Today we’ve been putting everything away. What a job! But I’ve been simplifying and that feels good. I’ve taken three huge loads to DI and many more than that to the garbage. We moved here eleven years ago so I can still remember the reasoning used to keep certain things. This time I find myself saying, “If I haven’t used it in eleven years, I’m not going to use it!” And out it goes.

One other thing that has been a problem all my life is that I like too many things. I like to cross-stitch, crochet, macramé, knit, sew, quilt, and so many other things. Over the years I’ve collected a lot of things to do with these kinds of projects. So the other strange thing this time around is that I find myself thinking things like, “I’m so old now I’m never going to get back to this!” and so out it goes.

It is strange how life changes and how a person changes as she grows older. I like this simplifying and narrowing down my interests. Now I just need to do this in other areas of my life. Slow down. Simplify. Declutter. Organize. It’s all part of my rejuvenation. I like this. It’s October and I’m still rejuvenating! What a good feeling.

Wow, 50,000!

In the next couple of days the 50,000th visitor will click onto

Good News!

As I have reflected on how my D7 started this blog as a surprise to me, how many of you so lovingly supported me through my battle with Grizelda, and the many of you who have signed up as followers, my heart has been filled to over flowing. I love signing in and seeing your pictures. It gives me the same feeling as walking into a room full of friends. Thank you for your comments for your love and for coming to visit.

As I wrote about a few days ago, there is so much negative talk out there about technology. And yes, I do understand that it can be misused. But there is also so much good that can be accomplished through technology. When those of you who have a link to my blog on your own blogs click into my blog from your link, I can then click into your blog and I love to see what you are doing. Many of you I’ve never met in person, but from following your blogs I feel like we are old friends. I love it and hope someday to meet you all.

So, thank you! And I am sending my love your way. May God bless each and every one of you!

Holding Fast to the Iron Rod

In my Book of Mormon class a few weeks ago we were talking about the dream of the Tree of Life and while discussing the Rod of Iron I mentioned that it is possible to fall off the straight and narrow path on the left or on the right meaning that it isn’t just liberal ideas that can lead us astray, but also ultra conservative ideas. The truth is in the middle.

At that point one of my students asked for examples of falling off the path on the right. I gave him several but just a few days later heard of an amazing example of this. A woman who was concerned with the words to some of the songs her children were listening to started to research on the Internet the singers and their music. Her concern was, of course, to protect her children. But the pursuit began to consume her. She spent hours and hours on-line digging up dirt about how evil the singers were and the hidden messages in the words to their songs. She had evil connotations and meanings most of the songs ever written. Her intent was good, but in so doing all this research, she was drowning herself and filling her mind with all the dirt.

Yes, it is important that we identify evil enough to avoid it. But to spend hours researching it only submerges us in the evil. It reminded me of my growing up during the John Birch era when people were finding evil everywhere and in everything. I once overheard a friend of my mother’s telling her about the evil connotations hidden in the nursery rhyme, “Humpty Dumpty.” Well, to me there were no evil connotations until she put them there. Her intent to help my mother avoid evil only created evil.

This takes us back to the concept that we create our own reality. We can center our minds on the simple fun contained in the rhythm and rhyme of a nursery rhyme and enjoy it every time we hear it, or we can research and assign all kinds of evil connotations to the poem so that every time we hear it we are filled with evil thoughts. As President Monson advised us this last weekend, I’d rather look for, remember, and enjoy the good. That's one of the ways we hold firm to the Iron Rod.

Getting Help

In the book Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the prophet Joseph tells us of a vision in which he saw the “Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, who are now upon the earth, who hold the keys of this last ministry, in foreign lands, standing together in a circle, much fatigued, with their clothes tattered and feet swollen, with their eyes cast downward, and Jesus standing in their midst, and they did not behold Him. The Savior looked upon them and wept” (TPJS p. 107).

Lately I’ve pondered upon this vision a lot wondering how many times in my direst moments, when I’m hurting because of the necessary pains of life, I’ve been so downcast that I haven’t lifted my eyes to notice that my Savior is there wanting, willing to help but I won’t look up. How many times have my sorrows kept me from the very help I need to succor those sorrows? 

But the most touching part of this vision for me is that the apostles suffering and forgetting to look to Him caused Jesus Christ to weep. He is there wanting to help us and when we don’t let Him it pains Him. I’m going to do better! Lifting our eyes and turning our hearts to Christ is the answer to enduring the necessary pain of life. It is so simple. So why do we forget?