Another Talk

Steven and I were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting. For anyone interested, here is my talk, sans the mandatory opening joke. It went over fairly well.

Scripture Study
Sister Ann M. Dibb related a newspaper account of an accident that happened several years ago in which four people died and seven more were left clinging to the underside of a 125-foot-high bridge for more than an hour. The accident, which happened in Ontario, Canada, occurred during a painting project for the city’s Bridge. Survivors held on to a one-inch lip of steel girder and stood on an eight-inch ledge of steel for more than an hour until rescue teams could reach them. After the tragedy, officials asked why the victims were not wearing any safety equipment. Their response was that the safety equipment was available to them but they chose not to use it.
Our journey on Earth is as hazardous to our spiritual well-being as the experience just related was to their physical well-being. Heavenly Father has not left us, His children, alone during our time here on earth. As Sister Dibb stated, "He has already given us all the safety equipment we will need to successfully return to Him. He has given us personal prayer, the scriptures, living prophets and the Holy Ghost to guide us. At times, using this equipment may seem cumbersome, awkward and horribly unfashionable. Its proper use requires our diligence, obedience and persistence."
Lehi's vision vividly illustrates the need for each of us to take hold of the iron rod, which is the Word of God (the scriptures), and hold on tightly until our earthly probation is over.
When holy men of God write or speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, their words "shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation" (D&C 68:4).
As soon as I was assigned this topic, the words to one of our cherished hymns kept running through my mind—“Oh Holy Words of Truth and Love” by Joseph L. Townsend. Its message is pertinent to this talk. Notice how often the word “Love” is used.
1. Oh, holy words of truth and love We hear from day to day,Revealed to Saints from God above, To guide in heaven’s way.
2. They’re from Apostles good and true, Whose names we all revere,Who daily teach us what to do In words of love and cheer.
3. They’re from the prophets God inspires, In counsels oft withstood,Reproving all our ill desires, Commending all that’s good.
Beautiful words of love Coming from God above,How sweet, how dear the words we hear! They’re beautiful words of love.
The official, canonized scriptures of the Church, often called the standard works, are the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Besides these, the Church magazines also contain messages given by past and current apostles and prophets.


One Sunday a young Relief Society teacher instructed the sisters in attendance to read the scriptures every day for 30 days and asserted that those that did would receive a special blessing on the 30th day. She then gave her account of testing that very claim. Being very concerned about her inactive sister, she read the scriptures daily for the required period of time and on the 30th day, the sister in question called and asked her to help put her life in order.
Greatly desiring a particular blessing, I began reading the scriptures faithfully and recording my daily progress, thus showing concrete evidence that I was faithful to my resolution. At the end of the thirty days, I could not discern any miraculous answer to my prayers. I decided that perhaps a sixty day period was necessary to earn the blessing I desired. After 60 days of consistent scripture study, I still did not realize the blessing I wanted. Being very determined to receive this blessing, I continued to read and record my progress and to this I added the practice of recording three things that I was thankful for.
After a year, I re-evaluated my efforts. Had I received the desired blessing? No. Then I asked myself if I had I received any other blessings. Reading the daily lists of things I was grateful for revealed that I had indeed. But the blessing that headed the list was the habit of consistent scripture study and the accompanying peace, insight, and knowledge that it brings me.
It’s been 16 years since I first committed myself to this practice. I call my scripture study time my “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” I open with prayer, write down three blessings I enjoy, and then read the standard works or articles from the Ensign.
Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president said, "One good way to start studying the scriptures is to 'liken' them to ourselves. Some people start by choosing a subject in the Topical Guide that they need to know more about. Or they start at the beginning of a book of scripture and look for specific teachings. . . .
"Whichever way a person starts studying the scriptures, the key to unlocking important knowledge is to keep studying. I never tire of discovering the rich treasures of truth in the scriptures because they teach with 'plainness, even as plain as word can be'.
"Through my scripture reading and the prayers that accompany my study, I have gained knowledge which brings me peace and helps me keep my energies focused on eternal priorities. Because I started reading the scriptures daily, I have learned about my Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and what I need to do to be like Them."
To illustrate this point, Kerry Brinsdon, of Australia, recounts, “I joined the Church when I was 20 years old and made many friends with other young single adults. I hoped to find someone to marry; yet as time went by, I began to feel as though the odds of my obtaining a celestial marriage in this life were waning.
“During a period when I was feeling particularly discouraged, I counseled with my bishop. He surprised me by pulling out a list of scriptures, each of which he said could teach a lesson about preparing for marriage. Working to prepare myself for marriage and focusing less on the fact that I was single would help me feel happier and more patient while I looked for a spouse.
“He recommended that I study the scriptures on the list and then add others to it. I could watch for possible applications to marriage in my personal scripture study. The list could then be a reference for me to turn to when I needed encouragement.
“Preparing for marriage wasn’t a topic I remembered ever having seen in the scriptures before. But as soon as I began studying the verses on the bishop’s list, I found that they—and many others—did, in fact, give me marriage preparation counsel and that studying them brought me comfort.
“At age 31 I married in the temple. Shortly afterward, my husband and I were invited to teach an institute course on preparing for eternal marriage. I shared with the students my experiences finding marriage-related scriptures, and we began searching for marriage advice in them together. Each week the students found other marriage-related scriptures to add to the list.”
Along these same lines, one of our friends asked himself what advice the scriptures would impart to help him become a better sales person. He reported that as soon as he humbly asked for this insight and applied the scriptures to his particular question, applicable counsel flooded his mind.
One summer at Girl’s camp, the Stake President’s wife informed us that we had to read at least two scriptures daily, otherwise you wouldn’t be studying the scriptures, just studying the scripture.
Why Search the Scriptures? According to the Visiting Teaching Message: Ensign, April 2009
President Howard W. Hunter (1907–95): "I commend to you the revelations of God as the standard by which we must live our lives and by which we must measure every decision and every deed. Accordingly, when you have worries and challenges, face them by turning to the scriptures and the prophets" ("Fear Not, Little Flock," in 1988–89 Devotional and Fireside Speeches [1989], 112).
President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994): "Success in righteousness, the power to avoid deception and resist temptation, guidance in our daily lives, healing of the soul—these are but a few of the promises the Lord has given to those who will come to His word. . . . Certain blessings are to be found only in the scriptures, only in coming to the word of the Lord and holding fast to it. . . .
" . . . Recommit yourselves to a study of the scriptures. Immerse yourselves in them daily so you will have the power of the Spirit to attend you in your callings. Read them in your families and teach your children to love and treasure them" ("The Power of the Word," Ensign, May 1986, 82).

Sacrament Meeting Talk

Hi. I just gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. I thought it was worth sharing, so here it is:

Gratitude

Introduction

My talk today is on Gratitude.

Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation and thankfulness for blessings or benefits we have received. As we cultivate a grateful attitude, we are more likely to be happy and spiritually strong. We should regularly express our gratitude to God for the blessings He gives us and to others for the kind acts they do for us.

· I only have three things to tell you today: two remarkable examples of the importance of Gratitude and a partial list of the things I am thankful for.

Part 1:

D&C 59:7 Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.
· Thomas S. Monson wrote, “We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.
· The following is one of the stories Cory Ten Boom told of her imprisonment in Ravensbruk, a concentration camp, where her sister, Betsy, and she were imprisoned for helping Jews escape the Nazis during World War II. Both were deeply spiritual and dedicated to serving the Lord and bringing souls to Him.
They were assigned to live in an over-populated, cramped barracks on the second tier of a straw covered platform used as a bed shared with seven other women. Contention was constant among the women and, to make matters worse, as Betsy and she were just settling in, they discovered that the place was infested with fleas.
In her own words, she wailed to her sister, “Betsy, how can we live in such a place!”
“Show us. Show us how.” It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize [Betsy] was praying.
“Corrie!” she said excitedly. “He's given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!”
I Thessalonians 5:15-18. "Comfort yourselves… support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil… In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
“That's what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!”
"Such as?” I said.
"Such as being assigned here together.”
"Such as…” the Bible the girls had smuggled into camp.
"'Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all these women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.'
"'Yes,' said Betsy, 'Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear!'
Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed suffocating crowds.'
"'Thank You,' Betsy went on serenely, 'for the fleas and for--'
"The fleas! This was too much. 'Betsy, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.'
"'Give thanks in all circumstances,' she quoted. It doesn't say, 'in pleasant circumstances'."
And so we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas.
The sisters began holding devotionals each night, even though owning, let alone reading aloud from the Bible, was a punishable offence. For some reason, even though the rest of the camp was under constant surveillance, their particular area had virtually no supervision. This was a constant source of wonderment to them. Eventually so many fellow prisoners joined them in their worship services that it became necessary to hold two sessions nightly. The results were that the women stopped their bickering and began serving each other.
One night the mystery of why the guards did not bother their building was solved. Two guards were heard complaining about having to enter the barracks because of the flea infestation. It was the fleas.

Sometimes I don’t recognize things as “blessings” per se, but since the commandment is to give thanks in ALL things...

Part 2.

According to Marion G. Romney, “Commandments put us under a solemn obligation to develop gratitude and the spirit of thanksgiving. We should be thankful and express appreciation for all of our blessings.”

Mosiah 2:20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another…ye would be unprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you.

· One night, while watching the evening news, a spectacular near-death story was aired about a young man who was attacked and killed by an assailant. His heart was literally cut in half. They even showed pictures the wound.

o Later, in an interview with the young man, he emotionally disclosed his remarkable experience. He said that when he left his body, his brother who had died sometime before him, was present and told him to go back; that it was not his time to die. Suddenly, he was seized by an overwhelming sense of his ingratitude. He was astonishded by how insensitive he had been to all those that had served him throughout his life. Even though the young man did not want to return to mortality, he was humiliated by his selfishness, he returned to life determined to make things right.


Part 3

Steven E. Snow wrote, “Gratitude may be increased by constantly reflecting on our blessings and giving thanks for them in our daily prayers.”

o Alma 34: 37 And now, my beloved brethren, I desire that ye should remember these things, 38 That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, … [but] worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

· With this in mind, I am thankful:

· For my husband when I come home from work and he is watching TV football, because he is home with me and not in Wyoming,
For the taxes I pay because it means I am employed, and for all the complaining I hear about the government because it means we have freedom of speech, For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat, For my huge heating and cooling bills because it means I have a comfortable home, for fussy babies in Sacrament Meeting because it means I can hear, For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear, For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard,
· For my children when they complained about having to get up for seminary because it meant they were learning correct principles and values,

for the Pilgrims and their pursuit of religious freedom, and that the Americas were founded on the Christ’s teachings, because they prepared the way for the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
· For the scholars that recorded the words of the prophets, for those that died to protect the records, and for those that translated them into many languages so that the Gospel can go forth to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
· I am thankful for those who raised me in the Gospel and to my teachers that taught me in such a way that I could understand the messages because it was through them that I began to develop my testimony.
· I know that this is the true Church of Christ, that President Monson is a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is a Second Testament of Christ’s divinity.

Cattching Up

My Little World

Piggie Tales

The latest on Taft College’s Piggie Pageant (an annual fund raiser in which ceramic piggy banks are decorated by different campus groups) is mayhem and subterfuge! As the number of contestants grows, so does the intrigue, mostly centering on Pignocchio’s nose. In a cheap attempt to sever ties to a known liar, Pignocchio’s name was changed to “Pig-Nokio.” Any fool can plainly see that Pig-Nokio is NOT Japanese. Duh! Next, his nose was “accidentally” broken by Carla Sandoval, requiring emergency rhinoplasty to further distance himself from his infamous relative. Does Nancy Stewart (Pig-Nokio’s sponsor) expect the American public to be that gullible?
As soon as plastic surgery was announced, out of the woodwork crawled Dr. Hamit Hoggs, self-proclaimed spokes-pig for flu vaccinations and purportedly skilled in plastic surgery, having worked on “the King of Pop.” Notice no name is specified. What’s the big secret, Geoff Dunham? Are you referring to Michael Jackson or the President of Coca-Cola? (King of “Pop,” get it?)
Pignocchio is not the only news-worthy pig. Where did the Transition to Independent Living (TIL) pig go? As you all remember, TIL won the Portliest Porker Prize last year, having collected more money than any rival pig, $129.03. (Top THAT… please!) Noticing TIL’s lack of participation this year, this columnist rooted out the whole story.
According to Debra Ekdahl, it was “pignapped” from Krystal Keller’s locked office. Later Ms Keller said the pig was taken on or about Oct. 23. No ransom was demanded. Keller sent a threatening memo to all TIL employees insisting on the pig’s return. Nov. 2, a pig dressed in purple star-spangled pajamas and night cap was found on Keller’s desk. There is only one logical explanation: The TIL pig is a shape-shifter that transformed into a Student Learning Outcome document so that it could rest undisturbed (Taft College in-joke), then shifted back to its original form. I can think of no explanation for the purple pajamas.
The Piggie Pageant silent auction will take place on Friday, Nov. 13, in the Taft College Admissions Office foyer and end at noon. Proud owners may take their piggies home just after the awards ceremony which will follow. The community is invited to attend.

Help Find a Website

This is a serious request for information. Does anyone know of a website that fits the following criteria?

1. Zen-type nuance
1. designed to reduce stress
2. plays soft music
3. offers a variety of screens filled with repeating geometric soft shapes like bubbles
4. intended for the user to run the mouse across to create wave-like ripples

I am on a staff development committee that will be looking into stress-reduction techniques for our next in-service meeting.

Weather Report

June 7, 2009: It snowed today in Cody. It's a different world.

Leah's Wedding

Here are some of my favorite photos from Leah's wedding.

The next several are of Mr. and Mrs. Brad Booker just after the "I do's."

As you can see, it was a beach wedding. Notice that the bride had the presence to go barefoot. Most attendees wore flip flops. Wish I had thought of that.











Here are Janica (Bess's dear friend), Zoey (Brad's niece), Bess, and Harriett resting up after the exhausting parts they played in the wedding party. Zoey and Harriett were flower girls and Bess was one of the bride's maids.

In this photo Hazel and I are either straightening Brad's collar or about to welcome him into the family. It's hard to tell from this angle.



Here are Leah and Brad hurrying to their reception.



Bonnie and Jen's beautiful cake. I am greatly impressed.

I have been experiencing technical difficulties and cannot make the captions line up with the proper photos. I therefore give up. Figure it out for yourselves.

Cedar Chest

Here is my latest creation. As you can plainly see, it's a cedar chest. Actually, it was a collaboration between Steven, Jean Conner, Kathy Pollock (my Relief Society President who takes shop class with me) and myself.