What a great message from our Prophet Thomas S. Monson, for November, the month we remember to give thanks!’ (October Conference 2010)
Gratitude is a divine principle.
A grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives.
This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
Do we remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive? Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel Gods love.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives
Said the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
How can we cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude? President Joseph F. Smith said
“The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him
the good outweighs the evil.
Love overpowers jealousy, and
light drives darkness out of his life.”
He continued: “Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man!”
Showing posts with label Responsibilities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Responsibilities. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Who are we and what are our responsibilities
I just read an amazing talk by Julie B. Beck that she gave at BYU Womans's Conference this year. Here is a quote from that amazing talk. You can find the whole talk here
“ I feel a great urgency for the daughters of God to do all they need to do to strengthen and lift not only themselves, their families, sisters who are in their wards, but also the world. I feel that the sisters in this Church who know and understand their covenants will be a significant force in helping this world, which seems to have lost its moral moorings.”
If you want to know what needs to be done to acomplish your mission as a Daughter of Israel read the rest of her talk.
“ I feel a great urgency for the daughters of God to do all they need to do to strengthen and lift not only themselves, their families, sisters who are in their wards, but also the world. I feel that the sisters in this Church who know and understand their covenants will be a significant force in helping this world, which seems to have lost its moral moorings.”
If you want to know what needs to be done to acomplish your mission as a Daughter of Israel read the rest of her talk.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
"Where Art Thou"?
“When Adam left Eden, the Lord clothed his body with a garment and his soul with a question. Adam, where art thou?” (More Holiness Give Me, Robert L. Millet)
Adam and Eve lived in this beautiful garden where they were in the presence of God the Father and His Son. I cannot begin to imagine the peace and comfort that was surrounding them and yet Eve knew that there was something missing. Something they needed to do, something they needed to become in order to be complete. Willingly she gave up this beautiful paradise to become a mother.
As Adam and Eve left the garden into the low and dreary world there was a fall. A fall from paradise where life was beautiful, comfortable and peaceful; a fall where the spirit now had to speak with spirit, they no longer were in the presence of the Lord.
We live in this world where Adam and Eve were placed, a world of turmoil and frustration. A world where we are free to choose and knowing the choices we make have consequences. The Lord asks us “Where Art Thou?” Does He not know? Of course He does. He knows us by name He knows us better than we know ourselves; He knows where we are and where we are going. He understands how important it is for us to know where we are. Therefore He asks, “Where Art Thou”?
Aren’t these thoughts on our mind often? Where am I in the eternal scheme of things? What have I done of any good today? What of worth am I going to leave for my children as I leave this mortal existence? “Where Art Thou”, a question that we need to ask ourselves daily. Am I doing what I need to be doing? Am I living the way I need to be living? Am I moving forward or falling behind.
Iwant to know where the Lord knows I am. I want to know what the Lord knows I need to do, to change, to become so I will know where I am.
I want to be His daughter. I want to live as His daughter. I want to return as His daughter worthy to stand in His presence and live with Him someday. Therefore, I am going to ponder this question “Where Art Thou” for a long time to come.
Adam and Eve lived in this beautiful garden where they were in the presence of God the Father and His Son. I cannot begin to imagine the peace and comfort that was surrounding them and yet Eve knew that there was something missing. Something they needed to do, something they needed to become in order to be complete. Willingly she gave up this beautiful paradise to become a mother.
As Adam and Eve left the garden into the low and dreary world there was a fall. A fall from paradise where life was beautiful, comfortable and peaceful; a fall where the spirit now had to speak with spirit, they no longer were in the presence of the Lord.
We live in this world where Adam and Eve were placed, a world of turmoil and frustration. A world where we are free to choose and knowing the choices we make have consequences. The Lord asks us “Where Art Thou?” Does He not know? Of course He does. He knows us by name He knows us better than we know ourselves; He knows where we are and where we are going. He understands how important it is for us to know where we are. Therefore He asks, “Where Art Thou”?
Aren’t these thoughts on our mind often? Where am I in the eternal scheme of things? What have I done of any good today? What of worth am I going to leave for my children as I leave this mortal existence? “Where Art Thou”, a question that we need to ask ourselves daily. Am I doing what I need to be doing? Am I living the way I need to be living? Am I moving forward or falling behind.
Iwant to know where the Lord knows I am. I want to know what the Lord knows I need to do, to change, to become so I will know where I am.
I want to be His daughter. I want to live as His daughter. I want to return as His daughter worthy to stand in His presence and live with Him someday. Therefore, I am going to ponder this question “Where Art Thou” for a long time to come.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Importance of home and family
Gods work is to bring to pass immortality and eternal life of man.
Our work is to know and understand and act upon every needful thing to return home to our loving Heavenly Parents.
We must know and understand the importance of Home and Family
Home is where we preside. It doesn’t’ matter what it is, how expensive or how humble it is, what matters is what is going on within its walls.
Elder L. Tom Perry reminds us:
We need to make our homes a place of refuge from the storm. . . . Even if the smallest openings are left unattended, negative influences can penetrate the very walls of our homes.
In general conference 25 years ago, President Spencer W. Kimball warned:
Many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us.
The battle for your homes is real. To preserve your family you will need to believe deeply and actively in family life in the home and take action.
Protect Our Homes,
Renew Our Powers
SHIRLEY R. KLEIN
“Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.”10 If our homes compare to the temple, what is it about the home that makes it sacred? Listen to the dictionary meaning of “sacred”: “belonging to or dedicated to God; worthy of reverence; set apart for or dedicated to some person, object, or purpose; that [which] must not be violated or disregarded; properly immune, as from violence or interference.”
As you develop spiritual strength through everyday activities in your home, you are building strong timbers and pickets to protect your homes. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read that God has only given us spiritual commandments and that none of them are temporal (see D&C 29:35). If God’s commandments are not temporal, that means they are not limited to this life: His commandments are everlasting. We can apply this to our homes by realizing that all our actions on earth have consequences. The things we do on earth shape the person we become now and in the life to come. Thus the earthly patterns of living we create in our homes have power to influence our spiritual outcomes. Spouses can “love and care for each other and for their children”21 and foster development of characteristics to prepare them for eternity.
Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley
In 1966, BYU Commencement address he said, The preservation of the family will be one of the great and serious challenges facing you in the future into which you come.
The family is under attack. All across the world families are falling apart. The place to begin to improve society is in the home.
If you want to reform a nation, you begin with families
No nation is stronger than the homes of its people.
The family is divine. It was instituted by our Heavenly Father. It encompasses the most sacred of all relationships. Only through its organization can the purposes of the Lord be fulfilled.
I am satisfied that nothing will assure greater success in the hazardous undertaking of parenthood than a program of family life that comes from the marvelous teaching of the gospel; that the father of the home may be clothed with the priesthood of God; that it is his privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father’s children to provide for their needs; that he is to govern in the home in the spirit of the priesthood ‘by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; (D&C 121:41-42);
And that mothers in the home is a daughter of God, a soul of intelligence, devotion, and love who may be clothed with the Spirit of God; that it is her privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father’s children to nurture those children in their daily needs; that she, in companionship with her husband, is also to teach her children to ‘understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands… and to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.” (D&C 68: 25, 28)
In such a home, parents are loved and not dreaded’ they are appreciated and not feared. And children are regarded as gifts of the Lord, to be cared for, nurtured, encouraged, and directed.
(Pillars of Truth, “ Ensign, Jan 1994).
The primary place in building a value system is in the home
The home is the seedbed of all true virtue. If proper values are not learned in the home, they are not likely to be learned anywhere…
The family is the basic element of society. Good homes become the foundation for the strength of any nation.
Continually he says
I plead with you to put harshness behind us, to bridle our anger, to lower our voices, and to deal with mercy and love and respect one toward another in our homes. There is no discipline in all the world like the discipline of love. It has a magic all its own.
There is too much selfishness
There is too much of worldliness in our homes
If there is less trouble in the homes, there will be less trouble in the nations.
In the family proclamation
“By divine design mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children
We have divine responsibilities to nurture our children.
What does nurturing look, feel and sound like? (D&C 121:41-42)
Our work is to know and understand and act upon every needful thing to return home to our loving Heavenly Parents.
We must know and understand the importance of Home and Family
Home is where we preside. It doesn’t’ matter what it is, how expensive or how humble it is, what matters is what is going on within its walls.
Elder L. Tom Perry reminds us:
We need to make our homes a place of refuge from the storm. . . . Even if the smallest openings are left unattended, negative influences can penetrate the very walls of our homes.
In general conference 25 years ago, President Spencer W. Kimball warned:
Many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us.
The battle for your homes is real. To preserve your family you will need to believe deeply and actively in family life in the home and take action.
Protect Our Homes,
Renew Our Powers
SHIRLEY R. KLEIN
“Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.”10 If our homes compare to the temple, what is it about the home that makes it sacred? Listen to the dictionary meaning of “sacred”: “belonging to or dedicated to God; worthy of reverence; set apart for or dedicated to some person, object, or purpose; that [which] must not be violated or disregarded; properly immune, as from violence or interference.”
As you develop spiritual strength through everyday activities in your home, you are building strong timbers and pickets to protect your homes. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read that God has only given us spiritual commandments and that none of them are temporal (see D&C 29:35). If God’s commandments are not temporal, that means they are not limited to this life: His commandments are everlasting. We can apply this to our homes by realizing that all our actions on earth have consequences. The things we do on earth shape the person we become now and in the life to come. Thus the earthly patterns of living we create in our homes have power to influence our spiritual outcomes. Spouses can “love and care for each other and for their children”21 and foster development of characteristics to prepare them for eternity.
Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley
In 1966, BYU Commencement address he said, The preservation of the family will be one of the great and serious challenges facing you in the future into which you come.
The family is under attack. All across the world families are falling apart. The place to begin to improve society is in the home.
If you want to reform a nation, you begin with families
No nation is stronger than the homes of its people.
The family is divine. It was instituted by our Heavenly Father. It encompasses the most sacred of all relationships. Only through its organization can the purposes of the Lord be fulfilled.
I am satisfied that nothing will assure greater success in the hazardous undertaking of parenthood than a program of family life that comes from the marvelous teaching of the gospel; that the father of the home may be clothed with the priesthood of God; that it is his privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father’s children to provide for their needs; that he is to govern in the home in the spirit of the priesthood ‘by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; (D&C 121:41-42);
And that mothers in the home is a daughter of God, a soul of intelligence, devotion, and love who may be clothed with the Spirit of God; that it is her privilege and obligation as a steward of our Heavenly Father’s children to nurture those children in their daily needs; that she, in companionship with her husband, is also to teach her children to ‘understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands… and to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.” (D&C 68: 25, 28)
In such a home, parents are loved and not dreaded’ they are appreciated and not feared. And children are regarded as gifts of the Lord, to be cared for, nurtured, encouraged, and directed.
(Pillars of Truth, “ Ensign, Jan 1994).
The primary place in building a value system is in the home
The home is the seedbed of all true virtue. If proper values are not learned in the home, they are not likely to be learned anywhere…
The family is the basic element of society. Good homes become the foundation for the strength of any nation.
Continually he says
I plead with you to put harshness behind us, to bridle our anger, to lower our voices, and to deal with mercy and love and respect one toward another in our homes. There is no discipline in all the world like the discipline of love. It has a magic all its own.
There is too much selfishness
There is too much of worldliness in our homes
If there is less trouble in the homes, there will be less trouble in the nations.
In the family proclamation
“By divine design mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children
We have divine responsibilities to nurture our children.
What does nurturing look, feel and sound like? (D&C 121:41-42)
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