IT's HERE!!!

I have finished the challenge! Just one last talk tomorrow morning to start my morning off right before Conference! I have six questions prepared! Wonderful friends and family around--I am in for a CHOICE weekend with GOD!!! I invite you to join in too! God will answer your prayers and guide your path! Peace and joy are to be had! His living prophet will speak! I can't wait!  9 1/2 hours and counting!!! 

Happy General Conference!!!

Can it really be that simple?!

Last night, to bring the Sabbath to a close, I went to a Fireside put on my a ward in my stake. President and Sister Moss shared a little of their love story and then shared some beauitful truths.  President Moss reminded us all of the story of the Children of Israel. They had hardened their hearts and so God had to straiten them because of iniquity. God sent "fiery flying serpent among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished." (1 Nephi 17:41). President Moss then held up The Book of Mormon and submitted that he believed that it is what has been prepared for us.  And all the labor which we have to do is look [read], BUT BECAUSE OF THE SIMPLENESS OF THE WAY, OR THE EASINESS OF IT, there are many who perish (choose to perish) because they will not read/open the book...!

Can it really be that simple? Fiery Flying Serpents: addictions, depression, sin, iniquity, pride, guilt, doubt, fear, etc--come and bite us in life... So god prepared something that if we "read"/apply--we might be healed?! The Book of Mormon? Can the answer be really that simple?

YES!

100% YES! Don't be fooled into thinking that it has to be something way more growling or hard. Aren't we told that the simpleness of the way or the easiness of it caused that people perished because it was just too simple and too easy. Isn't everything worth striving for should be hard?! The hard part about The Book of Mormon is having faith enough to "test it out" without an already predetermined opinion of what the book is or what it can do for ones life, and for some, maybe just making the time to pick it up daily and studying/reading it sincerely. Perhaps telling oneself, "I tried once before and never felt anything." Or "I have the bible it is enough."

I have a better relationship with my Heavenly Father because of the principles found/applied from The Book of Mormon. I know better who Jesus Christ is, and what He did for me, because of what I have found in The Book of Mormon. And my life HAS BEEN healed many times over, because of God's words found in The Book of Mormon.

Can your life change that easily? Go from an okay life to a life filled with power and daily revelation/communion with God?! YES, IT CAN!! Is it really just as simple as starting to "look" into the pages of that book?! YES IT IS!!  Can God help you start such a habit/see for yourself a change?! Yes HE CAN AND WILL! The right/REAL question is... WILL YOU ALLOW YOUR LIFE TO BE HEALED by trying the simpleness/easiness of the way HE has established, reading The Book of Mormon?!

Well that is a question. ...

The Book of Mormon has brought be closer to Jesus Christ! He is the master Healer! And anyone can just start, TODAY! It is really that simple and that easy! 

I have seen God's hand...

I have seen God's hand... I see life drenched in His tender mercies.  Jesus Christ is my Redeemer. He knows the depths of my soul. He knows my joys and my highest highs. He knows my dark and lowest lows. He leads, He guides, He reaches down, He fills, He strengthens, He stretches, and He tests, He answers, and He doesn't leave me alone. I have witnessed His hand not only in my life, but in the lives of those around me. He is the Christ, the great Savior of mankind. The Savior, of me. How I love Him.

Jesus is the Christ.

I know, He lives.

COULDN'T HOLD A CANDLE...

Of all the wishes in the world...

When I was a little girl, I enjoyed finding a dandelion, making a wish and watching all the little white floaties fly away. Dad then lovingly taught me (no doubt after watching me do this to a handful of ones growing in our yard) that these beautiful little white puff balls that I enjoyed blowing away, would plant little seeds in the grass... and as a result, the next year I would have even more "yellow" weeds to try and dig out of the grass.) WELL, I am not a lover of weeding, so that conversation stopped me from picking on/blowing on a dandelion while in a residential area! :D

With the picture above, when I first went to crop it, I focused on the dandelion right in the center. Full, and no "wasted" seeds missing for my wishes.  But it is actually the dandelion to the right that strikes a cord with me this morning. The last week or so, I have been contemplating on my life and not only what I am doing but who I am. This contemplation has been brought on because of some dates I have gone on, comments made by strangers and loved ones, and also the fact that this year I turn 30... needless to say my life has not really gone in the direction I thought it would. 10 years ago, I was focused on marriage and all the wonderful things that would bring... God took those "blown" wishes and turned them into a mission. Never have I been so grateful that my "Fairy God Father" knew perfectly what He was doing with my wishes. He blew them in a direction I had never dreamed of NOR wanted (at the time). And how those seeds have grown and become beauitful to me!

After the mission, I was "blown" into school and a path I was not interested in. Again the wishes for something I thought that would be good for me, but oh how God knew better. He always knows what is best...! The callings, the associations of those that have come into my life as a result of those callings, the trials, the tests, the sorrows and the joys... Michael McLean's lyrics state what is in my heart this morning...

God knew/knows where He was/is directing the seeds/paths of/in my life. How thankful I am for His kindness and long-suffering with me. My life is not where I dreamed/wished it to be--IT'S BETTER! (!!!)  And I see His hand daily.

All I ever wanted,              
all I ever dreamed of,                   
everything I hoped and              
all the things I prayed for,       
     Couldn't hold a candle to what I've been given! 
--

Because I have been given much, I too must give;
Because of thy great bounty, Lord, each day I live
I shall divide my gifts with thee With ev'ry brother that I see
Who has the need of help from me.
...
Because I have been blessed by thy great love, dear Lord,
I'll share they love again, according to thy word.
I shall give love to those in need; I'll show that love by word and deed:
Thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed.
               --Text: Grace Noll Crowell

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the atonement, a way to repent and become better, time to prepare to meet God--to work out salvation. And all those "wishes" I blew out, He has sent me countless seeds of blessings back on my path and has literally littered my way with His workings, His love and His angels. My heart is full.

I couldn't hold a candle, to what I have been given!  I too must give.

DESPITE WHAT'S LURKING

A few days ago I asked someone whom I love how they were doing. I knew that she has had much on her plate. Her response was profound, "Me.. I am decidedly good..." What a statement!! And let me tell you, she could be decidedly doom and gloom with the worlds approval and justification in her life's situations. HOWEVER she has chosen to be decidedly good, no matter what. What beautiful faith and trust in God. Does that mean everything is sunshine and roses! NO way!

I was searching through my pictures to find one that would go with this awesome statement, and I came across a four-wheeling trip Treebs, mom, dad, Thanyermack and I took back in July last year. We went up past where we call "The Sacred Grove" and continued on the trail until we came to a dead end. It is a beautiful little place where one can look down on Scolfield. (That particular day we were racing against the storm.)

We stopped to take a group picture and as we were getting ready to pack up, I noticed these pretty blue flowers growing right under the barbwire fence. The symbolism of something so beautiful growing despite something that can cause a lot of pain was overwhelming and I had to capture the insight by camera! The sad part however, was that I was not in focus with the flowers up front, but rather on the sharpness of the the barwire.... so I have never used the picture. (And yes, there is a lesson all there in itself of what one chooses to focus on in life. The beauty or the brier!) It wasn't until last night when looking through my pictures that I caught how much more amazing this picture is to me NOW after President Uchtdorf's Forget Me Not talk from last Sept. BY GEORGE, I HAD TAKEN A PICTURE OF FORGET ME NOT FLOWERS!!!! (For a refresher of President Uchtdorf's brilliant talk, click here.)

Here these flowers were growing in a pretty unknown/forgotten place! And they were growing despite the wires [experiences/conditions/afflictions/pain/LIFE] that hung over their head! You can see how perfectly a little left from the middle/bottom of the picture there is a piece of wire that has been wound over and over. And close to these words, you can see the rusty wire inching from the side of the picture. But these Forget Me Not flowers were DECIDEDLY GOOD! Still choosing to "bloom where they were planted" regardless of what stretched/gloomed before them. What an attitude!  
What great faith it takes to live decidedly good!  

President Monson has reminded on occasion of the adage “When the time for decision arrives, the time for preparation is past.” And Barbara Thompson shared:

In the book Daughters in My Kingdom, we read about Sister Hedwig Biereichel, a woman in Germany who suffered much sorrow and deprivation during World War II. Because of her love and charitable nature, and even in her own great need, she willingly shared her food with starving prisoners of war. Later, when asked how she was able to “keep a testimony during all [those] trials,” she replied in effect, “I didn’t keep a testimony through those times—the testimony kept me.”

So I must decide right now, what will my attitude and heart be when the wires of life poke or threaten to barricade my way progress/growth... will I be decidedly good come what may and no matter what? Will I forsake my faith/hope/joy, or allow God's plan of "keeping me" even in the mist of a storm? ... when time for decision arrives, I will, like my wise friend, choose to live my life decidedly good! I choose to live my life decidedly happy, decidedly optimistic, decidedly faith-filled, decidedly rejoicing/trusting in Jesus Christ. Decidedly firm in my commitments to God... BECAUSE Jesus is the Christ and I am decidedly seeking to become like Him.