Thoughts For A Sunday Afternoon!

I LOVE these suggestions from a wonderful book called "Spiritual Plateaus" by Glenn L. Pace

Consciously Working Towards Sanctification

(Sanctification: Other words that might be used are purification, the mighty change, born again,or even converted.)

1) Take time to take stock of yourself. Think of all the things the Church requires of you and place them in one of two categories: (a) I do it because I know I should, or (b) I do it because I want to. You may be surprised at how far along you are already. On the other hand, you may be very disappointed.

2) Read the scriptures. The Lord is not going to bless us with additional insights when we fail to take advantage of that which is already available to use.

3) Keep the commandments. If necessary, keep them by faith alone at first. Keep them out of discipline. When Adam asked why he offered up sacrifices, he said, “I know not, save the Lord commanded me.” (Moses 5:6) Great blessings come from obedience, even when we don’t intellectually understand why.

4) Always act on a genuine, warm impulse to do good. This can be as simple as an expression of appreciation, a note of encouragement, a visit to someone who is lonely, a compliment—anything that is positive and genuinely felt. As we act on these genuine impulses, they come more frequently and become stronger until we reach the point where our very disposition so to look for ways to serve others.

5) In your daily prayers, ask for sanctification. Ask the Lord to bring into your life those things which you need in order to place your spirit in a condition where it can be sanctified.

6) Use the heartaches and setbacks of life as stepping stones to increased spirituality. If we react to setbacks and even tragedy by turning ourselves upward with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we place ourselves in a position where the sanctification process can accelerate geometrically.

The key to the sanctification process lies in the way we respond to the adversities we face and the compassion we feel because of having been through these adversities. Compassion that we gain in no other way develops within us when we have been through a trial. I am convinced that before the mighty change can occur within us, each of us will obtain a broken heart and a contrite spirit through experiences we receive in life.

We don’t all suffer the same thing in order to develop compassion which accompanies the mighty change, but we all must experience something.

(from Spiritual Plateaus by Glenn L. Pace pp.77-78, 96)

What's Up?

Are we living in Seattle?

This is an unheard of forecast for this time of year.  Usually we have hit 100 by now and have had several days in the 90's with normal highs in the 80's.    I love it!

Secret To A Happy Marriage!

Recently Dan and I each needed to prepare talks for stake conference.  We have both spoken in the same session of conference before and it was not a fun experience that last few hours as we both needed to use the computer at the same time.  But this time it was a breeze!  Thanks to our new secret to a happy marriage:

We love our new laptop!

I was planning to do a photo montage of the stake conference weekend. I thought I'd take my camera with me and get some great images of the parking lot filling up, people walking in and all the other goings on, but then I realized a couple of things.  Most of the best shots would be inside and that's not allowed.  And when I tried to do some outside, I think people were wondering what I was up to, so I stopped doing that as well.  Here is all I got of our wonderful weekend of Dan's first stake conference:

Preparing four talks!

The Saturday night dinner inbetween sessions:

Leaving the building on Saturday night after a great session!

The official count was 1,599 people at conference Sunday morning!

(Check out the Closing Prayer)

Funny Hannah!

I was babysitting Hannah, Joshua and David yesterday in the late afternoon.  MaryAnn had left a snack for them.  After the snack Joshua and David got busy playing with toys, but Hannah seemed to want some special attention from me.  So she proceeded to keep asking me for something to eat telling me how hungry she was.  I knew she had just had a very filling snack, so I fended off her requests as best as a Grandma can.  (She did manage to get a couple of sucky thingys out of me!)  But she did not give up even when I told her that Mom and Dad would be home soon.  Near the end of the babysitting I decided we needed more light in the family room so I turned on the switch, and Hannah asked why I was doing that.  I told her: I am a person of light!   Quick as a wink, she said: Well, I am a person of food!

Kids are always thinking!   Good luck parents!!

Greatest Success Formula!

I love this!  It comes from one of  my favorite people, John Bytheway. 

"Kim and I recently listened to an audio program that had a profound effect on us.  Dr. Wendy L. Watson (now Nelson!), a professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University, tried an experiment with eight women, ages 18 to 55.  She asked them to do something simple but specific for five days (I'll tell you what in a moment).  "The experiences of these women," Dr. Watson reported, "blew us away."  Among the results they experienced were

• An increased desire to de-junk their physical environments
• A greatly reduced desire to watch TV
• An increased desire to reach out to others and follow through on commitments
• An increased ability to be kinder, gentler, and more patient
• An increased desire to take care of their bodies by living the Lord's law of health more fully
• An increased ability to see how they could have handled situations better
• An increased mental focus
• An increased ability and desire to study and learn
• A greatly decreased desire to backbite, gossip or be cynical
• A dramatic increase in their physical energy because energy-draining negative emotions were gone
• An unbelievable reduction in stress
• Profound changes in their conversations with others

"Dr. Watson continued for several minutes, detailing more of the achievements of these women. By now you are probably asking, "What in the world did they do?  How could someone possibly make all those changes in their lives?  Did they read some kind of motivational book?  Did they hire a personal success coach for $700 an hour?  Did they take herbal supplements or some kind of wonder drug?

No.  All they did was rely on something they already possessed.  Here's the experiment Dr. Watson asked them to perform:

For five days in their morning prayers, they were to pray with concerted effort for the Holy Ghost to be with them that day.  Then, throughout the day, as they encountered any difficult, tempting, or trying situation, they were to pray for and really picture the Spirit being right there with them."

"It dawned on me that the greatest success formula ever devised is repeated every Sunday by 16-year-old boys.  If we are willing to take upon us the name of Christ, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he has given us, we can always have his spirit to be with us!  No motivational book, no personal success coach, no herbal supplement, new diet or exercise machine could ever hope to match the power of having a member of the Godhead with us 24/7."

Top Ten Highlights!

Here are the Top Ten Highlights from our trip in Random Order:

#1: Mother's Day!

Darryl and Amanda gave me this yummy fruit bouquet!

#2: Fun with Grandkids!

#3: Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens!

#4: Dinner at Piazza Italia in downtown Portland--Excellent!

#5: Visiting on Plum Court (thanks Dad and Wismers)!

#6 Dinner at Famous Dave's Barbecue--Yummy!

#7: Visiting on Springer Lake Lane (thanks Bates family)!

#8: Glow Party!

#9: Visiting with my sisters (thanks husbands)!

#10: Beautiful scenery all over the Pacific Northwest but always love seeing Mount Shasta on the way home!

Sidewalk Chalk Is Fun!

Sidewalk chalk is lots of fun especially on a sunny day in Seattle!

When we arrived, Kathryn had written out her family with a picture of each on the left and their favorite flower on the right:

Here's a rainbow:

Kathryn

Amelia

Even the Dads got into the act:

The sunshine made everyone feel good!

Keeping Daniel busy:

Who put this on the wall?

Before and After!

It's always fun to see something "before" and "after!"   This winter I took a picture of my poppies coming up.  Doesn't look like much yet:

Wow!!!

Wild Swans!

Amanda loaned me this book a while ago.  She told me she loved it.  I was excited to read it!

Here is the description of the book:

"The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China...Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.  Chang left China in 1978 and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from York University in 1982, the first person from the People's Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British University."

"It's the story about the survival of a Chinese family through a century of disaster."

I plunged in and was enjoying it very much and learning a lot.  But as the story got more current and started overlapping my lifetime, it became harder to read.  It's hard for me to explain why but perhaps I felt some sort of guilt for the relatively easy life I had lived during the same years.  It was also hard for me to read about the oppression of so many of Heavenly Father's children by evil men and women.   I put the book away before finishing it.  I took it out again recently and was able to finish it.  The woman who wrote the book came from a privileged class in China as her family were elite members of the Communist party and yet they still had very, very difficult lives.

One part touched me deeply.  Here is a paragraph that made me remember never to take our plenty and our freedoms for granted:

"The newspapers proudly reported that Henry Kissinger had said his waistline had expanded as a result of the many twelve-course banquets he enjoyed during his visits to China.  This was at a time when in Sichuan our meat ration was half a pound per month!"per month"

"Getting hold of information became an obsession...It was through the efforts of these kind young men and women [librarians] that I laid my hands on some English classics.  Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" was the first novel I read in English...Being alone in the library was heaven for me.  My heart would leap as I approached it, usually at dusk, anticipating the pleasure of solitude with my books...I memorized the whole of the Declaration of Independence, and my heart swelled with the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," and those about men's "unalienable Rights" among them "Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  These concepts were unheard of in China, and opened up a marvelous new world for me."

Making Me Happy Today!

The Amazing Race!

 

Last night a ward in our stake held an "Amazing Race" competition--their 5th Annual to be exact! 

A few weeks ago they contacted Dan and I and asked us if we would be willing and available to help this year.  It sounded fun and interesting!  Our assignment was to be at the Folsom Outlets mall from 6:40 p.m. until about 8:15.  As the teams found us we gave them the clue that lead them to the next place. There were 9 teams with from 5-7 people on a team.   I understand there were at least 4 non-member couples participating.   Some of the other things they did were help paint a fence, have one team member drink an entire Slurpee at a Circle K, have one team member dive into a swimming pool to retrieve a penny, have three team members each eat a spicy hot dog at Urban Dogs, find a certain marked ball at a Sports Authority store, and they did something at a park as well as other things.  I guess this is an event that some members of the ward look forward to all year!  Each team had to figure out a puzzle before they could take off and then at the end, by collecting all the clues and finding hidden words on them and putting them together in the right order back at the church, they were done.  The first team back did not win as they couldn't figure out the puzzle at the end.  And teams were penalized 10 minutes every time they had to call the head guy for help.  I understand a couple of teams had to call for an extra hint because they couldn't find the "pair" they were supposed to find at the Outlets.  Although there wasn't a challenge connected with our part of the race, the Outlets cover quite a large area and so it involved a lot of running for the team members--it looked like the driver dropped them off and they all took off running in different directions with cell phone in hand as you can see from these pictures:

We didn't stay in the same place all night, but we sat on different benches.  We were told not to be inside a store as that would be too hard to find.  One time when we were walking to another bench, a couple ran right past us.  I tried to get a picture but they were fast:

We never saw the actual clue that lead them to us but it was something like this: 

 Go to a shopping place that is at a Premium and find a pair that you will know. 

Our outlets' official name is: Folsom Premium Outlets.  So once they figured that out, they knew where to start looking.  Several people thought the "pair" might refer to a shoe store, so they were only looking near the shoe stores in the mall.  One guy went past us he said because we were not by a shoe store.  And they didn't know who they were looking for--just someone they would recognize.  We got some interesting double takes as people looked at us, thought about it, looked again and then decided to ask us if we had a clue.  Sometimes we would see them coming because in every case they were running.  We always felt badly when they ran past.  And of course some saw us and immediately ran up and asked for the clue.  Here is a good friend who used to live in our ward and was my counselor in YW:

When we had passed out our 9 clues, we headed back to the church to find out which team was the winner and to have a root beer float.  It was a lot of fun!

I think our Family Home Evening group had better get their racing shoes on!