Attitude of Grattitude and Putting It Together ... (Together Again ... Ladada Dada Together Again!)

Greetings Folks!

It has been a crazy past few weeks. There have been decisions about work and play and all the fun things in between! Without further ado, the gratitude list:

1. Chicken Broth

(I know it sounds gross, but you pour it in a mug, heat it up, and drink it straight. Does wonders for soothing the throat and draining the lymph nodes. Don't know Grandma's advice, she knew what she was talking about!)

2. Tiny Space Heater

(My room is the coldest room in the house. I think there are air leaks in the windows, as tested by a match/candle flame. The cold air finds its way inside and I end up freezing so I am very grateful for my tiny little sunbeam space heater that makes my room nice and toasty! It makes me feel like a lizard, sunning myself on a rock, all my limbs feel warm and cozy, and I am so grateful for modern technology!)

3. Free Software

(For the bulk of the semester, I have been juggling two laptops. My laptop had an expired word program on it and the update Pathway originally had me download was not one my system could handle. This comp is five years old, it's not great with new code. Much to my relief, I discovered there was a version of Office that was offered through the online store, as a student software selection, that was free! The 2010 version of Office runs nicely on my dinosaur computer and may mean that I don't have to pony up several hundred dollars to get a new(er) laptop.)

4. Human Kindness

(Chores and things were allowed to slide today in favor of much needed rest and regular doses of tylenol and an antibiotic for my ear. Help was given without being asked and I really appreciate that my health was placed above the weekly list of 'to-do' items.)

5. The Grace of God

(I had to have an eye exam to renew my license this year. I was very much afraid that the exam would turn out badly and I would be told I no longer meet the vision requirements for driving in this state. Two things happened: One, I put up a note on Facebook asking for some prayers, good vibes, and well wishes from my friends. They all vary in faith and creed and I think any positivity sent my way is very much welcome, regardless of denomination or belief system. In the matter of a few hours, more than 30 people had responded, most of them with comments. I cannot explain how grateful I felt for those kind words, and that these people took time out of their day to offer prayers on my behalf, or send me kind words and well wishes. (Being bullied as a child makes you have a very disproportionate view of yourself, to say the least. I often feel like I matter very little to people ... and this experience slaps that thought upside the head and tosses it out the window!) Two, I had the exam and while the results were not optimal, they were decent. I am no longer allowed to drive at night, as I do not meet the restrictions for such a qualification. While not overjoyed with that, it is still a better outcome than I had feared at the start. I'll take what AI can get, and be happy and grateful and thank the Lord for putting all of these amazing people in my path and in my life!)

Moving on to the Gathering ... This week was far more subdued than last. Last Thursday was very jovial and filled with laughter and fun. This week was more centered and filled with insights and a quiet sort of love. Several people were unable to attend and they were greatly missed (and not just the class clowns!) As the class began, I offered the opening prayer, asking for Heavenly Father to let us have the Spirit with us as we learned, to guide the lead student teacher, and to bless those that were, for whatever reason, unable to attend. Sitting down, I opened my notebook and was thrilled to learn that our professor of the evening had brought cupcakes! (Sugar is always welcome! Especially on rainy days where everyone is sluggish and feeling sleepy!) We started the lesson by reviewing the study skill from last week: cause and effect. What was interesting was that the lead student pointed out something she had noticed that she hadn’t picked up on before. When Enos went into the woods to hunt and ended up praying for the welfare of his soul, he had a lot on his mind. His father was about to die and he would be given the leadership over the kingdom. He was going to be entrusted with the plates and record keeping. He was responsible to preach to the population. That is one tall order! So it was natural that he’d be questioning himself and his standing before God. So, the cause and effect, in that instance, was the things going on in Enos’ life that he had very little control over and how those things led him to kneel in prayer and seek out the Lord.

We then moved on and learned about the study skill of substitution. This skill involves the insertion of names into a scripture passage (either your own name, if you are likening the scripture to yourself, or the names of the subjects to whom the sentence is referring). It can also involve substituting the definition of a word that you are unfamiliar with. As the use of the chalk board presents some difficulty for some students, the lead student simply had us read the supplied paper, containing the in depth definition of the word and presenting some examples of how the skill can be applied. We focused on the example of D&C 121:43, where it mentions "reproving betimes with sharpness" and we dissected and replaced the words. The surmised definition of the text is along the lines of reprimanding with boldness but that is not the actual definition of words used in this scripture. When you break the words down, the sentence turns into "correct in a humble manner, early on, with clearness or offering clarity" and that completely changes the way you look at the scripture itself.

As we spent a great deal of time on the class activity (which the lead student pulled from the student manual), we did not have much time to spend on the Directed Study. However, I will share them both here. We paired off into partners, each set of people being given two slips of paper which contained a set of scripture verses and some follow up questions. I was working with Karen, and we tackled Enos 1:9-12. We were asked about what Enos did after he'd obtained forgiveness for himself and the answer to that was that he then sought to gain that same forgiveness from the Lord for, first, his family and loved ones (the Nephites), and, then, his enemies (the Lamanites). He thought of other people because that is a natural outgrowth of having applied the atonement and the gospel into your life. When you accept and live the gospel, you are highly motivated to share it with those around you, to aid them in improving their own lives, in the same manner yours has been improved upon. We discussed that Enos' pattern of action was good because it set an example for the rest of us, of the steps we should follow in our own lives. That we should apply the atonement to ourselves, and then reach out to our family and the world, as well as gain a thorough understanding of the gospel to be able to accurately share it. The second scripture we tackled was Mosiah 2:9-18. We were asked why King Benjamin served the people and we concluded that he did so for a number of reasons: First, he did not seek to gain riches, nor to oppress the people with taxes and burdens. Second, he wanted them to learn wisdom and to teach them, so that he could meet God with a clear conscience. Third, he had a desire to serve his fellow man and to serve God with all of his might, mind, and strength. We discussed that when you perform acts of service, you are acting as instruments in the Lord's hands, by serving His children, in a manner that He would serve them, were He physically here to do so.  After this, we went around the room and everyone shared the scripture passages and the answers to their respective questions.

For the Directed Study, we did Option 3, as a class (because we basically had literally about four minutes in which to accomplish it!) We answered the question of why prayer was necessary to enjoy the blessings of the atonement. Prayer is important because it creates and enhances your connection with Heavenly Father. It puts you in a state of mind to be open to personal revelation and to be motivated to make those changes in your life that will more fully align yourself with Christ. The other questions related to how the people of Zarahemla suffered by not having any records. They literally 'dwelt in unbelief' and had no rules to which they could be held accountable. By having no records, they had no source from which to build their testimonies. When they were joined by Mosiah, he brought with him the records of his people, the testimonies of the prophets of his time, and the guidelines and commandments that the people needed to learn and live by. He blessed the people of Zarahemla with new information and new (to them) knowledge, which shed light on their lives, and gave them a way to measure how they were living, what precepts they needed to alter in order to be better disciples. We talked about journal entries and how they can be a blessing to our future generations (as those of our grandparents are to us) and how, by writing of trials and testimony building experiences, we show our future children the path that they should follow, the source they should look to for guidance and divine aid. We also discussed how prayer is a cycle, that morning prayer leads to preparation for the day ahead and evening prayer leads to gratitude for the day's events and blessings and preparation for the following day. (This was also discussed in one of the Digging Deeper talks). The last thing we talked about was how the foreknowledge of God was demonstrated in our own lives. I know, I have seen it in my life, during certain events. The largest example I have of this is my husband. When I was in college and broke up with my boyfriend, I got a blessing that said my decision would lead to "more happiness than [I can] ever dream". A few years later, I ended another relationship and was told in another blessing that the Lord was preparing someone specifically for me. Two years after that, I met the man I married and found out something else: when he was set apart for his mission, Steve was told that his decision to serve the Lord would bless his future spouse, and her family - not his own family - but hers. The same month he left on his mission, my parents’ house sold, we moved into a new home, with a brand new ward, who embraced us and treated us with immeasurable kindness. Were it not for the love we found in our new ward, we may, my Mom and I, have struggled to remain members of the church. (Our previous ward ... was filled with a lot of busy people ... we were not fellowshipped and the adjustments of a new religion, new schedule of meetings, and few friends, was a seriously hard transition for us to make). So, the Lord was mindful, of a fourteen year old girl, and the boy who would grow into the man she would marry. He was mindful of her family and the love they needed in order to grow and thrive, and He sent them where they needed to be to grow and thrive and flourish. I am grateful that He knows all and that He guides us if we will but stop and listen.

That’s about all I have time for today! I hope you enjoy my adventures and I encourage you to look up the website: www.pathway.lds.org and consider seeking out some adventures of your own!

Attitude of Gratitude & Putting It Together

Greetings Folks!

It's that time again ... No, you can go get a cookie after you read ...

Attitude of Gratitude

1. Technology

(Recently my husband's phone decided to die. It refused to hold a charge and we were looking at a seriously hefty charge in order to replace the gadget. A tiny miracle occurred, he took it into Verizon and the girl there was able to plug it into her charger and give it a boost. Previously we'd tired all of our charges with zero luck. But hers was a mega charger or something and it restored the power. Now all I have to do is switch the plan and put his phone back on it, as we resorted to the old, tired, back-up phone).

 2. Pathway

(I love my classes and I love that I'm making friends at the Gathering. It is rather amazing to think that just two months ago, these people were complete strangers to me. Now, I really care about them. I'm emotionally invested, and I continue to pray for their welfare).

3. My VT

(My Visiting Teacher came and picked me up and we went shopping for some things for her new home. I don't think I have ever set foot in 'Home Goods' ... not since it was Aimes and that was twenty years ago, at least. Found some fun items. There is a throw I'd like to get for our bed. Also found some crazy things: I swear there is a blanket that is covered in fur and if I attach eyeballs to it, it will make the perfect large Muppet! I'd totally buy it, even if it is an orange I'm not thrilled with (though that makes it all the more Muppety), if it were on sale! It was good to just hang out and talk of life and not feel stressed for a little bit).

4. Writing

(Some days it is therapy and other days it is solace. Always it is useful. We've spun up some new characters that have seized me with a strange obsession. I want to write this story from start to finish and see where it goes. I want people to read this story. I'd love to see it on the big screen someday. I have music for it tripping through my brain. It's a whole new dimension of storytelling for me).

5. My Guardian Angel

(He or She was working overtime about a week ago. I was in Walmart and we needed a bottle of Coke. All of the bottles were lined up on the back wall of the top shelf in the soda aisle. There was an employee stocking items not four feet away but I honestly felt it was a bad idea to ask this little old gentleman, who was a foot shorter than myself, to go get a ladder and hand me a soda. Instead, I did what any youngblooded person would do, and I stepped on the bottom shelf, to get that extra two inches of leverage to reach the soda that was an arm's length away against the back of the shelf. To my utter surprise and humiliation, the bottom shelf SHIFTED and I fell backwards. What should have been a metal shelf bolted into some sort of bracketing, was instead a metal shelf LAYING on the bracketing with no securing features whatsoever. The shelf tilted up at a 75 degree angle when I put my weight on it, causing the two cases of soda on it to slide off onto the floor and causing me to slip and fall backward. I was able to land on my feet (thank you God and my Guardian Angel) and I kept from dropping the bottle of soda I had nabbed. However, my armpit and the underside of my arm was cut and bruised by the metal shelf edging of the top shelf. I am glad to be all in one piece with no broken bones but I seriously feel Walmart has an issue waiting to happen. Had I not been there, my Mom may have tried the exact same type of logic, assuming that the bottom shelf was bolted in, and she could have broken her hip or injured her back. Don't climb on shelves, kids, it's a bad idea!)

Now for the Putting It Together part of our program! If you've read this blog for a few weeks, you know that I participate in a program run by BYU-Idaho, called Pathway. This program consists of several classes and we meet once a week to discuss what we are learning in those classes (that primarily take place online). This week's meeting (referred to as a 'gathering') we discussed several academic topics and a few religious ones. The academic topics consisted of the proper way to sort through information and determine if a source is worthy of being used in a research paper. (This is done by evaluating the author, their credentials, the audience, the publication, the timeliness/relevancy, and the cited references). We also talked a bit about all of the wonderful opportunities for support and continued learning that can be found through the BYU-I Academic Support Center. There are a host of videos, information, tutors, and other things located on the website itself (and it is something that I plan to take advantage of, in the future, when dealing with the dreaded demon known as 'Math').
We also talked about things we have learned from the scriptures this week. (The reading for this week included 2 Nephi Chapters 28-33). I find it really amazing and cool, that in these last chapters, it talks about the tribes and how people will all gather to their homelands. I love that we get Nephi's last words, and that he focuses on Christ and how he really wants his people to remember the message of Christ and to look unto him for their salvation. One of the big things that we touched on, when we broke down into small groups, was the need for the Book of Mormon, not as a replacement to the Bible but as a companion to the Bible. It really is 'another testament of Jesus Christ'. In 2 Nephi chapter 29 verses 7-14, there are a list of reasons why the Book of Mormon is important. It stands as a second testimony of Christ, and bears witness unto him. It proves that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It, along with the Bible, are literally the testimony of two nations (that have run together into one testimony, by being collected standard works). The Lord never said His work was finished. He never said He would not speak anymore to man or not add to His own words. The tribes will be judged out of the words of the Lord that are in their records. And each tribe will someday have all the records of the others (as right now the Jewish people have the record of the Book of Mormon, and the Nephites have the record of the Bible or of the Jews). Sometime in the future, we will have the records of the Lord's dealings with all of the tribes ... and that will be a thing of great worth to see and to read! I find it amazingly exciting to think that whenever I read about the last days, about the tribes of Israel and people coming unto Christ, that I'm reading about our time, specifically. That we are living in a time when prophecy is being fulfilled. It's rather awesome.
Another thing I found very cool about the Gathering was that when we talked about the records, we talked about the fact that the Holy Ghost and the Lord speak to people through the scriptures. Your interactions with the Lord and His words to you help to build your testimony. Building that testimony leads you to share the gospel and live it more fully in your own life and this catches the attention of people, who come to know Christ because of how you live His teachings. This changes their lives and it moves ever outward, like a giant ripple effect, in a giant pond. The power of faith and the power of one person to make a difference, as they let God work in their lives. It's beautiful.
One last cool tidbit, one of the guys in class brought up something, that the word Hosanna actually means "save us now" ... It is a request for help. A cry for aid. A plea for nurture and mercy. I never knew the definition of the word before and it takes on new and deeper meaning because of that.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading about the Gathering and the things I have been learning. I encourage you to work on having God close to you, making Him an integral part of your daily lives! Keep the Spirit near you, and do not do anything that pushes the Holy Ghost away. Whatever things will push him away are fleeting and not really important in the long run. Staying close to Heavenly Father is what matters the most, always keep that in mind.

Until next time! Count your blessings!