Attitude of Gratitude & Thoughts on Faith

Salutations!

I hope all of you are doing well out there in blogland!

Attitude of Gratitude

1. Easter!
(I am grateful to celebrate the Atonement of Christ and acknowledge the sacrifice that was made for you and for me. He did something no one else could and He did it out of love for us. So that we can all be together again, in the end. What an amazing gift and an amazing blessing!)

2. Camera Phone
(I've had fun taking pictures recently and documenting the adventures I have with my husband. I am grateful to the technology that makes this process possible and I am amazed at how far tech has come in the short time that I have  been on this earth!)

3. Google Docs
(Again, yay for tech. Because of this tiny little program, I can write in real time with my Bestie and we can create magic! This was something unheard of, even as little as back when we were in college, where we used to use AIM to chat and write stories. This process is far more streamlined and produces faster and clearer results!)

4. Physical Scriptures
(I totally love my digital scriptures but I am thankful I could borrow my Mom's copy of the Book of Mormon and look up page numbers for my book report assignment. It has been at least sixteen years since I have written a book report and, back then, ebooks did not exist. So this is all new territory for me and it was nice to have a source that I knew how to cite and for which the parameters had not changed all that much!)

5. Citation Machine
(Sharee was kind enough to direct me towards a website that explains to you how to cite various sources for a paper or report. This site showed me how to cite an ebook and I appreciated not having to shell out fifty dollars for a new copy of the Bedford Handbook, or the Chicago MLA book or an APA Handbook).

The Gathering

The lesson started out as usual, we began by talking about our experiences during the previous week and what we have been learning from the reading and the videos online. Katie commented that one of the videos reminded her about the importance of not bottling up your emotions and of how having good communication skills can be helpful in various areas of your life. Sister Miller spoke about a former client that she had, whom she spoke with recently and learned that this person had suffered a loss in their family, due to suicide. She shared how humbling it was to be able to speak with her friend about a video from the Digging Deeper section of our class and how that video ended up being a comfort to the person who was suffering through the painful experience. (Sometimes we get to be the answer of aid to the worries and fears of another person).

Then we moved into the next topic. The study skill that we were taught this week was List. A list is a purposeful grouping in which items are included (or excluded) for a specific reason. When working with lists, we are to ask ourselves what do these items have in common? What is the topic? What is this grouping trying to say to me? The skill was presented with a definition on the board, along with the questions you can ask yourself to be able to recognize a list and figure out its relevance in the narrative.

We broke into groups and I was able to pair up with several of my favorite people. The Directed Study we worked on was Option 3. My group consisted of Katie, Brother Graham, and myself. We answered three questions. First, how did Moroni describe the Brother of Jared's vision? Moroni described the vision by not describing it in much detail at all. What he did say (according to Ether 4:4-7) was that 'never were greater things manifest' than the things that were show unto the Brother of Jared. This lets you, the reader, know that he saw amazing things, perhaps the whole of history. The second question was this: What did the Lord command Moroni do with the writings of the Brother of Jared? The Lord told Moroni to seal up the writings of the Brother of Jared. They were to be sealed until the Gentiles repent and become clean. Until they have the type of faith that the Brother of Jared manifested. The last question asked when we will be able to see the writings (which I previously answered: when we are spiritually ready and when we repent and are clean before the Lord). It also asked the following: what does this promise mean to you and me? That promise means that we have a lot we need to strive for as we are not spiritually where we need to be yet in order to read these things and have new information revealed to us.
One of the things that struck me the most from this class was the idea of how important faith is. We often think of faith as something important that exists within us. It can make us strong or it can falter and make us feel weak. But faith is far more powerful than we give it credit for or than we notice at face value. Because of faith, the Lamanites were baptized. Because of faith, the 2000 warriors in Helaman's army survived their battles. Because of faith, countless miracles were wrought. All of these amazing things have happened because of faith and all of those people who were a part of such miracles ... well, they all started out with the same tiny amount of faith that you and I have. We all start out with a seed of faith, a small little sprout that we have to nourish with experience, with the written word of the scriptures, and with prayer. We all start out with a tiny, grain of rice sized, seed of faith and from there, what we do with it makes it grow. It can flourish or it can falter but whether or not that faith is resilient is completely up to us. We will all face trials in our lives, hard things that we never thought we could endure ... but we either let those things break us or make us ... We can use them as stumbling blocks and let them build a wall between us and our faith, or we can use them as stepping stones and let them build us a staircase upwards to better things. The choice is ultimately ours. (As it always has been). What will you do with your faith?

Attitude of Gratitude & Thoughts on Pride and Respect

Greetings, my lovelies!

It has been another banner week. I will explain in a bit.

Gratitude List:

1. Soundscapes
(This is a channel I have found on our cable television and I love to listen to it while reading or doing homework because it is very soothing stuff. If you like Celtic, Riverdance, New Age, or Yanni, you would enjoy this station as well! It is a blessing because I can turn this on and drown out some of the louder and more obnoxious television programs that other family members enjoy).

2. Digital Technology
(I have cited this before but it is still true, I am not sure where I would be without my tech. Because of my smart phone and my kindle I can read things so much faster than I ever could before. I can alter the print size and not have to carry around a jumbo sized book and feel ostracized from the rest of society. It really is a huge blessing to be able to work around various limitations because the tech is now ubiquitous and available almost everywhere).

3. Testimony
(I lost a friend this past week. He started a row (fight) on my FB page and tried to provoke other people. He used slanderous names and behaved aggressively. I called him out on it and he defriended me. I was a bit shocked and very sad at his loss, as he was a good friend to me, many years ago, when I was going through a very hard time in my life. But he is a far different person now then he used to be. We both are, really. And I guess you can only trade so long on credit of memories of the past. I am not willing to tolerate him attacking people, just as I never would condone and have called out other people for attacking him. I believe in tolerance. I also believe in respect and he proved that he had none for me. Again, I feel sad but I cannot change the mind of another person, I can only do me. Ultimately, he wanted to tear me away from the gospel and I wouldn't be moved ... so we parted ways).

4. Clean Water
(We do not often think about it but it is a luxury to have clean water to drink. We don't have to trek several miles to find a water source for ourselves and our families. It is readily available and we should appreciate what we have).

5. Shelter
(As I look outside at the dreary gray clouds and the wet, muddy ground, I am immensely grateful for housing. I am glad to have a place to be warm and dry and out of the elements).

The Gathering

This week, our Religion class was taught by Paul Brooks. He opened the lesson by asking us if we had anything to share from what we had been reading and learning this week. Sister Miller brought up the powerful quote from the Digging Deeper videos, where it was stated that "to be without to do is void." I liked this quote so I wrote it down in my notes! It is a good reminder that your actions are important, and that without them to be the foundation of your words, your words carry far less meaning. We also chatted a little about temple work and about the 'Spirit of Elijah' (where the hearts of the children are turned to their fathers, or their ancestors, in other words).
Paul presented the study skill, which was Setting. It deals with looking at the main points of a narrative. You are asked to consider 'who' is writing the account, as well as 'who' is speaking, 'where' the action is taking place, 'when' is it happening (time period), etc. Our Lead Student added 'why' the event was recorded, and 'what' was the purpose for sharing this event or information with the reader, as well. This study skill urges you to look more closely at the various parts of a story and think on the deeper meaning of what is being shared (as well as how it is received and why it is important) with the audience. The skill was presented by using the chalk board and having the different categories (who, what, etc.) introduced one at a time. Then we broke down one of the chapters to analyze it with the study skill.
For the Directed Study, we were broken up into groups of four. My group was given Option 3, Part B. We were asked to answer two questions. The first being: in what ways do you turn your heart to your fathers? We each came up with our own personal answers for this. My answer was that I do this through reading the journal entries of my ancestors and through doing genealogy research on the website Ancestry.com. The second question was: how can you further assist in Family History? We came up with a list of answers for this one. We included the following: supporting ward temple night, supporting youth baptisms, joining Ancestry.com or Familysearch.com and doing genealogy work for our relatives, participating in the church's indexing program, attending the temple regularly, and taking others to see the temple (like the Christmas lights) and the Visitor Center, and being missionaries. After we came up with our own answers, we were all split into different groups to share our answers and learn more about what the other groups had stated in their own portions of the various options that were offered. (These answers were not recorded, as we only had enough time to share our various parts with one another before we went back to finishing up the class).
One of the things that I liked that was pointed out in class was that the gospel is all about "full disclosure." The Plan of Salvation is laid out for us, more than once, in various scriptural resources. God does let us know the details that we need to know in order to further our progression. Satan, on the other hand, is all about secrets and lies. He peddles in half-truths and pushes people to keep secrets from one another. It is the very antithesis of how Heavenly Father treats us.

Pride and Respect

This past week, reading in 3 Ne 23-30, we are given another glimpse of the Pride Cycle. The people had several hundred years of peace, after the coming of Christ, and then they began to deteriorate into pride. They started to differentiate and separate one from another. They preached renewal of old hatreds and donned the names of their ancestors (Lamanites). I will bet that Satan did not need much in order to turn the people against one another. It only takes as tiny crack in your defenses to let water in, or to fracture a much larger foundation. Pride led to the downfall of the people of Nephi ... even after they had achieved the pinnacle of a working and loving, classless society.
My mind has also been pondering on the subject of respect. I feel like I lost my friend because he could not offer tolerance and respect to my other friends. I felt sad and a bit hurt that he did not respect me enough, value our fifteen plus year friendship, to step back and not spew hate all over my FB page. I hate it when people walk away, when they value for so little that which I value so much. Only my Mom truly understood that his loss hurt me. (Everyone else meant well, but the general consensus was 'good riddance' and that shocked me, too). For me, a friendship is like a tree. It grows roots deep into your heart and when you dig that tree up, tear it out of the soil, you are left with a large, gaping hole, where the roots tore out part of your heart. I am fighting to not let this parting of ways discolor the happy times we had in the past. I also do not want to let it change me. I want to still love people - of all walks of life, of all faiths - with an open and caring heart. (The upside, if there is one, is that I told him something simple about myself that I had yet to realize until I wrote it: I do not believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ because of the prophets of the church. Or the apostles. I believe in the gospel because I have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. It is that simple). I do not require other people to believe as I do ... but I do ask them to show respect and tolerance for differing points of view. It is not a stance I will change.