A New Year's Resolution

Sunday Inspiration

We could certainly use a little inspiration in Colorado today....this is from a hymn we sang in church this weekend.

Sunday Inspiration

Sunday Inspiration

WISE WORDS & PRETTY PICTURES

I've spent some time at our university's trial flower gardens the last few weeks and came away with quite a collection of pretty flower photos.  I thought they'd go well with some of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite people.

On this upward and sometimes hazardous journey, each of us meets our share of daily challenges. If we are not careful, as we peer through the narrow lens of self-interest, we may feel that life is bringing us more than our fair share of trials--that somehow others seem to be getting off more lightly.

But the tests of life are tailored for our own best interests, and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful as well as just and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



Our children take their flight into the future with our thrust and with our aim. And even as we anxiously watch that arrow in flight and know all the evils that can deflect its course after is has left our hand, nevertheless we take courage in remembering that the most important factor in determining that arrow's destination will be the stability, strength, and unwavering certainty of the holder of the bow. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



What is the best that lies within us? Of how much are we capable? None of us yet knows. An old Arabic legend tells of a rider finding a spindly sparrow lying on its back in the middle of the road. He dismounted and asked the sparrow why his feet were in the air. Replied the sparrow, "I heard the heavens were going to fall today." "And I suppose you think your puny bird legs can hold up the whole universe?" laughed the horseman. "Perhaps not," said the sparrow with conviction, "but one does whatever one can. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future. He expects you to embrace and shape the future--to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. He is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

Coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else improve your self-image. So be kind, and be grateful that God is kind. It is a happy way to live.  ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

I suppose no one is as handsome or as beautiful as he or she wishes, or as brilliant in school or as witty in speech or as wealthy as we would like, but in a world of varied talents and fortunes that we can't always command, I think that makes even more attractive the qualities we can command--such qualities as thoughtfulness, patience, a kind word, and true delight in the accomplishment of another. These cost us nothing, and they can mean everything to the one who receives them.  ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain of defeat than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant, but still determined to do the Father's will, look out upon their lives, from which it may sometimes seem every trace of divine help has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

CONFERENCE FAVORITES

I just wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes from General Conference this past weekend.  I can't think of a better way to explain why I love it so much.

However late you think you are; However many chances you think you've missed; However many mistakes you feel you've made or talents you think you don't have or distance from home and family and God you feel you have travelled, I testify that you have not travelled beyond the reach of divine love. - Jeffrey R. Holland

Don't judge me because I sin differently than you. - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Our Heavenly Father did not launch us on our eternal voyage without providing the means whereby we could receive from Him guidance to ensure our safe return. -Thomas S. Monson

There are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition.  May I plead with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another. We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. - Jeffrey R. Holland

It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith. There is always time. With faith in the Savior you can repent and plead for forgiveness. There is someone you can forgive. There is someone you can thank. There is someone you can serve and lift. You can do it wherever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel. - Henry B. Eyring

This one is available as a free printable here.

We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm—please apply the following: Stop it! - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

There were so many other wonderful talks by wonderful men and women.  And I just can't resist mentioning the celebrity sighting that had everyone so excited.

(Photo Source)

Yes, that's American Idol David Archuleta, or as he's now known, Elder Archuleta, singing in the missionary choir. Do you think the choir director was excited when he volunteered? He's currently at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah preparing for a two-year mission. I'm not sure where he's going, but judging by his name tag, somewhere Spanish speaking. And hopefully someplace where the people will have no idea who he is.

Don't get too excited. I wasn't there in person. I was watching on television. Maybe next time. I'm already looking forward to it!

A LITTLE INSPIRATION

This is so very true. Whenever I compare myself, my photography, my parenting, my cooking, my home decor, my hair, my wardrobe.....I could go on and on.....but whenever I compare, there goes my joy.

Stay tuned, because tomorrow the middle school is hosting a Night at the Museum.  The wax museum, to be exact.  Except the exhibits won't be made of wax.  They will be real live 6th graders, all dressed up as important people.  T is going as Terry Fox.  If you don't know who that is, I assure you, you'll be inspired!

TRY A LITTLE HARDER

A little motivation for a new year.....

Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing. We can be a little more kind. We can be a little more merciful. We can be a little more forgiving. We can put behind us our weaknesses of the past, and go forth with new energy and increased resolution to improve the world about us, in our homes, in our places of employment, in our social activities.
~ Gordon B. Hinckley

AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Photo credit

by Thomas S. Monson

When we encounter challenges and problems in our lives, it is often difficult for us to focus on our blessings. However, if we reach deep enough and look hard enough, we will be able to feel and recognize just how much we have been given.

I share with you an account of one family which was able to find blessings in the midst of serious challenges. This is an account I read many years ago and have kept because of the message it conveys. It was written by Gordon Green and appeared in an American magazine over 50 years ago.

Gordon tells how he grew up on a farm in Canada, where he and his siblings had to hurry home from school while the other children played ball and went swimming. Their father, however, had the capacity to help them understand that their work amounted to something. This was especially true after harvesttime when the family celebrated Thanksgiving, for on that day their father gave them a great gift. He took an inventory of everything they had.

On Thanksgiving morning he would take them to the cellar with its barrels of apples, bins of beets, carrots packed in sand, and mountains of sacked potatoes as well as peas, corn, string beans, jellies, strawberries, and other preserves which filled their shelves. He had the children count everything carefully. Then they went out to the barn and figured how many tons of hay there were and how many bushels of grain in the granary. They counted the cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and geese. Their father said he wanted to see how they stood, but they knew he really wanted them to realize on that feast day how richly God had blessed them and had smiled upon all their hours of work. Finally, when they sat down to the feast their mother had prepared, the blessings were something they felt.

Gordon indicated, however, that the Thanksgiving he remembered most thankfully was the year they seemed to have nothing for which to be grateful.

The year started off well: they had leftover hay, lots of seed, four litters of pigs, and their father had a little money set aside so that someday he could afford to buy a hay loader—a wonderful machine most farmers just dreamed of owning. It was also the year that electricity came to their town—although not to them because they couldn’t afford it.

One night when Gordon’s mother was doing her big wash, his father stepped in and took his turn over the washboard and asked his wife to rest and do her knitting. He said, “You spend more time doing the wash than sleeping. Do you think we should break down and get electricity?” Although elated at the prospect, she shed a tear or two as she thought of the hay loader that wouldn’t be bought.

So the electrical line went up their lane that year. Although it was nothing fancy, they acquired a washing machine that worked all day by itself and brilliant lightbulbs that dangled from each ceiling. There were no more lamps to fill with oil, no more wicks to cut, no more sooty chimneys to wash. The lamps went quietly off to the attic.

The coming of electricity to their farm was almost the last good thing that happened to them that year. Just as their crops were starting to come through the ground, the rains started. When the water finally receded, there wasn’t a plant left anywhere. They planted again, but more rains beat the crops into the earth. Their potatoes rotted in the mud. They sold a couple of cows and all the pigs and other livestock they had intended to keep, getting very low prices for them because everybody else had to do the same thing. All they harvested that year was a patch of turnips which had somehow weathered the storms.

Then it was Thanksgiving again. Their mother said, “Maybe we’d better forget it this year. We haven’t even got a goose left.”

On Thanksgiving morning, however, Gordon’s father showed up with a jackrabbit and asked his wife to cook it. Grudgingly she started the job, indicating it would take a long time to cook that tough old thing. When it was finally on the table with some of the turnips that had survived, the children refused to eat. Gordon’s mother cried, and then his father did a strange thing. He went up to the attic, got an oil lamp, took it back to the table, and lighted it. He told the children to turn out the electric lights. When there was only the lamp again, they could hardly believe that it had been that dark before. They wondered how they had ever seen anything without the bright lights made possible by electricity.

The food was blessed, and everyone ate. When dinner was over, they all sat quietly. Wrote Gordon:

“In the humble dimness of the old lamp we were beginning to see clearly again. …

“It was a lovely meal. The jack rabbit tasted like turkey and the turnips were the mildest we could recall. …

“… Our home … , for all its want, was so rich to us.”

To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven.

 

Adapted from H. Gordon Green, “The Thanksgiving I Don’t Forget,” Reader’s Digest, Nov. 1956

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

My favorite quote ever....by one of my favorite people ever.

*paraphrased from C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

WISE WORDS