2025, November 28, Friday

Yesterday we gathered with 25 adults and 5 kids including family members and friends to eat a Thanksgiving meal that included 3 turkeys, over 10 pies  and a dozen or more sides!  It was a feast to say the least!  I was grateful that I had run in the Wake Forest Gobbler's Run in WF, NC with HEath, Caroline, Megan, Ammon and Megan's sibling that morning!  We had so much food to eat that I was just thinking how slightly embarrassing the abundance was.  But then will said something to all of us before we prayed over our feast that changed my perspective a bit.

He read in Doctirne and Covenants 59, verses 15-21.  I've always remembered verse 21 that says that we offend God when we don't thank Him for all that we have, recognizing that it all comes from Him.  But the verses before that explain all of the bounties of the earth that He has given us are a blessing from Him.  And that it "pleases" Him to give us these things - in other words, He is happy to bless us with abundance!  But He is not happy if we don't acknowledge where that abundance comes from - Him!  I would also add that we should remember His counsel in multiple places in scripture that the purpose of material wealth should be to bless and uplift others, not ourselves.  

I'm really grateful that we could gather together to share a meal that everyone had pitched in to prepare.  I'm grateful that we enjoy being together with our family and that our children are able to be with us at these gatherings (Ellie and Caroline joined us here in NC and James went to Grand Junction, CO to be with his cousins! 

 25 NOvember, 2025 TUesday    

This morning I listened to a podcast that explored the them of privilege and meritocracy.  I've thought a lot about the blessings I have received in my life and how much those blessings have allowed me to develop skills that I have today.  I'm eternally grateful to have parents that taught me the Gospel of Jeuss Christ in our home and modelled how to be a disciple of Christ.  I'm grateful that they sacrificed their own time and selfish desires to raise me and my six siblings.  THese 8 people (my parents and siblings) have had a great impact on me than anyone else in my life, with the exception of my husband!

My parents helped me get an education and taught me the essential skills to take care of myself - personal finances, cooking, cleaning, hygiene, tax preparation, minor home and car maintenance and repair, home improvement (like painting), shopping on a budget, and time management.  THese are skills that I took for granted until I started to realize that not everyone learns these skills at home.  So many people are struggling in life simply because they never learned these basic skills.

My siblings have helped me learn to share and make compromises, even when it's hard.  They've taught me how to repent and forgive and how to see the good in others.  THey've also given me confidence that I can do hard things and persevere through trials. Their examples have shown me that if I trust in God, I have no need to fear, and can accomplish the things that might seem impossible today.

All of these blessings have come to me as gifts that I did nothing to deserve.  Even the skills I've developed, including hard work, can be traced back to these blessings.  It often seems so unfair that people are born into such different circumstances that make their lives more difficult than mine.  I have to remind myself every time I see someone living on the streets, or begging for help - that that could be me if I hadn't been born where and when I was.

It gives me hope to know that this life is just a tiny blip in our eternal existence.  And that the circumstances in this life are known to God and HE will be our truly just and meriful judge in the end.  We will ALL receive a portion of His Glory and have the opportunity to progress further in the afterlife.

24 November 2025, Monday    

Yesterday I went to the YSA branch sacrament meeting with Ellie because she needed a ride.  I sat at the back because I got there a little late.  I was grateful for the quiet time to pray and ponder during the passing of the sacrament.  I really like to enjoy the peace and quiet during this time.  I'm so grateful to have a knowledge of my Savior Jesus Christ and what He has done for me.  I'm grateful to know how to repent and be forgiven.

Brother Maready gave a great talk on the importance and blessings related to the law of tithing.  I really enjoy his talks because he has a way with words and is a very effective speaker.  He knows how to use tone and inflection in his voice to give me meaning and depth to his words.  I especially noticed his unique comments on Malachi 3:11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes," one fo the promises we receive if we pay tithing.  This kind of figurative language is often hard for me to grasp, but I think it means that God has all power and can protect and guide us in many ways so that we can succeed.  Of course, this doesn't mean me won't fail, but that he'll be with us every step fo the way.

I'm trying to write something every day so I need to keep it short at least until I build some consistency!

Come unto Zion

23 November 2025, Sunday    

This past week I read a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson in October 2008 titled ¨Come to Zion¨.¨ I really loved so much in this talk and decided to share my thoughts about it.  In it he outlines three requirements, or things we ned to try to ¨establish Zion in our homes, branches, wards and stakes...¨  And this is using the definition of Zion found in Moses 7:18, "they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness and there was no poor among them."  The first is to become unified in one heart and one mind (as the scripture says). The second is to come, individually and collectively,  a holy people.  The third is to care for the poor and needy with such effectiveness that we eliminate poverty among us.

This last one is what really struck me because i have relationships with so many people living in poverty.  Most of them I know through the church, so it makes me painfully aware of how different people at church live based on their wealth or lack thereof.  I think I probably notice this kind of thing more than I should and this is why it bothers me so much.  I feel like we are falling way short of the ideal of caring for the poor and needy so well that we eliminate poverty.  My brother Paul pointed out to me the other day that he learned on his mission and has seen it also since then, that when people turn their lives over to God, they are usually able to lift themselves out of poverty.  I have certainly seen this too.

One of the things that I've observed holding a lot of people back is the lack of responsibility they have to care for themselves.  As I've struggled to help my own children learn to care for themselves, I've noticed that they rarely learn to do things if someone is always doing something for them.  I used to always say that when you're capable of doing something (like tying your shoes, getting dressed, or even making dinner), my job is to let you do it, even if I could do it faster or better.  Because you will never learn to get better at it yourself if I am always doing it for you.  

This has been particularly hard for me with Ellie lately, because she doesn't drive.  I want her to be successful at work, but she is afraid to walk OR drive there by herself, so she depends on me to get there.  I feel like she's not going to learn to be independent if I keep driving her everywhere.  But, if I don't drive her places, she won't get the help she needs with therapists and job coaches, for example.

Similarly, many people I know have been dependent on money from the government for their whole lives. This has made it really hard for them to figure out ways to not depend on this money.  And so they don't.  They have planned their lives around it so when it disappears all of a sudden, it's a crisis.  I really want to help them, but in the long run, sometimes rescuing people in these circumstances doesn't help because they didn't have to figure out how to do it on their own.  This is a really tricky balance to strike and I'm still working on it.

 

Starting again

 I have started and stopped this blog too many times to count!  Here's to new beginnings!

This morning I listened to a podcast in Spanish about patriotism and love of country.  I love the way this podcaster speaks about what can be sensitive and divisive topics because he is really good at seeing both sides of issues.  I also appreciate how he shares what he's learned from others.

So as I think about my love for my country I realize that it has evolved.  I grew up in the US, celebrating the 4th of July with some very family-oriented traditions like cooking out, turtle races and shooting off our own fireworks.  My experiences living abroad ( in Germany and Japan) opened my eyes to the beauty of other countries and even made me a little embarrassed about the flaws of my own.  ( There was a time when I lived in Germany as a college student that I did NOT want anyone to know I was from the US.)  I hated how American (from the US) tourists would visit and expect everyone to speak English.  I hated that Germans could detect right away that i was not German even when I spoke German.  I wanted to blend in.  But I've come back around to being proud of grateful to be an citizen of the United States of AMerica, while recognizing the beauty and strength of many other nations I've visited.

 That's all for today.  In order to keep this habit up, I need to keep things short!

For Such a Time as This

Nov? 2022

 Today I learned how much more we can accomplish with God's help than on our own.  I few weeks ago, someone asked me to organize a group of women to sing a song written about Esther called "For Such a Time as This" for an upcoming meeting for the women at church.  The speakers were preparing talks about women of the Old Testaments so the song went right along with that theme.  I was a little surprised that she asked me because I don't really have any choir directing experience but then when you belong to a church with a lay ministry, we're always asked to do things that we're "not qualified" for.  

I do love music, so I was actually quite excited about the opportunity.  We've lived here almost 19 years and I know so many women who sing well so I had sort of flood of people come to mind whom I could ask to sing in the group.  But then I realized I really needed to pray about this.  So I asked my Father in Heaven to really help me know not only who I should ask to sing this, but how I should do it.  When I listened to a recording of the song, I felt strongly that it needed younger voices.  So I texted an young woman in our ward who is a talented singer and invited her to sing and asked her for names of other young women whom I should ask.  I was delighted when she happily agreed and also told me the names of 2 other young women that I knew would be a great addition to the group.  I also felt like I should ask my daughter Eliana and some of her young adult friends to sing too.  This gave me a great group of six.  Another piece of inspiration that came to me when I listened to the song was that the last part of the song would be really powerful to have a group of sisters missionaries sing with the others.  I just imagined as they would sing "And so we'll rise to say, . . " that they could literally rise from their seats behind the other singers to add their voices to the choir.  I really felt the power in the way there testimonies would add to the song.  I was a little hesitant to share the idea, though, because it's a little unconventional. 

Because of COVID and busy schedules, it was impossible for us to meet all together until just before the meeting.  So I distributed audio files of the song recording, as well as the piano accompaniment with each part dubbed over.  Then I told everyone to practice singing along to the recordings over and over until they knew them by  heart.  It was a short song, so I knew it wouldn't be too hard.   We had one practice with three of the young women at my house and the rest listening in via a zoom meeting.  It wasn't ideal because they could hear the voices of those in my house, but we couldn't hear any of them.  But I trusted that it would be okay.  Then I also had the sister missionaries come to my house to go over their part (two days before the meeting).

We met 30 minutes before the meeting started to sing through all together.  At first, it seemed like they were struggling a little to find their parts but after a few times through, it came together quite nicely and I knew it was going to be fine.   I told them not to worry about it being "perfect" because it wasn't about perfection but about sharing the power of their testimonies through the music.  I knew I was going to make some mistakes while accompanying them on the piano so they shouldn't worry about making mistakes - just sing with confidence and faith.

The result just blew me away.  I was overcome with the powerful spirit that I felt through their singing and I noticed I wasn't the only one.  The sister who had to speak after them was in tears and said she is usually not so moved by music but that was different.  Their testimonies shone through their singing and it was AMAZING!  I'm really thankful for the opportunity I had to trust in God's power to help me know how to make this happen.  These young women are truly incredible examples of faith and goodness.  I wish the whole world could have heard what I heard tonight!