Man Up

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Man up! When life knocks us down; Look up and see the sky.
There are always important lessons in the things that make us cry.
When we help lift another from their sorrow and their pain,
We too lift up our own hearts, through kind service we do gain.

As we 'man up' in our spirits, we are healed within our soul,
To face another week, as we from the Sabbath grow.
Though our pains and sorrows sting us, and temptations come each day,
We grow to know we're lifted, as we strive, fast and pray.

As we pray each dawn and eve, unto our Father, for His light,
And thank God for everything--each bright day and starry night,
Each of us can take comfort, if we 'man up' and try our best.
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, help every worthy quest.

There is a Norman Rockwell painting entitled "Lift Up Thine Eyes".


This is so typical of us today, except we’ve all got cell phones! Looking up can just be paying attention to our surroundings–a blue sky, a flower pot, a beggar on the street, a tree, or maybe even the person we are walking with! I like how the birds in the painting draw our eyes up and up and up. Life can be so routine, but there is wonder and promise even in that. Yes, even in taking out the garbage or cleaning up after breakfast, or, heaven forbid, doing the laundry. Look up. Take a deep breath. Smile. Pay attention to each step of this journey we call life. Open your eyes and really see. Click on the red title of the video below for a 1 minute video that demonstrates one way we can LOOK UP!

2017-01-0005-think-to-thank-360p-engDownload

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. (Psalms 121:1-2)

Saving Grace

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Last month we took our van to Jiffy Lube for an oil change, and other minor details. In the business of the day, I sent Bob alone this time, with instructions to please not let them talk us into a big bill, since the Christmas budget was tight. All in all, it still added up to a little over $200, a painful amount, BUT, while he was sitting in the lobby, waiting for the work to be done, he finished writing a poem (quoted below) and shared it with an individual who was also waiting.

When the work was done and the time came to pay , he was informed that the bill had already been paid by the other gentleman in the lobby! What a generous gift, and what a surprise! Perhaps sharing poetry is not as unwelcome as I had come to wonder.

So we went out to I-Hop to celebrate this tender mercy shown to us. As we entered the cafe, Bob, in his usual exhuberant voice declared, “Merry Christmas! I don’t care if that offends anybody.” I sheepishly and quickly ducked into our booth and counseled him to simplify and just keep it to “Merry Christmas”!

After the meal, the server came to our booth and informed us that another customer had paid for our meal. What a day of tender mercies! I don’t suppose this story has much to do with the poem below, except that it was the one he quoted to the Jiffy Lube angel, and, perhaps to realize that God often sends blessings in the form of strangers, or friends, or whatever.

Our saving Grace is here for every single soul,

Who strives to understand the Son, as our own spirit’s grow.

We can’t serve two masters. We can’t serve hate and love.

If we are filled with anger, we can’t feel the peaceful dove.

If we are by the fire, but lay down in the snow,

One act can cancel the other as our heat and warmth does go.

If we go to church on Sunday, but sin throughout the week,

We stagnate like a desert pond and dry up beneath sin’s heat.

The saving Grace of Christ lifts us when we are weak,

If we humbly pray and ask for help, our Lord comforts us, as we seek.

We can feel His wondrous love, in our darkest hour

If we pray with body, soul and mind; we can feel Christ’s wondrous power.

We have found the saving Grace of Christ is a never-ending song.

It sings to us when we are weak, and helps us grow more strong.

And when we fear, from earthly woes, it whispers to our soul–

Keep striving for the Holy Ghost, then we will forever grow.

2019-01-1111-faith-crisis-what-do-we-do-when-we-feel-nothing-360p-engDownload
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. -Ralph Waldo Emerson-

The Advent Calendar

Jeanne 1 Comment

When I was a child, I first discovered the holiday advent calendars: a pleasant picture with small ‘doors’ to open, labeled 1-24, referring to the days in December. I remember how excited I was to open each one. One of my favorites displayed various woodland creatures behind each door. For some reason, those images absolutely delighted me. Now, most of them have a small chocolate behind the door, which could also be delightful.

I’m thinking that life is like an advent calendar. Each day, there is a door labeled with that date. I imagine–behind each door is a delight. I think of it as a message from God that He loves me and is caring for me, and is there to help me. If I open the door, I feel that same warm joy that I felt seeing those woodland creatures so long ago.

Life really is like that. If we but look for manifestations of God’s love for us, we will see them, feel them, and recognize them every day. It’s such a simple effort with such monumental payoff.

Grand kids…Now that’s a manifestation of God’s love!

2016-11-0002-start-small-start-today-360p-engDownload

Jesus, Lord

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Jesus, Lord, please lift our tired soul.

Christ, Savior, please help us to be whole.

We know Thee by life’s beauty, balance and harmony.

Our faith grows through Thy sacred words, the scriptures help us see.

Dear Lord, Great King, please open up our mind.

Master of eternity, help us to not be blind.

Please lift us by Thy undying grace, ever home to Thee.

Please teach us what we must do to grow eternally.

Creator, Master builder of all we hold most dear.

Son of God, help us to grow more worthy to come near.

Please help us learn more of Thee each and every day,

And as we do, please help us walk more in Thy Holy way.

Jesus, our greatest teacher, please help us understand

The greatness of Father’s wondrous, eternal, sacred, holy plan,

So we may live worthy to join Christ’s gospel song.

Please give unto us the Holy Ghost, so we can grow more pure and strong.

Graceous light, O Great Jehovah, let us give milk unto Thy lambs.

Only Begotten by our Father, help us find those lost from Thy hands,

So all may learn Thy wondrous truth and grow truly free.

Please help us Lord, to be good shepherds that Thy sheep may grow eternally.

PEARLS

Jeanne 2 Comments

Pearls start as a grain of sand,

Withing the oyster shell.

The oyster slowly smooths the grain,

From this a pearl grows well.

We each have irritations

That grind upon our soul.

If we pray and strive to understand,

Pearls of wisdom grow.

A few days ago my daughter presented us with this glittering oyster shell ornament for our tree.  It is a good reminder of the value of irritations, troubles, frustrations, etc.

video about trials

Can We Be Prepared?

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Can we be prepared for famine, floods, fires and other forces that test our grain?
Violence, greed, pollution, dishonesty, and pornography all try our heart & brain.
Can we prepare for disaster, like our FATHER’S awesome fire?
When high winds carry infernal flames through our homes we much desire?

Can preparation help all these disasters that come in different ways?
Only our testimony of JESUS CHRIST, helps us through our darkest days.
We can learn from the HOLY GHOST, how to choose our safest path.
Only through our LORD’S true church can we grow strong through heaven’s wrath.

When we’ve felt the flames of wrath and lost all that we own,
Our hearts are stretched beyond ourselves, as we lose house or home.
Our tears flow more free for others grief; we see through deeper eyes
The heart-torn pain of strangers caught in devastation’s cries.

Disasters come in many forms: tsunamis roar, to lightning storms,
Volcanoes erupt, freezing rain, famine’s starvation, to war’s dark pain.
Please, LORD, help us to have eyes to truly see
The suffering of all caught in these last days tragedys.*

Remember, every trial we face is here to help us grow.
From war we learn the true joy in peace, from hate, we see love’s glow.
From the loss of precious loved ones, we can learn true empathy.
For others caught in sorrows song, our LORD’S charity gives us clarity.

We thank Thee LORD, for sorrow; it helps us past our pain.
We thank Thee, LORD, for heartache; it gives us deeper grain.
We thank Thee LORD, for clarity to see, taste, touch and feel,
That when trials pour upon us, we can serve, help and heal.

As oceans over jump their bound and armored insects roar,
On air fields and on freeways, we see men’s faces soar.
As jets and choppers shoot fire down at souls on land and sea,
We see the faces of those souls in the armored dragons of insanity.**

As earthquakes in diverse places increase, as heart attacks do grow,***
We hear John’s revelations play upon our heart, mind and soul.
May we remember JESUS CHRIST, and pray each dawn through eve,
And be prepared through these troubled last days; May we give love and receive.****

* Matthew 5:44
** Revelations chapter 9
*** Matthew 24:6-8
**** Luke 10: 30-37

The devastation of the camp fire in Paradise, California, has been foremost in our minds lately. I’m sure it has to do with our family, who were evacuated, and then learned of the total destruction of home and property. We live in a world full of pain and suffering, but we cannot allow this to immobilize us and to take away our hope. May God strengthen us to be His hands.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-05-22-o-remember-remember?lang=eng&_r=1

This world is full of Problems

Jeanne 1 Comment

This world is full of problems;
On that, we can agree.
The answer’s very plain to me.
I have a remedy:
Be generous with a kind word.
Let compliments be heard.
A hug can say, “You’re thought of!”
And patience speaks of love.
Do try to go the extra mile.
Show kindness with a smile.
Let someone talk and really hear,
Just give a listening ear.

The thing that I am thinking of–
is CHANGE THE WORLD WITH LOVE.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-06-2150-love-your-neighbor?category=topics/criticism&lang=eng

Icebergs

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How much do we really know about anyone else? We just see what that person allows us to see, or feel comfortable revealing. There is so much beneath the surface.

Each soul is like an iceberg that flows upon life’s sea.
We see the tip and think we know just who that might be.
But like earth’s flowing icebergs, the part we see is small,
Compared to the immensity that’s hidden beneath us all.

Within every person are parts we do not see.
They hold uncounted feelings within both you and me.
Few ever see these hidden things of each soul,
But they are real within us, and determine how we grow.

Each soul needs a true friend to know how they really feel;
To have someone who really cares is something that can heal.
An ear to hear, an eye to see, a heart to understand,
Can melt the coldest heartaches within each woman or man.

We each need loving friends to help us through our day,
To try to understand us and our deeper ways,
To care enough to listen to all our troubled thoughts,
We all need the warmth of God’s pure Son within God’s melting pot.


http:///www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-06-015-dominoes?category=social-media-shareable-videos&lang=eng

Crossing Thresholds

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Crossing Thresholds

Unlike all previous posts, I inserted a text document. Just click on the above link and open the document. I’m curious to see how this works for you, and would really appreciate feedback. I suspect that you will not like this new “easy for me” style–too many clicks. Let me know.


I cried when I viewed the following link that shows a married couple and how they dealt with physical obstacles. I think that mental obstacles are also demonstrated. To me, it shows the unspeakable things that dwell deep inside the heart. No words are spoken because it doesn’t need any. Love trumps everything, doesn’t it?

www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-06-010-enduring-love?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng

Stopped in Time

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Here’s another poem about time and nature, and is appropriate right now because we’ve been spending time in our tent trailer in Wyoming, drinking in the scenery, the quiet, the wildlife, and especially the lack of schedule.

Whenever life stops us in our flow,
Or we chance to travel slow,
As we’re given time to look and be,
We strive to understand God’s wondrous eternity.

Whenever we stand still among life’s hurried throng,
We watch all life about us, and listen to their song:
Now is the time to grow, here is the place.
Within this test of life, we all need some quiet space…within the human race.

Within each momentary pause, we find upon this planet,
We strive to warm our heart, from hardned icy granite.
There are deeper meanings, that feed our troubled soul,
With humble meditation on God’s truth, we can grow.

We can find peace in a mountain, or while driving down a road,
Or clouds can lift one’s eyes, worried by a heavy load,
Or what about a river’s song, as it goes flowing by,
Or in each young child’s freedom, as they play beneath the sky?

For speed and power are empty goals.
They leave a hole within our souls,
Where love, truth and gratitude
Can keep a soul from being rude

And set us truly free to forever grow.

The link below notices that the more we see things, the less we see them….

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-11-23-thanksgiving-daily?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2010&lang=eng