Living my Religion

Commonality

It is my belief that every individual on this earth can find commonality with one another.

What do I have in common with this Nigerian artist?

Besides that fact that we are both Mormon?

I love the rain too.

LeGrand and I love the rain.

I don’t understand how anyone can not appreciate rain. It is essential to life. It is relaxing. It is music to my ears. It’s a reminder that I am privileged to live on God’s earth.

Desire

“Are all my desires pure?” I asked myself while reading this recent address.

I desire to love my fellow man.

I desire to live a long life.

I desire to spend quality time with my kids.

I desire to serve God.

I desire to share truth with my friends.

I desire to be humble.

I desire to be wise.

I desire a close relationship with my personal Savior Jesus Christ.

I desire to have a strong marriage.

I desire to teach my girls to be healthy and happy and strong.

I desire to love myself better.

I desire to help others.

I desire eternal life.

Yet, I judge others, refuse to eat right and exercise enough, tell my kids to leave me alone, pretend I don’t know that people need service, withhold my beliefs in discussions, think I am too important, refuse to implement knowledge I have gained, slack on my personal scripture study and prayer, yell at my husband, assume I always have time to teach that to my kids later, engage in unhealthy self-talk, feel I lack skills, abilities, or means to make a difference, and last but not least, I looked at that pornographic picture that came up on my screen when I google image searched desire. Gross. Why did I do it? Yuck. I should have known better than to google search “desire”. All I could say to myself is “so much for effective spyware.”

I guess I am on the phase between desire and choices.

My newest desire is to never see anything like that again. I am pretty sure I am scarred enough that I will never ever falter on that choice again.

Anyone can desire. The hard part is in the choice and the actions. But choice and action are where the rewards await us.

I so want to change, achieve, and become. And I so want to forget that nasty picture.

I’ll Take My Church With Humor

LG doesn’t understand why I think this guy is funny, but he couldn’t hide his chuckle at The Eye of the Tiger. Lots of Mormons are funny. I recently learned of this funny guy Shaycarl on youtube. He’s a Mormon. He’s kind of obnoxious. He has four kids. He lives online. Wow, it’s like we are long lost twins. Except he is famous and makes his living on youtube and I am only known by my 800 friends on facebook (and only 1/8th of them read my blog) and I don’t make any money. But, it’s all good, I blog for me. And it’s always flattering that anyone actually reads this thing.

Well, you know how I love my church signs. You also know how I love a good laugh. And you know how I get giddy when we combine the two. If you are with me, you must check the link below. It is a great church sign war. And I believe the funny Catholics won.

This is hilarious.

I think that I agree with the Catholics, and not only because they are funny. Rocks will be in heaven because heaven will be here on earth. Why would the rocks have any need to go anywhere else?

Same Jersey

Sometimes I forget that we all wear the same jersey.
I get lifted up in pride.
And I get overzealous about sharing what I know to be true.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am ashamed if I use my knowledge to feel better than others.

I repent.
And I pray for forgiveness.
And I hope that I will find the right balance between
sharing what I know to be true
and loving and respecting others for their beliefs.

I have said it before and I will say it again.
I believe the most important thing that I can do in this life
is to love all people.
I will someday have to report to my God
about how I treated all of his children
while here on earth.
But, I will also have to report on how I shared the knowledge He has given me.
And for both tasks, I don’t want to be left short.

Pride and the Priesthood


My dear brethren of the priesthood, my beloved fellow disciples of the gentle Christ, should we not hold ourselves to a higher standard? As priesthood bearers, we must realize that all of God’s children wear the same jersey. Our team is the brotherhood of man. This mortal life is our playing field. Our goal is to learn to love God and to extend that same love toward our fellowman. We are here to live according to His law and establish the kingdom of God. We are here to build, uplift, treat fairly, and encourage all of Heavenly Father’s children. ~ Deiter F Uchtdorf

Charlie
The other day at church someone called out to their kid who was running down the hall.
“Charlie!”

Caroline looked all around.

She didn’t see Charlie anywhere.
She starting questioning
“Where’s Charlie?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that he lives in Tennessee.
And we live in Utah.
And that there is now another kid named Charlie
who happens to be running down the hall.
But it’s not her Charlie.
Wouldn’t you know it?
You can never have everything.
In Tennessee, Caroline loved Charlie, but hated nursery.
Now, she loves nursery.
And she still loves Charlie.
But he isn’t here.
And that is pretty identical to what her mom is going through.
I love so many things about Utah.
But I still love so many things about Tennessee,
but they aren’t here.
I can look around and feel that hole in my heart
where Charlie is missing,
or I can just keep moving forward
looking for a new Charlie.
Man, I hope he arrives soon.
Because I am kind of floundering.
And that was metaphorical.
Because I am happily married.
Most of the time.

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I Pray in Faith

Here is one of my favorite songs about prayer.
Actually it’s one of my favorite songs of all time.
I have felt the power of the message while teaching it to many children.
My own and many who belong to my good friends.

I kneel to pray every day.
I speak to Heavenly Father.
He hears and answer me.
When I pray in faith. 

I begin by saying Dear Heavenly Father.
I thank him for blessings he sends.
Then humbly I ask him for things that I need
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

My Little Monsters
Artistic Caroline presented by LG’s smartphone. Such a perfect depiction of her almost 2 year old attitude.
Sophia has been really sick.
And this mom has been really worried.
She didn’t have enough strength 
and was in too much pain 
and couldn’t go to school all last week.
They say she just has two really bad ear infections.
But I am not sure if that is right.
This girl has had A LOT of ear infections.
2 bouts of Swimmer’s ear.
Three sets of PE tubes.
And she has never been like this.
Her lymph nodes were huge on Friday night.
Visibly huge.
I also think she has a little whiplash from her cheer-leading class a few weeks ago.
Thankfully she looks a lot better today.
I am keeping my fingers crossed.
And praying more than crossing my fingers.
Especially since she just said her ear is hurting.
She already had one round of zithromax
and 3 shots of rocephin.
Sophia hasn’t been sleeping as much as she should. 
Her eyes were really really red and bloodshot yesterday.
Despite her lethargy, she was dying to go to church to be the reverence child.
(I looked for a link to an explanation for a reverent child, but I couldn’t find any –
a reverence child is the lucky kid who gets to stand in the front of the LDS sacrament meeting –
they stand with their arms folded and act as an example for the adults to remember reverence.)
Another side note: there is nothing like an assignment to be 10 minutes early for church to make a family 2 minutes late for church. We have been early for the past 6 weeks. Sorry Sophia.
After Sophia got dressed all pretty for church, Abigail voiced her observation:
“Look mom, Sophia looks like Rosalie (from Twilight).
Abigail was right. Sophia looked like she needed some blood bad. And fast!
Now I have two vampire children.
Just what I always wanted.
Thanks to all of our fallen soldiers who made it possible for me to raise a bunch of monsters.
We live in a wondrous country, despite the politicians.

The power of a painting
Recently, because of a very in tune Relief Society teacher, I had the opportunity to reflect on the evolution of my testimony. I thought long and hard about any spiritual experiences I had as a child. The main thing that came to mind was the amazing tingly feeling I had shoot from my head to toe when I received the Holy Ghost. Christian doctrine says that we must be baptized by water and fire. In my faith, at age 8, when a child is accountable for their own actions they can be baptized by immersion. Afterwards, under the hands of those in authority holding The Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, one can be confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and be baptized by fire when told to receive the constant companionship of The Holy Ghost. I had a really cool experience that even at age 38, I still remember vividly.
Besides this amazing experience, I could not recall a lot of details of times that I felt the influence of The Holy Ghost as a child. One thing that I did recall was a picture of Christ that my mom had hanging in our home. It was a beautiful sketch of Christ spending time with the children. I remembered that as a child, I spent significant time looking at this photo. It made me feel so good.
I can remember as a teenager looking at this photo, and having a distinct impression that I wasn’t living in a way that showed Christ that I knew that he loved me and that I loved him.
As an adult, pondering this piece of art and all the good feelings associated with it, I had a profound realization. I realized that as a child I had a pure love for my Savior Jesus Christ. I feel like I have grown to love the Savior even more in the last few years, but I don’t believe this testimony has evolved. I think I had a very strong testimony as a child that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Now as an adult, yes I do have a great knowledge of my Savior, but it does not trump that I had as a child. If anything I am trying my hardest to get back to that pure testimony that I had when I was young.
Matthew 19:14  But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

And if you are anything like me, and are struggling daily with raising children. Go here. You will find inspiration as I did. I promise.

Missionary Tag

At dinner the other night Abigail started telling us about her experience at school with missionary tag. Not a missionary tag that you wear on your lapel, but a game that you play at school.

I was more than curious. The social influence of LDS culture astounds me, and I am now living through the eyes of my children. There was no missionary tag in Tennessee. I found the idea very entertaining, as I knew it had to be a game made up by some Mormon some time in the last 200 year history. I enquired further. So, how do you play missionary tag?

Abigail responded: “well everyone has a partner.”

Oh, yes indeed. Missionary tag was referring to Mormonism. You see, just like the animals in the ark, God sends Mormon missionaries out to testify two by two. Whenever you see a Mormon missionary preaching anywhere in the world, they will always be accompanied by a companion. When I was a Mormon missionary I had a companion in eye’s view every minute of 18 months, except when I was in the bathroom. You would think I would be a better wife after having that kind of training.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established, 2 Corinthians 13:1

Apparently that translates into a school playground game where everyone has a partner.

Before I let Abigail explain any further, I started heckling a bit. Just because that’s what we do.

me: So, you get a partner and then you go and find your bikes.

Abigail: No mom.

me: Oh yeah, that’s lame, not all missionaries have bikes, um, after you get a partner, you kneel down to pray?

Abigail: Mom, you are so lame sometimes.

me: After you get your partner, you run inside and whoever find a Book of Mormon first wins.

Abigail: Are you done yet?

me: After you get your partner, you sing Called to Serve.

Abigail: Mom, I am not going to tell you if you don’t stop.

me: So, you get a partner, and then….

LG: Alice, it’s not funny.

me: really?

LG and Abigail in unison: Really.

awww man. I was laughing. I thought I was hilarious.

Abigail went on to explain the rules of partner tag. But just so you know, in case you ever visit, in Utah, classic partner tag is called Missionary tag. Even a simple little schoolyard game has been inundated with Mormon doctrine…much like many other facets of living in this great state.

Of course I am loving it.