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Category: Faith

Faith,Lessons Learned

The Answers to Life’s Questions

posted on : March 19, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

Any time I have had a question or a big decision to make I have found my answer by reading my scriptures. Many years ago my husband and I were trying to decide about buying a house.  It would entail taking on considerable debt, and debt scared me then and still does now, and also leaving a house we had just finished remodeling and I thought was about perfect. We had put a ton of work into the yard and it seemed a little like the garden of Eden to me.  We had managed to get the house and the yard just about perfect for us. The new house we were considering was on 4 acres of land and had a nice barn on it.  For years my husband and I had talked about finding a home on some land for us to spread out on.  He had grown up on a couple of acres of land and had great memories of building forts and climbing trees and other kinds of things kids like to do.  He wanted the same thing for our kids, and he really liked the barn.  It would give him a place to build things, something he loved doing. The house was nice and would give us extra room for our large family.  It was a hard decision to make but we decided to put an offer on the house and as usual I turned to my scriptures to receive confirmation or not as I prayed fervently.  This time though I thought “there’s no scripture that says go buy a house or don’t buy a house” so I thought my prayers would have to be answered some other way.  I continued to study my scriptures hoping that I would receive my answer by immersing myself in spiritual things.  One day as I was studying I came across a verse in D&C 45:65 which says in part “gather up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance” and the print seemed five times the size of the other print and I felt the confirmation that the decision to buy the house was the correct one, which to me is always an amazing process to me.  It amazes me because it is an overwhelming concept that God knows who I am, and can and will answer my individual prayers. It was a great relief to get an answer and to know we were on the right track.  I also learned that there is a scripture that says “go buy a house” and that the scriptures provide the answers to all of the questions of life!

Faith,Lessons Learned

Failures

posted on : March 8, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

I have thought a lot about failures and sometimes how crushing they can be.  Sometimes we try and try, and try again and things still don’t go our way, no matter how hard we work, and we wonder why life is so hard or unfair.  One time I was thinking about Joseph Smith, Senior, the father of Joseph Smith the prophet.  He was a farmer who had crop failures after crop failures.  He needed to feed and clothe his family and despite doing his best he kept having his crops fail.  He lost his farms, moved his large family to new locations, started again and failed again.  He finally ended up in Palmyra, New York where he heard the land was rich and the farming good.  He was able to secure some land and start again, in the very place where God needed Joseph Smith, Junior to be.  If his crops and farms had been successful he never would have needed to move.  It seems that our failures, and when we keep on trying in spite of them, lead us along.  We learn from them, become stronger and wiser.  Like Joseph Smith, Senior, hopefully we end up where God wants us to be.

Faith,Family

Mice and Obedience

posted on : February 28, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

Many years ago when my oldest children were young, I put together 72 hour emergency kits for our family.  It took me many hours to figure out what we needed and to do the shopping for the items.  My kids were little so I wanted to make sure I had things like coats, mittens and woolen hats in the kits as well as water, food and survival equipment. Since we didn’t have a lot of money it took hours of looking through second-hand stores to find what I wanted at reasonable prices. I was fortunate to find everything on my list including very used wool blankets which I had read had the ability to keep people warm even while they were wet.  I was quite thrilled with the things I had found and I organized everything into individual backpacks (something else bought at second-hand stores) so that, if need be, each person could carry something.  Then I put everything into a garden cart so that, if I needed, I could pull the cart by myself with my kids, if my husband was out-of-town on business.  I stored the cart in an outdoor storage space so I had easy access to it, and I was feeling pretty good about the results of my hard work and diligence.  At some point I realized I needed to update the items in the kits and pulled out the cart only to find that mice had gotten into everything.  As I sorted through the kits I found they had eaten all of the food, chewed holes in the clothes and blankets and left their nasty droppings everywhere.  It was disgusting and I was heartbroken.  I had worked so hard putting it all together and the only things salvageable were things like flashlights and canteens and other survival equipment. I picked up all of the other items and threw them all away-backpacks, clothes, empty food packs, everything, and I told myself I couldn’t do it again.  I didn’t have the money, energy, time or strength to make new kits, and so I didn’t.  In the back of my mind I knew I needed to make new kits but it was just so overwhelming, especially for something to be destroyed by mice again.  And so I didn’t.  Several years went by and one day, when I was feeling guilty about not having emergency kits, the thought came to me that it was a matter of obedience. That, if for no other reason, I needed to make new kits to be obedient to the directions given by the leaders of the Lord’s church. With that new thought I bought mice proof containers, simplified my wants, researched the best foods to store and spent many hours putting the kits together, and since by now we had all 8 of our kids it took even longer to do than the first kits. But, I did it!  Everything is still piled into a garden cart and I go through it every 4 years to replace the old with new, and the mice proof containers have worked great. I needed to be obedient and it wasn’t easy to do the kits again, but of course it was easier than I had imagined.

Faith,Lessons Learned

House Built on a Rock

posted on : February 19, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

Once when I was reading the account in Matthew 24:24-27 of the wise man who built his house on a rock and the foolish man who built his house on sand I noticed for the first time that the rain fell on both houses.  The wise man’s house was able to withstand the rain while the foolish man’s house was washed away.  Somehow I had always assumed that the foolish man’s house was the one that got rained on even though in plain English it says that the rain fell on both houses.  This realization caused a paradigm shift.  Rain, or troubles, fall on everyone and the difference is the foundation upon which I am built.  Thank goodness for the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives me a firm foundation.

Church,Faith,Life

Tithing

posted on : February 17, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

When I was a young child my mother was a stay-at-home mom, and she was an active member of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).  She wanted to follow the commandment to pay tithing but my dad was dead set against it.  When they had married she didn’t even know he was actually a member of the church which means he was obviously very inactive.  She had later met the missionaries when they were going door-to-door and was almost instantly converted.  She would have loved for my dad to have become active but he was totally against the church.  In those days men often controlled the money and gave their wives a set amount from which to run the family and household, and in my family’s case this is what happened.  She wanted to be obedient to the commandment and she also wanted the blessings that come from paying tithing so unbeknownst to my dad, she paid it on the household money he gave her. Later, after they were divorced and she was only earning minimum wage to support her kids while going to school (they didn’t have the deadbeat parent laws then and for some reason my dad didn’t feel it was necessary to pay child support), she often said that the only reason we made it was because she paid her tithing.  President Gordon B. Hinckley said “Tithing is a matter of faith, not finance” and my mom believed this was a true principle because on the very little money she earned to support a family of six she still paid her tithing faithfully. In my life I have also seen the blessings that come from paying tithing, especially when I was a very poor student at BYU.  I had very little money but I always had what I needed and I believe it was because I paid my tithing.  Tithing is a matter of faith, not finance!

Church

The Sun, The Son

posted on : January 8, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

Years ago I heard a woman speak of a trip to Alaska.  She said that even though Alaska has a shorter growing season, the fruits and vegetables grow to be very large because of the increased hours of sunlight. So I looked it up and things really do grow bigger in Alaska because that state has as much as 20 hours of sun per day which not only causes vegetables to grow bigger but things like carrots are sweeter too. Of course that brings thoughts to my mind of how people grow bigger too in the light of another Son, Jesus Christ. When we allow His light to shine on us our capacity increases and we become bigger and better than we ever thought possible. Not only do our hearts grow but our knowledge increases and our capacity to serve enlarges.  His love allows us to love ourselves and others. When we realize that He suffered the atonement because He loves us we begin to see our true worth and value and the worth and value of others.  His love beckons me to keep the commandments and follow Him.  His love teaches to me to reach out to others and His love urges me to learn more about Him and His ways.  As I study the scriptures and writings of the prophets my knowledge increases.  When I have a question and study and ponder it, sometimes I am filled with knowledge and light regarding the answer, an answer that could only come from God.  Because of His light I am able to learn not only of spiritual matters but also of things regarding my life in this world. After all, He is the Great Creator of all things and He has all knowledge.  He can give me knowledge on how to best help my children, how to solve financial problems or how to forgive someone. He can help me learn about anything!  As I study His word I am taught to reach out and serve others as He did.  “Come follow me” He taught and He spent His whole life in service to others, in word and in deed.  I remember a time when I was pregnant with my seventh child and I was so, so very tired.  It was Monday night and time for Family Home Evening and my husband was away on a business trip, and it was 6 noisy, energetic children and one very tired mom.  I knew I needed to do Family Home Evening but I didn’t think I had it in me to do it.  Mostly I just wanted to go in the bedroom and cry from sheer exhaustion. Out of pure obedience to what I knew was right to do, I decided we would learn a new song out of the Children’s Hymnbook. I let the kids pick a song and then we put on the CD of the music to learn it.  As we sat in a circle around the music book and sang the song together over and over there came a sweet feeling and light into our home.  My children really enjoyed singing the song and even though it was a very simple Family Home Evening I really felt my capacity to serve and teach my precious children had been enlarged.  His light had increased my abilities and given me strength when I was so very tired and had enabled me to serve. The light of Jesus Christ helps each of us to become more than we ever thought possible!

Church

Praying Over Everything

posted on : September 14, 2017 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 2 Comments

In both the Bible and the Book of Mormon we are taught to pray. In Luke 18:1 we are taught to pray always and in Alma, in the Book of Mormon, Amulek teaches us that we should pray over everything including the crops of our fields.  Many years ago I bought 2 grapevines and planted them in my back yard.  My husband built a little fence for them to grow on, and my neighbor, who had grapevines, told me that I needed to prune them.  She gave me instructions on how to prune them and I went to work.  I had her look at the first one I pruned to see if I did it the right way and she told me that not only I had done it the wrong way and should have waited until March, and that the vine would bleed to death.  She then showed me the proper way to prune the grapes on the other vine, which I waited until March to do.  Worried about the dying vine I decided to pray about it.  I prayed that despite my ignorance in pruning it that it would live and I would yet be able to harvest grapes from it.  I prayed about it for several months, even after properly pruning the other vine.  I continued to pray as they leafed out and grapes appeared. Come October I had beautiful grapes and not only did my grapevine not die it produced double the grapes than the one that had been properly pruned.  I enjoyed making jelly and bottling juice because I knew that my prayers had been answered.  Of course our “crops” today are usually not grapes but the jobs we do.  We can pray about our efforts at work and for help with specific problems related to not only our jobs but all areas and aspects of our lives.  Prayer works!