this is a page for

Browsing Tag: Heavenly Father

Children,Faith

Salt Dough and Prayer

posted on : June 21, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

Several years ago when my son was in the fourth grade and studying Utah History, he announced to me, as he was getting ready for school, that he needed orange and brown salt doughs for school that morning to make a relief map, and he handed me the recipe.  Since he was my fifth child I was familiar with the project and fortunately the morning had been going smoothly so I had time to make the dough.  The problem was that I didn’t have brown or orange (or even red and yellow) food coloring.  I knew that I could mix cocoa powder into the dough to make brown but I was perplexed about what I could do to make orange salt dough and I frantically looked through my pantry to see if I could find something that would work. Nothing came to mind as I searched among my baking supplies.  I made the brown dough while still thinking about what I could do to come up with orange dough.  I decided to pray about the situation and I told Heavenly Father that I needed to make orange salt dough and didn’t have any orange food coloring and asked that if there was something I had that I could use to make the dough orange that He would inspire me to think of it.  As soon as I finished my prayer I thought of orange Kool-Aid and quickly looked in the container I had of Kool-Aid and found several packages of orange.  I gave a quick prayer of gratitude and about 10 minutes later had orange salt dough that smelled really good ready to go with the brown salt dough, which since it was chocolate, also smelled great.  Prayer is a wonderful gift we have that blesses us in many ways, in some simple ways and in some serious and complex.  Prayer to me is an indication of a Father’s love for His children, that He is concerned about even trivial things in our lives that we need help with.  That morning I felt His love as I made orange salt dough and as my son went to school with the best smelling salt dough in the school.

Children,Faith

She is a Child of God

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

When one of my daughters was very young I found her challenging to deal with.  It seemed she wanted to do just the opposite of whatever I wanted her to do and even though she was very young we battled on almost everything.  I knew that I didn’t want that kind of relationship with her but I had not yet learned that most of the things I insisted on were not that important.  I also knew I wanted to have a calm, peaceful atmosphere in my home, not one in which we battled against each other.  Perplexed as to know what to do I remember praying about it one day and asking Heavenly Father to remind me that she was a child of God whenever I was frustrated with her or arguing with her.  The day went as usual and before long we were in another battle but in the midst of it the thought “she is a child of God” came firmly to my mind which actually took me back a little.  I stopped arguing and handled it differently.  Unfortunately it took me many years to learn what was important and what wasn’t, but I did learn that if I prayed for specific guidance and help that Heavenly Father would bless me with it.

Faith,Lessons Learned

Diligence

posted on : April 12, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

I have a 16-year-old daughter with Down Syndrome.  She is an amazing person who was born with faith and when I tell her something, she believes me.  She loves going to church and participating in Sunday School and Young Women’s classes, and she takes seminary classes through her high school.  She always reminds me to do family scriptures and prayer and I know she reads her scriptures on her own and says her prayers each night, and she always remembers to ask for a blessing on her food- even in a restaurant.  Sometimes after she gets home from school when she’s had seminary or after a Sunday School class I will ask her what the lesson was about or something that she learned.  Her reply is always said with a little frustration “I don’t know.”  I can ask her several questions to try to prompt her memory but she genuinely doesn’t know what was talked about.  In some ways it’s even more remarkable that she persists in doing these righteous behaviors since she doesn’t remember what she’s taught or read. I have thought about her diligence in attending these classes and doing her own personal reading and remember the scripture in the Bible from John 14:26 which says in part “…the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance…”  The knowledge is in there and some day, because of her diligence, she will have all things brought to her remembrance through the Holy Ghost.

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!