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Browsing Tag: promises

Faith,Life

Waiting for Promises

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

I have been fascinated with the prophet Abraham for a while.  Even in the midst of evil, and some of his family members were not doing good things, he chose to stay on the path, to be obedient and keep the commandments.  He received from Jehovah great promises, especially the promise that his seed or children would be as the sands of the sea or the stars in heaven.  In the book of Genesis it says that he was 75 years old when he first received this promise.  Since he was 100 years old when Isaac, the son of the promise, was born I have been thinking about how long he had to wait for the promise to begin to be fulfilled. Did he begin to wonder if he had heard right or misunderstood the Lord?  As he and Sarah aged, did he doubt?  Did he have great faith and never doubted but waited for the promises from Jehovah to be fulfilled? And then, he only had one child of promise, and was asked to sacrifice that child.  Abraham was an extraordinary man who was given great promises, but then I have been given great promises too, not only as his descendant but also as a daughter of God and a woman of covenants.  Sometimes, when I don’t see some of these promises happening very fast and I wonder if it’s because I’m not faithful enough, or misunderstood something or some other vague thing.  Mostly I think I just need to continue to be faithful and patient, and watch for the hand of God in my life.  Neal A. Maxwell said that when we are unduly impatient we are suggesting that we know more than God and we are questioning God’s omniscience. I try to remember this because sometimes it is hard to wait with hope when I see people who I love making wrong choices or when I am in the midst of another terrible migraine, or life isn’t going the way I think it should.  I think that part of my schooling in this life is to develop faith and patience, and to learn to trust God, and Neal A. Maxwell said that patience and faith are closely related.  Patience denotes faith and you can’t have faith without patience, they go hand-in-hand. When not yet fulfilled promises don’t seem to be even on the horizon, I am stretched and my faith and patience grows as I look to God and trust Him. Even in hard times, in the back of my mind, I know God’s promises are sure and He will always keep His promises.

Church,Family,Parenting

Bringing Conference to My Family

posted on : June 4, 2018 posted by : Somethingsihavelearned 0 Comment

When my children were younger they would usually listen to General Conference but they didn’t read the Ensign or New Era conference issues and study the talks.  One of the things I found helpful to bring the talks to them was to type up quotes and post them in my kitchen.  As I would read the talks I would mark quotes or ideas I thought would be good to post.  Every week, sometimes even longer if I didn’t have my life together (frequently) or if there was a quote I particularly liked, I would flip through the conference issue and find the things I marked and choose another quote.  I typed and printed it and then posted it in the kitchen, and since I had already marked the quotes, this only took a few minutes.  At one point I realized there were so many good quotes that I started doing two and put them in different areas of the kitchen.  When one of my daughters was a teenager she told me that she really liked having those quotes posted and she read them frequently, it helped her in her life, and that she even tried to memorize them.  I also hoped that it positively influenced some of my children who were struggling, and it was a way of preaching without preaching.  The funny thing is that I think I benefited the most from the quotes.  I would read and reread them as I worked in the kitchen and the words sank deeply into my heart and I was able to ponder on them.  I frequently thought about how I could implement the ideas and thoughts into my life, and some of the promises I clung to and still do.  This has been an easy and simple way to bring conference to my family.

Family,Parenting

Families are Forever, or Does it Just Seem Like it…

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

Many years ago, when my children were young, my family and I sat in a church meeting that had a “families can be together forever” theme.  During that meeting my children were rude and mean to each other, obnoxious and just down right ill reverent. By the end of the meeting I was worn out and turn to my husband and said “families can be together forever, is that a promise or a threat?”  That day it felt more like threat. People used to tell me that my children wouldn’t be young forever and that the years would fly by and to just enjoy them while they were young, and I thought “they are wrong, I will always have young kids!”  It was exhausting because all I did from the time I got up until I fell into bed at night was kids, kids and kids.  But you know what, those people were right!  The years have flown by and those same fighting, obnoxious kids are now each others best friends and I’m not sure when or how that happened.  Now when we gather there is laughter, and fun and just enjoying each other, and even occasionally there are still squabbles (we’re still far from perfect). So were all of the sleepless nights, sheer exhaustion and refereeing worth it?  I would do it all again only this time with a clearer vision of the future and I would worry less and enjoy the small moments more, because after all, families can be together forever, and that’s a promise.