Thanks Giving

I have loved reading others posts about how thankful they are for their families, friends, jobs, church, and blessings.

I, too, am so thankful for my husband, Jerry, and our children, and grandchildren, our sisters and brothers, our extended aunts, uncles, and cousins; and our many friends. We have a job, we have a home, we have vehicles, clothing, and food, we consider ourselves very blessed!

Thanksgiving is a real action word. It refers first to giving thanks, through words, feelings, observations, perceptions, and recognition. Our Heavenly Father has indicated that He is very displeased when we do not recognize the blessings which He gives to us. I imagine He is disappointed when we believe that all those good things in life come only through our own efforts.
Knowing the Source of our blessings, and acknowledging Who is the source, is required by the Lord.
We can draw closer to our Heavenly Father, as we see how much He loves us through the blessings we recognize.

Secondly, the second part of Thanksgiving is in giving of ourselves. We offer prayers of gratitude to our God because of His awareness and filling of our personal needs. We are so touched when we see direct answers to our prayers, when we see His hand in other's lives, and when we stop to look around us and see the beauty of this very earth.

Giving is such a privilege. It isn't just a responsibility, it is truly a gift to be able to give to others. We can give by a smile to others, keeping in touch with others through a phone call or a note or letter. We can respond to an observed need we see in other's lives. We can anticipate needs of a loved one or friend, or neighbor.

We can give to charity within our churches, we can leave anonymous donations of money or food to a needy person or family, we can simply let people know they are appreciated and not alone. We can teach our children the joy of giving to others, service all year round. I have watched a family do that, and I was impressed and gladdened by the love that underpins all they do, are, and are becoming!

Giving works best in our own spheres, our yards, neighborhoods, church congregations, and our cities. The world goes best when we each do our own small part to uplift all around us. We are coming to realize that many people are losing that sense of community, and looking to please only themselves; not realizing they are robbing themselves blind. Blind to the joy of helping others first. Blind to the emptiness of their lives. Blind to the deprivations of light and understanding that comes to those who readily give of what they have and are. Losing sight of their part in the brotherhood of mankind. I feel very sorry for them.

What a blessing to be able to see Who is giving us the needs of our lives, to be able to pray and say thank you to Him, and to know that we can please Him by recognizing His Hand in our lives. I love my Heavenly Father, I am so grateful for His teachings, and His presence in my life. I testify that He lives, and that He loves us.

I would say that acknowledgement and reciprocation are the true meanings of Thanksgiving to me.

Thank you.

The first Sister.

I am the eldest of eleven children. Three sisters, and seven brothers. My first few siblings rather appeared on the scene, the last five I watched for, and noticed, when Mom was expecting. We all looked forward to each baby that appeared, and loved them dearly. Each child has grown to be their own entity. Each is purely individual. Each has had happiness and grief and pain. All but one have brought "inlaw siblings" to our family, and we have come to love them, too. One of our dear Sisters in Law has departed this earth, due to cancer. One child was born with a severe mental handicap, locking his world into the world of a two to three year old.

Five years ago, one of our sisters, C, called each of the other sisters and proposed a Sister Retreat. We had grown apart, a little, and she felt that we needed to renew our sisterhood bond. The first year was emotionally rough, but worth it. Each succeeding year we have met at a location central to all of us, and we are growing closer with each retreat. We will always be individuals, we are not much alike in our approaches to life, our means of dealing with the impediments that life throws at us, but our central standards are very much alike. The teachings of our childhood remain ever present.

Eighteen years separate my youngest sister and I. We never really had much time to build bonds, so this is a means of doing just that. M was 3 years old when my husband and I moved two states away, and began our own family. We seldom saw one another because all of us were poor, no extra money to travel. I asked Mom to let my younger sisters come and stay with me in the summers, but she was reluctant to have them far away, and when I was working there was not much they could do during the day if they did come. I was always sad that we couldn't work out a way for me to spend time with them, but the years passed, and so did the opportunities.

I have three very lovely sisters. They are beautiful, real, fun, earnest in their endeavors, faithful to their inner beliefs, and yet each deals with insecurities (as do I ), yearnings, painful experiences of life, and personal allotments of grief and joy.

We are reaching out to each other. It is so important to be loved by one's sisters, and our strengths are multiplied as we reach out with love to each other. We have a shared background in many ways, however, we also did not have the same reaction from our parents. As the oldest, Mom and Dad were very strict with me and my near younger brothers and sister. The last half of the siblings had a more relaxed, more tired, more mellow set of parents. Eleven children are wearing on a couple! There tend to be resentments about the different treatments given the little ones. Because I was first out of the nest, I was not exposed to much difference in treatment. There was some, but, hey! that is life. And then I was gone, with visits perhaps once a year, or every other year, sometimes three years would go by. There were letters, but I was not a letter mailer. I would write letters, but procrastinate mailing them. But there were a few phone calls, they were expensive, so were few.

I love my sisters, I love their personalities, I love their tenacity to living their lives the best they can, I love them equally, and delight in their delights, and sorrow with them when they sorrow. I am looking forward to the great long expanse of eternity, where the bonds we are forging will continue with no end, enriching each other for all eternity.

What more can one ask?

Hope.

 I have been thinking of the reason I started a blog titled myriad musings. Perhaps the first reason was that I wanted to put on "paper" my thoughts and feelings, to develop my thinking and reasoning, and to share my thinking with others. Otherwise, I could just fill out my journal pages as part of our family history efforts.
Can I make a difference to others? Will my thoughts and beliefs help someone who is experiencing parallel
events or feelings? I hope so.
Hope fills our lives. We hope for small things like good grades on tests, good jobs, good meals, good interactions with others, etc. There is one great hope, the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Without a Redeemer, our journey through mortality would not have any hope. None. We make mistakes, and because Christ is our Redeemer, we can partake of repentance. Because of Him, we can come to understand our mistake, and why we made it, and tell our Heavenly Father we are sorry, ask for forgiveness, and realize that we are forgiven. We can become clean again, without the sin or mistake clinging to our souls and our psyches. We go forward with hope. Hope seems to be a renewal of belief. We are commanded in the Bible and other Scriptures to have hope in Christ, to have faith in Christ, to know that His name is the only name under Heaven who can offer redemption. He suffered for our sins, and died for us, and lives again. He wrought the only atonement ever given for us. I cannot conceive of the pain he suffered, but I am utterly grateful for His love and obedience that made eternal life possible - for all of us.
I think of how He made the sacrifice, but it us up to us to partake of it. If we never repent, never learn obedience, never receive the covenants, never try to do as the Lord commands us......then that great sacrifice will not apply to us. We will have to suffer for our own sins. I think the greatest sorrow will be the "might have been", the "if only".
Jesus Christ exhorts us to follow Him. He showed us the path, he leads the way, he prays for us, he helps us succeed when we try, we receive immeasurable blessings when we apply ourselves as commanded.
God gave us commandments as a measurement of agency. Our agency means we do not "have" to follow those commands....but we will be judged by them, and suffer the consequences if we ignore them, or follow them half-heartedly. Christ did not make any half-hearted gestures or actions! He fully healed, fully forgave, fully suffered, and foremost....he fully obeyed our Father in Heaven, always.
Hope is fully embodied in Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus Christ's atonement we can have hope of returning to live with our Heavenly Father, hope of becoming like God, hope of spending eternity where our work and  glory will be to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, just like our Father does.
Hope is in the here and now, a light for our mortal lives. There is only joy in obeying what Heavenly Father asks us to do, and there is only sorrow in rejecting our Father. I exhort us to have hope, to develop faith, and to come to know the joy only He can give. It's the better way!

Peace within my soul

     The benefits of exercise in my life are great. While I was sick for 3 months this year, I could not exercise. I was doing well just to live! Needless to say, muscles I can usually call on at will, became much less effective. Then I began exercising again. I started with my glider. First day 1 mile. Hard to achieve, but I did it! I kept adding a half-mile per day until I reached 3 miles. Then I began doing the exercise video from the Food Lovers diet, it is a 12 minute video during which you do not stop moving, during the entire time. I noticed almost immediate results, and began to be able to call on my "normal" muscles with ease and good action.
     When I exercise I feel better about myself as well. I know that I am contributing to my over-all good health, and that I feel peace about what I am doing.
     I think that peace and balance or completeness is what I seek in my life about everything which I do. Reading the scriptures, regular prayers, as well as "prayers of the moment", fairly regular bedtimes and number of hours I sleep, healthy food with an occasional "big treat", cleanliness of self and home, and regular times of recreation and rest, or meditation, and distinct times of service to others. All of these create a feeling of doing those things which give me complete peace within. It has nothing to do with daily stresses and how I handle them, it has nothing to do with family stresses, it is simply a "formula" which makes me complete. I know who I am, I know my relationship to my Heavenly Father, I know my relationship with my husband and also my children and grandchildren, my siblings, my friends, and my ward and stake. I know that there are things which are good, that I am not doing right now, and that is okay. I know that we are not supposed to do everything all at once, there are times in our life to do some good things, and other times to grapple with different good things. Balance and perspective are required, also listening to the Spirit to know what good things I should focus on at any given time. These are the foundation of being at peace within my soul.
     I believe that peace within my soul is the definition of happiness, eternal happiness. It does not mean that I never have stress or turmoil, anxiety or discouragement, sorrow or joy, or encounter those regularly placed bumps and pitfalls of mortality; it simply means that that balance within sustains me through all of my life.
     I am not a "why ME?" person. I cannot remember if I have ever thought or said "Why is this happening to ME?" If it happens to me, it happens- if it doesn't happen, it doesn't----it really doesn't matter, it is something simply to assimilate, and solve. It is there, deal with it!! Life is full of surprises, both good and difficult. I believe that all of us make mistakes in this life, my father-in-law once told me that this is the reason we come to earth, to make mistakes, repent of them, and learn from them. I was much encouraged by that! None of us do everything perfectly all of the time, it just isn't going to happen. We need not feel as though we are of less worth because we fail, it is the getting up and going on....the repenting and learning....the humbling and becoming who we really can be; this is the purpose of this life.
     It helps me to put these thoughts down on "paper", to realize how I feel inside, to feel at peace with who I am. To know, also, how very much I am grateful to Heavenly Father for helping me to grow and understand what the eternal process really is.....and to enjoy it.
     
  

Our country, the United States of America

What can save a country? For the last 14 years I have watched our nation slip slowly from a strong, principled country...to a country standing with head bowed, in shame, at the antics of "leaders" who glibly lay their hand on a Bible; swear to uphold the laws of the land, then fail to even try.
Our world standing is so low, our moral standards as a nation are so lacking....that I would utterly fear for the continuation of this country, would fear that our current holder of the Oval Office would bring this country down, as seems to be his singular goal - except for the words of Prophets. True Prophets of this latter day. I looked up some quotes and include some of them here..........

Brigham Young As the President of the Church

"2.5. There never was a better constitution on the face of the earth than the constitution of the United States. There is nothing but the people of God could enjoy under it. But the Federal constitution is trodden under foot. All that I am afraid of is that the Elders of Israel will forget their God.(JH [8 Jul 1849] 3)

2.6. I arose and spoke substantially as follows: . . . I love the government and the constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals who administer the government. (JH [8 Sep 1851] 3–4)

2.12. Will the Constitution be destroyed? No: it will be held inviolate by this people; and, as Joseph Smith said, “The time will come when the destiny of the nation will hang upon a single thread. At that critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.” It will be so."

President David O McKay

 

"Today, as never before, the issue is clearly defined—liberty and freedom of choice, or oppression and subjugation for the individual and for nations.

As we contemplate the deplorable fact that within the brief space of one year, ten European nations have lost their independence, that over two hundred and fifty million people have surrendered all guarantees of personal liberty, deeper should be our gratitude, more intense our appreciation of the Constitution, and more strengthened our determination to resist at all costs any and all attempts to curtail our liberties, or to change the underlying system of our government. (“Essentials of a Better World” 698)

9.5. Throughout the ages advanced souls have yearned for a society in which liberty and justice prevail. Men have sought for it, fought for it, have died for it. Ancient freemen prized it; slaves longed for it; the Magna Charta demanded it; the Constitution of the United States declared it. (“The Church and the Present War” 341; also in Gospel Ideals 288)

9.6. We . . . warn our people in America of the constantly increasing threat against our inspired Constitution. . . . The proponents thereof are seeking to undermine our own form of government and to set up instead one of the forms of dictatorships [which] is now flourishing in other lands. These revolutionists are using a technique that is as old as the human race,—a fervid but false solicitude for the unfortunate over whom they thus gain mastery, and then enslave them. (Grant and McKay 273, 343)

9.7. Therefore, as against the tyranny and despotism of Totalitarianism and Dictatorships, let us willingly and heroically, defend the Constitution of this land that guarantees to every citizen of the republic, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and favors the divine pronouncement that the souls of men are precious in the sight of God. (“Address to Marines Enlisted in Newest ‘Mormon Battalion’” 4)

9.8. The Constitution of this government was written by men who accepted Jesus Christ as the Saviour of mankind. Let men and women in these United States then continue to keep their eyes centered upon Him who ever shines as a Light to all the world. (“The Light That Shines in Darkness” 750)"........................

President Harold B Lee

 "Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the new Jerusalem. This is the place that the Lord said is favored above all other nations in all the world. This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple. This is the favored land in all the world. Yes, I repeat, men may fail, but this nation won’t fail. I have faith in America; you and I must have faith in America, if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are living in a day when we must pay heed to these challenges.

I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. This is the favored land. This is the land of our forefathers. It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.

( Source: Ye Are the Light of the World 350-51 )"....................................................

 

 

We can, then, with faith and assurance, pray for this land, this people, and our beloved Constitution. It will not fail, our Constitution was written by inspired men under the direction of God Almighty, and He it is, who will direct righteous men and women in defending and saving it's beloved precepts and laws. We can count on Him, we can believe the words and prophesies of our Prophets. We can go forth with hope, with cheerfulness, praying for direction for our own part, we can elect good men and women to office. Although great wickedness abounds, God is still with us. He hears and answers our prayers.

 I love my Country and our Constitution. I am gladdened in my heart to know that our country will not fail, and that I can apply faith in my prayers concerning the woes we are currently going through.