Just an official notice to my all those who care. I have moved Wednesday Words to a new blog called My Wednesday Words. It will be a little like the Wednesday Words I have done in the past, but a little different. Wednesday Words now will be focused on humanity and service. Making Minor Moments will be about what it says: Making Minor Moments. So if you want to hear about my family, Making Minor Moments is the one. If you wanna a simple discussion and my thoughts on Social Issues I care about, Wednesday Words is for you. If you don't care about either, that's okay too. Here is the link to Wednesday Words:mywednesdaywords@blogger.com
Loved Loved Loved General Conference! So last Fall during General Conference, I was a struggling (Depression of 2013) and Church things were hard, Conference was hard. But I remember Saturday afternoon, Elder Holland got up and spoke. It was about Depression. I sat on my couch and cried. And I wondered maybe Heavenly Father does know me (yes, at the time I was having serious doubts).
Fast Forward to this General Conference and I am a feeling great, excited for conference, prepared for conference by praying for specific answers. Well guess what, my PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED! God has called living apostles and prophets on the earth to guide His church. Yes God lives, and He loves His children. As you know I'm a wanna be social worker. I have been praying to know how I can best serve those that are less fortunate--the poor. I prayed for that before Conference and was floored when, guess who gets up and talks about poverty! Yes Elder Holland! Has there ever been a talk in the history of General Conference that spoke directly on poverty? Not that I am aware of. And yet here he is talking so sincerely, compassionately about my personal passion. This year I sat on my friend's (Kent and DeeAnn) couch and cried. God is a personal, loving God who answers simple prayers like mine. Amazing. Elder Holland said: .. I don’t know exactly how each of you should fulfill your obligation to those who do not or cannot always help themselves, but I know that God knows, and He will guide you in compassionate acts of discipleship if you are conscientiously wanting and praying and looking for ways to keep a commandment He has given us again and again.” There's the promise. God will show me the way.
Right now I will continue to work at the Food and Care Coalition in Provo, pray for the poor, and as a family provide homeless kits for the homeless.. Then I will pray and search for other opportunities and do "what I can do."
Excuse me for just a moment while I climb on my soap box.....okay here we go. Yes I am going to express one of my "passions" my "pet peeve" or whatever you want to call it. It's called Labeling. Yes Labeling. . I understand it's human nature, and I know I am guilty at times. I have a friend that has a labeling machine. It's very cool. It labels THINGS. Labeling THINGS is helpful for filing etc. It provides useful information for those of who can read:) Describing people can be useful if we are using it to gather needed information. I think the difference between describing and labeling is when there is unfair judgment involved . Yes, I am guilty of it. When I was in college, I remember walking towards a building heading to a class. A guy in front of me was tattooed, dressed rough (this was 25 years ago, this is a little more normal now:/). I remember thinking to myself, "eww" and thinking what a rough and "bad' guy he must be. It was about then he approached the door, smiled at me, and held it open for me. I felt like an inch tall as I filed into the door and then had a great guilt trip and chew out session with myself after that. Why do we do that? Leo Buscaglia, one of my heroes states this about labeling and stereotyping:
" Labels are distancing phenomena. They push us away from each other. Black man. What’s a black man? I’ve never known two alike. Does he love? Does he care? What about his kids? Has he cried? Is he lonely? Is he beautiful? Is he happy? Is he giving something to someone? These are the important things. Not the fact that he is a black man or Jew or
Dago or Communist or Democrat or Republican."
I volunteer at a place that serves the homeless. Homeless. Label alert! What do we think of when we hear the word "homeless"? Loser? Drug Addict? Ashamed? OR Child of God in need of help? Hopefully the latter. I have probably labeled them as such at times, but I now I cannot. These people are amazing people with circumstances out of our judgement zone that necessitate where they are in life.
Mother Teresa states: "If you judge people, you have no time to love them"
Of course, the greatest example is Jesus Christ, who looked past the labels, the social stereotypes and simply loved.
I willl now come down from my soapbox and try to follow His example.
Having major writer's block lately. I don't think it's because I don't have anything to say, it's because I have too much to say and it's all swirling in my head. Although I love to organize, I cannot seem to organize my head.:) But I am going to try. I talked about revelation last time, and how I sometimes don't know if I get it. Sometimes I don't get faith. I remember at the end of mission I expressed this to my mission president. I remember this wise man said to me basically it's somewhat of a mystery. We can pray in faith for miracles, yet sometimes they come, sometimes they don't. I remember when I was going through my nightmare last year, at first I prayed, and I prayed hard for the pain to end, and yet I never felt like I was heard. It hurt to know God was watching me suffer and yet unwilling ( in my mind) to do anything about it. So I quit praying. I know, judge all you want, but in all in honesty, anytime I did anything "spiritual" the torment would increase. So for survival, I backed off being spiritual which was one of the hardest things to do because living the Gospel is everything to me, and yet I felt unable to at that time. My daughter asked me about my 2013 Depression (that's what we'll call it) the other day and I said it felt like someone had ripped out my soul. Now that I'm much much better, I'm back at living the Gospel and loving it, yet as I wrestled with the whole revelation thing last month, I realize my faith in prayer is a little shaky. Yes I pray, and I pray a lot for others, and sometimes I pray as if it's an after thought for God to fulfill the deep desires of my heart. It's kinda like, " you know if you have time, and get around to it, please answer this prayer". So on Pinterest the other day;), I found a great quote by Elder Holland:
God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.
That really hit me and I felt of it's truthfulness. God wants to answer my prayers. He loves me! And I need to have faith, but first, I need the Lord "to help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24)
I am working on it and know my Heavenly Father will have patience with me and is waiting to help me fulfill my dreams.
If there is a book out there titled "Personal Revelation for Dummies" I would buy it in a heartbeat. I mean I think I've figured some of the Spirit, but when it comes to making decisions, I struggle. For example, one of my offspring is trying to make a decision right now and wrestling with it as well. She's prayed, fasted, went to the temple (to do baptisms) and just doesn't know what to do. I don't either. Sometimes I'm like you should do this,or no, this feels right. I don't know what feels right. I'm also trying to make a decision for my life and even though I know the direction somewhat, I'm trying to grasp the details. In pondering this situation, I found this great talk that helps understanding the whole revelation dilemma:
"What do you do when you have prepared carefully, have prayed fervently, waited a reasonable time for a response, and still do not feel an answer? You may want to express thanks when that occurs, for it is an evidence of His trust. When you are living worthily and your choice is consistent with the Savior’s teachings and you need to act, proceed with trust. As you are sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit, one of two things will certainly occur at the appropriate time: either the stupor of thought will come, indicating an improper choice, or the peace or the burning in the bosom will be felt, confirming that your choice was correct. When you are living righteously and are acting with trust, God will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you have made the wrong decision." (Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer RICHArD G. SCOTT)
So there I have it. Even though there isn't a book titled "Revelation for Dummies", there is one perhaps that could be called "Recieving Revelation for Mere Mortals". It's the Scriptures, Living Prophets, and our own personal Gift of the Holy Ghost.
And now just a little David Archuleta to help me with my ramblings:
I'm having a really hard time musing on Mondays, so I've changed to Wednesday Words. Cute? I like it. I was brainstorming the other day. Should I change it Thursday Thoughts? I decided on Wednesday Words because I like the potential it has. Just think about it. Words. I have declared myself as pathetically uncreative. If you've seen me play Pictionary...you know what I mean. Yet when it comes to Words, we are all creators. We have been given this pallet of letters, which form words, which form sentences, which ...okay you know where I'm going with this. We create masterpieces with words. We can use them to uplift, or demean. To inspire or depress. We are creators with words! First word of the week: Create.
Which leads me to the second word of the week: Purge In the Minor household we have been on a purging spree. Lately I have felt the need to get rid of things that are not needed. My kids got the Purging Fever and they got rid of a TON OF STUFF! And it felt good. There rooms are so clean and organized and they are just happier. I feel less burdened and less crazy. And I know my kids do too. It's been a great experience and in the words of Karen Carpenter "We've Only Just Begun". So along with Purging of many of our material possessions, I have been purging my life. Well in the thinking stages of it anyway. I plan to get rid of activities that are not in tune with who I am and the person I want to be. And I'm excited! Remember my C.R.E.A.T.E goals at the beginning of the year? Yes I am creating my life to be all that It's intended to be. Yet I'm finding in order to CREATE, first I must PURGE.
Warning: The use of the word "Love" is overused in this blog, but I attribute that to the English language and my English speaking skills. Okay, we all have things we love with all our heart and soul. I hope mine are obvious by the way I live my life: The Gospel of Jesus Christ and my family and friends. This post however will share some other loves of my life that I have experienced this Summer. Where to start? I love animals. Cats especially, I loved them growing up, and would always sneak them in at night because cats were not allowed in the house while we slept. However, a little over a month ago, our good friends Kent and DeeAnn introduced us to a doggy that needed a new home. And we gave Koda a new home. Our home. And I love that little doggy to pieces! He is adorable, funny, playful and so loving.
Here he is posing with the beautiful Chelsie. Next Love of the Summer. This past week we went to Yellowstone with our very good friends Kent and DeeAnn. I loved it! I was Awestruck by the beauty of it all. I love the mountains, I love the Daffodils...really I just love nature particularly the mountains, nature, animals, and Yellowstone fulfilled that love to the brim and toppled right on over. We took 500 billion pictures, so I plan to devote a whole post and a book to Yellowstone, but here is a sampling of Old Faithful.
More pics to come!
Third Love: Certain Broadway Shows, like oh I don't know WICKED. Yep love the music, story, message, the social perspective, and most of all watching it with, you guessed it: our very VERY good friends, Kent and DeeAnn. Thanks guys. It was Amazing!
It has been a great Summer. And it's not over. I have loved it so far. So in closing I will share a pic of another love: Ice Cream. We have a tradition to make homemade ice cream on Pioneer Day. Here is a new recipe: Ice cream with Nutella and Oreo Cookies. Yummy!
