She Never Did Care for Pie

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. 

~Tenneva Jordan~

Remember What You Deserve

Sometimes you have to forget what you want to remember what you deserve.

The Greatest Investment

You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.

~Gordon B. Hinckley

Schedules

Respect people who find time for you in their busy schedule...but love the people who never look at their schedule when you need them.

Christmas, Giving & Sacrifice

"Christmas means giving. The Father gave his Son, and the Son gave His life. Without giving there is no true Christmas, and without sacrifice there is no true worship." 

 ~Gordon B. Hinckley~

A Mother

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
~Tenneva Jordan

Happiness - Learning from the Past

In April 2003 conference, President Thomas S. Monson shared ways in which we can gain more happiness. He said:

"Today I have chosen to provide the three pieces of your treasure map to guide you to your eternal

happiness. They are:

1. Learn from the past.

2. Prepare for the future.

3. Live in the present.

Let us consider each segment of the map.

First, learn from the past. Each of us has a heritage—whether from pioneer forebears, later converts, or others who helped to shape our lives. This heritage provides a foundation built of sacrifice and faith. Ours is the privilege and responsibility to build on such firm and stable footings.

A story written by Karen Nolen, which appeared in the New Era in 1974, tells of a Benjamin Landart who, in 1888, was 15 years old and an accomplished violinist. Living on a farm in northern Utah with his mother and seven brothers and sisters was sometimes a challenge to Benjamin, as he had less time than he would have liked to play his violin. Occasionally his mother would lock up the violin until he had his farm chores done, so great was the temptation for Benjamin to play it.

In late 1892 Benjamin was asked to travel to Salt Lake to audition for a place with the territorial o

rchestra. For him, this was a dream come true. After several weeks of practicing and prayers, he went to Salt Lake in March of 1893 for the much anticipated audition. When he heard Benjamin play, the conductor, a Mr. Dean, told Benjamin he was the most accomplished violinist he had heard west of Denver. He was told to report to Denver for rehearsals in the fall and learned that he would be earning enough to keep himself, with some left over to send home.

A week after Benjamin received the good news, however, his bishop called him into his office and asked if he couldn’t put off playing with the orchestra for a couple of years. He told Benjamin that before he started earning money there was something he owed the Lord. He then asked Benjamin to accept a mission call.

Benjamin felt that giving up his chance to play in the territorial orchestra would be almost more than he could bear, but he also knew what his decision should be. He promised the bishop that if there were any way to raise the money for him to serve, he would accept the call.

When Benjamin told his mother about the call, she was overjoyed. She told him that his father had always wanted to serve a mission but had been killed before that opportunity had come to him. However, when they discussed the financing of the mission, her face clouded over. Benjamin told her he would not allow her to sell any more of their land. She studied his face for a moment and then said, “Ben, there is a way we can raise the money. This family [has] one thing that is of great enough value to send you on your mission. You will have to sell your violin.”

Ten days later, on March 23, 1893, Benjamin wrote in his journal: “I awoke this morning and took my violin from its case. All day long I played the music I love. In the evening when the light grew dim and I could see to play no longer, I placed the instrument in its case. It will be enough. Tomorrow I leave [for my mission].”

Forty-five years later, on June 23, 1938, Benjamin wrote in his journal: “The greatest decision I ever made in my life was to give up something I dearly loved to the God I loved even more. He has never forgotten me for it.”

Learn from the past."

A Father's Love

I was touched by this story I read in “The Incomparable Christ” by Vaughn J Featherstone:

---------------------------------------

Voris Tenney, a former mission president and descendant of Jacob Hamblin, told us the following experience as related by Jacob Hamblin, I believe:

‘A little girl, a daughter of a family crossing the plains, had one precious possession that she loved with all her heart. It was a stick doll. The mother had made a little dress bonnet for it. She held it to her bosom, she cradled and cuddled it constantly. One morning before the wagons began to move, the little girl played with her doll, then she put it to sleep in a little bed of pine branches and leaves. She forgot the doll as the wagons rolled westward. That night she cried uncontrollably. The father came back to her. He took her in his arms and kissed her and loved her and said, “Don’t worry, honey; I will go back and get your doll.” He left immediately and walked the 15 miles back to retrieve her doll and then returned the 15 miles and arrived back to the wagon train just before dawn. He presented his daughter with her doll and prepared to “move out” with the rest of the wagon train.’

The greatness in that story comes as you ponder the situation. Here was a man, a real pioneer, who would have worked and walked almost to exhaustion every single day. When we become exhausted and fatigue takes over, our bodies plead for rest. Mentally we waver; we lack enthusiasm, strength and commitment; we need rest.

The doll was of little economic value – a substitute could have been made. A great deal of justifiable rationalization could have been considered. How deep is the love of a sweet, gentle father who would walk thirty miles when he was exhausted to soothe his brokenhearted little daughter! This is one of the sweet stories of sacrifice that will never make it into the popular history books where great and mighty deeds are recorded. But I promise you it will be emblazoned in gold on Judgment Day, and a little girl who grew up will never forget a father’s love for her.

---------------------------------------------

Moroni 7:47:
“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”

Thoughts on Marriage

Here are Harold B. Lee’s thoughts on marriage:
"The ideal partner may not exist. The ideal man or woman of your dreams that you plan one day to select as your life's companion very likely really doesn't exist, although you may think so when you fall in love, for your ideal is probably a composite of the best qualities you have observed in any number of your choice associates.

Resolve to sacrifice for each other. If [young people] would resolve from the moment of their marriage, that from that time forth they would resolve and do everything in their power to please each other in things that are right, even to the sacrifice of their own pleasures, their own appetites, their own desires, the problem of adjustment in married life would take care of itself, and their home would indeed be a happy home. Great love is built on great sacrifice, and that home where the principle of sacrifice for the welfare of each other is daily expressed is that home where there abides a great love.

Wives and husbands need love to be happy. What is our relationship with our wife? Someone has said the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is apathy. And I say to you brethren, the most dangerous thing that can happen between you and your wife or between me and my wife is apathy—not hate, but for them to feel that we are not interested in their affairs, that we are not expressing our love and showing our affection in countless ways. Women, to be happy, have to be loved and so do men. Someone has said that little children soon outgrow their love or their need for the love of a mother, but husbands never do. We need that, but we have to give love; we have to express love to our wives if we expect it in return.

Developing love in marriage takes effort. In answer to the teenage daughter who asked: "Mother, how do you fall in love?" the wise mother had answered: "My darling, you don't fall in love, you must keep working at it all the time." Yes, love is like faith, it isn't something you can capture today and it will remain with you always. It must be nurtured day after day by a husband who continues to "court" his wife after marriage by studiously trying to do the things that will make her happy. Someone has aptly said that "a woman happy with her husband was better for her children than a hundred books on child welfare." The flame of romantic desire in marriage is fanned each day by a wise companion who wins her man every day she lives with him. Marriages are not successful merely because these couples have fewer problems than others, but they are successful because, when problems come, as come they will, a husband and wife sit down together to solve their problems like grown-up, mature individuals, rather than with the immaturity of adolescence.

A wife should sustain her husband. Several years ago when Sister David O. McKay, the wife of our President, was in the hospital, I called to see her just after the President had been there, and she said in her sweet way, "You know, I think he misses me." And I replied, "I am sure he does." Then she said with a smile, "I have always tried to be where I thought he needed me the most." There you are, you sisters, try to be where you feel your husbands need you the most.

Wives, have your family prayers, even when you must take the lead. See that your husband takes the lead in that, if you can. See that he attends his priesthood meetings, that he responds to the call to do home teaching, and then do everything you can, lovingly and patiently, to help him to perform and magnify his duties".
---------------------------------------
What springs to mind is: “As I have loved you, love one another” (John 14:15). That holds true for all relationships we have. The Saviour is our perfect example of how to love.

Let Us Be Men

Handing Over Your Whole Self

Speaking of the necessity for the control of our desires and independence, C. S. Lewis wrote:

"The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves," to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good." We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way--centred on money or pleasure or ambition--and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do".

[C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 168; book 4, chapter 8, paragraph 7]

Search & Rescue

Brigham Young explained this principle in conjunction with the celebration of a day of thanksgiving on 1 January 1852. He taught the saints this:

“[Y]ou cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be preparing for celestial glory, while the meanest menial under your charge or control, is in want of the smallest thing which God has given you power to supply . . .”
(Brigham Young, “Proclamation: For a Day of Praise and Thanksgiving for the Territory of Utah,” Ensign, Nov. 1971, 41)

Recently I was reading about the Martin & Willie handcart company. I was moved by the response of Brigham Young when he was brought news of their plight by Brother Richards. He “reported that there were hundreds of men, women, and children scattered over the long trail... They were in desperate trouble. Winter had come early. Snow-laden winds were howling across the highlands... Our people were hungry; their carts and their wagons were breaking down; their oxen dying. The people themselves were dying. All of them would perish unless they were rescued.”

The next morning Brigham Young stood in the tabernacle at the start of conference and said: “ ‘I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak... It is this... Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, “to get them here.”

“ ‘That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people...

“ ‘I shall call upon the Bishops this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until the next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. I do not want to send oxen. I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them. Also 12 tons of flour and 40 good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams...

“ ‘I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains’."

(in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 120–21).

Teams were rallied immediately, and lives were saved.

The phrase which has stayed in my mind is: “Go and bring in those people now on the plains”.

There are many people who are on the plains spiritually, but also emotionally, socially, physically and temporally. There are people within in our own families, and amongst our friends who are desperate to be brought in from the plains, and they lack the resources to be able to make it alone. They need our love and sensitivity, and sometimes our practical assistance. There are many organizations under the banner of “Search & Rescue”, what a wonderful title, one that is at the heart of the gospel.

There is One who gave us the perfect example to follow. He is able rescue us daily from pride, for He offers humility; hopelessness, for He instils hope; anger, for He fills us with His love. He says:

“Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.”
“... that I might draw all men unto me,...”
(3 Nephi 27:13 – 14)

I hope that we can follow our Saviour by searching for those who are "in want of the smallest thing which God has given you power to supply", that we too will be able to say: "that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me,... that I might draw all men unto [him],...".

Hatching

I really liked this quote from a talk called "That Summer House in Babylon" by Sharon G Larsen at the 1999 BYU Womens Conference:

"According to the great Christian theologian C.S.Lewis, Christ says, "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you.... Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked - the whole outfit. I will give you a new self". Lewis goes on,"The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self - all your wishes and precautions - to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is remain what we call 'ourselves', to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life,....to let our mind and heart go their own way - centred on money or pleasure or ambition - and hoping, inspite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do.... When he said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder - in fact it is impossible." And Lewis explains why it's impossible: "It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like birds at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must be hatched, or go bad".

I hope your hatching goes well today!

My Thoughts on Fishing - Part 3

Last thought about these verses, I think:)

.....OK, so they hadn't caught any fish, the Saviour came and they caught a huge amount, which would been VERY lucrative for them. I found this very interesting that the Lord provided such a temporal blessing for them,that would have secured wealth for them, then before they had had the chance to spend any of it, the Saviour invited them to follow Him and to spread the gospel, and they did:

"And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him."

Maybe that was the final step after exercising faith and showing humility, being willing to give up all worldly goods and behaviour. What great examples they were, they forsook all immediately to follow the Saviour, and we have all been blessed by that decision. It has lead me to ask myself the question, am I willing to forsake all to follow the Saviour??? Our hearts always know the answer.

But...

Here's todays.....

These verses give an important message to us all:
“And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way,a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
“And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
“And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said,Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
“Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead:but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
“And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
(Luke 9:57 - 62)

Are we like these men - do we say, 'Lord, I will follow thee'? These men all said that, but when the time came for them to do it, in effect they said ‘But,let me just do this first, and then I’m all yours’.

Sometimes we may feel that living that gospel, really living the gospel, isn't convenient for us. We can have that attitude towards, home/visiting teaching & sharing acts of kindness - we can put it off. Sometimes it’s our scripture study, prayers or temple attendance. Sometimes it’s with overcoming our weaknesses and developing our true character.

Elder Russell M. Nelson said: "Our busy lives force us to focus on things we do from day to day. But the development of character comes only as we focus on who we really are. To establish and accomplish those greater goals, we do need heavenly help."
("Getting Where You Want to Go," New Era, May 2003)

Life is busy, and will ever be so. We need heavenly help, we need our Saviour. He will help us to focus on who we really are and accomplish the goals which are of real worth, but we must be focused on Him first. He knows us and loves us perfectly.

More Than These

After the Saviours resurrection he appeared to Simon Peter whilst he was fishing. They then dined together:

'So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.' (John 21:15)

I’ve thought about the phrase 'more than these'. The Saviour here was referring to the fish, asking maybe “do you love me more than fishing?”, I wonder what 'these' things would be for you and I?

Maybe the Saviour says to us, “do you love me more than………your job, the TV programme you’re watching, your studies, the clothes you wear, your money, your friends, your bed” (which is hard to get out of sometimes:), really there is a never-ending list of things which could be 'these'.

After Simon Peter had responded that he does love the Saviour, the response from Him, in effect, was “prove it” [Feed my Lambs]. If we do really love the Saviour, we’ll turn off the TV and go and do our Visiting & Home Teaching, we’ll get out of bed and read our scriptures, we’ll wear clothes that are modest and clean, we’ll help those in need, we’ll share the gospel, we’ll 'feed his sheep'.

I hope that our love for the Saviour is easy to detect.