God wants a Powerful People

These passages from Sheri Dew's book "God wants a Powerful People" filled me with peace as I was reading it yesterday.  So, I'm sharing my peace!  :)

"If your faith is wobbly, if you're not sure the Lord will come to your aid, experiment.  Put Him to the test.  A great place to start is the scriptures, for as Jacob wrote: "We search the prophets, and we have many revelations...and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken" (Jacob 4:6).


"It is not not possible to sin enought to be happy.  It isn't possible to buy enought to be happy, or to entertain or indulge or pamper ouselves enought t be happy.  It is not possible to hide enough or run far enough away from trials and troubles to be happy.  Happiness and joy come only when we are living up to who we are.  King
benjami understood this and taught it clearly when he admonished us to "consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.  For...they are blessed in all things,...and if htey hold out faithful to the end...they may dwell with God in a state of neverending happiness" (Mosiah 2:41).

"Satan likely bristles at this principle, for happines is something the ultimate narcissist will never experience. I have never met anyone who was happier because he was immoral, or because he was addicted to something, or because he was dishonest and compromised his integrity.  The Lord has blessed us with covenants that keep us on the straight and narrow path because this "road less traveled" is actually the easier road.  It is so much easier to be righteous than to sin, so much easier to deal with a clear conscience that one ravaged by guilt, so much easier to feel peace of mind and heart when we are living up to who we are rather than coping with the emotional and spiritual ravages of regret, knowing we have lived beneath our divine nature.

"The happiest people I know are those who repent regularly and obey.  And a major reason fr their happiness is that they have increased confidence in approaching and petitioning the Lord and increased access to His power."

The Constitution is Divinely Guided

I was reading the Doctrine and Covenants this morning and both Bri and I were struck by how clear the Lord was about the Constitution.

D&C 98: 5-11

5 And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
6 Therefore, I, the lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land;
7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.
8 I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law maketh you free.
9 Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.
10 Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.
11 And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all good that ye shall live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.

Pray.  Study the scriptures.  Act on God's will.

I know this sounds like a simple antidote for the nation.  It is and it isn't.  Try it and you'll find out.  Spread it and you'll find out.

:)

My friend's mother's farm.

This is her garden.  Cool, huh!

Currants we are going to pick tomorrow

Nanking cherries we are going to pick tomorrow.

kidlets eating cherries.

Fairlight either jumped in the canal or fell in it.  Here she's trying to get water out of her nose.

The kidlets are sharing the hose as they drink cold water.  Far in the background (near the car) is my bucket garden.

Brian's softball game.

Dude had a blast with the balls (baseball, softball, kickball, soccer balls, and I think a volleyball).  Bug read book after book with the sister on the left.

After the game we watched a cooking show and the kidlets sat on the shelf in the living room.  :)

A friend gave us an old mixer with a blender, so we're trying out the power of the motor with cookie dough...

Birthday parties, water, and cake

This is at a birthday party for a boy in the ward.  It was lots of fun as the kidlets learned about the slip and slide!

This is his watermelon birthday cake.  They even flavored the cake with watermelon jello so that it tasted and looked like watermelon on the inside.  Due to Soy we brought our own cupcakes and used their buttercream frosting for our cake.

This is bug's new swimsuit.  It used to be the dress I made for her two years ago.  I realized she didn't have a swimsuit that fit.  The party was on Monday so I threw this together on Saturday.  Don't be too impressed.  The top was pretty much made already and that's the hardest part.  

Chuckle.  This is dude's swimsuit.  He's taken two years to fill out this gift from Nana C.

The sun is moving away...

The other day we were walking into Winco as the sun was setting.  Someone said (I think it was a kid-let) that the sun was moving away from us.

"We are moving away from the sun.  In the morning we will return to it."

I know that doesn't seem as profound in print.  Yet, it struck both Brian and I how true that is in all senses of our own relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

They are always there for us.

We choose to leave their presence by transgressing Their laws.  Sometimes we go back halfway and expect them to be there.  They can't, or they wouldn't be Gods.  We must go back all the way.

Occasionally we get ourselves into bad predicaments by our choices and expect them to bail us out.  They have never been opposed to leading me out...but only on choice occasions have they bailed me out (such as when I drowned; apparently they wanted me alive...and I'm very grateful).

"VERILY, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my comandments, shall see my face and know that I am;" D&C 93:1