Our Heavenly Connections

My life is being taken over by technology.  The phone is always ringing.  I can nearly always be reached.  I rarely get a moment to put it aside.  Have you ever noticed that someone's phone always rings during prayer?  Have you ever felt like it would be amazing to sit down to dinner and not have someone answering their phones, or the door, or their email, or facebook, or any other number of apps and annoyances.  It seems to me that my life is filled with ring tones.

There are times, I look around and think, how has this happened.  Technology was put here to help us do the things we need to do.  However, it also makes it easier to do the wrong things instead of the right ones. 

In my day, we only had one house phone.  I had to sit out on the dog house with the phone as far as it would reach in order to get any privacy at all.  Everything was attached by a cord.  In this day of wifi and wireless technology, it is way too easy to get attached to the fast paced world that we need to leave behind every once in a while. 

This past weekend, we went to the campout for my husbands work.  There was no cell reception at the site.  It was wonderful to see the kids play and just be kids.  No electronics or TV or Gameboys or anything else that required charging and phone service.  We took one of our grandsons, and it brought tears to my eyes to see him running and playing all over the camp ground.  Of course, he found the mud puddle, and he bathed in it completely.  I justified it by thinking it MUST be good for his skin.  He had a ball running through the mud and losing his shoes and finding them again. 

Technology has it's good points, but also it's bad ones.  Anything that comes between us and our communications with our Heavenly Father and our family, really needs to be changed.  We need to decide to change it.  So, in your life, what is most important to you?  What are you going to change?

 

You are Worth it!

I have done hard things in my life.  There have been times when I could not believe that life was worth living, let alone that  I might ever be worth loving.  For much of my life, I craved love and affection from people who were unable to give it.  I truly felt as if every one that I ever loved eventually turned their backs on me and betrayed me in some way.  It was not a happy way to live, and has pushed and pulled at me right through my life.  Last year, wanting it or not, some things happened that made it impossible for me to ignore what I needed any longer.  I have had to work very hard to help myself and to be willing to get help for myself.  I have had to change, and like it or not, it has been a difficult, yet positive thing. 
I know that I needed that change, although I really have fought against it.  I really struggle to get help for myself, to spend money on myself, to bare my soul, relive the hurt and overcome my past.  I wish the remodeling of my soul was finished, but I know that I still have so very far to go. 
I have told you before that I am a worrier.  I think my past probably made me that way.  It certainly made me strong in some ways, and weaker in others.  I constantly struggle with self esteem and the cruel taskmaster jealousy.  I feel like life is somehow a competition for love. 
Living years with a man who constantly points out the good in my, has gone a long way toward healing the hurt that has always been a part of me.  And, on the days when I just can't seem to get out of bed, he is supportive of that too.  Maybe, the guilt comes from my own need to be better. 
There is a scripture that I love, it is found in Doctrine and Covenants 121:7

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;"

When I was younger, it seemed as if the bad times in my life lasted practically forever.  It still seems that way when I am going through a bad place, but this past couple of years have not dragged like the ones before.  There have been things to learn and grow with.  There have been so many parts of me to change.  Time, as hard as it can be, also brings us joy. 
My youngest daughter turned 16 yesterday, and I look back and remember as if it were a blink.  Time has flown when I think of her.  She brings me laughter and joy.  When I work at changing my focus to the happy times, the bad ones don't have such a hold over my heart and do not seem to last as long. 
I saw something on facebook yesterday, and it made so much sense to me.
Those who argue about whether the glass is half empty or half full are completely missing the point. 
The glass is refillable.
That is life.  It is not good or bad, it just is.  There are half full joys and half empty trials, but the glass, the opportunity to live life to the fullest is refillable.  And one of us (including me) can start today and change the ending of our own story.  No matter what trials we have faced or what sins we have made, we can each one, take charge from here on out.  Indeed, that is the only thing we have control of.  Nothing I do will change the past, and nothing I do will change the decisions of others, but I can and I will make my own decisions to be joyful and happy. 
I am worth that.

Cleanliness next to Godliness???

I love the magic 8 ball.  I have waited years to have the house learn to clean itself!  Problem is, that doesn't seem to happen.  I think the 8 ball has a better chance of being part of my life, at least it feels that way. 
I have heard all my life that Cleanliness was next to Godliness.  Somehow, in my brain, I seem to have associated that with having a clean house, a clean yard and even taking a shower.  I don't think anymore that is what the Lord was talking about. 
This life is messy!  It is supposed to be.  But when the Lord is talking about clean in Isaiah, He is speaking of SIN.  Not your house.  Sometimes we get way too wrapped up in the appearance of things.  What it looks like.  If your house is clean, does that mean your soul is clean too?  I don't think so. 
Don't get me wrong.  I would love to have a clean home, but that is not the life I am living right this minute.  So, one thing at a time and breath.  I will work on my soul first and line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, I will slowly work on the rest. 
I have learned that what you appear to be is not necessarily who you truly are.  Sometimes that is good.  The only person who can judge us is our Heavenly Father, and He judges our hearts.  Thank goodness for that!  Because if He judged my house, I would definitely be a total failure!!  Magic 8 Ball and all. 

Isaiah  1:16-18

16 ¶Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

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Conflict

WHERE THERE'S CONFLICT THERE'S AN

OPPORTUNITY

AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE

BEING LIKE JESUS. 

Conflict is not my friend.  At least, it hasn't been for the past several years.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I have been looking at it the wrong way.  For me, conflict has been the bringer of anxiety, worry and stress.  I haven't been able to look past that to see that an opportunity might exist anywhere.  My problem is that I can't escape the anxiety of life.  It overwhelms me.  It bites into me and won't let go.  I don't just worry about the things I can help, I worry about everything.  I stress about having a job, how my children are doing, how my grandchildren are doing, and why people are the way they are. 

So, this year, I am trying to look at conflict differently.  I am trying to look at is as a chance to change.  I need to change.  I need to learn.  I need to put this behind me and lose it.  I need to embrace conflict in order to actually let it go. 

I am going to look at this as the opportunity I need to become more like Him.  This is my chance to practice.  I can do it.  I can embrace the opportunity.