Blessed are they : )

Share it

 

 

 

 

 

Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.

 

 

 

Sometimes you just have to move on and let it go

 

  

 

 

Choose faith over worry

Share it

 

love begets love

 

 

“You can’t repent too soon because you don’t know how soon it will be too late.”

 

ElRay L. Christiansen

 

 

 

“Do we frequently reject the Lord’s love that He pours out upon us in much more abundance than we are willing to receive? Do we think we have to be perfect in order to deserve His love? When we allow ourselves to feel ‘encircled about eternally in the arms of his love’ we feel safe, and we realize that we don’t need to be immediately perfect. We must acknowledge that perfection is a process. This is a gospel of eternal progress, and we must remember to appreciate the journey.”

 

Bonnie D. Parkin

 

Eternally Encircled in His Love

 

 

“Although you may not have been blessed with so miraculous a harvest, you have been given words by the Holy Ghost when you surrendered your heart to the Lord’s service. At certain periods of your mission, such an experience came often. If you will think back on those times and ponder, you will also remember that the increase in your desire to obey the commandments came over you gradually. You felt less and less the tug of temptation. You felt more and more the desire to be obedient and to serve others. You felt a greater love for the people. One of the effects of receiving a manifestation of the Holy Ghost repeatedly was that your nature changed. And so, from that faithful service to the Master, you had not only the witness of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ but you saw evidence in your own life that the Atonement is real.”

 

Henry B. Eyring

 

 

“A fascinating thing about joy and love, with which you are surely familiar, is that when we enlarge our capacity to love, other people become real individuals, not merely functions. Gospel duties cease to be mere routine and become, instead, doors to delight. Every doctrine of the gospel is a door to delight that, when opened, exposes us to a vista of things we have not yet fully comprehended.”

 

Neal A. Maxwell

 

 

“They do not love that do not show their love.”

 

William Shakespeare

 

 

“Along your pathway of life you will observe that you are not the only traveler. There are others who need your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save.”

 

Thomas S. Monson

 

 

“Christ has told us a major way of glorifying and magnifying him: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Implicitly, if we love Him but falter in keeping His commandments, we are to love Him enough to repent! Hence, repenting and improving are actually ways in which we truly glorify Christ!”

 

Neal A. Maxwell

 

 

“No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God!

For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do.

What we think and do determines who we are and who we will become.”

 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 

 

“Love each other dearly always.

There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another.”

 

 

“Above all the attributes of godliness and perfection, charity is the one most devoutly to be desired. Charity is more than love, far more; it is everlasting love, perfect love, the pure love of Christ which endureth forever. It is love so centered in righteousness that the possessor has no aim or desire except for the eternal welfare of his own soul and for the souls of those around them.”

 

Bruce R. McConkie

 

 

“It is a time-honored adage that love begets love. Let us pour forth love show forth our kindness unto all mankind, and the Lord will reward us with everlasting increase; cast our bread upon the waters and we shall receive it after many days, increased to a hundredfold.”

 

Joseph Smith

 

His Sacred and Holy Name

 

Quotes by Jeffrey R. Holland

“Ye have entered in by the gate; … but now, … after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; … press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, … and endure to the end, behold, thus … ye shall have eternal life.”

Jesus said, “Without me ye can do nothing.”  I testify that that is God’s truth. Christ is everything to us and we are to “abide” in Him permanently, unyieldingly, steadfastly, forever. For the fruit of the gospel to blossom and bless our lives, we must be firmly attached to Him, the Savior of us all, and to this His Church, which bears His holy name. He is the vine that is our true source of strength and the only source of eternal life. In Him we not only will endure but also will prevail and triumph in this holy cause that will never fail us.

May we never fail it nor fail Him I pray in the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 “As surely as the rescue of those in need was the general conference theme of October 1856, so too is it the theme of this conference and last conference and the one to come next spring. It may not be blizzards and frozen-earth burials that we face this conference, but the needy are still out there the poor and the weary, the discouraged and downhearted, those “ falling away into the forbidden paths” we mentioned earlier, and multitudes who are “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.” They are all out there with feeble knees, hands that hang down, and bad weather setting in. They can be rescued only by those who have more and know more and can help more. And don’t worry about asking, “Where are they?” They are everywhere, on our right hand and on our left, in our neighborhoods and in the workplace, in every community and county and nation of this world. Take your team and wagon; load it with your love, your testimony, and a spiritual sack of flour; then drive in any direction. The Lord will lead you to those in need if you will but embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been taught in this conference. Open your heart and your hand to those trapped in the twenty-first century’s equivalent of Martin’s Cove and Devil’s Gate. In doing so we honor the Master’s repeated plea on behalf of lost sheep and lost coins and lost souls.”

"In the course of life all of us spend time in 'dark and dreary' places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. Our present day is filled with global distress over financial crises, energy problems, terrorist attacks, and natural calamities. These translate into individual and family concerns not only about homes in which to live and food available to eat but also about the ultimate safety and well-being of our children and the latter-day prophecies about our planet. More serious than these ”and sometimes related to them ”are matters of ethical, moral, and spiritual decay seen in populations large and small, at home and abroad. But I testify that angels are still sent to help us, even as they were sent to help Adam and Eve, to help the prophets, and indeed to help the Savior of the world Himself. Matthew records in his gospel that after Satan had tempted Christ in the wilderness 'angels came and ministered unto him' Even the Son of God, a God Himself, had need for heavenly comfort during His sojourn in mortality.

And so such ministrations will be to the righteous until the end of time."

"These are surely some of the days which our faithful and farsighted ancestors saw in the earliest years of the Restoration. In a general conference of the Church in April 1844, the brethren recalled those first gatherings of 1830. One of them said: 'We [talked] about the kingdom of God as if we had the world at our command; we talked with great confidence, and talked big things, although we were not many in number; . . . we looked [and] if we did not see this [congregation], we saw by vision, the church of God, a thousand times larger than it was then, although at the time we were not enough to well man a farm, or meet a woman with a milk pail. . . . All the members of the Church met in conference, in a room 20 feet square. . . . We talked about . . . people coming as doves to the windows, that all nations should flock unto the Church. . . . If we had told the people what our eyes behold this day, we should not have been believed' (Times and Seasons, 1 May 1844, 522-23).

"If this was their feeling in that fateful year of 1844, just prior to Joseph Smith's martyrdom, what must those same brethren and sisters see from their eternal home on a day like this! So much has happened since then for which they and we need to be grateful. And, of course, this is not the end. We have much work yet to do, in both the quality and quantity of our faithfulness and our service. George A. Smith, counselor in the First Presidency to President Brigham Young, once said by way of caution, 'We may build temples, erect stately domes, magnificent spires [and] grand towers, in honor of our religion, but if we fail to live the principles of that religion . . . , and to acknowledge God in all our thoughts, we shall fall short of the blessings which its practical exercise would ensure' (Deseret News Weekly, 17 July 1872, 348). We must be humble and conscientious. The honor and the glory of all that is good goes to God, and there is much still ahead of us that will be refining, even difficult, as He leads us from strength to strength."

“God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future; He expects you to embrace and shape the future to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously 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.”

 “The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.”

 “You are doing God's work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you, and He will bless you, even now, especially when your days and your nights may be most challenging. Like the woman who anonymously, meekly, perhaps even with hesitation and some embarrassment, fought her way through the crowd just to touch the hem of the Master's garment, so Christ will say to the women who worry and wonder and weep over their responsibility as mothers, `Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.'

And it will make your children whole as well.”

No one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another.

I testify that He loves each of us insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all.

Black Bottomed Mini Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

 

 

Black Bottomed Mini Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

 

8 whole Oreos, finely ground in food processor
1 1/2 Tablespoons melted butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
3  caramel dip
12 Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses, unwrapped
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Combine ground Oreos and melted butter into a bowl until well combined.  Spoon into 12 mini cheesecake cups that have been sprayed with cooking spray.  Press into the bottom of each cup so the crust is flat.  Partially bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven.
2.  In a stand or electric mixer beat the cream cheese,  sugar and pumpkin until smooth.  Beat in egg, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg until combined.  Pour evenly into the 12 cups filling about 3/4 way full.  Spoon about a teaspoon of caramel into the tops of each filled cup and swirl with a toothpick gently.  Bake for 25-28 minutes or until cheesecake is cooked through.  Let cool completely.
3.  Remove cheesecakes from pan and top each with a spoonful of remaining caramel and a Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kiss.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.
12 mini cheesecakes

 

a house of hope

 

 

Let the anointing of thy ministers be sealed upon them with power from on high….

 

Every foundation stone that is laid for the Temple, and every Temple completed according to the order the Lord has revealed for His holy priesthood, lessens the power of Satan on the earth, and increases the power of God and Godliness, moves the heavens in mighty power in our behalf, invokes and call down upon us the blessing of the Eternal Gods, and those who reside in their presence.

 

George Q. Cannon

 

An endowment is a gift that provides continuing benefits to the receiver long after it is given.

 

The Lord describes the temple as His house, and a house where there are many blessings to be had.  It is a house of learning, a house of prayer, a house of glory, a house of order.  In it, we find increased protection in these last days before the coming of the Son of Man.  In it, we receive the ordinances and covenants that endow us with spiritual power and protection so needed in these perilous times in which we live.  It is where we bring ourselves into closer alignment with God.  It is a place of peace where we can put off the world and partake of the stillness that allows revelation to come more easily.

Because we find so many wonderful promises in the temple and the work done therein both for this life and the life to come and because hope is defined as trusting in the promises of the Lord,

I believe we can also rightly consider the temple to be a house of hope.

It is a place of refuge from the storms of life.

It brings enlightenment when we struggle in the darkness.

 It brings clarity when all around us in confusion.

It brings protection for us and our families in an increasingly dangerous world.

It is the place where we create eternal family units.

Truly there are many blessings of the temple promised for us in this life as well as for the life to come. As we turn our hearts to the Temple we will find needed strength to endure, needed help from a higher power to overcome doubt, discouragement, distress, depression, despair and needed divine help to be perfected.

 

Gerald N. Lund

 

Soft as the voice of an angel

 

 

 

Soft as the voice of an angel, breathing a lesson unheard,

Hope with a gentle persuasion

Whispers her comforting word,

“Wait till the darkness is over,

Wait till the tempest is done.

Hope for the sunshine tomorrow,

After the shower is gone.”

Whispering hope, oh how welcome thy voice,

Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

~

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it,

Casts the shadow of our burden behind us….

Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved.

It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength.  It

Befriends us in dark hours, excites us in bright ones.  It lends

Promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns

Discouragement to determination.”

 

 

At times, hope can lighten the load,

other times, it strengthens the bridges.

~

Hope is saying, “I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me.”

 

 

Hope is counting blessings rather than cursing circumstances.

~

Hope is a beckoning light when despair distills

upon us as the dews from Heaven.

 

 

 

The mirror of memory that beckons us forward

 

 

He is all about the details, for He is in all the details,

 

each blessing designed individually for each of us.

 

~

“……. even to our frail human logic to observe that there cannot be a grand plan of salvation for all mankind unless there is also a plan for each individual.”

 

“And all things are present with me, for I know them all” (Moses 1:6). God does not live in the dimension of time as do we. Moreover, since “all things are present with” God, his is not simply a predicting based solely upon the past. In ways which are not clear to us, he actually sees, rather than foresees, the future because all things are, at once, present, before him!

 

the Spirit teaches us the truth “of things as they really are, and … really will be …….in some of those precious and personal moments of discovery, there will be a sudden surge of recognition of an immortal insight, a doctrinal deja vu. We will sometimes experience a flash from

 

the mirror of memory that beckons us forward to a far horizon.

 

Neal A. Maxwell

 

"It's in the Details"

By Hilary Weeks

In my patriarchal blessing there is advice about how I should pray.  Paraphrasing, I am counseled to tell Heavenly Father all the things I would tell my earthly father, and more.  Basically I should talk openly with Him.  Talk to Him in detail about my day, about my feelings, about my life.  All the details just like I would with my dad.  I like talking to my dad.  I can tell he cares about me.

A few years ago, my nephew spent the day with us.  We were about to have breakfast and I asked five-year old Seth to bless the food.  He happily agreed.  I was surprised as I listened to his prayer.

 

“Dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this day.  We thank Thee for our blessings.  We thank Thee for this food.  We are having toast, eggs and bacon.”  And then he ended the prayer.

 

I have thanked Heavenly Father countless times for the food I was about to eat – but I have never told Him what it was!  Of course, He could just peek down from Heaven and see the spread, but how wonderful it must have been when Seth just told Him!

 

Thinking about the advice in my blessing, I am certain that Heavenly Father would love it if I took the time to share more of the details.   Maybe instead of just thanking Him for a good day, I could tell Him why I’m thankful.  I could express how good it felt to make progress on the laundry and how nice it is to have a washer and dryer to do most of the work.  (I’m still holding out hope that someone will invent a machine that folds the clothes…but I probably don’t need to mention that.)  I could tell Him that we felt the Spirit during Family Home Evening or that the kids got along well today increasing the love in our home.  Maybe I could tell him about an uplifting book I read and how it made me feel.

 

The fact of the matter is, we can tell Him anything.  What’s more, He’ll care about it.  Just like I love it when I ask one of my daughter’s about their day and instead of saying “It was good,” they launch into a description of everything they experienced.  That kind of communication keeps us connected.  It brings us closer to each other.  That kind of communication with Heavenly Father will keep us connected and close to Him.

 

So, don’t forget to share the details.

 

Charity is who we are

 

Sometimes our plans don’t work out because God has better ones.

 

 

“Charity is not what we do. Charity is who we are.”

 

 

 

 

It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter,

that tells what kind of life you have lived!

 

 

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so watch your step

 

Jeffrey R. Holland

 

 

God will have a humble people. 

 

Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble.

 

Ezra Taft Benson

 

 

Success is usually earned by persevering and not becoming discouraged

 

when one encounters challenges.

 

James E. Faust

 

 

In the agriculture of the soul that has to do with nurturing attributes,

 

flash floods are no substitute for regular irrigation.

 

Neal Maxwell

 

 

“If you understand the great plan of happiness and follow it,

 

what goes on in the world will not determine your happiness.”

 

Boyd K. Packer

 

 

The pleasant future belongs to those who properly use today. 

 

How unwise we are to waste our todays when they determine the significance of our tomorrows. 

 

We should wisely live a day at a time because that is all we have.”

 

Marvin J. Ashton

 

 

The ultimate reason for having trials and afflictions is to entice you

 

to become the person it takes to overcome them.

 

 

Over the years, I have watched a number of people live out their lives in shallow water.  In the shallows, life is all about yourself,  your job, your money, your rights, your needs, your ideas, and your comforts.  In the deeper waters, life is about others spouse, family, friends, faith, community, country.  In the deep waters, there are challenging ideas, opposing opinions, protracted battles of consequence. . .  Some of you will be tempted to stay near shore, where there are no big breakers and where you will never make any waves.  Others will push beyond the sandbar, pursuing new frontiers, exploring new ideas, driving to achieve, to learn, to influence, to contribute.  You cross into the deep waters by serving in your church, in your community, in the military, in government or in volunteer service.

 

Mitt Romney

 

 

Small events and choices determine the direction of our lives

 

just as small helms determine the directions of great ships.

 

M. Russell Ballard

 

There were guardian angels whispering, "You can do it"

Believe In Yourself

By Hilary Weeks

Have you ever felt inadequate?  Have you ever wondered how you would complete something difficult you have been asked to do?  Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I have felt that way…

We have all read about or heard about people who have faced great challenges and in spite of their limitations and fears, have overcome and risen triumphant.  Somehow, knowing that other people have felt inadequate and unsure and still gone on to do great things makes me feel a little better.  I like knowing that amazing things have been accomplished even by people who weren’t sure if success was in their future.

Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, was one of those people.  She wasn’t entirely sure how to accomplish what was before her.  She had no idea how to teach Helen.  There were no text books to guide her.  She was a pioneer in this field of exploration.

This is an excerpt from her journal in May of 1887.

“If only I were better fitted for the great task!  I feel every day more and more inadequate.  My mind is full of ideas; but I cannot get them into working shape.  You see, my mind is undisciplined, full of skips and jumps, and here and there a lot of things huddled together in dark corners.  How I long to put it in order!  Oh, if only there were some one to help me!  I need a teacher quite as much as Helen.  I know that the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains and perseverance to accomplish it.”

I wonder if, while she wrote that journal entry, there were guardian angels whispering, “You can do it Anne!  Don’t give up.  You’ll figure it out and you’re right…this will be ‘the distinguishing event’ of your life.”

She mustered strength and courage from somewhere because this is her journal entry one month later, in June of 1887.

“Something within me tells me that I shall succeed beyond my dreams.  I cannot tell how I know these things.  I had no idea a short time ago how to go to work; I was feeling about in the dark; but somehow I know now, and I know that I know. I cannot explain it; but when difficulties arise, I am not perplexed or doubtful.  I know how to meet them; I seem to divine Helen’s peculiar needs.  It is wonderful.”

President Hinckley had this ever-positive advice to offer, “Believe in yourself, my brothers and sisters. You are a child of God. You do have something of divinity within you.

Believe in your capacity to do great and good things.”

Sometimes we have to step into the dark, as Anne Sullivan experienced.  We have to take the step we might not even know how to take.  And what's more important, we have to be willing to hear that 'somthing within' us telling us we will succeed.  I believe we will do great things.  I believe that we did great things even before we entered this journey of mortality.  I believe we faced challenges and overcame fears in the pre-mortal life.  This isn’t the first time we have been asked to do difficult things.  We’ve done it before. 

And we will do great things again, here and now.

Believe in yourself.  Believe in who you are.  Believe that He believes in you.