Sunday (February 15th): Ward Conference at church and we (the choir) got to sing the song we have been practicing. Sweet Hour of Prayer. Not exactly sure why, but somehow the words of that song have taken on a whole new meaning for me...they bring to me the thought of Jesus praying in agony in Gethsemane and the image of all the heavenly hosts praying with Him and for Him at that moment, as well as the thought that they are praying with each of us in our prayers as well.
A member of the stake presidency, in our joint Sunday School lesson, spoke on the importance of being very aware of the dangers around us and protecting ourselves and our children from them. Which of course led to pornography. I wish I had the statistics he quoted to share with you, but of course I don’t - However they are staggering. Particularly that the average age for discovering/viewing pornography is 11. Which means of course that a great many are being exposed to it at a much younger age. One thought that sunk home with me in the discussion was the need for parents to talk with their young children about the GOOD of intimacy - that it is for the purpose of having children on this earth and for the unifying of husband and wife AND about the Adversary’s use of it all around us for selfish and debasing purposes, all designed to keep us from returning to our Heavenly Father. He talked about how difficult it may be to have those conversations with our children - embarrassing, etc. - yet how vitally important it is and how children on the school playgrounds are exposed to more than we can imagine.
Continuing he spoke about how addictive it is and about the effects it has on the brain (he had words and names for things that I don’t have so I can’t really share as I would like). How, just as drugs, it can mess up one’s ability to reason or think correctly, and a bunch of other things. He had attended a conference on pornography this past year at the direction of a church leader and had a whole series of statistics, all of which make me cry. He ended with his testimony of the Atonement and that through that power it is possible to overcome the addiction but that it takes the efforts of many for that to happen. A very sobering class.
Relief Society was more uplifting - taken from Elder Bednar’s talk in 2009: More Diligent and Concerned at Home. Now I need to read it again. It was easy to see that some sisters have feelings as I often have that they have not measured up to all they want/need to do as mothers & homemakers - yet the Lord knows the desires of our hearts and our efforts and that is what counts. It brings me back to the earlier RS lesson about Mary and the expensive oil. We need to do all we CAN and know that is good enough.
NOTE: I obtained some notes from the president and shared them by e-mail with all of my children, hoping you would read, take notice and act on anything the Spirit suggests to you. Hoping that everyone took a few minutes to read them:).
NOTE: I obtained some notes from the president and shared them by e-mail with all of my children, hoping you would read, take notice and act on anything the Spirit suggests to you. Hoping that everyone took a few minutes to read them:).
Wednesday, Feb. 18 Trying to remember Monday and Tuesday.... I know we went Monday afternoon to a Sprouts Farmers’ Market not too far away and found it to be a great place to get natural foods. They had a huge grand opening sale and we got a LOT of good produce:)! Then yesterday went the other direction to a Winco - also not too far, but a little further than Sprouts, and it almost felt like I was back in Oregon. The prices were MUCH better than the other stores we have shopped at so far. So that is good to know.
Monday evening we went with another couple and another sister as part of the Empty Nesters FHE to the Clark Planetarium in downtown SLC. Saw a wonderful IMAX production about humpback whales. Unfortunately no one had checked the times, so apparently we came in at the last showing and the whole place was shutting down when we got out of the movie; it would have been fun to look at much of the other stuff there - but that will have to be another time. It would be a fun place to take grandkids to also:)!
Don’t know if I mentioned it earlier or not, but we have put up a bird feeder and a suet feeder in the back yard and the birds have found them. It is a wonderful thing to have a yard with life in it now:)! I think we’ve only seen chickadees, robins and doves so far, but I’ve heard other bird calls that make me want to research those sounds and see if I can identify them. That has to be for later I think.
Now I am going to pick a scripture to memorize for the day. Actually picked two:
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
Scripture for today (Friday) 1 Nephi 3:7 “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
Funny thing about this scripture choice...I was kind of at a loss as to what scripture I should work on memorizing next...then decided to go to the scripture mastery scriptures (new ones, online) and picked this one because I wanted to do a Book of Mormon one. Decided that I would pick a scripture from each book, alternating each day. Had chosen the first one I did because I have relied upon that so much, particularly in the past few years; chose the second one because it was one of the scriptures our mission president made really important for our missionaries. Then, when I went and checked, both of my first two choices are on the scripture mastery list. I worked with the kids in our morning scripture study while homeschooling to help them with scripture mastery scriptures - if only I had fully memorized all of them:). They are very familiar to me though, which should make memorizing them now a little easier. I hope.
Yesterday got to work a little on the “library” - emptied a few boxes there; finished the boxes in the family room the evening before while Jim was at church for an audit. Yesterday he took the motor home to have the front passenger window replaced because it had a crack in it which had just appeared during the last couple of weeks of our travels.
Planning to go to the temple today and do initiatory work:). Tonight I have a 3 hour choir practice for the women’s conference program tomorrow.
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