A Woman's Lifeline

A friend sent me this and I identified with every age (except the last!). I was prettier when I was younger, but I enjoy life so much more now!

A Woman's Lifeline 

Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a queen.

Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.

Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an ugly duckling (Mom I can't go to school looking like this today!)

Age 20: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" but decides she's going out anyway.

Does Obeying the Commandments of God take away my Freedom?

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-06-27-the-freedom-to?lang=eng

Some people have had enough of the immature and prideful accusations from people who use religion as a club. Beating upon others, they declare,"You did that. You are bad!", and, "I keep every rule, so I am better than you!" I almost expect next to hear the childish taunt of, "Na, na, Na, na, na", ending with, "I'm going to tell Mommy on you!"  Fed up, some people, understandably, want nothing more to do with the commandments of God.

Being a parent and grandparent has given me an interesting perspective on rules, yes, even commandments. When a child is young you can try and reason with them and try and convince them of the wisdom of doing as you have told them, but it doesn't work.

New Year - New Start

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-12-21-new-years-look-not-behind-thee?lang=eng

Here are some New Yorkers thoughts on beginning a New Year. They talk about the mistake Lot's wife made of looking back instead of moving forward.

This year I too am poised to either move on, or live in the past. Last New Year's day, my life was miserable, but very settled. After desperately praying for help, I felt impressed to go to St George, a town three hours south of where we lived. Surprised, I found myself on my feet, and knew we needed to move there if I wanted better health. We did, and my health has greatly improved.

My question now is, will I look back? Will I allow the fears of returning to poor health hobble my efforts to regain my strength? Will I reach out and make new friendships, or long to return to the comfort of my old community? Will I reach out in love to those around me, or moan that my children live far away? Will I sulk over all I can't do, or share what I can do? Will I sit dejectedly in my home, or be out as much as I can? Will I look to the future with hope and energy, or fear and depression? Will I retreat into the past, or move into the future?

Will this be a good new year? The choice is mine. Though my efforts are feeble, if I allow the Lord to help me, this will be the best year ever!

Serving Children

When I started volunteering at our local elementary school, I was just trying to give myself something meaningful to do as my last child set off on his own, but soon my service became more than just an attempt to fill an empty nest. As the year progressed, my health quickly deteriorated. Spending the day with a class of energetic eight-year-olds certainly helped divert my attention from a nearly overwhelming sense of anxiety and from the exhaustion I felt due to not being able to sleep well. I also had to deal with considerable pain, and the knowledge that the doctors were not only unable to discover what was the matter, but could not give me any help or hope. Under these stressful circumstances, I found the warm, supportive atmosphere in the classroom very comforting.

Though I received a lot of emotional strength from being at the school, I came home completely exhausted. My husband understood how important this service was to me. He knew that I had an elementary teaching credential, but had given up a career in teaching to raise our four children. He also knew that I had dreamed of having a class of my own when our children were raised, and that this volunteering might be as close as I would ever come to realizing that dream. Because he understood, he said, “A teacher has to teach”, and he cheerfully got our dinner and helped keep up the house.

My Remarkable Life

“No matter our age, circumstances, or abilities, each one of us can create something remarkable of his life,” Elder Wirthlin declared during April 2006 General Conference. Even me? Mentally I began to list my considerable health problems and all the limits they imposed, then I stopped — Even Me!
Slowly, I began to realize that I was allowing my health restrictions to imprison my soul. Where was my joy in living?

As I prayed for help in living a more meaningful life, I felt strongly that I needed to simplify my life by removing all unnecessary things and activities. This certainly didn’t seem to me to be the way to an abundant life!

I asked the Lord for faith, then, resignedly, began to eliminate non-essentials. Despairing, I could only see a bleak, barren existence stretching out before me. Maybe I needed to learn patience and endurance. It seemed so obvious to me that having better health and being able to do more would bring me happiness.

What does a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe about Blind Obedience and Freedom

Go here to download this fun video. https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-08-1260-act-for-themselves?category=topics/agency&lang=eng

I have often heard, "I would never be a Mormon. They believe in blind obedience. I value my freedom and will not blindly follow some leader, some Prophet." There are dictators and cult leaders who through military force, drugs, and personal charisma are able to make others submit to their will, but they are never able to maintain this control for very long. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in 1836 nearly two hundred years ago and is now a thriving worldwide church of over 15 million people. Would so many people join and remain in a church where they were required to surrender their right to make decisions, to think for themselves? Are our eighteen year old missionaries that charismatic? Hardly!

People say, but you follow a prophet. Yes, we do. What would have happened to the people of Israel if they had not followed the prophet, Moses, who led them out of slavery in Egypt?  As one of our Apostles explained, "We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see. " 

What do you, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints think about Abortion?

I agree that there are times when there is something seriously wrong and for the health of the mother, it is necessary to abort the baby, but those circumstances would be very rare. Killing your baby just because it is "inconvenient" is murder. If a baby isn't wanted, then it is a "growth" in the woman's body to be gotten rid of and is disposed of in the garbage. If the child is wanted and is born very early, huge amounts of money are spent to keep the "child" alive. When you create life you are responsible for that child. If you do not want to care for it, then put the child up for adoption where it can have a family who will love and nurture it, but don't kill the child.

A society which allows parents to legally kill their children just because they don't want to bother with them, is scary! What next? There are those who want to be allowed to kill the old, the infirm, the imperfect. They claim this would be a "mercy" killing. My questions is when did they become God? Who gave them the right to decide who would live and who should die. To me this smacks of wanting to have a "strong, pure Aryan race", and we saw where that led as German society was "purified" by exterminating inconvenient foreigners -- the Jews.

Since I am old (yes, I admit it), and have several health "imperfections", I could see myself being designated as "impure" and "surplus population". I scares me to give mere people the power to decide who is "worthy" of life. I feel much more comfortable leaving those decisions to God.

For the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Abortion see:

https://www.lds.org/topics/abortion?lang=eng

To download the video

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-03-007-having-children-enriches-your-life?lang=eng

"Glorious" music video from the movie Meet The Mormons

The song “Glorious” is sung by David Archuleta in the new movie Meet the Mormons  (David is not in the movie, but the song is featured in the movie.)

• Watch the music video “Glorious.”

I really enjoyed this song and thought you might too.