A Good Thought to Ponder

I am preparing for my church lesson that I will give this Sunday, and I found these words so inspired:

"Our challenges, including those we create by our own decisions, are part of our test in mortality. Let me assure you that your situation is not beyond the reach of our Savior. Through Him, every struggle can be for our experience and our good (see D&C 122:7). Each temptation we overcome is to strengthen us, not destroy us. The Lord will never allow us to suffer beyond what we can endure (see 1 Corinthians 10:13).

We must remember that the adversary knows us extremely well. He knows where, when, and how to tempt us. If we are obedient to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, we can learn to recognize the adversary’s enticements. Before we yield to temptation, we must learn to say with unflinching resolve, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23).

Our success is never measured by how strongly we are tempted but by how faithfully we respond. We must ask for help from our Heavenly Father and seek strength through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. In both temporal and spiritual things, obtaining this divine assistance enables us to become provident providers for ourselves and others."

I thought there was so much wisdom in those words. How thankful I am to know that The Lord will not try us above what we are able to handle.

God works in mysterious ways...

after a few days in *blah* mood and walking around the house today quietly asking for direction from God, i feel a sense of upliftedness (is that even a word?!). God works mysteriously in our lives, though i can't point to anything directly for the mood change, i know that God was quietly listening to my pleas for help and guidance. i really have felt like the devil's grip these past few days has been strong, but just taking the day to beg God for help has been a mood changer.

God works like this in all of us...He gave us free will to come to Him in our times of need. God wants us to rely on Him and how can we rely on Him if he doesn't give us the free will to do so? imagine if we didn't have free will to love and serve God. what would life be like? would we walk through life half-heartedly loving God? would we even look for His purpose in us?

i'm not sure if i can put this into words, but i'll try. i believe God cries and gets angry when we don't follow Him. at the same time, when we turn to Him, i think he cries tears of joy and smiles and embraces us with open arms. i think that God would much rather have this rocky relationship to have those moments in time when we clearly display our need for Him. as opposed to a lifetime of His children half-heartedly loving Him because we have to.

friends...

think about all of the people you surround yourself with....think a bit longer...okay, now think about how many of those people you can truly depend on to help you in times of need. how many will listen to you into the late hours of the evening to hear your problems? how many will you listen to their problems into the late hours of the evening?

as a married person, i know that my wife is one of those people. but i have a VERY small group of people i know who will genuinely listen to me, and more importantly, be honest with me. we have a relationship built on honesty, trust and love. even my guy friends. think about how important it is to have these people in your life. did you tell these people how much you appreciate their love and support?

Jesus had his 12 disciples that He confided in, that He wept with, that He grew angry with, that He loved. to be Christ-like would be to have these same type of relationships in our lives. sure it's good to know people and you can be around "friends", but hang on to those who you are there for and those who are there for you.

how do you see God?!

i once heard a sermon that suggested how we relate to God is how we relate to our earthly father. i reflected on this for many days; and the truth is, i did see my relationship with God in a similar fashion as i see my relationship with my dad.

my dad, though he definitely loves me, is stern, distant, and has a hard time showing his love. i often saw this as how God was with me. i felt like God was 1,000,000 miles away, He only scolded me and i would see His wrath all around me. i didn't feel loved by God...true, unconditional love.

it was an eye-opener when i came to this realization. God is not my earthly father, He's different. God loves me and shows me He loves me everyday! in all honestly, i can feel His love around me. He speaks to me, He scorns me, He embraces me. though, i still have to work at understanding how God can love a sinner like me. but overcoming the comparison of my earthly father and my heavenly Father, has changed my relationship with God immensely.

so how do you see God?

have you ever noticed?!

have you ever noticed how different we are from Jesus?! outside of the fact that He was perfect and God made flesh, have you ever noticed just how our behavior can be so different than His?!

here's what i mean. as Christians, particularly new Christians, we surround ourselves with those who are Christians. we tend to ditch our friends who don't follow Christ, in favor of those who do. we tend to stray away and mock the un-saved because they aren't like us...but if we're really to live like Christ, we would do the opposite. though he had the 12 disciples, Christ surrounded himself, not with the scribes and pharisees, but with tax collectors, prostitutes, gentiles, the lepers...in essence, He was around the "scum" of the earth. He refuted the pharisees and scribes and all they stood for. why?! because they were arrogant about their righteousness. they were not God-like, as they claimed to be.

in another example, Christ cried. the Bible even states that "Jesus wept"...but somehow we feel that we are too "good" to cry. wouldn't this mentality suggest that we are "stronger" than Jesus?!

so why do we turn our backs to the homeless? to the prostitutes? to the drug dealers/users? to those who are un-saved? if we were to truely live like Christ, we would embrace these people and bring them to Him...after all, how can we save a saved person?!

Was that a commercial for a kids meal?!

so my wife and i were watching tv after a long day and as we were waiting for the commercials to come to an end, Burger King's newest commercial came on and there was the king with a bunch of booty poppers. for those of you who don't know what booty poppers are, they are girls in tiny shorts or tight jeans shaking their butts. now, i understand it was supposed to be a parody of sir mix-a-lot's song "i like big butts" and i know it was about sponge bob square pants. however, does a 5 year old need to see this?! i'm not so much outraged as i am concerned that such a suggestive ad would be used to entice our children. don't we have enough sexual inuendos in advertising for adults? and doesn't "teen" shows allude to sex enough because the actors are in their 20s and not 15 like they are portrayed? so now we've got to target the pre-teen stages with sex...wow!

what next?! handy manny will be makin' out on tv with a girl? or maybe a show where dora the explorer finds out she's gay! where does it end?! don't get me wrong, i have friends who are gay and though i don't approve of the lifestyle, it doesn't mean they aren't people either.

What's in it for me?!

i was reading jeremiah 29 this morning because of a "sermon" i heard yesterday. specifically, i was interested in jeremiah 29:11 which reads as this, "For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." but verses 12 and 13 follow it up with this, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart."

i think all too often we, as all humans, are trying to find our "purpose" in life. i just saw a billboard for dr. phil yesterday for his show last night, "Reinvent yourself." he's not the only one. look in the bookstore, look online, look in the yellow pages...there are countless resources out there that deal with finding our purpose in life and getting closer to being the person we want to be...but i may suggest that one book alone will give us the true answer that we are looking for; The Bible.

i mean, if Jeremiah 29:11-13 doesn't tell us exactly what God has in store for us, then I don't know that any other source out there could compare. the ironic thing is that this isn't the only verse...there are many more where God states that He has a plan for us and if we just put our wants aside, He will give us everything we need (want is a different thing altogether). on top of all of this, we get Heaven in the end. if we follow the dr. phils of the world, what will we get?!

blessings...

my wife and i had the opportunity to reflect back on our 4+ years together yesterday. it's amazing how many good times we've had and how many struggles we've had as well. we know that we take advantage of each other, but at the same time, we know we build each other up. we understand each other. when you find somebody like this, the joy and love you experience is amazing. i can honestly say that i wouldn't feel this way if i was with anybody else. God put us together for a reason.

in the midst of our series at church dealing with sex, i can't help but reflect on how much stronger my relationship with my wife would be if i hadn't had sex before marriage. i mean, sure it's socially acceptable, but if people only knew how this dramatically affects them when they find "the one", i believe we wouldn't engage in this behavior. i've come to understand over the past 3 weeks of this series, that God encourages us to wait for a reason. the heartaches, the headaches and the challenges that have to be overcome are difficult ones and without God in my life, i would honestly say that i probably wouldn't be married now.

but i am so thankful that my wife and i have God in our lives. though we're not perfect in our faith, He is definitely the glue that holds us together. i'm not saying that God is the only reason i'm staying married. that's not it at all. but He sure makes dealing with some of the struggles bearable. and He also helps us enjoy the good times and remember that this is what marriage is all about. two people who genuinely love each other. who take the time to communicate. who take the time to care.

Nick Vujicic

Wow this man is such an inspiration. What an amazing spirit God has blessed this man with. Imagine how different this world could be if we all had a spirit like him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4

JP shared this video with me today and it made me cry, Ifelt so ashamed of myself for everytime I complained about, pretty much anything, this man makes me want to be a better person, to appreciate every day and everything that I have and to do my best to not complain when things aren't exactly as I think they should be. As well as to do my very best everyday to not judge others and to be the best person I can be everyday and never give up on my dreams.