I got back form China and was so grateful to be home with Mom and family. There's no place like home!
I am an expert bathroom cleaner. Even when we had no paper towels, the master of make do got the newspaper and used that for the mirrors with windex. In reality newspaper is really good for cleaning glass, as it leaves no streaks or fibers when you just polish it off. It's a good tool. I fixed the brakes on Mom's car, she was so awesome and told me it sounded different. And sure enough, they were almost gone. Plus one part was rusted in place and not moving as it should. So $16.99 later it is all fixed. Instead of around $150-200 at a shop. The only damage is my ego and my thumb that got crushed under the car as it slid off the jacks when things went a little awry. It hurts and is blue under the nail, but getting better. To keep it from throbbing I had to sleep with "thumbs up" all night!
I get to be off work this week (mostly) and can be home with mom and those at home. Them we go off to DC for Thanksgiving.
3 John 1:4
Recognizing
God's Hand In All Things
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I would like to have us
ponder today on three questions that will enable us to have a more satisfying
life, more easily ride out the storms around us, as to draw closer to The
Lord and our Father in Heaven.
These are:
1. What are we truly grateful for?
2. How can we recognize His hand in our lives?
3. What blessing come from being grateful?
I pray that the Holy Ghost will attend to me, and to you, as we
consider these questions.
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What are we grateful for?
Gratitude for technology to
allow me to talk to my bride while traveling in China.
Gratitude for being able to attend church while traveling. Thankful
for the same feeling in the buildings, even when they are not
"ours". For the same hymns, for members who reach out, and for
spoken words that were a direct and near immediate answer to my personal
anguished cry for help from my Heavenly Father.
Grateful The Lord knows ALL his people as I met with saints from
Singapore, Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany, England, Peru,
USA, Nepal, Namibia, New Zealand and others. Truly The Lord knows us in his
life.
Can we not do the same and know him in ours?
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Are we grateful for the "other" aspects of life?
The mundane, clean clothes,
flat beds,
The obscure, our hearts that pump, lungs that exchange air
The simple, forks that help us eat
The repetitive, sunrise and sunset
The spiritual, gift of general conf or an Apostle to visit our stake
conf
The unchanging, gravity
The success of others
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Elder Hollands other prodigal
talk (Val) why can we not be grateful
for all things. Both those we receive and those given to others.
"Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that a gift given
to another somehow diminishes the blessings we have received?"
When we recognize Gods hand in all things, we see all that He does
for US, and for others, as growth towards that ultimate eternal state where
we ALL can inherit everything He has. It is a miracle.
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Here in seeing Gods hand hand
in our lives, I believe we can apply the good better best principle.
It is good to be grateful.
It is better to see Gods hand in all things we normally think of.
And it is best to recognize Him in every way, in every day, and in
every seen and unseen impact of our lives.
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How can we recognize His hand in our lives?
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Give service
Service is one of the
quickest routes to see God's hand in your own life.
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For The Strength of Youth
says this well. Consider the emphasis I put on words that will help us see
his hand in our lives.
Often the most meaningful service is expressed through simple,
everyday acts of kindness. Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost ...each
day.... to know whom to serve and how to help meet their needs. (Service)
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Consider my experience as a
missionary which I am confident is common to all who serve.
As missionaries give up all they have, and live in relative spartan
circumstances, they recognize more than ever the Lords hand in their lives.
How is is that the more they give up of themselves, the more they
see they have? EVERY day they give up more and thereby see more that they
have.
That, brothers as sisters, is the miracle of service. An eternal
principle I am only beginning to understand the breadth and depth available
to me.
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We would do well to follow
the counsel given in hymn 241.
Count your many blessings, name them one by one. And it will
surprise you what The Lord has done.
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How can try put their trust
in God continually if they do not recognize His hand in their lives?
I believe that their mothers had taught them time and time again to
recognize God in all things.
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Sisters, yours is the errand
of angels. As you teach, and remarkable teachers you are to both your own as
well as to other children around you, you help all of us to better recognize
God. This gift you give to us serves to help cure a host of ills in our lives
and the world around us.
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What do we receive from being grateful?
More than gratitude began to
grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our
Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the
softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus
Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to
our remembrance--even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they
happened (O Remember, Remember)
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19 And he
who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the
things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea,
more.
Doctrine and Covenants,
D&C 78:19
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Those who are faithful to God
are protected and prospered (O Remember, Remember)
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In the gospel library under
gratitude we learn "as we cultivate a grateful attitude, we are more
likely to be happy and SPIRITUALLY STRONG.
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Blessings
If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude
takes its place among the noblest of virtues.
Consider that virtue of gratitude as I express a favorite scripture:
“Let virtue, or gratitude, garnish thy thoughts unceasingly, then
shall they confidence was strong in the presence of God and the doctrines of
the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.”
Please consider the ultimate blessings of the temple. Those who have
been will recognize the feelings they have as we can confidently approach the
Lord, and receive the blessings of the priesthood in our lives eternally.
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In conclusion
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Consider what Moses taught so
long ago:
9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou
forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy
heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
(Deuteronomy 4:9)
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What if when we woke up all
we had was what we remembered to thank God for the day before?
Sis. Sidney Craig
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Filler
Some of you may be familiar
with Thornton Wilder’s classic drama Our Town. Emily Webb laments, “Do …
human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute?”
Said one well-known author: “Both abundance and lack of abundance
exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our
conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to
focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance
that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and
personal pursuits that bring us happiness—the wasteland of illusion falls
away and we experience heaven on earth.”
Many years ago I was touched by the story of Borghild Dahl. She was
born in Minnesota in 1890 of Norwegian parents and from her early years
suffered severely impaired vision. She had a tremendous desire to participate
in everyday life despite her handicap and, through sheer determination,
succeeded in nearly everything she undertook. Against the advice of
educators, who felt her handicap was too great, she attended college,
receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She
later studied at Columbia University and the University of Oslo. She
eventually became the principal of eight schools in western Minnesota and
North Dakota.
She wrote the following in one of the 17 books she authored: “I had
only one eye, and it was so covered with dense scars that I had to do all my
seeing through one small opening in the left of the eye. I could see a book
only by holding it up close to my face and by straining my one eye as hard as
I could to the left.”7
Miraculously, in 1943—when she was over 50 years old—a revolutionary
procedure was developed which finally restored to her much of the sight she
had been without for so long. A new and exciting world opened up before her.
She took great pleasure in the small things most of us take for granted, such
as watching a bird in flight, noticing the light reflected in the bubbles of
her dishwater, or observing the phases of the moon each night. She closed one
of her books with these words: “Dear … Father in heaven, I thank Thee. I
thank Thee.”8
Borghild Dahl, both before and after her sight was restored, was
filled with gratitude for her blessings.
In 1982, two years before she died, at the age of 92 her last book
was published. Its title: Happy All My Life. Her attitude of thankfulness
enabled her to appreciate her blessings and to live a full and rich life
despite her challenges.
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