Pondering Our Blessings

This morning, I have been sitting and pondering my life and thinking of all the many ways Heavenly Father has blessed me. I feel so unworthy of it all, yet He continues to bless me beyond anything I ever imagined. I no longer ask why, because I know why.

Once upon a time when trials would come, I'd try to work through them and look forward to better days - "days of grace" I would call them. Then I came to learn something. Every single day is a day of grace, especially when adversity is present. I learned that as long as I faced the trials praising my Father, praising my Savior, and uttering unceasing prayers with gratitude in my heart, those days were all days of grace, because I wasn't facing the refining fire alone.

I look at everything God has done, and take into account every single blessing - from the expanding of my family and increasing posterity, to the things that most of us take for granted. Things like having a warm home, food to eat, clothes to wear, running water and indoor plumbing, transportation to get where I need to go. I have a functioning body and can actively do what I need to do (even though the back and knees argue from time to time.) I have all my senses and can enjoy the sounds of nature around me, can tend my flower garden and prune my rose bushes, can go for walks with my husband and talk of everything and nothing. I still have my vision and can see the beauty of the world around me. I can stand outside barefoot for a few moments in the evenings and watch the sky darken and the moon slowly appear, and marvel at the stars.
I have everything!

So, how can I not praise my God every moment of the day?

This life truly is but a small moment, just a blink of an eye really when compared to eternity. But this small moment is crucial, and what we do with it determines our place in eternity. We shouldn't waste a single second of it on things that don't really matter.
Oh, how blessed I feel each time the Lord opens my heart a little wider, and each time He helps me to remember who I am to Him, and to the Father. How blessed I feel with each bit of the plan He reveals for my life. And though I still can't see the full picture of His plan for me, I know it's coming, and one day I will see it. Just the thought of it fills me with unspeakable joy
I love my God, and I love my Savior, and I glory in Them. I hope you will love and glory in Them too.
Thank you for giving me the privilege of sharing.

His Will

Sometimes I sit and ponder on all that is going on in the world and the choices people make that perpetuate the wickedness, and my heart just aches. It is a literal pain inside me that comes because so many of us still don't get it. So many REFUSE to get it. So many REFUSE to see. We don't get the importance of what we do and say. We don't get the importance of our words and actions and their

effects on the world around us. Someone or something always pays the price, and that saddens me.
But . . .
When that sadness comes and the heartache sets in, I let it settle, then I let it go and remember there is always something I can be, and there is always some way God can use me to help in His glorious plan for us.
There is always some way God can use each of us, and He usually does WHEN we allow Him to, when we let go of our own will and align it with His. When we do this, there is nothing we cannot do, because He is there every step of the way to see it done - to make it so.

I pray that each of us can remember the importance of our place in this world, and then let our glorious Heavenly Father use us to magnify His will. In this way, we will truly come to fulfill the measure of our own creation.

Getting Along With Yourself

There really isn't anything else I can add to this quote. It is brilliant and sound counsel, because Satan thrives on self-hate. He does not want us to be happy at all, and if he can diminish our self-worth the tiniest bit, he will.
May we all come to see ourselves as God sees us, and then live accordingly.

God's Hospital

"If you feel too spiritually maimed to come to the feast, please realize that the Church is not a monastery for perfect people, though all of us ought to be striving on the road to godliness. No, at least one aspect of the Church is more like a hospital or an aid station,

provided for those who are ill and want to get well." ~Jeffrey R. Holland

Life can - and will - batter us emotionally, and we all need the healing that only Jesus Christ can bring. Meeting with fellow life-battered patients each week to partake of God's holy healing can do wonders for the soul, and place us on the road to recovery, provided that we follow the Lord's regimen and take the proper spiritual medications as recommended. That includes feasting on His words, then fully implementing them in our lives and enduring to the end in righteousness.
Then, when we are close to the finish line and find ourselves too worn or broken down to hobble another step, if we call on Him, the Lord will lift us and carry us the rest of the way.

He has always carried His people. And He always will.

Lifted Up

"Having descended beneath it all, Jesus Christ is perfectly positioned to lift us and give us the strength we need to endure our afflictions." ~Dallin H. Oaks

I can testify to the truthfulness of those words, for Christ found me in the gutter of misery years ago, lost, broken, and devoid of hope. I had been buried deep in the depths of despair, my body and soul stained, the light smothered in darkness. I was the most wretched of creatures, my face hidden, unable to bear the least bit of genuine goodness because I felt so unworthy of it.

But then the Savior found me. He was able to see the light others could not, and He reached down and lifted me from the dark pit and raised me to higher ground. Me, a soul so rebellious, proud, soiled, and broken. Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord, was able to lift me because He had descended beneath all things, and He understood. He understood ME! And though I am still a sinner and not yet worthy to stand in His presence, I hope I someday I will be worthy enough, and I will never turn my back on the precious gift He gave me, and continues to give me.

I will praise My Father and my Savior all my days. I will tearfully thank Them each and every day for the wondrous gift that is my life. Oh, how blessed I am! How blessed I am to be living in such an

amazing time - such a great and terrible time! How blessed I am to have an amazing man by my side to walk through the triumphs and coming trials with me, and to know he loves the Lord as much as I do!
How grateful I am to have been brought to this point in my life that I know with every fiber of my being that my Lord and my God, as well as some of the hosts of heaven are with me, and that I am never alone!
Every new day brings sanctifying and purifying experiences. I will be grateful for them and never

wish them away, I will simply look to my Savior to help me through them. My heart is full.

The separation of the wheat and the tares has been a long process, as well as the harvesting. Now the harvesting is fast coming to a close. A change is coming. Can you feel it?
I can feel it! And I glory in it!

The Real You

“Pay close attention to that spiritual being living within you.” ~Al Carraway

Each of us entered this world as a righteous son or daughter of God with so much potential within us to affect everything and everyone we come in contact with for good. But the trials, adversities, and challenges of life blind us or distort our view of the big picture of promised blessings that will be ours, should we correct our vision and stay focused.

May we all remember who we are. Because it is that sure knowledge that will help us stay on holy ground, and it will see us through the coming times ahead.

This I Do Know

"How might we have joy in our lives, despite all that we may face? Again, from the scriptures: ‘Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.’” ~Thomas S. Monson

For some, this is a time of great spiritual awakening, while others become lost in the trials and

mounting adversities of life, of which none of us escape.
I don't know much. I have no new and exciting words of hope or encouragement. I simply have these . . . because this is what I do know, and for me, this knowledge becomes more sure with each day that passes:
Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, the Savior and Redeemer of this world. He is our Lord and Master - He is MY Lord and Master! He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Creator of worlds without number. How deeply and humbly blessed I feel for my little place in His world! Because of His atoning sacrifice, I can be forgiven, and you can be forgiven.
I feel the Lord's mercy in my life every single day without fail. I feel His love for me, and I know He knows my name. I don't just believe this, I KNOW!
At times like now, when struggling with an illness seems endless, I am more comforted by this truth than I can put into words. I'm actually teary thinking about how much joy this knowledge brings me. I wish I could share it with you. I wish I could find the words to express the hope, and the love, that accompanies such joy.

I wish it for all of us.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.