I would be my Brother's Keeper..........



My mother-in-law shared a story with me once and it has been one that has been told often and usually with quite a bit of humor added....but today I thought of the story in a completely different light.  I am not quite sure why today it took on a different meaning, but today the very funny story became a very endearing and touching story....that I now hold a little dearer to my heart. 

When my husband was around 9 or 10 his mother took him and his little brother to the dentist. He was brother was about 6 or 7 and quite a sweet little boy. They came and got his little brother first and took him back to have his dental work done....I am not quite sure where there mother was at the time...but as my husband sat there in the waiting room he started to hear whimpering, then crying and it seemed to get louder and louder.....well my husband sat there for about as long as he could until finally he burst into the back room. It was so unexpected by all, that no one could even stop him or dare try.  He went straight to the dentist and with all his might just started hitting and kicking and screaming at the dentist to leave his little brother alone. It was truly quite the scene and he had to be removed from the dentist office altogether.  He truly could not handle to hear his brother in that sort of pain.  So while we have all had our share of laughs and fun with this cute story....what a great little man my husband was that day to be willing to defend and stand up for his little brother.  I am sure that throughout our lives we often find ourselves not knowing what to do when one of our family members is hurting and in pain.  How can we help them, where is our place in it all, what should we do and where do we begin?  I am a firm believer that before we came to this earthlife we lived with each other and we made promises to help each other through the difficult times. 

This story reminds me of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum. "Joseph once said about Hyrum, I love him with that love that is stronger than death."  In the end their love did carry them to death together. 

The brothers willingly gave everything they had, even their lives, in service to Heavenly Father.

They left behind, as precious gifts to us, the results of their work. Among these gifts shines a quiet

example of lasting brotherhood. What a marvelous example to each of us they were.

I can't blog about brothers without sharing one of my very favorite songs:

Lord, I Would Follow Thee

Savior, may I learn to love thee,
Walk the path that thou hast shown,
Pause to help and lift another,
Finding strength beyond my own.

Savior, may I learn to love thee-
Lord, I would follow thee.

Who am I to judge another
When I walk imperfectly?
In the quiet heart is hidden
Sorrow that the eye can't see.

Who am I to judge another?
Lord, I would follow thee.

I would be my brother's keeper;
I would learn the healer's art.
To the wounded and the weary
I would show a gentle heart.

I would be my brother's keeper-
Lord, I would follow thee.

Savior, may I love my brother
As I know thou lovest me,

Find in thee my strength, my beacon,
For thy servant I would be.
Savior, may I love my brother-

Lord, I would follow thee.

 Knowing the love that I have for my own children and the hurt I feel when they are sad, makes me think

of how heart-breaking it must be for our Father in Heaven to watch us struggle, hurt and go through

 hard times. I know that there is nothing my children could do to change my love for them and so that confirms to me even more our Fathers love for us all.  I also know that my children learn the most through hard times and through failures and struggles, so in order for them to grow we must allow them to have these learning experiences.....which is also why our Father in Heaven allows these experiences
to take place in our lives.

CS Lewis explains this process that our Father allows to happen to us in a beautiful and touching way: 

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

So the next time trials come your way....and its not a matter of IF but WHEN....just remember....You are being made into a beautiful PALACE!!!!





 



I walk today.....

Sometimes the words of a song, I have not sang in maybe 15 years just come to me.....today was one of those days....this is one of those songs:

Learn of Me
Janice Kapp Perry

I walk today along the path of life.
No more a child protected from the strife.
Now I must face whatever foes may comes
And fight with strength until the battle's one.

I trembling fear the task is far to great,
On every side the Tempter lies in wait.
What can I do? I plead to Him above,
Then hear Him speak these gentle words of love:

Learn of me and listen to my words,
Walk in the meekness of my light
And I will give you peace,
My love will never cease,
For I am Jesus Christ.

When I was yet a child so clean and pure,
I doubted not and knew God's love was sure.
I knew He lived for every bird and tree,
By breath and leaf, were witnesses to me.

But now the world would fill my mind with doubt,
And so my soul, in search of truth cries out.
How may I know? I plead to Him above
Then I recall these gentle words of love:

Learn of me and listen to my words,
Walk in the meekness of my light
And I will give you peace,
My love will never cease,
For I am Jesus Christ.

My life is blessed to have His sacred word,
To feel His love and know my prayers are heard.
With in my soul his light has found a place,
It leads the way as I receive His grace.

The peace I feel, my joy in sacred things,
Surpasses all the world could ever bring.
With humble heart I take a valiant stand.
I will obey this gentle sweet command:

Learn of me and listen to my words,
Walk in the meekness of my light
And I shall give you peace,
My love will never cease,
For I am Jesus Christ.

So this path we call life....sometimes may feel like a bumpy ride and sometimes the ride is just so smooth and beautiful, peaceful and wonderful!! What I recognize now that I did not before is that every day can be this way, simply by our attitude!!! If we accept our trials, both big and small as simply learning experiences....they are so much easier to handle.  It is actually possible to have everything going wrong around us and still keep a smile on our face and a song in our heart. There are always tender mercies happening around us...but we need to be looking for them, so that we can show our gratitude for them.

His tender mercies are all around me...EVERYWHERE!!! They always have been, I am just taking the time to notice them a little bit more.  I am consciously making the effort to say "Thank You" to Him and since I have been doing this, I am much more aware of His loving, kind hand in my daily life. 

Some of the few that I have noticed lately....

As I was driving my son to the Emergency Room the other night at 3am, it was made known to me that this was another reason that we are living exactly where we are living right now.  I am literally 2 stop signs away from the hospital. This has been a huge blessing to me! In the past 5 years, I have made approximately 15-20 hospital visits for my family....before we moved here.....ZERO, besides having babies! What a sweet sign that my loving Father was willing to show to me in the middle of the night and my son was in so much pain and I was worried and scared....that He knows ME and that though this life is hard and there is a lot to deal with and take care of....He will provide the way! If we only trust in Him, believe in Him and go to Him.

Working....well, yes it is a tender mercy! Not one that I am always thankful for but I truly am blessed with this job! After staying home with my children for the past 17 years....and never finishing my degree....well it tends to put me in the desperate housewife category!!! So how can it be anything but a tender mercy that I am able to step in and manage an office and help support my family in a time that jobs are scarce and good pay is even scarcer! I am doing what I learned in High School...thanks to a great Sister, who taught me so much!!! How did I know that this would come to help out my family so much! So no, I would not choose to be working right now, but my loving Father has once again showed me....that He will provide the way for me!

Going to the temple....such a blessing in my life!!! One of the biggest thing I was worried about with working is going to the temple.  I enjoy my weekly temple attendance and it has been a saving grace in my life...I was very worried abou how I could do that with everything else on my plate....and I have been able to find the time each week it just always seems to work out for us! So to me, this is a tender mercy...finding the time and many, many experiences I have had there in the House of the Lord.  He has taught me so many things: about myself, my marriage,the personal needs of my children, the atonement and inspiration for so many things!

Fasting can offer great strength and peace of mind.  In a world that is so busy and hectic...it is a wonderful blessing to fast.  When I fast, I feel in complete control of my body, my mind and things that I need to hear seem to go straight to my heart.  An experience I had recently with fasting was pretty amazing! I decided I was going to fast about a certain THING...I did not tell anyone I was going to fast about it. I simply fasted one Sunday, read my scriptures and prayed about this THING during my fast. Well, the day ended and nothing really happened. I did not receive any real answers...but then 2 days later...the exact THING I was fasting about my husband came to me and said..."Ya know what I think I am going to do THIS!" of course THIS was exactly the THING I was fasting about.  I know there is great power in fasting, I have many more stories about fasting and truly believe in its strength in our life! I know that had I brought THIS item up to my husband, it may have brought contention or may have pushed him the other way into not wanting to do it...but by fasting about and turning it over to the Lord...my prayers were answered and this THING did happen and life is better because of it!!!

On a side note from all of this.............WHY DO I BLOG??????
I blog for several reasons........1~ I have a testimony...that I MUST share!
2~Life is tough...if I can help even one person, than it will be worth it!
3~I will not be around forever....I want my children to know that I love THEM, I love our FAMILY and I love the GOSPEL and I love, love, love~~~ LIFE!!!

Taking His Hand........

I love when things are plain and simple to understand. This is pretty simple and easy to understand...it is a great little test to check ourselves and see where we stand! I did not write this and I must say though I mostly agree with it...I also know that there are circumstances in people's lives in which we must lend compassion and understanding, but on the other hand...I also believe there is a time to heal and move on. We must make sure we are doing everything we can to have the Spirit with us and to make sure we are not the cause of making our lives harder than they need to be and not allowing the Spirit to be with us in all that we do! Learning to walk hand in hand with the Spirit is an amazing miracle that can be a part of all of our lives. His hand is always out-stretched and awaiting us....

When You Do Have The Spirit And When You Don't


When You Have The Spirit:
1.You feel happy, calm, and clear-minded.
2.You Feel Generous.
3.Nobody can offend you.
4.You wouldn't mind everybody seeing what you are doing.
5.You are eager to be with people and want to make them happy.
6.You are glad when others succeed.
7.You are glad to attend you meetings and participate in church activities.
8.You feel like praying.
9.You wish you could keep all the Lord's commandments.
10.You feel in control - you don't overeat oversleep too much; you don't feel uncontrollable passions or desires or lose your temper.
11.You think about the Savior often and you want to know him better.



When You Don't Have The Spirit:
1.You feel unhappy, depressed, confused and frustrated.
2.You're positive, self centered, or resent demands made on you.
3.You are easily offended.
4.You become sensitive and evasive.
5.You avoid people, especially members of your family; and you are critical of family members and church authorities.
6.You envy or resent the success of others.
7.You don't want to go to Church, go home teaching, or take the sacrament; you wish you had another church job or no job at all.
8.You don't want to pray.
9.You find the commandments bothersome, restricting, or senseless.
10.You feel emotions and appetites sos trongly, that you fear you cannot control them - hate, jealousy, anger, lust, hunger, fatigue.
11.You hardly ever think of the Savior, he seems irrelevant to your life, or worse part of a confusing system that seems to work against you.
12.You get discouraged easily and wonder if life is really worth it.
~Author Unknown

Just really wanted to share one of my favorite scriptures............

This scripture hangs in my home under a picture of my brother:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28–30).

This brother of mine is such a great example to me! I love having that picture in my home (I could not find the exact picture I have....this one is different than mine) as the first thing I see when I walk in the front door. I am forever thankful to him and look forward to one day personally thanking him for all that he has done for me in my life! Where would I be without him!!! This brother is my Savior Jesus Christ.

Sometimes when I am leading the music in primary (I am currently the Primary Chorister), I am completely overwhelmed by the Spirit of these magnificent primary children.  They are so trusting of us and eager to listen, to learn and obey. Often times while they are singing a song I get the chills over and over again. It is quite an amazing experience to have truths testified to you by such young, growing testimonies.  Then there are those times that I look into their faces and I see that they are so young and carefree....but soon they will be experiencing the harshness of this world and it breaks my heart. When I think about the trials that lie ahead of them I am tempted to just keep them in that small primary room and never let the songs end, just go on singing with them forever! But then the clock tells me that its time to wrap things up and close for the day....and I realize once again that this is what life is all about. I cannot keep them from learning, from growing, from experiencing all that this life has to offer....the good and the bad. The opposition in our lives is what helps us to truly appreciate the Saviors gift to us....The Atonement.

I use to think that the Atonement was all about sin. I also use to think that I never wanted any part of that horrific event!!!! I felt that if I did not sin, then I would not have been the cause of the pain and suffering our Savior went through.....I was wrong! The Atonement is for ME!!! It is for every single one of us, not just when we are going through sin, it is for every day of our lives!!! He experienced everything we will go through in this life: heartache, disappointment, loneliness, depression, sadness, illness....everything! So that is all of us...we are all going through this life, sometimes barely keeping our heads above water. If we look toward our Savior our burdens WILL be lighter! Satan is all about us being down trodden, hard on ourselves, non-forgiving and troubled.  Our Savior would have us feel His light, His tender mercies, His love and acceptance of us.  If we are striving to do what is right, to correct our course and to keep our eye focussed on the target then we will feel of his light. Those dark moments in our life do not come from our Heavenly Father, He does not work that way! Those dark moments are Satan telling us we cannot do it, we are not worthy of it and life is too hard! We must take a quiet moment and understand the thoughts in our mind, and recognize there source: if they are dark they are from Satan...if you feel full of light and hope, then they are from your brother, your friend....Jesus Christ!


To forgive is a divine attribute. It is to pardon or excuse someone from blame for an offense or misdeed. The scriptures refer to forgiveness in two ways. The Lord commands us to repent of our sins and seek His forgiveness. He also commands us to forgive those who offend or hurt us. One of the hardest people to forgive is usually ourselves, we take things to heart and beat ourselves up! To Him, once we have repented the sin is remembered no more.  We must forgive ourselves and we must forgive others! I think most of us can say that we truly do not believe there is one person out there trying to hurt us. But yes...it happens....sometimes by the closest to us! The Lord said: "Ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men" (D&C 64:9–10). When we find the strength to love them and to forgive them then we are showing our Savior that we do believe in His plan, in the way that He and our loving Father have set out for us. When someone hurts us and we are able to take them in and show them the same sort of love our Savior would show at that very moment if He were here....then we can experience something in our life that touches our heart and reminds of the incredible love He has for us...He allows us a little glimpse of that.


Sin is a heavy burden. It brings the tenseness of guilt and the anguish of knowing that we have acted against the will of our Father in Heaven. It brings lingering remorse as we realize that because of our actions, we may have hurt others and prevented ourselves from receiving blessings our Father has been ready to give us. These are the times of our life that we can almost see ourselves growing. We do not learn and grow much when life is good and easy and carefree!!! We learn about ourselves, what we want from this life, which direction we would like to go and who we truly are when we are put to the test! That is what this life is all about.....(I am reminded often of the annoying commercial with the loud blarring beep sound) "This is a test, it is only a test"! That is what we are here for...to be tried and tested! Tests are never fun or easy....so why would think that life would always be fun and easy. If we can remind ourselves often "This is a test, this is only a test" and maybe find a little humor in it....we will understand the day to day trials a little more!

May God help us to be a little kinder, showing forth greater forbearance, to be more forgiving, more willing to walk the second mile, to reach down and lift up those who may have sinned but have brought forth the fruits of repentance, to lay aside old grudges and nurture them no more. ~Gordon B. Hinckley



I love the song that goes:

What the world needs now is love,
Sweet love It's the only thing
That there's just too little of
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
No, not just for some,
But for everyone
 
I think if we could all just be a little more loving and kind to each other and accepting of each other's downfalls and limitations we would see that most people are just trying...trying to make it through today...to find someone to love them!
 
Maybe today you will be that person to someone else....that one person who made a difference in their day!

"Lead Me to the Rock That is Higher Than I"

I have this picture in my home. I still remember the day that my children gave this to me for Mother's Day. John had the kids carry it in, it was almost bigger than them. They were so proud to be giving me such a beautiful picture. The picture has always carried so much meaning to me, especially the quote at the bottom of it...."lead me to the rock that is higher than I."  Only our Father knows what we are truly capable of. Only He knows how much we can handle. He has made a promise to us and that is that we will never be given any trial that we are not capable of handling. Boy, oh boy....sometimes it sure seems like!!! But we need to remind ourselves of that promise and then we will truly be able to see what we are capable of. 

The other important part of this saying is "Lead me"...it does not say show me or point the way....it simply says "Lead me" that is because He will lead us. In the past couple of years I have learned, through trial and error of course, that if we will but let Him be in control of our lives....magical things will happen! All of a sudden we will find ourselves saying a lot more.....I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. For me, examples of this have been: being in the right place at the right time, to help someone, meet someone new, learn something, witness something beautiful, help one of my children or just another opportunity to learn and grow in a way that I had not expected that day! Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants us to learn how to have the faith of a child. His child.....whom he loves and knows all about! He does not want us to be sad, He has so much in store for us in this life....and sometimes we just need to get out of the drivers seat and let Him show us the way!

I am so thankful for a knowledge of His plan. I know that He loves me! I also know that when we are sad or discouraged or down on ourselves for not doing as well as we could....that those feelings do not come from Him....but rather Satan. Our Heavenly Father would only have us feel love and determination and hope to do better, to try harder and to enjoy all the beautiful and wonderful things in this life!

Life is good....and it is also what we put into it!!! As a man thinketh....so is he! What are your thoughts and actions doing in your life...if you are not happy, then the very first person you must examine inside and out....is YOU!!!!

You have more power than you willl ever know to change and to make this world one in which you embrace and wake up every day saying...WOW....today is going to be a great great day! I can hardly wait for all of the wonderful things that will happen today!!!!