Grow the Good

Dear Sisters,

In preparation for my lesson this coming Sunday, I have been thinking about some of my favorite verses in scripture. I’d like to share them with you. This is from Jacob, Chapter 5, in which he shares the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. In these particular verses, the Lord of the vineyard is teaching his servant how to prune his olive trees for the last time:  

64 Wherefore, dig about [the trees of my vineyard], and prune them, and dung them once more, for the last time, for the end draweth nigh. And if it be so that these last grafts shall grow, and bring forth the natural fruit, then shall ye prepare the way for them, that they may grow.

 65 And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard.

 66 For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and thus will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard. 

Usually when I read this chapter, I am the tree that the Lord is working on and teaching His servant to prune. When I read it this way, I love the many times that He says, “It grieveth me that I should lose this tree.” I feel that I am precious to Him. In these particular verses, I love how gentle He is in His pruning. He doesn’t come at me with a chainsaw to sever all my weaknesses and bad habits at once. Instead, He focuses on the good that is within me and encourages me to grow the good so that it can eventually overcome the bad. 

Lately, when I think of these verses, the tree is my family. It is my family that is precious to the Lord and that He doesn’t want to lose. I am learning (this is new to me) that with the Lord’s help, I can work on family problems by setting aside my own chainsaw and focusing on growing something good instead of cutting out something bad.

For example, we have four young daughters. The drama and volume can escalate quickly when one or more of them gets hurt, physically or emotionally. Exasperated is the best word I can used to describe how I feel in these moments that happen frequently during any given day. So often I have heard myself say things like, “If you don’t want run into the doorknob, then quit walking backwards (or with a skirt on your head, or with your eyes closed, or with your hair in your face)!”

Recently, Tim and I have decided to add something good in these moments of frustration. Instead of telling them they did something wrong and that it’s their fault they got hurt, we affirm what they are feeling: “I am so sorry you ran into that doorknob. That hurts!” When we remember to react this way, it instantly disperses the drama (and lowers the volume) because they feel validated. They calm down much faster, and Tim and I are able to comfort them and teach them. 

This principle works with big family challenges as well as the small ones. Click here for an Ensign article written by a woman who used this principle to save her marriage. Please read her story and study these scriptures over the next few days. Think of ways you may be able to grow the good in your family. Do some experimenting. On Sunday, I’d like to discuss this woman’s experience and your experiences so that we may all learn together how to grow the good.

—Erica Royer

Raspberry Pretzel Delight

Raspberry Pretzel Delight

Crust:
2 cups crushed pretzel sticks

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix ingredients together and then press into an ungreased 9x13 pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Then let cool completely.

Filling:

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup cold water

1 (3.4 oz.) box vanilla pudding

4 oz. cool whip

Combine sweetened condensed milk, water, and pudding. Once completely mixed, fold in cool whip. Cover and put in fridge for 10 minutes. Then pour over cooled crust and spread out mixture. Cover and put in fridge for at least 4 hours (I do 6 so the crust isn't so crunchy). When ready to serve pour chilled (put the can in the fridge before hand) raspberry pie filling (or other filling flavor of choice) on top.

Reverence, From Sister Marliyn Parker

 Since the early days of the Restoration, Latter-day Saints have met together to receive gospel instruction.

While reviewing and editing the manuscript of the translation of the Bible on Dec. 6, 832, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation instructing “the first laborers in the last kingdom” so “assemble yourselves together and organize yourselves and prepare yourselves and sanctify yourselves” (D & C 88:74).

Further, the Lord commanded the early Saints to “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom.”  He said. “Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principles, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand” (D & C 88:77-78).

While there are many opportunities in the modern Church for gospel teaching and learning, one of the most important is sacrament meeting.  The places where we receive gospel instruction should be places of prayer, fasting, faith, order, righteousness and reverence.

President Boyd K. Packer said that when Latter-day Saints meet together to learn the doctrines of the gospel, it should be in a spirit of reverence.

“Irreverence suits the purposes of the adversary by obstructing the delicate channels of revelation in both mind and spirit,” President Packer said during his October 1991 general conference address.  “Our sacrament and other meetings need renewed attention to assure that they are truly worship services in which members may be spiritually nourished and have their testimonies replenished and in which investigators may feel the inspiration essential to spiritual conversion…

“Irreverent conduct in our chapels is worthy of a reminder, if not reproof.  Leaders should teach that reverence invites revelation.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve said in his October 2009 general conference address that the ordinance of the sacrament makes the sacrament meeting the most sacred and important meeting in the Church.  He noted that it is the only Sabbath meeting the entire family can attend together.

“During sacrament meeting—and especially

 During the sacrament service—we should concentrate on worship and refrain from all other activities, expecially from behavior that could interfere with the worship of others.  …Sacrament meeting is not a time for reading books or magazines.  Young people, it is not a time for whispered conversations on cell phones or for texting persons at other locations.  When we partake of the sacrament, we make a sacred covenant that we will always remember the Savior.  How sad to see persons obviously violating that covenant in the very meeting where they are making it.”

As a missionary in London, President Gordon B. Hinckley attended meetings in the Battersea town hall, which the Church rented.  “The floors were hard, and we sat on chairs.  Every time a chair moved there was a noise.  But this was not the worst aspect of the situation.  Far worse was the noisy socializing of the members of the branch,” he recalled during an April 1987 general conference address.

On one occasion the missionaries invited a family whom they had met while tracting.  With great expectation, they stood by the door to welcome them.  “There was the usual convivial spirit in the hall, with the members talking noisily one with another.  When this family came into the room, they quietly moved toward some chairs, knelt for a moment, and closed their eyes in a word of prayer.  They then sat in an attitude of reverence amidst all the commotion.

“Frankly, I was embarrassed.  They had come to what they regarded as a worship service, and they behaved themselves accordingly.”

“At the close of the meeting they left quietly, and when we next met they spoke of their disappointment in what they had experienced.  I have never forgotten that.”

President Hinckley asked, “Why do we go to sacrament meeting?

“We go, of course, to renew our covenants in partaking of the sacrament.  This is the most important element of these meetings.  As we also go to be instructed, to meditate upon the things of God, and to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.  We go because of the commandment of the Lord…

“We need, every one of us needs, to pause from the hectic pace of our lives and to reflect upon things sacred and divine.”

Meetinghouses are dedicated to the Lord.  While in them, we partake of the sacrament and pray for the Lord’s Spirit to be with us.  We listen to prelude music and speakers, sing the hymns and say “amen” at the close of prayers.  Great blessings accompany reverence.

During the prayer offered at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, found in D & C 109:21, Joseph prayed to the Father that when any of the Saints transgress, “they may speedily repent and return unto three, and find favor in thy sight, and be restored to the blessings which thou hast ordained to be poured out upon those who shall reverence thee in thy house.”

President Joseph Fielding Smith called reverence a sacred principle.  “It is a principle of the gospel.  We show reverence to our Father in Heaven, to the Lord Jesus Christ.  We would not be boisterous in his presence.  If he happened to be in this meeting, I am sure we would all go in quietly and take our places.  Why cannot we think, when we enter the place of worship,  that he is there?” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Seek Ye Earnestly, [SLC” Desert Book Co., 1970] p. 117).

Church News Week of June 23, 2013

Spiritual Gift Cards

GIFT CARDS:  Think of it this way:  the Savior has paid for a monumental, never ending number of spiritual gift cards—so to speak—just for you!

            Metaphorically, these spiritual gift cards were given to you when you received the gift of the Holy Ghost as you were confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

            Some of our most important prayers are when we pray to know what to pray about!  So, pray and listen.  Read D & C 46:7-12, 13-26, 33

-  If you’re too negative with your children, your friends, or your spouse, ask for the gift of hope, of optimism.

-  If you lose your temper and are cruel in what you say to those you love, ask for the gift of mildness or understanding.

-  If you have started the same diet every Monday for the past three years and are still overweight, ask for the gift of self-discipline.  Or the gift to be healed.  Ask for the gift of peace so that anxiety, fear, frustration, and fatigue will no longer drive you to the fridge or to the fast food pick-up window.

-  If you’ve never been able to keep your home tidy and clean—and you know that the Holy Ghost enjoys a clean environment—ask for the gift of self-discipline.  Perhaps the gift of better time management or the gift of discernment would help so that you are spending your time on things that really matter.

-  If you are easily discouraged, pray for the spiritual gift of persistence, of endurance.

-  If you find that you are increasingly anxious about many things, ask for the gift of peace.  His peace surpasseth all understanding and cuts through the fear of every situation.

-  If you are shy and have never been very good at reaching out to others, pray for the gift of listening, even discernment, so you can really hear and know what is in someone’s heart.

-  If you are easily hurt by others, pray for the gift of faith.  Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a spiritual gift that will be a shield to you against the unkind words and actions of others.

-  If life has always been pretty easy for you, and you’ve always been the best and the brightest, pray for the gift of humility and for the ability to learn from everyone you meet—and I mean everyone.

What are some other gifts that may help you in your quest to increase in holiness?

- The gift of a cheerful countenance so that people are drawn to you. 

-  The gift of true conversion so that nothing can distract you or dissuade you from living the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

-  The gift of selflessness.

-  The gift of forgiveness.

-  The gift to be healed.

-  The gift of wisdom—even the wisdom of angels.

            Now, will a casual prayer or a casual presentation of your gift card—so to speak—to your Heavenly Father be enough for you to acquire the spiritual gift you are seeking?  Never!  Zero chance!

What Would A Holy Woman Do?

WHAT WOULD A HOLY WOMAN DO?

Sunday July 7, 2013 Presidency Message

            In thinking about how to learn about holiness, I’m wondering if for three days you would be willing to, just once each day, purposely choose one of your daily activities and try to “be holy” while doing it, or do it as a holy woman would do it.  For example, how would a holy woman start her day?  What would be on her “to do” list?  How would a holy woman approach a difficult assignment or a new overwhelming project?  How would she read to a child, or exercise?  How would she talk with a friend, or shop, or play or pray, or do laundry?

            How would a holy woman handle a conflict or avoid a conflict?  What would she read, or say, or listen to, or watch, or wear?  What would she do in really difficult situations?  If someone said something to you that was confusing, or hurtful, or demoralizing, how would a holy woman respond?  What would she do?  If she were betrayed, or misunderstood, or falsely accused, what would a holy woman do?

            How would a holy woman respond to her own success or failure?  How would she respond to the successes and failures of others?  How would a holy woman use her time and energy and money?  How would she prepare to partake of the sacrament each Sunday?

            How would a holy married woman welcome her husband home? Or how would she help him to welcome her home so they both felt loved, adored, wanted, and needed?  How would a holy single young woman date, or use her time when not dating?

            Would you be willing to try that?  Choose one thing a day for three days—a different thing each day or the same thing—you can’t do this wrong.

Why modesty is Important

I came across this clip on swimsuit modesty but the principles talked about apply to modesty in general.  I think it has a great message and another example why modesty is important.  I hope you enjoy it.

 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201373174636163