Divine Kinship

 "I think if all men knew and understood who they are and were aware of the divine source from whence they came, they would have feelings of kindness and kinship for each other that would change their whole way of living and bring peace on earth....."  Joseph Fielding Smith

 
One Monday morning when Rob and Janet Arrived at school, they noticed that their teacher Mr May had an interesting smile on his face.  "I wonder what Mr May is going to do today." whispered Janet to Rob.  The other students in the class also seemed curious about what was behind Mr May's intriguing smile.

It seemed to take forever for class to begin.  When the bell signaled the start of class, Mr, May said, "today I am going to give each of you three gifts.  You may do whatever you wish with the gifts.  But the object of receiving these gifts is to get more of them by the end of the week.

With that short explanation, Mr May gave each student three small pieces of paper.  Rob quickly looked at each one.  On one piece of paper was the word Smile, a second piece read Sincere Compliment, and the third simply read Help. 

A student raised her hand and asked, "what are we supposed to do with these?"

Mr May smiled and said, "You figure it out."

Deteremined to get more gifts, Rob stuffed the pieces of paper into his pocket so no one would be able to take them from him.  Then he spent the rest of the week trying to get gifts from other people.  He poked fun at one of the other students in class and then looked around to see how many people had smiled at him.  When he got a good grade on a spelling test, he showed his grade to several people hoping that someone would give him a sincere compliment, and he reminded Tom of a favor he had done for him once saying, "We'll be even if you will help me with my book report."  By the end of the week, all Rob had was three crumpled piees of paper in his pocket and a sick feeling in his stomach.

Janet didn't really thinking about Mr May's assignment.  She just went about her week as she always did.  She greeted everyone with a smile.  when she noticed that Emily had done especially well on a math quiz, she congratulated her.  Later that week she noticed that Loren was having a hard time with his science project.  She helped him with the problem that was frustrating him.  By the end of the week, Janet was happier than she had been before, even though she had forgotten about Mr, May's challenge to get more gifts.

Rob was confused.  He had tried hard to get more gifts, but he had failed.  Meanwhile, he noticed that even though Janet had not done anything different everyone smiled at her.  People were always giving her sincere compliments and when she needed help with something someone always seemed to notice and offer assistance. 

After trying all week to add to his own store of gifts, Rob seemed to have less than he had when the week began; and rather than trying to get smiles, compliments and help from others, Janet gave those gifts away. In the process, she received them back from others and felt even happier than she had felt when the week began.

When we give of ourselves, when we loose ourselves in service, when we love the Lord with all our hearts soul and minds and when we love our neighbors as ourselves, we find that we don't loose anything at all, instead we receive gifts of love, friendship and greater happiness. And by doing so we are obeying the first two commandments; to love the Lord then love our neighbors as ourselves.

Let us this week ask ourselves this question:  Can you say that you love the Lord with all your soul?  Can you say you are concerened for the welfare of your neighbor as much as you are for your own?  When we can answer yes to these two questions, not only will we fulfill the law, but just think,  how glorious our days shall be........

Points to Ponder:

*With the Knowledge that  God is the Father of all people, we should desire to love and bless others
*As we love and support one another in the Church we become a power in the world for good
*We express love for our fellowmen by serving them
*We need to appreciate and love people for themselves
*We we love the Lord with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, we are in harmony with all sacred law
*What has Jesus Christ done to teach us love for each other, how can we follow his example

It is my sincere prayer that we can all, each one of us, love even as the Lord has loved us....


Thanks for reading :)  see you next week
Love From Dixie

References:  Preparing for Exaltation Lesson 36, Teaches of Joseph Fielding Smith Chapter 20 

Beyond The Doors

I am LDS (Mormon)and have been "called" as a teacher for our Sunday morning Relief Society Women's meeting.  This post is one I wrote for a lesson I gave last month entitled Sealing Power and Temple Blessings, which is in regards to temple work.  For more information and understanding of the Mormon Temple and the service we do there or for more information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Relief Society Organization or any other questions or information you might want, please visit www.lds.org or mormon.org. There is also a wonderful Movie now playing in Theaters called Meet the Mormons that you might find interesting as well.  I will be doing a post for each lesson I teach which will be the 2nd and 3rd Sunday's of each month.  If you should have any questions feel free to contact me, if you would like to leave a comment please do so on this page!  Thank you for following and visiting I will be doing my best to post something each week not just the lessons, but things of my journey that you might find of interest and I look forward to seeing you here :)  Now on with the blog........

My Family has struggled with tragedy.  It started with the death of my three year old daughter, and not to mention the parents, grandparents, and friends we've lost since then and in between; the last five years have been the worst with the death of my twenty year old son, my step-father three months later, my sister six months from that, then followed my father in-law, mother in-law and finally my 36 six year old step son who died this past July.  So, a few weeks ago when the phone rang in the early morning hours with news that my two year old granddaughter, was in Cooks Children's Hospital with seizure activity and very sick, I became scared, that old anxiety kicked in and I could hardly breathe.

The first thing I did after hearing, was call the temple for prayer, and then not only knelt and opened my heart in prayer for my precious baby girl, but also and most importantly thanked heavenly father that we have the temple, and are blessed with those special prayers on behalf of ourselves and our loved ones.  Immediately I had a sense of peace and though I was scared and knew she was sick and needed medical attention, I knew too that today was not her day to die and so I did my best with the help of my visiting teacher ( the women in the ward visit each other and help care for one another, each sister is assigned to another),  to maintain, stay calm and carry on.

Our lives on earth can be so hard; in a personal sense, our struggles, whatever they be, are great for each of us and sometimes they can even become almost unbearable.  Likewise, those that have passed on before us also may struggle.  If for whatever reason they missed the opportunity to accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ while here on earth they might struggle with broken hearts, anxiety and fears; having gained a great knowledge in the spirit world.  Their peace, their salvation,  is now dependent upon the choices and charity of those living on earth to do family history work and attend the temple to perform sacred saving ordinances for them.  However, like us; come what may, they must continue to carry on, they must find hope, they must press forward with steadfastness.

Beyond the doors of the sacred building we call the temple lies the hope, the strength, the peace and enlightenment of our lives.  Beyond those doors lies Heaven on earth, if we will but open them.  And in so doing we not only open them for ourselves, we open them for those that live beyond the veil.  Thus our healing and our strength come as we loose ourselves in service.

It is imperative, not only to those how have died but to us all, to attend the temple, for our lives and living them depend upon gaining peace and strength, and our salvation, depends upon the salvation of those living in the spirit world with whom we must be joined in family ties.



With Love From Dixie 
See you next week.....
©Dixie Dawn Michelle Oct 2014 all rights reserved

**Reference Material:  The Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith Chapter 17