Showing posts with label actions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label actions. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The Solution

How appropriate for Valentines week :)  I pray your hearts are touched and that love, will grow…..

This is a continuation of The Invitation, a  previously posted blog challenge.  We are now on Day 10.  Please feel free to read the other days and start at anytime! Incorporate this challenge to fit you!  Weekly, monthly, daily however it will work for you!   All material is original blog material written by Dixie. ( I just borrowed the idea ;)   Scripture suggestions are from my personal study, all thoughts and challenges are from my personal history and my future as I too continue to strive for more closeness to Christ. 

Thought for the day:  if we do not love God and neighbor, whatever else we do will be of little eternal consequence.  Every one on the earth, regardless of who they are and what their choices are, is a child of God; and God loves his children unconditionally, it’s just that simple.  But, how do we love? Do we love in return, are we generally accepting of others, regardless of their choices or circumstances?  Or do we find ourselves with resentment, anger, hatred, judgments and the like…..We profess to love God, that is true, however, the real problem lies in loving others, even our enemies.  In order to walk with Jesus, in order to be like him, we must learn to be unconditional, we must learn to love…..

Love is not just an attribute, it is a direct commandment.  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  “This is the first and great commandment.  “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40; see also Gal. 5:14).

Penny in the shoe:  as you feel the penny in your shoe today, let it help you to remember to speak, act and think as Christ, in all your dealings, at work, at home, in traffic, for all things and all the time.

Challenge for the day:  Hold your tongue, change your thoughts, stop being selfish, don’t judge, think before you act, say or do anything that does not promote postiveness, not just with our neighbors and friends but let us practice at home as well, for sometimes, it is harder at home than anywhere…..WALK in the shoes of Christ……

“Hatred is the antithesis of love and Lucifer is its chief perpetrator.  It is he, the enemy of all righteousness and the father of contention, who, “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”  Don’t let him win, let us open our hearts and love.  Early one morning in Bucharest, as I jogged through Cismigiu Park, I observed an old tree which was struggling to give new branches—to give new life. The symbol of life is to give. We give so much to family and friends and to community and Church that at times we, as the old tree, may think that life is too difficult—that constantly giving is a burden too heavy to bear. We may think that it would be easier to give up and to do only that which the natural man does. But we should not and will not quit. Why? Because we must continue to give, just like Christ and the old tree gave. As we give just a little bit, let us think of Him who gave His life that we might live.” Elder Robert F. Orton

suggested Scripture study:  ( reading-made easy, just click )   1 Jn. 4:21, 20 

Jornaling Thought:  Do I have a predetermined attitude toward certain people?   Do I have the ability to show ALL my fellow-men unconditional love?

 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13.)
“If a single man achieves the highest kind of love,” wrote Mahatma Gandhi, “it will be sufficient to neutralize the hate of millions.” (Hermann Hagedorn, Prophet in the Wilderness: The Story of Albert Schweitzer, New York: MacMillan Co., 1948, title page.)

The Solution was Love- Thomas S Monson.
One winter day as Christmas approached, I thought back to an experience from my boyhood. I was just 11. Our Primary president, Melissa, was an older and loving gray-haired lady. One day at Primary, Melissa asked me to stay behind and visit with her. There the two of us sat in the otherwise empty chapel. She placed her arm about my shoulder and began to cry. Surprised, I asked her why she was crying. She replied: “I don’t seem to be able to encourage the Trail Builder boys to be reverent during the opening exercises of Primary. Would you be willing to help me, Tommy?” I promised her I would. Strangely to me, but not to Melissa, that ended any problem of reverence in that Primary. She had gone to the source of the problem—me. The solution was love.
The years flew by. Marvelous Melissa, now in her nineties, lived in a nursing facility in the northwest part of Salt Lake City. Just before Christmas I determined to visit my beloved Primary president. Over the car radio, I heard the song “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” I reflected on the visit made by wise men those long years ago. They brought gifts of gold, of frankincense, and of myrrh. I brought only the gift of love and a desire to say “Thank you.”
I found Melissa in the lunchroom. She stared at her plate of food, teasing it with the fork she held in her aged hand. Not a bite did she eat. As I spoke to her, my words were met with a benign but blank stare. I took the fork in hand and began to feed Melissa, talking all the time I did so about her service to boys and girls as a Primary worker. There wasn’t so much as a glimmer of recognition, far less a spoken word. Two other residents of the nursing home gazed at me with puzzled expressions. At last they spoke, saying: “She doesn’t know anyone, even her own family. She hasn’t said a word in all the years she’s been here.”
Lunch ended. My one-sided conversation wound down. I stood to leave. I held her frail hand in mine, gazed into her wrinkled but beautiful countenance, and said: “God bless you, Melissa. Merry Christmas.” Without warning, she spoke the words: “I know you. You’re Tommy Monson, my Primary boy. How I love you.” She pressed my hand to her lips and bestowed on it the kiss of love. Tears coursed down her cheeks and bathed our clasped hands. Those hands, that day, were hallowed by heaven and graced by God. The herald angels did sing. Outside the sky was blue—azure blue. The air was cool—crispy cool. The snow was white—crystal white. The words of the Master seemed to have a personal meaning never before fully felt: “Woman, behold thy son!” And to His disciple, “Behold thy mother!” (John 19:26–27).

With Sincere Love,

Dixie…..

Friday, February 6, 2015

Burdens of Another

This is a continuation of The Invitation, a  previously posted blog challenge.  We are now on Day 5.  Please feel free to read the other days and start at anytime! Incorporate this challenge to fit you!  Weekly, monthly, daily however it will work for you!


 All material is original blog material written by Dixie. ( I just borrowed the idea ;)   Scripture suggestions are from my personal study, all thoughts and challenges are from my personal history and my future as I too continue to strive for more closeness to Christ.

Thought for the day:  The life of Christ was not about himself, but what he could do for others.  His ministry upon this earth was about healing, teaching, compassion, and finally in the end, taking upon himself the burdens of all; that all might be saved if only all would believe in him.  Yet, to believe in him, to truly have faith, requires that we become like him, in all aspects.  That we learn to walk as he walks.  Today let us in our activities, in our lives, in our busyness, put off the natural man for a moment and walk as Christ walks; even let us bear up one another’s burdens.

When we were baptized we entered into a covenant with God. We promised to take upon ourself the name of Jesus Christ, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end.  We promised that we would not only serve in certain ways that we think of when thinking of service; but that we would promise to be “willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light” and “willing to mourn with those that mourn … and comfort those that stand in need of comfort”.

Penny in the shoe:  today, every time you feel the penny in your shoe, think to soften your heart, look at others as you want Christ to look at you….

challenge for the day:  as you soften your heart, open yourself up to be able to help another bear their burdens.  Prayerfully consider someone you might help.  It might not be something big or tragic, that is needed, it may only be a smile and few kinds words, or a dinner preparation, a ride to the store or doctor, a visit to lonely elderly in a nursing home, just anything.  But find a way you can ease the burden of someone else.  However, be not weary in doing so…..

suggested Scripture Reading.  (reading made easy just click a link :)  Galatians 6   Galatians 5:13–14  Mosiah 18:8

Journaling Thought:  How can I emulate His love to those around me?

Try to See World from Others’ Perspective

Contributed By Church News
  • 18 October 2013
Ashley England and her family went to dinner at a pizzeria in China Grove, North Carolina, this September and received what the local television station, WBTV, called an “unexpected” note from a fellow patron.
Mrs. England’s eight-year-old son, Riley, “is non-verbal and has been through three major brain surgeries for a severe form of epilepsy,” according to WBTV. During dinner the boy began to get “a little rowdy.”
“He threw the phone and started screaming,” Mrs. England told WBTV. “The past few weeks have been very hard and trying for us—especially with public outings. Riley was getting loud and hitting the table, and I know it was aggravating to some people.”
Then, just as the family was ready to pack up and leave, a waitress appeared.
“‘I’ll try to do this without crying,’ the waitress told the family. ‘But another customer has paid for your bill tonight and wanted me to give you this note.’
“The note read: ‘God only gives special children to special people.’”
In the weeks following the report, a photograph of the note went viral.
That message, articulated in just one sentence to a frustrated family, has relevance for all of us. It demonstrates compassion and understanding—offered at a time when a family needed both.
“We hear what people say, we see what they do, but being unable to discern what they think or intend, we often judge wrongfully if we try to fathom the meaning and motives behind their actions and place on them our own interpretation,” said President Spencer W. Kimball (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 95).
The England family doesn’t know who paid for their meal or left them the note. Maybe it was someone who has also raised a special-needs child or who loves a special-needs child. Maybe it was someone who has been embarrassed by a child in public. Or maybe it was someone who simply took the time to imagine what it would have been like to occupy a chair at the Englands’ table.
In the final pages of the classic novel by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, the narrator, a little girl nicknamed Scout, finds herself on the front porch of her neighbor Boo Radley’s home. As she turns to leave, she discovers she has never seen her neighborhood from this angle before. It looks different. Just seeing the world as Boo sees it helps her understand Boo a little better.
She realizes her father—who urged his children to try to see life from another person’s perspective before making judgments—was right.
“One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them,” Scout said in the novel. “Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”
Having learned the important lessons of compassion and understanding, Scout concludes there is really nothing else for her to learn—except algebra.
The advice, from a fictional attorney living in the height of the Depression in Maycomb, Alabama, is just as relevant in our own wards, stakes, neighborhoods, and communities; we face problems we would understand better if we saw the world around us from our neighbors’ front porches—or from their tables at the local pizzeria.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said that in our associations we should build and strengthen one another.
“It is a responsibility divinely laid upon us to bear one another’s burdens, to strengthen one another, to encourage one another, to lift one another, to look for the good in one another, and to emphasize that good,” he said (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 45).
President Thomas S. Monson has asked Latter-day Saints to show increased kindness toward one another.
“We have no way of knowing when our privilege to extend a helping hand will unfold before us,” he said during his April 2001 general conference address. “The road to Jericho each of us travels bears no name, and the weary traveler who needs our help may be one unknown.”
That’s the impact a stranger had on the England family, who told a reporter that having one person care about their needs overshadowed the rude and negative comments they often hear.
“To have someone do that small act towards us shows that some people absolutely understand what we are going through and how hard it is to face the public sometimes,” Mrs. England told WBTV.
“They made me cry, blessed me more than they know. … Little did he know what struggles we had been facing lately, and this was surely needed at that moment.”
We could all follow the stranger’s example and take time to imagine what it would be like to sit at another person’s table.
President Monson has extended to each of us the same invitation:
“May we ever be mindful of the needs of those around us and be ready to extend a helping hand and a loving heart” (“Until We Meet Again,” Ensign, Nov. 2008, 107).

This will be a great day!  We will grow!

Love From Dixie!