Thoughts from ME

Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs The seven dwarfs always left to go work in the mine early each morning. As always, Snow White stayed home doing her domestic chores. As lunchtime approached, she would prepare their lunch and carry it to the mine. One day as she arrived at the mine with the lunch, she saw that there had been a terrible cave-in. Tearfully, and fearing the worst, Snow White began calling out, hoping against hope that the dwarfs had somehow survived. 'Hello!...Hello!' she shouted. 'Can anyone hear me? Hello!' For a long while, there was no answer.Losing hope, Snow White again shouted, 'Hello! Is anyone down there?' Just as she was about to give up all hope, she heard a faint voice from deep within the mine, singing . . ... 'Vote for Barack Obama! - Vote for Barack Obama!' Snow White fell to her knees herself and prayed, 'Oh, thank you, God! At least Dopey is still alive.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed by Dr. Bob Moorehead I am part of the "Fellowship of the Unashamed." The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, ne...

When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence. When He answers no, it is to prevent error. When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. We are expected to assume accountability by acting on a decision that is consistent with His teachings without prior confirmation. We are not to sit passively waiting or to murmur because the Lord has not spoken. We are to act. Too often I am upset because I wrongfully think that God has not answered my prayers. I realized with this talk how important it is to stop and think if He really did answer them. While struggling to decide my major, and then struggling to decide what college to attend (whether I should transfer somewhere close to home) I was distraught because I prayed, and I prayed often. While reading this talk I paused. I took a moment to look back and realized God had answered my prayers, but He had given me time first to decide. This is where I...

"President Kimball taught me an unforgettable lesson. He pulled my coattail and said, "It has always troubled me what the adversary does using the name of our Savior." He then said, "Robert, the adversary can never have joy unless you and I sin." ... Although the devil laughs, his power is limited. Some may remember the old adage: "The devil made me do it." Today I want to convey, in absolutely certain terms, that the adversary cannot make us do anything. He does lie at our door, as the scriptures say, and he follows us each day. Every time we go out, every decision we make, we are either choosing to move in his direction or in the direction of our Savior. " Hales "Live your life in such a way that when you wake, satan mutters, "No! She's up!" anon

Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God, . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire" (quoted in Improvement Era, Mar. 1966, 211). From my journal for Rel class 9-11: While reading the talk Healing of Body and Spirit, when Hales says, “Just as times of Joy and Happiness come to each of us, so also comes pain to every mortal.” I am reminded of the thought of how can we know happiness if there is no sadness? How can we know joy when there is no sorrow? How will I really appreciate the receiving of my BA if...

I love the words Holland speaks here about Jesus and his love versus our trials: When we stagger or stumble, He is there to steady and strengthen us. In the end He is there to save us, and for all this He gave His life. However dim our days may seem, they have been a lot darker for the Savior of the world . As a reminder of those days, Jesus has chosen, even in a resurrected, otherwise perfected body, to retain for the benefit of His disciples the wounds in His hands and in His feet and in His side—signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect; signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn’t love you; signs, if you will, that problems pass and happiness can be ours . Remind others that it is the wounded Christ who is the Captain of our souls, He who yet bears the scars of our forgiveness, the lesions of His love and humility, the torn flesh of obedience and sacrifice. "...and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:3,...

I love Christ. Just reading this makes my heart heavy with sorrow but my soul light with gratitude. Only Christ could perform what was necessary for all to be saved. He was the perfect Son and yet...he was afraid. Christ truly knows all feelings. My gratitude for his show of love for me is so great that I am sad. Often I find myself missing Home. By Home I do not mean my earthly home in Richmond UT but my heavenly, eternal home where God and Jesus and my dear Heavenly Mother reside. I long for the day of reckonging with an enormous desire that I can stand before all of them with a high head and clean hands...How heart breaking it would be to me to have to dip my head in shame knowing I had not lived in accordance with the gospel's teachings. Though the image is not clear, I imagine a decimal of the pain and sadness they will feel if I cannot fulfill my ordinances and wish to return to them clean and pure and READY to live eternally with them. I have never thought before that in o...

Holland says about the sermon on the mount "...six pages that would take six and a half years tot each properly..." Does this mean every page of scripture would take a year to fully comprehend and understand? Or does it only refer to certain passages?

For my teachings of the living prophets class, I ran across a wonderful passage from Elder Holland about children: Nephi-like, might we ask ourselves what our children know? From us? Personally? Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to a...

Here in the Burg, the wind is blowing per regular course. The campus looks the same except the construction...they have construction everywhere. I suppose it would be a steady occupation. I will be getting my books today...hopefully. I changed around my schedule a bit and there may be some set backs. I am glad to be taking Russian once more. I dropped two classes and now am only taking 16 credits. I suppose I could take another class...well, anyway I dropped my vocal group class and intro to logic in order to A) take Russian and B) lighten my load after adding Russian 102. At the end of September, preferably before the deadline, I will be applying to transfer to USU. I'm not sue if they have Russian but I am willing to bet they do...Well I hope they do in any case. I would love to be fluent in Russian. You know how people always say that you would ever use a language other than Spanish, like French. I'll probably use Russian even less.