Tag LDS

A house does not make a home.  This was told to me many years ago when I first married my sweet wife Lorell.  

A house is just a dwelling place.  Things that fill the house are just things.  They can’t give us the lasting joy that our relationship with our family and our Heavenly Father can.

When we get distracted from the things that really matter in life is when we struggle the most.

Denis Prager stated that we have a moral obligation to be happy.  

There have been many studies (here, here, here, here, here) that state that happiness is contagious.  I am drawn to happy people.  I like to be around them.  When I am happy I notice that people want to be around me.

Happiness is also something that you can “fake it until you make it.”  Find some happy people and they will spread their happiness to you.

How will you #LightTheWorld?   Jesus taught: “Forgive men their trespasses.” – St Matthew 6:14         Forgiveness is one of the most powerful Godly qualities that everyone has the power to wield. We live in an imperfect… Continue Reading →

As children of our Heavenly Father, we are social and we need each other.  This is why we are born into families and we meet together to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

A few times a year my travels require that I’m gone on Sunday and I don’t get the opportunity to worship together.  These weeks are harder than normal weeks.  There is nothing magical about meeting together to worship – it just feels right and good.

Many years ago, Miriah (our daughter) was in her early teen years.  One day she came to us and declared “I have 68 shirts in my closet!”* I was shocked that she had over two months worth of tops.  So we instituted a policy of one in – one out for the whole family.  Every time that anyone got anything new, something else had to go.  

Being merciful is just about being nice to others.  When we look around the world at the people that we interact with I know that sometimes I’m focused on ‘me’ and how I can get ahead in this life by not letting anyone take advantage of me.  I’ve sometimes too focused on Justice. I find that showing people mercy is generally easy – as long as we are willing to take the first step.  We are rewarded immediately for our efforts.

I was in a Sunday School lesson a few years back.  We were studying some of the teachings of Christ.   The Scripture in Matthew 6:21 come up for discussion.  After the discussion, I came to have a greater understanding of this scripture.   

The things that we treasure – are the things that we set our heart upon.  This scripture applies to everyone – old and young, rich and poor.  The things that we focus on are what we treasure.  

There have been times in my life that I have lost my focus and my treasure got set on things of the world.  One of the great blessings of this Christmas season is the ability to adjust our treasure.  If you feel you have too much Scrooge and Bah Humbug in you – I would encourage you to reach out to the tiny Tim in your life that needs you.

When we moved into my current home and started to attend our current church, we felt that we had moved into a very unfriendly congregation.   After a few weeks of nobody reaching out to us, we decided to make a goal to reach out to one person that we did not know each week.  This helped us greatly to get to know our congregation.

When loss happens in our lives – and it will happen – we sometimes want to just give up.  As we look to our friends and family for strength we can feel comfort through their morning.   Now is the time to reach out to someone that is going through a loss in their life.  There are people around us all right now that need our help – all we need to do is look and open our eyes.