-Prayer-

“Sometimes you may struggle with a problem and not get an answer. What could be wrong? It may be that you are not doing anything wrong. It may be that you have not done the right things long enough. Remember, you cannot force spiritual things. Sometimes we are confused simply because we won’t take no for an answer.” 

Boyd K. Packer

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

“When things go wrong in our lives, it is easy to lose a sense of perspective. We forget our divine inheritance, when we should remember that we came from heavenly parents who love us. We are impatient for instant solutions, when often it is the passage of time that will allow things to work out. We ignore or down play our strengths and abilities, just at the time we should be recognizing and applying them.”

-David S. Baxter

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

“Our motives and thoughts ultimately influence our actions. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the power of good thoughts and proper motives: ‘Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not’ (D&C 6:36).

“In Proverbs we read, ‘For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he’ (Proverbs 23:7).”

  -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

“What If … ?”

If a mouse would ride to church
In your pocket on this day,
What might he tell his family
That he heard you do or say?
Would he tell them you were reverent,
And you listened to your teacher?
Or would he say he’d never seen
Such a noisy creature?
Would he tell them how he loved the songs
You sang so sweet and clear?
Or would he groan from all the talking
That entered in his ear?
Could he take a little snooze
As you walked nice and tall?
Or would he scream with panic
As you galloped down the hall?
Would the little mouse get seasick
From the tipping of your chair?
Or would he feel safe and cozy
As you quietly sat there?
Would the chapel be a reverent place?
The sacrament the same?
Now tell me, would the little mouse
Be really glad he came?
If a mouse would ride to church
In your pocket on this day,
What might he tell his family
That he heard you do or say?

-by DaLee C. James, Friend, Sep 1996, 22

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This was Alex’s favorite poem to give in Primary when he was little.

Today is Alex’s birthday! Happy Birthday Flexy!! I love you!

And I hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

When things go wrong in our lives, it is easy to lose all sense of perspective. We forget our divine inheritance, when we should remember that we come from heavenly parents who love us. We are impatient for instant solutions. When often it is the passage of time that will allow things to work out. We ignore or down play our strengths and abilities, just at the time we should be recognizing and applying them.  -David S. Baxter

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

C. S. Lewis spoke of a dilemma faced by someone

who must choose whether to accept or reject the Savior’s divinity–where there is likewise no middle ground:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. …You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. …But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

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A grateful heart…comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”  -Thomas S. Monson

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I started a gratitude journal. I have been having so much fun thinking about the multiple blessings that Father in Heaven has given me. Some things in my journal are big, like God, Himself, and His Son, Jesus. Others are smaller, like the fact that I can walk to church. Or that I have food in my fridge. It is powerful to be thankful, and aware of all that God has given us. There’s always something, many things. I will “receive all things with thankfulness”, thanking Heavenly Father for all blessings given.

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

“I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.”         -Henry B. Eyring

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness” -Marion G. Romney (Ensign, May 1980, p. 67).

We have this quote on the fridge. I have always counted on this promise, to bring peace into our home, it has. I have been told by many guests to our home of the spirit they feel in our home. It’s not always perfectly clean and spotless, but we have a love for each other. We have a love for the Book of Mormon, it is true. We have a love of God. If you have never read this book, read it. You will not regret it.

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy