The Family is Eternal

"The family is eternal. Love must be nurtured. It must be spoken. We must put away our pride, our haughtiness, our shyness, our misunderstandings, and with humility say, "I love you. Is there something I can do to help you?" You can never be completely happy under any other circumstances."
Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Be a Mother who is Committed...

  "Be a Mother who is committed to loving her children into standing on higher ground than the enviroment surrounding them. Mother's are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

My Sister in Haiti

I have never been to Haiti myself, but I have felt such a connection with the Haitians through my sister who has been going there for years with Healing Hands for Haiti. In light of recent catastrophic events, she was requested by Operation Smile to go with their medical team to Haiti for a couple of weeks. I found out last night that she has a blog of her and the teams' journey with the Haitian people. It is inspirational as the people there have such amazing attitudes towards all they have been through, and have such a strong relationship with God in their lives - what great testimonies and examples they are to the world. At the same time, it is heart breaking and I have been overwhelmed with emotion through the news reports, what my sister has shared, and just an overall proud feeling of what my sister is doing to offer her help --  you will need a box of tissues when you read her blog. I am so happy that she is able to go there and help these good people, I wish I could be a nurse right now to be able to help as she is, as she states that they need more nurses.
Please read her blog and share with others! Thank you!

Cathie in Haiti

Meridian Magazine :: Myth of the Month: The First and Great Promise

Meridian Magazine :: Myth of the Month: The First and Great Promise

Service to Others

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are in the service of your God."
-Mosiah 2:17

"Humanitarian Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strengthens families worldwide by providing much-needed assistance to meet basic health needs, increase economic productivity, improve clean water and sanitation, increase food production, and provide emergency response to disasters.

For each activity, people are prepared to provide for themselves long after service is rendered. This service is given without regard to race, religion, or ethnic origin."

If you didn't see the post before this one, this is where this "discussion" is stemming from:
Humanitarian Efforts
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Each of us has the opportunity to help, to reach out, to give a lending hand to not only in nations that really need ~ but to our next door neighbor who needs a friend, who needs some help with their yard or other needs, to the young woman at the grocery check-out who doesn't have enough money to pay for her groceries...

We can walk as Jesus walked as he set the example for us. We can do what we can to help those around us. We can seek out other opportunities to enhance the world, that has been given to us, in so many capacities we can all give.

Currently, our ward is doing many humanitarian projects that are going to 3rd world countries. The one that I have been helping with is painting fabric pieces, that someone else drew a picture on. Then it goes to someone else who sews fabric around it and makes it into a wall hanging. These will be going to various places for the orphanages, for the kids, who don't have any color to look at, for the kids that are going blind because there is no color in their life. It breaks my heart, but at the same time I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to put forth a good cause for these little babies and kids.

In our church, the woman have the opportunity to do Visiting Teaching & the men, Home Teaching. What a great opportunity this for a each ward family, to become friends, to learn and grow in all the areas of your life, what a great example of service to our children, or the opportunity to lift another in their grief, in a trial they may be going through - lifting a burden for someone else. Encouragement in life is a blessing, and when I have ever had visiting teachers and home teachers, they have been a blessing, they have been welcomed in, they have been a guiding light. And for my own opportunity to go do Visiting Teaching as well, blesses me both ways - being visited and visiting. It is what a caring ward family is all about. It isn't just about a duty, or a checklist to visit someone, it is about truly caring for an individual and being their friend, going the extra mile. Here is a YouTube video of what is humorous in the beginning - but in the end shows what a true Visiting Teacher is, what you can do for others.



Home teaching is where the men go to the families, see how they are doing, assess their needs, see what they can do to help and then extend some thoughts from the Ensign (an LDS magazine) , from the scriptures, or their testimony, as well as leaving a blessing (prayer) in their home. How wonderful it is to have home teachers, for the opportunity that my husband has to go home teach others as well.

He Loves Us

I am not perfect. I have weaknesses. I try and make my weaknesses become strong. I have made mistakes, some the same more than once. And it has been at those times that I have felt [even though, I know that my Heavenly Father has forgiven me], that perhaps my quota has been up on saying "I'm sorry." I know that the atonement doesn't work that way. I know that I am harder on myself than others are, and sometimes it is harder to forgive yourself than it is for our Father in Heaven to forgive us of our shortcomings.

I also think about the comparison of as a parent we know what is best for our children, and sometimes our children don't understand why they need to go to bed at a certain hour. They may resist, they may do everything they can under the sun to delay because for them, they are just not ready to go to sleep. As a parent, we love our children and we know they need sleep to be at their best emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Sometimes, our children don't know understand why we do what we do, but it is for the good. God or Heavenly Father does the same for us, His children ~ sometimes we may not understand the trials we face, but we do because He knows us better and He loves us and He knows what we need to become our best.

This quote came to me from LDS Nuggets.com today ~ to me, it relates to the above thoughts.

"Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will. We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming."

--Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, "The Great Commandment", October 2007 General Conference

1 John 4:7–8

God is Love, Hymn #87