thoughtful thursday: my country

thoughtful thursday: make these days memorable

i love this quote!

Do not let us speak of darker days;
Let us speak rather of sterner days.
These are not dark days; there are great days--
The greatest days our country has ever lived;
And we must all thank God that we have been allowed...
To play a part in making these days memorable
In the history of our race.
--Winston Churchill

thoughtful thursday: be patient, dream and pray

"Too often we pray to have patience but we want it right now."
"Sincere prayer is answered sometime, somewhere."
"He that watches over us shall neither slumber nor sleep."
Elder Hales,

"God expects you to have enough faith
and determination
and enough trust in Him to keep moving,
keep living,
keep rejoicing.
In fact,
He expects you not simply to face the future...
He expects you to embrace and shape the future—
to love it
and rejoice in it
and delight in your opportunities.

God is anxiously waiting
for the chance to answer your prayers
and fulfill your dreams,
just as He always has.
But He can't if you don't pray,
and He can't if you don't dream.
In short,
He can't if you don't believe."

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"Terror, Triumph, and a Wedding Feast", CES Fireside, Sept. 2004

thoughtful thursday: 10 gentle reminders

via inspirationlane.tumblr.com

thoughtful thursday: imperfection

“No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, no leaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its symmetry. All admit irregularity as they imply change; and to banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality. All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be Effort, and the law of human judgment, Mercy.”
-John Ruskin

via

thoughtful thursday: ambition

a friend shared this on fb and i just keep thinking about how true this is.

via

thoughtful thursday: the attraction of earth

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it;
Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

thoughtful thursday: take heart

Amen. Last year was a really difficult year. This year already looks promising.

via

11th day of christmas

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away.
Eva Logue

8th day of christmas

Fail not to call to mind, 

in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the 

Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; 

for mirth is also of Heaven's making. 

~Leigh Hunt

Christmas was always fun at our house. I liked being the Christmas elf and pulling out all the decorations and putting them up. I felt like I made our house look as though it were a set for a Christmas movie with garland everywhere, stockings, two trees and lots of yummy food.

My brother Chris and I started the tradition of baking Christmas cookies together. We would read the cookie cookbook and come up with our list of ten or so types of cookies we wanted to try. We would then carefully make our shopping list. Chris would think long and hard about which jam, apricot, strawberry or raspberry, for his favorite shortbread cookies with jam--he took these cookies very seriously and would always make them. I enjoyed baking cookies with Chris.

On Christmas Eve Dad would lean his recliner back, prop his scriptures up on his tummy, move his glasses down his nose and read the Christmas scriptures from Luke in the Bible, and 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. He would then read the Boyer family story of Old Christmas and how at midnight on 6 January his family would go out to the barn because legend had it that the animals would speak again as they did originally to welcome the Christ Child. Upon returning to the house there would be treats and presents for the family.

I spent Christmas with my brother R2 and his family. As we were getting ready to read the Christmas stories my brother disappeared into the bedroom for a few minutes. When he came out, he was wearing a pair of old overalls with a pillow stuffed down them. He walked over to the recliner, leaned it back, propped his scriptures up on the pillow, and pushed the glasses down his nose. Once I stopped laughing so hard, he read the familiar Christmas stories to his family and I. He later said that he did all this so I would feel at home.

So, what is Christmas without a little mirth and enjoyment? Without decorations and yummy treats? Without fun and love? These things all combine to make traditions we remember and cherish.

7th day of christmas

So if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some quiet morning, the touch will take. ~Harry Reasoner

I remember a Christmas Eve in Chile where I served as a missionary. My companion and I were just a few blocks away from the house where we lived. The streets were chaotic. Traffic was backed up and people were honking and shouting angrily at each other. 

Suddenly two men burst from a service garage in the midst of an argument and one was swinging a four foot iron bar at the other. He was so angry he wasn't thinking about the fact that he was doing could possibly kill the other person.

We jumped back to avoid them, and then continued up the street. We watched as woman, barefoot and pregnant, was chased out of her house by a man, presumably her husband, with a broken bottle. Thankfully, she was able to get into a neighbor's home.

As we continued up the street, it felt as though my companion and I were in a bubble of heavenly protection. It was such a distinct feeling that I will never forget it.

Once we reached home, I remember praying that somehow the Christmas spirit would enter into the hearts of those people we had just encountered. I think of that night often, and remember the stark contrast between the Christmas spirit and the spirit of contention and hatred that those people were acting on.

I still pray that somehow the spirit of Christmas--the spirit of Christ--will enter and soften their hearts. Who knows maybe someday they will choose it.

5th day of christmas

I am the Christmas Spirit—

I enter the home of poverty, causing palefaced children to open their eyes wide, in pleased wonder.

I cause the miser’s clutched hand to relax and thus paint a bright spot on his soul.

I cause the aged to renew their youth and to laugh in the old glad way.

I keep romance alive in the heart of childhood, and brighten sleep with dreams woven of magic.

I cause eager feet to climb dark stairways with filled baskets, leaving behind hearts amazed at the goodness of the world.

I cause the prodigal to pause a moment on his wild, wasteful way and send to anxious love some little token that releases glad tears—tears which wash away the hard lines of sorrow.

I enter dark prison cells, reminding scarred manhood of what might have been and pointing forward to good days yet to be.

I come softly into the still, white home of pain, and lips that are too weak to speak just tremble in silent, eloquent gratitude.

In a thousand ways, I cause the weary world to look up into the face of God, and for a little moment forget the things that are small and wretched.

-I am the Christmas Spirit.  ~E.C. Baird

Thank heavens for the Christmas spirit. It truly does exist and changes despair and sorrow into hope and joy.

Here's a post from last year that talks about why I love the Christmas spirit.

The Hilltop Star in Paradise, Utah by Lisa Clawson. She sent this photo to me on Instagram and I love it. It brings back so many memories.

4th day of christmas

I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely. ~Charles Dickens

So, yesterday I was in a mood... a very bad mood. Yet here I was hanging up thirty feet of pine garland with lights outside yesterday, decorating a wreath for our front door, and finishing putting ornaments and icicles on the Christmas tree. And all while in a very mood.

My mood didn't even change when I listened to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. I knew that listening to God's word and Christmas carols was what I needed, but I didn't feel the effects immediately. I sat and listened to Pres. Monson's sermon on serving, and Josiah (the dog) sat next to me begging for attention which I was happy to give him. There was a glimmer of change somewhere in my heart.

Then I had some errands to run and knew they involved going to a box store that begins with the letter T, which I absolutely do not like this time of year, and making some phone calls which I had been putting off for a while now. But I asked my roommate if she needed anything and she did, so off I went with a list in hand and bad attitude in tow. I did my errands and picked up what she needed. I survived the despicable store that begins with a T, stopped at my favorite restaurant on the way home to get food and arrived home with the beginnings of a better mood in sight.

This morning I woke up with a much different heart in place. I am thankful that my prayers were answered and that I felt differently. I'm grateful I know God lives, that I can ask him for help and choose to receive it. I'm thankful I can be in a bad mood and have the space I need to make it better and get over it. I'm thankful that my heart can be changed by the Christmas spirit.

3rd day of christmas

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

All my siblings and I served served as missionaries for our church, which meant that there were lots of Christmases where we were separated as a family. My brothers R1 and R2, and I were all on missions at the same time. At the time, I think there were three Christmases where we were had missionaries away from home.

I remember the first Christmas we were altogether again. My two youngest brothers were pretty excited to have us all home, as was my sister. I was excited to have our whole family together that year. I don't remember specifics, but I do remember feeling that it would be one of the last times that our family would be together like that. I was very aware that our family was getting older and the dynamics would be changing soon with marriages and new families being started. Before too long, my brother R1 was married and our family started growing and changing.

We've had some really good Christmases since then, and some truly awful ones. As I look back, I'm very grateful for all the different times we shared together. The ways in which we grew up and had fun together, and learned to love each other.  

2nd day of christmas

The magi, as you know, were wise men - wonderfully wise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. ~O. Henry

One year my mom wanted new furniture for our newly painted living room. After weeks of shopping she finally made her decisions and told my dad what she wanted. Dad had the shopping list and went over to the local furniture store after work. He came home and told my mom the bad news. Someone else had bought the living room set she wanted. It would be months before the same set would be available. I remember my mom was very disappointed.

Christmas morning arrived and on the tree were white envelopes addressed to my mom. She opened them to find receipts from the furniture store for all the furniture she had chosen plus a few more pieces. Dad was a little sneaky that year...

1st day of christmas

A Christmas quote:
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you ... to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world ... stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death... Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone. ~Henry van Dyke

A Christmas memory:
I remember my Great Grandpa Weeks at the last family Christmas party he attended. He was in a wheelchair, but so thrilled to have so many of his family gathered around him. It was tradition for him to tell the story of his Christmas trumpet.

He decided to wait up for Santa Claus, and sat in the kitchen with his feet on the warm oven door of the old cook stove. He must have been warm and comfortable because he fell asleep. He was awakened by a horn tooting, "Rootootootootoooooo!" And a loud jolly voice called, "Are all the children in the house in bed and asleep?"

Great Grandpa said he never moved so fast. He ran up to bed, jumped under the covers and fell asleep listening as Santa put out the gifts.  The next morning there was a trumpet with his name on it placed on the Christmas tree. 

Now everyone in my family has a little trumpet ornament with a red cord. It helps me to remember Great Grandpa and the time we spent together when I was little. It is one of my favorite Christmas memories.

thoughtful thursday: one without

the most wasted of days is one without laughter.

e.e. cummings

thoughtful thursday: as bright as your faith

i was reminded of this sermon by pres. thomas s. monson this week, and keep coming back to it. i hope you will feel cheered by the brightness of faith.

thoughtful thursday: a psalm

My Great-Aunt Marian passed away recently at the age of 94. She lived a full and lovely life, so her funeral was such a celebration of her life and the knowledge the gospel gives us that we will see our loved ones again. Aunt Marian was a gifted writer and wrote a lovely psalm that was printed on the funeral program, and I wanted to share it here. She was truly a great example of a Christ-like life and love. I want to be more like her.

A Psalm - By Marian W. Bischoff

Let my soul praise Thee, Oh Lord! I rejoice in Thy presence
In the rosy glow of the evening, the glorious promise of the morning,
And the sweet fulfillment of the day.

I praise Thee for the simple pleasures of my life;
The privilege of daily labor that is my joy;
I delight in the laughter and out stretched arms of a toddler's greeting;
The happy return from school and reciting of the day;
An hour in church to hear a grandchild's testimony;
And the surge of witness bearing tears in recognition of the a truth.

I treasure the sweet solace of a heartfelt prayer, 
With answers quick or patience for a wait.
To serve for precious hours in Thy house
Brings comfort to the aching heart and quiet to my soul.

I praise Thee for companionship; a good and honest husband,
A family large, and friends true, 
To comfort and sustain me as I journey and grow.

Oh, Lord, I glorify Thy name in all my days' familiar things; 
And bless Thee for the calm renewal of the night.

thoughtful thursday: zion

This talk is awesome. I highly recommend clicking the link below to read it.

In these last days, in this our dispensation, we would become mature enough to stop running. We would become mature enough to plant our feet and our families and our foundations in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people permanently.Zion would be everywhere—wherever the Church is. And with that change—one of the mighty changes of the last days—we no longer think of Zion as where we are going to live; we think of it as how we are going to live. ~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, CES Devotional, 2012.