Everyone wants to talk about Global Warming... is it real? is it man-made? While a pretty divisive topic, most agree that the world goes through long-term trends up or down.
Unfortunately, few see another long-term trend that might be even more traumatic for those struggling through mortality... Global Darkening. This is where the overall level of morality diminishes and less people find the light.
In the case of Global Darkening, it has been happening for a very long time, but so gradual and subtle is the change that only when we look back over long periods (decades) are we shocked by just how far the world has slipped away from God's standards.
Have you ever noticed how our eyes adjust to being in darkness? Sadly, our souls also adjust. We start to accept things we would never have tolerated years earlier. We get worn down by the "new norm" and other ways of justifying the obvious departure from the safety of God's standards.
The only way to fight Global Darkening is to not only make sure we are firmly connected to the source of light (through our personal righteousness, being in-tune with the spirit), but we must:
1) Let our light so shine...(no hiding under the bush), and
2) Help others illuminate their lives (by sharing what we know and being good examples)
St. Francis of Assisi once stated:
"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle"
We fight the growing tide of a darkening world one candle at a time... ours, our family, our friends, our neighbors. Let's commit to doing those things that will magnify our own light.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Our Trials Are Our Stepping Stones...
Although things may be difficult, I know that the trials we face are given to us in order to strengthen us in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. In order to grow, we have to face adversity.
One of my favorite conference talks was given by President Thomas S. Monson, the prophet and president of our Church, and is titled “I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee“. In his talk, President Monson discusses the importance and necessity of trials throughout our earthly life. He says, “Our Heavenly Father, who gives us so much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass. We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits. However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were—better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before.”
Later on in this talk, President Monson goes on to say that as we go through these trials, our goal should not be to simply “get through it”. We view our trials not as punishment, but as a way to become more spiritually refined and as something that will help us progress towards our goal of eternal life.
One of my favorite conference talks was given by President Thomas S. Monson, the prophet and president of our Church, and is titled “I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee“. In his talk, President Monson discusses the importance and necessity of trials throughout our earthly life. He says, “Our Heavenly Father, who gives us so much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass. We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits. However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were—better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before.”
Later on in this talk, President Monson goes on to say that as we go through these trials, our goal should not be to simply “get through it”. We view our trials not as punishment, but as a way to become more spiritually refined and as something that will help us progress towards our goal of eternal life.
Douglas Malloch wrote a poem about trials, titled “Good Timber”, which has provided much solace to me as I have gone through difficult times in my life. A section of the poem reads:
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The further sky, the greater length.
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
As you experience difficult trials, it may be hard to see a reason for your struggles. It is important, however, to view these trials as opportunities to strengthen your testimony, grow closer to the Lord, and progress towards eternal life.
Our Heavenly Father knows the depths of our trials, our pains, and our sufferings, and He alone offers us eternal peace in times of adversity. We can look to Him for comfort, peace, and guidance. I know that He loves us, and He wants us to grow and develop into better people, and I testify that that as long as live righteously and strive to keep the commandments, our trials can serve as stepping stones towards growth and an outpouring of blessings.
(Reposted from youngandmormon.com)
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Living the commandments makes us free
There are some people who insist that "having to obey" the commandments, or any set of rules, is limiting and enslaves us. This just is not so.
Quite frankly it is the exact opposite. Let me illustrate. Years ago we lived in the Chicago suburbs where there is a very heavily trafficked thoroughfare called Milwaukee Avenue. This main artery of traffic cuts north by northwest through suburban Chicagoland and carries tens of thousands of cars daily.
There's a joke in Chicago that there are only two seasons: Winter and Road Construction Season. That's because the roads take a terrible toll during the harsh winters and need a lot of repair. One spring they decided to resurface Milwaukee Avenue. Because of the excessive amount of commuters that use it, they tried to work feverishly late at night in order to have it ready for rush hour.
Unfortunately, they got everything done except putting the lines back on the road that marked which lane you were in and where the dividing line between the two directions of traffic fell.
The result was a historic mess. Frozen by uncertainty and fear, traffic moved slowly if at all and backed up for miles and miles. Finally after another night or two of feverish work, the lines were restored. Once back to normal, traffic moved at its regular pace.
Why does having boundaries help us to move more freely? It's because of the confidence they give us.
God loves us so much and He gives us commandments to protect us that we may be free to live our lives and travel the way we need to in mortality. Quite the contrary to conventional thinking about the "restrictions" that come with living our faith and keeping the commandments, we don't "have to obey" anything. God gave us our agency and we are free to choose.
But by providing the boundaries and guidelines through the commandments, if we choose to live by them, we can operate with confidence and our progress picks up speed. We are actually more free than if we fell prey to the many enslavements that fall on the other side of those boundaries and guidelines.
Our loving Father in Heaven gave us freedom and He wants us to live free unencumbered by the pitfalls of life. In order for us to know best how to live free, he provided the commandments as a great gift of guidance. May we all learn to accept and enjoy this gift and the accompanying freedom it provides.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
The Lord is mindful of our needs, not our wants...
I tend to expect the Lord to work in big ways.
And He does. But a majority of the time I don’t recognize it.Being fresh college graduates, my husband and I have been in dream mode. We are looking for the perfect house, the perfect job, the perfect car, etc. And we dream about them. Literally. Almost every night.
Recently a house just a couple blocks from us was put on the market. We went and looked at it a couple weeks ago and sure enough, it's the perfect house. Garrett and I both came across the perfect jobs that happened to be hiring and applied for them. The thing about everything being perfect is that makes everything a long-shot, and yet it raises our hopes to potentially heart-breakable levels.
Sunday night we decided that we would fast the next day. We supplicated with the Lord to make all our dreams come true. We reasoned with Him too, just to make sure He knew that with great jobs and a home we could raise a family, and really it is the best thing for everybody, and that even though we are not in a particularly great position to be buying a home at this time, if He would just help us out a little bit we can make it work.
We started our fast Sunday night. Monday morning I was the hungriest I have ever been in the morning. I ended up calling in sick to work. Which left me in a house full of food and water taunting me. Around 10am I received a text from the Realtor: “Good morning Garrett & Brittany. Please call me at your earliest convenience. I have two other offers on your cute little house on Westminster. We should get together and draft your offer ASAP…”
My heart sunk. The tears rolled in. This house had been on the market for 7 months, with no offers. Now there were 2 in the same day! All I could think about was acting fast. We need to call our lender, find our tax forms, send in all of our information for a loan…
We ended up meeting with the Realtor at lunch the next day to talk and write up our offer. The meeting was supposed to take a half hour, but it took two. We had a lot of questions, the realtor had even more. We left planning on getting everything in order that night so we could write up an offer the next day. Something happened though. In the stress and the rush to get things done so that we can get our dream house both Garrett and I felt oddly calm when we got in the car after that two hour meeting. But not calm because we knew our dream on this house would come true. Calm because we knew it wouldn't come true. But that that was okay. We decided to pass on the house. And that was okay too.
It wasn't until the next day that I realized the Lord's hand had played a role. We might never know why things played out the way they did. But we know that it played out the way it was supposed to. That house, our dream house, was not for us. Not right now.
We learned a whole lot in the process, about finances and house buying (we had no idea how much there was to it). And when we are in a better spot to buy our dream house, because there will most definitely be more dream houses, we will be ready.
I am so thankful that we had fasted the day before, that we were worthy to have the guidance of the holy spirit in our lives and that we were able to walk away from something that I thought was perfect for us and our future family and find comfort in knowing that the Lord has something better in store for us.
Oh, and the job I applied for? They just offered me the job yesterday. We are still waiting to hear about Garrett's dream job, but we know that whatever happens will be for the best, the Lord is watching out for us.
- submitted by Brittany and Garrett Sherwood
And He does. But a majority of the time I don’t recognize it.Being fresh college graduates, my husband and I have been in dream mode. We are looking for the perfect house, the perfect job, the perfect car, etc. And we dream about them. Literally. Almost every night.
Recently a house just a couple blocks from us was put on the market. We went and looked at it a couple weeks ago and sure enough, it's the perfect house. Garrett and I both came across the perfect jobs that happened to be hiring and applied for them. The thing about everything being perfect is that makes everything a long-shot, and yet it raises our hopes to potentially heart-breakable levels.
Sunday night we decided that we would fast the next day. We supplicated with the Lord to make all our dreams come true. We reasoned with Him too, just to make sure He knew that with great jobs and a home we could raise a family, and really it is the best thing for everybody, and that even though we are not in a particularly great position to be buying a home at this time, if He would just help us out a little bit we can make it work.
We started our fast Sunday night. Monday morning I was the hungriest I have ever been in the morning. I ended up calling in sick to work. Which left me in a house full of food and water taunting me. Around 10am I received a text from the Realtor: “Good morning Garrett & Brittany. Please call me at your earliest convenience. I have two other offers on your cute little house on Westminster. We should get together and draft your offer ASAP…”
My heart sunk. The tears rolled in. This house had been on the market for 7 months, with no offers. Now there were 2 in the same day! All I could think about was acting fast. We need to call our lender, find our tax forms, send in all of our information for a loan…
We ended up meeting with the Realtor at lunch the next day to talk and write up our offer. The meeting was supposed to take a half hour, but it took two. We had a lot of questions, the realtor had even more. We left planning on getting everything in order that night so we could write up an offer the next day. Something happened though. In the stress and the rush to get things done so that we can get our dream house both Garrett and I felt oddly calm when we got in the car after that two hour meeting. But not calm because we knew our dream on this house would come true. Calm because we knew it wouldn't come true. But that that was okay. We decided to pass on the house. And that was okay too.
It wasn't until the next day that I realized the Lord's hand had played a role. We might never know why things played out the way they did. But we know that it played out the way it was supposed to. That house, our dream house, was not for us. Not right now.
We learned a whole lot in the process, about finances and house buying (we had no idea how much there was to it). And when we are in a better spot to buy our dream house, because there will most definitely be more dream houses, we will be ready.
I am so thankful that we had fasted the day before, that we were worthy to have the guidance of the holy spirit in our lives and that we were able to walk away from something that I thought was perfect for us and our future family and find comfort in knowing that the Lord has something better in store for us.
Oh, and the job I applied for? They just offered me the job yesterday. We are still waiting to hear about Garrett's dream job, but we know that whatever happens will be for the best, the Lord is watching out for us.
- submitted by Brittany and Garrett Sherwood
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
What the Creation teaches us about priorities...
I love the story of the Creation. It is wonderful and majestic. But it also models for us how we prioritize our lives.
In the beginning, God said let there be light. Light had to come first. It represents the spirit illuminating our way in life. It's there to remind us that having light in our lives is essential to all blessings. When it comes to our busy lives, we have to make time for "light building"... the development of our spirit, increasing our sensitivity to God's spirit. This is where the guidance will come and without it we flounder in mortality.
What happens next? God prepared the world for its inhabitants... His children. He made sure the basic structure was there... a world full of supplies, flush with foliage and plant life, brimming with animal life. All the things we need to sustain life.... the basics. For us, this may mean that when it comes to priorities, we need to assure that we have provided the basics for ourselves and our families, that we focus on needs before wants.
Finally, God created man and woman in his own image. He commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth. Their collective charge was to go and do, to become all He knew we could become. To fill the measure of our creation. This level of fulfillment is our ultimate goal, but without the Light of the Spirit, and without the Basics, no fulfillment, no reaching to new heights could be possible.
In the patterns of the Creation, we learn where we should set our priorities... Light, Basic Needs, then reaching our True Potential. If we neglect this pattern we risk losing the direction or power needed to be all that we can be.
In the beginning, God said let there be light. Light had to come first. It represents the spirit illuminating our way in life. It's there to remind us that having light in our lives is essential to all blessings. When it comes to our busy lives, we have to make time for "light building"... the development of our spirit, increasing our sensitivity to God's spirit. This is where the guidance will come and without it we flounder in mortality.
What happens next? God prepared the world for its inhabitants... His children. He made sure the basic structure was there... a world full of supplies, flush with foliage and plant life, brimming with animal life. All the things we need to sustain life.... the basics. For us, this may mean that when it comes to priorities, we need to assure that we have provided the basics for ourselves and our families, that we focus on needs before wants.
Finally, God created man and woman in his own image. He commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth. Their collective charge was to go and do, to become all He knew we could become. To fill the measure of our creation. This level of fulfillment is our ultimate goal, but without the Light of the Spirit, and without the Basics, no fulfillment, no reaching to new heights could be possible.
In the patterns of the Creation, we learn where we should set our priorities... Light, Basic Needs, then reaching our True Potential. If we neglect this pattern we risk losing the direction or power needed to be all that we can be.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
God loves us... individually
Three months ago I had cancer surgery, and although I felt very confident that all would go well and there were lots of great folks praying for me, come the day of the surgery I let fear creep in.
That's when I was given a spiritual gift from my Father in Heaven. For simplicity sake, let's call it a spiritual manifestation. From that point on I didn't think all would be well... I KNEW it would be OK.
This reminder tells me that not only does our Father in Heaven love all of his children... He also loves EACH of his children. The difference between those two statements can not be understated.
There's never a time in our life when we doubt God's love for all of his children... of course He does. But there are times in our lives when we wonder about His attention to us individually. Sometimes we just feel distant from God, sometimes even unworthy of such love. The experience I just had tells me such feelings are never warranted. It even feels a little blasphemous to suggest that God would ignore or care less about one child than another.
Reassured that God loves me personally and that He knows me personally and cares about what is important to me, I can face all trials and challenges with renewed confidence. I want to let you know that He loves and cares for you the same way, and I hope that gives you a little peace today.
- Jim
That's when I was given a spiritual gift from my Father in Heaven. For simplicity sake, let's call it a spiritual manifestation. From that point on I didn't think all would be well... I KNEW it would be OK.
This reminder tells me that not only does our Father in Heaven love all of his children... He also loves EACH of his children. The difference between those two statements can not be understated.
There's never a time in our life when we doubt God's love for all of his children... of course He does. But there are times in our lives when we wonder about His attention to us individually. Sometimes we just feel distant from God, sometimes even unworthy of such love. The experience I just had tells me such feelings are never warranted. It even feels a little blasphemous to suggest that God would ignore or care less about one child than another.
Reassured that God loves me personally and that He knows me personally and cares about what is important to me, I can face all trials and challenges with renewed confidence. I want to let you know that He loves and cares for you the same way, and I hope that gives you a little peace today.
- Jim
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Introduction
There are a great many things in this world that cause people to stop and ponder.
Some are religious and contemplate our purpose, beginning and destiny.
Some are about people, events and the affect they have on that destiny.
We wanted to create a place where we and others can openly talk about our lives and beliefs, new impressions and old, what we want from life and what we need.
We are members of a wonderful church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And we invite anyone to ask questions about our faith if they would like to do so, or to react and chime in to our posts.
But you do not need to be a member of our faith to add a comment or have an impression to share... the only rules are:
1) Be respectful of all people's beliefs and history.
2) Comment honestly and openly.
3) Use uplifting language that encourages others at all times.
We want those who visit our blog to feel inspired, better and hopefully closer to God.
We are all on a journey together. We share this mortality. Sometimes we question and doubt. Sometimes we fall and stumble. Sometimes we knock against one another while bouncing through life and end up a bit bruised and battered. But what we need to remember is we are never alone.
Let's commit to helping each other along the way.
Enjoy "Greater Things".
Sincerely,
Jim and Debbie Sherwood
Some are religious and contemplate our purpose, beginning and destiny.
Some are about people, events and the affect they have on that destiny.
We wanted to create a place where we and others can openly talk about our lives and beliefs, new impressions and old, what we want from life and what we need.
We are members of a wonderful church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And we invite anyone to ask questions about our faith if they would like to do so, or to react and chime in to our posts.
But you do not need to be a member of our faith to add a comment or have an impression to share... the only rules are:
1) Be respectful of all people's beliefs and history.
2) Comment honestly and openly.
3) Use uplifting language that encourages others at all times.
We want those who visit our blog to feel inspired, better and hopefully closer to God.
We are all on a journey together. We share this mortality. Sometimes we question and doubt. Sometimes we fall and stumble. Sometimes we knock against one another while bouncing through life and end up a bit bruised and battered. But what we need to remember is we are never alone.
Let's commit to helping each other along the way.
Enjoy "Greater Things".
Sincerely,
Jim and Debbie Sherwood
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