February, A Time for Love

February is kind of a bittersweet month for me. Gleindale, the next town over, is holding, a chocolate festival this week and I hope I get to visit those vendors and choose a yummy treat! The reason February is bittersweet is because February 10th is the anniversary of my mother’s death and February 14th is the anniversary of my dad’s death. They died nine years apart, my mother being nine years younger than my dad .

Today I choose to remember one of each of their best attributes. My dad held several accounting or banking jobs during the Great Depression. I have a box of letters he saved from these employers stating that he was an honest man and a good employee. I have never known him to do a dishonest thing.

My mother’s best asset was her ability to make friends. Even during her nine years as a widow her friends always seemed to be around. One gave her a surprise 80th birthday party. Another did Twelve Days of Christmas with her. She shared her garden with them. Even when she lived at a senior care center she was encouraging the staff to listen to General Conference on TV, sharing her Ensign magazines with her neighbors, and inviting the visiting teachers to visit her.

Today’s theme on the Tabernacle Choir program on TV was also about love. Charity is the pure love of Christ. Love One Another was one of the hymns they sang. The Spoken Word ended with the thought: Love is Time, meaning that the time we give to others shows our love for them.

One other event of this day came up when we learned that a man who lives across the street from us, had his mother pass away about 3 a.m. Helping him through the early days of mourning is something we can do to show our love. Just letting people know you care helps them recover.

Give someone you love a hug today.

Just Think

This message was on a calendar I just bought, written by Roy Lessin of DaySpring products.

Just think,
you're here not by chance,but by God's choosing,
His hand formed you
and made you
the person you are.
He compares you to no one else --
you are one of a kind.
You lack nothing
that His grace can't give you.
He has allowed you to be here
at this time in history,
to fulfill His special purpose
for this generation.

Roy then quotes Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under
heaven.

Thank you Roy!

Book Review - What Would a Holy Woman Do? by Wendy W. Nelson

Are you willing to read a small book in an hour or two, and write your impressions in a journal for the next three days? It will change your perspective on life, and probably change your life as you read it.

You Get Out of Christmas Exactly What You Put Into It!

We get out of Christmas exactly what we put into it. [from a great RS lesson]


President Monson listed four ingredients

   Children [ideas from the our class]
     Talk about Christ and the reason we celebrate Chrstmas
     Begin an advent Calendar
     Let them have their own nativity scene in their room
     For each good deed you do, or others do to you, add a piece of straw to the baby’s manger
     Read aloud a portion of A Christmas Carol each night.

Remembering
     Homemade special treats
     Caroling
     Knock and Run-leaving a treat or gift at someone else’s home anonymously
          [Mike. David & Steve will remember The Candy Lady]
     Going to an assisted living home
     Being in a Christmas pageant or play

Giving - The only true gift is a gift of yourself
     Send “thank you” cards to people who have touched your life
     Have a family day of service

Prophecy Fulfilled - Abinadi only converted one person but the results were great
     Invite people to see the Mesa temple lights
     Invite people to Peoria Stake’s Remembering Christ at Christmas

One additional idea from the class: Simplify
     Make banana bread as gifts instead of 12-dozen kinds of cookies
     Don’t get over-scheduled in activities

Being Thankful for Life's Joys

I am writing to you as I prepare to go to Arizona for the winter. We leave on Monday. But, I will write from Arizona during the months I am away from Vancouver.

My granddaughter, Chelsea, will be going on a Church mission in about two months. She has started putting things on her Facebook page that she is grateful for. I’d like to share some of the simple pleasures that I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful for waterfalls. They are soothing to hear and are beautiful. They are in many sizes and shapes.

I’m thankful for fountains for the same reason. They represent man and nature working in harmony together to reach up to God.

I’m thankful for babies. In 2½ years we have added the first five of our great-grandchildren to our family. Wesley, Eric, Allison, Mitch and Dawson. The bible tells us [Psalms 127:3] “Lo, children are an heritage. of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward.”

Education. I have an insatiable desire to learn as much as I can for my own needs and interests. I like both fiction and non-fiction, stories and biographies. Have you read Randy Pauch’s experiences in a book called The Last Lecture? A professor diagnosed with leukemia, discusses addages he learned in life from parents, teachers and others, and how he came to value love of family, take chances, step out of his “box” to enjoy life and help his students define who they want to become.

Music. I am thankful for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Their music can sooth, comfort, praise, celebrate and inspire every good human emotion that exists. I’m also a fan of some of the great composers. If you want to feel joyful listen to Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Flowers. They brighten and decorate my life When I held a cosmos in my hand I noticed the perfect little points of maroon atop each tiny golden seed in the center of the flower. It has pink petals with two arcs at the end of each of its eight petals, coming out of a perfectly formed little green cup. It is at the end of a slender green stalk I wondered about the Being who created this beautiful, perfectly formed flower and all other flowerrs that I enjoy.

I’m thankful for cool, clean drinking water. It satisfies my thirst like no other beverage. The Northwest has the best tasting water in the world! It is soft enough that it doesn’t fade my dark t-shirts or etch the sides of drinking glasses in my dishwasher.

I love the scent of fir trees, which brings to mind days spent enjoying Pacific Northwest forests, streams, ferns and blackberries. The song, How Great Thou Art plays in my mind.

I am thankful for my home. It is a place of refuge from the world..And for my husband who is my best friend. And the things we take for granted like food and good health and safety as we travel. And the blessings we don’t know even know about, which are tender mercies from the Lord.

I am especially thankful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ.of Latter-day Saints, which has the Lord’s Plan of Happiness.

I recommend a recent talk given by Elder Timothy J. Dyches, of the Seventy, from the recent general conference held in October 2013. I hope you will read and feel his message.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!