thought for the day....

Sis. Murdock had this quote on the chalkboard during her lesson on trials on Sunday. Thought it was worth sharing. 

Mountains to Climb - lesson summary

Our 4th Sunday lesson was taught by Sis. Murdock and it was from the conference talk - Mountains to Climb by Pres. Eyring.

She asked all of us if we would trade our trials for someone elses trials? 

Pres. Eyring said, "If we have faith in Jesus Christ the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing."

He also said, "I heard President Spencer W. Kimball, in a session of conference, ask that God would give him mountains to climb. He said: “There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, ‘Give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges."

My heart was stirred, knowing, as I did, some of the challenges and adversity he had already faced. I felt a desire to be more like him, a valiant servant of God. So one night I prayed for a test to prove my courage. I can remember it vividly. In the evening I knelt in my bedroom with a faith that seemed almost to fill my heart to bursting.

Within a day or two my prayer was answered."

Sis. Murdock asked again, " What are some of the trials you might face in your life?"

After several sisters gave ideas of what trials we may face in our life Sis. Murdock share the story of the Trouble Tree. 

I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job, a flat tire made him lose an hour of work & his electric drill quit, his ancient one ton truck refused to start. As I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. Upon opening the door he had undergone an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do at the little tree.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, those troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again." Funny thing is," he smiled", when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before." 

Sis. Murdock had a trouble tree that she brought and it looked similar to this: 

She asked us again - Why is it important to accept the will of the Lord? What purpose do trials serve and why is it important to be faithful? 

Pres. Eyring answers that as well - "the ground must be carefully prepared for our foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal integrity.

Our choosing the right consistently whenever the choice is placed before us creates the solid ground under our faith. It can begin in childhood since every soul is born with the free gift of the Spirit of Christ. With that Spirit we can know when we have done what is right before God and when we have done wrong in His sight.

Those choices, hundreds in most days, prepare the solid ground on which our edifice of faith is built. The metal framework around which the substance of our faith is poured is the gospel of Jesus Christ, with all its covenants, ordinances, and principles."

One of the characteristics of trials in life is that they seem to make clocks slow down and then appear almost to stop.

Sis. Murdock played the 1st 2 verses of this song to further share her message with us: 

She shared 1 last quote from Pres. Eyring, "We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word."

Thank you Sis. Murdock. We know each Sister in our ward is dealing with something. We ALL have trials whether they are physical or spiritual. Let us use our trials to make us BETTER not BITTER.

- Sis. Pyrah

Ch. 11 - Revelation - lesson summary

Sis Crouch gave the lesson today on Chapter 11 - Revelation from God to His children on page 111.

Sis Crouch started her lesson by summarizing the story Pres. Smith tells about trying by airplane from California to Salt Lake City. They were in a terrible fog and you couldn't see a thing. Pres. Smith began to get nervous and worried and asked himself, "How can a pilot find the way when he cannot see a thing?" He made his way to the space where the pilot and co-pilot were and asked how they knew we were flying in the right direction. 

They replied, ‘When we cannot see we are guided by the radio beam.’

“‘What is that?’ I asked. He explained that the beam might be likened to an electric highway between two points, and in our case the points were Milford and Salt Lake City. He said that the device over the pilot’s ear operated so that when the plane was in the beam a low, purring sound continued to be heard, but if the plane goes to the right or left the sound changes and the pilot is warned by clicking as of a telegraph key. If he … pulls back to the beam or highway, on to the path of safety, the clicking ceases and the purring resumes. If we continue on the beam we will arrive at our destination in safety.

“I returned to my seat greatly comforted to know that notwithstanding we were enveloped in fog and darkness and could neither see nor feel where we were, the pilot was receiving information constantly that we were on the highway and he knew that we would soon arrive at our destination."

 

Pres. Smith has thought many times about how this can be applied to our lives in the Church and Sis Crouch asked the same question. How is this like living the gospel? What would the fog represent? Who is the pilot? 

Pres. Smith likes the pilot to the prophet and the clicking sound to the Savior or the Holy Ghost. 

Heavenly Father guides us individually and as a church through the Holy Ghost.

The manual says, "Let us remember that the President of this Church has been officially designated as the pilot of the Church here in mortality to represent the Master of heaven and earth....we do have a pilot who knows the way, and if we will follow his direction … we will not meet the spiritual disasters that the world is meeting."

 

Communication with our Heavenly Father is not a trival matter. It is a sacred privilege. 

Sis. Crouch asked, "What is the difference between Revelation and Inspiration? 

Her thoughts were that Revelation is more of something we are seeking after. Something that we have prayed about. 

Inspiration is when you receive something that you haven't been thinking about. 

She then asked us, "What are the different ways to receive revelation?"

After several comments had been added she wrapped up lesson with a handout and quote from Sister Julie B. Beck. The handout was of a GPS system. On the back it read:

 

Heavenly Father has given us the Holy Ghost as our GPS. He will navigate us through this mortal life so we know what is true and what the Lord wants us to do. 

"The ability to qualify for, receive, and act upon personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life." - Sister Beck

 

Thank you Sis. Crouch! 

- Sis. Pyrah

Ch. 10 - The Scriptures - lesson summary

Sis. Couch gave the lesson today from Chapter 10 (pg 103) The Scriptures, the most valuable library in the world. 

President Smith is quoted in the lesson as saying, "Once, while traveling by train, he started a conversation with a man who was raised in a Latter-day Saint family but was no longer participating in the Church. “As we visited,” he later said, “I talked to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. … And he said as we discussed the principles of the gospel, ‘These things interest me.’ We visited quite a long time, and when we finished, that good man, I believe he was a good man, said to me, ‘I would give all that I possess to have the assurance that you have. …’

“I said, ‘My brother, you don’t have to give all that you possess to have that assurance. All you have to do is to search the scriptures prayerfully. Go where they may be explained to you. Seek the truth, and the beauty of the truth will appeal to you, and … you can know as I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Living God."

Sis Couch asked, "Can anyone think of a time when a verse of scripture has inspired you?....How did you come to know the scriptures were true?"

She recounted an experience in her own life when she was 15 years old in a Sunday School class. The teacher, a return missionary said to her class, "Each one of us know the scriptures are true. We just may not know that we know it."

The manual says, "The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price, do not contain the wisdom of men alone, but of God...f we have failed to read the scriptures we have missed the better part of this world’s literature.

I sometimes feel that we do not appreciate the Holy Bible, and what it contains, and these other scriptures, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price that have been referred to … as letters from our Heavenly Father. They may be so received, at least they are his advice and his counsel to all the children of men given to them that they may know how to take advantage of their opportunities, that their lives may not be spent in vain."

Sis Couch then asked everyone, "Consider what place the scriptures have in your personal library among other things you read and watch. What can you do to make them more of a priority?"

She offered a few suggestions like

- Set a time and place to study them

- Have a marking pencil - add notes, cross reference, etc. Make them yours by marking them. 

She wrapped up her lesson with this last quote from the manual, "Brethren and sisters, I desire to emphasize again the teaching of the Master: “search the scriptures;” read them prayerfully and faithfully, teach them in your homes; call your families around you and inspire in them a faith in the living God, by reading those things that have been revealed. They are the most precious of all the libraries in all the world.

Keep this library where you can find it, and where your children will find it, and then have enough interest in the eternal salvation of those boys and girls that are in your home that you will find ways and means to interest them in what these books contain, that they may know how precious they are in the sight of their Heavenly Father"

 

Thank you Sis. Couch for bringing such a wonderful spirit that testified of the truthfullness of the scriptures and for the many comments, stories and testimonies shared. It was a wonderful meeting. 

 

- Sis. Pyrah

1st Sunday lesson summary

Sis Snow gave the lesson on Sunday and it was great piggy back onto the wonderful message that Sis. Ovard gave last week.

She read the lyrics to the song "Who's on the Lords side"

[Chorus]
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?

Did you know it asks that question 10 times in the song? 

We have lots of repetition in our church. We hear things over and over. Why do we have to be told so many times? 

 

 

Several sisters added their comments and Sis. Snow helped us realize that being told the same things over and over isn't always a bad thing. Don't tune out or turn it off when you've the message before. We need repetition. It's not a bad thing - it can be good thing. 

Even though the topics for General Conference and Stake Conference are not always assigned there was a common thread running through the 2. 

Sis. Snow passed around the Ensign Challenge handout with the thought at the bottom of it from Stake Conference - 

"Ask yourself: What actual change have I made in my life as a result of ANYTHING I heard or was asked to do in General Conference?" - Elder Holland

There is a place on the backside of the handouts for your "call to action" thoughts. These were passed out to all the sisters in all the auxiliaries and also sent in the newsletter if you'd like one.

Elder Holland asked - "What do these meetings do? Do they do any good at all?"

Sis Snow added, Faith works by words. Have you had your life changed by something someone said? It's all about hearing and doing. It's acting on the things we feel. 

Pres. Uchtdorf challenge us at Stake Conference to "Get Preach my Gospel and read chapter 3. Be your first convert." - How many of us have done that? 

We must have spiritual goals. Pres. Uchtdorf said, "Goals are a calm reassessment of how we spend our time. "

Pres. Murdock asked us to read in the handbook section 3.1. Have we done that? 

Did we follow that council? 

Pres. Gilliland said we need to daily strengthen WHO we are and WHOSE we are. We need to get the gospel in the hearts of the Saints. - That goes back to last weeks lesson again - church vs. gospel. 

She wrapped us her lesson by saying we need to ReCommit to move upward. We have all we need to do that.

Thank you Sister Snow for your enthusiasm and spirit. It was wonderful to hear so many comments from the sisters that were in attendance as well. 

- Sister Pyrah