Category Archives: Life

Thank the Lord for the ride!

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“Life is like an old time rail journey … delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for the ride!” -Gordon B. Hinckley

When I think about my life, all of it, from the beginning, I can honestly say that I have learned how to do this. Just knowing that there’s a trick is helpful.

One especially hard time in my life was when my son, Riley, was a newborn and I started to have some health problems. When he was two months old, I had to have gall bladder surgery. I honestly felt so picked on. The surgery which was supposed to take a few hours, ended up being more difficult and took about 5 hours. I had a large incision across my abdomen and tubes coming out. I was in the hospital for a week. I was not supposed to lift anything more than ten pounds for a month or so. Guess how much my little boy weighed? More than ten pounds! One of the tubes hanging out of my body had to stay in for 6 weeks. And once a week I would have to go get an x-ray of my bile duct. They would shoot dye into the tube that was hanging out of my body and then take an x-ray. After the first x-ray, they saw something that looked like a gall stone still inside me. If what they saw was a gall stone, they would have to go in through the hole that the tube was coming out of and get it. I was so not in the mood!!! On the day of the last x-ray, I was just praying and hoping that they would not have to go in and get a gall stone. I was very stressed, too stressed. I went out to get in the car to go to the hospital and I sat on a wasp that stung me on the butt. After I realized what happened, I just laughed!!! I was taking myself way too seriously. I went to the hospital and the spot they thought might be a gall stone was still on the x-ray. Like I said, this meant that after pulling the tube out, they would have to put some type of a scoop in the hole and see if they could get the stone. As they gently pulled the tube out, sitting on the top of the tube was the gall stone. It came out with the tube. I immediately thanked Heavenly Father. It was about a year after the surgery that I really started to feel like myself. I had had a baby and two months later had major surgery. It was a very difficult time for me in my life, but I am grateful for it. I am a more compassionate person, more empathatic and aware of others feelings, what they might be going through at a tough time. I have learned to thank God for the ride, then and always. I have also learned to relax when overwhelmed and discouraged and listen for help in dealing with my trials from Father in Heaven.

Miracles

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I’ve always believed in miracles. I know they happen, every second of every day, some where on the planet. We just need to have eyes to see them. Some people would call them a coincidence.
I experienced a miracle. I would like to share it with you. I have always tried to be a good person, doing what I believe is what God would have me do with my life. I really needed a great job, one that could bless my life and help me to supplement our income and pay for much needed family expenditures (ie. a new roof for our house, etc). I recently landed what I thought was this job. I started this job, after leaving a job I really loved that did not have benefits and paid less. The new job was a full time job, insurance, paid vacation, paid holidays and working for an amazing company. Well, not so fast. Two months after I started this job, they had to cut my hours. From full time to two days a week, no benefits. Ouch! I was so sad, and I kept thinking, “what am I supposed to learn from this experience?” I know Heavenly Father is aware of me and loves me and I know He wants to bless me. I decided to just hang in there, go with the flow. I worked a little longer until I decided it was not beneficial for me to be at that job anymore. I had prayed and prayed to know what Father would want me to do.
I was sent home early from work on Wednesday, it was just too slow, and they didn’t have enough work for me. I left my job and went straight to work trying to find a new job. I really felt like it was the right thing to do.
I just kept listening to my heart.
I looked Wednesday and Thursday for jobs, anything really, mostly online and on the phone. I chose to be proactive and knew that God could not bless me unless I was active myself. I really believe that. “Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you.” So I decided I would get up on Friday and get ready for work, you know, dress in my work clothes and look professional. I also started calling all my friends and family. Literally just going down the phonebook in my cell phone.
I called one friend who told me about her friend who was an office manager, and told me she didn’t know if they were hiring. I asked her to give me her name and said I’ll just go over there right now (literally) and ask her. What do I have to lose? So I drove straight over to where her friend works. I met her and told her I was looking for a job. She asked about my experience and what I was looking for. I felt like it would be a great job for me. She then informed me that she actually was hiring and that she had a group interview scheduled that afternoon with seven applicants. She was so nice, and I really felt very comfortable with her. She invited others in the office, that I would be working with, in to meet me. They loved me! I honestly could tell, they loved me. I told her as the impromptu interview wrapped up, that I would keep my phone close, so I wouldn’t miss her call. I left feeling very calm and peaceful. I knew that if I got the job, it would be because the job was mine, that I was meant to be there. Later that afternoon the office manager called and said she cancelled the group interview, because she found the girl for the job. It was ME!!!! Later, when I called the friend back who told me about the office manager, she said that her name just popped into her mind and that she hadn’t even thought about this person for a while. When the office manager called my friend to ask about me, she told my friend that she could feel, that I was supposed to work there.
Now, I know some people would say that feelings and faith and such shouldn’t be in the work place. I really don’t make a move in my life without thinking about the big picture, how will this choice effect my life, is this what God wants for me and what He thinks is best?And so far, thinking this way hasn’t lead me astray. Even getting that awesome job in the first place was meant to be. God wanted me to learn something there. And I did. Besides this job wasn’t available back then. I start on Monday and I will do great and love it. Thanks for reading. I love Father in Heaven and know he blesses all of us with miracles. This was a biggy!

I always wondered about that word.

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Remember the wonderful story by Charles Dickens,
“A Christmas Carol“? I’ve always thought it was such a great story. The main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is very much like all of us, at one time or another in our lives. We get involved in our lives and cynical when things don’t turn out quite the way we expected or hoped. I wondered about his name, Ebenezer, especially when I heard it in one of my favorite songs, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”. You can listen to it here. So, being the curious sort of person that I am, I looked it up. This is what I found.
Ebenezer means “Stone of Help.” It was the name of the memorial stone set up by Samuel to celebrate God’s help to Israel in their great battle against the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:7-12)
An ebenezer is a stone, but can also be a pile of stones on the ground.
A really smart person named Christian said “It represents help from God, raising my ebenezer means I am going to ‘praise God’ and mark the spots of His grace toward me as places to REMEMBER! [In the song “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”,] the song writer is saying to this place in my Christian walk I have come dear Lord, a glorious place, I never thought I would reach on my own, and Lord I did not reach it ON MY OWN, but by YOUR HELP, therefore it is a place worthy of a mark in my mind, in my heart and in my acknowledgement of YOU, as my Gracious God. I think if we wanted to raise an ebenezer today, it would not necessarily have to be a pile of stones, though there would be nothing wrong with that. It could also be a date we remember and celebrated on our calendars, or an extremely highlighted and MARKed, remembered and celebrated place in our diary! “
I love that explanation. Maybe Charles Dickens named his character Ebenezer to represent that Ebenezer Scrooge’s parents were grateful, christian people who wanted to acknowledge God in their lives.
And now that I know what an ebenezer is, I will raise my ebenezer in my life.

Happy Birthday!

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I got a camera for my birthday!! Remember, I’m not a professional. I just want some darling pictures of family and friends, pictures for this blog and pictures of the most beautiful grandbaby. I love that we can record our lives in pictures. So watch for it!

Getting Older…….

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Birthdays are good for you!
Statistics show
that the people
who have the most
live the longest.
-Larry Lorenzoni
I’m having a birthday next week. I have been having them for years. In fact, they’re so much fun, I think I’d like to continue having them. I’m going to celebrate all day. I’ll do some shopping, maybe a movie, go out to dinner. It’s always a good excuse to celebrate. So I will.
Happy Birthday to Me!!

Fireflies!

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The first time I saw a firefly was on my mission. I’m not sure fireflies exist in Utah. When I was serving in Austin, Texas we had just arrived at a teaching appointment and gotten out of the car. It was dusk, which is about when they appear. I saw a flash, then another, then I said to my companion, “Look!” She wasn’t as excited about them as I was. I think she’d seen them before.

Why do they do that? What is the purpose? Maybe the creator has a sense of humor. “Let’s make these cute little bugs, and let’s make their bums light up at night fall.” Maybe that’s what He said. Well, it makes me think about the scripture in Matthew 5:16,

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

What if I were like this little bug, pleasant and did my best to be beautiful inside and out, and what if my actions and example caught someones eye. What if they said, “I like her! What makes her special?” And then they asked me why I have a little light? Why I am the way I am? What if I was able to tell them that I am special, but so are they! What if I told them how much our Father in Heaven loves them and that they have a little light, too?

I have been told I’m an example. I hope I’m a good example. I know I’m not the most spiritual, I’m just doing my best. I know I sometimes do silly things, but that’s not wrong. I hope I’m the kind of example who loves others, and brings a little laughter to life. I hope when others see my example they think, “She’s doing her best. She is good. She loves others.” And I hope that makes them want to do their best, be good and love others.

I’m so grateful for that little bug with the bum that lights up.

It just makes me happy!

Dishes: a necessary evil!

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Since my kids were small, I have encouraged (really insisted) that they make a contribution, in helping clean up around our home. I mean, they live here too! Actually, they were more helpful in their own special way, at about 3 or 4 years old than they are now. (Remember, my baby is 15) One thing that everyone has the hardest time with is- dishes. We have tried all different ways to get ’em done. It used to be everyone takes a day. Of course, no one is going to do the dishes that were supposed to be done yesterday by another family member. Our latest is-everyone has dishes a week at a time. Trust me it’s still a challenge, if they do a lousy job, they get another week. Does anyone else struggle with this? or are we the alone?

One thing that has helped us have a true perspective is this… I have a poem laminated on the fridge, that has been there for many years. It was written by Edgar A. Guest. I love him. It goes like this:
Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell.
While other folks go hungry,
We’re eating very well.
With home and hearth and happiness,
We shouldn’t want to fuss.
For by this stack of evidence,
God’s been very good to us.
I know the kids have it memorized, because sometimes I make them read it. Especially when they are giving me a little ‘tude! (that’s attitude for those of you who don’t have teenagers)
I am thankful for dirty dishes! And I thank God for the food that we have to eat off them!

My Heroes!

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I really admire Andrew Carnegie. He is one of my heroes! His life and example are a testimony to me of hard work and giving back. He is an example that to earn your own way in life and to be loyal to family and God are most important. I love that he used his wealth to bless all.

“Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.” -Andrew Carnegie

The government didn’t take it from him with taxes and such, so they could decide what to do with it, and who to give it to. I like the idea and I believe that we are stewards of our own money. We decide how to share it and how to bless others. And I do believe we should, and have an obligation, to bless others with what God has given to us.

Andrew was born in Scotland in 1835. Things changed in their life and his parents became unable to provide for the family. His parents and younger brother moved to America. He got his first job at twelve years old, earning $1.20 a week. He worked hard and became a multi millionaire and in the year 1901 sold his business to JP Morgan for $480 million. Morgan created US Steel and Andrew became the richest man in the world. Can you imagine $480 million in the year 1901!! Wow, richest man, I’d say. By the time he died in 1919, he had given away 90% of his wealth. He didn’t just hand the money over to people, he made an institute that would make money available to universities and colleges, as well as, many other organizations and philanthropies. He made a way for the money to bless others, if they put an effort in to be blessed by it. I love that. You can read more about it at the link at the bottom of the post.


We came across his grave on a recent trip to New York. We visited the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and there it was. Bonus! I read a little about him and his life and was fascinated. What a great man!

I think the most impressive thing to me was that his grave site was so humble. There were housekeepers and others who were employed at the Carnegie household who were buried there too. Other families buried at the same cemetery had quite large mausoleums and extravagant head stones and such. I didn’t even know who they were, although their last name was familiar. What did they do with their life? I have no idea…but I know what Andrew did.

Here is a sample of the way he thought and his humble beginning.
Taken from The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie.
Introduction-
….”The eldest son of parents who were themselves poor, I had, fortunately, to begin to perform some useful work in the world while still very young in order to earn an honest livelihood, and was thus shown even in early boyhood that my duty was to assist my parents and, like them, become, as soon as possible, a bread-winner in the family. What I could get to do, not what I desired, was the question.”
“As the factory system developed hand-loom weaving naturally declined, and my father was one of the sufferers by the change. The first serious lesson of my life came to me one day when he had taken in the last of his work to the merchant, and returned to our little home greatly distressed because there was no more work for him to do. I was then just about
ten years of age, but the lesson burned into my heart, and I resolved then that the wolf of poverty should be driven from our door some day, if I could.”
The question of selling the old looms and starting for the United States came up in the family council, and I heard it discussed from day to day. It was finally resolved to take the plunge and join relatives already in Pittsburg. I well remember that neither father nor mother thought the change would be otherwise than a great sacrifice for them, but that “it would be better for the two boys.”
“In after life, if you can look back as I do and wonder at the complete surrender of their own desires which parents make for the good of their children, you must reverence their memories with feelings akin to worship. On arriving in Allegheny City (there were four of us: father, mother, my younger brother, and myself), my father entered a cotton factory. I soon followed, and served as a “bobbin-boy,” and this is how I began my preparation for subsequent apprenticeship as a business man. I received one dollar and twenty cents a week, and was then just about twelve years old. I cannot tell you how proud I was when I received my first week’s own earnings. One dollar and twenty cents made by myself and given to me because I had been of some use in the world! No longer entirely dependent upon my parents, but at last admitted to the family partnership as a contributing member and able to help them! I think this makes a man out of a boy sooner than anything else, and a real man, too, if there be any germ of true manhood in him. It is everything to feel that you are useful.”
“I have had to deal with great sums. Many millions of dollars have since passed through my hands. But the genuine satisfaction I had from that one dollar and twenty cents outweighs any subsequent pleasure in money-getting. It was the direct reward of honest, manual labor; it represented a week of very hard work – so hard that, but for the aim and end which sanctified it, slavery might not be much too strong a term to describe it. For a lad of twelve to rise and breakfast every morning, except the blessed Sunday morning, and go into the streets and find his way to the factory and begin to work while it was still dark outside, and not be released until after darkness came again in the evening, forty minutes’ interval only being allowed at noon, was a terrible task. But I was young and had my dreams, and something within always told me that this would not, could not, should not last – I should some day get into a better position. Besides this, I felt myself no longer a mere boy, but quite a little man, and this made me happy.”-Andrew Carnegie

Well, if you want to know more about my hero Andrew Carnegie, google him, or you can go here! I have his book “The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays”. It is very interesting and I have enjoyed reading it.

I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution. -Andrew Carnegie