Service: the way to find true happiness.

Have you ever wanted to feel happier.  Have you felt exhausted by all that life gives you? Have you ever wondered if you are doing enough for your family.  Today scripture study has given me answer to these questions. The answer is service.  When we serve others the rewards will be heaped upon us we will be at peace and feel happy.  We will be forgiven of our sins we will be drawn closer to our loving Father in Heaven.  When we serve with our children we are helping them gain the keys to eternal happiness.  We are not expected to serve some one by giving everything we have an leaving us with nothing.  Our Heavenly Father knows us and know the intent of our hearts he knows what we can handle if we try and do the things we can (even though to others they may seam small) we are serving himself and he will be the one to fill our heats and our lives with the blessings we need.  When we Do not serve others we will lose all those great blessings.

Mosiah 4:16 - 4:30

Mosiah 4:16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

Mosiah 4:17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just--

Mosiah 4:18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

Mosiah 4:19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

Mosiah 4:20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

Mosiah 4:21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

Mosiah 4:22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.

Mosiah 4:23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.

Mosiah 4:24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

Mosiah 4:25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.

Mosiah 4:26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you--that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God--I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.

Mosiah 4:27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Mosiah 4:28 And I would that ye should remember, that whosoever among you borroweth of his neighbor should return the thing that he borroweth, according as he doth agree, or else thou shalt commit sin; and perhaps thou shalt cause thy neighbor to commit sin also.

Mosiah 4:29 And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.

Mosiah 4:30 But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not. 

For my catch up today I will talk about my little Ryan.  Ryan is 4 know and oh how he loves letters.  He knows all his letters and all the sounds they make.  He can write his name and he is anxious to learn to read.  He wont go to school until 2014 but he loves to learn.  Ryan is my funny little boy he always has something funny to say and he loves to be the center of attention Ryan is a happy little boy he loves to sing and he loves to be silly.  

Helping siblings to love one another

It has been a very long time since I have updated this blog.  So much has happened in the last 15 and half months.  last week was spring break, and over the week end was one of my favorite times, General Conference.  I love the spiritual high I get from listening to the loving messages from our prophet and church leaders.  I love coming away from conference feeling uplifted and encouraged.  I truly believe no matter what religion you are the key is to walk away feeling like you have a renewed conviction to be better that you have hope to be better.  Nobody is perfect except for our beloved Savior Jesus Christ.  We are not expected to be perfect but we are expected to strive for perfection by trying a little harder everyday to be a little better then you were the day before.  I have come away wanting to be a little better.I want to use my blog to help share my thoughts and feelings about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To share the little things I am doing with my family to strengthen them I also hope to share a little more about each of them. It will take me a little while to get caught up but with baby steps and small goals one at a time I will be able to achieve this.

Today in my scripture study I read:
Mosiah 4:4 - 4:15

Mosiah 4:4 And king Benjamin again opened his mouth and began to speak unto them, saying: My friends and my brethren, my kindred and my people, I would again call your attention, that ye may hear and understand the remainder of my words which I shall speak unto you.

Mosiah 4:5 For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state--

Mosiah 4:6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body--

Mosiah 4:7 I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.

Mosiah 4:8 And this is the means whereby salvation cometh. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you.

Mosiah 4:9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Mosiah 4:10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.

Mosiah 4:11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

Mosiah 4:12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.

Mosiah 4:13 And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.

Mosiah 4:14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

Mosiah 4:15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

Oh how I needed to here this.  Both Heavenly father and Jesus love us the want to help us.  The want us to succeed they will help us along the way.  I don't know why but today has been one of those day where my children have been fighting all day long.  I have heard many mean things said just to try and hurt the other sibling.  After reading this I came up with a fun little Family Home evening lesson we are going to have tonight.  We were suppose to do FHE last night and it was suppose to include preparing the garden beds we are making this year for a new veritable garden.  It was very cold and rainy then the wind started so Eric did not pick up the railroad ties and we decided to push it off until the weather is decent. (which is not today) so instead I came up with this we are learning about saying nice things to each other.

We will start out with a tube of toothpaste and a clear disposable cup.  then I am going to have each child take a turn squeezing out the toothpaste while I repeat some of the mean comments I have heard them say to one another. When all the toothpaste is out I am going to ask them to please put the toothpaste pack in the tube.  Then I will explain how just like we can not put the toothpaste back we can not take back the mean and hurtful things we say to one another. then we are going to try an experiment I read about. http://2-our-healthy-hearts.com/id89.html We are taking two jars that are identical and filling each up with the same amount of white rice (no butter or salt added) one will be labeled love and we will list 5 or 6 loving phases on this jar. The other will be labeled hate here we will list 5 or 6 hateful things on it. Everyday everyone will pick up each jar one at a time and walk into the laundry room where they will say the things on the jar to the rice.  then they will bring the jar back and set it next to the other on my little bakers rack.  We will then watch over time what happens to these two jars of rice and see how the change.  I will take pictures and post them latter.  This is my hope that the children will realize how much the things they say effect each other.

Tomorrow I will start with my first individual update. I think I will start with my Ryan and work my way from youngest to oldest.