Happy 100th Birthday Arizona! Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was Amazing!!!

          Arizona celebrated it's 100th birthday today. President Taft signed AZ into statehood as the 48th state. The celebrations have been going on for several days and culminated today.
          Happy Valentine's Day to all those who love and are loved. My family shared sweet treats with grandchildren, our daughter and her husband. What a delight. My former visiting teacher brought over four cupcakes that she and her daughter baked and decorated, saying, "I've been thinking of you a lot and just wanted to let you know." The night before special ward friends brought us a dinner of delicious grilled salmon and chicken and rice soup. It is so special to be remembered.
          My husband and I knew a very special girl from our Palo Verde Ward experience in 2006 through 2008 when we moved to Picture Rocks. Her name is Taylor Lancaster. She entered the foster care system right after we left and was placed with a Ms. Snow in our Picture Rocks Ward. That placement let us get to see Taylor every Sunday and reconnect. We just loved this young woman. She then ended up in a different location just over a year ago and we grieved that we would never see her again. Serendipity occurred today. I went to the Snow's home for a visit with a friend. I hadn't really talked to Ms. Snow since Taylor left so when she told me that she'd finally met Taylor's new foster mom she told me she'd given her our phone number. When I returned home after the visit, I received a call from Taylor!!!!! How wonderful to get an update, get her email and to be able to keep in touch with her. She'd never left our hearts or prayers and now we can stay in touch. Love it.

        AND IT SNOWED!!!

          When my friend came to pick me up to go over to visit the Snows she told me it was snowing as she came over the pass from Tucson. If you look at the background of this blog you will be looking down the road that goes over the pass into Tucson. There were golden flowers carpeting the ground there over the weekend. I have lavender and yellow wildflowers growing in my backyard. Although I live in a little dip lower in elevation and we seemed to only have rain and hail, the mountains in Saguaro National Park West were delightfully dusted with snow. It was beautiful. But I suspect it got the wildflowers and probably killed the chance for a brilliant spring like the ones shown here. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

        Thoughts About Writing a Story

         When an amazing day happens, it should be remembered. Why not write a story. Whether it is just one simple paragraph or a one page "spotlight focus" on a family member, treasured family experience or like my special day today with it's Serendipity of Snow and old friends, family and sweet treats, we just have to take the time to DO IT! Then place it in our Book of Remembrance. We could write a longer story about ourselves (autobiography) or about an ancestor (biography) tying in to a common theme. Here are some simple guidelines to remember:
1.  Review Sources -- Choose what is to be left out
2.  Pick Out Themes -- Service, economics, achievement, holidays
3.  Assess Personalities and Character
4.  Tell the Story -- Narrative is best when selective
5.  Look for Causes -- Why things happened or Serendipitous occurrences
6.  Look for Motivation -- Reasons behind peoples behavior
7.  Bring Out Spiritual Lessons -- Bear your testimony
I hope you will take the time to record a special story that will delight you descendants one day in the future when they read it. I wish my grandmother had written about her life. I would so treasure it. So write short and in your own voice, using your own personality and it will be a TREASURE.
       

Are Dates Important to the Lord?

I've been fascinated for years about recurring dates of importance. The following are some of my thoughts on the subject of birthdays, anniversaries, holiday celebrations, ordinance dates and celestial events such as new moons, solstices and celebrations tied to the sun, moon and stars. 

QUOTE:

            “For, behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins.” –Doctrine and Covenants 27:2

THOUGHT: Each Sunday (after Christ’s resurrection the members of the church kept the observance of Lord’s day as a weekly commemoration of His resurrection)  we promise to remember the Savior and His great atoning sacrifice as we partake of the sacrament.

            The Lord placed us on this earth created with the sun and moon to give us day and night, weeks and months, years and seasons. This was recorded in scriptures for us, clarifying the importance of each period of creation that was called a day. Days are important.

            Were dates important to the Savior? Yes. Although we celebrate His birthday with the rest of the world, we know from revealed modern revelation that he was born on April 6^th. We remember this season each year with General Conference held the first week of April.

            Malachi prophesied that Elijah would return (Malachi 4:5.) He did return to restore the Priesthood keys after the Savior, Moses, and Elias appeared in the Kirtland temple on April 3, 1836. I remember an amazing article appearing in the June edition of the 1985 Ensign by John Pratt that proposes that this date corresponded with the resurrection of the Savior on April 3, 33 on our calendar. Pratt’s second article appearing in July of that year shows how the day that the restoration of Priesthood keys in 1836 was chosen by the Lord for its symbolic importance and “that even the timing of the Lord’s death and resurrection was foreshadowed in the Passover ceremony.”  These articles can easily be looked up on lds.org in the Ensign magazines library. The topics addressed are complex and the articles are lengthy but some of you may find them fascinating.

            The knowledge of an exact date for Jesus’ birth and resurrection is not necessary for our salvation, nor is the knowledge of an exact date for his second coming. The point I’d like to make here is that dates are important to the Lord.

MY SUGGESTION:  Take a moment to write all of the important dates of celebration onto your annual calendar.

Our ordinances of birth marriage and death in specific places are what identify us as unique individuals on this earth. Accompanied by our full name and our  place within the family (first born, middle, baby, etc.) we are no longer just one of the billions of people who have lived upon the earth: we are special.

            These dates are what family history research is all about. Why? Because all of our forefathers who have died are unique and loved sons and daughters of God, too. Not just Jim born in 1825 to Alice and Roger. See what I mean? Dates along with their places and family associations make us a unique, singular, special person. This is how God views us.

            When we honor our ancestors remembering them on their special life ordinance days and ensure their temple work is done, they know we have gratitude for the gift they gave us, even our very bodies.  More importantly, after living hard lives, mostly in obscurity on this earth, they hear their names spoken in the House of the Lord and know that God loves them, too. God remembers them. What Joy they must feel!

            The wonderful happy feeling of a birthday celebration brings us this same remembrance and joy that is symbolically found in the celebration of the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem. Our baptismal date reminds us of His example at the hands of John the Baptist. And we long to hear God’s voice to us as even to His son, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” –Matthew 3:17

            Wedding celebrations are also symbolic. We hope to be invited to the wedding feast as a prepared disciple and have the Savior open the door to us. We desire to be found worthy for being in His church at His return (Ephesians 5:22-32) for He is the bridegroom.

The delight that God has in us, His sons and daughters, when we step into mortality at birth, and as we enter into the waters of baptism, and then finally into the new and everlasting covenant in His temple, must also be the way he feels when we return to Him at death having done “all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; and they who keep their first estate shall be added upon.”

(Abraham 3:25-26)

            It is my hope that we can use our patriarchal blessings to know God’s will, give us support during our life and help us to keep His commandments, so that we may be added upon in the place prepared for us by a loving Father and inherit all that He has, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.