HE DID IT FOR ME

     Christ died for me. This is my testimony. He gave me the greatest gift of all, forgiveness and eternal life.

     Last November and December, my husband gave me a gift too. I had always wanted him to grow a beard and “play” Santa to my “Mrs. Claus” but he wouldn’t do it. He was a Princeton graduate, a serious scholar and he just didn’t do “Play.” For the first years of our marriage he wore his shirt and tie at home after work. It took moving to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands for his job to get him to dress casual, and he never went back to formal. Last year when his health declined at age 81, about November he became too weak to stand in front of the mirror to shave. I suggested that he might grow a beard. After all, his beard was white, it would be great to have him with a full beard in time for Christmas photos with grandchildren. HE DID IT FOR ME!

This small act of kindness brought me such joy. This is what the Christmas season is all about.

BEE IN THE DESERT

     Before I present a list of ideas on how to keep Christ in Christmas, I want to relate to you how moved I was during General Conference by a talk given by an apostle of the Lord. He gave such wise counsel, but it seemed he was talking about me. In his talk, “Be Anxiously Engaged,” Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke on how “Honeybees are driven to pollinate, gather nectar, and condense the nectar into honey. It is their magnificent obsession imprinted into their genetic makeup by our Creator.” I too, as BEE have been obsessed to write this blog to share the pollen I have picked up over the years. He tells us how the individual bee only produces 1/12 teaspoon of honey during its short life. It takes the entire hive of 20,000 to 60,000 bees to make a pound of honey. The bees depend on each other, each faithfully doing their part.

     The beehive has always been an important symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was used to inspire the cooperative energy necessary among the pioneers to transform the barren desert wasteland into the fertile valleys we have today. I am a BEE (those were the initials of my maiden name) in the desert (of Tucson, Arizona) and am trying to do my 1/12^th teaspoon, contributing to the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth, preparing for the Lord’s second coming. Thus this blog.

     “The beehive symbol is found in both the interiors and exteriors of many of our temples.” I love the temple and search for my ancestors so that I might give them  the opportunities and blessings they did not have when they lived here upon the earth. The Lord loves all of his children and he will give them all of the same opportunities that have come to members of his church in these latter days. Our leaders recently taught us at Stake Conference that, “Through us shall all nations of the earth be blessed,” both the living and the dead.
     Elder Ballard continues, “All of this symbolism attests to the fact great things are brought about and burdens are lightened through the efforts of many hands “anxiously engaged in a good cause.” (D & C 58:27). Imagine what the millions of Latter-day Saints could accomplish in the world if we functioned like a beehive in our focused, concentrated commitment to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

He quotes Matthew 22:37, 39-40 that teaches that the first and great commandment is:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind….

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

     Elder Ballard goes on to explain, “The Savior’s words are simple, yet their meaning is profound and deeply significant. We are to love God and to love and care for our neighbors as ourselves. Imagine what good we can do in the world if we all join together, united as followers of Christ, anxiously and busily responding to the needs of others and serving those around us- our families, our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens.”

A LIST OF 32 IDEAS TO KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS

     Because we have been given the gift of an extra week to focus on the Christmas season, I've listed one idea for every day. Of course, some will take more than a day to accomplish, but you will find much food for thought as you read through these ideas:

1.  Pray each morning to recognize the opportunity to serve another person

2.  Keep a daily journal of your spiritual insights, service given and joy felt

3.  Plan 25 Days of Christmas "an act of service each day"

4. Decorate your home together with all the family, reviewing the memories behind each ornament, wreath or Christmas stocking

5. Sing in the choir

6.  Find an ancestor to take to the temple

7.  Tell the story of Jesus' birth by use of book, film, scripture reading

8.  Set up a nativity and teach the children the meaning of each piece in it

9.  Contribute to a local food bank or toy drive; serve meals to the homeless

10. Wrap little "gifts" including a bit of money if possible, to give out to beggars or the homeless that you encounter (keep a bag of these in the car)

11. Go Christmas caroling with a group

12. Make treats (cookies, candy, little homemade jars of jam) to give to friends

13. Share your testimony of Christ with another person

14. Share your testimony with a family member, especially your child or grandchild

15. Continue throughout each day with a heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help

16. Organize your family with clear, simple family rules and expectations during the holiday season and its different "look" in your home; keep safety foremost

17. Develop wholesome family traditions and rituals

18. Discuss "family economics" where children have household responsibilities and can earn allowances

19. Help children/grandchildren learn to budget, save and pay tithing on the money they earn

20. Pan an extra offering either for fast Sunday, or other project near and dear to your heart that is noted on the tithing slip

21. Attend tithing settlement as a family

22. Take a little gift you've made to the Bishop and other beloved church leaders, teachers within your ward, stake or school

23. Actually write and send some Christmas Cards to special friends and family; they'll appreciate the time you took to write instead of emailing

24. Find a person in your circle of acquaintances to send the ward missionaries to visit; this is a gift to the missionaries as well as the friend

25. Give a Book of Mormon, inscribed with a message from your family, to friend, an acquaintance, or even, if prompted, to a stranger

26. Take a family photo portrait in Christmas attire

27. Help focus on the Christlike example of Santa Claus, rather than on "What'll he bring me," on being nice rather than naughty little boys and girls

28. When selecting an overarching theme for your holiday celebrations, as yourself, "Would this please the Christ child?"

29. Attend the ward Christmas party

30. Support and attend uplifting community events such as plays, musicals, Messiah performances, parades

31. Become a secret Santa to a widow or family less fortunate that you know about

32. Gather into the care and go see neighborhoods where they have decorated their years with holiday lights; have cocoa and cookies afterwards

I am sure you can add more ideas to this list, so so write to me and share them for inclusion on another blog. Next time I will talk about budgeting and list some things  that you might want to remember. Over the years I've made many lists...and this is the accumulation of those lists.

 

 

 

 

 

Bee's Wings A Mystery!

The Mystery of How Fat, Heavy, Pollen-laden Bees can Fly Using those Tiny Wings

          Until the advent of high speed cinematography and robotics,  science could not explain how a large bodied bee could fly, much less explain how it could  hover or carry pollen equal to its weight back to the hive. Using slow motion photography, then reproducing the bee wings actions in a large robotic bee wing, scientists have found some pretty miraculous movements that have little to do with traditional aerodynamics. Bees have two pair of wings, the hind pair being the smaller of the two. In 2005 using the above technology, Michael Dickinson and his Caltech colleagues studied honey bee flight and found the bees wing beat frequency flaps approximately 230 times per second. This is faster than a fruit fly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.

 

Honey Bees on a Cactus Flower

           There is another unique feature besides speed to these wings. Caltech's analysis revealed that sufficient lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction." Add this to the very fast wing-beat frequency and you have lift off with great weight bearing capacity.

Short, Choppy Wing Strokes with Rapid Rotation as it Flops Over and 

Reverses Direction Could be Described as 

The Figure Eight Sideways Symbol of Infinity

This BEE's Burden has Infinite Overtones

          I've had a seriously stressful month, starting off with a case of the Norovirus Flu that I probably caught in a nursing home where I was visiting Mary who had knee surgery. For two weeks, four days each week, two + hours a day I spent visiting teaching her...well, I'd say getting to know her better, being a friend and learning about her life. But, locally this flu had outbreaks in nursing homes. I got sick General Conference Sunday with vomiting and severe diarrhea; My husband, Bob, got it the next Friday, and we had lots of decisions about who would GO where!!!
          My Husband then went into a rapid decline. To bring you up to date (because I don't talk much about personal stuff here; but am rethinking that) he was diagnosed with end stage prostate cancer that had metastasized to his spine last November. He went into hospice at home the first of December and now the cancer has spread lesions into his shoulders, and ribs. The bottom line is that his knees are often very weak and he falls; and the pain is pretty severe. The doctor has increased his pain meds so that is under control but each month there is more "breakthrough" pain. At the end of that first week in April a milestone in this decline process was reached. He was catheterized. This is great because he doesn't have to get up every couple hours, thus is less apt to fall. But, he doesn't go out of the house anymore. This means that I have added responsibilities.

BEE's Wings Strengthened to Carry the Load

          My husband and I are having lots of discussions about death and dying. We've shared some very sweet moments and felt the joy of God's love for us. We see his hand every day in many, many ways as our prayers are answered, needs met and dear friends visit us. Here are a few examples of what I mean.    
         A 13 yr old deacon in our ward, Mikey Seno, heard that my husband wanted a laptop so he could read books from the library and play DVDs in his bed or chair, but that we could not afford one. He came up to me before sacrament meeting and handed me his. He said he was not using it right now. WOW. It turns out a new neighbor (remember we live out on a country road and don't have access to comcast, etc.) has a wireless connection and at Bob's bedroom end of the house there is a connection! Now he has to learn how to use this new lap top. What fun! It's a great excuse for my daughter to have one on one time with her dad.
          Yesterday, Dwayne Rosemore came by to install a shelf on the wall over Bob's bed so that we could attach a light for him to read by, this is also handy for the wireless phone, books being read, and a mug of water. I'd been helping Dwayne with finding and entering family names into NewFamilySearch for them to take to the temple. Last week I mentioned our problem of needing a light on that wall by the bed and he said that he'd found two shelves at Dessert Industries but had only used one of them. It is exactly the right length, the right width and was installed with lots of "man talk" to my husband's delight. Dwayne rehung a painting, added 4X4 blocks of wood so the bed would not be pushed too close to the window air conditioner and new shelf.
          Today Roy Lacey, from our ward, came by to talk "politics" and a myriad of other subjects the two of them enjoy and will return library books and magazines for us. For several months he'd been taking my husband to the library and then go for a chocolate shake at In and Out Burger. Can you tell from this that my husband is a bibliophile? Last week Roy and his wife Karin came over with a couple frozen lasagna's from Costco. I think this was just wonderful, because by the end of the day, I just don't have much energy left to cook dinner. Bob has finally said, "Since I'm dying I guess I don't have to watch my weight anymore, do I? His recent delight has been chocolate bunnies then when they disappeared... Hershey's nuggets. Today, he says, my tastes are changing again...I like some shortbread cookies; you know the really good, buttery, sinful ones. Yep, I know the ones. My biggest challenge is not to eat what he's eating. I tell him to keep them on the shelves of his room. I've lost 35 pounds since this saga began last November, and I don't want to gain any of it back.
          So my burden's are made light by loving friends and family. I am so thankful for the gospel and the eternal perspective that it brings to living and dying. Bob and I have been sealed in the Lord's temple for time and all eternity. In the infinite scheme of things, we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going when we die. We pray only that God's will and work will be done through us and that we may be found standing on His right hand. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the restored church that Jesus founded in the meridian of time. The gift of the Holy Ghost is a practical guide and comforter to us in our times of trial and sickness; I see this every day. I know that God lives and that he specifically loves Bob and specifically loves me. He hears my prayers and they are answered. This is my testimony.

Your Potential Revealed

Seeing Yourself as God Sees You

Your Patriarchal Blessing is your personal scripture. God is talking only to you. In it He will reveal your own unique potential. In our searching for these things, God will continue to bless us with increased understanding of who we really are and see ourselves as God sees us.

SCRIPTURE: “And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with.”   –Doctrine and Covenants 46:32

Remember to begin this reading of your patriarchal blessing 

for your potential with a word of prayer

MY QUESTION FOR YOU: Does your patriarchal blessing tell you about your strengths, weaknesses and spiritual gifts? It does, but it requires careful reading. The strengths, weaknesses and spiritual gifts mentioned there are uniquely yours. Of course, we are all part of the human family and thus share many of these things, however it is our mission to “know ourselves and know who we really are” and then set about doing what the Lord wants us to be doing. This doing  may be different at each stage of our lives. As a young person just entering college and preparing for an occupation and finding an eternal companion it will have a different emphasis than for the grandparent at the end of life making physical adjustments and refining spiritual gifts.

MY SUGGESTION: Make a list of the specific blessings in your patriarchal blessing. These are fairly easy to find when they start our with, “I bless you that…”  Then there are the promises of blessings made to you by the Lord that may be more subtle. In my next blogs I will talk about admonitions of the Lord and how to discover what weaknesses are listed in you patriarchal blessing; these are the weaknesses that the Lord wants you to turn into strengths.

            Now, take that list of blessings and compare them with the spiritual gifts that the Lord gives liberally to his children that obey his commandments.

            Here is a list of the spiritual gifts that we are asked to seek after that are listed in

1 Corinthians 12:4 and Doctrine and Covenants 46:13:

1.   To know Jesus is the Christ by the gift of the Holy Ghost and that he was crucified for the sins of the world

2.   To believe on the words of others

3.   To know the differences of administration

4.   To know the diversities of operations (whether they be of God)

5.   Wisdom

6.   Knowledge (that all may be wise and taught and to have knowledge)

7.   Faith to heal

8.   Faith to be healed

9.   Working of miracles

10. To prophesy

11. Discerning of spirits

12. To speak with tongues

13. Interpretation of tongues

The purpose of these gifts is, “for the benefit of the children of God.” –D & C 46:26

QUOTE:

This above all:

To thine own self be true,

for it must follow as dost the night the day,

thou canst not then be false to any man.

 - Shakespeare (Hamlet) inspired by Socrates (Know thyself)

In the Doctrine and Covenants 59 the Lord tells us how as faithful saints in Zion we shall be blessed.

In verses 4-6 Heavenly Father says:

“4. And they shall be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time—they that are faithful and diligent before me.

“5.Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, saying thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him.”

In verse 6 He gives us this commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Do you love yourself? How can you love others if you don’t love yourself? In order to love others we must come to know those things that are loveable in ourselves. Of course, this sounds a bit egotistical. However, if we take this seriously we come to realize that you have to be comfortable in your own skin before you can reach out to others with charity, the pure love of Christ.

Charity             

Joseph A. Cannon, Editor of the Deseret News, wrote in the Sep 9, 2006 issue of The Mormon Times a series called "The Gospel in Words," and  he quoted these scriptures about charity:

"And though I have all faith, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2)

" Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards men." (Doctrine & Covenants 121:45)

          Cannon goes on to say that when we use the word "charity" we are usually referring back to the Greek word "agape" So often we think charity means giving to the poor or helping someone . "This is an aspect of charity, but if that is what we focus on we miss the much larger and deeper meaning of charity, or love. Another problem in thinking about the words "charity" and "love" is a tendency to think that it requires affection. While having the affection for another person makes it easier to be charitable toward them, focusing on affection again tends to cause us to miss the mark of what charity/love means.

         "For example, we are required to love (agape) our enemies and to pray for them. Does this require us to have affection for them? Recently I came across a volume of radio addresses given by C.S. Lewis in 1942 on "Christian Behavior." What follows is an extensive quote from his discussion on charity.

         "Charity means 'Love, in the Christian sense.' But love in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people. Our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves. It means that we wish for our own good. In the same way Christian Love (or Charity) for our neighbors is quite a different thing from liking or affection. It is a duty to encourage our affections--to 'like' people as much as we can, not because this liking is itself the virtue of charity, but because it is a help to it. But through natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be quite wrong to think that the way to become charitable is to sit trying to manufacture affectionate feelings. Some people are 'cold' by temperament; that may be a misfortune for them but it is no more a sin than having bad digestion is a sin; and it does not cut them off from the chance, or excuse them from the duty, of learning charity."

In the end we love or wish ourselves good (this is a state of will) and we should come to learn what is the best in us; this self knowledge begins right in our patriarchal blessings.