Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Lent Challenge Day 10


Day 10: My faith emphasizes the importance of families. Through good and caring families we gain our first friends and teachers. We are able to learn love, patience, humility, and charity. Families bring us closer to our goal of becoming like Christ and ultimately like our Father in Heaven. As we become brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers we can come to understand a little more about Christ as our brother and God as our Father.

In 1995 our prophet Gordon B. Hinckley and his apostles gave "A Proclamation to the World" on the family. I want to share it with you. I know that many of the things it states will not agree with many of the things modern society says today. It may even seem "backwards," "old-fashioned," or just "wrong", which makes sharing the Proclamation a little intimidating... but I know it to be true. I believe that the role of mother and father are sacred ones and ones that should not be taken lightly, eliminated, or mocked. I believe bringing children into this world is also a sacred role and responsibility, also not meant to be taken lightly.

I recognize that this proclamation gives an ideal and the ideal is rarely obtained, but we can always strive for it. I also recognize that we are all not perfect, our families aren't perfect, our situations aren't perfect, life isn't perfect, but the point of life is not to strive for sameness but instead to work on our imperfections, to work through the imperfections of life, to learn, to grow, and to change so that we can come, at least a little, closer to our goal of perfection - Our goal of living and loving as Christ lived and loved and as Christ teaches us to live and love.

I often feel like we have become less interested in improving ourselves and more interested in just doing and being what is easy. We keep lowering the bar because, as I know too well, change is hard. Changing ourselves is even harder. Yet, we didn't come here to return the same, we came here to return better than we were before. We came here to change.

Families are important and strong families are the foundation for a strong society. It is not something to lower the bar on. I know parts of modern society will disagree, but I believe that what our prophets and apostles have outlined for us in the proclamation to be from God. #40daysoftruth#LentChallenge2014

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng

The Family: A Proclamation to the World
www.lds.org
The Family: A Proclamation to the World


Day 10: Where do you go to seek the truth?

Kelley Barrow Miles shared this video a few days ago. I like it because it brings the experiences of Joseph Smith to a modern day scenario. We all seek truth and understanding.

There is only one place were we can find full truth. #40daysoftruth#LentChallenge2014

http://youtu.be/YqZ8bTjj-_E


Origin
The best way to find truth is to go to the origin, our Heavenly Father, and ask for inspiration through prayer.


Jenny Barrow shared a link.
Day 10: Be Grateful.

We have so much to be grateful for, the fact that we woke up this morning is enough to be grateful for; then we each have our own individual tender mercies given to us every day.

I could list mine, but it would get long, and I would leave something out. Instead I just want to share what a difference it has made in my life to actively choose to express thanks, to see the blessings in my life.

It is a humbling experience to see how blessed we are, it makes it harder to complain about circumstances when you take a moment to acknowledge all you have been given. And it makes it easier to share, and to seek to improve the world when you see all that you have so generously been given.

I am doing this Lent activity with my sisters. My sister Ann shared this video yesterday. I grew up hearing Gordon B Hinckley tell this story, the story teaches several principles. But the one I reflect on the most is the attitude of gratefulness demonstrated by the poor farmer. It made a deep impression on me as a young person. And I did not know the story had been made into a youtube video until Ann shared it yesterday.

I am grateful she shared it, I am grateful for my dear family. They are a wonderful example to me. I am grateful for so very much. #40daysoftruth#LentChallenge2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqX9iYE0V0


Lessons I Learned as a Boy
President Gordon B. Hinckley recalls a story of an older boy and his young companion as they find an old coat and a badly worn pair of shoes by the roadside....









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