#SharetheGift: A Challenge

On Sunday I taught the lesson in our Relief Society. I had been strongly feeling for months that I needed to teach on a certain topic. My month to teach was nearing and then I found out I would no longer be able to attend that Sunday due to a baby blessing.  It was strange but I actually felt a little torn.  It was my sisters first baby and I definitely needed and wanted to be there but because I felt the urgency in my message I had feelings of uncertainty about not sharing the message I was supposed to in a timely manner. However, I knew that I needed to be there with my family and I was.  Over the next month my lesson morphed into something I wasn't aware it would become and I believe it was the exact message that I was meant to share with the Relief Society and Young Women of our ward (women that are 12 years and older). With the help of several who were willing to share their testimonies and experiences the Spirit was very strong and the direction the lesson took was guided heavily by the direction of the Holy Ghost.

On Sunday I felt nervous to teach, as usual, but I also felt a feeling of calm that doesn't always accompany my lessons. During fast and testimony meeting I kept feeling pushed to stand and share just a glimpse of my lesson with the entire ward.  I pushed it aside for a time rationalizing that I was already doing something "scary" or that made me nervous in Relief Society and that that was enough.  It most certainly was not because I felt pushed again and again and I stood. And now here I am again as I have felt prompted to share the message I was guided to share Sunday here on my stagnant blog. I hope that someone will come along and read and join in and #sharethegift this season.

First watch this beautiful video:

Birth of our Savior
 Years ago a babe was born in a manger; A baby that came to bring His Father's children back to Him.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

He lived as a perfect example and died to save us all. Jesus Christ made it possible for all of us to have salvation. "He is the Christ. He is Christmas. He is the Gift." He came to Earth to do his Father's work, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39)".  In turn, as members of the church we have been given a 3 fold mission to help in the work of saving souls.We are to Perfect the Saints, Redeem the Dead, and Proclaim the Gospel.  Each of these directs us to share the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ.  What greater gift to give our brothers and sisters then to guide them back to their Father by sharing with them the Gift of Christ. President Ezra Taft Benson asked this question, “what can we possibly give to the Lord this Christmastime?” I suggest that the greatest gift we could give Him is one of His children; A child of God who has not yet received fully the Gift of Christ.

Now go and #SharetheGift by following the directions below:

Choose a Goal to Help in the work of Saving Souls
Choose a prepared goal below or create your own to fit one of the three sections. Select your goal prayerfully and with the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Your goal may not be what you expect. Listen to the Spirit and God will direct you to know how and to whom you might share the Gift of Christ.

Perfect the Saints (You, Your Family, and Your Ward Family)
Potential Goal - If you are not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints make a goal to learn more about our Faith. (Chat with Missionaries Online, Request a free Book of Mormon and read it, or Read more at Mormon.org.)

Elder Bednar said, "When we invite you to attend church with us or to learn with the full-time missionaries, we are not trying to sell you a product. As members of the Church, we do not receive prizes or bonus points in a heavenly contest. We are not seeking simply to increase the numerical size of the Church. And most importantly, we are not attempting to coerce you to believe as we do. We are inviting you to hear the restored truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ so you can study, ponder, pray, and come to know for yourself if the things we are sharing with you are true."

Potential Goal - Make a personal goal to hold a current temple recommend. 

President Monson encouraged, “If you have not yet been to the temple or if you have been but currently do not qualify for a recommend, there is no more important goal for you to work toward than being worthy to go to the temple. Your sacrifice may be bringing your life into compliance with what is required to receive a recommend, perhaps by forsaking long-held habits which disqualify you. It may be having the faith and the discipline to pay your tithing. Whatever it is, qualify to enter the temple of God. Secure a temple recommend and regard it as a precious possession, for such it is.”

Redeem the Dead (Your Ancestors and Others Who have Passed on)
Potential Goals: - Work on your family history, find a name, and take it to the temple.
- Attend the temple more often to redeem the dead.

Elder Scott said, “Any work you do in the temple is time well spent, but receiving ordinances vicariously for one of your own ancestors will make the time in the temple more sacred, and even greater blessings will be received. The First Presidency has declared, “Our preeminent obligation is to seek out and identify our own ancestors.”

Proclaim the Gospel (Everyone)
Potential Goals: - Share the gospel (Bear testimony, give a Book of Mormon, share a Mormon message, etc.) - Extend an invitation to a neighbor, co-worker, acquaintance, friend, or family member. (Invite to Church, missionary discussions, an activity, Family Home Evening, etc)

President Eyring warned, “Well, the danger may be hard to see, but it is real, both for them and for us. For instance, at some moment in the world to come, everyone you met in this life will know what you know now. They will know that the only way to live forever in association with our families and in the presence of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, is to choose to enter into the gate by baptism at the hands of those with authority from God. They will know that the only way families can be together forever is to accept and keep sacred covenants offered in the temples of God on this earth. They will know that you knew. And they will remember whether you offered them what someone had offered you. It’s easy to say, “The time isn’t right.” But there is danger in procrastination."

Unified Deadline
If possible, set March 1st as your deadline to reach your goal. That gives you 12 weeks in your efforts. Also try to make the goal you choose be something that is attainable, something that can be completed. (Ex. make your goal to go x number of times to the temple per month not just to go to the temple more often or to find a name to take to the temple not simply to just do family history.) As we are all working and praying to fulfill our goals I know the Lord will bless us in our unified efforts.

Share and Learn Together
To create a little accountability to learn and grow from each other the sisters in our ward will be reporting back with their experiences and testimonies in a follow up lesson on March 1st.   If you'd like to join in and take this challenge with us you can come back to this post on or before March 1st and share your experience in the comments.  If you would like to be held further accountable to carry out your goal or simply to share your experience you may email your typed experience/testimony to becominglds@gmail.com and put “March Lesson” as your subject. If you send it to my email your giving me permission to share your experience in my Relief Society lesson on March 1st.

For God so loved the world and so loved you and you and you and every single one of us. He gave His son. He is the Christ. He is Christmas. He is the Gift. Share the Gift.

BINGO New Year's Resolutions and a New Family Scripture Study Plan

So with a strike of the clock at midnight and a change from December to January a new year has begun.  Time to transition from writing 2011 to writing 2012.  Time to check in with yourself and say out with the old and the ugly and in with the new and the more worthy.  I really enjoy this new period of freshness. Of course each day can be a day of resolving to be better or the change from each month or week can bring a newness that stirs up change but there is still something about a brand new year that is so liberating.  I am excited. 

How do you make resolutions at your house?  Do you think up one giant goal and go forth?  Do you write it down in your journal?  Do you list off so many that there is just no way you could ever complete it all?  Do you involve your family or is it totally individual? 

How do you keep yourself motivated?  Do you tell your spouse or child so that you have some accountability to someone? 

I'd love to hear your New Year traditions.  I'd love to hear how things roll at your house.

This year we decided to try something new and kind of fun. I read in a comment on a blog during the last week or so someone who puts their resolutions onto a BINGO card.  I am not sure of any details.  They mostly put on their board simple things that they wanted to do as a family that year like build a snowman, or go to the beach, etc.  It sounded like a fun idea and I thought I'd try our own version of their BINGO idea. 

I thought about doing a card together but my son really wanted to do individual ones, so today we are all thinking about what our 24 squares will contain.  They must be measurable.  Something we can put a sticker on to say we've completed it or vastly improved.  We are going to see who can get BINGO first and then who can get black out first. 

Now 24 resolutions could be quite unattainable if made too large so we plan to have our BINGO cards contain a few more difficult and needed resolutions and somethings we'd like to do this year just for fun. 

For example, I'd like to dejunk and organize our entire home but that is quite a lofty goal and thus I have turned it into 7 different squares on my BINGO card and mixed in there I'd like to read a parenting book or two, run a 5k this summer after baby arrives, etc. 

Among the list that is slowly developing is this very important resolution of a Revamped Family Scripture Study  - Yeah, so we have been in need of a change for a while.    In the past we have done topical scripture study, gospel art kit scripture studies with direction, and more, but things have become a little laxed.  We have been reading (mostly telling) the scriptures every day but for the past little while it has been without much thought or real investment or purpose and that is about to change.  Now I don't have all of the kinks worked out but our plan will go something like this:

We are going to READ from the Book of Mormon directly.  We will focus on a particular scripture story or block each week.  In the January Friend they have THIS weekly reading schedule but I am not sure it will fit what I am looking for.  I'd love a schedule that covers the main stories and characters of the Book of Mormon but that does not require a cover to cover read.  I'd love to read anywhere from 5-15 verses a day but still keep some continuity in story lines and such.  Does anyone have a family plan you've created or something you've seen online that would work? 

Unless one of you sends me a perfect schedule I plan to use the Book of Mormon Stories book to guide me in my verse selections for each week.  Then we will read from the pages of the actual Book of Mormon, 5-15 verses each day.  I will sometimes use pictures for the Gospel Art Kit or Book to give visuals.  At the end of each week we will review the story we have just learned from the scriptures by reading the story in the Book of Mormon Stories book. 

Now so far this sounds like a typical family scripture study regimen but here is the twist.  We are going to be focusing on CHARACTERISTICS of people in the Book of Mormon.  I am going to create a poster (yea still have some work to do :) and as we discover worthy characteristics then we will add them to the poster in this fashion:

OBEDIENT:
Nephi was obedient when he built the boat.

And as time goes on our list will expand and be added to.  We will also add how we have seen those characteristics in people in our family or people we know, for example the obedient characteristic may grow to look like this:

OBEDIENT:
Nephi was obedient when he built the boat.
Bob was obedient when he cleaned his room.

I am hoping that this will help our little family to see the things we can improve in, how we are like those in the scriptures, and motivate us to be better.

I am excited to try out this year long Book of Mormon reading feast and to put this promise to the test:

President Marion G. Romney said:
       
'I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness' (Ensign, May 1980, p. 67).
       
"These promises—increased love and harmony in the home, greater respect between parent and child, increased spirituality and righteousness—are not idle promises, but exactly what the Prophet Joseph Smith meant when he said the Book of Mormon will help us draw nearer to God."

  "The Book of Mormon - Keystone of our Religion" - President Benson - Oct. 1986 Gen. Conf.    

We could use that!

So there is a little bit of what is going on at our house, so what's happening out your house this year?

More Holiness Give Me...

On Sunday we sang the Hymn, "More Holiness Give Me", and it was one of my favorite parts of the meeting. I have heard this song many times but for some reason this time every phrase, every thought seemed to portray a need for greater desire, personal action, and complete diligence. I mentioned this to my husband and found that he had experienced the very same thing as I did during this sacrament meeting hymn. One thing that he said during our discussion was that the Hymn is like a sermon and it really is. Each line could be turned into a sermon in and of itself. What a powerful hymn.

While thinking about the words to this song I came across this wonderful talk by Bishop H. David Burton where he talks about the need for a decrease of the worldly "mores" and a greater focus on developing the "mores" of virtue, "The current conventional wisdom is that more is better and less is usually undesirable. For some, the pursuit to acquire more of this world’s goods and services has become a passion. For others, more of this world’s wealth is necessary just to sustain life or raise living standards to a minimum level. The unbridled desire for more often has tragic consequences.

The meaning of more and less is not always crystal clear. There are times when less is in reality more and times when more can be less. For instance, less pursuit of materialism may enable more family togetherness. More indulgence of children may result in less understanding of life’s important values.

Some aspects of life can be significantly enhanced by the notion that more is better. The sacred hymn “More Holiness Give Me” (Hymns, no. 131) brings to our remembrance the virtues worthy of more of our attention. Jesus Himself described what it requires to be “more, Savior, like thee.” He said, “I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Ne. 12:48)."

As you read the words to the Hymn below, what line sticks out to you the most? What area could you use more perfecting in? As I listened and sang along on Sunday so many things seemed worthy of my greater attention.

More holiness give me, more strivings within.

More patience in suffering, more sorrow for sin.

More faith in my Savior, more sense of His care.

More joy in His service, more purpose in prayer.

More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord.

More zeal for His glory, more hope in His Word.

More tears for His sorrows, more pain at His grief.

More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

More purity give me, more strength to o’ercome,

More freedom from earth-stains, more longings for home.

More fit for the kingdom, more useful I’d be,

More blessèd and holy, more, Savior, like Thee.

Bishop Burton continues, "The virtues expressed in “More Holiness Give Me” fall into several groups. Some are personal goals, like more holiness give me; more strivings within; more faith, gratitude, and purity; more fit for the kingdom; more purpose in prayer; and more trust in the Lord. Others center on adversity. They include patience in suffering, meekness in trial, praise for relief, strength to overcome, freedom from earth stains, and longing for home. The rest firmly anchor us to our Savior: more sense of His care; more pride in His glory; more hope in His word; more joy in His service; more tears for His sorrows; more pain at His grief; more blessed and holy; and more, Savior, like Thee. More of these virtues is better. Less is not desirable.

I have a new found love for this Hymn and many mini-sermons to take a much deeper look into. It is time to take a closer look at my life and turn some of my "mores" into less and some of my lackings into "mores". Let us strive to give more attention to the virtues so perfectly written in this Hymn.

As you read the Hymn, which line had the greatest impact on you? Would you like to see me write a post on a specific line from this Hymn? If so, which one?

New Year's Resolutions

Now that Christmas has come and gone...it is time to start thinking of our resolution(s) for this upcoming year. As some of you know I love the true definitions of words so I looked up the words resolution and resolve and found that their actual definitions are this: A determination to do something or an earnest decision. I often will make a list of things that I want to work on with great desire and determination at the beginning and then I will gradually slow down in my efforts until I reach the point of giving no effort at all. When it comes to the true defintion of resolve I guess I have rarely actually had one but the time is now.

I challenge us all this year to choose just one thing to work on, one thing to be better at. Often times we notice all of our weaknesses and when we determine to be better we try to tackle them all at once. I have found that this technique always results in failure to meet our well intentioned goals. My challenge to all of us is to make a list of the things we want to do or be better at this year and to tackle each of them one by one as priorities guide. My hope is that we all can have a greater determination to do something with the serious intent to follow through and meet our goal(s).

Elder Ballard said, "When you learn to master the principle of setting a goal, you will then be able to make a great difference in the results you attain in this life. We can become the masters of our own destinies by practicing self-discipline and by setting worthy goals that will lead to higher ground so that we can become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become."

Just as Elder Ballard said, we need to set worthy goals that will lead us to higher ground and that will help us see a greater result. One thing that I found very helpful in setting goals is to create goals that are measurable. When you can see your results and see that you are progressing or that you are meeting your goals it can be incredibly gratifying and rewarding - it can be a great propelling force to help you continue on in your quest to reach that goal or that resolve.

So as you write down your goals for this year think of ways to make them more measurable. For example, if you were going to write "be more kind to my sister" think of something more specific and measurable like "play with my sister every week" or "compliment my sister everyday". When you are more specific and have an actually action to complete it is more likely to take place as you will be more likely to follow through.

At the links below you can find great charts to help you stay on track and follow your progress throughout the year. There are charts and calendars for many different areas of life but if you can't find one here that you like or that matches your goal then create one that works for you.

Scripture Reading Charts

Daily Prayer Chart

Commitment Calendars by Emily Peterson - There are calendars to mark off anything from exercise to family home evenings.

Goal Setting Worksheets

Good luck to us all as we set out this next year to do better and to become better.