Proclamation Series: Come to the Mountain of the Lord-the holy temple

"Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally." The Family: A Proclamation to the World

This week on  Family Proclamation on Fridays I want to focus on the  importance of temples. 

 The ordinances we make and keep are sometimes referred to "saving" ordinances.  Why?  Because they will literally save us and enable us and our families to return to the presence of God. They are that important.

As Mothers Who Know, we know the importance of making and keeping covenants.

" Mothers who know honor sacred ordinances and covenants. I have visited sacrament meetings in some of the poorest places on the earth where mothers have dressed with great care in their Sunday best despite walking for miles on dusty streets and using worn-out public transportation. They bring daughters in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts. These mothers know they are going to sacrament meeting, where covenants are renewed. These mothers have made and honor temple covenants. They know that if they are not pointing their children to the temple, they are not pointing them toward desired eternal goals. These mothers have influence and power." -Julie B. Beck, Mothers Who Know October 2007 Ensign

Our Young Women recite this in their theme every Sunday:

"We believe as we come to accept and act upon [these] values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation. 

If you want a powerful read, read Julie B. Beck's talk on the Doctrine of the Family 

She refers to the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement as the Theology of the Family.  The Creation of this earth, was the creation of an earth where a family could live.  The Fall provided a family.  Without the Fall, there would have been no family.  And the Atonement makes it possible for us to live after this life, with our Father in Heaven, as families......The Theology of the Family.  This is what it is all about.

Doctrine and Covenants 2 : temple blessings and covenants. 

1 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of ^aElijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and ^bdreadful day of the Lord.

2 And ^ahe shall plant in the hearts of the children the ^bpromises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.

3 If it were not so, the whole ^aearth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

September 21, 1823. Angel Moroni, the last prophet of the Book of Mormon appeared to Joseph Smith as a resurrected being. He came in light and he had a very important message from the Lord to Joseph Smith and to the world.

The message Moroni had was D&C 2  about preparing the world to receive the blessings of the temple. Three times during the same night and one more time the next morning, the angel Moroni delivered the exact same message to Joseph Smith.

This is the only scripture that is quoted in all four standard works. The promises of the children made to the fathers was that their hearts would turn to their fathers . Who are the fathers? Julie B. Beck said, “The fathers were Adam, Abraham,Isaac, Jacob, Noah—those ancient prophets who understood the doctrine of eternal families. The temple provides the saving ordinances and covenants of eternal life, without which “the whole earth [would be] utterly wasted.”

This message was so important, it was given to Joseph Smith BEFORE he received the plates, BEFORE the Book of Mormon was translated, BEFORE he received the priesthood, and BEFORE the church was organized. 

Moroni was the one to deliver the message AND he is delivering a message to us every day.

I love what Sister Elaine Dalton said in our YW General Conference last week,

"  I have a spectacular view of the Salt Lake Temple. Every day I see the angel Moroni standing atop the temple as a shining symbol of not only his faith but ours. I love Moroni because, in a very degenerate society, he remained pure and true. He is my hero. He stood alone. I feel somehow he stands atop the temple today, beckoning us to have courage, to remember who we are, and to be worthy to enter the holy temple—to “arise and shine forth,”¹ to stand above the worldly clamor, and to, as Isaiah prophesied, “Come … to the mountain of the Lord”²—the holy temple.

See other posts on temples {CLICK HERE} 

Spinning Plates and the Atonement

Sometimes I feel like a magic plate spinner. 

 Each one of the labeled plates above could also have its own set of spinning plates.

Many days I feel like I am running from plate to plate trying to keep them all spinning, spinning, spinning so that they don't fall. 

Do you ever feel like that?

 Elder Bednar  wrote this amazing talk that I needed today.  I opened up my new Ensign and there it was: The Atonement, and the Journey of Mortality

This talk is basically the same message as In the Strength of the Lord which is on my Must Reads list.

I even wrote a blog post about it {CLICK HERE}

What I am touched by this time as I read it, is how we need the Atonement so much in EVERYTHING! 

"The enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and to serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity."-Elder Bednar

The enabling power of grace is a must have in my life. 

I need it.

I need Him.

  I am so grateful for the Atonement. 

I know He lives. 

The True Source: Jesus Christ

{Source}

Today during Stake Conference, President White, our 2nd counselor in our Stake Presidency,was sharing 2 Nephi 25:26 in his talk:

 "And we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins."

 My mind kind of stopped on the reference  of "source" and how Jesus Christ is our source for a remission of our sins and everything else.


 Then in my mind's eye I saw a photo from one of my blog posts with the word "SOURCE" underneath to identify where that picture originated from and who it's true author was. See the example above.

Out of my own curiosity I looked up the synonyms for "source" to help me understand more about how Jesus Christ is our true source .  I was amazed at how much meaning and depth it brought to the scripture by just understanding all the different meanings of that word.  I didn't know it meant so many things.

These were some that I found: author, authorship, begetter,expert, fount, father, informant, parent, specialist, starting point, wellspring...

Each one of those words applies to Christ and who He is and can be in our lives, if we look to Him.

I am a very visual learner, so I put together some pictures to help illustrate how the Savior is our true source. [Make sure you click on source.]

For a remission of our sins

Source

In our faith growing and being sustained

source

In Prayer

source

In being directed and guided,
He is our light

source


 In our joy

source

In our marriages

source

In our Families

source

In the food we eat and depend on daily

source

In the beauty of His creations

source

In our daily spiritual feasting of the scriptures

source

In the saving ordinances and covenants

 available in Holy Temples that will allow us

 to return to live with Him again someday

source

Proclamation Pillows

This idea came from Shannon @ theredheadedhostess.com

{click here for project "Throw Pillow with a Message}

Our focus in Young Women's this year is

The Family Proclamation. 

We are working on memorizing it and trying to implement it all year into our Sunday lessons as well as our weekday activities.

We did this as a Laurel activity and it was a big hit.  The girls all loved this!  It had been on our calendar for a long time and there was much anticipation leading up to it. 

This activity as a Young Womens' activity was a little more on the pricey side, but  "worth it". Due to the high importance of The Proclamation and looking for creative and different ways to teach it, this became a  "must do" in my eyes .  We just had to get a little creative with how to fund it...

We asked the girls to bring their own material and pillow.  One pillow only takes about 1/2 yard of fabric, so that is very affordable.  The form pillows were priced around $8-$10 at our Walmart.If I was just making this for myself, I might spend the money for that.  But, that was more than I personally wanted to spend on materials for a young women project, if I didn't have to.  I also have  twin daughters in Laurels, so I was looking at this from a leader perspective as well as a mom  perspective.

 Guess what?  I didn't have to buy the form pillows!  This is what we did:

We bought the cheapest of the cheap bed pillows. I found some for $2.50. We then cut the pillows in half.  That makes each half $1.25!  Very affordable and you can't tell difference once it is in the pillow.

Some girls brought old couch pillows and just used that for their pillow.

After the girls have written their Proclamation phrases...sew 3 edges together with right side together.  Clip the corners as shown in the picture

Make sure after you flip it with the right sides out, that you poke your corners out really good.

Pin the top edge, then hand sew it. 

Proclamation Pillows done! 

Proclamation Series: The Divine Plan of Happiness

"In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally "

Two years ago my aunt died. She was in her mid 70s, had cancer, and went rather quickly. I loved her dearly! She is one of my mother's sisters and was a second mother to me in life. She was one of the soft places I had to land. She always loved me with the sweetest purest love. When she died, I was heart-broken. Out of the clear blue sky, announced, I would burst into heart-broken tears over her death. Just yesterday I heard Whitney Houston's song "I Will Always Love You" and the tears came right back.

But I do feel peace, knowing she is on the other side. She still lives. I have felt her presence with me from time to time. It is comforting to know that someone who knows me and loves me is on the other side, not too far away, watching over me.

I know that through the blessing of the temple, families can be together eternally. Death does not have to separate families.

I had an interesting visit with a new friend.  She began to tell me of her conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not your typical conversion story:

"She and her husband both moved to the same town from different locations, in their high school years. Neither one of them were members of the church at that time, although they had friends who were LDS.  They dated each other in high school, then  were later married in a Baptist church.  They weren't Baptist, but had a friend who was, so that is where they were married.  Shortly after they were married they had the feelings of wanting to start going to a church of some kind, but they weren't sure where or which one. 

Another friend of theirs (who was LDS ) had an infant son who died suddenly of SIDS.   She wanted so badly to comfort her friend in this devastating loss, but did not know how. She was at a loss of what to say or how to comfort her. This baby's death effected her and her husband deeply.  They were groping to understand the "whys" as much as anyone.  They attended the funeral and were deeply touched by the message of hope and the Spirit that was felt there.   The funeral was the turning point in their conversion.  They received the missionaries who taught them the gospel and they were baptized.  "

That was probably 20 years ago or so, and they think of that infant boy who died of SIDS as their first missionary.  Without his death, they feel they wouldn't have been introduced to the gospel.  They revere him in that his purpose and mission on this earth was partly for them to find the true gospel of Jesus Christ.  This tragedy of loss in this families life, gave the light of the gospel in the other.

That story touched me  deeply. I have the faith and assurance that this family who lost their son, will see him again.  They are still a family and their family relationship can "be perpetuated after death"

For more information on how we can live as families and with God again, {click here}

To read The Family: A Proclamation to the World {click here}

Putting on the Whole Armor of God/FHE

This was a family home evening lesson we did when we had grade school age children and teenagers. It was a great visual that worked on both age groups on teaching about putting on the armor of God.

Lesson: 

What is going to happen when we put these oranges into the water?

 Are they going to sink or are they going to float?

[the younger kids will probably answer SINK, because an orange looks heavy enough to sink in water]

But, instead....the oranges FLOAT because they have their ARMOR on

What happens when you peel the oranges?

Without their ARMOR on, they sink! We can compare these oranges to us and how important it is to put on our full armor everyday.

Here is on oldie but goodie seminary video from the 80's: 

 "Putting on the Armor of God" and symbolically what can happen if we take off our armor even for a minute.

Scripture: Ephesians 6: 11-17

11 Put on the whole ^aarmour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For we ^awrestle not ^bagainst ^cflesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the ^drulers of the ^edarkness of this world, against spiritual ^fwickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having your loins ^agirt about with ^btruth, and having on the ^cbreastplate of ^drighteousness;

15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of ^apeace;

16 Above all, taking the shield of ^afaith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery ^bdarts of the wicked.

17 And take the helmet of ^asalvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

We identified and discussed

• What each part of the armor represented spiritually
• The fiery darts around us
• What we can each do to put on our armor of God
• How to be and stay prepared

We especially like the symbolism of the sword representing the Spirit and how the spirit and the sword both can pierce our souls.  One of the Seminary students remembered talking about this in seminary last week and she looked up this scripture:

Alma 31:5

5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

Family Proclamation Application:

"the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life."

"Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them..."

"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." 

__________________________________________________________________

 extra reading.....Putting on the Armor of God, Ensign January 2001--here are a few thoughts from this article:

“Each of us, no matter who we are, no matter where we serve, must arise and make the most of each opportunity that comes. We must follow the counsel given by the Lord and His servants and make our homes houses of prayer and havens of security and safety. We can and must deepen our faith by increasing our obedience and sacrifice” (“Rejoice, Daughters of Zion,” Ensign, Nov. 1999, 94).

Sometimes it may seem difficult to rise above the world to that level of righteousness. But as we strive to “take unto [ourselves] the whole armour of God,” we will “be able to withstand in the evil day” (Eph. 6:13).

How to Put on the Armor of God

President N. Eldon Tanner (1898–1982), First Counselor in the First Presidency, observed that “those who are clothed in such armor, which means keeping all the commandments of God, are able to withstand the adversary.”

He continued: “Are we studying the scriptures so that we can increase our knowledge and faith and testimony regarding the gospel? … Are we honest and truthful in our dealings? Do we keep the Sabbath day holy? Do we observe the Word of Wisdom? Do we pay an honest tithing? … Are we virtuous and clean and pure in heart and mind and deed?

“Do we fight against the evils around us … ? Do we have the courage to stand up for our convictions? Can we truly say we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Do we live peaceably with our neighbors and avoid gossip and backbiting and spreading unfounded rumors? Do we truly love our neighbors as ourselves?

“If we can answer yes to these questions, then we will have on the whole armor of God, which will protect us from harm and preserve us from our enemies” (“‘Put on the Whole Armor of God,’” Ensign, May 1979, 44, 46).

Daily Spiritual Renewal

"Lucile Johnson of the Timpanogos Park First Ward, Orem Utah North Stake, now in her 80s, learned early in life to don her spiritual “armor” at the beginning of each day. She remembers “arising early in the morning, before my husband and children were up. I found that kneeling in the stillness of my living room, I could begin pleading with our Father for my needs for that day. This brought me great peace, and I learned that He was my helper and protector. Then I would open my scriptures and partake of their inspiration and guidance. Each morning, before I began whatever I had to do—alone, with little children or teenagers, or with my husband in the military and off to war—I knew I would be equal to it."

“That is why I believe in taking the time in the quiet of the early morning hours to study and pray. You will begin your day with a renewing of your spirit. Then you will be truly ready for whatever might come that day.”

Creating a Blog Button

<center> <a href="http://mothers-who-know.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCANXCH5iOq5ADw7wp03DOYzW3KNzVn-KOe-p9nibV1Lq0zRoqEwUGhOC4yW2czlGmy32XTNn-UP9i0QsytqJosYwGc0Ig3TTWOhEfcRGmNlsN7K0Dv2PPQJ-QkQ_HZyst8nlJBjjB128/s1600/Pictures1-1.jpg " /></a></center>

Are you interested in creating your own blog button??

Making a blog button with a code underneath is not as hard as it looks. 

FIRST: Like with my whole blogging journey I turn to google for help.  I typed in a search "How to Create Blog Button"  Several tutuorials popped up and then it was a matter of time trying to find the right tutorial for my brain to understand.  I found it!  Here is the  {link}  I followed that really close. 

This takes time, concentration, and willingness to learn from mistakes until you figure it out.  It might take you a few tries until you can get it exactly right and how you want it.

 I think it took me three. 

I am sure there are many ways to do this... and probably better ways...but this is what worked for my brain! 

Your blog button image:

1. Choose your button image
2. Choose a photo editing site.  I use Picasa, and will just refer to them as a reference, but any photo editing site can do this for you.

Ok you have that part?

1. Upload your photo image to Picasa
2. Select your photo
3. Click collage

While creating your collage, don't worry at this point on the size of your picture.  You will tweek that later on. 

• Click "Create collage"

  This will then send you to the text editing page.

• you can select what ever kind of text you would like for your blog button. In Picasa it recognizes all of your fonts and you can really get creative with your text on your picture. You can make it all the same size and text, or you can have each letter different or how ever you like it.
• Crop your picture so the only thing you see is just the picture, no extra white around it, except for any picture border that you want.

When you have your blog button picture how you like it, click "Apply"

• Click the EXPORT folder on the bottom taskbar
• This will send you to the page where you can select the size of your picture.  They recommend 125 X 125.  This is the area I had to tweek a few times until I had it how I liked it.  125 X 125 was too small for my button.  You want it to be small so that others will want to put it on their blog, but not so small that you can't read the text.  Mine ended up at 180 X 180.
• Now click the export button --this will send it to your computer picture file where you can store it

Creating the code: Part 1

• Start a new post on your blog--you will not publish this, but will keep it as a DRAFT
• Upload your new blog button from your computer picture file
• On the LEFT, top corner of the post you will see two buttons: COMPOSE & HTML. 
•  Click on the HTML button.  There you will see a code...you will use part of this code to make your blog button code.  For right now, leave it alone, we will come back to this.

Creating the code: Part 2
For this part, you will need to open up a blank page in your documents.  This will give you a place to work on your code.  Copy and paste the code below.  Any mistake or deletion of any kind will mess up your code. Don't leave off any back slashes, quotation marks..nothing.

Copy and paste {this code}

Here are the changes you'll need to make to the above code to create a button with code underneath for your blog:

Step 1: In the two locations where you see the name of the  blog, Between Naps on the Front Porch in purple, replace that with the name of your blog. It’s okay to type it with spaces just as you see mine written. Remember, you don’t want to accidentally erase the quotation marks.

Step 2: Where you see the blog addresshttp://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ written in red in two places, replace that with your blog address. You can copy and paste it from the address bar when you bring your blog up on your computer. 

Step 3: In the two locations where you see the blue code, replace that code with the HTML code from your blog button post above.

Once again, you won't need the whole code.  The code you need is the code that starts with http and ends with .jpg. I’ve highlighted it in blue below on my image code. Yours should be located in about the same spot on your image code in the html view.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPavd8_u3hZSd6JSelrfMGz1k8SpDIcTEJTgoz1lwqRuQdjDsuieo2dgubT1yYyT37RA1VA13kTLK8VYqvitcxEaWQTmLbEYdk23oAhCg_wKjNZYds5oupj7GViG6ZVI7ZD-OHhDbgmcHk/s400/Chair+on+right+like+header.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 125px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 125px;" />

Copy just that section of your image code from the html view of your draft post and paste it into the two places where you see the blue code for my blog button, replacing my code with yours.

That’s it…you now have the code for your blog button. Save this in your word document where you can find it when you need it.

Step 4:

Copy and paste this whole new code into yout HTML/javascript on your add a gadget side-bar.  If you have a test blog you can try it out on there first to see if it what you want.

 Now you have a blog button that represents YOUR blog  with a code underneath for others to share your blog from their site.

<center> <a href="http://mothers-who-know.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCANXCH5iOq5ADw7wp03DOYzW3KNzVn-KOe-p9nibV1Lq0zRoqEwUGhOC4yW2czlGmy32XTNn-UP9i0QsytqJosYwGc0Ig3TTWOhEfcRGmNlsN7K0Dv2PPQJ-QkQ_HZyst8nlJBjjB128/s1600/Pictures1-1.jpg " /></a></center>  

YOU DID IT! Do a victory dance.  You deserve it.