Proclamation Series: Memorizing the Proclamation

The Family: A Proclamation to the World is an inspired document, and is scripture.  It was written by holy prophets for our day and time.  As the title says...it is a proclamation about families for the whole world. This is a powerful and timeless.

About 5 years after it was given, my parents called all of their children and challenged us to memorize the Proclamation. They had just finished memorizing it themselves after being challenged by their Stake President in Stake Conference.  To the inspiration of hundreds, a thirteen-year old girl stood and quoted it in front of their whole stake.

There is something to memorizing ....  when we memorize--we internalize.

So I accepted my parents challenge and set off to memorize this inspired, but huge document.  I already knew it was true and powerful, but I didn't know it, like I came to know it through this memorizing journey.

And it was a journey...of the proclamation becoming apart of me. 

One paragraph at a time....I would would work on....

I carried a copy around where ever I was in the house.  If I was washing dishes, it sat in my window sill and I would memorize away while I washed and cleaned the kitchen. 

When I was vacuuming, I was chanting the verses out loud trying to instill them into my brain.

While I was running errands around town, I was going through the Proclamation...

While I was rocking babies to sleep, I had it in my hand reading and memorizing important phrases and and family principles...instilling them into me.

Within a few days, maybe it was a week, I had memorized The Family: a Proclamation to the World. 

It was now internalized! 

To read and print off The Family: A Proclamation to the World  {Click Here}

POWER in the Word

I want to add my witness that scriptures have power to change lives.

"Prophets and apostles have assured us that as we face the trials of mortality, we can find strength, comfort, and peace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said, “I testify as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ … that the gospel is true, and that it offers the answers to all personal and collective challenges the children of God have on this earth today.”¹

Our individual circumstances may vary, but we can each turn to a divine source of power—the scriptures. ” (2 Nephi 31:20)."  (Ensign August 2012, Finding Power in the Scriptures)

 

Many years ago, I  was a young mother with 4 children under 4.  Two were toddlers, and two were newborn twins.  There is really only one word to describe my life back then...overwhelming! After all of my help left, (aka, my mom) getting through each day was a hard challenge. When I wasn't feeding or changing a newborn baby, I was taking care of my oldest two daughters who were 3 and 2. 

Can you imagine how busy and crazy that was!  I look back now, with fond memories, yet wonder how I did it? The answer is, I didn't do it alone.  None of us do and the scriptures had everything to do with how I successfully managed motherhood then and now.

 Without  a regular pattern of prayer and scripture study  in my life, I wouldn't have the power, strength, and guidance to magnify the most important calling in my life:  Motherhood.

 I learned very quickly, that reading my scriptures and saying personal prayers wasn't something I could opt out of as a mother.  I needed  the power that comes from daily prayer and scripture study.  

The very day I opened up my scriptures, the Lord immediately blessed me .  {See Mosiah 2: 24}

How have the scriptures changed your life?

Must Read Talks on the power of scriptures:

The Power of Scripture- Elder Richard G. Scott, November 2011 Ensign

Finding Power in the Scriptures- August 2012 Ensign, pg 54

Jeffrey R. Holland: Lessons From Liberty Jail

Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail by Liz Lemon Swindle

"One of the most trying times in the history of the Church, both in terms of its impact on the Church generally and in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith personally, occurred during the winter of 1838–39. The Prophet, who bore the brunt of the persecution in that period, had been imprisoned in the ironically named Liberty Jail. Until his martyrdom five and a half years later, there was no more burdensome time in Joseph’s life than this cruel, illegal, and unjustified incarceration."

"In the Prophet Joseph’s letters, he spoke of the jail being a “hell, surrounded with demons … where we are compelled to hear nothing but blasphemous oaths, and witness a scene of blasphemy, and drunkenness and hypocrisy, and debaucheries of every description.”² “We have … not blankets sufficient to keep us warm; and when we have a fire, we are obliged to have almost a constant smoke,” he said.³ “Our souls have been bowed down”⁴ and “my nerve trembles from long confinement,” Joseph wrote.⁵ “Pen, or tongue, or angels,” could not adequately describe “the malice of hell” that he suffered there.⁶ All of this occurred during what, by some accounts, was considered the coldest winter on record in the state of Missouri."

Ironically, Elder Holland  refers to the Liberty Jail as a temple

"Most of us, most of the time, speak of the facility at Liberty as a “jail” or a “prison”—and certainly it was that. But Elder Brigham H. Roberts (1857–1933) of the First Council of the Seventy, in recording the history of the Church, spoke of the facility as a temple, or, more accurately, a “prison-temple.”

"The speech and behavior of the guards and criminals who came there were anything but temple-like. In fact, the restricting brutality and injustice of this experience at Liberty would make it seem the very antithesis of the liberating, merciful spirit of our temples and the ordinances performed in them."

How then could something so horrible as the Liberty Jail experience be compared to a temple? 

I love this

' ... that you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced."

"In one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, every one of us is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not be our fault. Indeed, we may face difficult circumstances for reasons that were absolutely right and proper, reasons that came because we were trying to keep the commandments of the Lord. We may face persecution, we may endure heartache and separation from loved ones, we may be hungry and cold and forlorn. Yes, before our lives are over we may all be given a little taste of what the prophets faced often in their lives."

Read More {Lessons from Liberty Jail}

Church History Tour- Sacred Places

Looking towards the Sacred Grove from the
back door of Joseph Smith's childhood home

I have had a week I will never forget as I was part of a Church History tour of the Eastern States.  We began our tour in Boston, Massachussettes touching on American History and how it was intertwined with the early ancestors of Joseph Smith.  We went through Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New York. We ended our tour in Kirtland, Ohio which I learned is one of the most sacred places on earth.

I am forever changed by what I learned and experienced.

This picture you are seeing is one I took while standing in the kitchen area of Joseph Smith's log home as he had a perfect view of "the place he pre-designed to go" to pray to God. 

It was there that in answer to his question, "which of all the churches is the right one to join?" an innocent but heart-felt question by a young 14 year old boy -God, the Father and His Beloved Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph. 

Entering the Sacred Grove as it has been now named, is a sacred walk.  They have created a walkway where you can walk through the grove.  It is about about 1/2 mile long that loops around.  This is a very serene peace there that you don't feel many places. 
It is extremely quiet, reverent, and holy.

In the grove there are a few large trees that some call  "witness trees".  Trees that were possibly there to witnesses,  the First Vision. The one in the picture above is one of those trees.  It is much bigger than it looks in this photo.

Joseph Smith's home and the Sacred Grove are  two of the sacred places on earth!  You feel it and cannot be there without being changed.
 
Karl Anderson, who is the author of several books on sacred places in Kirtland, described these places best when he said, "they  are of the small and simple places on the earth not unlike the manger" When you think of the manger where our Savior was layed after his birth, you know that was the most sacred moment and place on earth, and the most humble. We can only imagine a mother giving birth in such circumstances.  Most if not all of the deeply sacred and holy places on this earth were in the humble simple places of the earth.
I love that the sacred grove has remained virtually untouched since 1820, preserving the sacredness of it like a museum of time. I love this place and know that Joseph Smith had a vision there seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son in all their glory. 

Finding Faith in an Empty Tank of Gas

When the Savior was on the earth He asked,

 "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)

What is true faith?

 Faith is defined as "belief and trust in loyalty to God...firm belief in something for which there is no proof. We believe that faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true...and our faith must be centered in Jesus Christ.

Faith is a power, not to just to be believed in, but to be lived.

Proclamation Series: Nurturing our Family Through Food

In The Family a Proclamation to the World it teaches:

"Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children"

That one simple declaration has made me reflect over and over again on my role in our home as a "nurturer"

I will admit, many years ago, I felt a little gypped that our only declared role was to nurture. It is such a short one-liner. Wasn't there more to be had as a mother? Did we get the short end of the stick?

To nurture means: to promote and sustain the growth and development of something, to feed or support, educate or train, nourish, raise, inspire with confidence, give hope or courage to, care for, rear,bring up from infancy,help develop, help grow...etc

Basically it encompasses all we do as mothers, and what we do best. We have the natural innate tendencies to nurture. Through nurturing we come to find ourselves and fulfill God's purposes.

I have a picture on my wall that is a great reminder to me everyday

We can't underestimate our value and worth in the nurturing of our children.

One of the greatest ways we nurture our family is through food

Children are born associating mom with food. Sometimes we try to separate ourselves as mothers from being the constant need to be the food person.

Through nature and because of nurturing: we are it.

I have noticed that there is little else that can bring a feeling of home, comfort, warmth, and family bond more than mom baking, cooking, being there in the kitchen doing her thing.

I have also noticed, that there is really no homey feeling of comfort, warmth, or family bonding when we as mothers, are not there providing meals and food for our families in a nurturing way.

When we are standing up around the counter, everyone "fending for themselves", and eating on their own. Besides feeling chaos, you will definitely notice that

something is missing!

...and it will effect the spirit of your home and the cohesiveness of our family.

There is something to sitting down together, with every one's feet under the table, eating a meal, and talking about the day. It is worth sacrificing to make happen.

Dallin H. Oaks in his talk Good, Better, Best said this:

"The number of those who report that their “whole family usually eats dinner together” has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together “eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological adjustment.”

What your children really want for dinner is you."

Nurturing our family through food, in one of those small and simple things...
for which great things are brought to pass.

See: Julie B. Beck's, {Powerful Nurturing}

The Atonement is like a Blanket

When I think of the Atonement, I think of a blanket that covers me.


By nature I am almost always cold.  I hate to be cold more than anything else.  If I am cold, I cannot sleep at night, and cannot concentrate during the day.  My mind just wants comfort and warmth.

Turning to the Lord, and having the Atonement applied in my life and letting it cover my pains, heart-aches, struggles, and sins...feels like the perfect warm blanket on a cold night warming, soothing, comforting, loving, and bringing healing to a needing body.

"The word atonement is from the ancient Hebrew word Kaphar, which means to cover. Isn’t it interesting that when Adam and Eve discovered their nakedness in the Garden of
Eden, God sent Jesus to make coats of skins to cover them? Coats of skins don’t grow
on trees. They had to be made from an animal, which means an animal had to be killed.
Perhaps that was the very first animal sacrifice. Because of that sacrifice, Adam and Eve
were covered. In the same way, through Jesus’s sacrifice, we are also covered."--see Brad Wilcox  Faith as an Anchor

Symbolism of the Sacrament

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

I once taught this as a young woman's lesson and made a sacrament card for each of them, to put in their scriptures and pull out during the sacrament to remind them of how sacred and  important this ordinance really is. 

Sunday best- The sacrament is the most important part of our Sacrament Meeting.  It is why we meet, to remember our covenants we made at baptism and to make new ones.  What we wear matters.  Those who are administering and passing the Sacrament wear white shirts representing  purity as they administer the Holy Emblems of the Sacrament.  It is symbolic and similar to the white we wear when we are baptized and the white we wear in the temple.  As young women and women it is our privilege to wear our very best while partaking and participating in the Lord's Holy Sacrament.

The table-The bread and water trays are arranged on the table.  A cloth is carefully placed over the trays.  Christ's body was also covered with a cloth in the tomb.  As we look at the table, we are reminded of the actual burial of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Water is poured-Water which symbolizes the blood Christ spilled for us, is poured into cups.  The Savior's greatest suffering occurred while in Gethsemane where it is recorded that He bled from every pore.

Bread is torn-As the Sacrament begins, we sing a hymn about Christ and the bread is literally torn.  Read the words to Hymn #181 ..."bruised, broken, and torn for us on Calvary's Hill"  We are watching the symbolism of His body being torn for us.

Sacrament prayers-Jesus Christ instituted His holy sacrament while He was on earth.  It is of such importance, it must be offered exactly, word for word, as written, offered as many times as it takes to get it right.  Isn't that like us?  We each struggle with our own weaknesses. The Lord, who has immense patience with us, allows us to keep trying, repenting, and trying again-as many times as it takes to get it right.  That is what the Atonement is all about.

Our covenant hand-Our right hand is our covenant hand, and therefore the hand we reach to take the bread and water.  We are literally partaking of the Atonement.  We are letting it enter us both physically and spiritually.

Covenants made-"That they may witness unto thee-to always remember him"  As we partake of the Sacrament, we are reminded of what the Savior did for us personally.  We promise to live as he would live, to say what He would say, to be as He would be.  We are saying that we are willing to testify of Christ.  We are saying, "if you want to know what a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint believes, watch me!"  When I'm with my friends, watch me!  It is not enough to say His name.  It is not enough to learn about Him.  We must come to KNOW Him.  This is standing as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places.

Better Lessons with the Right Questions

google images

Questions to ask while preparing a lesson

1. What principles do I want the class  to know and apply?

2. Which verses should I search to help the class discover the principle?

3. What should the class look for as they search these verses?

4. What questions can I ask to make sure the class understand the principle?

5. Is there anything I can do to have the class learn from each other?

6. What applications do I want the class to make? What can I do to help them?

Questions to ask after preparing a lesson

1. Is there variety in the lesson?

2. Have I asked the Lord to help me teach the lesson with power?

3. Is there opportunity for class participation?

4. Have I prayed about my class?

Preparation Questions:

 

1. What is the object of this lesson?

2. What are the principles or doctrines to be covered?

3. What are the converting life-changing principles?

4.What would be most beneficial to the class?

Search Questions:

Search questions should avoid YES/NO responses and obvious answers. Search questions requires your class to look in the scriptures for answers.

Analyze Questions:

Analyze questions require your class to think and ponder the significance of what they are studying.
-What did you find.....what evidence...
-What does it mean...
-Why is is that...How is it that...
-What is...the difference...are the differences...
-How do you think...How does
-What are some ways...


Application Questions

Application questions require the class to look at their lives and what they might do to make their lives better.
-What have you learned...
-What difference would it make if...
-When have you felt...
-What do you feel/think God wants
-Share a time ...or experience...
What does God..expect...desire...

* Credit:This list came from a CES Seminary Workshop I attended with my husband.  I don't know the source beyond that.  It is excellent and can take our teaching from mediocre to excellent by just knowing the right questions to ask. 

3rd Annual YW Sacrament Program

lds.org

Sunday we had our 3rd annual Young Women's Sacrament Meeting Program for our ward. 

 Once again, it was power-filled and amazing to be apart of.

Our theme was this year's mutual theme Doctrine and Covenants 115:5:

Verily I say unto you all: ^aArise and shine forth, that thy ^blight may be a ^cstandard for the ^dnations;

We began preparing for our program last fall by practicing our songs in Sunday opening exercises.  We felt our young women had A MESSAGE to share.  We saw our young women as one of the Lord's favorite tools on His tool belt. 

Elder Russell M. Nelson said it best:
" The influence of the young women of the Church, like a sleeping giant, will awaken, arise, and inspire the inhabitants of the earth as a mighty force for righteousness."

What was their message?

To arise to the mountain of the Lord, the holy temple, and to qualify for and be worthy of a temple recommend.  Now is the time!

For our script we used excerpts from the General Young Women's broadcast among many other quotes and stories from other conference addresses. Several young women bore their testimonies. Mixed in with beautiful song.  It was powerful.

We had all the young women dress in solid colored shirts with no logos or design. They wore any shade of yellow, any shade of orange, any shade of pink, or white if they didn't have anything in the other colors. 

We asked all of them to wear their Medallions or torch necklaces.

The young women were glowing!  They were so beautiful  they were literally shining.


Read or print our program:  {Click Here}

YW Sacrament Program previous post {click here}

10 Things Teens Won't Tell You

My daughter and her friends

1. You are the most important person in my life.
2. I need rules and expectations.
3. I want you to notice me.
4. I'm tempted to compromise to fit in.
5. Those corny things we do are kinda cool.
6. You are my hero.
7. Your stress affects my life.
8. I need you to interfere.
9. I want you to expect great things of me.
10. Hearing you talk about what is right and wrong is important.