My Little Planet
Sunday, October 25, 2020
The Bridegroom Comes
Saturday, October 17, 2020
The End of the World As We Know It
Monday, September 28, 2020
Who Are We Following
Who Are We Following
The New Testament is a favorite of mine. Not only is it a favorite, because it is about Christ's life, but also because of the imagery that Jesus used while teaching. In John chapter 10, Christ is at a very challenging time of his life. He knows his time is short and he has much teaching that he still wants to do. His family, mainly his brothers, invite him to The Feast of Dedication (today we know it as Hanukkah), tempting him to go to Jerusalem to teach and perform more miracles. They do not yet believe in who he is, so are not looking out for his best interests. If Christ were to go to the feast, he would surely be taken and killed.
Despite these challenges, after his family leaves, Christ does go, but not to celebrate, but to teach in the temple. He went to do good works and bring more souls unto his father. While he was there, he was able to teach, but he was also rebuked for his teachings and almost stoned to death. Before he slipped away from his accusers, he gave one of the most beautiful teachings in all of the scriptures. He gave us the story of the Good Shephard.
Christ starts by saying, that anyone who has to clime over the gate is not the shepherd, but a thief. Right away, my mind starts thinking, who is trying to steal the sheep and why? There is but one answer, Satan is trying to steel the sheep and we are the sheep that he wants for his own. Why does Satan want us so badly? There may be many right answers to this question, but I believe the answer that fits best, is that he does not want us to be happy, nor does he want our Father in Heaven and Savior to be happy.
If Satan is climbing over the gate to get to us and breaking past all our defenses, of good parental teachings, going to church, saying our prayers, and reading our scriptures, what are we to do? When Satan, through some devious plan, puts pornography on our computers, drugs in our schools, and hate into our hearts, what are we going to do? When Satan has us by his razor teeth and we are all but spiritually dead, are we lost?
God knew that we would be taken by the Devil and made his. God had a plan. A plan that started oh so long ago, even before we were born on this earth. The plan was his son, Jesus Christ. Another name for him, is the Good Shephard. He is our brother and has born us all on his backs from the very beginning. He knows us and we know him. He calls to us and we hear him and because we hear him, we go to him. When we are stuck on a high rock, we jump into his outstretched arms. When we are trapped in the brambles, he breaks through the thorns to free us. When Satan has us in his grasp and we are calling out in pain, he comes to us. Christ casts away that dark one and carries us back into his light.
I have seen sheep be carried away from the fold of the Good Shephard, because they did not go to Christ when he called them. Then when they were ravaged in agony of Satan's power, instead of calling to their Savior, they continued to turn away from him and suffer. Christ is standing there, with his arms outstretched, just waiting, but they never jumped, never even spoke his name.
Who are we following? Are we following our Shephard, Jesus Christ, or we following the Big Bad Wolf, Lucifer? What do we spend our time focused on, is it Christs' words, is it loving our fellow man, is it turning our hearts to him? If we are not doing these things, then we are not following the Shephard, we are not following Christ.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
As Christ taught the people in Jerusalem about who he really was, he had a large following. The people were divided, some said he was possessed by a devil and others said he must be a prophet, because of his good deeds. Most in Jerusalem did not see him for who he truly was, so they tried to kill him that very day. Christ had just testified that he was the one to choose when he would die and that his time was not yet. Fulfilling his own words from moments before, Jesus safely slipped through the angry mob and went to the Jordan River, where John the Baptist once taught.
There Christ was, along the Jordan and who should come unto him? His sheep. May we turn and follow our Savior Jesus Christ, our Good Shephard.
Friday, September 18, 2020
Obedience-The First Law of Heaven
I am attending BYU-Idaho and this is my first semester. As part of my religion class studying The NewTestament, we were asked to write down three lessons that stood out to us and then pick one to go into more detail on. One of my three lessons is Obedience, the first law of heaven. I choose this, because this is a saying my dad would always use when my sisters and I lived at home as kids. It bring back good memories and helps bring the right ton to the topic of obedience.
John 2:5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
I love this scripture, especially when you take it out of context, but first lets look at it the way it was intended. In the account of John, this is a very powerful and personal miracle that Christ performs for his mother. Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding celebration. In the middle of the celebration, the guests are thirsty, but there is no more wine to be had. Mary turns to her son, in full faith, and asks him to fix this problem. Christ performs his first somewhat public miracle. He turns water into wine and he shows his Godly power, even though he was not ready to. He does this, because he loves his mother and is an obedient son.
Christ had a mission to carry out. His ministry of preaching repentance to the Jewish people had only started. I would imagine he wanted conditions to be right in order to continue bringing many to repentance and unto his father. If word got out that he was more than just a teacher, but a man of miracles, that ability to teach would be halted. With this all at stake, Jesus listened to his mother, explained his position, then, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. Despite this, he still proceeded to perform the miracle. Christ showed us of his perfect obedience to his mother, a promise he made many years before as a boy, at the temple in Jerusalem.
To take a look at my focus scripture, it says His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Looking at this, by itself without the background story, it sounds like Mary is talking strait to us. Telling us to obey whatever her son, Jesus the Christ, should ask us to do. I love how forward that is. As a mother, she knew exactly who her son was. She had pondered those many things in her heart and been given witness to his Godhood. She knew and in knowing, she had no doubt that he would do this for her, because of the love that is Christ. I dare say, Mary wanted each of us to have that same knowledge of his love on our behalf.
If we are to take that scripture as if she is saying this to us, that would mean, we must be the servants. What would servants of Christ do? They would share the pure love of Christ. We should all want our family, our friends, and complete strangers, to listen to him, to Jesus, the Son of God, and follow him. As his servants, we should be sharing the word to follow him in complete obedience. Obedience is one of those interesting principles to teach. It is better to teach by example than it is by words. That is exactly what Christ did. I know as we turn our hearts and wills over to Christ, in full obedience, we will be blessed beyond measure with peace and joy.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Day Dreams
The problem was I didn't even have a dream. Blah, how did I get to that point, I used to day dream all the time and loved it. An excitement used to fill me when I day dreamed and I had hope for the future. Not that I don't have hope, but I don't have fun in my hopes. Blah is right. So I decided to come on here and figure out what my day dream would be, what my fantasy life would be. In order to do that though, I think I will have to take away responsibility. Hmmm, I wonder if this would really be a life I would like, but I will go for it, why not.
Here is my dream.
Mossy covered trees stretch before my round deep blue eyes. The warmth sticking to my pale skin, my feet dance across the sandy shores of the large pond off to my side. I move towards giant boulders on the hillside, using my strength, pull myself up, letting the full breeze sweep across me, whipping my dark hair in every direction. My soul is carried on that breeze, laughing, singing, crying, taking in the years of long ago, the battles fought, the loved ones gained, the life shared. As blissful as this moment is, longing enters my heart, but is whisked away in the delightful squeals of children, my children. Behind them their father runs, chasing these pale beauties, the older ones with long legs and the smaller with pudgy hands. They make their way to me for safety even though they would love to be caught by the man they call dad. Once all have reached the top of the giant weather beaten boulder, we stand as one in the warmth and let the joy that fills our hearts escape on the breeze to be carried away only to return to enchant us another day.
Ah, a dream came. Though with many dreams there may be a surprise ending. My dream started with me alone, enjoying nature only to feel empty. Without my family it was no paradise. I desired to have no responsability, but in doing so, I took away my joy. My family is my responsibility and my family is my joy! Maybe one day my dream will come true, but if I never have this scene played out in real life, I at least have the people in my dream to hold, love, and cherish forever more. Now that is a dream come true.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Weakness
I am 32, I did not think that I would feel like what you thought you would feel like at 60 or 70. I have had a long 6 months of doctor appointments and procedures in which they all tell me I am perfectly healthy. Yay, I am perfectly healthy, but my body tells me otherwise. I guess it is good that it isn't anything they can see, or it might be a lot worse, but the question it, what to do now? Now that there are no answers, do I just live in winter the rest of my life?
Well, I am a very religious person and I have been turning more and more to my Lord for help, turning to the scriptures and turning inward. I have come to a few realization, but admit I still have a long way to go for understanding. My God has given me the gift of sight, and this is one sight that was almost easier to go without. I am now able to see myself a little bit more for what I am. I am nothing, I am week, I am less than the dust of the Earth. I also at the same time know my value, I am of considerable value, for my Savior, Jesus Christ, paid the price for me, a very heavy price, so I am of great value, but am still nothing, am still week and I feel it, everyday.
The Lord wants me to except my weakness, so that he can take my weakness and give me his strength. The problem is, I don't know how to do that. I naturally want to fight against being week, I want to be strong and I think I know how and I keep trying, even when I know I just need to except. What is the difference of excepting and just giving up?
My doctor prescribed me a medication for Fibromyalgia, but my insurance doesn't want to cover that, until I have tried a combination of 2 medications, 3 times and failed. Meaning, 6 different medications with who knows how many side effects. One of the medications is a pain med and the other is an anti anxiety or anti depressant. Truthfully, I could use both of those right now. I am not in a good place, but am more than a little nervous to take them. There have always been consequences for taking pills and I don't think this will be the exception, but I need to do something.
I prayed a little differently today. I asked for a miracle, even though I didn't think I was going to get one. I know the Lord loves me, but as part of that love I know he wants me to grow into a better person. If he were to take this trial away from me, then I would not become the person he is shaping at this moment. I told him, I don't want to become that person, but that isn't really true, I do want to be better than I am now, it is just so hard to be changed. After I prayed today, I decided to go read my scriptures, I always get answers to prayer by reading my scriptures. Well, you want to know what I read, that the people in the time of Alma were moring greatly and because of this they fasted and prayed mightily. What does this tell me, well it didn't tell me if I should take the pills, or how to except my weekness, but it did tell me to keep praying.and fasting. So for now, that is what I will do. Maybe a different answer will come, but for now this will have to do and I am sure it will, the Lord wouldn't tell me to do this if it was for nothing.
Well, I just had a thought. In our church we were challenged to work on a Christ like attribute each month and I decided to work on Patience, because I am really bad at this. I just realized that Heavenly Father is helping me with this by telling me to keep praying. Well, that makes me feel a little better. It is nice to see him working in my life, I see it so often it is truly amazing. I hope I will always notice his love and his answers. I also have a hope that one day spring will come again, I truly do believe spring will come.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The Fantasticly Fast Birth of #4
On her due date and the 1st day or so after, I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that she wasn't coming yet (mostly because I was sleep deprived due to the contractions), and I wanted her so badly. So I tried a few things to help move things along (walking, eating pineapple, and other things I think I will not mention), but nothing worked. I only tried a few of the very most common, simple acts, because I didn't want to push things too much. I really did want her to come when she was ready. Once I got to about the middle of the week I started to wrap my mind around the whole idea of her being "late". "Late" in the worlds standards. Everyone kept saying that she was going to be an Easter baby. That sounded like fun, but I didn't want to wait that much longer. I was starting to get more and more uncomfortable. I would always say how grateful I was that I could at least walk well. By the end of the week I had to admit that NO, I could not walk well anymore and that my body was feeling very pregnant.
Friday I had my Midwifes appointment and I went wondering if my body was really kicking into gear. I had had many nights of really good contractions, but the night before I hadn't had any and thought, well maybe my body is resting to go into labor tonight. My midwife checked me and told me that I was at a 5. That was great! I had never gotten that far without already being in the hospital. But at that point I wasn't contracting, so there was no point in me being at the hospital yet. My Midwife told me that when labor started to get to the hospital right away, because she thought I was going to go fast.
That evening I was having some really good, strong contractions, but there was no consistency to them, so I blew them off once more. We got the kids to bed and then went to bed ourselves. I really had a feeling that this was the night. Mostly because of the very strong, low, pressure I was feeling. I didn't know how it could go any longer. So off to bed I went, hoping to get a few good hours of sleep, in case the adventure started.
I woke up about an hour later with one very strong contraction, went to the bathroom and back to bed. An hour later, I woke up with another very strong contraction, went to the bathroom and back to bed. An hour after that I woke up with yet another very strong contraction, went to the bathroom and decided to stay awake and see if any more were going to come. Well, they did. They were coming every 10 minutes and they were STRONG! I woke my husband up and said he needed to get ready. While he was in the shower I called his parents who live 1/2 hour away and to tell them they should come. In that time that I was on the phone, my next contraction came at 8 minutes. Then when my husband got out of the shower I told him about the jump to 8 minutes and then another one hit. It was only 4 minutes from the last one. I told him and he asked if we needed to call our neighbor friend over. I just said YES! He called but no one answered, it was 2 in the morning. But then she called back and he asked if she could come over. She was a little asleep at the time and said, just bring the kids on over, but my husband asked if she could come to our house. She then woke up a little more to realize that was the more appropriate thing to do. What a great friend we have. So she was on her way.
When another contraction came so strong at 4 minutes again I said a little worried that we needed to go. But the problem was I wasn't dressed. The contractions were coming so hard and fast that I couldn't move fast enough to get ready. But eventually we got everything we needed and I was dressed. My neighbor showed up right then and we were off. I had to stop a couple of times, because I couldn't walk during the contractions, but we got in the car and were on our way.
The ride to the hospital only took 10 minutes at the very most, but by the time we got to the hospital, I knew things were getting close. We pulled up to the main hospital doors, but they were locked for the night. Thank goodness, my husband checked before I got out and to the doors. So we then quickly pulled around the side of the hospital to the emergency room doors and parked in the circle and made our way in to the front desk. They asked how far along I was and I said 40 1/2 weeks. They then said for me to come around and they would get us all checked in. I was a little worried by that, I didn't have time to do anything like that and thought that all the per-registering I did would be enough. Well, I said "Um, I need to hurry!" They then understood and got me a wheel chair and started pushing me to our destination. We just needed to wait a few seconds for my husband who ran out to move the car and grab our things.
By the time we were rushing down the hall, my contractions were every 2 minutes or so. I was doing my breathing, but I couldn't believe how strong they were. Yes, I have done a natural birth before, but it was so calm and I didn't feel any pain. OK, I hate the word pain, but yes, that is what I was feeling. I wouldn't say it was horrible, but certainly not enjoyable. By the time we got to the room and I was asked to undress and put on a rob, I wanted to cry. I wasn't sure if I could take having any contractions much stronger than this. You need to realize, I thought it was going to get a whole lot worse, because I didn't realize just how far my body had gotten in such a short period of time. But I decided that crying wasn't going to do me any good, so I just needed to get over it and get ready to have this baby.
After a difficult change out of my clothes, I got into the bed and a nurse checked me and was surprised to see that I was at an 8 and fully effaced. She was confused and decided to check again just to make sure. She said, yep, you are about ready to go, we better call your midwife. So, then they started in with the needles, because I needed to have an antibiotic to protect the baby from Group B Strep when she would be born. The nurse tried to get it in, but couldn't. So she tried another spot and couldn't. She said my veins were hard. Then another nurse came in and tried and couldn't. They blamed these new needles that they had. They both said they had never had a problem until they got these new needles. Can I just tell you that wasn't fun. My husband had turned on Enya for me to try and get me relax a little and he was trying to help me do my breathing through these very difficult contractions and I have two ladies digging at my arms. But I just kept on doing my thing, trying to block out there talk and yet answer their questions in-between contractions.
Well, there came a point when it just didn't matter anymore. My water broke. And with that I realized and said aloud "my water broke" the nurse said good and I said "no, here comes the baby!" I admit, I was worried at that point because my midwife hadn't arrived and with my son, once my water broke he was born just minutes later. The nurse said they were pulling the doctor in from next door who had been working on a 1st time mom who had been pushing for a couple of hours, natural. Oh, how I felt bad for her! The doctor came in and I hoped that things would go well with him. The nurses were talking about how sad it was for the other girl. That they had to pull him away for me, who just came in and would deliver before her. The doctor said, that is one of the differences between a 1st time birth and not. It was weird to hear all the conversations going on around me. It was kind of hectic, but that was alright. It was just how this birth was going.
I felt the need to change my breathing to birth breathing. Which is short breaths that you move down through your body, instead of the long ones that I had been doing to help me through the contractions. My husband was great. I would say a count (4) and he would know I was in the middle of a contraction and would know that meant my birth breathing, so he would help me with that. Then I would say another count (8) and he would know that I was in a resting moment and needed to do my breathing to help me relax and regroup. Just then my Midwife showed up and I was so happy. This baby was coming and she had made it just in time.
She walked in all casual like and the doctor told her to suit up. He left and she was ready and at my front in what felt like just a moment. She told me that he was her doctor (she had a baby about 6 months earlier) and that he was a good doctor. I guess if you had to have a different doctor deliver you, your midwifes doctor would be a good second option.
My husband was at my side and he and I were working together to breath this baby down and my midwife in front just watching and saying practically nothing. The thought entered my head that this was very different. I was expecting her to do something. Yes, I said I wanted to do self directed breathing, but I didn't really think that is what would happen. I just figured doctors and midwifes took over leading and when that didn't happen I was surprised. Also, with my son, things were so different and I was so caught off guard by his slam dunk delivery, I was unable to focus at all, so the midwife had to tell me what to do. But this time I was doing so well. I was breathing that baby out, a little at a time, nice and slowly. (After the birth the nurse said how she had never seen that done before and asked me how I did it? She thought it was just amazing and so neat to watch.)
This birth was a whole new experience. I was very aware of what was going on and knew exactly what I needed to do to birth this baby. There was that last moment, when you can feel that you are just moments away and you think, please just come out already, but then she is is out in one very strange, wonderful feeling of relief. Then the shoulders come out and it is another one of those great sensations. She then is placed on my stomach (her cord was so short, they couldn't put her any higher on me) and I placed my hand on her little gooey body and was so happy to see my little girl with all the dark hair. She was born just 26 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. Once she decided she wanted to come, she didn't take anytime getting here.
I couldn't believe all that dark hair and I said aloud, I was right, she just wanted to cook a little longer to grow that hair. Her back was to me, but I could see a little of her face and she was beautiful! A blanket was placed on her to keep her warm, but they let her lay there for a little while before my husband cut the cord. They then wrapped her up (rubbing just a little of the birth off her) then handed her back to me so I could see the front of my baby. She was then able to nurse and she did a pretty good job. This is the first time I have had my baby right from the start and they didn't weigh her or put goop in her eyes until I said I was ready. It was such a wonderful bonding experience. We later found out that she weighed 7 lbs 7 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. She was the same weight as our 1st and just 1/2 an inch shorter. I loved that little lady right from the start and it was so nice to get to know her from the very beginning. With all the fast pace efforts that brought her into this world, those first few hours after her birth were the most calm, peaceful moments we have ever had. It truly was a blessing to have that time with such a precious gift, our baby girl.