Mighty Oak of Faith : Sunday Sayings

We had a wonderful Southeast Regional Conference at church today, broadcast to 500,000 plus members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I wanted to share of few thoughts that I gleamed from it. I usually take notes to ponder on later and there were quite a few gems of inspiration I loved and wanted to share...


1. Pray for the rising generation of youth in our country and world:
*Love them.
*Listen to them.
*Guide them.
*Protect them from evil influences in all their forms.
*Remind them often of their Divine Nature as Children of God.


2. Think daily about and pray to the Father
through our Savior Jesus Christ:
*Learn of Him.
*Follow Him.
*Keep His commandments.
*Testify of the reality of His Infinite Atonement, Repentance and Resurrection for all mankind.
*Find joy in life, be strong and endure to the end.

3. The Adversary ( Satan ) is real:

*Leads us away to darkness and misery.*Is the father of lies and evil.
*Makes sin seem acceptable and good
and being good seem out of style and bad.
*Knows our weaknesses and tempts us to sin.

4. Family Life and Family Home Evening:
*Teach Team Work and exemplify it yourself.
*Give your children the gift of your time.
*Create a loving, peaceful, respectful climate in your home.
*Have meaningful conversations together.
*Plan activities that promote Gospel Principles.
*Cultivate the ROOTS of Testimony, making them deep and wide, nourish them with service to others, knowing the worth of each soul and your faith will stand strong and immovable no matter what storms in life come to you.

How many seeds are there in an apple ? Just cut one open and count them...each apple is unique, as are we...

The best question is: How many apples are in each seed ???

Then, in closing his talk, Elder N. Russell Ballard recited this lovely and inspiring poem:

The Oak Tree

by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr

A mighty wind blew night and day It stole the oak tree's leaves away Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark Until the oak was tired and stark But still the oak tree held its ground While other trees fell all around The weary wind gave up and spoke. How can you still be standing Oak? The oak tree said, I know that you Can break each branch of mine in two Carry every leaf away Shake my limbs, and make me sway But I have roots stretched in the earth Growing stronger since my birth You'll never touch them, for you see They are the deepest part of me Until today, I wasn't sure Of just how much I could endure But now I've found, with thanks to you I'm stronger than I ever knew

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Sabbath everyone !

Hugs,
Nonna

Deep Dig : Saturday Centus

Although I provided a list of prompts for Jenny Matlock, off on my tangent, I have no idea which one she will pull out of her hat each week and I haven't written down any stories in advance...but there are many ideas floating or filed in my head... Go HERE to read all the creative writings and write one to contribute yourself !

Here are Jenny's rules:

THE PROMPT THIS WEEK IS: We know where all the bodies are buried in RED.
WORD COUNT - 100 words total PLUS the eight words of the prompt...108 words total
STYLE OF WRITING - Any
ADDITIONAL PICTURES IF DESIRED

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Deep Dig
by Nonna Beach

As the sun scorched ground was spun by an errant, harsh wind, Leland and Dina surveyed their packed up household. It was moving day after 50 years of living on the shores of the dead, shrinking Salton Sea.

They bought land in 1960 to escape suburbia, among other things and built their dream home. Happy memories lingered as they walked through the house and out into the back yard.


They stopped, praying over the little graves of wonderful family pets. "Yes, we know where all the bodies are buried, they thought, " and how well they covered the victims mob hit man Leland had buried deep in the desert sand... "

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Postscript:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds,
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds..."
~ William Shakespeare ~

"J" is for JUNK : :Alphabe - Thursday

As we zip through the Alphabet each week, joining Jenny Matlock's Alphabe - Thursday, I thought of a lot of things again.

I have to go to a very boring awards dinner with my Hubs tonight, stuff is piled up in 2 rooms, ready to be sorted, donated or thrown away but I'd rather be here writing so I can face that dinner later tonight.

Maybe I should just rent a huge garbage container, put it in the driveway and fill it up...

Am I posting too much each week for Alphabe - Thursday ? Oh, well, whatever...

This week's Letter is "J" and since I am in process of getting rid of stuff at our house, a very slow and tedious process, I thought the perfect word was JUNK ... Go HERE to see all the other wonderful submissions...

JUNK mail...it is the bane of my existence every day the mail is delivered and just when I think I'm rid of it, a new pile arrives...

JUNK heap...where nearly everything you worked so hard for eventually goes when you die 'cause your kids don't want any of your JUNK, they have enough of their own JUNK to deal with ...
JUNK food...Ahhhhh, the pleasure of it as it hits your taste buds, the supreme feeling of greasy, crunchy, gooey goodness and blessed take out convenience...


...the JUNK sweets we eat to keep our ' sweet tooth' happy with all those yummy, scrumptious delights...


The neighborhood JUNK shop, where " one man's JUNK is another man's treasure "...

And if you're real lucky, you might just star as a cantankerous JUNK man in a T.V. sitcom...

This place is solid as a rock,
a fortress, like they say,
"in time the Rockies may tumble,
Gibraltar may crumble,
they only made of clay,
but my JUNK is here to stay ! "
~ Fred G. Sanford ~

BTW, I thought of ' JUNK in the trunk' too...

FATHER and SON Feet : Wordless Wednesday