Thoughts

Once while praying about some challenges, my thoughts went to an oak tree at the house I grew up in. I remember my dad planted the acorn. I needed to mow around it when it was really tiny. It survived through many winters. Now it is a huge, beautiful oak tree. I had the thought that I'm like that tree and maybe some these challenging times are like those times of cold and winter.

It takes me to the other thought I had this last year. "Just because you don't have the ideal marriage or relationship with loved ones doesn't mean you can't learn to live my laws."

Special Devotional Pathways

Run the Race Set Before Us BYU Devotional

 https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-owens/let-us-run-with-patience-the-race-that-is-set-before-us/

Elder Uchdorf Bike Story

 https://youtu.be/PV01h6WiJbo?feature=shared

Courage in Difficulties through Faith

 Experience- Two set backs in one day. Jonathan's first test and Grace's first try-out. Feeling discouraged. Thought came from the Spirit. "God wants a courageous people."

Uncle Craig huge opportunity from being on the board to being the new CFO. Weather not great for A/C. Thought. God wants a courageous people.

Courage

Elder Uchdorf

Now if falls to sue to live as believers in a world or disbelief. The challenge is ours to daily practice the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to live true to God's commandments. We will have to stay strong under peer pressure, not to be impressed. by popular trends or false prophets, disregard the ridicule of the ungodly, resist temptations of the evil-one, and overcome our own laziness. Just think about it. How much easier would it have been for Daniel to simply go along with the ways of Babylon? He could have feasted on the rich foods provided by the kind and indulged in the worldly pleasures of the natural man. He would have avoided ridicule. He would have been popular. He would have fit in. His path might have been much less complicated. That is, of course, until the day when the kind demanded an interpretation of His dream. Then Daniel would have found that he, like the rest of Babylon's 'wisemen,' had lost his connection to the true source of light and wisdom. Daniel passed his test. Ours still continues. 

Jeremiah

 Notes from Stake Institute Lesson on Jeremiah 1-3,7,15-18,20

The promise, "I am with thee". 

A seer sees. A see-er. 

Old eyes see best. Having experienced life, they have a better perspective.

This is our chance to put God first in our lives.

God's work and glory.

I need to be humble enough to repent and change. I can take responsibility and do better.

Don't quit. God can make more of me. He was determined to stop teaching after being mocked and rejected but God's spirit was shut up in his bones and he couldn't.

Elder Hales, "When you can't do what you used to be able to do, you focus on what is most important."

What we serve, we learn to love... and what we love takes our time... and what takes our time is what we love. - Marvin J. Ashton

Foreordination

"The doctrine of foreordination applies to all members of the church, not just to the Savior and His prophets. Before the creation of the earth, faithful women were given certain responsibilities and faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood duties. Although you do not remember that time, you surely agreed to fulfill significant tasks in the service of your Father. As you prove yourself worthy, you will be given opportunities to fulfill the assignments you then receive. (True to the Faith)

At a time far antedating Eden, the spirits of all men had a primeval existence and were intelligences with spirit bodies of which God was a universal father. In the Bible we read, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." (Eccl.12:7) The Lord told Jeremiah that the knew him before his body was formed and sanctified him and ordained him a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:4) the Apostle Paul testified: "Futhermore we have fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave the reverence; shell we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father our spirits?" Hugh B. Brown

I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our Heavenly Father, or the great Elohim... for there is not one soul of you but what has lived in His house and dwelt with Him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with Him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what you did know. -Brigham Young

Speaking of the calamities to come upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Lord lamented, "[for them] the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and [they] are not saved.' god intended that men and women would be free to make choices between good and evil. When evil choices become the dominant characteristic of a culture of a nation, there are serious consequences both in this life and the life to come. People can become enslaved or put themselves in bondage not only to harmful, addictive substances but also to harmful, addictive philosophies that detract from righteous living. Turning form the worship of the true and living God and worshiping false gods like wealth and fame and engaging in immoral and unrighteous conduct result in bondage in all its insidious manifestations. These include spiritual, physical, and intellectual bondage and sometimes destruction...the most universal subjugation in our day, as it has been throughout history, is ideology or political beliefs that are inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Substituting the philosophies of men for gospel truth can lead us away from simplicity of the Savior's message. Elder Cook

Jeremiah and Lehi also taught that those are righteous must help the Lord establish His Church and kingdom and gather scattered Israel...They are at eat heart of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in this, the final dispensation... Our doctrine is clear; The Lord scattered and afflicted the twelve tribes of Israel because of their unrighteousness and rebellion. However, the Lord also utilized this scattering of His chosen people among the nations of the world to bless those nations. Elder Cook

Come Follow Him Podcast Part 2 Story about BH Roberts story starting at 34 minutes in.

A Few Favorite J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes

 "I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Courage is found in unlikely places.

Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.

There is good in the world, and it's worth fighting for.

No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

Drill in Reverse Example

 https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022-07-12/drill-set-in-reverse-bishop-budge-byu-pathway-devotional-ambition-christ-261411

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch

Good Timber

By Douglas Malloch 

The tree that never had to fight
     For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
     And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
     But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
     To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
     Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
     But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
     The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
     The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
     In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
     We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
     Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
     This is the common law of life.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/good-timber-by-douglas-malloch