Always Remember Him

Dear Sisters,

Today, the sacrament meant a lot to me.  

I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to partake of the bread and water and think about the words that were said.  There are some goals I have set for myself, and some natural man tendencies I am working to overcome, and so it was meaningful to be reminded that I am making a covenant to be more like the Savior. How wonderful if felt to be reminded that if I try to be like him, I'll "always have his spirit to be with me."  Those words are so comforting to me.  Ironically that companionship of the spirit is precisely what I need with me in order to make those changes.  I almost slipped again this last week, and then I was reminded to look at the situation through a spiritual lens.  It helped me take a step back and make course corrections before things escalated.  I am excited that I can change myself. These bad habits that have taken years to develop.  The atonement is powerful!

“The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home there. If Christ did not require faith and repentance, then there would be no desire to change. Think of your friends and family members who have chosen to live without faith and without repentance. They don’t want to change. They are not trying to abandon sin and become comfortable with God. Rather, they are trying to abandon God and become comfortable with sin. If Jesus did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change. We would be left forever with only willpower, with no access to His power. If Jesus did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time. They would forever be surface and cosmetic rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us—part of who we are.” 
― Brad Wilcox

This week, I would encourage you to take a close look at yourself.  Find some small thing you can work on.  Pray for the companionship of the Holy Ghost to help you over come, and notice the meaning words of the sacrament prayer this coming week. ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM.

These are simple steps, but they will help you draw closer to a God who loves you very much.

I hope you have a wonderful week and know that I love and pray for you!

Sincerely,

Lydia 

PS. Happy Autumn Time!  Go find some leaves to jump in!

Be Not Entangled

Hello Sisters!

This last week, I took my kids to the river to play.  I joined them for a little bit, and then watched them along the river bank.  While I sat there, I noticed some huge spider webs spun between the tree trunks next to me.  

I must confess, I'm not very keen on spiders, but I was mesmerized as I watched a small ant that had fallen into the web.  He dangled from a strand for about one second.  The huge spider sat watching a waiting in it's lair, but he immediately rushed to it, snatched it, and took it right back into it's lair.

I'm not sure what the little ant was doing up in the tree near the web in the first place, but I was reminded of this experience as Sis. Herbert read Galatians 5:1 during the lesson on Obedience on Sunday.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

"True freedom lies in obedience to the councils of God." (Proverbs 6:23)

I really believe that.  I think that Satan truly wants to drag us down.  We have to keep the commandments and watch ourselves.

3 Nehpi 18:18-20

Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

Don't forget that nasty spider waiting in the wings.  Find freedom in obedience. Smile, and keep the Holy Ghost near you!

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Lydia

A Tremendous Force for Good

Dear Sisters,

Happy Spring!  What a lovely week full of sunshine and springtime smells!  I hope you found a minute to get outside and soak it in!

I read a quote by President Hinckley that keeps running through my head from Marlene’s lesson today.  I felt some of you sisters need to hear it, in case you missed it.

“No one can calculate the tremendous force for good that you can become. … I charge you to stand tall and be strong in defense of those great virtues which have been the backbone of our social progress. When you are united, your power is limitless. You can accomplish anything you wish to accomplish. And oh, how very, very great is the need for you in a world of crumbling values where the adversary seems so very much to be in control.

I feel to invite women everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass.

You really are remarkable.  Remember that yours is “the errand of angels.”

“If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.” (Joseph Smith)

The Lord loves you, you are of great worth to him. You make a difference!

I hope you have a wonderful week and remember your divine worth.

-Lydia

Participate

Dear Sisters,

Happy Valentine's Week!  I hope you dear sisters know how much I love you!  You are a great blessing in my life!

I have such a cool Dad.  

He stopped by on his way through town this last week and brought me flowers.  He is an Artist, Professor and Floral Designer, in addition to being a great father.  My parents often text neat thoughts to ponder to my siblings and I throughout the week.  This was something my Dad said that stuck with me this week:

"It is important for us to willingly participate in the Gospel Plan if we want the benefit of the promised blessings.  It is not enough to just believe.  We need to participate.  Our participation in worship, just singing the hymns, for example, or just going to a ward or branch activity, even when we might have other things we would like to do, allows the spirit to interact with us in a way that might not otherwise happen.  Being a participant provides experiential learning, mentoring, and opportunities to share what we feel with others, which helps us clarify our understanding, and gain wisdom.  This leads to an increased confidence and ability to testify of truth--it is an upward spiral, a trajectory toward exaltation."

I appreciated his reminder.  Sometimes we may feel busy or burdened by all that is asked of us as members of the church, but it is good to remember the added light and knowledge that come from sometimes going the extra mile.

Elder Bednar has spoken a few times on the importance of "acting and not being acted upon" or showing our faith by practicing it.

“What we know is not always reflected in what we do.” 

 

But it should be, shouldn't it?  We know the right way, but sometimes we wander.

"The moral agency afforded to all of Father's children through the plan of salvation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ is divinely designed to facilitate our individual and independent learning, acting, and, ultimately, becoming.” 
― David A. Bednar

Take action today!  "Become" someone great!  Make a good choice to move your life in a positive direction.  Be a participant, and not just a by-stander.  We all committed at baptism to "Stand as witnesses and serve God."  Do your part, and receive the blessings that await as you faithful act.

Hope you have a wonderful week filled with lots of love!

Sincerely,

Lydia 

Have you noticed His hand in your life?

Dear Sisters,

I have just been thinking of the little ways the Lord shows us that He loves us and cares about us from day to day.   We had a little experience on Saturday that made me feel like he was truly aware of me.

My oldest is starting at a new school this week that requires a uniform.  We spent almost our entire Saturday searching seven different stores looking for uniform clothing with little or no success.  We were discouraged, and before we went into the last store, I suggested we say a little prayer.  We almost felt embarrassed to pray over something to temporal, but we're told to "pray over our flocks and fields," so I figured it was ok.  Unfortunately, again we were disappointed to come out empty-handed.  We returned home in a bit of frustration, and then minutes after our return, a sweet sister in our ward showed up with a huge bag full of uniform clothing her girls had grown out of that was just what we were looking for.  I know it maybe seems like a small coincidence, but I felt like the Lord really heard our prayers and blessed us with what we needed.  I was grateful for this sweet sister allowing herself to be an instrument in His hands.

Have you noticed his hand in your life today?  If you look, you will see how often he tries to show his love and concern for you.  I know he loves and cares about you.  I hope you feel it this week.

Sincerely,

Lydia

"Always Remember Him: Pray in Faith"

Dear Sisters!

Happy New Year!  I have a good feeling about 2017.  I think it's going to be a good one.  

As a Presidency, we have decided our Lorin Farr 4th Relief Society Theme for this year will be: "Always Remember Him: Pray in Faith"

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I hope in your goal setting this New Year, you consider putting Christ at the center. 

According to Elder Christofferson, we should begin by "...stripping everything out of our lives and then putting it back together in priority order with the Savior at the Center.  We should first put in place things that make it possible to always remember him. ... Once we make adequate time and means for these matters in centering our lives in Christ, we can begin to add other responsibility and things of value, such as education and family responsibilities.  In this way the essential will not be crowded out of our lives by the merely good, and things of lesser value will take a lower priory or fall away altogether."

This is my personal goal this year.  I think I have given far too much weight to "things of lesser value" on my priority list.  I'm looking forward to setting things straight and seeing the blessings that come into my life as I put Christ at the center.

"When we always remember the Savior, we can 'cheerfully do all things that lie in our power,' confident that His power and love for us will see us through."

I love that word "cheerfully" in there.  We need to be faithful and happy about doing the Lord's work.  The gospel really is the "good news."  It's something to celebrate!

 I'm so grateful for each of you beautiful sisters and the blessing you are in my life.  You are special and unique and I know that Lord loves you!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Lydia 

Turn Around and Face God

Dear Sisters,

Happy Sabbath!  I haven’t forgotten about you!  Life just got a little busy and eventful on this end.   I’ve been taking a couple classes to keep my teaching certificate current.

Maybe it’s because things have been so busy around here, that I have been simplifying things in my mind.  It hit me recently how simple the gospel really is.  Here are some simple truths I pulled out of my reading in Alma chapter 9.  (This is when Alma left the judgment seat to do missionary work and returned the second time to cry repentance to the wicked people of Ammonihah who threw him out last time.)

• Don’t harden your heart or have a “stiff neck”.
• Keep the commandments and you will prosper.
• Disobey the commandments and the Lord can’t be with you.  You loose the light of the gospel and potential blessings.
• We are “highly favored” and have the fullness of the gospel.  The Lord will hold us accountable for it.
• We need to “remember” our ancestors and our past and how we got here. (Doubt your doubts before your doubt your faith.)
• The Lord is merciful if you call on him.  Repent and he will forgive.

I think the phrase “stiff-necked” is fascinating.  I especially think it is interesting when you know that the original word for repentance in ancient Hebrew is “shuv” which means to turn around and go a different direction.  Eventually, repentance became “teshuvah” which means “to turn around and face God” or “to turn to God.”

A stiff-necked person is unwilling or unable to turn their head to face God.  Their neck is stiff.  They WILL NOT repent and turn to the Lord.  I think in our day it takes an interesting form.  We rely on the arm of flesh often.  Our neck is set with our head looking down to earth for all our needs.  We won’t or can’t look up to God because our neck is set in place.

I have so enjoyed visiting with many of you as we have gone around on our Presidency Popsicle visits over the last couple weeks.  We still have a few of you to visit, so don’t think we’ve forgotten you, and if we have, remind us because we want to see you. J  Anyway, occasionally we have visited a sister or two that is upset with the church or offended about something.  It is usually clear that they are not “prospering”.  Their heart has become hard and their neck is stiff, and they are unhappy.  It breaks my own heart.  I wish I could always have the right words to say, that might soften their hearts.  I would just encourage each of you to keep the commandments and make sure you are regularly repenting.  If your heart is hard, allow the Lord to heal it.  Sacrament meeting is a wonderful setting for this process to take place!

We would do well to take a moment to ponder on the state of our “neck”. (As funny as that sounds. J)  If we find that it is stiff, we can always repent or “turn around and face God”.  I testify that our lives will be richly blessed and we will prosper if we do.

Sincerely,

Lydia 

PS.  Happy Independence Day!  

​I hope you have a happy, safe day celebrating our blessed country and the freedoms we enjoy!

IT IS BETTER TO LOOK UP!

Dear Sisters,

Do you have any idea how much I love you?  Truly my capacity to “mourn with those that mourn” has been expanded with this calling because I care so much about you.  Certainly, I am given ample practice.  There are times when I feel weighed down by your burdens, and then I remember that that isn’t really my job.  The Savior has already done that through the atonement.  I’m learning to leave my cares at his feet and pray that he will also lighten your loads.  What a loving, kind, merciful Savior he is.  Our loads would be too heavy without him.

I was feeling particularly heavy during my scripture study this last week, and a scripture and thought struck me that I want to share.

In 2 Ne 9:3 it says:

"Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children."

At first, I read that and was really cheered, right up until the last two words, selfishly thinking, “Now wait a minute!  Why not bestowed on me?  I could really use those blessings.”

Then I thought of my pioneer ancestors.  This promise must have been what kept them going.  Their vision was for the future, for their children.  Many of their blessings weren’t realized in their life-time. 

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I recently read of a pioneer family that buried an infant son in a violin case along their journey across the plains.  They settled in Brigham City in a make-shift cellar dug-out covered with poles and willow branches.  They nearly starved, and after a year, the father walked the whole way to Salt Lake City to buy a pound of nails so that he could build a home for his family.  They were so grateful for their new “palace”.  The trials and sacrifices of our Pioneer forefathers were great, but they pressed on and “lifted up their heads” because they knew that the Lord would bless their posterity—they had hope that better times were coming, even if it wasn’t during their life-time.  Certainly the Lord has fulfilled his promises—we don’t have to look very hard to realize how abundantly we’ve been blessed.  I thought of that brother walking the SLC for a pound of nails when I made a quick ten minute run to Home Depot for my husband.  We have it so good, don’t we?

A great talk was given a few years back by Elder Carl B. Cook.  He shared the experience he had after his first week of serving as a General Authority.  He felt weighed down and troubled about how he could possibly accomplish the task at hand.  He looked down at the floor of the elevator, thinking about his troubles.  President Monson boarded, but he didn’t look up to notice.  He was soon asked, “What are you looking at down there?”  Then the Prophet told him, pointing heavenward, “It is better to look up!”  He said:

"Experience has taught me that if we, like President Monson, exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy.³ We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us. But we must have the faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction."

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I know the Lord loves you.  He is mindful of each of us, and if we rejoice, look up, and seek him, he will help us through any difficulty.

Sincerely,

Lydia