f you don’t want to know how many days it is until Christmas
look away now! 32 days to go.
Physical health is important for our everyday movements and
our well being. Christmas is a time of rushing around, our
social obligations seem to treble overnight, we spend hours
scouring the shops for the perfect gift or last minute bargains,
late nights putting bikes and other ‘technical’ gifts together, the
change in weather to the long hot days of summer and extended
time traveling to visit family all lead to a strain on our physical
health. It is important at this time to take care of ourselves.
Ensure we are properly hydrated at all times by drinking plenty
of water and other replenishing fluids.
Dehydration is dangerous and can be a serious health risk
before it is even recognised that our bodies are dehydrated.
Lack of thirst is not an indication that your body is perfectly
hydrated. Last week at Darcy’s trampolining class I watched
half a dozen children of varying ages struggle to perform tasks
they normally did with ease. Each of them struggled to
remember what it was they had to do, they had poor co
ordination, felt dizzy, nauseous and tired quickly. All classic
Signs that they were suffering from dehydration.
Lack of sleep, poor quality sleep and sleep deprivation are other strains we put on our physical health. It is important to get enough sleep. Accidents at work, on the way to or from work / school etc and accidents around the home can largely be attributed to lack of sleep causing concentration problems. We may desire to get things done quickly because we are tired and take ‘short cuts’ that can cause accidents. Tiredness also leads to being cranky with our family and friends, not fun for anyone involved. Everyone's needs are different. You know your own needs better than anyone else, make it a priority to get decent amounts of sleep. The arrival of the police at your family gathering with the news of a death would be awful.
Exercise. The ultimate swear word to us couch potatoes. Despite my ample figure I too know the importance of exercise and actually do my bit to keep my body healthy. Walking with purpose, not strolling along window shopping is great exercise. Swimming, cycling, chasing the kids down the park are all great ways to keep fit. You don’t need to be an elite athlete, just a bit of heart beat raising several times a week to keep your body functioning as it should.
Exercise releases happy hormones (so does chocolate but a purposeful walk to the shop for a chocolate bar kind of defeats the purpose) Happy hormones work wonders for our self esteem, our emotional state of mind and our spiritual state of mind as well. It also helps you to sleep well. A good thing all round.
Eating properly also has its benefits. We have inside us a deep set programming to eat heavy full meals during the winter months when we are less active and need to keep warm and eat light meals during the summer months when our bodies don’t need to work as hard to keep us warm. But with such a diverse cultural history, Christmas can be a time of traditionally winter foods from the Northern Hemisphere, picking at party fare (also known as grazing), eating, drinking and generally making merry can all lead to us overloading or bodies. Sometimes traditional eating cannot be avoided, so when you know you are going to be in full party eating mode ensure the that the days before or after it are made up of lighter eating habits. Make lighter healthier choices wherever possible. Keep easy to prepare light foods on hand and drink plenty of water to keep your digestive system moving.
Attached is one of the welfare newsletters from the Blackburn ward. It is a fantastic article, very educational and useful. We are so blessed to have within our stake so many goodly members sharing their knowledge and experience with us, so that we may grow and be more prepared.
Until next week, remember it is good to be a health conscious, choice making, hydrated, well rested Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
Georgia
Monday, November 24, 2008
November 9th
Christmas is 45 days away. Need some ideas? Want to give a gift with meaning? Or a gift with a gospel principle in mind?
Carolyn Nicolaysen from totallyready.com wrote a marvellous article for Meridian Magazine, titled “The gift of preparedness”. She begins with “Toasters, ties, and toys. The season for giving not only tests our imagination and budget, but can also stretch our inspiration. Well, just in case your friends and kin could benefit from a little more Emergency Preparedness, here are some ideas on how to remember them with creative gift ideas that are fun and practical.”
Here are her practical ideas and one example from each.
1: The Theme Gift. Choose a theme and give a gift that delivers on that theme. Place a quote or scripture on the gift to announce your theme. For example: Light: “You light up my life” or quote John 12:35 -- “Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” Include glow sticks, flashlights, maybe a flashlight and radio combo, candles in glass jars for power outages, or solar lights that can be charged during the day and brought in at night during a power outage.
2: Gift Certificates. Garden Kit: Purchase a garden bucket, add some packets of seeds, a trowel, a planting guide and a gift certificate good for your help with next spring’s garden planting. Add the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett for family reading.
3: The Survival Kit. Dinner basket. Purchase a large laundry basket and fill it with a copy of your favorite, or your student’s favorite, recipe. Purchase all the ingredients to make that recipe 5 times. Taco soup would be a great example since most of the ingredients are canned.
4: A Subscription. Order a subscription to the Liahona magazine for a family member or friend who served a foreign language mission. Some languages are published each month and some only once a year, but all are wonderful to receive. Of course, The Ensign, New Era, Friend, and Church News are excellent gifts for family who are not taking advantage of these resources.
5: Financial Preparedness. Cash for a rainy day. What will we do for cash, if the power is down, along with the internet connections to your local ATM? It takes discipline, but some well-hidden cash is an important part of preparedness planning. And of course, for college students, rolls of quarters are always appreciated. Likewise for students, a gift certificate to a local grocery store.
Obviously this is American, apart from changing it into our currency say: into a roll of dollar coins, we also have gift vouchers available at most supermarkets. A handy idea not just as a gift but as one (and not the only) source of a little something set aside.
For the full article here is the link. http://www.ldsmag.com/emergency/061115gift.html Take a moment to have a look at her other amazing articles.
Carol Tuttle gave a lecture on unplugging the Christmas machine. A very insightful talk. We are the Christmas machines. We take upon ourselves the idea that we must to do all our normal activities and then add a plethora (lots and lots) of Christmas related activities to it without giving anything up and wonder why we get stressed, burnt out, and generally have an awful time at Christmas. She made some insightful suggestions on how to unplug our Christmas machines, including, make a list of three words that perfectly describes Christmas to you. Remember how you feel affects your family too. Make a list of everything on your Christmas ‘to do’ list. Everything from shopping for presents and meal items to the parties your family gets invited to. Decide if anything can be left off the list. Reduce stress by sending cheque's instead of presents. Set very early a budget and stick to it. Have fun with the things you do, if it isn’t fun don’t do it. Don’t do things because it is a tradition of habit, do it for the love and spirit of it, if you have made the potato salad for family functions because it has always been that way, and you actually hate potato salad, tell the family you are making something else, if they want potato salad they will make it themselves. Learn to accept that what gets done gets done and it will be enough. Clear out old decorations and items you just don’t need anymore. Simplify as much as possible. And most importantly ask yourself ‘Do you feel the Spirit of Christ?’ if you don’t, think of how you can changes things so you do. Here is my example of my Christmas machine and how my steadfastness in it almost made me ruin it for someone I love, adore and cherish. My son.
I love Christmas. I love the time spent with family and treasured friends, the time focused on each other and the gift most precious to all of us, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I want to enjoy it and not get caught up in the crowded shops, last minute haste, crush of it all. So I turned one of my OCD habits to my advantage. I made a commitment to myself to be finished my Christmas gift shopping by the 1st of October each year. Then have my Christmas grocery shopping finished by the 30th of November. That way I could relax and not have my other OCD issues get out of control and turn my happy face into a get away from me face. For years it has worked perfectly for me. But I didn’t think about one vital thing in relation to Christmas. Not everyone is as OCD as I am. A few weeks ago, Darcy saw the neat pile of Christmas presents I had just finished wrapping and not yet put away. He smiled and eyed off the ones he knew were his, then his whole demeanour changed, he looked sad. I asked him what was wrong. He expressed to me that as great as it was that I was organised he didn’t feel a part of it because he had not chosen, bought or wrapped anything for anyone. My heart sank. I was so focused on avoiding what made me anxious and uncomfortable I forgot what truly mattered. Service. Love. Giving. All the things I thought I was doing, but to the exclusion of everyone else.
A few years back we decided to reduce the number of individual presents (the kids have way too many toys!!) and get family orientated gifts, things we could do as a family. We discuss them early in the year so everyone has some input and come Christmas it is still a surprise for the kids. But it meant that I became the present shopper and buyer. No problem for me, I love it, but in doing so I denied my children the opportunity to learn to love it too. While they were small it was fine, but now, they need to feel the same spirit I do.
So this year a new tradition has been born, Grant and I will each take a child and let them shop. Give them a budget (and the cash) as well as the freedom to choose whatever they want for the rest of the family. They get to pay for it, wrap it, secret it away if they choose until Christmas. Of course we swap children so they can buy for each of us without us ruining their spirit of gift giving. So what does this mean to my Christmas machine? It means I need to accept change, I need to take a deep breath, remain focused on Christ and my love for my children and go shopping for Christmas presents after October 1st ... Maybe be even in the month of December ... My mind screams ‘inconceivable’, but my heart is filled with the spirit of Christmas and shouts with joy as it is filled with the Holy Spirit confirming to me, the right choice has been made.
Whatever you choose to do this year, be kind to yourself and in doing so you will be kind to others. Emotional and Social Health is an important part of the welfare plan. Family is vital not just to our immediate happiness but to our eternal progression. I hope and pray this year we may all focus on what really matters, our dedication to our Father in Heaven and His son, Lord Jesus Christ, and to each other. I can think of no greater gift to give our children and each
other.
Until next week, remember it is good to be a Christ centred, family focused, true sprit of Christmas seeking, Christmas machine unplugging, loving our fellow man Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
Georgia
Carolyn Nicolaysen from totallyready.com wrote a marvellous article for Meridian Magazine, titled “The gift of preparedness”. She begins with “Toasters, ties, and toys. The season for giving not only tests our imagination and budget, but can also stretch our inspiration. Well, just in case your friends and kin could benefit from a little more Emergency Preparedness, here are some ideas on how to remember them with creative gift ideas that are fun and practical.”
Here are her practical ideas and one example from each.
1: The Theme Gift. Choose a theme and give a gift that delivers on that theme. Place a quote or scripture on the gift to announce your theme. For example: Light: “You light up my life” or quote John 12:35 -- “Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” Include glow sticks, flashlights, maybe a flashlight and radio combo, candles in glass jars for power outages, or solar lights that can be charged during the day and brought in at night during a power outage.
2: Gift Certificates. Garden Kit: Purchase a garden bucket, add some packets of seeds, a trowel, a planting guide and a gift certificate good for your help with next spring’s garden planting. Add the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett for family reading.
3: The Survival Kit. Dinner basket. Purchase a large laundry basket and fill it with a copy of your favorite, or your student’s favorite, recipe. Purchase all the ingredients to make that recipe 5 times. Taco soup would be a great example since most of the ingredients are canned.
4: A Subscription. Order a subscription to the Liahona magazine for a family member or friend who served a foreign language mission. Some languages are published each month and some only once a year, but all are wonderful to receive. Of course, The Ensign, New Era, Friend, and Church News are excellent gifts for family who are not taking advantage of these resources.
5: Financial Preparedness. Cash for a rainy day. What will we do for cash, if the power is down, along with the internet connections to your local ATM? It takes discipline, but some well-hidden cash is an important part of preparedness planning. And of course, for college students, rolls of quarters are always appreciated. Likewise for students, a gift certificate to a local grocery store.
Obviously this is American, apart from changing it into our currency say: into a roll of dollar coins, we also have gift vouchers available at most supermarkets. A handy idea not just as a gift but as one (and not the only) source of a little something set aside.
For the full article here is the link. http://www.ldsmag.com/emergency/061115gift.html Take a moment to have a look at her other amazing articles.
Carol Tuttle gave a lecture on unplugging the Christmas machine. A very insightful talk. We are the Christmas machines. We take upon ourselves the idea that we must to do all our normal activities and then add a plethora (lots and lots) of Christmas related activities to it without giving anything up and wonder why we get stressed, burnt out, and generally have an awful time at Christmas. She made some insightful suggestions on how to unplug our Christmas machines, including, make a list of three words that perfectly describes Christmas to you. Remember how you feel affects your family too. Make a list of everything on your Christmas ‘to do’ list. Everything from shopping for presents and meal items to the parties your family gets invited to. Decide if anything can be left off the list. Reduce stress by sending cheque's instead of presents. Set very early a budget and stick to it. Have fun with the things you do, if it isn’t fun don’t do it. Don’t do things because it is a tradition of habit, do it for the love and spirit of it, if you have made the potato salad for family functions because it has always been that way, and you actually hate potato salad, tell the family you are making something else, if they want potato salad they will make it themselves. Learn to accept that what gets done gets done and it will be enough. Clear out old decorations and items you just don’t need anymore. Simplify as much as possible. And most importantly ask yourself ‘Do you feel the Spirit of Christ?’ if you don’t, think of how you can changes things so you do. Here is my example of my Christmas machine and how my steadfastness in it almost made me ruin it for someone I love, adore and cherish. My son.
I love Christmas. I love the time spent with family and treasured friends, the time focused on each other and the gift most precious to all of us, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I want to enjoy it and not get caught up in the crowded shops, last minute haste, crush of it all. So I turned one of my OCD habits to my advantage. I made a commitment to myself to be finished my Christmas gift shopping by the 1st of October each year. Then have my Christmas grocery shopping finished by the 30th of November. That way I could relax and not have my other OCD issues get out of control and turn my happy face into a get away from me face. For years it has worked perfectly for me. But I didn’t think about one vital thing in relation to Christmas. Not everyone is as OCD as I am. A few weeks ago, Darcy saw the neat pile of Christmas presents I had just finished wrapping and not yet put away. He smiled and eyed off the ones he knew were his, then his whole demeanour changed, he looked sad. I asked him what was wrong. He expressed to me that as great as it was that I was organised he didn’t feel a part of it because he had not chosen, bought or wrapped anything for anyone. My heart sank. I was so focused on avoiding what made me anxious and uncomfortable I forgot what truly mattered. Service. Love. Giving. All the things I thought I was doing, but to the exclusion of everyone else.
A few years back we decided to reduce the number of individual presents (the kids have way too many toys!!) and get family orientated gifts, things we could do as a family. We discuss them early in the year so everyone has some input and come Christmas it is still a surprise for the kids. But it meant that I became the present shopper and buyer. No problem for me, I love it, but in doing so I denied my children the opportunity to learn to love it too. While they were small it was fine, but now, they need to feel the same spirit I do.
So this year a new tradition has been born, Grant and I will each take a child and let them shop. Give them a budget (and the cash) as well as the freedom to choose whatever they want for the rest of the family. They get to pay for it, wrap it, secret it away if they choose until Christmas. Of course we swap children so they can buy for each of us without us ruining their spirit of gift giving. So what does this mean to my Christmas machine? It means I need to accept change, I need to take a deep breath, remain focused on Christ and my love for my children and go shopping for Christmas presents after October 1st ... Maybe be even in the month of December ... My mind screams ‘inconceivable’, but my heart is filled with the spirit of Christmas and shouts with joy as it is filled with the Holy Spirit confirming to me, the right choice has been made.
Whatever you choose to do this year, be kind to yourself and in doing so you will be kind to others. Emotional and Social Health is an important part of the welfare plan. Family is vital not just to our immediate happiness but to our eternal progression. I hope and pray this year we may all focus on what really matters, our dedication to our Father in Heaven and His son, Lord Jesus Christ, and to each other. I can think of no greater gift to give our children and each
other.
Until next week, remember it is good to be a Christ centred, family focused, true sprit of Christmas seeking, Christmas machine unplugging, loving our fellow man Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
Georgia
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Did you know it is only 52 Days until Christmas? Will the next few months be a silly season full of stress and financial anxiety or a time to find the peaceful quiet moments to focus on family and the true meaning of Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Savior?
I read a funny quote this past week that said ‘organised people are just too lazy to look for stuff’ made me giggle ... But ... when it comes to surviving the silly season and turning it back into a time for family and to focus on the miracle of the birth of Christ, organisation is the key to peace and harmony.
Over the next few weeks I thought we would take a look at Christmas and put a welfare spin on it starting with Family Finances.
The Church has some simply marvellous material devoted to Family Finances. They can be found at www.providentliving.lds.org Available as a PDF and as a paperback from the distribution centre is a booklet called ‘One for the Money’ by Elder Marvin J Ashton. In it he outlines 12 steps to financial stability. The 12 steps plus a
sentence from each are: 1: Pay an honest tith. Paying tithing promptly to Him who does not come to check up each month will teach us and our children to be more honest with those physically closer at hand 2: Learn to manage money before it manages you. Financial peace of mind is not determined by how much we make, but is dependant upon how much we spend.
3: Learn self discipline and self restraint in money matters. Money management skills should be learned together in a spirit of cooperation and love on a continuing basis. 4: Use a budget. Every family must have a predetermined understanding of how much money will be available each month and the amount to be spent in each category of the family budget. 5: Teach family members early the importance of working and earning. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ is not an outdated counsel. It is the basic of personal welfare. One of the greatest favours parents can do for their children is to teach them to work. 6: Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacity to comprehend. Family unity comes from saving together for a common, jointly approved purpose.
7: Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare. As children mature they should understand the family financial position, budget, and investment goals and their individual responsibility within the family.
8: Make education a continuing process. Based on potential lifetime earnings, the hours spent furthering your education will be very valuable indeed.
9: Work toward home ownership. Home ownership qualifies as an investment not consumption. 10: Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program. Costs associated with illness, accident and death may be so large that an uninsured family may be financially burdened for many years.
11: Understand the influence of external forces on family finances and investments. Inflation continues to off set a major portion of average wage increases.
12: Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage and emergency preparedness program. Accumulate your basic food storage and emergency supplies in a systematic and orderly way.
Financially, for us at Christmas time we should be set a budget and stick to it, avoid last minute shopping, make a clear agreed on list of presents or amount per person. Some people have a wish list up throughout the year so the children can write what they truly would like, it does make them think about their choices. Make lists and cross off each item as it has been done. Christmas jars is a fantastic book by LDS writer Jason F Wright. The story revolves around one family’s decision to save all their loose change throughout the year and use that money, and that money
only, for their Christmas gifts. An act of love by their young daughter sees their Christmas jar given to a woman in desperate need of financial help one year, creating a tradition of anonymous Christmas jar giving that spreads through out the country. The idea of putting our spare change into a jar and setting it somewhere where we can see it grow through the year is a good one. I know of many families who have adopted it both as an act of service and for their gift
purchasing. It helps to A: remind ourselves of the greatest gift of all given to us at Christmas and B: helps us to stay within our means and truly enjoy Christmas as a time together.
I hope and pray we each enjoy the lead up to Christmas and enjoy the spirit it brings when we apply gospel principles
and sound counsel to our lives.
I read a funny quote this past week that said ‘organised people are just too lazy to look for stuff’ made me giggle ... But ... when it comes to surviving the silly season and turning it back into a time for family and to focus on the miracle of the birth of Christ, organisation is the key to peace and harmony.
Over the next few weeks I thought we would take a look at Christmas and put a welfare spin on it starting with Family Finances.
The Church has some simply marvellous material devoted to Family Finances. They can be found at www.providentliving.lds.org Available as a PDF and as a paperback from the distribution centre is a booklet called ‘One for the Money’ by Elder Marvin J Ashton. In it he outlines 12 steps to financial stability. The 12 steps plus a
sentence from each are: 1: Pay an honest tith. Paying tithing promptly to Him who does not come to check up each month will teach us and our children to be more honest with those physically closer at hand 2: Learn to manage money before it manages you. Financial peace of mind is not determined by how much we make, but is dependant upon how much we spend.
3: Learn self discipline and self restraint in money matters. Money management skills should be learned together in a spirit of cooperation and love on a continuing basis. 4: Use a budget. Every family must have a predetermined understanding of how much money will be available each month and the amount to be spent in each category of the family budget. 5: Teach family members early the importance of working and earning. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ is not an outdated counsel. It is the basic of personal welfare. One of the greatest favours parents can do for their children is to teach them to work. 6: Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacity to comprehend. Family unity comes from saving together for a common, jointly approved purpose.
7: Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare. As children mature they should understand the family financial position, budget, and investment goals and their individual responsibility within the family.
8: Make education a continuing process. Based on potential lifetime earnings, the hours spent furthering your education will be very valuable indeed.
9: Work toward home ownership. Home ownership qualifies as an investment not consumption. 10: Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program. Costs associated with illness, accident and death may be so large that an uninsured family may be financially burdened for many years.
11: Understand the influence of external forces on family finances and investments. Inflation continues to off set a major portion of average wage increases.
12: Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage and emergency preparedness program. Accumulate your basic food storage and emergency supplies in a systematic and orderly way.
Financially, for us at Christmas time we should be set a budget and stick to it, avoid last minute shopping, make a clear agreed on list of presents or amount per person. Some people have a wish list up throughout the year so the children can write what they truly would like, it does make them think about their choices. Make lists and cross off each item as it has been done. Christmas jars is a fantastic book by LDS writer Jason F Wright. The story revolves around one family’s decision to save all their loose change throughout the year and use that money, and that money
only, for their Christmas gifts. An act of love by their young daughter sees their Christmas jar given to a woman in desperate need of financial help one year, creating a tradition of anonymous Christmas jar giving that spreads through out the country. The idea of putting our spare change into a jar and setting it somewhere where we can see it grow through the year is a good one. I know of many families who have adopted it both as an act of service and for their gift
purchasing. It helps to A: remind ourselves of the greatest gift of all given to us at Christmas and B: helps us to stay within our means and truly enjoy Christmas as a time together.
I hope and pray we each enjoy the lead up to Christmas and enjoy the spirit it brings when we apply gospel principles
and sound counsel to our lives.
There are so many things I wish to say to you my brothers and sisters, my mind is forever racing, telling me oh they need to know this or they need to know that. But I shall contain myself to just two things today.
First: in reading the October 2008, General Conference talks one section of the Priesthood session really stood out to me to be of welfare worth to us. I quote President Monson’s talk ‘To Learn, to Do, to Be’
‘Many areas of the world have experienced difficult economic times. Businesses have failed, jobs have been lost, and investments have been jeopardized. We must make certain that those for whom we share responsibility do not go hungry or unclothed or unsheltered. When the priesthood of this Church works together as one in meeting these vexing conditions, near miracles take place.
We urge all Latter-day Saints to be prudent in their planning, to be conservative in their living, and to avoid excessive or unnecessary debt. The financial affairs of the Church are being managed in this manner, for we are aware that your tithing and other contributions have not come without sacrifice and are sacred funds.
Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
The Church is in good hands, it is up to us to put our families in good hands, our own and the Lord’s.
President Monson also said “May we learn what we should learn, do what we should do, and be what we should be.”
This is a fantastic statement for welfare in all its many aspects. Family Home Storage, Employment, Education and Literacy, Physical Health, Social and Emotional Strength, Spiritual strength, Family Finances, Emergency Preparedness and Response. It is my prayer that you will find it of equal worth and apply this simple but effective principal to your welfare preparations.
My second topic for the day relates to the first. “Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
Brothers and Sisters we are often taught about the pure love of Christ and what it is to have Christ-like love for our fellow man. Sometimes it can be hard to understand exactly what is meant by Christ-like love when we feel so much less than Christ-like and far from perfect, how can we then find within us this pure love of Christ?
Unconditional Love is a form of Christ-like love. It is loving someone without putting conditions on that love. It is loving someone in the face of adversity, loving regardless of harsh words, actions or deeds. It is loving someone no matter what.
My Brothers and Sisters I can honestly say that I love each and every one of you unconditionally. And when I fall down and put a condition on that love, whether it be, oh that person really annoyed me today or oh they just don’t understand. I turn to the Lord. I express to Him my acknowledgement that I am not perfect, I have failings and human frailties of mind, but that I desire to love without condition everyone I meet, no matter what they do to me. I feel then of His Love for me, His unconditional love, then I feel a renewal of unconditional love fill my heart and every fibre of my being.
Brothers and Sisters we need to love each other unconditionally, we need to be doing everything in our power to love and lift each other up. We need to get our houses in order and stand ready to help others get their houses in order. We need to do this not because we have be counselled to do it, not because the Bishop or Relief Society President called and asked us to come serve but because our hearts are in tune with the Lord and we want to do it.
We need each other now more than ever, it is a great time to be alive and to be members of this Church, His Church, it is a great time to learn unconditional love and to make it a part of our daily lives. It is a great time to learn to love service for the peace and joy it brings you and not out of grudging duty.
This is my testimony, that He lives, He loves us and wants us to find the peace and joy that comes from loving each other. I love Father in Heaven, I love my Savior, I claim my right to worship them, to know them and to be numbered among their flock, to live my life in service to them and to you and this I say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
First: in reading the October 2008, General Conference talks one section of the Priesthood session really stood out to me to be of welfare worth to us. I quote President Monson’s talk ‘To Learn, to Do, to Be’
‘Many areas of the world have experienced difficult economic times. Businesses have failed, jobs have been lost, and investments have been jeopardized. We must make certain that those for whom we share responsibility do not go hungry or unclothed or unsheltered. When the priesthood of this Church works together as one in meeting these vexing conditions, near miracles take place.
We urge all Latter-day Saints to be prudent in their planning, to be conservative in their living, and to avoid excessive or unnecessary debt. The financial affairs of the Church are being managed in this manner, for we are aware that your tithing and other contributions have not come without sacrifice and are sacred funds.
Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
The Church is in good hands, it is up to us to put our families in good hands, our own and the Lord’s.
President Monson also said “May we learn what we should learn, do what we should do, and be what we should be.”
This is a fantastic statement for welfare in all its many aspects. Family Home Storage, Employment, Education and Literacy, Physical Health, Social and Emotional Strength, Spiritual strength, Family Finances, Emergency Preparedness and Response. It is my prayer that you will find it of equal worth and apply this simple but effective principal to your welfare preparations.
My second topic for the day relates to the first. “Let us make our homes sanctuaries of righteousness, places of prayer, and abodes of love that we might merit the blessings that can come only from our Heavenly Father. We need His guidance in our daily lives.”
Brothers and Sisters we are often taught about the pure love of Christ and what it is to have Christ-like love for our fellow man. Sometimes it can be hard to understand exactly what is meant by Christ-like love when we feel so much less than Christ-like and far from perfect, how can we then find within us this pure love of Christ?
Unconditional Love is a form of Christ-like love. It is loving someone without putting conditions on that love. It is loving someone in the face of adversity, loving regardless of harsh words, actions or deeds. It is loving someone no matter what.
My Brothers and Sisters I can honestly say that I love each and every one of you unconditionally. And when I fall down and put a condition on that love, whether it be, oh that person really annoyed me today or oh they just don’t understand. I turn to the Lord. I express to Him my acknowledgement that I am not perfect, I have failings and human frailties of mind, but that I desire to love without condition everyone I meet, no matter what they do to me. I feel then of His Love for me, His unconditional love, then I feel a renewal of unconditional love fill my heart and every fibre of my being.
Brothers and Sisters we need to love each other unconditionally, we need to be doing everything in our power to love and lift each other up. We need to get our houses in order and stand ready to help others get their houses in order. We need to do this not because we have be counselled to do it, not because the Bishop or Relief Society President called and asked us to come serve but because our hearts are in tune with the Lord and we want to do it.
We need each other now more than ever, it is a great time to be alive and to be members of this Church, His Church, it is a great time to learn unconditional love and to make it a part of our daily lives. It is a great time to learn to love service for the peace and joy it brings you and not out of grudging duty.
This is my testimony, that He lives, He loves us and wants us to find the peace and joy that comes from loving each other. I love Father in Heaven, I love my Savior, I claim my right to worship them, to know them and to be numbered among their flock, to live my life in service to them and to you and this I say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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