"Meet the Mormons"

I have see a bit of discussion going on around the internet regarding the movie, "Meet the Mormons," as well as the changing of social media icon.  |

As I am Mormon, I would like to share with you my take on things.

Here's the thing.  You may have noticed that some of your social media friends have changed their profile pictures to read "I'm a Mormon."  We are doing this to raise awareness of who we are, and the uniqueness of our personalities.

It's rather late though, and I've had a full day of cleanings, more cleaning, and still more cleaning!.( trust me....that happens more often that I'd like, because my 5 children (particularly my 2 youngest boys) are very active!!)  so I am going to paste here a comment I have made elsewhere on the internet.  I think it sums up most of my feelings pretty well.  


Tangent: Don't worry, I also played play dough, cars, and found patterns and fabric to make a Halloween costume (fairy) that my 9 year old designed. I have also read, weeded, done too many dishes to count! ;) ,cleaned toilets (etc.), made meals, and even rested a little bit.  We also had family scripture and prayer.  I visited with my sweet neighbor, and she shared some garden produce with me. I particularly enjoyed the fresh basil and tomatoes---It's been a rewarding day.

Okay, hopefully you don't mind hearing that little bit about my day. I sometimes feel some concern that my readers think there isn't substance to me-- but as I have stated elsewhere--  My goal and aim for this blog is to increase spiritual awareness in the chaotic world we live, and also to encourage and support YOU-- in whatever circumstance you find yourself.

There is hope and healing.  I know, I have been recipient to God's many miracles!  You can change who you are for the better.  You can improve whatever circumstance you find yourself.  Keep trying!!

=====Okay..without further ado... Here is a comment I wrote earlier today on other social media forums.
====
(This reply was in response to two different people, who won't change their profile picture. ---Which
I don't have any deep seeded issue with... BUT I needed/wanted to make my position clear for why I chose to post this photo!)

"I took your points into consideration, but I decided that I want to be a missionary. You see, after reading your article-and those of commenter's, I felt a bit embarrassed that I might possibly put the "I'm a Mormon" icon on my Facebook page. I didn't like that feeling!! I should never be ashamed by the potentially fallible points brought up. We aren't sharing it to show we are some elite social club, or showing high school snobbery, or any number of reasons people expressed herein.

The claim that "I'm a Mormon" and come watch "Meet the Mormon's" is a worthy goal, and aim, with several purposes. (Here's just 5 reasons to consider--Not mentioning the beautiful music by David Archuleta!:)



1. We want to inspire others to do good in whatever place they stand, or circumstance they find themselves. No matter what their religious preference of beliefs. This movie will do just that! (And there will be no missionaries standing at the doors to pass out fliers. The movie is not only intended to inspire, but it is also intended to help promote dialogue, acceptance, and understanding for the people we really are--and not the mistaken identity some people would try to apply to "Mormon's" or member's of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

2. We want them to understand who we are and what we stand for. And yes, to feel free to ask us questions they may have. Some of our friends may not know we are Mormon. It is also intended to help promote dialogue, acceptance, and understanding for the people we really are--and not the mistaken identity some people would try to apply to "Mormon's" or member's of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

3. If you are a person, worthy of representing the name of "Mormon" of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints--- it could be a great missionary tool! So beautifully put by Elder Bednar during this recent conference:

https://www.lds.org/general.../2014/10/come-and-see...

"Devoted disciples of Jesus Christ always have been and always will be valiant missionaries. A missionary is a follower of Christ who testifies of Him as the Redeemer and proclaims the truths of His gospel.

"The Church of Jesus Christ always has been and always will be a missionary church. The individual members of the Savior’s Church have accepted the solemn obligation to assist in fulfilling the divine commission given by the Lord to His Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:19–20).

"Latter-day Saints take seriously this responsibility to teach all people in all nations about the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. We believe the same Church founded by the Savior anciently has been reestablished on the earth by Him in the latter days. The doctrine, principles, priesthood authority, ordinances, and covenants of His gospel are found today in His Church."

"When we invite you to attend church with us or to learn with the full-time missionaries, we are not trying to sell you a product. As members of the Church, we do not receive prizes or bonus points in a heavenly contest. We are not seeking simply to increase the numerical size of the Church. And most importantly, we are not attempting to coerce you to believe as we do. We are inviting you to hear the restored truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ so you can study, ponder, pray, and come to know for yourself if the things we are sharing with you are true."

"Some of you may respond, “But I already believe in Jesus and follow His teachings,” or “I am not sure if God really exists.” Our invitations to you are not an attempt to diminish your religious tradition or life experience. Bring all that you know is true, good, and praiseworthy—and test our message. Just as Jesus beckoned two of His disciples to “come and see” (John 1:39), so we urge you to come and see if the restored gospel of Jesus Christ enlarges and enriches that which you already believe to be true."

Elder Bednar continues by sharing a very true and funny story, and then makes a PROFOUND point:

"....What happened next is most important. The injured brother gathered up the remaining bandages and the almost empty tube of ointment, and he went back outside. He quickly sought out his friends and began to put ointment and bandages on their arms. Susan and I both were struck by the sincerity, enthusiasm, and rapidity of his response."

"Why did that little boy do what he did? Please note that he immediately and intuitively wanted to give to his friends the very thing that had helped him when he was hurt. That little boy did not have to be urged, challenged, prompted, or goaded to act. His desire to share was the natural consequence of a most helpful and beneficial personal experience."

"Many of us as adults behave in precisely the same way when we find a treatment or medication that alleviates pain with which we have long suffered, or we receive counsel that enables us to face challenges with courage and perplexities with patience. Sharing with other people things that are most meaningful to us or have helped us is not unusual at all."

5. 100% of the net profit from the movie "Meet the Mormons" goes to the Red Cross. Talk

about a tremendous humanitarian effort!  I am sure the victims, from any given disaster type, will feel grateful for the comforts and blessings that brings! (What a wonderful way for each of us to make a difference in our world!)

I wish you the best,
Christine"

P.S. I hope you will go and see this movie!!!  :)

Weeding My Grass

My 4 yr old got my camera for me and too this photo.
He's helpful and talented! :)

Today, when I took out the trash I noticed how my lawn hasn't been trimmed.  I'd like to tell you it's been a month or two, but I think it's been years.  Oh, the embarrassment to speak such truth!  But, it's true!

This morning the weather was sunny, but cool.  Just like I like it!  I had my morning energy, so I
decided I'd tackle the whole strip of lawn nearest to the road.  It was so rewarding to reach down and twist up nasty tangled weeds from the grass.  I just knew this was going to make our yard look so much better. 

My 4 yr old helper M is amazing!

My 4 year old, M, was right along side me.  (He works hard
and lasts a long time when we work. He's been know to help me for hours.  His own choice!  He loves to scrub, sweep, and clean off the chair and cupboards.  It truly astounds me!)  Today he was sweeping the weeds into a pile and then putting it in the trash can.  I felt so thankful for this little boy of mine.  He really does help me.

Soon my joy turned to embarrassment. What had I done?!! While it's true that I'd conquered the weeds in the grass, I also was left with mostly dirt.  That's right people, our grass isn't really grass anymore.  It's mostly weeds of all sizes, shapes and colors.  In the process of trying to improve my yard, I'd actually made it look uglier that the previous unkempt grass look.  Years of ignoring the small and controllable weeds had turned into massive overgrowth.  And the weeds have taken control, because we'd allowed them too.

It's kind of like that in life, isn't it?  We realize there are things about ourselves, our surroundings, or our circumstances, and yet we do little, or nothing, to take care of matters.  We close our eyes, or turn our head away.  We either pretend we don't see.  Or, we tell ourselves, we'll get to it later.

That's how I/We spent most of my/our life.  "Living by default" as my Mom used to reprimand my husband and I.  We let our bills go.  We let our home go.  We let our time go.  And to where?  Pretty much nowhere!  We were a mess.  Literally.   What happens when you let everything around go by default? I'll tell you!  The winds of happenstance blow you in circles.  And sometimes those winds become full fledged tornado's, or worse!

The only thing that we had going for us is that by nurture and nature, we were two good people.  We were faithful to the basic things of our religion. We tried to be honest.  We tried to go to church each week.  We tried to always pay a full tithe.  We tried to read our scriptures.  We tried to pray.  We tried to do the things good people do.

Unfortunately, most of those behaviors were just try.  Not DO!  We almost always made it to weekly church-- but were glad to have an excuse of having a cold virus to keep us home, or the baby did not seem to be feeling well. We listened to our semi-annual general conference, but we did not worry if we fell asleep through it.   We read our scriptures, unless we were too tired. We'd offer up our bedtime prayers under the warmth of our covers, and more often than not fell asleep, or gave said poorly thought out words to God.  We were pretty good about tithing, but usually months behind.  In general, we just made a lot of excuses for ourselves.  We didn't feel that we had what other people did, so we just didn't try as hard.  

It's embarrassing to say, but we had a "woe is me" mentality.  We thought only of ourselves and what was in our best comfort and convenience.  We just kind of hoped things would fall into our laps, but they rarely did.

Family fun at Chick Filet Cow Appreciation Day 2014! :)

Here's the strange part of it all.  God never gave up on us.  We did still receive many blessings.
Things that of ourselves we had not earned, but that he saw fit to bless us with.  Among those things were children.  In my struggle with infertility, it took  us 3 years to have our first child, but even then he further blessed me with 4 more children!  He took us from living in poverty conditions, to owning our own home.  He took us from only being able to take the city bus if we needed to get somewhere, to owning our own vehicles.  His blessings were still very apparent, despite the chaos in our lives and minds!

Stepping away from the "we," I'd like to talk just about me now.  Years ago, I lived with a secret.  I tried to hide it from people.  I tried to pretend I was in control.  But here it is.  I WAS a hoarder.  I had always been called a "pack rat" by my family, since I was a young girl, but until I saw an episode of the TV show Hoarders a few years ago, I didn't know I was one!  It was strangely consoling to know I wasn't alone, but it was overwhelming, because I knew I could never have a crew of people come and clean my house, because then people would know my secret.  The secret I tried hard to hide.

Gratefully, I had not had the chance to develop into some of the most extreme cases of being a hoarder, but trust me, I had a major problem.  I wouldn't let people into my home. I couldn't find things I needed.  I couldn't keep up with the bills, because I didn't know where the mail was. I couldn't let the children have friends in, unless I hid the mess in some out of the way room.  The laundry was out of control, and the mess seemed endless.  I lived in fear that my children would be taken away from me.  It was awful.  It was terrifying.  And worst of all, I never had hope that it could change.

Things have changed since then.  I am a new woman.  I am NOT a hoarder anymore. I have cleaned up my life, my surrounding, my circumstances. I didn't needed Hoarders to come and save me.  I didn't need to be rescued by Oprah (as once I desired) to fulfill my wish of a clean, orderly home.





 I needed something more.  I needed a hurricane to strike the lonely island of my soul, and teach me what I needed to understand.

You might even say, on this unforgettably horrific day in history, that I needed a 9-11 to symbolically strike my tower of laziness, pride!  Indeed, it was wrong terribly wrong that September 11, 2001 ever happened.  But just like the weeds in my grass, natural, careless, or intentional disaster's, in all their ugly forms have a way of stepping into our lives and our circumstances (and in small or large way) and cause devastation and destruction in it's path. And, like September 11th, I was forced to re-build a broken or weakened structure--of personal and spiritual self.

I don't have time tonight to tell you of that initial personal disaster, or the experience and the ramifications of it, but I plan to come back over the next few days and share how the ball of change began to roll in my life.  I truly believe that some of the hardest challenges and trials we face in our lives can strengthen us, refine us, and help us to rise a little taller. I hope you will return to learn more.

For now, I shall leave you with a scripture...

Alma 37:36-37,

 36 Yea, and ^acry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy^bdoings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy ^cthoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

 37 ^aCounsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for ^bgood; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the ^cmorning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

I hope wherever you are in life, that you will know that there is always hope for change.  Jesus Christ made it all possible--for everyone  For you. For me.  You just need to be willing to make some effort, and you will find that things aren't as despairing as perhaps you see them now.  I have confidence that if I can clean my life of overgrown weeds, and useless belonging-- that YOU CAN clear away the weeds in your life, that keep you from reaching your full potential.  

Next spring I hope the grass grows back!

My remaining clumps of grass look lonely and embarrassing temporarily, but I am hopeful that now that they are not crowded out with the stifling overgrowth of weeds, that what remains will have a chance to multiply and replenish into a beautiful spot of earth!  I look forward to the awakening of next Spring, when the cold snow melts away, and I discover that my painful efforts were worth the time.

Hands caked with dirt will yield us fruit from our labors!
(A Tomato from our garden. :)

Join me on my journey for change and betterment.  You will never regret it.  Even if the soul-stretching efforts of change ache you to the core, you will come out a happier person for it!

Regards, Christine