The victory has already been posted

One of my favorite quotes:

New Blog Title

So I changed the name of my Blog today.  Why?  Because the old title of "See the Cat? See the Cradle?" didn't really seem to fit with the direction my blog is headed.  The new title is "Random Ramblings OR Myriad Meandering Messages" which is a bit long winded but kind of fun.  How long will I leave this title?  I don't know.  What I do know is that this one fits the tone my blog has taken as it's progressed a lot better.

Facebook Status Christmas Quotes from December 2010

For anyone who liked or missed my myriad Christmas quotes from my Facebook status updates throughout December, here they all are.

 

As I heard on Sounds of Sunday on Dec. 26th, "The Spirit of Christmas is really the Spirit of Christ." May we all have the Christmas Spirit all year long.

 

"What will you and I give for Christmas this year? Let us, in our lives, give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living His teachings and following in His footsteps. It was said of Him that He 'went about doing good.' As we do likewise, the Christmas spirit will be ours." ~President Thomas S. Monson

 

" 'It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!'
And he puzzled three hours, 'til his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store.
...Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more.' "
~Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Giesel

 

Far, far away on Judea's plain,
Shepherds of old heard the joyous strains:
Glory to God! Glory to God!
Glory to God in the highest!
Peace on Earth, good-will to men;
...Peace on Earth, good-will to men!

 

‎". . .let it be a season of seeking the Lamb of God, the King of Glory, the Everlasting Light of the World, the Great Hope of Mankind, the Savior and Redeemer of our souls.
I promise that if we unclutter our lives a little bit and in sincerity and humility seek the pure and gentle Christ with our hearts, we will see Him, we will find Him--on Christmas and throughout the year."
~President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 

"While it's true that we can find materialism and anxiety in Christmas, it is also true that if we have eyes to see, we can experience the powerful message of the birth of the Son of God and feel the hope and peace He brings to the world. We, like the Grinch, can see Christmas through new eyes." ~President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

‎"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white.' " ~Bing Crosby

 

‎"As happens so often. . .the symbols can cover that which is symbolized. In some of our lives, the manger has already been torn down to allow for a discount store running three-for-a-dollar specials on gold, frankencense and myrrh. . .Only when we see that single, sacred, unadorned object of our devotion -the Babe of Bethlehem- will we know why. . .the giving of gifts is so appropriate." " ~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 

‎"Christmas means giving. The Father gave His Son, and the Son gave His life. Without giving there is no true Christmas, without sacrifice there is no true worship." ~President Gordon B. Hinckley

 

‎"This little child, born in a stable and cradled in a manger, was a gift from our loving Heavenly Father. He was the promised Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Son of the living God." ~President Henry B. Eyring

 

Jesus, had no servants, yet they called him Master; had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher; had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. Re-post if you believe. Merry Christmas!!

 

"This is a glorious time of the year, simple in origin, deep in meaning, beautiful in tradition and custom, rich in memories, and charitable in spirit. . .This joyful season brings to each of us a measure of happiness that corresponds to the degree in which we have turned our mind, feelings and actions to the spirit of Christmas." ~President Thomas S. Monson

 

"He whose birth we commemorate this season is more than the symbol of a holiday. He is the Son of God, the Creator of the Earth, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, the Redeemer of mankind, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace. . ." ~President Gordon B. Hinckley

 

Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

Merry Christmas and may God bless you this wonderful holiday season.

 

Luke 2: 10-11, 13-14
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Older I Get. . .

. . .the more I appreciate my family and all of the loving support they give me in all aspects of my life.

. . .the more I enjoy spending time with good friends.  It doesn't matter if we're on a planned outing or just hanging out, we always have fun.

. . .the less I enjoy going to activities that are so contrived and overplanned that they cease to resemble anything fun.

. . .the more I realize that while I had fun when I was in school, you couldn't pay me enough to go back and experience it again.

. . .the more I realize that what others think of me is of little or no importance compared to what I think of me.

. . .the harder it is to do many of the things I took for granted when I was younger.

. . .the easier it is to figure out who and what really matter.

. . .the more I realize that the things I understood so well as a child take a lot of work to figure out as an adult.

. . .the more I realize that truth, knowledge and wisdom are not easy to come by.  Nor are they mutually exclusive or mutually inclusive.

. . .the more I appreciate getting enough sleep and feeling well rested.

. . .the broader I apply the term "my age."

. . .the less I care about the relative ages of myself and those I enjoy spending time with.

. . .the more I enjoy finding the time to take some "me" time.

. . .the more I realize that there are many things in life worth working hard for.

. . .the easier it becomes to push through rough times by focusing on what is truly important and leaning on the vast amount of support offered by those who love me.

Conference Notes and How I Got Where I Am Today

Just a warning:  This started out as a post about having finished taking notes on conference talks.  It has evolved somewhat since I started writing it and has become pretty long.  For any of my friends who read this who aren't members of the LDS Church, I'm sorry if all or part of this makes no sense.  Now, with no further ado, here is my posting.

So, it only took me two and a half weeks to finally finish taking notes on all of the conference addresses from the October General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I watched and/or listened to all of the talks the days they aired but, what with one thing and another, it was today that I finally finished listening to them again on my iPod while taking verbatim, hand-written notes.  Let me tell you, it takes a long time to write 42 pages (front and back) of notes!

This was a great conference.  I'm realizing that I've really grown spiritually, and it shows in how much I take away from what I'm taught.  Looking back, I'm amazed at how far I've come in the last few years.  I think the first time I ever listened to all of General Conference was a year ago.  Given where I am today, spiritually speaking, and the fact that the LDS church has been having General Conference on a twice yearly basis for longer than I've been alive, that's something of a sad commentary on how much I've let my life wander.


I was raised in the LDS church, but when I was a kid conference weekend simply meant a Sunday that I wasn't going to be forced to wear a dress or skirt just to go to church.  Don't get me wrong, I liked church well enough but I simply didn't want to wear a dress or skirt at all.  Despite having the availability, my family never really watched conference at home either.  This was probably the beginning of what eventually led me to inactivity.

About half way through college was when I really started being inactive.  It wasn't really a decision I made, so much as a slow slide down a slippery slope into inactivity.  I never fully stopped believing, I simply allowed other things to take precedence often enough that attending church was no longer a priority.  I even ended up marrying a guy from another faith toward the end of college.

At several points during my six or seven years of inactivity I realized that I didn't know if I believed in the church I was raised in or not.  I'd believed as a child, borrowing light and testimony from those around me, but as an adult I'd never taken the time to figure it out.  I started attending church with some friends.  I went to the LDS Ward I should have been attending a couple of times with some neighbors and went with my grandmother to her Ward for a while as well.  I also attended many services at Calvary Chapel with my roommate.

Pastor Rick Brown of Calvary Chapel in Idaho Falls is a good pastor.  He knows his bible and the historic context of the stories better than almost anyone else I've ever heard speak on the subject.  However, I couldn't deny the fact that most of what he said just felt incomplete or even, on occasion, wrong to me.  I kept thinking that there was something missing from the experience, something more I should be finding.

After my ex-husband left me in late 2007, I took the opportunity to start attending church with my grandmother most Sundays.  Looking back, it was more for a sense of stability than anything.  While there have been many people move in and out of my grandma's Ward over the years, there were still enough familiar faces for me to feel a sense of comfort and familiarity.  I know you can never go home again, but there are times in your life that you really wish you could.  That was one of those times for me.  After a while, however, I realized that I needed to start moving on with my life.  I couldn't go back to the comfortable world of my childhood any more than I could change the fact that I was going to be 25 and divorced.

The following year, my good friend and pseudo-sister Sarah came home from serving an LDS Mission in South Korea.  I started attending the St. Leon Young Single Adults Branch with her.  The people were nice enough, but I just didn't feel like I belonged.  I felt out of step.  When she moved to Rexburg to attend BYU Idaho in the fall, I decided it was time for me to figure out where I should actually be attending church.

I found out that I lived in the boundaries of the Eagle Rock Young Single Adults Branch and decided to try it out.  Thankfully, the Branch Presidency and members were friendly but not pushy.  They allowed me to settle in, make some friends and go at my own pace.  The more comfortable I got with my surroundings, the more I was able to pay attention to what was being taught.  I realized for the first time in a long time that I was not only paying attention to what was being taught but trying to apply it.  I started to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in my meetings and in my life.  This was what had been missing.  This was what I needed to find.


The following Summer, we got a new Branch Presidency.  Our new Branch President asked me about a year ago to take a Temple Prep class.  I really had no idea why on Earth he would want me to take this class.  I wasn't going to go on a mission, and I certainly wasn't going to get married any time soon given that I hadn't dated since I got divorced.  Additionally, I had no intention of going to the temple because I knew there were things in my life that would disclude me from doing so.

Now, I already said that the first time I'd listened to all of General Conference was last October.  What I didn't mention was that the day after conference my Branch had a chance to meet a man who had served in upper levels of the LDS Church.  He said something that I've never forgotten, "To the Lord, you never say no."  When I heard that, I decided that if I was going to progress spiritually, I needed to put action to word and do as the Lord asked.  For this reason, I took the class.  It was interesting, but I still wasn't sure why I'd been asked to take it.

A few months later, I was asked to speak in Stake Conference.  My topic?  Celestial Marriage, which begins in the temple.  So not only had they asked the representative from the Single's Branch to speak on Celestial Marriage, they'd asked the divorced girl from the Single's Branch to speak on Celestial Marriage!  I felt like the punchline to a very unfunny joke.

Through this experience, however, I learned a lot.  It helped me decide that if I was ever to get married again I'd want a marriage that would last forever.  In order to have that, I'd eventually have to go to the temple.  A short time later, I had an interview with my Branch President.  He wanted to help me figure out what I needed to work on in order to go to the temple.  Throughout everything, he was persistent but never pushy.  Which is probably a good thing.  When people get pushy, I push back and it doesn't matter if what they were being pushy about is in my best interest or not.

Throughout the past two years, I've been asked to work in various positions in my Branch.  I've accepted each time and tried to do that which has been asked of me.  Each job has helped me to progress and each has taught me something different about the Church I'm now sure I believe in.  I've become interested in learning about my Church's teachings and beliefs for my own betterment both in independent study and in class settings.  I attend religious classes at least once a week when they are in session and no longer think of going to church as something I have to do and realized it's something I both want and need to do.

The culmination of all of this was that I eventually resolved those things in my life that were keeping me from being able to go to the temple.  I attended the temple for the first time as an adult member last month.

The person I am today is a far cry from the person I was just a few short years ago.  I've come to realize that even though God works in mysterious ways, He always has our best interests at heart.  His plan may seem circuitous and maddeningly enigmatic at times but when you reach the destination He is trying to steer you toward it is worth any "inconvenience" you may have felt was being put upon you enroute.

I am eternally grateful for the Savior's atonement in my life.  Without it, I would be lost.  Without Him I would be lost.

I have a confession to make. . .

I think that this last weekend was the first time in my entire life that I actually watched/heard all of Conference during Conference Weekend.  When I was younger, all Conference Weekend meant was a Sunday that I didn't have to put on a dress I didn't want to wear and go to church.  During the years I wasn't attending church regularly, I obviously didn't watch Conference.  Over the last few years that I've been attending church, one thing or another has stopped me from seeing or hearing all of Conference during the weekend.  I've downloaded the audio files afterward and listened throughout the following week, but never all of it on the weekend of the broadcast.

Not that I didn't have some technical difficulties with seeing all of it.  Channel 8 doesn't like to come in at my house and we don't get BYU-TV.  Therefore, I had planned on watching the Saturday morning session online.  Having stayed up way too late Friday night, I had a difficult time dragging myself out of bed.  I somehow managed to do it, and sat down at my computer and logged on to byutv.org.  I pulled up the Conference feed and listened to the beautiful choir singing.  President Eyring came to the podium and. . .no sound.  I flipped over to lds.org and tried that feed.  Still no audio from the podium.  I flipped back and forth a couple of times and got audio as the choir sang their next song.  The first speaker came to the podium, and there was still no audio from the podium mike.  Needless to say, I ended up listening to that session on Saturday night while doing dishes and eating dinner.

However, I did manage to watch or hear all of the sessions, including the talks I fell asleep during (yes, I know I'm horrible), by the end of Sunday.  I'm kind of proud of that accomplishment.  Now, over the next week or so, I'll be listening to each talk on my iPod and taking notes verbatim.  By hand.  It gets the messages into my head better for some reason and I've been doing it for a couple of years now.

All of the speakers were amazingly uplifting, and I certainly found plenty of advice and counsel that seemed directed straight at me.  I've found that if I listen to the speakers, I'll always find something the Lord wanted me to hear.

What was my favorite part of conference, you might ask?  President Uchtdorf talking about tree rings and then saying, ". . .that's all well and good, but what does it have to do with flying an airplane?"

I Thank God for friends who listen to promptings of The Spirit

So last Friday, I was in a funk.  No real reason, I was just in a bad mood.  I'm still not sure why.

Out of the blue, two of my friends from church and one who I met at McDonald's who is now going to school in Pocatello texted me.  Not for anything necessarily important.  Just to say hi or because they wanted to ask me a about something going on in my life.

I wasn't even aware of it, but that is exactly what I needed to kick me out of my funk.  I'm so thankful that God knows what we need better than we do and can inspire others to do something to help us out.

In Honor of Banned Book Week

In honor of Banned Book Week, read a banned book.  Listed below is part of the ALA (American Library Asociation) list of top banned and challenged books from 2000-2009.  You can find the rest of the list here, find their list of banned and challenged classics here or find more lists and information about banned and challenged books here.

Think for yourself.

This week, choose a banned or challenged book and read it in support of freedom of thought.

1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16. Forever, by Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20. King and King, by Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24. In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25. Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan

As seen on a Facebook thread: My Cleanflicks Rant

<rant mode>

I've always been of the opinion that if you make the choice not to watch certain films or certain types of films, then that is exactly what you should do (or not do, I guess).  It is a personal choice, and nothing others say or do should affect it.  That should include others saying a film is good and you need to see it.  Seeing a movie in an edited form is still seeing the movie.  You're still buying into the idea that you need to watch it.  You're just refusing to watch all of it.

Having access to an edited version of the film (edited legally or otherwise, but we won't even go there) shouldn't change your choice of whether or not to watch it.  In addition to which, all you're doing is paying other people to think for you.  You're paying someone else to decide what is or is not appropriate for you to see.  You're paying someone else to watch something you yourself won't watch in order to make it acceptable to you.

Having somebody else edit a movie for you, instead of making the decision not to see it at all, is just as bad as not reading a book simply because a person or group of people got your local library not to carry it.  The more we allow others to think for us, the less we have to take personal responsibility for our decisions.

</rant mode>

Portents of things to come

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, the leaves are changing color, Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations are beginning to appear in the stores and my allergies just won’t leave me alone.  All that can only mean one thing: it must be Autumn time.  I really do enjoy Fall; the weather, the colors, the fresh produce, hot caramel apple cider and hot chocolate.  All of it is enjoyable.  However, I wish harvest time was over and I could get back to feeling like someone who can breathe without sneezing and swallow without my throat protesting.

The biggest problem I have with Fall, however, is that it is a portent of Winter on its way.  Each of these things that I really enjoy become an ominous indicator that it’s getting late in the year.  It’s not that I truly dislike snow and cold.  After all, that’s what heaters, blankets and coats are for.  It’s just that I hate driving on ice and dealing with people who think that if they have a 4-wheel drive truck they don’t have to be careful.

Oh well, c’est la vie.  I’ll just have to enjoy all of the wonderful parts of Fall and hope that I can ignore the looming presence of Old Man Winter hiding just out of sight over the horizon.