An Announcement

I am delighted to announce that I have joined A Prayer of Faith as a permanent writer. I have been enjoying guest-posting for them lately and look forward to writing more. You can read my introduction here and my first post as a permanent writer here. I hope you enjoy them.

On Being Humble

D&C 112:10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.

Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

D&C 136:32-33 Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear; For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly.

Matthew 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

These are some of my favorite verses. In them, we learn of blessings that come to us as we humble ourselves. Read through them and see what you think. I know I have a lot of work to do on myself.

Being humble does not mean being unaware of our infinite worth as the children of God, but it does mean being aware of our dependence on our Heavenly Father and also being aware that God's other children are every bit as valuable as we are. It means an absence of conceit and arrogance and vanity. I think, too, that a big part of being humble is being teachable, an important trait in our quest for salvation. You probably have definitions of your own.

Throughout the scriptures, being humble is emphasized, so we know that it is an important virtue to strive for.

My Thanksgiving Day

To start with, we had a beautiful day. It was 77 degrees, sunny, and there was a light southerly wind. This was a good thing for two reasons: 1) I had to drive two hours each way for dinner and 2) the kids and dogs could play outside.

Attending the dinner, besides the usual assortment of people, were a black lab named Lex, a fuzzy dog named Maui, a chihuahua named Snowball, and a Boston bull terrier whose name I didn't catch.

We had all the traditional Thanksgiving fare, plus potstickers, rice and veggies wrapped in seaweed, and a very spicy cabbage dish. I forget what those last two are called, but they are good--although the seaweed is a little fishy for my taste. My sister-in-law has two Korean sisters-in-law, so we usually get to enjoy a mix of food types at holidays. One year we had squid--I didn't try it, but my brother said it was good. Another year it was roasted sugared duck. It had a sort of carmelized glaze.

We talked and watched football and played outside. Then I drove home and started emailing friends. The traffic was fairly light today so the interstates weren't as nerve-racking as they can sometimes be.

All in all it was a most pleasant day. In addition, I won't have to eat for several days now.

I don't see my own cousins very often. My sister-in-law's family has become my family. They have taken me in and made me feel every bit as welcome as my brother. They were there for us through my mom's illness and death. I am very thankful for each one of them.

Grateful Hearts

Our Heavenly Father appreciates our having grateful hearts. He blesses us so much in so many ways, and it is good to cultivate an awareness of all those blessings.

We live on a beautiful earth. We have a physical body which works in miraculous ways, and although it occasionally lets us down, that's only here in this mortal life. After our resurrection, we will be privileged to enjoy a perfect physical body.

We have all kinds of abilities, talents, intelligence, and knowledge. We have families and friends. We have food, clothing, and shelter. We have necessities and some luxuries. We have jobs and money and transportation.

We have the gospel. We have the church. We have prayer and scriptures and temples. We have the Priesthood. We have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us very much. We have the Holy Ghost to guide and inspire us.

We have trials and afflictions which help us grow strong spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. These things can help our characters develop so that we reflect goodness and virtue.

I know that not everyone has everything on the list above, but we all have some things to be grateful for. And perhaps we can share with others those things we have in abundance, easing their journey through life, if only a little.

I am glad that so many do pause and think of their blessings during this Thanksgiving season.

Reflections

After almost a week of allergies/sinus issues, I am feeling slightly better today. I think I'm going to have to miss the ward dinner tonight, though, because the headache is starting to come back--not to mention coughing, sneezing, etc. Blech! Well, I've always survived before, so no doubt I will again.

I need to write out a blogging schedule for myself so that I can keep things moving. I love my blogs, but this hit-and-miss blogging isn't accomplishing what I want to accomplish. As a matter of fact, my whole life needs a schedule. There is so much I want to work on.

The fall colors on the trees have been beautiful. I love the occasional splash of bright red among the yellow and orange and gold. The mix of evergreens gives even more contrast. Our Heavenly Father has given us a most beautiful world to live in and it is one of the things I am very thankful for.

This time of year is so pleasant--cool outside, warm and cozy inside. Perfect weather for reading and sleeping, for hot chocolate, for stew and chili. It makes me long for a fireplace! It is also a time for reflection and for evaluating my life and making some changes and improvements.

I reflect also on the gospel and all that the Lord has done for me and continues to do for me. As Thanksgiving Day approaches, I find myself very thankful indeed.

I Must Be Addicted to Blogging

Is there a 12-step program for that?

I started a third blog, called Writing Blog. Is that original or what? I've been thinking about it for awhile, and now seemed as good a time as any. It will be about (what else?) writing, with some ventures into books and literature. It won't be me trying to teach anyone anything, but rather a place to share information and to just talk about writing.

The new blog is up and running, but I don't have all the links and such that I want in my sidebar up yet. That will be done gradually.

I hope you will come by and visit. I'm still going to post here and on Scholar so maybe all that writing will keep me out of mischief. Maybe.

The Temple

Every year in the middle of November, our stake has what we call Days of Thanksgiving. It is a Thursday and Friday of concentrated temple work. This year the days were 9 and 10 November. I was a little late getting my days off work confirmed and so I only got into two sessions yesterday. But what wonderful sessions they were!

I love going to the temple. We are blessed to have one here in Oklahoma City. Going to the temple is like touching base for me, like going home for a brief time. It strengthens my vision of eternity and helps me remember more clearly what this life is all about. I also love the peace and quiet there. And sitting quietly in the Celestial Room.

It is good to review covenants and other things that we learn there and to ponder them--and just to think about God.

Links to Some Guest Posts I've Written

I have again had the opportunity to write a couple of posts for A Prayer of Faith. I enjoy that blog--I can go there and get some inspiration, encouragement, and thought-provoking reading. I hope my own posts add to that.

My posts are called "Hope Springs Eternal" and "Women and Sisters." I hope you enjoy them!

I also plan to get some posts written for my own blog here, so hang in there with me!

Internet Finds, Old and New

Not too long ago, I discovered a website called "Internet Sacred Text Archive." It looks like it has a lot of material from different religions, belief systems, and what-have-you. It's interesting to dip into books from all over the world and sample what they are like.

On the above mentioned site, there are pages on women, sky lore, UFOs, and Mormonism (no connection between those topics is implied!! :D) among many others. It looks like it has a lot of mythology and folk-lore as well as religious texts, so you might have a lot of fun looking through the material. I've barely gotten started myself, but I think it'll be very enjoyable.

Another website is "Internet Resources for the Study of Judaism and Christianity" which is a list of many links organized by category. You might find something new to read there.

For religious music, there are two websites I recommend highly for learning the words and music to many hymns of many faiths, or just for listening pleasure. They are The Cyber Hymnal and LDS Church Music. I think you will enjoy those a lot.

These sites are all linked on my sidebar, along with a number of great blogs and other resources.