Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is important that we always remember to be grateful for all the blessings our Heavenly Father has given us. Take some time today to think of all that you have been blessed with and share some of those thoughts with friends and family.

For myself, I am grateful for so many things. I'm thankful that I found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and joined it. I am thankful for all those blessings connected with the Church--the priesthood, temples, scriptures, prophets, and so forth. I am especially grateful for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us. I'm grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and for our Heavenly Father and His love and concern for each of us. There are so many blessings associated with the gospel that I cannot name them all.

I am also thankful for family and friends, for having a job that I like, for having books to read, for having food and clothing and shelter. Again, there are so many blessings that I cannot name them all.

I hope that we will always be a grateful and appreciative people. May you have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Video: Jesus Christ - A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief

Personal Reflections

Life certainly isn't simple, is it? So much to be concerned about, not least of which is our own self improvement. After all, our Heavenly Father placed us here on earth to learn and grow and improve.

While we are taught to think for ourselves, this doesn't preclude listening to those who are wiser than we and receiving their counsel. We must not just receive their counsel, but we must actually implement it in our lives. This is easier said than done, but that makes it no less necessary.

Among those that we should listen to are our prophets, who counsel us at the Lord's direction. Sometimes we hear counsel that is difficult for us, but that makes it no less true.

There are a number of basic things we need to be doing in order to assure ourselves that we are doing what is right. These things include prayer, studying the scriptures as the word of God and not as linguistic documents to be parsed and argued over, studying the words of our living prophets and apostles, attending church and temple, and so forth.

There are temporal things we need to do as well--saving money, getting out of debt, not living beyond our means, storing food and other items in preparation for hard times, etc.

Everyone of us can improve in each of these areas and need to work on doing so. Service to others is also a very important aspect of living, as is strengthening our families.

We also need to care for our health and develop our talents and abilities. We should also do what we can to continue learning about a variety of subjects--the gospel, current events, and things that are of interest to us such as history or science.

It all sounds so overwhelming when listed together like this, but we are not expected to run faster than we have strength. We are, however, expected to be persistent and diligent. And who is it that expects this of us? Our Heavenly Father, who knows us better than we know ourselves and who knows what is best for us. He is also more than willing to help us, if we will let Him. Sometimes that last part--letting God help us--is very difficult. We think we should be able to do it all by ourselves. It is true that we need to choose to put in the effort, but we need to rely on our Heavenly Father for the strength to follow through and also for ideas on how to continue when we run into a road block. It is a sort of partnership between us and God that helps us to live life as we should. He can guide us in the right direction and help us to know right from wrong. He can provide inspiration and encouragement and confirmation that we are doing well.

I have my struggles, as we all do. I even have trouble with persisting and being diligent! Still, I know where help is and I need to keep going. That isn't always easy. There are times when headaches defeat me or when my back hurts abominably, as it is right now. I just have to remember that persisting and being diligent will help me to become stronger in all ways.

May God bless us all to be persistent and diligent.

Let's Talk About Food Today

Apparently I am hungry, so I am writing a post about food! It's always interesting to find websites or books with new recipes and new types of food to try. I have a website to share with you today called The World's Healthiest Foods. There's all sorts of information about food and cooking here. Do some exploring!

A page of the above site that I really like is the food list page. It has a list of common foods divided into categories such as Vegetables. Click on a food and you will get a page with nutrition information, health benefits, history, how to select and store, etc. Here's the onion page for an example. I really like that nutrient chart near the top. Very useful for finding foods to meet specific nutrition requirements. The history of the food is very interesting, too.

The site also has a recipe page that may give you some new ideas of foods to fix for you and your family. There are vegetarian and meatless dishes, as well as traditional types of recipes. And here's a page on healthy cooking. And another on essential nutrients. There is a lot of documentation at the bottom of the articles, too.

The site has a cooking demonstration page. There is a long list of food preparation items that you might want some help with, so just click on an item and it opens a box with photos and a written description. Very interesting.

There are lots more pages on this site. I've just listed a few to give you a sample of what you can find there.

Since we all have to prepare food for ourselves and our families, it's always fun to find new information to help with that task.

The Blessings of Living in America

I hope we all appreciate the great blessing of living in the United States of America. In spite of attempts at government interference here and there, we still have a lot of freedom, not least of which is freedom to worship as we please. Religion was important in the founding of our country and it is important today.

Our religious beliefs give us a moral foundation and guidance as to what is right and what is wrong. The truth is that there is such a thing as right and wrong, good and evil. There are those who would have us believe otherwise, but God has taught us better.

The USA, because of its freedom, is strong enough to help others around the world in various ways, and is very generous in doing so. We help in various disasters around the world and we fight for freedom. We do our best to spread truth and goodness. We set an example. We are not perfect, but we are good.

There is much to be thankful for and much to be concerned about. We have important elections coming up on Tuesday, 4 November. Study the issues and the candidates, local and state and national, and vote, using your best thinking.

May God bless us all, in America and all around the world.