Saturday, September 16, 2017

Is Communism Really Dead AND Are Socialist Countries a Threat?

First article is a little dated, but true principles are true.  Sometimes we are relieved or think all is well, but what really happens is a group based on destroying capitalism hides behind one mask and then takes on a different appearance pretending to be not so harmful in nature.   The names and terms change as those who would harm the American Way seek to sneak past you and I with tom-foolery.

1.  http://www.raythomas101.com/communismdead.html

2.  Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Repression, Terror by Stéphane Courtois (Author).

3.   http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/05/09/california-may-allow-communists-work-openly-state-government/

4.   https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/26703-how-the-violent-hard-left-antifa-movement-copies-communists-in-weimar-republic-germany

Monday, August 21, 2017

Meanwhile, back at the State Department

Daniel Greenfield reports on this crazy idea that someone had at the State Department.  To welcome known agitators and sponsors of terror organizations to sit down and be treated in a civil manner is beyond the pale.  The State Department needs to come down hard in defense of Israel.  And this isn't the way.  Read for yourself.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/267650/state-dept-hosted-cair-and-hamas-front-group-daniel-greenfield#.WZui9cEEp6w.twitter

Monday, July 31, 2017

Tortilla Soup

...the movie!  For ladies like me.  Perfecto!  I don't need hot and hungry and over the edge all the time, but when I do, I like movies like this one.  The whole cooking thing at the beginning of the movie was seductive, with a capital S.  My biological father was a short order cook, but Hector Elizondo exceeds my highest expectations (I know, he probably isn't a chef in real life)...anyway...this role was written for him.  His quiet, understated manner is a perfect backdrop for the tangy and entangled love stories in the movie!
At my age, I really see things differently---I may not have lost my ability to smell or taste food, but appetite is always there waiting in the wings for something good to happen, something that will wake you up.   In this case, the movie!


Monday, June 26, 2017

social justice gimmick and other remarks

“You’ve got to watch out because at some point you run the risk of harming the people you set out to help.”
The math, here, is so simple that even I can understand it.  Raise the wages.  The employer will compensate by cutting a worker's hours.   Or by cutting the number of workers.
I just love
...reading Greenfield; he has a way with digging down to the truth.  I just wish kids and others, nowadays, would realize the damage that socialism can do.

  • William J. Conway says, :
Venezuela’s decline is the inevitable endgame of socialism, told by the deterioration of its streets, the abuse of its opposition politicians, and the use of the military to maim and kill Venezuelan children as young as 14.
  1.  https://plus.google.com/108709180471526832566/posts/PaWjnTcGbrU
  1.  http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/06/12/visual-portrayal-socialism-venezuela-20-photos/

Sunday, April 16, 2017

We Have to Seek the Lord to Find Him





Sometimes, the circumstances and trials in our life leave us feeling quite isolated and alone.  We believe that God lives and have a testimony that there is a Gospel Plan and yet, we stumble.  We feel lost when things don't quite measure up to what we think of as our ideal life.



Why?  What is it that we are supposed to learn from failure, disease, new situations and the surprises that is our path?!!

Just listened to a talk from a young woman on BYU television in a devotional address that she made regarding just this topic!  Though her disappointments were not mine, it is sure that we have all had disappointments.

I loved the quotes that she used.  Be sure to look for them in the transcript link above.

In searching for that transcript, I discovered the website : BYU Speeches.  Thankfully, I now have a source for many other inspirational talks.  An Easter gift that I can really use, right now.  Remember, Christ perfectly knows our burdens; look for His comfort, His understanding His empathy!

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Renewal and Thoughts of Easter

“We shall rise from mortal death to have life everlasting, because of the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of the Savior.”

My dad with his mother, my Grandma Hall.

Easter Bonnets:  In first grade, the teacher set out crepe paper, cardboard, crayons, and scissors.  With her help and the help of a teacher's aide, we made our hats and adorned them with bows and thought them beautiful.  I'm not sure what the boys did; maybe they got to make Easter baskets?  I love the idea of an Easter Parade, a show of hope and celebration.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_bonnet)



Hot Cross Buns:  I left home at the age of 17.  During those first years away, responsible for setting up my own household, I begin to experiment with recipes and cooking.  I read magazines and became inspired and educated by the presentation of food on Easter.  I had never heard of hot-cross buns.  I knew about Ham, Potato Salad; I had grown up with that fare.  I determined to add making the yeast buns to Easter Dinner preparations.  (http://people.com/food/best-easter-hot-cross-buns-recipe/)


Easter Chicks:  I'm not sure that I understood the spiritual significance or connected the significance of little new-born chicks at Easter.  They had been dyed different colors and were furry and warm and chirping a lot.  I don't remember what we did with them after Easter.  We didn't live on a farm, really, though Mother did raise chickens for a while.  We had a garden, too, in the Spring.  I remember a summer of picking beans.  The rows had been criss-crossed, so that we could pick in the shady tunnels, from the inside.


As a young child, I may not have realized the significance of all the trappings of Easter, but as I grew older, I began to associate the gift of new clothes (pastel colors) with the idea of the Resurrection.  And as the years passed, I realized that my Mother, who had lost a child before I was born, who had lost her mother in a car accident...that Easter, though a time of hoping to be reunited with loved ones, down the road, was also a time of sadness and loss, for her.  One Easter morning, she was on her way to Church and just down the dirt road from our house, she saw my sister's dog, runned over and stretched out in the middle of the road, dead.  Her heart was softened, the tears hot and bitter.  She never did make it to church; the grief and loss had completely overtaken her.

  “It is our firm belief that [the Atonement] is a reality,” he testified, “and nothing is more important in the entire divine plan of salvation than the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We believe that salvation comes because of the atonement. In its absence the whole plan of creation would come to naught. … Without this atoning sacrifice, temporal death would be the end, and there would be no resurrection and no purpose in our spiritual lives. There would be no hope of eternal life.”2 (President Howard Hunter)





Sunday, March 05, 2017

Saturday is a Special Day

There is a children's song that we used to sing in Primary; it goes like this:

Saturday is a special day, It's the day we get ready for Sunday.  (Primary Children's Songbook)


 So, Sunday is the sacred day.  But spiritually and physically it is more than okay to start preparing on Saturday for the "Holy Day" of "peace and rest".  

Put your house in order, at least to the extent that you know you have something ready to wear for church and you know where your shoes are.  I even dumped my purse out on the carpet last night and only put back in, the things I would need in my purse to attend church.  Maybe that seems a little weird, but it's a woman thing to do.  As I left this morning (Sunday), I also threw in a Rice Crispy Treat and a cheese stick in case my blood sugar started dropping.


"Peace and rest":  Rest from your normal routine, from loud television shows, from conflicts and stress.  Rest from the "everyday", worldly cares.  It actually is a relief to not have to go shopping!

In Sacrament meeting today, someone was bearing their testimony and in her words, I could feel the effort she was making to drop her burdens at the feet of the Savior.  She had had a busy, crazy, stressful week; she had ended that week in tears and I could feel her searching for peace as she spoke.  

It is the Savior who can pull us through those hard times, through adversity and troubled waters, through grief and pain.  We (I) so need a day to be reminded of this, to be reminded to look up to the Heavens for strength, inspiration, and rest. 

Here is what I jotted down on my church bulletin as I listened to the soul's plea as the sister worked through her grief and came out on the other side.

I wrote, "Things to do on Sunday":  
  • FamilySearch indexing 
  • Write a missionary
  • Scan family pics to put on FamilySearch
  • Read the scriptures or talks from conference
  • play uplifting and joyful music 
  • Write in my journal (I don't have a journal, but I have a booklet that could become a journal.
  • Pray for our soldiers and sailors (my granddaughter is in the Coast Guard.
  • Pray for those who weren't able to make it to church this Sunday
  • Send someone in the ward a birthday card or an inspirational happy card or whatever kind you feel like they need.
  • Make a plan to do your visiting teaching.
  • Touch bases with family.  If they are far away, call or Skype.  If they are closer, eat a meal together.  Reach out to family members or those who live alone.
This was fast Sunday and since I'm a diabetic, I don't fast the 24 hour way.  Someone suggested that I fast in other ways.  For example, I thought about not watching any television that would detract from the spirit.  Not go out to a store or dine out.  (I don't usually do this anyway on Sunday, but sometimes I do, so I guess I am still needing to work on that goal as well as others).

After writing these thoughts down, I will go back and put in a few pictures so as to make it more vibrant and shareable.  Hope you have a Happy and Fulfilling Sunday. 
Remember, if you need to take a nap or have some private time, add that type of goal on your Sunday To Do List, too!







 

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Dated but Timeless "How to LIve a Successful LIfe"

President Tanner is deceased, but he had a great sense of humor; spiritually, he was a giant whose words can touch hearts in every dispensation.

https://youtu.be/7xIvFgRhI10


Thursday, January 26, 2017

Scriptures: Search, Read, Ponder, Pray...and SHARE!

How do I feel right now, tonight?  


A moment of panic when I found out that not only does my daughter has Type A influenza, but her baby girl also has it.



 

An evening of feeling very tired, exhaustion of a spiritual or physical dimension? 




A desire to feel better tomorrow, a hope for strength (mental and physical), the belief and growth of belief that my Father in Heaven will not fail me.  


I looked for scriptures in the Topical Guide using the phrase "living water".  Here is the first one that caught my eye.

John 7:37:  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 
Christ is the living water!  The source that never goes dry.  I was thirsting this evening for relief, for peace, and for strength, also.  By turning to the scriptures, I asked and received the reassurance that God is in His Heaven, that "all is well".  God loved my children first,  and perfectly.  He does not expect me to be in all places and be all things to all people.  

 STUDY QUESTIONS
1.  What do the scriptures have to say about fear, depression, and other negative feelings that are part of our current experience ?
2.  Did Christ experience thirst, exhaustion, rejection, disappointment, and concern?  When and Where?  
3.  Is disease a physical malady or a mental and spiritual unwellness?  Or both?
4.  What part does hope play in our healing?  Is it enough to believe in Christ's power to save?  Where does faith come in? and Why do we want to develop faith?  

Other living water scriptures:
  • 1 Nephi 11:25
  • Revelations 21:6
  • D & C 63:23