That which fosters confidence in God’s will for us, love for us, and plans for us. Those things that inspire a trust that God really does know best, and will be an active part in helping us to achieve the best if we will allow Him into our lives.
Spiritual treasures are all around us if we have eyes to see.
The dawn's first light is filled with Grace as light touches each tree.
On through each day, as trials come, prayer guides us who listen clear,
Until Eve's colors kiss the clouds, as we feel God's love grow near.
I can testify that spiritual peace can come all the time; both in good and happy times, but also in times of stress and confusion, sadness and pain. It’s such a simple thing to reach out through prayer, but there is no better way. Believe that God loves you and is aware of you. He knows all that you face and is ready to listen and help you. Give it a try…you won’t be sorry.
A couple of months ago, life became ‘out of focus’ for me. I thought I was having a reaction to medications: trouble sleeping, being anxious about everything, not able to think clearly, feelings of doom, nausea, forgetfulness….My MD had me fill out those screening papers for depression. You know the ones.. They ask you to rate how often you feel hopeless and if you find pleasure in daily activites, etc. etc. I scored horribly and she prescribed an anti-depressant, which I decided not to take unless I could not pull myself out.
I tried really hard to focus on the good things going on around me, which, frankly, was quite challenging to do. I tried to think of other people and what they needed and how I could help. I think the most helpful thing was to read scriptures. They give me an eternal perspective, and a virtual slap of reality that we all have troubles, but, we all can turn to Jesus Christ in prayer and thought and receive an unexplainable rest and peace. I tried every day to focus, not just on Christ, but on others around me. Helping others made me feel worthwhile. Little by little, my mood began to change. I began to feel energized and excited about things that I can do.
Serving with heart & mind, body & soul, we help other's needs.
As we serve, others gain more light, as Christ guides our deeds.
We find our hearts grow lighter, leaving worries & cares behind.
Our cares loose their power to overwhelm heart & mind.
When we sit & think about our trials & troubled woes,
Worries grow & magnify & fester our mind, heart & soul.
Mole hills become mountains & they appear impassable.
Let's give time for others needs & our faith will start to grow.
We start to understand the Lord's wisdom when He did say:
"Loose yourself in service unto others," & we will find God's true way.
As we serve other's needs, we become more humble & more meek.
To a bright new way to truly live, as we more humbly seek.
Out of focus!
I know the devastation of Covid, including the disease itself, plus the loss of sociality, and the discord and unrest it has brought about have contributed immensely to widespread depression. Let’s add politics, natural disasters, floods, drought and fires. My hat off to anyone who has not suffered some level of depression. Being that ‘out of focus’ is something that needs attention. Let’s watch out for anyone around us (family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc.) There are many options for treating depression. Perhaps we can all just begin by talking; having conversations with those close to us. I am grateful for my family who listen to me, and for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for all the reminders that God loves me and is always there to help. Check out churchofjesuschrist.org
Gratitude is the gateway to Christ's pure charity.
Let's strive to be grateful for all we know, taste, touch and see,
Like rainbows & different flowers, insects, mammals, reptiles,
birds, fish, lands and sky,
Let our hearts by filled with gratitude, and let us share it by and by.
Be grateful for each pain we have that gives us greater light.
Heartaches from our dear ones can help us gain insight.
Let us be more grateful, for everything we learn and see.
Remember, just past death's door, we join in God's eternity.
This is the 3rd psalm of Thanksgiving….I think I missed a day. Yesterday I was feeling a bit down, you know, when everything goes wrong, and you can’t seem to focus on anything, and you don’t feel like doing anything, and you feel guilty for it?
And I thought about gratitude and knew that was the gateway out of my depression…But….Knowing something and doing it are 2 very different things. It’s easy to be grateful when you feel good. Tell me what you do to be grateful when you don’t especially feel like it?
Let us try giving thanks when life burns and stings.
Through many kinds of emotions, God's hope gives us wings,
To fly above life's turmoil and feel God's healing Son,
And warm us & friends, as we grow and live as one.
Gratitude strengthens each soul's attitude, when we sincerely do our part.
Envy, self pity & pride, tear gratitude from our heart.
Gratitude is the clear key, that opens God's true way,
As our Lord's pure understanding chases Satan from our day.
This is the first of 5 psalms of Thanksgiving, one to be posted each day for the next 5 days.
Gratitude is the gateway for all who truly see.
Grateful eyes see past life's woes into eternity.
When we see & hear through all life's trials, with all our soul & heart,
We do become more clear & true, as gratitude becomes a practiced art.
The true joy & gratitude are found in the simple things of life.
The countdown to Thanksgiving Day (November 26) ought to spark an attitude of gratitude and turn our hearts to reflect upon the blessings we enjoy, even though 2020 has been characterized as a year of disaster. We have been conditioned to almost expect unfortunate events–to the point that we fail to recognize the ‘good’…the things all around us that bless our lives.
Yesterday I was swept away with the spirit of decorating for Christmas as I saw neighbors and family doing this in abundance. As I opened boxes and once again beheld items of sentimental importance…little things: a train, a string of bubble lights, miniature houses and battery lighted tiny trees…all, exactly the same as I left them last year. There was a ‘sameness’ that brought great joy and comfort. Despite the 2020 disastrous events, there was still happiness, just as it always has been, and, for a few short hours of decorating, I forgot the dark 2020 world outside, and all was well.
Gratitude = attitude in all we strive to do.
If we're caught in Covid-19, this title still holds true.
Some see this pandemic through sorrows and swollen eyes.
Our prayers are for all who mourn. Our hearts feel your cries.
We are an older couple. We strive to live each day.
We call and text our loved ones and help in our own way.
Jeanne decorates for Christmas as we prepare for family,
In hope and prayer that all are well to join us. We will see?
We stay at home the best we can to keep us virus free.
We read the scriptures every day to keep our sanity.
We work together on some chores. On some dreams, we work alone,
But help each other when we're asked, to make our house a home.
We pray each dawn and eve and over every meal.
We feel God's love and comfort as Christ becomes more real.
Gratitude = attitude. Thank Thee Lord for good and bad,
For all life's experience with each lesson, happy or sad.
#GiveThanks
Just some thoughts today…Once you think about it–it just might seem to get worse.
A health crisis is upon us. Cases are on a sharp rise. Hospital beds are at capacity. Wearing a mask and washing your hands is easy-peasy, but some other aspects are not…over time:
Staying at home, as we are asked to do…when we need grocery items (all the time)…When we crave a burger and fries that we haven’t cooked….When we need to prepare for Christmas and shop as we have always done in the past…When we are asked to limit physical contact and who we ought to be around…when we just want to take all day and stroll through a store and just ‘look’.
So, you begin to feel BOXED IN, and the walls seem to squeeze you, and
..that only makes all the things you want to or need to do seem bigger and bigger…and the box gets smaller and smaller and pushes all those ‘things’ against you–in your face, and you can’t see anything else. And there just isn’t room anymore.
And a thousand things are undone…then, none of them are even appealing, in fact, nothing seems appealing. You don’t want to do anything, but you feel ‘driven’ to do something, but what? You can’t see any answers because all your problems have wrapped themselves around your face, and blocked off everything. Sometimes you feel you can’t breathe. Sometimes you feel the whole world is against you, and any joy that used to be vivid is now muted and dull.
And in that closing box, even vision is now limited to not even beyond your nose.
I CALL THIS DEPRESSION !
It’s a very ugly thing. See it for what it is, and get out of that box!
getting out of the box will make the walls of your home seem even expansive! And your sight will lengthen out and discover the many things inside your new expanded space–the things that you CAN DO without even leaving the house. And you are so busy thinking of those things that you no longer notice what it was that you CAN’T DO.
That’s the trick…get out of the box
Sometimes, just knowing you’re in a little box is all it takes to step out and re-focus…but, we’re lucky if it ends up being that easy.
Sometimes we sit in the box, and we know we are in the box, and we want to be out, but we can’t break away.
Friends and family may help if we want them to. Call them. Doctors can help if we need them to. Call them. Jesus Christ will help is we pray him to. Pray.
Just get out of that tiny box!
I think it must also be dark in the box. Watch this to see images of light..
To ponder is to meditate upon some special thing
Like a death or our Mother, or a psalm we read or sing.
Our pondering helps magnify the longings of one's heart,
As we choose to ponder, sacred feelings in us start.
If we ponder through deep sorrows, we can understand how to cope.
To ponder on the life of Christ, lifts us up and gives us hope.
Our Lord helps us to ponder if we strive through humble prayer,
We can grow through deeper feelings if we pray to learn and care.
We each can choose to meditate on each sacred day,
As we learnt to place importance upon our Lord's sacred way.
As we study God's true Son and overcome all worldly fear,
We will find more inner peace as we grow from year to year.
May we learn to truly ponder, as Mary did on her son, our Lord, Christ.
Then by true meditation, pure peace will lessen strife.
Lord, help us learn to ponder with a humble, searching soul,
For Thou art our greatest teacher. Help us ponder, trust and grow.
This phrase, “..And Mary pondered these things in her heart.”, are repeated several times in the New Testament, in speaking of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. We define ‘ponder’ as to weigh or consider carefully. In our world, there is much competition for our attention, and we typically find ourselves busy, with our thoughts occupied with a task at hand… And, somehow have come to think of being busy as being a good thing, even a sort of badge of importance. We feel that we are lazy if we should sit for a few minutes and do NOTHING. Pondering is a quiet thing. It not only gives our mind a chance to connect with our heart, but also gives heaven a chance to connect with our heart too.
