Never Give UP

NEVER GIVE UP!

Know your goals, seek your dreams, then when you discover what it is you truly desire—DO IT! Do it with a sense of pride. Do your best. Then all you have to do is Never Give Up...
"Discover something worth dying for—then fervently live for it."
My mom taught me that you can do anything that you think you can do—just keep going even when it looks like you're going to fail.   Pick yourself up and learn from failures. She always reminded me of the man crossing the desert who died right before reaching the oasis. If he'd crawled only five more feet, he could have had water. A lot of people lose their dream when they are only five feet, a few hours, a week or a year away from what they truly want.

Laughing is Healthy- Kids are so funny

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The  teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human  because     even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.   The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.   Irritated,  the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was  physically impossible.    The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask  Jonah".   The  teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?"    The little girl replied, "Then you ask him".
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A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing.            She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.  The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."   The  teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."    Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied,  "They will in a minute."
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A  Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and  six year olds.  After  explaining the commandment to "honour" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked,  "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and  sisters?"  Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered,  "Thou shall not kill."
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One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.    She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?"    Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me  cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."  The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said,  "Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"
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The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying  to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.      "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and  say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a  doctor'   A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher,  she's dead."
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A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood.  Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my  head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the  face."    "Yes," the class said.    "Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the  blood doesn't run into my feet?"  A little fellow shouted,   "Cause your feet ain't empty."
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The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Church Elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of  apples. The teacher made a note, and posted on the apple tray:                 "Take only ONE . God is watching."   Moving  further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile  of chocolate chip cookies.  A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples

My Own America

 

 

My Own America

God gave us Free Agency and Awareness

Let us be Aware to Preserve our Freedom.

Prayers are being said daily to preserve our beautiful America.

http://youtu.be/Lt9r4W_zjTw

 

 

Planner and other Missionary Stories

PATTI MINER MISSIONARY STORIES: --YOU NEVER KNOW WHO THE SPIRIT WILL TOUCH AS YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE.

Be Aware….Listen to the Spirit….and Open Your Mouth!

I left my planner on an airplane once. My planner was very important as I was traveling a lot at that time and it had every schedule, phone number etc… The next day was Sunday and I got a call from a Stewardess with a southern accent. She started out by saying, “Do you want to know what you’re doing tomorrow?” I was excited and asked if she found my planner. She said yes  and she would fax me the next day and then mail it to me. She hoped I didn’t mind when her and 4 other stewardesses looked at it and loved how I did menu plans and individual dates with each of my kids once a month…then she asked what VT / FHE and Temple meant that I had marked off regularly. After 45 minutes she knew what they meant. As a thank you for sending me back my most important book…I sent her The most important book to me… the Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. 

A month later I got a phone call from a young man who asked if I was the lady who lost her planner on the airplane. I said yes and he said there were 5 stewardesses who had something to tell me. He held the phone up and they all shouted, “We’re getting baptized.”

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When MeKette was still in Primary she wrote her testimony in a Book of Mormon and the Primary Presidency mailed them out to different countries. A year later we got a letter from a man in Africa who had joined the church after receiving MeKette’s Book of Mormon and thanked her for her sweet testimony.

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At the Mrs. America Pageant I had gotten to my room first and was unpacking when Mrs Alabama arrived as my roommate. She dropped her bags and gasped when she saw my MRS UTAH banner. She had an anti-mormon radio station and was her State BAPTIST Women’s  President. She bible bashed for a few minutes and I as I was not expecting it I was quite taken back. Then the spirit told me to stop and tell her my schedule.  I told her how we go to Sunday School and study the Bible. I told her about Primary/Relief Society/Priesthood and the charity that the church does as well as our name is the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints. She then had an “ah-ha” experience and realized we were Christian. After that we would hold early morning prayer with the other contestants (46 of them attended) They called us by our state’s name so -  ALABAMA would praise the Lord in Scripture (she was loud like a full belt preacher) and UTAH would pray (since most did not know how to pray except prayers preachers had written down for them.)

When I arrived home, I got a call from ALABAMA (Katrina White) saying that her and her family and half her radio station had joined the church.

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One day I was preparing to go to a wedding reception when a knock came to the door. It was a young girl selling paintings.  She noticed the painting of  Christ in our living room and asked if I were a Christian. She said she was from Israel and was Jewish. I told her I was LDS and she said someone had given her a Book of Mormon a few weeks earlier. She asked how to find out more about the religion. I told her I could refer her to the missionaries  - just then two missionaries were tracking in the rain down our street (the missionaries never tract down our street) I pointed to them and said, “Like those two missionaries” Since I had a salesman at the door they went to my neighbors house across the street. She asked how someone becomes a missionary. I told her the Prophet of the World, just like Moses in his time, chooses where they should go. She was fascinated and wanted to know more. I invited her inside and ran across the street to get the missionaries.  Upon hearing about her, the missionaries were excited and came right over. They taught her the first discussion and set up an additional appointment.

They came by the next day to thank me for the contact. I gave them the addresses of all the other non-members in our ward that I had had on our activities committee when I used to be the  Ward Activities Chairman. (It is in the handbook that you can have them on your committee.)

Choosing Good over Evil Every Day

Below is one of the most touching videos but also very inspirational and it made me think about good overpowering evil. God has given the greatest gift of free agency to all the world. The only way we can be tested and progress to the next level. We are all here bumping into that free agency of elements, animals and people every day. Our gift to God is to choose Him over and over again, every time we are faced with hard things.
For Men are that they might have Joy...and true Eternal Joy, Hard to Understand that kind of Joy, God's Joy,
is Eternal Progression.
Even when we choose poorly, God sent Jesus to pay for our poor choices.
Then we repent and start fresh choosing God again....every day.


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865592068/One-year-since-Sandy-Hook-Evil-did-not-win--video.html

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

“GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD”

 

I was reading an article in the newspaper in which they described that in the Pioneer times each woman had a crock with sourdough culture in it. She had to work it every day because there was no fridge to put it in, so she had to make bread every day.  Pioneer mothers would usually knead the dough on the wagon seat because the back of the wagon was full and the seat was the only clear, flat spot.

The pioneers made their own yeast using potatoes. They would borrow some yeast (a start as it was called) meaning a little bit of a yeast culture, and then add potatoes and sugar so that the yeast would grow.  As long as they kept the yeast alive, it would continue to multiply and they had a good supply of yeast.

 

This article made me think, what if the pioneer woman did not make bread that day and let the yeast die? Then their life source would die. Each one of us may not have to make bread every single day to keep our yeast alive, but we do need to read scriptures, attend the temple, have family home evening and a collection of other commandments to obey in order to keep our spiritual yeast alive so our spiritual life source does not dry up. We each must have our DAILY BREAD OF LIFE.

 

Thus Jesus prayer to Heavenly Father applies to us this day with our righteous works,

Father Give us This Day our Daily Bread of Righteousness and may we do the works so that our spiritual bread will grow and never die.

 

Patti Miner

Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid

I was impressed by this list compiled by Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker,  that she shared in LifeHack. I am sharing it on my blog because I found quite a few things that I could work on...

1.    Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves. You don’t see mentally strong people feeling sorry for their circumstances or dwelling on the way they’ve been mistreated. They have learned to take responsibility for their actions and outcomes, and they have an inherent understanding of the fact that frequently life is not fair. They are able to emerge from trying circumstances with self-awareness and gratitude for the lessons learned. When a situation turns out badly, they respond with phrases such as “Oh, well.” Or perhaps simply, “Next!”

2. Give Away Their Power. Mentally strong people avoid giving others the power to make them feel inferior or bad. They understand they are in control of their actions and emotions. They know their strength is in their ability to manage the way they respond.

3.    Shy Away from Change. Mentally strong people embrace change and they welcome challenge. Their biggest “fear,” if they have one, is not of the unknown, but of becoming complacent and stagnant. An environment of change and even uncertainty can energize a mentally strong person and bring out their best.

4. Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control. Mentally strong people don’t complain (much) about bad traffic, lost luggage, or especially about other people, as they recognize that all of these factors are generally beyond their control. In a bad situation, they recognize that the one thing they can always control is their own response and attitude, and they use these attributes well.

5. Worry About Pleasing Others. Know any people pleasers?  Or, conversely, people who go out of their way to dis-please others as a way of reinforcing an image of strength? Neither position is a good one. A mentally strong person strives to be kind and fair and to please others where appropriate, but is unafraid to speak up. They are able to withstand the possibility that someone will get upset and will navigate the situation, wherever possible, with grace.

6. Fear Taking Calculated Risks. A mentally strong person is willing to take calculated risks. This is a different thing entirely than jumping headlong into foolish risks. But with mental strength, an individual can weigh the risks and benefits thoroughly, and will fully assess the potential downsides and even the worst-case scenarios before they take action.

7. Dwell on the Past. There is strength in acknowledging the past and especially in acknowledging the things learned from past experiences—but a mentally strong person is able to avoid miring their mental energy in past disappointments or in fantasies of the “glory days” gone by. They invest the majority of their energy in creating an optimal present and future.

8. Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over. We all know the definition of insanity, right? It’s when we take the same actions again and again while hoping for a different and better outcome than we’ve gotten before. A mentally strong person accepts full responsibility for past behavior and is willing to learn from mistakes. Research shows that the ability to be self-reflective in an accurate and productive way is one of the greatest strengths of spectacularly successful executives and entrepreneurs.

9. Resent Other People’s Success. It takes strength of character to feel genuine joy and excitement for other people’s success. Mentally strong people have this ability. They don’t become jealous or resentful when others succeed (although they may take close notes on what the individual did well). They are willing to work hard for their own chances at success, without relying on shortcuts.

10. Give Up After Failure. Every failure is a chance to improve. Even the greatest entrepreneurs are willing to admit that their early efforts invariably brought many failures. Mentally strong people are willing to fail again and again, if necessary, as long as the learning experience from every “failure” can bring them closer to their ultimate goals.

11. Fear Alone Time. Mentally strong people enjoy and even treasure the time they spend alone. They use their downtime to reflect, to plan, and to be productive. Most importantly, they don’t depend on others to shore up their happiness and moods. They can be happy with others, and they can also be happy alone.

12. Feel the World Owes Them Anything. Particularly in the current economy, executives and employees at every level are gaining the realization that the world does not owe them a salary, a benefits package and a comfortable life, regardless of their preparation and schooling. Mentally strong people enter the world prepared to work and succeed on their merits, at every stage of the game.

13. Expect Immediate Results. Whether it’s a workout plan, a nutritional regimen, or starting a business, mentally strong people are “in it for the long haul”. They know better than to expect immediate results. They apply their energy and time in measured doses and they celebrate each milestone and increment of success on the way. They have “staying power.” And they understand that genuine changes take time. Do you have mental strength? Are there elements on this list you need more of? With thanks to Amy Morin, I would like to reinforce my own abilities further in each of these areas today. How about you?