Sunday, July 30, 2017

Priorities


 








Someday I’m going to die.
I don’t think I will be finished yet!
Thirty years ago, I gave a talk in church. It was in January and it was about setting goals.
Since I’ve always been a list maker, I had a list of 357 or some things I would like to do. I typed these on adding machine tape end and at the end of my talk I said, “Here are a few of my goals >” and rolled the tape down the aisle to the back of the chapel.
Twenty years later someone who still remembered that talk asked me how many things on that list I had accomplished.
Last month I found the list cut up in strips and put in an old fashion bean pot (my dream pot!!
Going through them today I’m having a laugh and wondering how many I will ever do?
I know I won’t make plaid pants for my four-year-old, or knit a yellow dress for her Barbie doll.
And what was a Millennial wreath anyway? Some embroideries and quilts I have finished and they adorn my home and the homes of others.
As I age and I see the end of my lifespan creeping closer I am wondering about my priorities. Have I done what the Lord sent me here to do?
Have I learned those things I need to enhance my eternity and that of others?
1.    Have I been kind?
2.    Have I been honest?
3.    Have I taught lessons and skills to enhance other’s lives?
4.    Have I kept the promises I have made to God and those around me?
5.    Have I shared all the best things in my life to improve the lives of others?
6.    Have I forgiven, and been forgiven?
7.    Is the world better because I was here?

In an article in the May 2011 Ensign magazine “We Have Work To Do”
President Gordon stated
…I do not have a perfect knowledge, but I will try a little harder to be a little better

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Lay It On Me


 







My cousin has been dreaming again. He dreamed that he was in a parking lot and a few people came out of the building and walked by. Two said hello and invited him to go with them. As they walked through the cars in the parking lot a couple would disappear. Then some more and some more till all were gone but him.
He asked what it could it mean. I said “Are you worried that you are being left behind?
He comes from a very religious family but decided in his young adulthood that it wasn’t for him. Are angels searching for him?
There are many times in our lives when we feel the burdens of our lives are too heavy to bear.
I know a man who lost a child to an illness. He couldn’t console himself so he left his family.
A woman suffered a terrible accident and her husband left the family on their own because he couldn’t help her. A girl left the comfort of her religion because she felt rejected by her church peers. Others say, If there is a God, why does he let bad things happen to people.

I like to listed to country gospel music. One of my favorite is

Lay it On Me by Christy Lane

When a hill seems like a mountain and some chain has got you bound
Lift up your knee to the Savior and He’ll say Lay it down.

 He said,lay it on me, lay it on me.  Lay it on me and I’ll set you free.
Lay it on me

It’s just a breeze softly blowing still you’re bending in the wind
And you’re too tired to lift your burden. lift your guilty hands to him.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
I will not forget the words He said
Or the promise that He made.

He said lay it on me, lay it on me.  Lay it on me, and I’ll set you free.
Lay it on me.

When I was first married and had three -year old and one year old sons we found out that my husband had cancer. The night of the final diagnosis, I was too upset to sleep. But with children that young I knew I had to be able to carry the burden. As I knelt to pray I begged the Lord to just help me get to sleep. As I climbed into bed I felt his hand on my shoulder comforting me, and I slept. A few hours later the baby woke up. After comforting him and meeting his needs I went back to sleep, again with His hand on my shoulder. God and his angels were watching over me. 

Take your burdens to the Lord and trust in him.