Yesterday I went to the temple with my friend Janice.  There I had the distinct impression that our family scripture study needs to change.  We are very hit and miss.  We try, but often we end up reading a few verses and then calling it a night.  I have been pondering this situation for a while now and yesterday I felt like the Lord told me what I needed to do.  My kids are very independent and inquisitive, and they love to question things and form theories, which I, in turn, love about them.  We are going to try doing our scripture study by topic.  I have assigned every member of the family one night of the week which they are in charge of using the scriptures to expound on the topic.  Last night I took the first night and choose to Read Ezra 3:11. We then discussed the value of song in praising the Lord.  I encouraged my children to always sing the hymns during church to show their devotion to God.  It was a little chaotic at first but I think it was a pretty good start.  I am so thankful to the Lord for giving us the guidance of his spirit, it is so amazing.

I also had a spiritually disturbing experience yesterday.  I was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing the Hallelujah Chorus on UTube.  As I was listening I began to scroll down the page and was startled by some of the haters that had commented, using very hateful language to intone that we, the mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are not Christian.  I believe in Christ, I believe he is my Savior, my redeemer, my brother, my King.  According to most traditional Christian doctrines this is what you must believe to be a Christian, all that you must believe.  Many Christian faith differ in their doctrines, but to my understanding this is the essential doctrine of Christanity, That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the World, the Personal Savior of all Mankind, if we believe in him we are saved, he will redeem our sins. In the 46 years I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (mormons) I have been taught many truths about God, but this truth that Jesus is the Christ has always been the center of our doctrine, and the foundation of my life.

Last night I was woken up at 1 am  by screaming, terrified screaming.  I apparently jumped out of bed and began screaming myself (I don't wake up well out of deep sleep).  Ben had been sleeping down in the family room.  Josh woke up in the middle of the night, he's not a very good sleeper, and went out to the family room to watch TV.  B was there so J woke him up and started lecturing him about sleeping in his own room and telling him to leave.  B in turn threw a playschool farm at J.  The chase was on. B (14) ran screaming up the stairs towards our room with J(16 and twice as big) hot on his tail.  Apparently my screaming startled them both into silence.  Whatever it takes for peace  :).

I got a call from A's teacher the other day.  She told me that A grabbed one kid and hit another kid in the back at recess. "That's so unlike him" she said.  Later as I spoke to A about the situation (remember he's in kindergarten) I asked him what he could do to control himself/not do it again.   He said, sigh..."I guess I'm just gonna have to sit against the wall."
Me:  Well can you think of something else you might do to control yourself?
A:  No, I'm just gonna have to sit against the wall, that's it.
Me:  Maybe you could just not hit, or grab?
A: Sigh (eye roll)...Mom (slowly like duh Mom) that's the game, I'm just gonna have to sit against the wall.

A few minutes later.
A:  Mom, do you know the one thing I don't like about Ms.  Anderson?(his teacher)
Me:  What?
A:  She only lets us read little words, AND she always has to help us! (expels breath loudly)

What terrible faults for a teacher to have :),

I get a kick out of my sweet funny Boy.

So yesterday A and I were driving in the car singing that song "Hey there Delilah...."  at the top of our lungs and he pauses and says, "You know Mom this song isn't about breaking up in love or getting together in love, not one those things."
Me:  "Oh really..."
A:  "Yeah its not about either one of those."
Me: "Oh, what's it about?"
A:  "You know it's not either one of those things"
Me:"Well, what is it?"
A: "Its about being in love, really in love.  That guy he loves her so much."
Me "Hmmm... what makes you think that?"
A,"Yeah he loves her so much he would walk a thousand miles for her....A THOUSAND MILE...Mom that's a long way...a thousand miles...If I had a wife I wouldn't love her that much, to walk A THOUSAND MILES...no way, I wouldn't love her that much.."
A just turned 6 last week.

Temporal and Spiritual Preparation

The last few days a few things happened which have caused me to think about my personal physical and spiritual preparedness. I have been focusing on physical preparedness, learning to grow and store my food, trying to become water and energy independent etc...our lesson in relief society was on temporal preparedness and I realized how far I still need to go...but more importantly for some reason this got me thinking about my spiritual preparedness.  A couple of weeks ago I was talking with my brother in law and he was talking about a website he used to prepare his Gospel Doctrine Lessons "Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon by Alan Miner."  I seemed to have interesting insight into things I'd read many times but not understood that particular way, so I went home and began to use it as a study guide.  Wow.. I love it, I realize even though I am a voracious reader, I don't take the time to analyze... which seems to be the key, I need to learn to analyze what I'm reading.
Yesterday I spoke with my neighbor on our walk and she was sharing with me idea she has used in the past at Christmas to create a Christ Centered Christmas.  These ideas centered around Charity and Thankfulness.  Last night I began to prepare my Family Night lesson with the idea that I would focus on these themes, but as I opened the church website a featured article about the temple hit me powerfully and I knew that this would be my Family Night focus.  I searched through the material and found a video about a familly and how their family history work and the temple saved their marriage and children.  We watched the video and then committed to go to the temple in two Saturdays (the boys need to get their temple recommends renewed on Sunday) as a family.  Macey will be old enough in about 8 months to go to and I hope to make this something our family does together.  Even Trevor committed to go and seemed good with it.  I feel blessed with inspiration by the Lord.