Sunday Thoughts

I was really hoping to be snowed out of church today because it seemed rather dreamy to have a quiet day at home with just the 4 of us, but that didn't happen. Instead, Landon stayed home sick on the couch while the 3 of us went to church. It ended up being a great day there, so I'm not sure why I was so hoping to be snowed in.


The talks in church were quite good today, here are my notes.

--Try praying without asking for anything, just be thankful and focus on the good in your life.

The woman speaking gave an example from a time in her life when she'd been up all night with a sick child and wasn't feeling particularly grateful, but had been challenged to pray like this. She said she had to work hard to craft her sentences in a way that fit her circumstances. She said things like, "Thank you for the one hour of sleep I got last night" and "Thank you for this child". She said she ended up feeling so much better after her prayer and was able to function that day as if she'd had a full night's sleep. She said that praying this way results in longer, more thoughtful prayers.

--Often times things that are most common to us lose value in our eyes. So living near many church members, or close to the temple or with abundance means we often forget how blessed we are.
--Miracles happen all the time!
--Look around you to see what you may be taking for granted.
--The temple points the way to Celestial Glory.
--Heavenly Father doesn't give up on us and we shouldn't give up on our children. --The Lord is aware of our needs, and places us where we need to be.
--Is the temple too close, too easy to be of value in our lives? (Ouch!)
--The Lord expects us to put forth the effort to go to the temple.
--Strive to see God's hand in your daily life.
--Credit the Lord with the inspiration and miracles in your life. There are NO coincidences!

I was really touched by this 2nd talk and know there are no coincidences. When miracles occur in our lives it is through God's hand. Randy came home from work earlier this week and said, "We've had our first Christmas miracle!" I thought it was sweet that he said it was our first, but he was right. One of his jobs (which is only part time) gave him a very unexpected and generous Christmas bonus, thus saving us from having to donate plasma to provide Christmas for our kids. We had seriously been sweating about this and wondering how this month was going to happen for us, but the Lord provided and did so in a big way!

Our second Christmas miracle came a few days later in the mail when a blogger's mom (a friend of mine) sent a card with a nice note and some money. I was absolutely speechless upon opening the card and felt so humbled and touched. Thank you!

Of course, money miracles aren't the only ones going around, they just happen to be the ones we need most these days. I also know that we can be the answer to other people's prayers as we look for ways to serve and be generous with our time, talents and means. That can happen by doing your visiting teaching, serving your family, offering someone a ride or help in a store, babysitting for someone, listening to someone, writing that note you keep meaning to write, and basically getting over ourselves and our busyness enough to reach out to others.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Last night we watched "Elf" and tonight we watched "Home Alone" so our holiday movie viewing has been a delight.