I'm writing this morning for the fact that I want this to become a habit. Even if I don't feel there is anything special to share, I want this to be part of my weekly inventory of things to accomplish.
Things are going well. Courtney and I are staying really busy. I spent about 30+ hours Thursday through Saturday working on a project that was due Saturday night. However, I think I did a good job at stopping at a decent hour to spend the evening with Courtney. This following Sunday will be three weeks with out a calling in church. I enjoy the break form service, but at the same time I like being a part of things and having some sort of opportunity to serve. I'm told I will have a calling soon. I'll be sure to let you know when it comes.
Courtney is sick with her fifth cold this school year. Courtney is a strong woman. If I were to list her one weakness it would be being sick. I know that sounds funny, weakness and sick. She is sick so often that it wears her down emotionally really easy. She has a hard time dealing with it. I'm grateful to the doctor who was able to bring peace to her when he said that he too is often sick. He explained that as a teacher or a doctor you are exposed to a lot more strains of the cold virus and therefor catch more strains that a typical person. That was able to help her handle this a little better. School is going well for her. She is staying on top of her classes and coming home earlier than before break. I'm proud of her and enjoy seeing more of her.
Last night we had some friends over for dinner, Wii Super Mario Brothers, and some other games and visiting. The main purpose was to catch up with our friend Ben Sparks and his new wife. Ben is form our freshman ward and recently was married. We also had Richard, Kate and Adelle over, as well as, Cory, Rachel and Tommy. It was a lot of fun. The only sad news is we have all the dishes for dinner and desert still sitting in our sink. normally I would do them right away or when I go home for lunch, but today I have to finish the printed portion of my project today and I won't get home until late tonight. If you know me at all you know I'm going crazy knowing those dishes are there and need to be washed.
My Family is doing well. My dad went back to work and is feeling well. He lost five pounds this last week and my mom, Courtney and I all lost about two pounds. Yay for us! That is our past week. Hopefully in the near future I'm going to post a web video. I thought it would be fun to post a video of myself. My friend Nate explained how to do it. I hope I can get it to work. Wish me luck.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday's lesson
First off, I would like to comment that this month alone I am one post short of matching the number of posts I did last year. It seems I'm am off to a good start. I hope I can continue to keep up this momentum.
Every Sunday my wife and I attend church. For Latter-day Saints(LDS), meaning members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our Sunday worship usually fit into 3 hour blocks. We have a sacrament meeting. In this meeting we partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants with God. We also worship together through song, prayer and listening to talks prepared by a few of the members(which changes every week). Then we have Sunday school where we split up into different age groups and are taught the gospel. Last, we have a priesthood and relief society. The youth are split up a little differently depending on age. Here is a good description as to what the priesthood is. Simply, we divide the men into separate classes and the women into other classes.
Now, I can get to my point. In priesthood our lesson came from the last General Conference(Bi-annual conference of all LDS members). It was a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson called "Moral Discipline"(follow this link for the full talk). One of the first things he point out is the fact that the word "Disciple" shares the same root of the word "Discipline". I had never put that idea together. I feel that idea gives more meaning to to discipline. A disciple is someone who follows Jesus Christ. A disciple is associated with sacrifice and devotion. So discipline is also associated with devotion and sacrifice.
We then talked about what things determine our morals. We discussed how family, God/His messengers/Gospel, and society tend to shape people's morals. However, after our discussion we came to realize that yes these sources, and others, help shape our morals, but in the end it comes down to us and what we choose to believe and follow. We may feel that something is right or wrong, but in the end what matters is how we choose to act on that understanding.
For society, what is considered morally acceptable and not morally acceptable changes from time to time. But God is never changing and his standards are always the sa is truth and me. We can always look to him for what is truth and what is morally right. I'm grateful for that anchor in my life.
In the end we talked about how we can best teach moral discipline to others, like our own children. There were lots of suggestions but in the end I think we were all in agreement that as we live morally clean lives, that example is the best method of teaching. We need to teach our children truth, but if we are not living accordingly we are hypocrites and are children can see that. Some of the best lessons I've learned growing up have been from watching my parents live what they teach.
No one is perfect and that is why this lesson was great. It helped me to see the importance of having moral discipline in my life and how living what I know to be true is the best way I can teach my children how to be happy in this life and to be a true disciple of Christ.
I don't have kids now, but if I live now according to truth I have, these patterns will be with me when I have children, standing as an example to them of how to be happy in this life and how to live to be able to return home to our father in Heaven someday.
Every Sunday my wife and I attend church. For Latter-day Saints(LDS), meaning members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our Sunday worship usually fit into 3 hour blocks. We have a sacrament meeting. In this meeting we partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants with God. We also worship together through song, prayer and listening to talks prepared by a few of the members(which changes every week). Then we have Sunday school where we split up into different age groups and are taught the gospel. Last, we have a priesthood and relief society. The youth are split up a little differently depending on age. Here is a good description as to what the priesthood is. Simply, we divide the men into separate classes and the women into other classes.
Now, I can get to my point. In priesthood our lesson came from the last General Conference(Bi-annual conference of all LDS members). It was a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson called "Moral Discipline"(follow this link for the full talk). One of the first things he point out is the fact that the word "Disciple" shares the same root of the word "Discipline". I had never put that idea together. I feel that idea gives more meaning to to discipline. A disciple is someone who follows Jesus Christ. A disciple is associated with sacrifice and devotion. So discipline is also associated with devotion and sacrifice.
We then talked about what things determine our morals. We discussed how family, God/His messengers/Gospel, and society tend to shape people's morals. However, after our discussion we came to realize that yes these sources, and others, help shape our morals, but in the end it comes down to us and what we choose to believe and follow. We may feel that something is right or wrong, but in the end what matters is how we choose to act on that understanding.
For society, what is considered morally acceptable and not morally acceptable changes from time to time. But God is never changing and his standards are always the sa is truth and me. We can always look to him for what is truth and what is morally right. I'm grateful for that anchor in my life.
In the end we talked about how we can best teach moral discipline to others, like our own children. There were lots of suggestions but in the end I think we were all in agreement that as we live morally clean lives, that example is the best method of teaching. We need to teach our children truth, but if we are not living accordingly we are hypocrites and are children can see that. Some of the best lessons I've learned growing up have been from watching my parents live what they teach.
No one is perfect and that is why this lesson was great. It helped me to see the importance of having moral discipline in my life and how living what I know to be true is the best way I can teach my children how to be happy in this life and to be a true disciple of Christ.
I don't have kids now, but if I live now according to truth I have, these patterns will be with me when I have children, standing as an example to them of how to be happy in this life and how to live to be able to return home to our father in Heaven someday.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The end of a year of growth and learning . . . What's next?
Each day, I come to class early because Courtney drops me off on her way to work. Well, this morning I forgot that I don't have class until 9:30am. As you can see by the time of my post, I have a little bit of free time. I figured i could blog. I didn't feel any of this was appropriate to put in my last post. So now is a perfect opportunity to share some other things that are going on.
This past Sunday, I was released as Elders' Quorum President. For those of you who may not know what that is, wikipedia does a decent job explaining a little bit about what a quorum is. This opportunity to serve, or calling as we call it, has been a great learning experience for me as I have tried to seek the Lord's will in how I can strengthen the brothers over whom I served. Serving as president caused me to stretch and grow as I stepped out of my comfort zone and reached out to others in need. It was hard and was very humbling, but I'm thankful for the chance I was given to serve in that position.
Now, for the time being, I'm without a specific calling, or specific opportunity to serve, and will look for other things I can do bless the lives of those in my congregation. However, knowing my Bishop, or Pastor, it will not be long before he has another opportunity for me to serve.
In other news, school is going well. It keeps me busy. Courtney is still Relief Society President, President over the group of sisters in our congregation, and we enjoy each other whenever we get the free time together. Last night the club that I'm a part of for my Information Systems program had an opening social. It was way fun. They catered dinner and had Comedy Sports as the entertainment. Courtney and I won one of the raffle prizes and also got a free t-shirt. You can't be a free date with entertainment and free stuff. I paid to be in the club but I think I more than made my money back last night.
So, I still have an hour and a half left until class and I'm done with my thoughts for this post. I guess I'll find something more to distract myself with. Until next time.
This past Sunday, I was released as Elders' Quorum President. For those of you who may not know what that is, wikipedia does a decent job explaining a little bit about what a quorum is. This opportunity to serve, or calling as we call it, has been a great learning experience for me as I have tried to seek the Lord's will in how I can strengthen the brothers over whom I served. Serving as president caused me to stretch and grow as I stepped out of my comfort zone and reached out to others in need. It was hard and was very humbling, but I'm thankful for the chance I was given to serve in that position.
Now, for the time being, I'm without a specific calling, or specific opportunity to serve, and will look for other things I can do bless the lives of those in my congregation. However, knowing my Bishop, or Pastor, it will not be long before he has another opportunity for me to serve.
In other news, school is going well. It keeps me busy. Courtney is still Relief Society President, President over the group of sisters in our congregation, and we enjoy each other whenever we get the free time together. Last night the club that I'm a part of for my Information Systems program had an opening social. It was way fun. They catered dinner and had Comedy Sports as the entertainment. Courtney and I won one of the raffle prizes and also got a free t-shirt. You can't be a free date with entertainment and free stuff. I paid to be in the club but I think I more than made my money back last night.
So, I still have an hour and a half left until class and I'm done with my thoughts for this post. I guess I'll find something more to distract myself with. Until next time.
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