Connie

My heart is hurting for you.  Condolences to you and your whole family.  May the Lord bless you with comfort.

Thanks for sharing, Quin.  I'd love to hear a sum up of what you read every week.  I read a lot too but don't post nearly half of what i read.  I figure i'd start sounding like a lone echo, but i love hearing what others are reading.
 
Last fiction book i read:  A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  I read this book at the request of my husband.  He's read all of this particular series and loves super macho man books.  I was teasing him about that again (which is so much fun), and he told me--again--that i should read it for myself.  So i told him i would if he would read one of the christian romance books i tend to read a lot of.  Poor man.  He's plodding through a christian romance book while i read this one.  It was actually quite entertaining.  Nothing particularly special about it... but entertaining in a super macho man kind of way.
 
Last audiobook i listened to:  The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan.  Book 8 in the series.  I like this series.  They are fun books.  I love the sense of brotherhood and fellowship from the characters in these books.  They all play different roles but work for a common purpose.  I love the respect and friendship they have for one another.
 
Last LDS non-fiction book:  Men of Valor: The Powerful Impact of a RIghteous Man by Robert L. Millet.  I loved this book.  It was amazing.  And while it was written for a male audience, i found i learned a lot that could help me in my life as a woman.  I thought it had some interesting ways of looking at variuos principles.  I had never thought of them that way before, and it was really helpful.
 
Last non-fiction book:  The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis.  Really good book.  Love C.S. Lewis.  He has a way of putting things that just makes sense.
 
Last christian romance book:  The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson.  A Beauty and the Beast type story.  I liked it, but then i just eat this type of thing up like crazy.

You do a lot of praying, trust in the Lord to provide, work hard and keep the commandments to the best of your ability.  Things tend to work out.

You do a lot of praying, trust in the Lord to provide, work hard and keep the commandments to the best of your ability.  Things tend to work out.

I really loved this talk.  I love the idea of letting your faith show and of not separating various aspects of our lives. 
 
"If one tries to segment his or her life into such separate compartments, one will never rise to the full stature of one's personal integrity--never to become all that his or her true self could be." 
 
I like that he makes this a matter of integrity which means "whole."  If we are dividing ourselves up in these kinds of ways we can never be whole.  It reminds me of the CES devotional talk by Elder Holland where he said to "never check your religion at the door."

Happy Birthday.  Hope you have a good day.

Wow.  What a great talk.  My favorite thought from this talk:  "Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it.  So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others.  Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to forget:  that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinte capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it (which He never ever did even once). ...Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world."
 
I never really gave much thought to this truth.  This is an important connection between Christlike love and righteousness that gets forgotten all too often.  I think this really needed to be said.

Wow.  What a great talk.  My favorite thought from this talk:  "Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it.  So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others.  Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to forget:  that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinte capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it (which He never ever did even once). ...Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world."
 
I never really gave much thought to this truth.  This is an important connection between Christlike love and righteousness that gets forgotten all too often.  I think this really needed to be said.

The Infinite Atonement by Tad Callister is really amazing.

That's like saying when someone's in school I'm just glad they're there, even though they didn't bring any text books, notebooks, don't bother listening, etc...
 
Coming to church is not the end all of soul-saving. We should be concerned with the salvation of people's souls. Someone who dresses disrespectfully at church concerns me because I worry about their attitude and what they're getting out of church. Yes...reserve judgement...get to know them, be friendly, don't wish they would stop coming, etc.... But no, I'm not going to wave it off as I'm just glad they're there. I can be glad they're there and still want to influence them for even greater good, greater humility, greater faith, and a greater ability to draw close to our Father in Heaven.

The last movie i saw was a slow-paced chick flick called Enchanted April.  This is based on a book by Elizabeth von Arnim, and it stuck very close to the book.  There were a few little differences that i actually really appreciated since i felt like it fixed some of the things that annoyed me about the book.  So in that way i actually liked it better than the book.  A real rarity. 

I wouldn't even approach the issues of the marriage from a sex-filled or sexless point of view. The issues of the marriage seem much deeper than that. A sexual relationship will not fix the marriage. Fixing the marriage will generate the sexual relationship.
 
Where would I start? Fix this first:
 
 
Then work on this:
 

I'm inclined to agree with the author of this article.  I have read three of Ayn Rand's novels including plodding my way through every single word of the infamous Galt speech.  I have no love for the philosophy of Ayn Rand.  "But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil;" (Moroni 7:17)
 
Her severe hyper-independece is quite obviously against the interdependence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And her self-worship and love of self over everything else that bloom out of that belief are the antithesis to the first and second commandments to love God and others.  "A bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water;" (Moroni 7:11)

Service.  There are always people who have it worse than you do.

Service.  There are always people who have it worse than you do.

That sounds so similar to the talk Elder Perry gave in the priesthood session last general conference.

You may find this discussion on this thread helpful. I'll quote some things that I believe provide at least a start to answering your question.
In many ways for me it has been the realization that I did not have to endure through my trials and suffering alone and God does not expect me to. He doesn't want me to. There are things that I cannot do yet that I ought to do. When I was working to forgive those who had abused me as a child, I could not do it. I asked if Jesus would carry that burden of forgiving and forgetting for a while until I was ready to forgive. I needed to work on many things in my life, a little at a time, and if I was carrying around these burdens I could not even begin to work. Through the power of Christ I felt those burdens lifted from me until I was strong enough to deal with them. It is a real and true power. If our hearts are broken and our intent is sincere and pure, God can carry some of the burden until we are strong enough to work it out for good. Eventually I have to forgive all those who have harmed me. There are many other ways that God lifts our burdens. This is just one example of which I have personal experience with.
Quotes:
-Finrock