georgia2

You need to be sure that they could not sue you for your story. If you signed papers to some degree, you need to make sure of what you signed. BUT........ anytime you are doing good you are furthering the cause of Christ. Now, who is in charge of this bogus Christian organization? is it Christ? If not, then who? We are to be involved in going about and doing good. Would it be good to help someone from being deceived by the cunning wiles of the adversary?

I was Baptist before I joined the church. I was stunned to know that baptist believe that Jesus and God are the same person. I went there all my life and always knew God and Jesus were 2 different entities. My goodness, when Jesus was baptized God spoke to him from heaven! Who was Jesus praying to if he was God? After I joined the church i also heard my own mother say that we worship 2 different Jesus'! She calls the standard picture we use as the "Mormon Jesus" !

In tonight's meeting I was really inspired by President Uchtdorf's talk. He told us that we can attain Godly happiness while on the earth by emulating Heavenly Father. Creation and compassion are the keys he said. I have considered the happiness that creating something gives me. When he described it tonight, as taking unorganized materials and creating something out of it that was not there before, it made sense! What joy and inner fulfillment is felt as you gaze upon your flower garden, a piece of clothing you made, plants you started from seed, a photograph you arrange and manipulate the lighting on. And it does not end. Each time you look on these things it gives you a sense of happiness and peace. Then he spoke on compassion. What one thing have you ever done that gives you any more happiness, joy and peace than to help someone who needs it? Give clothes to someone who has none, food to someone hungry, a smile to someone sad, a hug to someone lonely, and your heart swells to new heights, to enlarge, and beat even stronger. I am so grateful I have a knowledge of the restored Gospel! I am so grateful I have a testimony! I am so grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves us and gives us encouragement!!!

My most favorite woman in the scriptures is ESTER. She had a hard young life, raised by her Uncle. She was humble and modest, and most importantly aware of her value as a daughter of God. When she was selected to be groomed by the kings servants in a queenly manner, she instead chose to be herself and adorn herself with her simple and inner beauty. Because she was true to herself and did not try to be like the other women, the king recognized her unique qualities and fell in love with her. she was told by her uncle not to tell anyone that she was a jew because there was such racial tension. When a greedy and power hungry man in the kings court wanted to kill all of the jews, Mortique (sp) came to her and told her she MUST do something to help her people. He told her "You were probably born at this time and put in this place for just this purpose". She was afraid but did not reject or fail to fulfill her mission. Because of her courage, strength, and faith, she was able to save her people and the entire country was converted to the Gospel. This story seems so relevant to women of today because we have been told that our missions are of equal importance and urgency in these latter days. Queen Ester gives me strength and courage to stand up and continue to follow Christ even when it is very hard to combat the evil that faces me.

Everyone can receive revelation and direction from the Holy Ghost regarding their own lives. YOu just have to be in tune with the Spirit, be worthy, understand it, and recognize it. Personal revelation does not come as a lightning bolt, or a audible voice. It comes in powerful feelings of comfort, peace, and sometimes the "still small voice". Descriptions of gifts of the Spirit are in the Bible.

A lot of people don't understand revelation. i am sure the revelation received by the prophet regarding the entire church would be manifest in a different way than me asking what lesson I should teach in my class. Ae read in the scriptures, the more in tune we are, the more spiritually mature we are, and the special calling we have would dictate the intensity of the revelation.

Hi TheLutheran! I don't know what the latest revelation included in our scriptures is, but, I must say, You sure are a lucky woman!!! A daughter dating a nice young LDS boy is my dream!! My daughter, although raised in the church IS NOT dating one!!! Oh how I wish! Although not perfect, a true good LDS boy dating their daughter is every good mom and dads dream!!! Congratulations!!!!! LEt her go to church with him. You go too!

I live on the east coast and there weren't that many members of the church when I was learning. As I learned more and more, I became drawn to it and it's teachings. Yes, I did have friends (so called) tell me that they would not be my friend if I joined. Yes I did have people tell me lies and give me anti mormon literature. But, upon asking God if this church was true and if He really did send an angel to Joseph Smith, HE answered my prayers. He let me know in ways that were needed for me to understand and comprehend His gospel. I had answers and I could not deny it! I joined the church and have NEVER regretted it! The anti literature was full of half truths and plain lies. The so called friends, well....... they weren't real friends! You need to follow the direction that God is showing you. Not every one is willing to or even interested in knowing what God wants them to do... The only way to have happiness is by listening to God's answers. He is the only one who knows what you need to be happy.

HAHAHAH you guessed it! took it down after a day!!! before he saw!

. One thing we have to remember is that we are in the last days! WE will be and are facing challenges and adversity everywhere, even in our own ward buildings! Many of us will fall away if we do not do those things that will keep us strong. Those things that will increase our testimony. Among those things is clinging to the Master! He knows how we feel and what we are going through. Remember what He faced when he was taken by the soldiers. Even Peter denied Him! No one wanted to be His friend at that time! How alone Christ was, how his feelings must have ached as His deciples and friends denied Him! I am no where near that alone! But one thing is for sure, He understands and loves us! Don't let the coldness of others deter your determination of enduring to the end! Who knows what those that we feel are hurting us are going through themselves! I am the only one I have control over. I choose to reach out to those who need me. I choose to reach out to Him when I need someone.

Xxx

YouTube - Ninja cat comes closer while not moving! this goes good with techno music! I laugh out loud

Your son is 15? How old is the girl? If they are this young, how are they getting there? Seems to me like your son is being a good friend, a gentleman. If this girls parents are going, driving, and others are also going, it sounds fine. I wouldn't call it a date. Sounds to me like he is helping her out so she feels good WITHOUT it being a date! Hey, why don't you go too? He could ride with you, she with her parents, then meet at the stadium? Or all go eat out together and make it a great night for all? Then it would be two families going to a football game with each being especially proud of their kids!

It's too bad a "friend" can't be a friend because of what you believe. Personally, I'd say she wasn't ever a real friend. It's amazing to me how people can like, enjoy being with someone and not comprehend that that persons beliefs are what makes them who they are! The points you bring up in your response to her is confusing to me. Are these topics you have discussed? If so, you're the only one who can decide what is right to say. Not knowing any of the background I would say things different too. Lilered's response gets my vote too. I also think it appropriate to point out how only a few Jews believed Jesus was the Christ, but he was. Christians can't understand how the Jews could not "see" the truth. The Jews persecuted the Christians for what they believed in just as the Christians now persecute the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of LAtter Day Saints today. Even though your "friend" may not be able to understand this example, you could still use the example to explain why you don't understand how she could persecute you the way the Jews persecuted Christians, even Christ himself! It's sad these things happen, but as Alma advised, find joy in being put in the same situation as Christ himself!

a friend sent this link to me and I am passing it on! It's good!

I totally agree with the post by Dove. The parents who abuse their children ARE and WILL BE held accountable for the things they have done! One of the reasons these things are allowed to happen is so that Heavenly Father CAN punish them! If He stopped them, justice could not be served. In other words, if it was stopped they wouldn't get punished. There is a talk I heard on BYU regarding a woman who went through horrible abuse as a girl and received a blessing from her Stake Pres and the things told her where AMAZING>!!! It explained things in a way I never imagined. I'm gonna try to find it and post it so all can listen and gain a new and healing prospective.

In reading over some of the responses, some which are very good, I can share a few thoughts on things I have done. I am a very good person. This is honoring my parents as well as ancestors. I have forgiven the abuser thus releasing the angry ugly feelings. This stops them from having power to hurt me now. When we continue to hate, WE are the ones who are hurting us. I have not passed the abuse to another generation which is being Christlike , honoring both my ancestors AND future generations. I have stopped the possibility for any abuse to continue. Even as adults, if we subject ourselves to those people, and they have not changed, WE are the abuser because WE are allowing it. Example: If I was treated like I was dumb and stupid, made to feel insignificant, verbally attacked, made to feel inferior as a child and as an adult this person STILL treats me this way, then I don't put myself in the position for them to treat me this way. In other words, stay away from them! I have done vast amounts of genealogy. I have learned from searching out my other ancestors that I had loving, nurturing, Christlike grandparents and great grands. This is tremendously healing! To know that I have loved ones waiting for me on the other side is very comforting and healing. It also has helped to understand to a small extent what may have happened to my abuser to make them be the way they were. Usually an abuser was abused. So to think of them as a little child who endured the things that I did, creates feelings of empathy and understanding and even love! Before I could do the things stated above, I learned about abuse; the reasons it happens, the dynamics of abusive relationships, which cause abusers to marry victims, which continues the cycles for another generation. I also learned about why I had made the decisions in my life to form the negative relationships that I had made. Awareness brings understanding, understanding brings forgiveness. And lastly, don't beat yourself up for having bad feelings for the abuser. If you knew of someone now abusing a child wouldn't you be angry? The only difference is time. AS a child you had no power to make it stop. AS an adult, you do have the power. It takes time to allow the abused child to grow emotionally to an adult, but when it does, the adult can have power to stop the abuse from continuing in your mind and heart. And lastly, let the atonement begin to have the healing power that Christ payed the price for. Learn of the atonement. Get gospel books that deal with this topic on a deep level. Begin to let this sink in to your heart and soul. Begin to allow Christ to give you the love you deserved as a child, the love you deserve now.

Quote from I slander: I say this with no intent to offend or add insult to injury. One's history certainly clouds our judgment, understanding and most surely our feeling about our own family. I am indeed thankful that history is not destiny and as an adult, what happened to me yesterday has no bearing on my future opportunities for growth and happiness. Yes we are responsible for our future and how we relate to it, BUT what happened to me yesterday CERTAINLY has a bearing on me today! I still do things, feel the things that were drilled in to my head as a child. I am not the only one. My siblings who are all older than me say the same. None of us knows how to truly relax because we were taught that relaxing showed laziness. When you have it drummed, beat in to your head that you are not, smart, pretty, neat, organized, witty, interesting, or worthy as it seems others are, it does affect you! It is who you are! Of course you can tell yourself that these things aren't true, of course they are not, BUT deeply embedded attitudes and standards become the self talk that we hear. Now I for sure know that I am smart, pretty, neat, organized, witty, interesting, AND worthy of praise and love! BUT, You can never totally wipe out the damage that was done to your self image or self worth. Yeah counseling can help, and of Course the Gospel too, but some things will have to be resolved on the other side. Should we hate our parents? Of course not, but we can also understand when someone says they do. What they are really saying is that they LOVED their parents and because they LOVED their parents the hurt is so much more painful and damaging than any other person could inflict. And the human response to so much pain is anger and hate! But the hate is truly for the treatment they received. You can hate the actions of a person but still love them. Thats when it really plays a number on your head. True relief and peace come through the realization that even though our parents were crummy, we have perfect Heavenly Parents that are perfect and everything that our earthly parents were not. This is when the healing can begin.

I think another issue regarding the initial question would be the fact that the original scriptures have been tampered with, rearranged, translated incorrectly, and some sections totally deleted! Even though men who translated were trying to do it correctly, if they were not prophets, they would not be able to totally discern the truth. Some languages don't even have words to describe words in different languages. So, as a consequence, since the Bible has been translated so many times, it is bound to have some error. Hence Heavenly Father preserving The Book of Mormon to come forth in the last days so that it would only be translated ONCE and that by a true prophet of God. So any revelations that would change the wording or meaning of a specific Bible verse would be accepted as truth if it comes from the prophet.

Gorgeous picture!!! I love dragonflies!

I have thought about talking to my pets, but what you suggest is really thought provoking and funny!

HaHAH see...... there are a lot of funny people who you will meet here! Start browsing the forums and you'll be in the thick in no time! Welcome! and congratulations on the desire and determination to go to the temple!

And this guy gets up in testimony??? I am in the "mission field" so don't think anyone (member) would have the guts to show up at church. I lived with an abuser and he would always smooz people making them think if there was a problem, it was me. Even my Bishop and Relief Society Pres fell for it!! Years later they BOTH apologized.

I thought men bashing was when women make generalized negative comments and include all men in the description. Like, "Oh my gosh! Men don't have a clue to what we need! Don't they realize that flowers don't take away the hurt they cause?" "Yeah I know! My BF thinks if he sends me flowers he doesn't have to say he's sorry and can do it again!? "Yeah, men are like that UGGGGG"

AS it has been explained by my Stake President, HE says that when Jesus was in the Garden of Gesemany He suffered all of the pains, anguish, sufferings that all people go through on earth. Jesus pain was so severe that He bleed from every pore. THe pain and anguish were so severe that only a God could have endured it. There was an angel sent to minister to him while enduring this event. The actually crucifixion was nothing compared to the anguish he went through in the Garden. ALl those who have ever gone through something horrible know that only someone who has experienced the same thing could know what you went through. This is why Jesus had to go through this, so that He would KNOW exactly how we feel, for sins, for sickness, for oppression, for any pain inflicted on us by another or that we inflict on ourselves. Christ did not have to die on the cross. He could have walked off and healed himself, but this was not His mission. AS far as illness and other afflictions we endure here, we agreed in the preexistence to suffer these things so that we would learn all that we needed to learn or that we would be a tool so that someone else could learn what they needed. Even to the extend of being born into a family of abuse. THose spirits born in to horrible situations knew before they came that this would be. Usually these spirits were of a very select and valiant level. Does that make it okay? No. Does Jesus want us to suffer? No. But all of us, even Him, has to endure these trials of earthly life so that we will be refined to be able to increase and be able to understand those things we will need to in the Celestial Kingdom. Think of how hard it was for HEavenly Father to watch as His beloved Son endured the things he did. It isn't easy being a God. WE will understand all of these things and be glad for the trials and experiences we have here.