WillowTheWhisp

Well, actually no. You changed your life. I don't know what happoened and I don't need to know. What I do know is when other people do things we can choose how we react to what they do and it is how we react that affects us. It took me a while to understand that. I used to say "You make me so angry." and then I realised that I have the choice. I can choose to be angry or choose not to be angry. You are continuing to hurt yourself by feeling that way. If you can let go of that feeling and allow yourself to feel sorrow for your actions then you can forgive yourself. When you can forgive yourself you can stop hurting yourself. It may take a while but when you get there it will have been worth the journey. You can't change the past, but you can certainly change the potential future. You can become more mature and what matters now is how you handle he effects of what happened in the past. Recognising that is a positive move. The next step is not to waste any more. Let go of the grudge, let go of the bad feelings, let go of the hurt, forgive yourself and really mean it. We all make mistakes. The only real mistake is not to recognise that we make mistakes and consequently not to do anyhing about them. If you dont feel like apologising right now then right now isn't a good time to apologise but if you did do something to someone that you shouldn't have done to them then the guilt will remain with you even if you feel that the person deserved what you did. When you can reach the point where you feel that no matter what a person may have done to hurt you you should not have done anyhing to them then you will be able to feel the sorrow you need to feel for having done whatever you did. When you are able to feel that and to forgive yourself for behaving in a way which ultimately hurt you then you may be able to feel enough regret to apologise genuinely to the person you wronged. Whether or not they accept that and whether or not they deserve it is absolutely irrelevant because it isn't about them, it's about you. The apology isn't needed by them. It's needed by you. Then you can close the door on the whole thing and throw away the key. It will be over. Whatever may or may not happen to you as a consequence will only be elevant to the situation inasmuch as how you react to that. If you are punished and acceot it humbly you will feel better. If you are not punished and accept that thankfully you will grow. If you are punished and resent it you will not grow. If you are not punished and react to that triumphantly you will not grow. I hope that makes some sense. I don't know what your personal situation in detail is but I've tried to reply in general terms by relating it personally to something I do know in detail.

That's just a normal eye reaction. A pupil dilates when there is less light in order to allow more light in - when the eyelid closes there is less light and so the pupil dilates.The dilated pupil is apparent when the eye opens, but then more light is coming in so it contracts. All this happens very quickly in a blink. On the subject of a house being an assett or a liability. At my age it is an assett because in a few years time the mortgage will be paid off and there will be no more outgoings in that respect. If I'd been renting all ths time it would have been money wasted and I will still have to be paying out the rent in my old age when I could do to have fewer outgoings. There is no guarantee with pension incomes now so we need to be trying to reduce our future outgoings at the time when our income will be less. When we are not as fit we will need other people to do repair work and we will need to pay them, so we save that kind of money now by doing what we can ourselves. Ona different note - this 'positive thinking' idea. I don't see it as acting like we have things we don't have so much as planning to have them. For instance a couple of years ago my husband was talking about emmigrating. Friends of ours were also talking about emmigrating. My husband's was more of a pipe dream but our friends looked into property prices abroad, work prospects, emmigration information and now they live in France in an old property they are renovating and the family has a much healthier lifestyle. We are still here. Isn't it all about believing? Our friends belived they coukld do it. My husband just thought "wouldn't it be nice if....." Jesus tells us , "anything you ask of the Father in my name, believing, ye shall receive."

My teenage daughter is of much the same opinion as yourself. She has had two LD boyfriends both of whom left a lot to be desired and one other LDS boy chatting her up constantly is saying things she just doesn't want to hear. The most respectful boy she knows is a non-member. I find that very sad.

The time when my children asked such simple questions were the times when I answered them simply and honestly. I knew the time would come and I made my mind up in advance not to be embarrased about it. My elder daughter was 3 when I had the younger one and at 3 she knew her baby sister was growing in Mummy's tummy from a seed planted there by Daddy. The older she grew the more detail she wanted. The younger one probably wanted to know at a younger age because her older sister was asking the questions. I think us not being embarrased about the subject and talking to them in a reverent way explaining how this was a sacred part of creation which we shared with our spouse and Heavenly Father has helped them to have respect for their bodies and not be impressed by the smutty jokes and whispers in school.

I've served quite a lot in Primary both as a teacher and on the presidency. I have never known the childen to be still for the whole time. During class time it mtters more that they sit and listen but even then the teachers can incorporate some kind of activity to grab their attention. I found that giving responsibility to the most disruptive ones often gets them to calm down as they are then reponsible for giving a good impression to the others. We have never been allowed to give treats. a) because some children may have allergies or the parent my simply object to them being given sweets or something and b) not everyone called to Primary can afford to buy treats and one teacher who can should not set a precedent for other teachers who maybe cannot. Wht we did do was a 'sticky star' or 'sticky smile' system though where the children would get awarded a simple stick on star or smiley on a chart. Everyone was encouraged to build up their chart and it was important to ensure that a child didn;t feel inferior with fewer stars even if they were not as quiet and still as others. We hve had children with learning difficulties and ADHD which can be more of a challenge. Sharing time is usually a time for letting off abit of steam. We've always tried to incorporate something to use up a bit of energy and get them participating, on sunny days we would go outside. The end of Sharingtime would always be a wind down with a reverent song and quiet moment or two though. Its certainly a challenging calling but extremely rewarding, especially when you think the children haven't taken a blind bit of notice of what you are teaching but then a parent comes and tells you that they told the family all about Samuel the Lamanite or Daniel in the lion's den over Sunday dinner.

I'm confused by something here. What would be the benefit of getting rid of our house? We would still need somewhere to live. We have a mortgage so the sale of the house may not realise much equity and we would have to pay rent for somewhere else for ourselves and our family to live. The rent could often be higher than the mortgage payment so we would end up worse off. In our case if we sold the car it would cost us more to get to church - or we could simply stop going, neither of which would be an advantage. We don't have a boat As you can probably guess I have a computer but my daughters both need internet access at home for their school and college work. I don't think I'd get much for selling it and that would inconvenience them greatly for their homework.

There is only one Christ. :)

I used to want to live in Utah:(Think I'll stay put.

In the sermon on the mount Jesus said (as you so rightly quoted) "Blessed are the poor in spirit." He didn't say "Blessed are the poor." Remember we are taught about the 'philosophies of men mingled with scripture'? Scripture teaches us chastity. Apostacy corrupted this into 'blessed are the celibate' which gave us Catholic priests, monks and nuns who believe that the celibate lives they live bring them closer to God than marrying would. Whereas we LDS believe in the revelation that exaltation requires us to be married. The scriptures teach "The love of money is the root of all evil." Apostacy teaches "Money is the root of all evil" - just one word missing but what a difference that word makes. Jesus said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Apostacy teaches, "Blessed are the poor." Why are people misquoting scripture in order to justify their personal opinions? Even more worryingly why are people claiming that what is in scripture is Satan's teaching? Surely is is Satan who twists scripture in order to mislead us? In the parable of the talents we are told of three servants who were given a sum of money each to look after whilst the master was away. The one who simply buried his was regarded as unworthy. The usual interpretation we hear of this is that God means us to use and develop our talents and skills. Why? Why are we never encouraged to improve our lot financially? God did not 'reward' Job with poverty. When the Nephites were righteous they did not 'prosper' with poverty. Why do we assume that Mary and Joseph were poor? Because there was no room for them in the inn and Jesus was born in a stable? He was born in a stable because 'there was no room' in the inn - it was full, not because they couldn't afford a room in the inn. Wise men from the east brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.Were they told to take the gold away? Joseph was a carpenter. It was a skilled profession. He wasn't a beggar. At the wedding in Cana Jesus turned water into wine and it was the best wine anyone had tasted - he gave them the best. He didn't tell them to be glad of the water. As for 'the Protestant Gospel of Wealth' - what the heck is that? I've heard of the Protestant work ethic but never the Protestant gospel of wealth.

I'm afraid you totally lost me. By pronouncing the name Yove is that not sayingtht the econd and fourth letters are vowels? Yet I thought there were no vowels. Perhaps a student of Hebrew could explain this to me.

I think the passage about denying something to eat being a lie might be to do with the Jewish laws on kosher food not being applicable as in when Peter saw the cloven hoofed animals and said he could not eat them because they were classed as unclean.

You make me feel so inadequate

My favourite: "No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."

Malachi 3: 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. 12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. That doesn't sound like a Heavenly Father who wants us to be poor.

The Young Single Adults in our Ward have been told not to attend our Ward next week but to go to a newly created Single Adult Ward several miles away. Now I can understand the logic of such a SA ward in places where there are large numbers of YSAs who are not living with their families (such as University students living on campus etc) but I am struggling to understand the logic of it here. We are a small Ward. (80 or so in regular attendance including Primary children) and our YSAs all have callings in the Ward. Two are in Primary. We struggle to fill all the callings anyway bt now we are going to lose some of the most reliable and valued personnel. However, that's not the only problem. The new Ward will consist of YSA fom different Wards and will be located several miles from here. Most of these young people have no transport, cannot even drive, so will have to find bus or taxi fare to get there instead of travelling to what was until now their own home Ward with their families. Isn't the church supposed to be about strengthening families not ripping them apart? I am struggling to understand why this was done and can forsee it leading to inactivity amongst the young people who find it difficult to get there. I'm really hoping they change their minds on this.

Oh thank you. That looks interesting. I don't think we have them here yet. It would be extremely useful to me when my eyes are bad, but I don't think I could afford one anyway.

This is exactly what the church encourages people to do isn't it? The church doesn't say "You are poor, be thankful for that and be happy to be poor. It's a blessing. You'll get to Heaven." The church says strive to improve yourself, get an eduction, work hard, lift yourself up out of povery.

“blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit,” - isn't that a bit of a misquote by Brother Brigham? The scripture actually says "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3)

Please excuse my ignorance but what i the Kindle?

In the Old Testament there are many instances of polygamy - is the OT therefore wrong and not to be believed because we do nit poractice polygamy today? The principal is eternal but the time is not right for it to be practiced at present.

What is your scriptural basis for such a statement? Jesus was the creator of the Earth under the direction of Heavenly Father but he did not create angels. To answer the qustion about sin. If we repent we are forgiven. True repentance mean forsaking the sin and never doing it again. If we do it again it means we did not truly repent and if we did not repent then we cannot be forgiven. That i why we are held accountable then for the original sin also.

That's all very well if there is someone in the ward who can do that. I don't think it's about wanting to be ridiculously wealthy either but wouldn't it be wonderful to have enough to be able to 'do something about the car'? unfortunately we don't have anyone who can drive and has a car who is available a that time of the day to offer transport. I dont drive. My husband does but he's on his way to work before Seminary ends. There's a mother with a young baby but she's grabbing as much sleep as she can. We are a small ward and most of us are struggling in different ways. That thing about in Zion there being no poor amongst them - the law of consecration doesn't acheive that when all the people are at 'struggling' level. There has to be somebody with enough to share to help out those in need. If your fast offering bites a lot but still isn't enough to feed the needy how far do you go before you become the needy? I can't fast because I am diabetic but I still pay a fast offering - does that bite enough? I would still like to be able to give more and afford to pay for the kids to go to EFY but how much does it need to bite? A missed mortgage payment? I just don't feel it's wrong to desire this or noble to deny it. Maybe the nobility of poverty is in itself some form of pride. Maybe admitting to Heavenly Father that we need things is a form of humility.

I know of someone who was convicted of something he didn't do and served a prison sentnce for it but was never excommunicated at all because the church believed he was innocent. I know this doesn't answer your question but it just illustrates that there isn't a simple answer because every situation is different.

A man will leave his tools lying around all over the house, drill, saw, hammer, extension lead, where he last used them and then complain that he can't find them next time he wants them. A woman knows exactly where her sewing machine, vacuum cleaner, floor mop etc are - unless a man has had them!

My own story is pretty much the same as Elgama. My daughters are 17 and 14 now and are disgusted by the attitude some of their peers show to things of a sexual nature.