Misshalfway

Take 'em to grandma's!!! LOL!

So cute! lol! Don't worry. It will probably be my horse next! hahahah!

Wash out that mouth with soap! :) (covering my virgin ears!)

dogs

So we are conditioned! But we are intelligent beings are we not? We can think beyond our impulses! I mean come on! Relationships that are based in such shallow ground will surely fail....or at least plague your heart! Ok, so we are attracted to this or that but to write off the rest of potential mates because they don't fit a profile is like eating only olives on a thanksgiving buffet. You miss a lot if not the whole point of dating in the first place!

Standing as a witness.....Love it pap!

Earth

love ...oh sorry, LOVE

Well, Jen I came to answer your last post and found two wonderful posts who said everything I felt. So I won't belabor the point.

Forgiveness is not trust, that is for sure. But neither is going around feeling the burden of past conflict either. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. It frees you. And for the rest.....the being uncomfortable around this person, I understand that all to well. I think what helps is loving yourself and then loving your enemies too. You can be in the same room with an enemy and feel peace. You don't have to even think about them being there. You can go on with your life. Make them the least important part of what you experience everyday.

Like perfect and proficient people are the only ones who make a difference!!!!

The church, as most know, takes a neutral stand on politics but will stand up on moral issues. I am glad to see the church take a stand on this issue. As much as I understand the wants and desires of the same-sex community, this is something that I cannot agree with. It is hard to stand up for the right sometimes. Especially when the issues are so heated and confusing. We may have to take a tomato or two in the face as we move forward to protect marriage and the role of man and woman leading the family.

Did Jesus lose anything or lower himself by becoming mortal? Enduring and experiencing and progressing thru human challenge and mortal death? I am going to assume that any Christian would agree that, No, would be the logical answer. Why then would the idea of God the Father doing the same thing be of alarm? For those who believe Jesus and the Father are the same being anyway, how is the idea of God being as man is something so foreign, or so challenging? I understand that God the Father, at some point, did gain his physical body the same way all of us do. But I also understand that His earth/mortal experience was from a sinless perspective, just as Christ's was. Something none of us can claim. Vahnin, I believe you stated something to this effect earlier. Probably said it better too. :)

You are my favorite read of today! I have read a number of your posts in the last little bit and have been inspired. Thanks for sharing your brain with the likes of me! I feel blessed!

Boy! It is tough to narrow down. How do you explain an experience that is so dynamic? I have had such range in my experience with the Spirit of God and God himself inside of that Spirit. Sometimes I have experienced a voice. Other times answers have come unsolicited. So many have come thru scriptures and hymns. I have even had the rare dream here and there. Very rarely do I pray and get an answer in the same moment. It seems for me the answers unfold as I walk into the darkness of unknown experience in faith. So many of my answers are contradictory at times......and have confused me! Until I realized God was trying to get me to choose and trust myself. Sometimes it has been a jolting, yet loving rebuke. And sometimes, it has felt like there were no answers coming at all. Prayer is not like getting your fortune read. It is not linear -- like ask a question, get an answer. It is a Father, a perfect one, trying to teach and raise a child who must learn to use agency and faith at the same time. A situation much like pinning down a cloud! Sometimes it isn't about getting an answer. It is about doing it anyway in the absence of such comforts. So much of the success of it happens on the insides of our hearts and minds and desires as we move towards the light.....or the hint of a light in some cases. More spirit and experience will come, and more clarity about who is speaking when, as we become more sanctified and obedient. Sometimes I hear others complain that they haven't felt answers. One of those voices has been my own! But it is always because I lack something. Perhaps sin is barring the way or a faithless pocket somewhere in me, or the bantering of the selfish and impatient child I know is in there somewhere! Father is merciful and just and patient and Oh so kind! But he is not indulgent. His requirements are absolutely gestures of love. They guide us as we follow them....even into the darkness. And the light always comes for the faithful. What is that old song by Michael McClain? Hold on....Hold on.....the light will come! And sometimes, the light was on the whole time. We just fail to see.

This was my LDS Gem today..... Daily Gems Lessons Learned from Tragedy --------------------------------------------------- "From bearing one another's burdens as ward members, we have learned several lessons: "1. The Lord's organization is fully adequate to know and care for those with even the most dire emotional and spiritual needs. "2. Adversity can bring us closer to God, with a renewed and enlightened appreciation for prayer and the Atonement, which covers pain and suffering in all their manifestations. "3. Members who suffer tragedy firsthand often experience an increased capacity for love, compassion and understanding. They become the first, last, and often the most effective responders in giving comfort and showing compassion to others. "4. A ward, as well as a family, draws closer together as it endures together--what happens to one happens to all. "5. And perhaps most important, we can each be more compassionate and caring because we have each had our own personal trials and experiences to draw from. We can endure together."

Agreed and understood. But what will talking and teaching about all the details ever do to stop the anti movement? I mean wasn't that your original idea? That church headquarters should do more to stop the anti's? Not only does the church have a mission, but it has a budget too! Money and time. I mean how much money should the church invest in broadly publishing these so called "essential details"? Not to mention the struggle to get in all the teachings of one lesson into a 30 min time slot at church on Sunday. MyDogSkip said it best. Nothing we do or say will stop it or squash it. That is the Spirit's job anyway and the willingness of the individual to open their hearts. This movement will be there in its viciousness until the end when Christ comes again and all shall bow, kwim? The moving forward with our mission, the testifying, the sharing, the living right! That is the sword that will make the biggest difference.

How could the church improve it? From my experience, I have received much.....if not too much focused attention on church history. Even controversial parts! And so much of it is right there for anyone to research if they so desire. Not sure what church central should do? And anyway, what does the microscopic details of church history really have to do with the 3 fold mission of the church? Anti's will find their fodder one way or another. Do we go after them by watching our backs all the time? Or do we move forward with our mission and let them eat our dust?!?

I am afraid I have a few issues with the church on this subject. Maybe it was because of the little pocket of pride I grew up in and the way I saw LA's treated and characterized. Part of it is certainly with my own flirtings with being less active and my struggle with the discrepancy between my expectations of what my 'so called' church family would do and what has actually transpired. I would have been the easiest LA to bring back! Had someone taken the time to get to know my needs and concerns. About a year ago, I went to the bishop in the depth of struggle and asked him directly about the Savior and about His healing power and why I wasn't feeling it. I expressed my concerns and asked for counsel. He was very kind in his response.....very matter of fact. He said, "That is not an ecclesiastical issue." I was dumb-founded. No opening of scripture, no bearing of testimony, no offering of empathy or understanding of my plight. Just, go home and work it out yourself like Alma the younger did. Which by the way isn't what happened to Alma. He had many fasting and praying for him, waiting vigil, hoping and wishing for his wellfare during those three days. And all that love came to him even after his history of persecuting the church!! I went to the SP and asked for help. I asked that just this once, would the church come thru with support and love for my little family. Well.....not much has happened since then. I am not even sure the SP remembers who I am. There is so much power in the HT and VTing programs! So much untapped potential! So many opportunities for reaching out into the lives of our brothers and sisters! So much good that can be done by just showing up month after month. No one wants to be a project. Or have someone standing at the door step talking to them like they are number 25 on the LA report they just printed out. No one wants to have visitors that go thru the motions so they can check themselves off on their duty list. Satan is working.....effectively! He is going at the heart and soul of families. He has come after mine! And for much of it, I have stood alone. With my testimony in one hand, and my lonely fist on the other. How much easier it would have been to have a friend to lean on or to add one level of support! I know now what loneliness feels like. I know what it is to walk alone with enemies hunting you and friends failing you. And at the end of the day, Father will turn all of this experience to good. Somehow some way. I don't share it to rant or to condemn. Just to highlight a huge missed opportunity and the pain that has come from it and the stumbling block that it has placed in my path.....as it has helped Satan plant his doubts.

Bytor..... if you don't mind, may I ask a question? Had someone from the church made a real, loving friendship with you with the agenda of helping to activate you, would you have come back to the church sooner? What would that "real effort" have looked like for you?

Who isn't looked down upon? Goodness! Show me a group that hasn't been knocked down for one reason or another? Show me a religion that hasn't had persecution as part its history or its present? It is about humans and our inability to deal with differences. I don't know. I think many people respect the church. Perhaps they find our ways peculiar and some of our ideas contrary, but I think the tide of our historical persecutions are changing and flowering into friendship and acceptance. I think many have learned of us, visited SLC or perhaps had a sit down with one of our leaders and changed their opinion to one of favor. I think how we live is so important. How do we treat others of different faiths? How do we respect their beliefs and convictions? All of us are on our own path. There is something beautiful in that.....something that I am absolutely sure Father in Heaven holds in his hand. I may not understand or know when a person may want to learn about the gospel or be ready for added measures of truth to come into their lives. Perhaps your friend is exactly where she/he needs to be right now, learning what she can from her Catholic experience. And perhaps in the course of your friendship you both will come away with wisdom from each other.

Hi Jason. I have never been served in the military and can't know what you must have experienced or what you must have been thru and how it must have changed you. Whenever I think of war, my first thought is the BofM.....more specifically the entire book of Alma :) and then the ending war with Mormon and Moroni standing there in what was ultimately a futile effort. I find so much comfort and wisdom in these war pages. Perhaps it is the war inside of myself that needs such insights. And beyond that, I believe that there is wisdom and truth and healing power in the words on those pages. Those many soldiers and their experiences and the attributes of the few that are highlighted are inspiring in their reality. I don't like hearing of people who don't understand the nature of war and label our valiant soldiers with such labels such as you described. There aren't any more deserving of the label "Hero" than you all. I feel humbled by what you do and how you do it under incredibly difficult and sometimes confusing circumstances. Please know that not everyone feels that way. Coming back from battle and trying to integrate back into life must be challenging. Perhaps it is unfamiliar and uncomfortable as you try to fit the square peg of your new self in the round hole of life back home. Don't let such circumstance throw you. I believe that you are simply in a transition period as you learn to balance the man you used to be and the man you are now. Father in Heaven is a master at restoration. I can't believe that He won't turn your experience into depth of wisdom and love and incredible compassion. I also know that He can and will heal you. I have that hope. I don't know how long such healing takes. Perhaps for some pockets of pain, the healing will take many years. But I have hope for you.....and for me....and for all of us! Sending my love and support to you and your mighty journey. Stay close to Father. He is no doubt walking this walk with you with His infinite wisdom. Look for the opportunities on the road of your journey. The landscape may be different and it may appear as if it has narly and unfriendly twists and turns. Try to see it for what it is and not what it isn't..... and then try to see what it has to offer you. Best wishes. Misshalfway

We have LDS family in the Boston area. They love it!! They have lots of support and lots of member friends and are always talking about the church and their positive experiences. And they simply love Boston; its people, the flavor and feel of the culture, and of course the baseball! We have waffled about moving their ourselves. I also had a roommate in college from NH. She loved it! Couldn't say anything bad about the place. But not many members where she was. That was 20 years ago though.

Had a friend go on a mission to Denmark, but I don't really know much about the country other than I would really love to visit someday. Contentment......now there is a subject of interest! What are the components of contentment anyway?

Well Hello Dove! You sound delightful! Welcome back. Looking forward to reading you. There are some really good people and lots of friends to be made, especially if you bring brownies!:) I love the doctrinal conversations......the non-confrontational ones mind you. I really love what Heather is posting lately about the BofM. Really uplifting! Welcome!