Disgusted

Okay, I’m having a bad day. I’m sick of corruption. I’m sick of evil, conniving men. I’m sick of seeing the aforementioned spitting on and stomping on the Constitution of this great nation.

First of all, I just read that the Washington Supreme Court just struck down a law requiring two thirds majority vote to raise taxes in this state. This was just voted on – and passed -- by the people this past November. Now the courts are striking it down?

How can the voice of the people be silenced by just a few so-called judges? If I remember correctly, the same law -- or something similar -- has been passed by the people every time it has been on the ballot. And it has been struck down by corrupt, evil, conniving judges every time, apparently. Why? Is this not a democracy? Does not the voice of the people rule the government? Obviously not.

Next example, this one’s not surprising but, nonetheless, still upsetting. Today Obama, a.k.a. Pres. Satan, asked the Supreme Court of the United States of America to overturn the California ban on same-sex marriage. Which, by the way, was also voted on by the people in California – and passed.

So, here again we have the voice of the people being silenced. I don’t know the details of when the Supreme Court is going to rule on the matter. But it’s really ridiculous that it’s even come to this. And especially for the “President of the United States” – I put it in quotes because he is president in name only. He does not act like a president, he does not perform like a president. He doesn’t even look like a president. – To stick his nose where it doesn’t belong. But there again, he doesn’t care where he belongs. He is power-hungry and wants things his way.

It seems to me like it is unethical, or should be, for the president to try to influence the Supreme Court. And by the way, what about the Defense of marriage act? That’s federal law.

Anyway I could go on and on. But I won’t. I’m just so disgusted right now.

That’s my two cents.

 

Morality and Politics

This morning, Lisa and I were discussing how wicked and evil this world has become. She mentioned a pornographic diaper commercial she saw on television yesterday. Television and the media are really out of control. I personally think everybody should get rid of their television subscriptions, including us. Good Thunder, I’ve recently been watching The Locator with Troy Dunn. But the commercials are so bad, namely Joan Rivers, that I don’t even want to watch The Locator because I don’t want to be exposed to such garbage. Pure evil. I keep thinking things cannot get worse, but they do.

Anyway, I like to read Rush Limbaugh’s website. I usually glance at it every day. Surprisingly, he says some very insightful things once in a while that coincide with Gospel teachings. I wanted to include an excerpt from something he said on his show yesterday.

The following is taken directly from Rush Limbaugh’s website:

"There's a big move on now to just totally eliminate any concern over the social issues whatsoever, because we gotta save the economy. The economy is where your kids' future is, the grandkids' future. And that's exactly right. But all this stuff is interlinked.

Social issues and economic issues are linked by something, and it's called morality. And it's morality that's missing here, and while Obama runs around and claims the country was founded immorally and unjustly, the truth of the matter is that they're doing everything they can to eliminate morality. There are no guardrails. There are no limits. And there will be no judgments. Nobody has the right to say something is wrong. Nobody has the right anymore to say something is right. Nobody has the right to say something shouldn't happen because it's destructive and detrimental. You don't have that right. Who you love, who you want to live with, how you want to live, where you want to get your money from the government for a job, it's nobody else's business.

And so morality is being eliminated, and this country was founded on the basis of it. This country was founded on the premise that if morality is ever eliminated, this country can't exist as it was founded. Now, what is happening here? The Democrats are attempting to establish in the minds of as many Americans as possible that life itself depends on a thriving and growing government in the center of everyone's life." -- Rush Limbaugh, February 27, 2013
 

Relief Society Lesson -- Converted unto the Lord

Converted unto the Lord
Elder David A. Bednar
Of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles
October 2012 General Conference

A testimony is personal knowledge of spiritual truth obtained by revelation.

Conversion is an enlarging, a deepening, and a broadening of the undergirding base of testimony.

Conversion is the result of revelation from God, accompanied by individual repentance, obedience, and diligence.

The essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ entails a fundamental and permanent change in our very nature made possible through the Savior’s Atonement.

True conversion brings a change in one’s beliefs, heart, and life to accept and conform to the will of God and includes a conscious commitment to become a disciple of Christ.

For many of us, conversion is an ongoing process and not a onetime event that results from a powerful or dramatic experience. Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds become aligned with the will of God.

Conversion unto the Lord requires both persistence and patience.

“… And they are striving with unwearied diligence…” Helaman 15: 6

Five basic elements to conversion:
(1) believing in the teachings and prophecies of the holy prophets as they are recorded in the scriptures, (2) exercising faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, (3) repenting, (4) experiencing a mighty change of heart, and (5) becoming “firm and steadfast in the faith”

• Testimony is the beginning of and a prerequisite to continuing conversion.
• Testimony is a point of departure; it is not an ultimate destination.
• Strong testimony is the foundation upon which conversion is established.

Testimony alone is not and will not be enough to protect us in the latter-day storm of darkness and evil in which we are living.

Testimony is important and necessary but not sufficient to provide the spiritual strength and protection we need.

“For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more. …

“Now, these are they who were converted unto the Lord” – Alma 23:6-8


Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony.

Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion.

Campfire Cowboy With Gun And Saddle

Dad finished my new campfire cowboy today complete with gun and saddle. It’s a little different than the others because it has shell casings for the sticks instead of copper tubing. Dad wanted to try something a little different. It looks awesome!

Dad is quite talented. My gun has oak that dad painstakingly sanded. I think it took him two days alone just to do the sanding on the wood. Dad has been working on these cowboys for over three months. The saddle and the gun require a lot of work. Several days for each one.

Each cowboy is unique and turned out awesome. He made one for each of his kids. So we all got an early/late birthday present!

Thanks Dad! I love it!

Super Easy Tapioca Pudding

Crock Pot Tapioca Pudding

1 gallon of whole milk

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

2 cups pearl tapioca

1 Tablespoon vanilla

 

Combine milk, sugar, eggs, and tapioca in crockpot. Mix together well. Cook in crockpot 4 to 6 hours until thick. Stirring occasionally (about once per hour). Add vanilla. Mix thoroughly and enjoy hot or cold!

*crockpot on high – (we turned our crockpot down to low after 2-3 hours)

*if you are short a few eggs it will still turn out okay.

*a little salt or cinnamon may be added to taste.

*Pearl tapioca can be purchased in the bulk food section of most grocery stores.

Today we decided to make tapioca pudding. We have made it before in the crockpot and it usually turns out well. (We did burn it, slightly, once because it wasn't stirred enough-at all. But it still was edible and tasted pretty good) It is super easy to make and delicious! So, I thought I would share the recipe with you all. The picture above is from the batch we made this morning. Give it a try, you will love it!

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Immortality

"Surely God would not have created such a being as man to exist only for a day! Man was made for immortality." — Abraham Lincoln

On God's side

"My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." — Abraham Lincoln

Happiness

"Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be." — Abraham Lincoln

Honesty

"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" — Abraham Lincoln

 

Tact

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves." — Abraham Lincoln

Strength in silence

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." — Abraham Lincoln

Defending freedom

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." — Abraham Lincoln

America's potential

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of Earth." — Abraham Lincoln

 

Democracy

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy." — Abraham Lincoln

Freedom

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." — Abraham Lincoln

Developing friendships

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" — Abraham Lincoln

Success

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." — Abraham Lincoln

Strength

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong." — Abraham Lincoln

 

Responsibility

 "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." — Abraham Lincoln

Doing your best

"I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end." — Abraham Lincoln

 

Power vs. character

"Nearly all men stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." — Abraham Lincoln

Balancing Truth and Tolerance

As I was reading the Ensign Magazine last week, there was one article that really stood out to me. It’s quite lengthy so I copied and pasted some of my favorite parts to post on this blog. You can read the entire article in this month’s Ensign, February 2013. Or you can read the entire CES devotional transcript by going to the link posted below.

Balancing Truth and Tolerance

by Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

From a Church Educational System devotional address delivered on September 11, 2011. For the full text in English, go to lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2011/01/truth-and-tolerance.

“We believe in absolute truth, including the existence of God and the right and wrong established by His commandments. We know that the existence of God and the existence of absolute truth are fundamental to life on this earth, whether they are believed in or not. We also know that evil exists and that some things are simply, seriously, and everlastingly wrong.

…We live in a world where more and more persons of influence are teaching and acting out a belief that there is no absolute right and wrong—that all authority and all rules of behavior are man-made choices that can prevail over the commandments of God. Many even question whether there is a God.

The philosophy of moral relativism, which holds that each person is free to choose for him or herself what is right and wrong, is becoming the unofficial creed for many in the United States and other Western nations. At the extreme level, evil acts that used to be localized and covered up like a boil are now legalized and paraded like a banner. Persuaded by this philosophy, many of the rising generation are caught up in self-serving pleasures, pornography, dishonesty, foul language, revealing attire, pagan painting and piercing of body parts, and degrading sexual indulgence.

Many religious leaders teach the existence of God as the ultimate lawgiver, by whose command certain behavior is absolutely right and true and other behavior is absolutely wrong and untrue.² Bible and Book of Mormon prophets foresaw this time, when men would be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4) and, indeed, when men would deny God (see Jude 1:4; 2 Nephi 28:5; Moroni 7:17; D&C 29:22).

In this troubled circumstance, we who believe in God and the corollary truth of absolute right and wrong have the challenge of living in a godless and increasingly amoral world. In this circumstance, all of us—especially the rising generation—have a duty to stand up and speak out to affirm that God exists and that there are absolute truths that His commandments establish.

…The kingdom of God is like leaven, Jesus taught (see Matthew 13:33). Leaven—yeast—is hidden away in the larger mass until the whole is leavened, which means raised by its influence. Our Savior also taught that His followers will have tribulation in the world (see John 16:33), that their numbers and dominions will be small (see 1 Nephi 14:12), and that they will be hated because they are not of the world (see John 17:14). But that is our role. We are called to live with other children of God who do not share our faith or our values and who do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed. We are to be in the world but not of the world.

Because followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to be leaven, we must seek tolerance from those who hate us for not being of the world. As part of this, we will sometimes need to challenge laws that would impair our freedom to practice our faith, doing so in reliance on our constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion. The big concern is “the ability of people of all faiths to work out their relationship with God and one another without the government looking over their shoulder.”⁴ That is why we need understanding and support when we must contend for religious freedom.

…We are cast as combatants in the war between truth and error. There is no middle ground. We must stand up for truth, even while we practice tolerance and respect for beliefs and ideas different from our own and for the people who hold them.

…President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has said: “The word tolerance does not stand alone. It requires an object and a response to qualify it as a virtue. … Tolerance is often demanded but seldom returned. Beware of the word tolerance. It is a very unstable virtue.”⁶

…President Thomas S. Monson has taught: “The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. … If your so-called friends urge you to do anything you know to be wrong, you be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone.”⁸

Excerpts taken from: Balancing Truth and Tolerance, Ensign, February 2013

The above excerpts are just a small portion of the article/devotional address. I would highly recommend reading the entire thing.

Just this morning I was discussing, with Juliet, how much the world has changed in the past 30 years – since the days of Ronald Reagan and growing up during the awesome 80s J. As bad as the world was back then, it doesn’t hold a candle to today.

While being tolerant of others’ choices and agency – let us remember to stand for truth and righteousness. Do not fall for the “mask of tolerance” as Pres. Monson stated. The world is increasingly teaching that good is evil and evil is good.  “Woe unto them that call ^aevil ^bgood, and good evil; that put ^cdarkness for ^dlight, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” – Isaiah 5:20

The world teaches that tolerance is embracing and accepting sin and evil. And if we don’t accept and embrace evil as good, then somehow we are seen as evil and “intolerant”. Isaiah’s prophecy is coming true. Or I should say – has already come true. This is the world we live in.

Beware but don’t be afraid. With the truth of the Gospel we can be in the world but not of the world.

That’s my two cents.