Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: October is Teacher

 Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: October is Teacher,

Does anyone else feel like life got a whole lot crazier with kids going back to school!! Mine did, and I completely spaced posting this months Christlike Attribute worksheet. So, the month is almost over but better late than never! There is still time to focus on and study this month's Christlike attribute!

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: September is Obedience

 Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: September is Obedience,

Does anyone else feel like life got a whole lot crazier with kids going back to school!! Mine did, and I completely spaced posting this months Christlike Attribute worksheet. So it's mid month, but better late than never! There is still time to focus on and study this month's Christlike attribute!

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: July is Humility

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: July is Humility,

 In January, I had this thought that I wanted to come more unto the Savior. So I decided to start focusing on His attributes. Each month there will be a Christlike attribute focus. We focused on Faith in Christ for January, Hope in February, Charity and Love in March, Virtue in April, Knowledge in May and Patience in June.  I love being more intentional in striving to be more like my Savior. You could do this individually. Or  you could invite your Relief Society Sisters, Ministering sisters, friends or Young Women to engage in the study and development as well.

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: June is Patience

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: June is Patience,

In January, I had this thought that I wanted to come more unto the Savior. So I decided to start focusing on His attributes. Each month there will be a Christlike attribute focus. We focused on Faith in Christ for January, Hope in February, Charity and Love in March, Virtue in April and Knowledge in May.  I love being more intentional in striving to be more like my Savior. You could do this individually. Or  you could invite your Relief Society Sisters, Ministering sisters, friends or Young Women to engage in the study and development as well.

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: May is Knowledge

 Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: May is Knowledge,

In January, I had this thought that I wanted to come more unto the Savior. So I decided to start focusing on His attributes. Each month there will be a Christlike attribute focus. We focused on Faith in Christ for January, Hope in February, Charity and Love in March and Virtue in April.  I love being more intentional in striving to be more like my Savior. You could do this individually. Or  you could invite your Relief Society Sisters, Ministering sisters, friends or Young Women to engage in the study and development as well. 

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: April is Virtue

 Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: April is Virtue,

In January, I had this thought that I wanted to come more unto the Savior. So I decided to start focusing on His attributes. Each month there will be a Christlike attribute focus. We focused on Faith in Christ for January, Hope in February and Charity and Love in March.  I love being more intentional in striving to be more like my Savior. You could do this individually. Or  you could invite your Relief Society Sisters, Ministering sisters, friends or Young Women to engage in the study and development as well. 

#StartingToday I'm Letting Go: Forgiveness in Freeing Digital Watercolor of Christ's Crucifixion

 #StartingToday I'm Letting Go: Forgiveness in Freeing Digital Watercolor of Christ's Crucifixion,

Today, for the Easter campaign #StartingToday, the prompt is "I'm Letting Go".

One of the greatest commandments that God has given us is FORGIVENESS:

 "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:25)

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: March is Charity and Love

 Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: March is Charity and Love,

In January, I started the year of coming unto Christ by developing His attributes. We focused on Faith in Christ for January and Hope in February.  I loved being for intention in striving to be more like my Savior. 

Spiritual Goal, A Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: January is Faith

Spiritual Goal, a Year of Coming Unto Christ by Developing Christlike Attributes: January is Faith,

 This year I really wanted to focus on a few goals. Inspired by the four categories of the Children and Youth Program. The goal areas I've decided on are Physical Health, Spiritual Health, Mental/Emotional Health and Social Health. I love this ideas of finding goals within these four categories, because it can help us work towards having a more well rounded health and self. 

Why Everyone Needs to Go See the Movie, "Love, Kennedy"!

Read below, why everyone needs to go see the movie, "Love, Kennedy",

Disclosure: I attended this movie premiere for free, I am not being paid for this review. All thoughts are my own. See Full Disclosure Policy.

A Trip to Africa: Finding Peace, through Compassion and Hope. #PRINCEofPEACE

A recent trip to Africa resulted in finding peace, through compassion and hope...

This post is a sponsored post & may contain affiliate links. All views are mine as always! See the full disclosure.

As I was thinking about someone in my life who has shown great compassion and hope, my friend Amy, instantly came to my mind.

My friend Amy, is just one of those people who you could say, has a kind soul. It is no wonders, by profession she cares for others. Amy is a nurse anesthetists, she takes away the pain in others for a moment, so they can receive the treatments they need.

Recently, Amy had the opportunity of going to Africa on a humanitarian trip. I was dying to hear all about it and what faith promoting experiences she had. Luckily and graciously she agreed to share.

Here is her video interview...

After our interview, I reflected on the experiences Amy shared. I was impressed that these medical professionals would sacrifice their time and money to go and serve the people of Africa. They could have gone on any vacation or used their money to purchase something they wanted. But, they didn't, they chose to have compassion and give people who really needed, it hope.

One of the first things they did upon arrival, was visit the Ghana Africa Temple. What a great way to begin your service, by serving and showing compassion to those deceased children of God. There is no better way of finding peace, then being in the Lord's holy house.

There is great meaning in this to me. In the temple we are helping our ancestors fulfill something they can not do for themselves. In a sense, these medical professionals were doing a similar thing in Africa. These people needed their expertise and talents to help them also do something that they could not do for themselves.  

Much was needed as they traveled to Ghana. It was humbling to hear of what they just had to make do with while they were there. Such as partially working machines, make shift drip lines and plates they had to cut down to size. What they did bring with them was much appreciated and very useful.

Amy spoke of the faith that so many had and how regardless of religion, those who had faith were blessed. Including this native Ghana missionary, who had despite adversity chosen to serve a mission for the LDS church. Faithfully he had been serving and proselyting with his severely clubbed foot. This surgery was a great blessing to him and a result of his great faith. 

One of the things that touched me most as Amy spoke, was the uncompromising love she expressed towards the people she served. Her relationship with her Savior has been strengthened through this great act of compassion. 

There is something special about each one of us on this earth, it really does not matter our race, nationality, or anything else that might make us different. Our differences are what make us so special. We are children of a Heavenly Father.  Making us brothers and sisters, that is our commonality. 

As we reach out to each other with compassion we will bring hope into each others lives and a great presence of peace, both to our soul and mind. 

By Brent Borup

Our Savior was the greatest of examples to us. He spent his time among the sick, the weak, the poor, and those who both suffered physically as well as spiritually. He was no respecter of persons but unconditionally and perfectly loved those he served. 

In what ways can we emulate His grand example in our own lives? This is where a little soul searching will come in. But, I think as my friend Amy, as well as the Savior have shown. It is to truly have an understanding that we are all in this together, we are children of our Heavenly Father and we can love one another as He does.

As we love we will be filled with the desire to have compassion and to serve. That love will influence our actions towards others.

My own testimony of these principles has been strengthened from my dear friend's great example. May we each go about learning the principles of peace from the Prince of Peace and then let our own light be an example to others as well.

If you would like to learn more about the Easter Campaign, #PRINCEofPEACE, visit MORMON.ORG. 

To download this calendar click HERE

Each day of Holy Week, which is April 9th through April 16th, there will be a focus on one of the principles of peace. View the videos, read the scriptures and then look inward on how you can find peace in your life as you develop and learn these principles.

The principles are:

Faith (April 9th)
Compassion (April 10th)
Forgiveness (April 11th)
Repentance (April 12th)
Gratitude (April 13th)
Scripture (April 14th)
Prayer (April 15th)
Hope (April 16th)

Click HERE to download this Free Printable. Print it out frame it as is or color it first. 

If you'd like more ideas of how to get each of your family member's involved click and visit the post below it has lots of resources and ideas:

Thank you so much for stopping by! May you find the sweet presence of peace in your life!

3+ Ways to Find and Learn of Peace from the #PRINCEofPEACE This Easter

Here are 3+ ways to find and learn peace from the #PRINCEofPEACE...

This post is a sponsored post & may contain affiliate links. All views are mine as always! See the full disclosure.

In thinking about the what things I was going to share for the Easter Campaign for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I decided that one of the things I wanted to do was have some way that everyone could get involved.

Five Important Life Lessons I Received from Watching, "Spirit of the Game" aka "Mormon Yankees" movie!

I was able to attend this free viewing as a blogger. I'm not getting paid for this post, all views are 100 percent mine :)  Click here to view the full disclosure.

During General Conference, previews flooded my screen of a movie titled, "Spirit of the Game"! I was intrigued because it had both missionaries and basketball.  So, as you can imagine when I had the opportunity to attend the premier of the movie, I literally jumped at the opportunity!!

LDS Blogger Mini Scripture Devotional Series! My turn lets talk about Enduring to the End and Doctrine and Covenants 14:7.

My friend Camille at Chicken Scratch N Sniff is so fun, she organized a bunch of us bloggers to take turns sharing our favorite scripture in a mini devotionals on Facebook Live! These videos will be every Wednesday, at 10:00 am MST. They will be on the bloggers Facebook page, but also shared on Camille's Facebook page which is: Chicken Scratch N Sniff. Camille did the first little mini-devotional and I get to do the second one!

The scripture I have chosen to spotlight is Doctrine and Covenants 14:7.  It was so hard to choose!! I have so many favorites, I chose this one, because I think it perfectly summarizes our Heavenly Father's plan.  Why we are here, what we need to do and what can be the end result!

5 WaYs to Make the Sabbath Day #HisDay

I love that our Heavenly Father in all of His wisdom has given us the Sabbath Day! I have to say that it is my favorite day of the week!  Why?? Because it is a day that I can rest from worldly affairs, I don't need to worry about going to the store or working. Instead I can focus on my Heavenly Father, Savior, my calling, my family and spiritual growth. How can we make the Sabbath Day #HisDay?

How to Catch the Spark of Family History Work and Keep the Flame Going!

You know when something keeps coming up in your life that, that something is the thing you need to bring into focus!  The week after I was called into our ward's Young Women presidency. I was invited to attend a stake leadership meeting.  That leadership meeting was centered around Hastening the work through Family History.  I am going to share some ways we can catch the spark and keep it from dying down, but instead keep the flame going:

"Ponderize" Week 10: Mosiah 2:17

Just in case you haven't heard of "Ponderizing", I thought I would share how I am doing it. 

Here's the new Scripture:

Keeping an Eternal Perspective!

Though I usually do not comment on controversial issues, I have an overwhelming feeling that I need to share the following thoughts. And am only doing so after much prayer and thought. This in no way is meant to increase contention. I hope that we can each be respectful and empathetic towards each other and our beliefs. As I read through some feeds on social media the past two days, I have been saddened by the contention both coming from members and non-members of the church.  It is not something that is new, it seems as though every time The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes out with a statement, especially one seen as controversial issue there is opposition. The voices seems to be getting louder. To me this is a testament that this church is the true church and we are indeed in the latter-days.

The most recent is the changes made in the churches "Handbook 1".  The Deseret News, recently posted an article, "LDS Church reaffirms doctrine of marriage, updates policies on families in same-sex marriages".    I'm not going to go into the details of the article, I have posted the link so you can read it for yourself, if you desire to do so.  What I am going to share is my testimony and my feelings.

First off, I believe it is very important to open our hearts in prayer to our Father in Heaven and try to be understanding.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is not the prophet's church, it is not the apostles' church or even the member's church. It is just as it states, Christ's church.  The Savior and our Father in Heaven lead and direct the church. They do this through direct revelation to the prophet, who holds the keys to receive this revelation for the church. I have a firm testimony that we do have living prophets in these latter-days who do receive that divine revelation for the church. I love and sustain our current prophet, President Monson and his apostles.

Second, I think that it is important to remember that our Heavenly Father's perspective is an ETERNAL one.  Why is this important to remember?  It is important to remember this because though someone might not experience a promised blessing, such as baptism at a certain time in their life, it does not mean that they will never be able to experience that blessing. Everything is done in our Father's time. That time might not be when we desire it to be, it might even not happen in this mortal life time. Our Heavenly Father knows what is best for each of us, what will help us in reaching our eternal potential. Sometimes there will be things that we do not understand. It is important to remember that everything has a purpose. We will each be given the opportunity to receive and either accept or reject the gospel. 

Third, something I know with every ounce of my heart and soul is that our Heavenly Father's love for each of us is unconditional! I think it is a very sad thing that the adversary has confused the hearts of men to believe that if we don't accept someone's actions then we must not love them.  THIS IS NOT TRUE, it is a cunning deceptive lie put out there by the adversary.  Just because we do not accept an action does not mean we do not love the person.  If someone's lifestyle is contrary to that of Heavenly Father's commandments, Heavenly Father is still going to love them, but they are not going to be able to receive certain blessings. Our Heavenly Father is both a God of Mercy as well as a God of Justice.  He has laws that must be followed.  We can not change his laws, because they are not acceptable to the world. I feel like this is something that confuses so many. We are taught to love others, that God is love, all of that is most definitely TRUE. We are to love others and God's love is unconditional. Where people seem to get confused is the fact that we can still love someone while not agree with their actions.

Lastly, respect and empathy should go both ways.  The belief of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on marriage has been precisely defined, "WE, THE FIRST PRESIDENCY and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World) On the contrary there are some people who feel as though Same-Sex Marriage is okay.  These two things contradict each other, they are opposites. So, what do we do? We show respect on both sides. We can have differing thoughts, opinions and beliefs and still be kind and respectful towards each other. We do not need to be contentious. We can both love each other, the kind of love that Heavenly Father has. It goes both ways. 

These thoughts and views are my own and are not meant to represent those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What is this "Ponderizing" thing? New Scripture Week 5!

Just in case you haven't heard of "Ponderizing", I thought I would share how I am doing it. 

Here's the new Scripture:

To see previous week's "ponderizing" Scriptures click HERE. 

Choose the Scripture:

When I was trying to decide how I would choose scriptures, I decided that I would do the Book of Mormon Mastery Scriptures.  I loved doing these as a youth and grew so much, I decided that it was about time I do them again.  It's great because they are all chosen for me, they have "Context", "Doctrine or Principle" and "Application" to get me thinking. Here is a link to the Book of Mormon Scripture Mastery List.

Decide on How you are going to Display it:

Write it on a post it, type it up, take a picture of it from your paper scriptures, take a screen shot on your phone.  I have been writing it on a post it and displaying it where I would frequently see it, I also have it on the camera roll of my phone. I love this because no matter where I am at I can read over and think about my scripture.

Read and think About It's Meaning & Share it!

Really think about the scripture. Study the scripture. Pick out words and phrases and apply them into your life. Don't keep it all to yourself. Share it!!! Send someone a text, post your thoughts on your social media pages, talk to a friend or family member about what you are studying, as we share we can help strengthen others also.  For me, I go through the scripture and pick something out of it each day. I ponder about it, maybe even read an article about it on lds.org.  Then I post a picture along with my thoughts on my Instagram and Facebook pages.

I'd love to know what scripture you are "Ponderizing" and how you are doing it!! Leave a comment below and let me know what you're doing :)

To see my daily "ponderizing" thoughts follow me on Instagram, here's the LINK!

"Ponderize" Scripture Week 2: 2 Nephi 2:24, See HOW it can Bless your Life. {Link-up Party}

Last week, I started "ponderizing" a particular scripture. I loved this, because it brought more meaning to the scripture and helped me to better apply it into my own life.  Each day I thought about a word or phrase that stood out to me in the scripture and shared my thoughts about it.  I am excited to begin a new scritpure!