Dursteler Diary

Relief Society Lesson

 

I made this doodad for Relief Society today and when I sent it to Walmart to have it printed it got cut off so I couldn't use it  :( Sooooo, I'll just put it here.

My lesson went well. It was on the atonement and covered two talks from conference, More Than Conquerors through Him That Loved Us by Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy and The Atonement Covers All Pain by Kent F. Richards of the Seventy.  They talked about how trials are part of our lives and how we deal with them will refine us and that the Savior is there to lift us up.

I came up with a pretty good analogy I think. I got thinking about “Minute to Win It” On this show contestants come to earn the big prize, a million dollars. To do it they need to complete a number of activities in the right way and right time limit to earn their final prize. Now when we watch the contestants they are all excited and stoked for the adventure. They are jumping up and down and are ready to get on the path to their million dollars. Then they get their particular assignment. They listen, discuss with their partners and pull their hair back in a pony tail and get ready to go. They don't complain, they just plow through it and do their best. While they are trying their partner is standing on the side cheering them along, telling them they can do it and encouraging them all the way. Do they all make it? No. They are given another chance and they try again. Sometimes their partner steps in and takes over for them.

This is just like our lives and the trials we face. We wanted to be here, we want the grand prize and we have a partner. Our savior is our partner and He will step in when we can't do it.

It was great for me to get to study and prepare a lesson on such a great topic. Nikole

The Civility Experiment

Kristen and Michelle, what were the other quotes we found that we liked at the quilted bear?

Making the Sacrifice of a Broken Heart

What Does A Broken Heart Look Like?

I think the answer is simple. He wants us to recognize our total dependence on Him.

God is just subtle enough in His participation in our lives that we can maintain the fiction that we are self-sufficient. The reality is that we are dependent on Him for our lives and all that we have and are (Mosiah 4:21). He even lends us breath (Mosiah 2:21). If He removed His spirit from us entirely, I’m confident that thinking and breathing would stop; we would die immediately. But God does not make His support obvious. So we dance along feeling smart, capable, and self-sufficient quite unaware that we depend on Him for every movement, every thought, and every breath.

The Lord told Moroni very directly how to gain power: “Because thou has seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong” (Ether 12:37). That is one of the great ironies of life. When we recognize our weakness and dependence, we access the great Power. Those who focus on their strengths will find that they really can’t do anything that matters while those who recognize their limitations and imperfections will be blessed with His power—which is incomparable.

ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

"My New Life" video from LDS.org

I love this video!

My New Life.

from nikole

Service

 
I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
 
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
 
I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn.
 
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.
 
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
 
I want to be there with the children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
 
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.
 
Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Good Talk from Conference

Developing Good Judgment and Not Judging Others
by Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy

Good judgment is needed not only in understanding people but also in facing decisions that often lead us to or away from our Heavenly Father.

There are many characteristics of people who have developed good judgment. I would offer four guides for developing such judgment in making important decisions.

First, put your own personal standards in alignment with the gospel of Jesus Christ. A person can never be a good judge without the gospel of Jesus Christ as a reference. The gospel has a long and successful record of guiding people to happiness. Some of the world’s ideas leave mankind adrift to try to define their own standards. Because of this, we hear phrases like “a new morality.” This phrase is deceptive! The standards of morality are eternal and have not changed; neither should we try to discover a new interpretation of them. For the youth these standards are written in the pamphlet For the Strength of Youth. These standards are clearly aligned with the gospel of Jesus Christ and are intended to continue through adult life. Perhaps it would be good for us as adults to study and apply this pamphlet to our lives.

Second, listen to the messages of the living prophet. How many poor financial judgments would have been avoided had we listened to the years of advice given through our prophets about avoiding risky speculation and following a careful budget to avoid consumer debt? How many marriages would have been saved by using good judgment in avoiding media that lead to pornographic addiction and heartache? Each general conference and Church magazine contains advice from the prophets which, if applied, will lead us to good judgment. We are left without excuse when we ignore them.

Third, cultivate with the Holy Spirit a relationship of listening. We are given the gift of the Holy Ghost after our baptism, but often we leave this gift on the shelf, forgetting that He will help us in the most important judgments of our lives. The Lord gave us this gift, knowing we would face difficult decisions in life. Listening to this voice is vital in developing good judgment. A relationship of listening often requires a quiet environment in which we can take time to ponder and hear the still, small voice. This peaceful environment is both external and internal. Therefore, it is more than shutting off the music of the world or the blare of other media; it is also shutting off the noise of sin that is internal to our soul. This will open the communication with the Spirit, which is so badly needed.

Christ said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”4 The peace that comes from listening to the Holy Spirit removes the fear of making a poor judgment in life.

Fourth, keep the commandments. The willingness to keep God’s commandments opens to us many promised blessings. The Book of Mormon, in addition to being another testament of Jesus Christ, is a book about the results of keeping and not keeping commandments. The Lord said to Nephi in the second chapter of his first book, “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper.”5

This same promise was repeated by almost every major prophet in the Book of Mormon. A thousand years of history is then recorded which bears witness that these things are true. And the same message applies to us today. Good judgment is best learned and practiced within the bounds the Lord sets by giving us commandments.

http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1207-33,00.html

The pure gospel of Jesus Christ must go down into the hearts of our children

“The pure gospel of Jesus Christ must go down into the hearts of [our children] by the power of the Holy Ghost. It will not be enough for them to have had a spiritual witness of the truth and to want good things later. It will not be enough for them to hope for some future cleansing and strengthening. Our aim must be for them to become truly converted to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ while they are with us. . . . 

“Then they will have gained a strength from what they are, not only from what they know. They will become disciples of Christ.”⁶

I have heard a few parents state that they don’t want to impose the gospel on their children but want them to make up their own minds about what they will believe and follow. They think that in this way they are allowing children to exercise their agency. What they forget is that the intelligent use of agency requires knowledge of the truth, of things as they really are (see D&C 93:24). Without that, young people can hardly be expected to understand and evaluate the alternatives that come before them. Parents should consider how the adversary approaches their children. He and his followers are not promoting objectivity but are vigorous, multimedia advocates of sin and selfishness.

Seeking to be neutral about the gospel is, in reality, to reject the existence of God and His authority. We must, rather, acknowledge Him and His omniscience if we want our children to see life’s choices clearly and be able to think for themselves. They should not have to learn by sad experience that “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10).

Moral Discipline by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles