Lead Kindly Light

This week in my New Testament class, I feel like the topic of faith is standing out a lot to me, one of the verses I read is Hebrews 11:3. The principle that I gained from that is if we have faith, then we will know that the worlds were created by the word of God. I think if we have faith in God and Christ, then we will know more than just that He created the worlds. To me, faith gives me peace and comfort that even though things may seem like they are going wrong in my life, everything will work out in the Lord's time.

I have a few things in my life that I am working to have faith on. One is finding a job before I run out of savings. I'll be graduating soon with my bachelor's degree and I hope to find something that I can learn and grow in and where I will enjoy working. I have yet to find that, but I know with God's help, things will work out. I just need to have faith.

Another thing I have faith in is finding my eternal companion. I'm 32 years old and have been single my whole life. It's not something that I share very often these days. But I figured that not many people will read my blog. Sometimes it is hard when I see couples who are a lot younger than me getting married. But I remind myself that my time will come and that God has a plan for me. I have no doubt that it will happen, I just have to remember that God has His own timetable.

One of my favorite paintings of Christ is by Simon Dewey titled, Lead Kindly Light. I got a print of this painting framed and it is sitting in my bedroom. I love this painting because of the light in one hand and His other hand is beckoning you. When I think of the light in His hand, I think of the parable of the Ten Virgins. In that story, the oil for the light can represent our faith. The painting also makes me feel that He is there waiting patiently for us to come to Him,

I know that if we have faith in God, things will work out. It may not work out the way we want or planned, but God has a plan for us.

Every Member a Missionary

This week in my studying for my New Testament class, a scripture stood out to me: Romans 1:15-16. The following is the scriptures from the King James version of the Bible:

15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

This is the principle that I gained from that scripture: If we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ and believe in it, then we are ready to do missionary work.

I always forget that I do not have to "preach" to others in order to do missionary work. I don't always share things from the LDS church on my Facebook page because I don't want my friends who are of other religions to feel like I am preaching at them. Just thinking about it, I know that I will share this post on Facebook. I hope my friends know that I would never force my beliefs onto them. 

When I was younger, I would save inspirational messages that I either received through a church class or elsewhere. Now, with Facebook, I can share inspirational messages on Facebook. I need to remember that not all inspirational messages are "preachy". For all I know, there is someone out there that needs to hear that they are loved or that there is someone going through something similar to themselves.

Just looking through my Facebook feed today, there are a few inspirational messages that I found that anyone of any faith could relate to. One of the great things about being a Christian, of any domination, is that we each share a belief and faith in Christ. My faith in Christ has gotten me through many of life challenges. 

I have been reminded this week, through the discussion board for my class, that I need to work more on my faith. Earlier this year, I struggled with finding an internship. I became a little depressed and I just wanted to give up. But thankfully I live with family and they would ask me every day how my search was going. Some days it annoyed me because I just wanted to be in this whole I created for myself. But if it wasn't for them, especially my mom, I wouldn't have found my temp job in recruiting. I was so excited and relieved to have found it and that they would allow me to have it count towards my internship.

But then a few months later, things fell apart. I no longer had the temp job, it ended earlier than I was hoping it would. I was worried about what I was going to do about my internship for school, since it ended a few weeks before the semester was to start. About the second or third week of the semester, I went up to Rexburg to talk to financial aid to get some things cleared up. When I was there, I decided to stop by my old job on campus. One of my old bosses is good friends with my internship coordinator and helped me to talk to him. (For those of you who know me, know that I have a hard time talking to others on my behalf especially if I don't know them very well.) Luckily, I was able to get everything worked out. 

One thing that I have learned during my adult life is that there is a reason why I work at my different places of employment. I have made some great friends over the years because of the places I have worked. One of the greatest blessings during my time at BYU-Idaho was being able to work on campus for the Business and Communication Academic Discovery Center. Through that job, I was able to learn that Elementary Education was not for me. I then discovered of another field that I would like to work in someday and that is Human Resources. Business Management degree would help me get there someday. Through my job on campus, I learned that I love helping others work out their problems. I loved that happy look on their face when they realize that they could graduate earlier or that they didn't have to take a class they were planning because they could either sub a previous unused course or change catalog years. 

Long story short, don't be afraid to share something important to you. Keep your faith in Christ, things will work out; usually in a way you least expect it. One of my favorite paintings of Christ is one by Greg Olsen, titled "O Jerusalem". This was my favorite painting of Christ in my youth. I can't put into words how important it is to me. In the painting, Christ looks like He is pondering. It gives me a peaceful feeling when I look at this painting. It tells me that everything will work out.

Stand Fast in Faith

This week for my New Testament reading, I found a scripture in 1 Corinthians that really stood out to me. It's 1 Corinthians 16:13 "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." What I got out of that scripture is that if we stand fast in our faith in Christ, then we will be strong. I have never really struggled with my testimony of Christ, but I have recently struggled a little in my faith. To me, struggling in my faith wasn't doubting but more having a hard time seeing that God still had a plan for me and that everything will work out in the end. One of my favorite paintings of Christ is by the artist Greg Olsen titled "Let Him In". It is a painting of Christ knocking on a door without a knob. One reason why I love this painting is because it reminds me that Christ is there waiting for me to open the door to Him. 

One thing that I have found that has helped me to strengthen my faith is to follow the "primary answers" that I would always hear about growing up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those not familiar with that term, "primary answers" are: going to church, pray, read/study the scriptures daily, etc. I find when I do at least those three things, I am stronger in my faith and my testimony. One thing that helps me when I am at church is to write notes during sacrament meeting. Otherwise, I tend to loose my focus to what is being taught. Most nights, I cannot fall asleep without saying my prayers. I feel closer to God and Christ when I say meaningful prayers and not just repeating things everyday. When I don't read my scriptures everyday, those are the days that I struggle the most with.

Another favorite painting of mine is by the artist, Simon Dewey titled "Lead, Kindly Light". Earlier this year, I bought a print and mat at Deseret Book. Then I bought a frame from Hobby Lobby. I now have this painting in my bedroom to help me to remember Christ in my life daily. Light is often compared to faith. In the painting, Christ is holding a little light and inviting you with His other hand. This painting makes me think of the 10 Virgin parable in the New Testament. So often we let our faith fade because we are distracted with the "things of the world" or the craziness of our lives. This painting reminds me that Christ is there waiting for me to follow in His path. It's not always easy to follow in the footsteps of Christ, but as we follow the "primary answers" we will become stronger in our faith. I know this to be true. 

I hope you enjoy this video from Mormon Messages titled Mountains to Climb. It is about overcoming mountains/struggles in our life. (I have attached the link to the video in case the video doesn't work.) Everyone has different trail/struggles to go through in life, but as we stay close to Christ and work on our faith in Him, we can overcome them with faith. It's important to remember that just because someone else's trail/struggle is different than yours, does not make it less important.

**The links to the paintings is so that you can see what the painting looks like. You do not need to purchase anything from the sites. Because of copyright laws, I wasn't sure if I could post the pictures of the paintings on my blog.

Attributes to Improve On

I am currently taking a religion class at school and one of the assignments I have a choice of how to share what I have learned. The class focuses on the second half of the New Testament. I have different choices to make of what to study from. I decided on 1 Thessalonian 3-5; 2 Thessalonians 3:1-6,11. In it Paul was giving counsel to the members of the church at the time. First, I had to find attributes that Paul counseled the members what they needed to improve on. I feel that we can take it and apply it to our own lives for what we can improve on. There are three attributes that I felt I could improve on. There were more but these three stood out the most to me. 

The first being to love one another. I have been taught this my whole life. My mother is a great example to me of how to love others. It doesn't how one looks or acts, my mother treats everyone as God would want her to, as a child of God. I sometimes find myself judging others in my head but then I correct myself by telling myself that I don't really think that way. My goal for when I start to judge others or to feel frustrated and mad at someone, is to remind myself that he/she is a son/daughter of God and that I should love them and treat them as such.

The second attribute is to pray without ceasing. The picture to the left is one of me when I was little and I had fallen asleep during family prayers. There are times that I feel that my prayers are not as heartfelt as they could be. I'm afraid that I have gotten a little lazy in saying my prayers. Sometimes I am too tired to sit up or kneel by my bed at night, so I say my prayers while lying down. But on the days that I sit or kneel, I feel closer to God and that He hears my prayers. Ever since I was little, I have had a phobia of kneeling by my bed to pray. I blame it on the movie Little Monsters. Ever since, I just can't kneel by my bed, so I sit or kneel on my bed. My goal is to sit/kneel every night before bed and say my prayers. When I say my prayers, I remind myself that I am talking to God as I would a friend who cares about me. I always begin my prayers with thanking Him of different things in my life. Then I ask Him for help for myself or for those in my life or the world in general. The times that I have spoken to Him as I would a friend, I feel closer to Him and I feel like I get more out of my prayers.

The third attribute is to abstain from all appearance of evil. For those that know me, know that I love watching TV shows. I have many that I watch, but there are some that I love more. There are also a few that I would say are probably not the best shows I should be watching. I go through my phases of trying to cut back on TV or stop watching the shows I think are not good for me to watch. But then I get bored and start watching them again. Thanks to Hulu Plus and Netflix, there are a lot of shows I can watch. But my next goal is to stop watching the shows that I don't think are good for me and to stop watching them for good. Today I have only watched one and a half episodes of Doctor Who from season seven. I have seen Doctor Who so much and I love the show, that I feel comfortable in stopping in a middle of an episode to finish things. Today, I have done laundry and homework and have not watched any current TV shows. I feel very proud of myself and that I have been productive. I am going to work on allowing myself to watch a current TV show only after I have completed homework for the day. 

Current Projects!

I finally finished Josh & Adele's blanket back in the beginning of July. Here is a a pic of the finished project. Since the last time that I blogged I have finished Jen & Kevin's blanket like this one and I made one for Nicole and Jared. Of course Josh & Adele won't be able to get their blanket until Christmas or when I next see them. Sorry guys ;) It's a good thing that it is summer time!

I have also made three baby blankets. I made a pink and cream one for Dr. Campbell's new granddaughter. I made a light blue and cream one just because I wanted something to do. Then I made a dark green and cream one that I gave to Nelda for her new grandson. I started another one that is a denim blue color and a brownish/green color.

Here is the second baby blanket that I made. When I started this blanket I just felt like making another baby blanket but I didn't know who I wanted to give it to. After I made the dark green one I found out that Justin & Alicia are expecting their first baby. So I might give this blanket to them unless they end up having a girl. Then in that case I will have to make a new one. Which I have plenty of time to make. I am putting that last baby blanket on hold until I make the t-shirt quilt for Leah.

Which brings me to my current project. I am making a t-shirt quilt for Leah's Baptism/Birthday this year. So, Jen, Leah may not see this blog ;) This is an idea of what it will look like. Only the green will be darker. I just got the fabric for the yellow & green strips. I went to Hobby Lobby and used a 40% off coupon for both. My mom and I went this morning for interfacing for the back of the t-shirt squares.

We got the interfacing and yellow broadcloth for the quilt. We used a 40% off coupon for both. After we had been home for a few hours, I decided that I wanted to go back for the dark green fabric. When I went back to Hobby Lobby with another 40% off coupon, the girl at the cash register tried to tell me that I couldn't use the coupon on a sale item. I had to point out to her that it wasn't on sale, that $1.99 was the original price. Luckily she didn't argue with me. So I can now work on the blanket some more. I have the interfacing ironed on to the back of the t-shirt squares. I now need to cut out the strips of yellow and green. Then I can sew the blocks together. The reason the border is blank is because I don't know what fabric that I am going to use. I was thinking about using some Disney fabric for the border. I figured that after I sew all the t-shirts together I would take it with me to the fabric store and see which fabric would look best with it.

Facebook Group

So, I took some cookies with me to church today for my lesson in Relief Society. I like to take treats with me when I have a lesson to teach and I hadn't in a while. So yesterday I made Revel Bars to take with me. Then after church someone mentioned that I should email them the recipe then someone else said that I should make a group on Facebook. So I did. I've already posted dome recipes. I really hope people enjoy it. I love to bake. I'm not a big fan of standing over the stove and stirring something. I have very little patience for it plus I tend to get light headed. I always have to be sure that I have a glass of water next to me. I don't mind cooking on the stove as long as it doesn't take too long.
Now that church is at 9am this year, I seem to have more free time on my hands when I get home. For the past 3 Sundays I have been cleaning the kitchen. Mostly loading the dishwasher, wiping down the counters if they need it and cleaning the stove. Luckily the stove wasn't as bad today. I didn't have to spray it with anything. I love it when the kitchen is clean. I hate cooking in a dirty kitchen.
I have been trying to finish a queen size blanket for my sister and brother in-law. It was supposed to be done by last Christmas but I wasn't happy with the width and neither was Jen. I didn't work on it for a little while and now I am finally almost done with it. Oh, I am crocheting the blanket. That pic is how it looks. It's huge. Once I am done with it I will take a picture of it on a bed to show how big it is. I used to take it with me to work to work on during my lunch break but it got too big and I was getting tired of carrying it in a big plastic disney bag. I ended up having to tape that bag up to keep my crochet hook and scissors from falling out of the bag. I really do love this blanket. It's nice and warm. Once I am done making blankets for my siblings and parents I will finally make one for myself. Who knows what I'll feel like making for me by the time that happens. I have Justin's blanket done a long time ago. That leaves Heather, Josh & Adele, Nicole, and my parents.