Broken Things

Greetings from Windy Iowa!!

Hello Sisters!

Just wanted to send you a quick email and let you know that I am thinking of you as I am away at my Grandmother’s funeral events.  This time for me has been a time of much reflection and healing broken relationships.  I am so thankful that God loves broken things and sent his Son, our Savior to atone for all those things both in and out of our control that hurt us and need mending.  I have been listening and singing in my head this song that I thought my touch someone out there tonight!!  

May you be comforted in any trials you might be enduring!!  I love you all and I am so excited to be back with you soon! 

With Love,

Meg

Fall of Adam

Happy Spring!

What a beautiful day to be taught the truths about the Fall of Adam.  I never grow weary of being reminded of the Garden of Eden and the necessary actions that took place there.  I am so thankful  for the focus this year going back to the basics. We all have things that we can learn even in the basics of the gospel.  Thank you teachers for turning your lesson’s into discussions which create different learning atmospheres where through the spirit you can be taught even things that aren’t being spoken.

I was reminded of an awesome talk today that I used while in leadership at the EFY program (Especially for Youth).  Every Wednesday night we taught the youth about the Fall.  It was always so surprising what some of the Youth of the church believed happened with the Fall and how confused they were about this principal.  I use the following quote to emphasize that the Fall was a very necessary and good thing and not something that tainted us. We ALL needed the Fall as much as we needed the Atonement to return home to our Father in Heaven.

“The Fall was not a disaster. It wasn’t a mistake or an accident. It was a deliberate part of the plan of salvation. We are God’s spirit “offspring,” sent to earth “innocent” of Adam’s transgression. Yet our Father’s plan subjects us to temptation and misery in this fallen world as the price to comprehend authentic joy. Without tasting the bitter, we actually cannot understand the sweet.  We require mortality’s discipline and refinement as the “next step in [our] development” toward becoming like our Father. But growth means growing pains. It also means learning from our mistakes in a continual process made possible by the Savior’s grace, which He extends both during and “after all we can do.”

Adam and Eve learned constantly from their often harsh experience. They knew how a troubled family feels. Think of Cain and Abel. Yet because of the Atonement, they could learn from their experience without being condemned by it. Christ’s sacrifice didn’t just erase their choices and return them to an Eden of innocence. That would be a story with no plot and no character growth. His plan is developmental—line upon line, step by step, grace for grace.

So if you have problems in your life, don’t assume there is something wrong with you. Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life’s purpose. As we draw close to God, He will show us our weaknesses and through them make us wiser, stronger. If you’re seeing more of your weaknesses, that just might mean you’re moving nearer to God, not farther away.”

Bruce C. Hafen, “The Atonement: All for All,” Ensign, May 2004, 97

We all have problems in our lives.  Times of extreme difficulty where we wonder why things have to be so hard.  If we could only remind ourselves  of the true principle that is taught, “without the bitter we could not experience the sweet… and the Lord’s grace will attend us after all we can do!”

 I am personally experiencing a bitter point with the passing of my OWN Grandma this week and getting ready to go to the funeral in Iowa with not the best situations there to face.  I will be thinking about this and reminding myself to look for the sweetness in this time and to allow learning and growth to come into my life through some of the harsh things going on around me.

I want you to know that I am so thankful that because of the Fall I too am able to fall and be healed through the Atonement of Christ.  He knows all our pains and the aches of our hearts that may not necessarily be our fault. With Faith in Him we will be made whole.

Thank you for the strength that I see in your eyes.  Thank you for enduring hard things so that we can all be taught by one another. Thank you for your unconditional love and charity.

With Admiration!

Meg

The Creation: The begining

Dearest Sisters!!

It’s SPRING!!  Yeah for spring! Yeah for new beginnings! As Tonya Tippetts has learned this past month time for SPRING CLEANING!! Right Tonya?!

While we sort through and “Spring Clean” make sure you keep one of the MOST important parts of your home intact,  YOU! 

You Are Wonderful!

If you don’t know that, you need to DISCOVER it again.  We were all created in the image of God and were given so many unique and endearing qualities.  Have the winter blue’s stripped you of your love for yourself?  Have you forgotten the goodness that the Lord has put right inside of you?  If you have lost that lovin’ feeling, it’s SPRING CLEANING TIME and time to get it back! 

Today our sweet Oni Wu treated us to a beautiful lesson on The Creation.  She reminded us to think of the creations around us that make us happy.  Some sister’s shared thoughts like: a brand new baby, a sunset, movement in lake water, flowers etc.  I didn’t know how to address it without sounding weird but the first thing I thought of was Me… You… People!  My life would be boring with out your smiles, your laughter, YOU! All those things wouldn’t mean anything if you didn’t have anyone to share it with!  We are so blessed to have each other.

 Oni gave an object lesson with a puzzle and said if you just dump out the puzzle automatically do you know what it is.. is the puzzle put together?  Cheryl dumped it and all  that was there was a stack of pieces.  Later in the lesson she ended by saying what happens when there is a piece missing at the end of the time you had spent putting the puzzle together.. then how does that feel?   I thought of that in relation to how the creation of people makes life worth living and thought that is so true!  If ONE of you is missing our puzzle of sisterhood is not complete.  We all need each other to return back and to fully enjoy earth life.  If ONE is missing it is NEVER complete.

Don’t ever think that you aren’t noticed when you aren’t with us.  Don’t ever  think that you aren’t needed or wanted.  Satan tends to use our Divine Nature against us in so many ways.  Of course he would try to rob us of the very thing that reminds us of who we are.  He wants us to be miserable.  When we don’t like ourselves or realize the worth of our creation are we not miserable?! 

There is POWER in KNOWING who we are and living up to our true potential!  When we do, we can feel more promptings of the spirit and think more about helping others around us. When we don’t, we allow Satan to torment us and use lies to deceive us.  I am sure that we have all experienced both sides and I think hands down we would choose the JOYFUL ONE!! J

Keep your heads up and keep positive words going to and about yourself!  You are loved!! Happy Sunday!

Validation

Sweetest Sisters!

Another rainy Sunday.  Can you believe how green everything is getting in Arizona?  Blessing to this desert state!

My heart is full as I write you today.  We had such a beautiful, thought provoking lesson taught to us in Relief Society today.  Carole taught on the power of the words that we speak and how words are sacred.  If you haven’t read the talk in which was referenced today, it is short and a perfect read to get even more PERSONAL understanding in your own life.

As I sat in the lesson today I wished with all my heart that all the Sisters in the other organizations could be watching this with us, could be feeling what we are feeling, as well as the Sisters that weren’t with us today.  So I went online and found the video that  Carole used to illustrate the power of the things we say and I am enclosing the link in hopes that everyone watches it, shares it for FHE, or with someone that would like something to think about or loves to be inspired.  It is awesome and I want to be better at being a window to our Father in Heaven’s love.  I want to be known as  a BUILDER of God’s children more than a destroyer of them.  May we each find a way to let this message into our hearts in the way that we need and use faith to put it into action! 

I also wanted to send you a link to one of the songs that is close to my heart. This kept coming to my mind during the lesson.  A Window to His Love by Julie de Azevedo.  I could only find it in a slide show presentation online… But just push play and listen to it, you don’t need to watch it.  As we BUILD others with our words it allows them to see themselves through our eyes and get a glimpse as to how God feels about them. It does amazing things!

I am thankful for the Women you are.  I feel and learn so much from you.  Thank you for being my friend and my example.

Have a FABULOUS week!  Keep Smiling!