Parable: Enjoy the Steak Dinner!

Have you ever been to Texas Road House? Well if you haven't it is a Steak House and it has the best food ever! Everytime I have gone it has been some sort of special occasion-senior ball,graduation, birthday, college graduation, and finishing my surgical technology degree. Each time I go I am beyond excited!Then when we are there and they bring out their rolls. I am pretty sure the only way to describe them is that it is like eating pure joy and happiness. Then I usually get some stake with sweet potatoe and fries. Again beyond delicous. Then of course no dinner is complete without dessert!
There is only one problem-each time I go I want to eat a million rolls, but I know I have to save room. I still end up eating a ton and then I don't fully enjoy the main course. Part of me still wishes I was eating rolls, another part is super excited for dessert. So here are my problems:

1. I don't enjoy the rolls thouroughly because I am worried about saving room
2. I don't enjoy the main course as much because I wish I was still eating rolls and I am looking forward to dessert
3. I don't fully enjoy dessert because I ate too much.

This happens everytime without fail. If I was to go tomorrrow-this would probably still happen!

This made me think of  a Talk given by President Uchtdorf (an apostle of theLord-and Second counselor in the first presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
This talk talks a lot about enjoying the moment. The last couple of months I feel I have really come to more fully understand the way we rob ourselves of happiness by not enjoying the moment. I feel it is a big problem for me and for mankind that we look back at when life was good and miss those times. Then we also expect we will be happier when something happens in the future.

This is just like my problem at Texas Roadhouse! I never enjoy what I am eating because I am so focused on what I did eat and what I will eat.

• We don't enjoy the 'steak dinner' of life because we look longingly back at when we had the 'rolls.' I think by looking longingly back at what we used to have, we take away from what we have at the moment. It is always good to remind yourself that yesterday wasn't perfect and has its challenges also.

 "I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future." -Elder Holland\

• We also don't enjoy the 'steak dinners' of life because we are so focused on the dessert that will be coming. One huge problem is that we always think things will get better in the future when this or that happens, but if we are always waiting for something to happen in the future we will never be satisfied. You will eternally be stuck waiting for happiness you get from a dessert when you could be happy with the steak in front of you!

"So often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that would bring us happiness: a better family situation, a better financial situation, or the end of a challenging trial.The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don’t really matter or determine our happiness."

"Sometimes in life we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey."

"We shouldn’t wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available—all the time!" -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Something I have come to learn is that if you are not enjoying the moment you will never ever be happy. Today will one day be the past you wish you had again and it will also be the future you were looking forward to in the past.

The true formula is enjoying the moment! Take it for how it is and love every minute of it!

 

 

Enjoy the Scenery and the places around you.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the people around you!

Enjoy the simple things and the small miracles!

 

 "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."-Psalms 118:24

The Love of an Older Brother



Me and My brother Tanner-Happy Birthday!

So Today is my Big brother's Birthday!!! And boy do I love him! I was thinking a lot today about how special he is to me. Also how much I love my three older brothers. They have treated me like a Princess and have always protected me. I know they would do anything for me. The love these three have for their baby sister is tender and unconditional. I am so blessed!

 

 

 

 

Even with this incredible love that my brothers have for me there is someone who loves me more than they ever could. That is Jesus Christ! He loves us all perfectly and he is our elder brother, whose love is beyond comprehension. Isn't that incredible??

He loves us like an older brother loves his little sister. He is there for every tear, every accomplishment, and every restless night.

I LOVE MY OLDER BROTHER JESUS CHRIST! I love him so much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I testify that in our premortal state our Elder Brother in the spirit, even Jesus Christ, became our foreordained Savior in the Father's plan of salvation. He is the captain of our salvation and the only means through whom we can return to our Father in Heaven to gain that fulness of joy. "

-Testimony of Ezra Taft Benson

Modern day Good Samaritan

Animosity and Apple Cider

Two representatives of Christ walked down the darkened and cold street; despite the dreary night which had begun to fall they kept a smile on their faces and God’s love in their hearts.  They hoped to find a child of God willing to hear about their elder brother Christ.  They hoped to invite them to follow Him as He is the only one who knows the way to eternal happiness.  Eternal happiness, the thing which they desired all their brothers and sisters to have.Most of the doors which they knocked upon remained silent and unanswered.

Finally the representatives of Christ knocked on a door which was answered.  The first door of the night opened to reveal a friendly man, a cross prominently mounted on a wall behind him.  Cheerful ‘hellos’ and introductions took place, Christ’s loyal disciples began to ask if he would be interested to learn more of Him when another came to the door.  She took one suspicious look at their tidy, simple clothes and the book held in their hands -- missing their gentle smiles -- she began to shoo them away, fluttering her hands as she would when shooing an annoying cat.  “Go! Go! You need to go, now!”

A moment or two of stunned silence passed and a soft ‘okay’ was followed by the door slamming shut.  Feeling terribly hurt and depressed the followers of a loving Christ turned and walked away, their shoulders hunched in rejection.  They hoped someday she would find happiness, they wished they could offer that priceless gift but they could not work with such anger.

Little success was met that cold night, until they plucked up their last strands of courage and knocked on the door of a beautiful, mansion-like home.  ‘Surely,’ they thought, ‘no rich man or woman would have the time nor would care to hear our humble message…’

With a trembling hand the first knocked on the beautiful door and the second was braced for the rejection.  A smiling face opened the door and listened carefully to their offered message, the elderly lady explained she was happily atheist but soon after said, “It’s very cold out! Come in for a while and warm yourselves.”

They spoke with the delightful lady’s husband about their purpose as messengers of Christ while she left the room for a moment.  The gentle, aged lady appeared with tokens of Christlike gifts for the unexpected visitors.  The disciples of Christ were kindly sent off with warm, homemade, apple cider and a small bag of ginger cookies after a few more minutes of friendly conversation.  The night and day difference between the neighbors on the very same street was a surprising but welcome one to Christ’s steadfast servants; their hearts were comforted and filled with joy by the strangers’ compassionate reception despite their disinterest in religion.

Suddenly the night seemed warmer to them, the representatives of Christ could feel they had been successful that night in sharing the Lord’s love and uplifting their Father’s children.

People who live in our day and age say, “If I had lived in the days of old, I would not have turned away Paul, or mocked Noah, or ignored Moses, I know they were prophets of God.  I would have accepted and listened to Jesus Christ.”

There are modern day prophets on this earth here and now.  They, like every prophet of God, have the Priesthood which is the power of God and the authority to use it.  They, like every prophet, are criticized, mocked and rejected more than they are accepted.  Many fail to see the truth they carry as they have for thousands of years.

 Representatives of Jesus Christ are also here called by God, now and today.  They are searching for you, they seek to help you and love you as Christ would, their only purpose is to bring you closer to Him.  Many people ridicule, ignore and reject them on a daily basis.  Much of the world refuses to see the love of Christ shining in their countenances, even when the name of Christ is pinned close to their heart.

Will you send His messengers away?  Or will you let His faithful followers serve you and teach you more about Him, as Jesus Christ would have when He dwelt on this earth?

Mormon.org

 

 

BALLOONS!!!!

Balloons,

Often bringers of childlike happiness and uplifting messages
These balloons began a journey, carrying messages of the utmost importance
Released into the sky to suffer through, rain wind and spindly branches
Their ultimate goal: to have one person accept the invitation which they carried.

The first to fail was the white balloon, sinking before she could ever rise, her master kept her with him knowing she could not reach her goal . . .

The second to give up his mission was the pink balloon, rising with his heavy burden only to drift back to the ground a few yards away.  The message was too great for him to carry.

The third to fall was quite strong, the blue balloon rose very high.  Until the rain began to fall, with each droplet the blue balloon was weighed down, not by his message, but the many little trials that came along the way.  He fell as well.

The fourth balloon was red and bright, he soared up to the sky!  The message was easy, the rain was fine but he could not predict the wind would blow from behind.  Into a tree he flew and became entangled in the unyielding branches.

The fifth purple balloon was the last to go.  She knew of the message and the truth it held, she weathered the storm and dodged the trees, rode the wind and accepted the difficulties.  She drifted very far from where she first had come, and at last she fell exhausted, on the lawn of a stranger's home.
The stranger picked her up and read the message on her string.

Jesus still lives, God is our King
His truth, once shattered, has now been restored
He has not left you alone
Come to our church and see . . . or try Mormon.org  :)

Written by Sister Amanda Waldron
Photographer and artist=Sister Katie Smedley

Go Spread the message you Balloons!