All American Girls

While Whitney and Brandon took their turn at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Mom and the little girls spent an afternoon at the American Girl Boutique and Bistro in Dallas. We had a fun time shopping, and enjoyed a treat in the bistro.

Catchin' Up

So, I have been pretty pathetic blogging over the summer. We've been so busy playing, that I have had no time to write about it. So, for the next week or so, I will try to post some of our summer happenings! ENJOY:)

Kevin took the scouts on a weeklong extremely hot camping trip!

Reminders...

A friend forwarded this message on to me. I found it inspiring, motivating, and so powerful. I often need reminders of how important my "job" as a mother is. I am so grateful to all the great people in my life that constantly show me how to be better at my job! I hope you find this as inspring as I did.

Wendy Watson Nelson: Not Even Once!
By Wendy Watson Nelson, Ph.D.
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
Following is the complete text of a talk given by Sister Wendy Watson Nelson at the World Congress of Families V in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Aug. 12, 2009.


It's been such a joy for my husband and me to be with you at this Fifth World Congress on Families. We are fellow workers and warriors for the family and we have enjoyed meeting and learning from so many of you. Your grand desires and your stellar commitment to the natural family have strengthened our own resolves.

Even though we live in challenging times, what a glorious time it is to be alive! There has never been a better time to champion the family than now! We have never needed strong families more than now!! And indeed the strength of our nations has never depended upon the strength of our families more than right now!!

Our topic today is The Family: The Hope for the Future of Our Nations. After decades of my work as a nurse, a psychologist and as a marriage and family therapy professor, researcher, and clinician, I have come to believe that if we want to face an uncertain future with certainty, we need families who are spiritually strong!

We need families who are spiritually strong-- because they are morally strong-- courageous, honest and virtuous.

We need families who are spiritually strong --because they do what righteous men and women always do in difficult situations–they do what is the right! Not the convenient nor the popular–and certainly not the politically correct. Spiritually strong families do what is right!

We need families who are spiritually strong because they are comprised of husbands and wives and children of noble character—trustworthy, relentless in their pursuit of truth and of all that is good in the world. We need families who are undaunted in their efforts to lift and love others. Simply stated: We need families who are spiritually strong because they are filled with faith in God!

I have personally met such families in many countries--from Mongolia to Mozambique, from Taiwan to Tonga. Spiritually strong families are in every nation of this world. Yet, we need so many more of them! Henry B. Eyring said: "As the forces around us increase in intensity, whatever spiritual strength was once sufficient, won't be enough."1

That warning impresses me more every time I read it. I repeat:

"As the forces around us increase in intensity, whatever spiritual strength was once sufficient, won't be enough."

Let us think about what that really means:




Whatever spiritual strength was once sufficient, to keep our nations prospering--will not be enough now.


Whatever spiritual strength was sufficient to build a strong family in the twentieth century won't be enough in the twenty-first.


Whatever spiritual strength was once sufficient to protect our families and our nations will not be enough now. Not now that the forces attacking our families are increasing exponentially.



We've all heard the motto: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Well, we've been trying. Sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, politicians, physicians, educators, therapists and so many others have been trying---and trying again.

Isn't it time to try something different? I believe it is time to counter the insidious and relentless attack on our families and nations by dramatically increasing their spiritual strength!

How can we do that?

One answer may be in the words I saw as I was driving along a remote country road. Three words on a large sloping barn roof caught my attention. I believe those words could spiritually strengthen our families and our nations, if properly applied.

The three words on the big sloping roof of that old barn were:


Not Even Once!

Those three words in English may translate into a different number of words in other languages, but the concept has power! Think of what could happen if we each determined that from this moment on, there were certain things we would never do, or never do again -- NOT EVEN ONCE!

For example, imagine the strength to our nations that would flow if just 10 families in each village, each town, and each city around the world made and kept a commitment to NOT EVEN ONCE abuse a child or a woman–in any way

NOT EVEN ONCE to lie, or cheat, steal. Not even once!

NOT EVEN ONCE:




to take illegal drugs


to look at anything pornographic


to be sexually impure! Not even once!



Does this sound impossible? With the help of God, it is not!

God is the Father of your spirit and mine. He knows us so much better than we know ourselves and He can strengthen us to avoid spiritually corroding influences. All we need to do is to ask for His help in making and keeping these commitments.

The following words from the song, "America The Beautiful", have always stirred my soul because of the truths they contain which can strengthen us as individuals, families and nations. The words are these:

Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.2

Can we even begin to calculate the grief, the pain, and the suffering that would flee from our nations if we confirmed our souls in self-control and our liberty in law by living the NOT EVEN ONCE commitment? It is quite staggering to consider the resources we would free up! Resources which are presently spent trying to manage the damage of spiritually corrupting influences such as abuse, lying, cheating, stealing, drugs, pornography, and sexual impurity. You know better than anyone the energy, money, brain power and talent that would suddenly be available to help our nations prosper! Just for a moment, picture the prosperity and the happiness that would ripple around the globe if the NOT EVEN ONCE principle were lived.

I had the privilege of telling several hundred school children in Samoa about the words on the old barn roof. The children spontaneously chimed in with me every time I would say the words "Not even once" – over and over again. I was moved to tears to see and hear these children express such an unrestrained desire to speak and repeat truth.

These children were eager to make the Not Even Once commitment. Can you imagine what could happen in our nations if just 10 families in each village, town, and city did likewise? Just 10!

The Not Even Once principle can be applied to doing positive things as well. Imagine if every family, that was committed to the Not Even Once precept, determined that there were certain things they would never miss an opportunity to do! Not even once!

For example, to Not Even Once miss an opportunity:




to teach a child


to help someone in need


to forgive someone—someone who may never repent or apologize for the pain they have caused


to be kind—especially to someone who isn't



It's really quite simple: Spiritual strength comes to those who focus their lives on following God and serving Him and their fellow men and women. It is no wonder that paying tithing to God helps families to prosper. Parenthetically, the only people who don't realize the power and prosperity that result from giving back to God ten percent of all we earn are those who have never tried it.

In conclusion, just Imagine what would happen to the strength of our nations if one family, and then another, and then another prayed to know how God would have them respond to the following question:

What commitment am I willing to make to God and to myself, that I will never do, or will never miss an opportunity to do -- from this moment on—Not Even Once?

One person living the Not Even Once commitment can make such a difference to the strength of a family. One family living this commitment can make a difference to the strength of its village. And one village, where one family and then another and then another lives this commitment, can make a difference to the strength of its nation. My dear friends of the family, are we really serious about having nations that prosper? Cities where it is safe to live? Towns where husbands and wives brave the challenges of life together? Villages where children enjoy childhood and relish opportunities to grow, learn and explore? Of course we are. And because we are, we can no longer look to our governments for the kind of world we need. Not now.

Now that the forces around us are increasing in intensity, we need to look to God!

And we need families who look to God and who relentlessly remove anything and everything from their lives that is spiritually corrupting; families who seek all that is spiritually strengthening.

May we each go home to our nations and do everything we can to spiritually strengthen the natural family because there is no doubt about it:

Families who are spiritually strong are the only hope for the future of our nations.

Thank you.


References

1. Henry B. Eyring, "Always", Ensign, October 1999, 9.

2. "America The Beautiful," Text: Katherine Lee Bates

Book Review

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It never ceases to amaze me how cruel humans can be to one another. You would think after the Holocaust, stories like this would never ever happen. My heart truly aches for those that suffer so greatly during their lifetimes. I am also unceasilgly amazed by those who come out of these types of situations with forgiveness in their hearts. What a process of cleansing and faith one must go through to turn their pain over to Heavenly Father. I love how the author is constantly reminded that we are all His children, and that He loves us all. She is constantly taught that the evil-doers "know not what they do," and that she should forgive them. I give this book five stars because of the hope it inspires, and the love that pulses through it. I felt so close to my Heavenly Father by reading this account, and want to continue developing my own personal relationship with Him. I constantly asked myself one question while reading this book: "Could I forgive those who have injured me in small ways (compared to Immaculee's BIG injuries) the way that we should?" We don't have to go through such horrific experiences to learn how to forgive. In many ways, forgiveness should be so much easier for someone like me. I have always heard that hate is a poison you take hoping that the other person will die from it. I am so glad that Immaculee didn't drink of this poison, and that she was left to tell her story and share her testimony of God.

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