I Believe

The past few weeks, I have been reading Henry and George a bible story about Jesus' life at bedtime.  Last night, we read two staories about Jesus raising children from the dead.  After the second story, Henry looked at me very seriously and said, "Mama, do you think Jesus actually did these things?"  The question stopped me in my tracks.  What an awesome question.  I stopped for a minute, to find the right words to express to Henry how I felt about his question.  I said, "Henry, I do believe Jesus did these miracles, I'm not sure that it can ever be proven that He did, but I still believe they happened."  Henry then asked, "How could He do these kinds of things?"    To which I replied, "He did them by fully trusting God, if we trust God we can do great things too."   Thank you Henry for being so inquisitive and helping me remember the power of God. 

All People are Created Equal

This weekend I have a continuing theme in the messages I am hearing.  Church, friends, family, and life experiences all seem to be saying the same things to me this week.

All people are equal, we all just human beings living in a world with many challenges.  We all have experiences that shape us into our true selves.  We all have our own God moments.  Moments when we realize that we are only human and in order to make it through the challenges, we need a Greater Power to give us strength.   Furthermore, we need to be caring for ourselves, as well as our fellow neighbors in need.  My random thoughts on my recent messages.....

• We have no control over the things that we are given, we just save to be faithful followers and believe that we will not be given anything we can not handle.  What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger.
• We need to love everyone - our loved ones and our enemies (those who are hardest for us to love).
• Everyone of us is only human - the President of the United States and the homeless man in your town are both equal in the eyes of the Lord.  We need to treat everyone with a sense of love, and never be afraid to approach anyone with our love.
• We will be judged by how we treat the needy in our community.  The ones with special needs, the poor in spirit (not "poor" in our societies terms, but "poor" in God's terms), the hungry, the homeless, etc.
• We are all a temple of the Holy Spirit, and as such, we are the living body of Christ.  We need to treat everyone on Earth with the same kind of love we would treat our Savior in Heaven.

Wow, this is powerful stuff!  I feel I have a lifetime of work ahead of me to fulfill the two primary commandments of my God, to love Him with all my heart and all my mind, and love my neighbor as myself.

I'm thankful for the gift of these messages and the hope that I may have a hand in making this world a better place.

The Golden Rule

So, I heard something interesting this weekend.  I am having trouble remembering where I even heard it, but it has been coming back to me over and over this morning.  I have heard the Golden Rule a million times, "do unto others as you would have done to you."  I have twisted this way of thinking into my kids by asking when they do something unjust, "how would you feel if someone did that to you."  Well, this weekend, I had heard something that sparked me into a new way of thinking about the Golden Rule.

Whatever you want in life, give that to others (or yourself).

I have been mulling this phrase over in my head, and I have decided that I really like it.  If I want kindness, I have to be kind to others.  If I want patience, I have to be patient with others.  If I want someone to call me, I need to call them.  If I want someone to help me, I have to help myself.  If I want someone to love me, I have to love myself.

Wow, what a blessing.  I want to thank whoever gave me the grace to ponder this statement. I'm sad that I can't give credit to you by name, but  I do have a feeling my kids are going to hear this one a few hundred million times over the upcoming years.