The Best Exercise of All

I love this poster!  I've had it displayed in my "exercise room" for several years.  I feel it is apropos following my most recent post.  I currently use a stationary bicycle on Monday and Thursday mornings for my aerobic exercise.  Other days I use the elliptical.  When I exercise physically, I also study the scriptures and ponder.  In my last post, Elder Scott made mention of the "non-negotiables" for exercising our faith in Jesus Christ.

Preventing and Overcoming Addiction

     I love Dieter F. Uchtdorf's recent talk Are You Sleeping through the Restoration?  He warns of three common problems in the world we live in: Selfishness, Addiction, and Competing Priorities.  I have reviewed this talk over a dozen times and receive new insight every time.  For example, my wife and I watched Maleficent the evening before last, and then I read the talk again yesterday morning; the parts where Maleficent falls asleep, loses her wings, and eventually overcomes her problems were still fresh in my mind when I read President Uchtdorf's words, "closes his eyes for a moment.., We are designed to soar freely through the heavens..." and "What is the remedy" repeated three times.  

     He states, ”Addictions often begin subtly. Addictions are thin threads of repeated action that weave themselves into thick bonds of habit.  Negative habits have the potential to become consuming addictions.”  He then goes on to list ten common addictions, the last two being the Internet and virtual reality.  He closes his talk with, “A call to awaken.  The Apostle Paul wrote ‘Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.’… Let us awake…”

     I testify that that there is always hope!  I continually receive help from my wife, my priesthood leaders, my psychiatric counselor at the V.A. and my church's addiction recovery program.  As President Uchtdorf said in his talk, "The most important thing is to keep trying."  One day at a time! -- johnblogwalker

Stay On The Right Track

     Many years ago I worked for a railroad in the central offices in Denver. I was in charge of what is called head-end traffic. That was in the days when nearly everyone rode passenger trains. One morning I received a call from my counterpart in Newark, New Jersey. He said, “Train number such-and-such has arrived, but it has no baggage car. Somewhere, 300 passengers have lost their baggage, and they are mad.”

     I went immediately to work to find out where it may have gone. I found it had been properly loaded and properly trained in Oakland, California. It had been moved to our railroad in Salt Lake City, been carried to Denver, down to Pueblo, put on another line, and moved to St. Louis. There it was to be handled by another railroad which would take it to Newark, New Jersey. But some thoughtless switchman in the St. Louis yards moved a small piece of steel just three inches, a switch point, then pulled the lever to uncouple the car. We discovered that a baggage car that belonged in Newark, New Jersey, was in fact in New Orleans, Louisiana—1,500 miles from its destination. Just the three-inch movement of the switch in the St. Louis yard by a careless employee had started it on the wrong track, and the distance from its true destination increased dramatically. That is the way it is with our lives. Instead of following a steady course, we are pulled by some mistaken idea in another direction. The movement away from our original destination may be ever so small, but, if continued, that very small movement becomes a great gap and we find ourselves far from where we intended to go.  – Gordon B. Hinkley.

Know for Yourself

Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.

But Ye Are a Chosen Generation

But ye are a chosen generation, 

a royal priesthood, 

an holy nation, 

a peculiar people; 

that ye should shew forth 

the praises of him 

who hath called you out of darkness 

into his marvellous light:

                                                                                           --1 Peter 2:9


Be Helpful

Not Hurtful

The Family Is the Most Important Organization in Time or in Eternity

     May I remind you of just how important the family unit is in the overall plan of our Father in heaven. In fact, the Church organization really exists to assist the family and its members in reaching exaltation.

     Family unity and family commitment to the gospel are so important that the adversary has turned much of his attention to the destruction of families in our society. On every side there is an attack on the basic integrity of the family as the foundation of what is good and noble in life. 

  – Joseph Fielding Smith

Follow the Leader

Be Your Best

A Prophet’s Counsel

Take Out The Trash

What's on Your Mind?

Unity through Diversity

     I just finished watching Mystic India.  I like the following excerpt at the end of the movie: there can be unity in diversity, that we share the same sky, walk the same earth, breathe the same air… vasudhaiva kutumbakam, that we are a single human family.

Learn of Christ

Detail from The Second Coming, by Grant Romney Clawson

The knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest education of all. (See Matthew 11:29.)

He Loves Me

Ponder Timeless Truths

In this fast-paced life, do we ever pause for moments of meditation – even thoughts of timeless truths?

Our Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and our needs.

Each [of us] can be enlightened and uplifted and comforted as the Spirit of the Lord is felt.

Let us learn and contemplate our duty.  Let us be willing and worthy to serve.

How blessed we are to be here in these last days.

I slept and dreamt

That life was joy

I awoke and saw

That life was duty

I acted and behold

Duty was joy

--Rabindranath Tagore

I know what pleasure is,

For I have done good work

--Robert Louis Stevenson 

The above words are all excerpts from recent talks given by Thomas S Monson at General Conference