Fasting

FASTING

Isaiah Chapter 58:

Isaiah describes the Israelite's view about fasting - That there is no need because they are doing everything else; Because it is hard and doesn't feel good; And sometime they are grumpy and cause arguments when they fast; Some fast for the sake of pride to show how good they are; others show their fasting and how difficult it is in their demeanor.

3 ¶ ^aWherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your ^bfast ye find ^cpleasure, and ^dexact all your labours.

4 Behold, ye fast for ^astrife and ^bdebate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not ^cfast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

But the Lord is trying to teach us about the blessings of the fast - that if we do not act in the manners described above that there are great blessings that await us: To loose us from our addictions and trials, To lift our heavy burdens and help us be free from the things that bind us; To allow us to lift the hungry and those that are in need of some help. And, when we shall do so, Our light will shine forth, our health will be improved, our example will bless the lives of those around us and God, himself, shall protect us; and when we call on Him He will be there.

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the ^abandsof wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go ^bfree, and that ye break every yoke?

7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the ^ahungry, and that thou bring the ^bpoor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from ^cthine own flesh?

8 ¶ Then shall thy ^alight break forth as the morning, and thine ^bhealth shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lordshall be thy ^crearward.

9 Then shalt thou ^acall, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the ^bputting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the ^ahungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light ^brise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11 And the Lord shall ^aguide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in ^bdrought, and ^cmake fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a ^dspring of water, whose waters fail not.

Is this not a wonderful blessing opportunity?! Is this not something to look forward to and get excited about?! When we fast and then bless the lives of others with our offerings and with our example and with our love and caring the blessings that are available to us are amazingly rich.

Inspiration

Testimony

Following the footsteps of the people ahead of you who are on the path is not enough. We cannot just do and think what others are thinking.We must live a guided life. We must have our own hand on the iron rod. Then we may go to the Lord with humble confidence, knowing that He shall lead us by the hand and give us answers to our prayers. - Take the Holy Spirit as Your Guide : Larry Y. Wilson

How important is it to allow yourself to be guided by the Holy Ghost? It is of utmost importance, and requires becoming a receptacle of worthiness having a demeanor of meekness and obedience. We must ask for this gift, having the intent to serve those around us, bringing them closer to the Savior and His saving ordinances. Then, when guided through prayer and inspiration, when we receive guidance, we must be obedient to that inspiration.

Time

Time

"Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."

-- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Someone once told me that 'time' is a predator that stalks us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again."

-- Jean-Luc Picard

Time. Is it a task master or a friend? Is it a commodity that we watch slip through our fingers throughout our lives or is it a coin that we spend wisely each day, each minute, choosing carefully what we will spend it on - the trivialities of life or the best that life has to offer? Screen time or the classic writings of great thinkers? Television and movies or learning a new skill or language? Games and sport or education and learning? A romance novel or the life of the Savior and His teachings?

How will you spend the riches of time today?

Still a Rat

The problem is that you are still the Rat

"The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat."

-- Lily Tomlin

This Rat Race is sometimes referred to as The Things of the World. It is as Elder Holland put it, putting the good things in live ahead of the vital things in life. And wen we do that, eventually we will realize that we settled for being a rat in stead of an eternal child of God who can become lime Him.

Judging - Making Decisions about others

Judging Successfully

There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.


Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.


We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.


The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies - his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness - in the service of perfection.


It would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and comes to all sorts of conclusions.


-- Malcolm Gladwell


We all judge. It is part of our nature to protect ourselves so we judge people and everything else around us first, for their potential to do us harm. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, people with weapons, cars that might run over us and, for the more paranoid, spaceships that might scoop us up for testing. We also judge the people, animals and things around us for those that can do us good - a lost dollar on the ground, a cute girl or boy, a sign indicating a 50% reduction on price for something or a taxi cab on a lonely street in New York.

But sometimes those judgments lead us into making bad decisions. And at other times, those judgments that seem to make no sense are the perfect answer to our problem. Deliberate, analytical decisions are not always the best because we seldom have all of the facts. Or, perhaps I should rephrase that to say, all of the facts that we have were not obtained through our analysis but our brain is responding with further information which we may call instinct or inspiration.

So how do we judge appropriately? How do we make decisions about things in the best way possible? As suggested by one of the quotes above, there needs to be a balance in our lives for considering what we don't know and other sources where information can be obtained from, both our instincts and inspirations. Don't rely simply on the available facts but consider what else your mind is telling you. Sometimes we call it our gut feeling about something. Also, consider what spiritual information you may have, especially if you have sought for additional guidance from spiritual sources. Those, too, can be very powerful guides to making the best decisions, especially for one's personal life.

Mr. Gladwell tells the story of David and Goliath. From the perspective of the Monday morning quarterback there are many indicators that would tell us that this fight was not as one-sided as it seems. But remember that David did not have all of the information that Mr. Gladwell has. But he did have a different skill and the courage to use it in a way that went against the norms of the time and he probably had some guidance from inspiration, knowing what we do of his later life.

Malcom Gladwell's interesting account of David and Goliath is posted below.

Love What You Do

It is important to love what you do.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

-- Steve Jobs

Whatever you do, do it well. And, as Steve Jobs indicates, doing it well is much easier by choosing something that you love and that you are passionate about. But is also helps if either it pays well or if you are already well enough off to do your passion without income.

In support of that quote, I have another from Seth Godin an author and marketer who tells us that you need to be remarkable, not just ordinary to get people's attention so that they will spread your message. And those people are the people who are passionate about something.

"Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from."

-- Seth Godin

Become passionate about the things you do in life. Make a difference in the lives of others. Don't just be the status quo.

Choices

Choices

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose."

-- Dr. Seuss

Agency, our ability to choose, can never be taken away. Even in the worst of circumstances we get to choose - choose to cooperate, choose to rebel, choose to work or to play to get out of bed or to sleep in. Granted, our options are often limited. But those limitations are always imposed by ourselves. We are often motivated by consequences. For instance, if you don't get to work on time you will lose your job. But you still get to choose. You may choose to quit, chose to find a new job, choose to negotiate a later work time or choose to arrive on time. The choice of action is ours. The consequences, however, are not. Once we make the choice, the consequences (or rewards if the consequences are good) are still ours because of the choices we make in life. So, steer yourself well because you're in the chooser seat.

Happiness

Happiness

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."

-- Helen Keller

Who better exemplified one who was continually finding the open doors in life and not remaining focused on the closed door or past opportunities.

We are creatures who often long after things that we think we have lost for so long that we forget that there is more to come. We spend our time, energy and resources to recover that which is lost rather than looking forward to that which is better, newer and more rewarding. When we do that, we lose twice - We lose what is gone and we lose what could have been a wonderful replacement.

I Get To Choose How I Will Be Today

"Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same."

-- Carlos Castaneda



Isn't that a wonderful thought? I can feel however I choose to feel. I am not bound by circumstances to feel sad because unpleasant things happen to me. Nor am I obliged to be happy, simply because it is a great day and I am well off. I am the captain of my soul, I am the master of my of my fate, as the poet wrote.

I find it fascinating how much we get to decide in this life. Even when life is miserable we can have peace and enjoyment just as soon as we decide that it is how we are going to be. Take the weather, for example. I listen to people complain about the weather in Arizona all the time. Even when it is nice outside there is someone who insists that the weather is lousy. But amazingly, when we decide that the weather is going to be great, whatever the temperature. Suddenly it is better and with practice, it is great whatever the temperature.

In my work place it was always chilly. Even when I wore long sleeved shirts and a sweater I was still cold.Then one day I decided that the temperature was not going to decide whether I was cod or not. I decided to enjoy the cold. SURPRISE! Although it took about a year, I now love the temperature there and I often wear short sleeve shirts and I never wear a sweater.

You can learn to make those choices, too. When unpleasant things happen, learn to enjoy the experience. The worst meal I ever had in a restaurant is the one that we laugh the most about. The scrambled eggs had shells in every bite and the hot chocolate was so think that even a couple of ice cubes couldn't make it better. That guy must have really been having a bad day. But not me! Now when I get food that isn't the best, I can always claim that I've had worse.

Quote of the Day - Our Relationship to God

With our memories of our existence hidden from us while here in mortality we can scarcely imagine what awaits us when we return to His presence. I often consider how I will feel if I have not been very good at becoming like Him through following the guidance that he has given us so that we can have the great reward at the end. After we discover the close, close relationship that we had with Him before this life, if we have not been attentive followers of the Son, I can not even imagine who awful we will feel for disappointing Him so grievously. How ashamed we will feel among the great and noble ones of heaven and earth, among those who sacrificed much to be obedient to the Savior.

With that in mind, this quote from Brigham Young gives new perspective to this relationship.

"When you see our Father, you will see a being with whom you have long been acquainted, and He will receive you into His arms, and you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him."

How this image makes me want to be better at following what He has asked us to do so that I may become what He is and feel comfortable in the presence of God.

Quote of the Day - Meekness

The comments below come from Elder David A. Bednar in the April 2018 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the best definition of Meekness that I have ever heard and has inspired me to strive to become a meek person.

Meekness is a defining attribute of the Redeemer and is distinguished by righteous responsiveness, willing submissiveness and strong self-restraint.

The Christlike quality of meekness often is misunderstood in our contemporary world. Meekness is strong, not weak; active, not passive: courageous, not timid; restrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious, or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others.

Whereas humility generally denotes dependence upon God and the constant need for His guidance and support, a distinguishing characteristic of meekness is a particular spiritual receptivity to learn both from the Holy Ghost and from people who may seem less capable, experienced, or educated, who may not hold important positions, or who otherwise may not appear to have much to contribute. Recall how Naman, captain of the king's army in Syria, overcame his pride and meekly accepted the advice of his servants to obey Elisha the prophet and wash in the River Jordan seven times. Meekness is the principal protection from the prideful blindness that often arises from the prominence, position, power, wealth, and adulation.

Meekness is an attribute developed through desire, the righteous exercise of moral agency, and striving always to retain a remission of our sins. It is also a spiritual gift for which we appropriately can seek. We should remember, however, the purposes for which such a blessing is given, even to benefit and serve the children of God.

As we come unto and follow the Savior, we increasingly and incrementally are enabled to become more like Him. We are empowered by the Spirit with disciplined self-restraint and a settled and calm demeanor. Thus, meek is what we become as disciples of the Master and not just something we do.

A Day in the Life - 11 Feb 2018

Wow! It has been a while since I was here. I was searching for information on Gayle Tinsley for a biography that I am assembling and this blog came up with a few entries from the time around Gayle's funeral. I miss having him and Jase around. Jase, you are next.

A Day in the Life - 10/05/2013: The Passing of a Friend

I guess that it is time to get back to doing this. I was gone for awhile, a couple of years I guess. But my life has slowed down and I have a little more time to do things like this now.
Today was the passing of a friend. A cat. Some called him Spanky . . . I think. I never was sure whether he was Spanky and his brother was Sanka or if it was the other way around. One was black and the other was white. And the white one died quite some time ago, but I could still never get the names right. So to me they were Great White Brother and Itchy Brother.

 When Itchy Brother wanted attention he would snuggle closer and closer and finally drape himself across you, sometimes nudging you just enough to let you know that you were not doing your job of scratching him or petting him or feeding him.

 Obviously he did not like to have you taking his picture. That flashy-thing always made him lose his memory and then I would have to make up a new one for him. I would remind him of what a great person I was and that I only seemed like a slacker so I could earn enough money to supply him with cans and bags of cat food, litter and litter boxes, feeders, treats and all of that stuff. Maybe he was mad about not getting little kitty arrow-through-the-head toys like Steve Martin. Or maybe it was that I never dressed him in those stupid cat outfits from Pet Smart. It's hard to tell.

 When I would ignore him for long enough he would take matters into his own paws and launch himself at my back and take his rightful place on my shoulder so that he could observe just what was so important that I wouldn't come right now to feed him. And then he would quickly grow bored and look out the window, watching the birds flying about the neighborhood or the old people out walking the neighborhood in the middle of the day while everyone else was working.

 My office was not the only place that he carried on this way. On the floor playing with the grandkids, saying prayers cleaning the floor - you name it he claimed the dhoulder as a perch. It was enough to start calling him Polly but I was afraid that he would take to eating crackers and speaking! And if he could not get to my shoulder because of my thoughtless act of sitting on the couch, he would perch himself on the back of the couch just above my head. He is really not as interested as he seems here. He actually thought he saw something on the monitor that looked like an add for kitty toys.

 He didn't much care for my kind of music. He wouldn't dance around the house with me when I watched Footloose or sing along with me and the iPod  while listening to some rowdy Doors or Books & Dunn song. I guess with me wearing the headphones he probably couldn't hear the music. Sorry cat.

 He wasn't much for exercise, just like me. He usually looked about like this except when he wanted food. So, when he passed away I wasn't really sure that he wasn't just lounging around as usual. It was a couple of weeks before I decided that he was being a bit more quiet than usual and when I went to pet him - stiff as a board. I grabbed him by the tail and gave him a couple of big swings but not a meow came from his lips. Well, I didn't have a shovel handy but he was feeling so stiff that I just used his tail as a handle and shoveled a hole out in the garden with him as the shovel then tossed him in. The peas will be growing good this winter.
So he is dead and gone now and it is quieter than usual around the house. But I am keeping a closer eye on Gaye. If she ever gets quiet I won't wait to see if she is a gonner. It is right down to the morgue with her in tow.
But the cat did die today. Just thought he would enjoy the joke. Catch you again on the other side, cat.

A Day In The Life - 11/12/2011: Kids, Lakes, And Other Tragedies

 It is Saturday. The stake is holding its Little Philmont Scout Leader Training at Roosevelt Lake.

 It is a beautiful day. Most of the leaders, some with their families, have been here since Friday afternoon.

 But we don't have to watch the little kids until Saturday after breakfast. Rather than sleep on the ground, I choose to get up a 3:45 and drive up on Saturday morning to help supervise the watching og the kidlets - our young adult ward assignment.

 I arrive in plenty of time of breakfast and opening ceremonies. It is chilly but they have a good fire going, thanks to a group of little kids who want to both play with matches and get warm.

 After the announcements it is time for those with kids to hand off to come sign them up.

 Some are still in their pajamas and blankets.

 We walk down to the play ground a couple of hundred yards down the road. The big boys really became little boys and had as much fun as the little kids, chasing them, climbing up and through the jungle gym with quite a bit more energy and speed than I would have thought possible.

 The girls were a little more sedate and several watched while the boys wore themselves out.

 The fun continued through much of the morning

 Jesse was lively as David but is doing his bouncer impression here. I guess that I am too big to play with this group.

 It was tough to keep some of the kids from climbing to heights that were less than safe. The Johnson's were much more concerned than I was, having been one of those kids who tend to break bones and get scuffed fairly often. But we most often survive and have a lot more fun in life than the others.

Finally we walk the kids down to the lake. They throw stones and sticks and collect shells and generally explore the beach for awhile. But it was quite a walk and down hill, so when it is time to return everyone wants to ride. And the Johnson's, rather than just getting them to buck up, make a few trips to haul everyone back (except me at my request - I need the exercise). By then it was about time to be done. They played some more on the jungle gym until the parents came to get their kids.

A Day In The Life - 11/10/2011: The Coolest Package Ever

We got the coolest gift yet! Kathy and Mike Gannon made and delivered this package of goodies to us. It is for us to eat as we watch morning General Conference. But it is not just a box of creatively decorated goodies. She even included a really cool booklet with recipes for each of them adorned with pictures and a little clothes pin to hold it up so that you can read it while mixing and baking. Is this not just about the coolest gift ever?

A Day In The Life - 11/09/2011: HDR

This picture, in and of itself is nothing special, but the application that I downloaded to take this picture is really cool.
The original of this picture had the bathroom all dark through the doorway and the mirror had some glare in it. What this application does is takes three pictures - one normal, one over-exposed and one under-exposed and then merges them all together in order to get everything to a better level of exposure. IT is really good for those shaded places that are hard to get right.

A Day In The Life - 11/10/2011: The Flowers Get A Home

 I finally got out to the nursery and picked up some Lantana for the year. And they sat and they sat and they sat in their poor little plastic pots lookiing like so many orphans with no home.

So I finally dug their holes and planted them in the ground. We will see how they survive the winter. I guess that I will replace them if they don't. But they sure will be pretty if they do. I got a yellow, a multi-color yellow, a red and a multi-color red. They sure spice up the yard.

A Day In The Life - 11/05/2011: Cool Mountain Views

 So, I am out taking Mom to one of her all-day Saturday classes on the far east side of Mesa, almost into Apache Junction, when I take note of the Superstition Mountains.
I must be a natural-born wanderer because I just had to get to a picture-taking view point so I headed east on Southern.

 It was a chilly morning (by Arizona standards) and the clouds were hanging low over the mountains. When I got to the end of Southern near Gold Canyon Rd., I still had a bit farther to go before I could miss most of the power lines and houses - but I finally found a spot.

 The morning light added relief to the picture making the canyons more visible than usual.

The north side was also cool but I could net get a wide enough angle to see the whole thing in one picture.

A Day In The Life - 10/31/2011: Halloween On The Driveway

 Halloween is very different without kids. So, this year I built a burn barrel. We tried it out at Halloween and it did a great job - almost too warm. But it handles the heat fine.

And Gaye and I traded off handing out candy when the kids came. Our two humungous bags of candy lasted for about an hour and a half and we had lots of kids come. Sadly, there were a lot of houses in our end of the neighborhood that did not feel obligated to give away free candy.
Quentin took Jase around the hood and Kyle and Jennie hung out for awhile and then Jennie went off to visit the Larson's and some of her other buddies. So, I guess it was a success.

A Day In The Life - 10/30/2011: Ward Halloween Party

 The term Ward Halloween Party is not what it seems. First, it was multiple parties and second, they weren't really our ward...kind of.

The first to arrive was Darth "Jase" Vader, who was a bit shorter than I had pictured him in the movies.

 Then there was "Twitter" Jennie with her twitter wings...

 .. and eye work I wonder if she Tweets.

 And Kyle as a mobile hot spot. It took me awhile, also.

 We went to Jennie's ward (Amberwood) Halloween party. It was great with food and games and lots of fun.

After that we went to the Peralta ward party. It was also very fun and although we are part of that ward, since we are currently assigned to the Hartford Young Single Adult ward, it was like visiting, not having attended there for the past two years (almost). But we got enough candy to last Jase until Christmas. And we got to see a lot of people that we don't get to see too often.

A Day In The Life - 10/26/2011: A Surprise From The Scouts

I got a surprising knock on the door tonight. It was a bunch of the older scouts and leaders. They had been making cookies and brought some by for me for helping them do knives and wood projects. That was very nice of them.

A Day In The Life - 10/16/2011: New Orleans

 We drove the 90 miles back to New Orleans from Biloxi. The hardest part of the New Orleans tour was finding a parking place. But we finally found one that only cost an arm because I needed both legs for walking.

 We headed for the river a few blocks away. There is a walk way along the river that is not only scenic but also takes us to the middle of the French Quarter where there are scenic buildings and some books stores that we want to check out.

 It was fun to watch the big ships and tug boats working out in the Mississippi river.

And we watched a paddle boat running along the river that might not be interesting to anyone else but me, but that is why it is on this blog site - so I can watch it whenever I want.

 When we got to the French Quarter, there is a square. It has a great park with flowers and statues and benches and an interesting variety of people. There is a walk way ont he south side where artists display and sell their pieces.

Around the square there are these old buildings that are really interesting to look at. This one is the church.

 This is a museum.

And in the center of the park is a statue . . . of Major General Andrew Jackson, as I recall. And there were people doing yoga and picnics and tourists taking pictures. It was very fun just to watch what was going on around us.

 We finally found the first book store, in Pirates Alley, no less. It was the Faulkner House where William Faulkner wrote many of his books and stories . . .

 . . . or so the plaque says.

 And the sign.

 But I loved the sign to the store next door which proclaims "Tony Seville's Pirate's Alley Cafe' and Olde Absinthe". Sorry, the day was still young and not time for eating yet.

 After much more walking and visiting antique stores with little lead soldiers and book stores with little old men and winding stairways covered in stacks of books, we finally settled on a little cafe.

 It was named Antoine's Annex and was a cute little place with an odd menu. It was probably mostly vegan but whatever I ended up with at the server's suggestion was very tasty.

 And lots of chips came with everything, including the cute lady who ate across from me.

There were tons of antique shops with the most elaborate furniture I have ever seen outside of a movie or television show. But now I know where to find some if ever I decide that I need something in gold and curves. Click on the picture so that it gets big and look at some of the stuff in this window.

And then we were off to home, through Denver again, getting into our bed about 1 am.