How to Bloom Where You Are Planted? Treat Yourself

How does one Bloom Where They Are Planted you ask? Well it's quite simple, you find joy in the simple things and in the words of Manny P, you treat yourself! 

I had a fantastic day today, I celebrated me. I know, that's a bit cocky and not at all humble. I'm cool with that. 

First thing this morning I went to Ken's Taco's for my favorite bacon, egg, potato breakfast taco which I ate while opening a gift a friend sent me over 2 months ago. It was a gorgeous charm. I think it should be my new theme! "Let Go! Let God." I was very touched with a message that speaks to my soul.

Next stop in treating yourself, move all your patient's to the end of the day and go to your favorite class a the gym and punch like a BEAST with a fantastic instructor who even played a birthday song for when I walked in. 

 

 Then I went to another class! Pound, where you literally pound with these rip sticks for 45 minutes doing squats, lunges, and all kinds of stuff.  It's loud and a blast!

Thank goodness I did a double workout, because shortly after I arrived home I got a call from Tiff Treats to see when they could deliver my cookies. Hot cookies and ice cream delivered to my door? Yes please! It was fabulous! 

But the treats don't stop! In addition to today being my birthday, it was also National Ice Cream Cone day and Sonic had 1/2 off waffle cones all day. How could I resist? Yes please!

 

And if the universe wasn't already in my favor, look what gas cost a gallon? 

 

 And a treat yo'self birthday wouldn't be complete without my parents and Costco Cheesecake. 

 

See's Candy anyone? Build your own box of chocolates is an awesome gift!

 

Used sample bottle of paint? Is that all that was in there? Just kidding. A symbolic gift to represent paint for my future house! Awesome! 

Birth minute, captured!

When it's all said and done, besides stuffing my face all day, the real awesomeness of all the love I felt from friends and family all over the country. It's easy to Bloom Where You Are Planted when you have lots of love!

Power Unto Salvation

Today I want to write about power.

Before I begin, here is a little explanation about the term "Visiting Teaching". The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a woman's organization called the Relief Society.  Women in this organization are paired off into companionships and assigned to be visiting teachers to anywhere from 1 or more other women in the organization. In a perfect world a visiting teacher helps be a monthly point of contact for spiritual and physical needs as well as providing opportunities for building friendships and making sure each woman knows she is loved.

On to power...

In the September issue of the Ensign magazine the visiting teaching message is "Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Power and Glory". My thoughts on this topic have been bubbling in my mind for a few weeks now.

In the world powerful people often seem to destroy, divide, and dominate.  Power seems to break down and burden others.

God's use of power is quite different. His power can unite, lift up, build, and create.

Sheri Dew said,

"God's power is about unity rather than control and domination. God makes His power available to His covenant-making children so that they can become one with Him and one with each other."

("Women and the Priesthood", pg 100.) 

Sheri Dew also said ,

" God wants a powerful people."

 Click here for a talk by Sheri Dew on that subject for further reading. 

 ("You Were Born to Lead, You were Born for Glory", December 9, 2003)

The Visiting teachings messages over the past 2 years have all been about diving attributes of Christ. Some include Power and Glory, Obedient, Long-suffering and patient, Without guile or hypocrisy
Virtue, Forgiving and Merciful, and being Meek. These are not merely given to us to admire the Glory of Jesus Christ, but they are attributes we can strive to develop in our very own natures.

The September 2015 message on power and glory quotes Linda K. Burton, Relief Society general president, and says, “Covenant keeping strengthens, empowers, and protects. … I recently met a dear new friend. She testified that after she had received her temple endowment, she felt strengthened with power to resist temptations."

I love that. I love the reminder that covenants give us power.  I also love the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants section 109 that reads,

22 And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;

Armed with Power!

God's has promised His people power. That's sounds cool, but what does that really mean. 

Romans 1:16 says that the gospel of Christ is the power unto salvation. We read this in Sunday School today (isn't that cool, while I was letting this topic simmer, a scripture I wasn't searching for came to light). To me this means that power comes from and is manifest in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Mosiah chapter 18 in the Book of Mormon teaches us the following,

 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

 10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

That is what what the Gospel of Jesus Christ means to me, bearing burdens, mourning, comforting, and standing as a witness in all aspects of my life. It means putting into action all things I have promised to do and in return having his Spirit abundantly in my life. I'm with the people in Alma's time, I want to clap my hands for joy and say, "Yes, I'm in!: Back to Romans...power of the gospel unto salvation. To me the power unto salvation is two fold. First, the power itself is what gives me the ability to try every day to live this Gospel. Second, the power of Christ (or grace) enables Salvation to be possible.  

I guess I've been looking at power in a new light. I don't get power when I do all those things in Mosiah chapter 18. It is power given to me BY God when making covenants WITH God, that enables me to accomplish all those things in chapter 18.

 "When we enter into the waters of baptism, we not only covenant to serve God and keep His commandments, we promise to bear one another's burdens, to mourn with those who mourn, and to comfort those who need comfort. When we receive the Holy Ghost, we have the capacity to know all things the Lord would have us do and to gradually, increasingly become one with Him. When we are endowed, we bind ourselves more fully to the Lord, and He binds Himself to us." (Sheri Dew, "Women and the Priesthood", pg 100)

Capacity comes by God's power that is granted and shared with us.

I close with a personal story of events that happened on Wednesday.

My friend emailed me in the morning asking if I could babysit that night form 6:00-7:30pm. It was a last minute meeting she had to attend. I originally had a tentative visiting teaching visit scheduled for that night. I checked and the appointment had to be rescheduled, so I was available to go babysit. I had also previously agreed to go with my mom to deliver a meal to a family who recently lost their wife/mother. It turned out to be a long day. In addition to having a lot of patients to see, and a lot of driving around town, I had an inflamed cut on my lip (stupid Popsicle accident) that was causing me a lot of pain and making it hard to eat anything (thank you Sonic for coconut cream shakes). I wasn't in the best of moods and felt a bit overwhelmed, but I wanted to do what I had committed to do. I was able to get work finished in time to drive with my mom to deliver a meal. We both got some much needed mother-daughter time talking in the car. I made it to babysit and had a delightful hour of putting together puzzles and playing with cars. By 8pm I was home and able to use my homemade turmeric and coconut oil paste to relieve the inflammation on my poor lip. It was an exhausting, whirlwind of a day. I am not sharing this story to brag about how good and selfless I am. I use this story to add my testimony of the effects of the power of God in my life. When we exercise faith that God can give us power beyond our capacity then go to work, He holds up His end of the promise and we can be instruments in his hands.  It is power that enhances our capacity to do things.

When we act in faith, commit to live the gospel by covenants with God, He gives us His power, and by His power we can have the capacity to do all things, and ultimately become more united with Him.

Heroes, Bombadiers, and Inspiration

This summer I listened to the audio version of the book "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a breath-taking, agonizing, heart-wrenching, and beautifully redeeming account of the life of Louis Zamperini. There will be some spoilers here, so stop if you don't want to know how the story goes. Louis Zamperini was an olympic runner who later joined the Army Air Corp and was a bombadier in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He was eventually shot down and surived 47 days on a raft fending off sharks and starvation, only to be captured in the end and spending years as a prisoner of war in Japan. The account of his time in Japan is horrific. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it did. For some time his life after the war was not a happy one either. Tormented by his nightmares and emotional scars from torture, he drank his way into despair. Then the story finally took a redemptive course change. Louis' wife was going to leave him, but instead she returned to him and talked him into going to see the young Billy Graham at an evangelical revival. He was reminded, and I was reminded, of one of the most beautiful scenes in the book of a moment on the raft. Somewhere near day 47, when all the sea was calm, the sky was blue, and death was knocking at his door, he almost literally saw the hand of God as he felt a peace knowing that despite it all God was aware of him and created that peaceful moment just for Louis. Louis committed to dedicate his life to God, then through his experiences that followed the "rescue from the raft", Louis had lost his way. At the Billy Graham revival he remembered his promise and through what I call the all encompassing miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, Louis went on to totally change the painful and destructive path he was on. His torment of mind and body left him, totally, never to return again. He was a new man. It reminded me of Alma chapter 36. In verse 18 it says,

 18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

 19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

Alma of course is talking about the repentance process, and I don't want to infer that Louis Zamperini's life was a punishment for sins he committed, but I do think that Louis Zamperini went on to live a life of excellence and inspiration because he remembered his pains no more because of the merciful power of the Atonement. 

The man lived exceptionally and lived to be 97 years old. (He was still running a 6 minute mile in his 80's.) 

There were also many "angels" in Zamp's life. I was most impressed by his loving wife who never gave up on him and his faithful brother Pete who stood by his side.

A friend of mine who also listened to the audio version of this book summed up lessons Zamperini's life like this,

"It's in those moments of deep despair, when we are not looking, that we are most vulnerable to the voice of God.  That voice comes to us in many different ways...

-a holy stranger

-a young, vibrant Bill Graham

-a roaming, wandering, seemingly standard-issued missionary

-a loving family member...

These people, these Angels...call us into the Tent, for just a minute, "Come in," they say, "I'll give ya shelter from the storm."  And that's when we begin to see.

We see that all we've been missing all this time has been right in front of us.  And our life experience has prepared us for that one divine, brilliantly inspired moment, when we see the world as it really is - of God."

 (Thank you friend, that was beautifully expressed)

Which brings me to part two of this lengthy blog. The story of Mr. S.

What is a bombadier?

Thank you Wikipedia... "
A bombardier or bomb aimer was the crew member of a bomber aircraft responsible for the targeting of aerial bombs. "Bomb Aimer" was the preferred term in the military forces of the Commonwealth, while "Bombardier" (from the French word for "bomb thrower" and similar in meaning to "grenadier") was the equivalent position in the United States Armed Forces.
In many planes, the bombardier took control of the airplane during the bombing run, using a bombsight such as the Norden bombsight which was connected to the autopilot of the plane. Often stationed in the extreme front of the aircraft, on the way to the target and after releasing the bombs, he could also serve as the front gunner in aircraft that had a front turret."

Louis Zamperini was a bombardier on a B24  (click here for wiki link) aircarft in the Pacific.

Recently I had a patient in my job doing Home Health who is a 91 year old retired military man who spent time in Germany during WWII as a bombardier, on the tail, and as an engineer on a B17 (click here for wiki link). I'll call him Mr. S. I loved my three weeks working with Mr. S. He had great stories about the war and his life since.   He told me about one mission as an engineer. The engineers job was to fix anything that went broken in the plane on a mission. I asked if that meant he had specific training or if he had to wing it. He said mostly he had to wing it. Once the hydralic fluid ran out in something so he just peed in it to last them till they landed. He also told me bombs spin as they dropped if they weren't dropped flat and not nose first. Once he had to use his belt to stop the crank that loaded the bombs. He also told me great blonde jokes each time I went. I asked Mr. S once of all the wars he saw (WWII, Korean, and Vietnam) what is the scarier time to live in, then or now? He said without hesitation, "now, because you don't know how the enemy is". Wise words Mr. S, wise words. How very sobering to hear that the days I live in are scarier then the scary days I read of in books.

I am so glad that my world of a non-fiction novel collided with real life patient who lived in the same time period. It was so sad to me to think that soon those heroes will have all left this earth. I'm grateful my world expanded this summer

Here is to heroes, bombadiers, inspiration, the hand of God, and blonde jokes!

"A blonde was sitting in a row boat in the middle of a corn field. Another blonde drives by, stops the car, gets out and starts yelling at the blonde in the row boat. 'It's women like you that give us a bad name', she yelled. 'If I could swim I'd come out there and slap you!' "

Thank you Mr. S.

Change is worth the price you pay

Sometimes you have outgrown a situation you are in. 

Ever feel that way? 

Almost a year ago I decided not to renew my apartment lease, move in with my parents, and save money to buy a house. 

So I did. 

It has been great. 

Now it's decision time. 

 I found myself getting fearful, and what does one do when they get fearful? I don't know about you but I pull up Elder Jeffery R. Holland's BYU Devotional Address 

 "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence".  

This talk takes me to two scriptures.

D&C 8: 2, 10

2 Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and 
which shall dwell in your heart.

 10 Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith. Trifle not with these things; 
do not ask for that which you ought not.

and

Hebrews 10:32-39 (parts of it)

 32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;

35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

 36 For ye have need of patience, 
that, after ye have done the will of God, 

ye might receive the promise.

 38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; 

but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

A few weeks ago I found myself in the temple and pondering these scriptures and asking if I really had a moment of revelation to buy a house last year. If the answer was yes, then I should go forward more confidently. In regards to revelation- vs 2 of D&C 8 says “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart” Or as Holland said, in a rational way and a revelatory way. 

I came home ready to act. The decision to move forward was clear. 

I'm in the process and if all goes to plan, it looks like this woman is going to have a home built.  

I was talking to my grandpa today about how big changes are coming into my life and sometimes changes are scary.  
He said the following:

"There is some fear that comes with change. 
The bigger the change, the bigger the fear.
Visualize my fear when I exchanged Berlin for Montreal! On that boat I changed from mother's son to head of the household. I had to grow up fast to find shelter and work in English among a bunch of French men! Change is worth the price you pay. "

I'm embracing it, I'm slamming the door when fear creeps in, and I'm looking forward in faith... Or at least trying to. 

"Change is worth the price you pay"

Wolfgang Kelm