What Mormon's Believe - The First and Great Commandment

Hello! Welcome to my blog. My name is Sue. In an effort to shed some light on what the Church I belong to believes, I am doing a post every Sunday with the topic - What do Mormon's believe? 

Here are the Quote art pieces from two previous posts.

 

 Semi-annually my church holds a General Conference. For the next few months, my Sunday blog posts (this one is a day late)will review the teachings of the most recent conference. Today’s quote art is from the talk that I am reviewing today titled “The First and Great Commandment” by Jeffrey R. Holland. You can read and view the whole talk by clicking HERE. 

To me, this talk is about what loving the Lord our God really means. I love how Jeffrey R. Holland related the story of the apostles after the Savior’s death. They went about their lives as they did before, they went fishing. The Savior came to see them again - and while eating a dinner provided by yet another miracle Jesus performed, Peter was asked three times if he loved the Savior more than the fish. Each time Peter answered in the affirmative and each time the Savior responded, “Feed my Sheep.” The reason He asked that is because Peter went about his previous work, not the work the Savior called him to do. Relating this to my own life I need to ask, has my life changed since I have come to know the Savior? Am I working at not only providing for myself but reaching out to others? The things that are important to the Savior should be important to me, if I love Him. I will leave you with the paragraph from this talk that I hope to incorporate into my life more.

"So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword” to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live."

This talk is so impressive when heard so I encourage you to watch it HERE. Jeffrey R. Holland certainly brings the gospel of Jesus Christ to life.

Thanks for stopping by!

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'Lil Luna

Turn a Plastic Produce Container into a Goodie Basket

Happy Friday! Halloween is coming upon us extremely quickly. I like to recycle lots of items that come  into my work and I loved these produce containers because they had a handle. Instantly I envisioned a goodie basket of some sort and this is what I came up with.

I Mod Podged newspaper all over the lid and base of the container. When it was dry, I  trimmed the excess paper off the lid /base that I over lapped during the gluing process and I cut out the hole for the handle. I cut out some images and words with my Cricut and glued them in various places. The "Boo" was adhered with pop dots. I added some glitter to the Boo!

Now I need to add some goodies and pick a recipient to receive a treat - or should I do a trick?

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Tatertots and Jello

What Do Mormon's Believe? Purposely Live Each Day

Hello! Welcome to my blog. My name is Sue. In an effort to shed some light on what the Church I belong to believes, I am doing a post every Sunday with the topic - What do Mormon's believe? 

To see the previous posts click on the links below:

1)What Do Mormon's Believe?

2) Men and the Mormon Church

3) Women and the Mormon Church.

4) God Speaks to Man Today

 Semi-annually my church holds a General Conference. For the next few months, my Sunday blog posts will review the teachings of the most recent conference. The first talk I am going to review is called “Of Regrets and Resolutions” by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. You can read and view the whole talk by clicking HERE. 

This talk was about regrets individuals may encounter and how to live to not have those regrets. Ultimately we do that by following the Savior's example to purposely live each day. 

Some common regrets people have:

- I WISH I HAD SPENT MORE TIME WITH THE PEOPLE I LOVE

- I WISH I HAD LIVED UP TO MY POTENTIAL

- I WISH I HAD LET MYSELF BE HAPPIER

Here are a few quotes from this talk that stuck out to me:

 “The foundational principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ can affect our life’s direction for good, if only we will apply them.”

 We should devote our time to worthwhile pursuits rather than wasting time on things that are “fleeting, inconsequential or superficial.” 

“Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become.” 

“No matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it.” 

“Many of the deepest regrets of tomorrow can be prevented by following the Savior today.” 

“...we cannot take for granted one single day. I pray that we will not wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live.”

We are in charge of our own happiness. This does not mean that we will never encounter sadness and disappointment, but we do choose how we will react in those circumstances.  If our days are filled with purpose our hearts will swell with content rather than regret. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

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Tatertots and Jello

Halloween Peat Pot Kitty

Hello! Welcome to my blog! I bought some peat pots a while back to make some crafts with. This is my first craft - Halloween candy holders. 

Here is what I did:

1. I painted the peat pots black. I cut ears and a little hair and hot glued them to the inside top.

2. I made the eyes out of flat glass marbles. I glued yellow scrapbook paper that I had previously drawn bulging lines on to the back of the marbles. I hot glued the eyes on the pot, and then a mini pom pom for the nose. To offset the weight of the eyes, I glued a flat marble on the inside of the pot - otherwise the candy holders tip.

3. I painted on a mouth and whiskers with a white sharpie fine tipped paint pen.

Now I need to fill them with candy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to...

Tatertots and Jello

Thanksgiving Inspiration Rocks

 Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I have pinned quite a few rocks with quotes and today I decided to make some myself. 

I painted the smoothest rocks I could find (from my favorite beach) with off-white household acrylic paint. I started hand writing on one of the rocks and discovered that I am terrible at it. Read on to find out how I got nice printing on the rocks.

I made a few quotes with fonts and clip art I liked:

After printing the quotes on scrap paper, this is what I did to transfer the printing on the rocks:

Then I added a little bit of color with Sharpies.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Tip Junkie

What Do Mormon's Believe? God Speaks to Man Today

Hello! Welcome to my blog. My name is Sue. In an effort to shed some light on what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe, I am doing a post every week with the topic - What do Mormon's believe? Along with each post I am making quote art from talks given by leaders from my church.
 The quote today is from the talk titled, 
"An High Priest of Good Things to Come"  
by Jeffrey R. Holland.

To see my previous posts click on the links below:

1)What Do Mormon's Believe?Intro

2) Men and the Mormon Church

3) Women in the Mormon Church.

Todays post is an invitation to check out the Church’s teachings. Semi-annually my church holds a General Conference that can be viewed on the internet. Click the video below for a preview and then follow the link to the Conference that will be held live on October 6th and 7th but can also be viewed in the archives afterwards. 

We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of our Church and that He directs this church through a living prophet. When I was not a member and this idea was told to me, I thought this was a crazy thing. Prophets were guys with long beards and they lived a long time ago, right? What I love about this church is that they teach their beliefs, and then they encourage the individual to seek answers for themselves. In other words - don’t take anyone’s word for it - rather, find out for yourself. I did not believe in the notion of a living prophet overnight. It was a process. Here are some questions/thoughts one might consider when pondering if there should or should not be a living prophet:

- Do you believe that God ever spoke to anyone?

- Do you believe that throughout the Bible history it was standard procedure for God to speak to man?

- Do you believe that standard procedure stopped, and if so, why?

- Has God lost His power? Does He not love us anymore? Has He left us to find our own way in the dark? Has man made such rapid strides and are so well educated that we don't need God to direct us anymore?

- We have all the instruction God has ever needed to give us recorded in the scriptures, and it is okay if all sorts of churches define those words differently for different times and circumstances.

(most of these questions are an excerpt from a talk titled “Profile of a Prophet” from Hugh B Brown.)  

The following quote from John Taylor is one that helped me seriously consider the idea of a living prophet.

We require a living tree—a living fountain—living intelligence, proceeding from the living priesthood in heaven, through the living priesthood on earth. And from the time that Adam first received a communication from God, to the time that John, on the isle of Patmos, received his communication, or Joseph Smith had the heavens opened to him, it always required new revelations, adapted to the peculiar circumstances in which the churches or individuals were placed. Adam's revelation did not instruct Noah to build his ark; nor did Noah's revelation tell Lot to forsake Sodom; nor did either of these speak of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt. These all had revelations for themselves, and so did Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, and Joseph. And so must we, or we shall make a shipwreck. 

Another item to consider is that the Bible says there will be many false prophets, so how does one know a true prophet or if there is a prophet at all? One thing all who believe in God can agree on is that truth comes from one source - God, and if we lack wisdom, we can ask of God and
He will guide us. (James 1:5)
I have heard some say that Mormon's are secretive - but I strongly disagree. We have missionaries across the globe that strive to educate people on what we believe. We have websites that have information available for those who desire to look. Mormon.org has all sorts of answers to questions people may have, and one can even chat online with members if one has other questions or concerns. Lds.org has a huge library of teachings, talks, Sunday lessons that people can check out.

I encourage you to check out some of the talks that will be on the World Wide broadcast (available in many languages) October 6th and 7th and later in archives.
General Conference Link

Thanks for stopping by!