Religion

What is Religion?
In one of our old children's dictionary at home it says, "Belief in God or gods" "A specific system of belief, faith and worship."

I looked the definition up online, and found this definition. "The belief in a superhuman, controlling power." 

 WHAT!?

Okay, so I talked to my son about that definition. When I first read it, I took it as God is controlling over us, which is NOT true. Yes, he gives us guidelines, but we can choose to follow or not. My son took that definition as God controls the earth, sun, weather, etc. Well, ok, maybe, but God does have to follow the rules of nature. 

Anyway, back to why I chose this topic for my blog today. I hear a lot of comments from people I know. Many times these comments suggest that God is not a loving god, that He wants to control us and we have no say so in anything. This is just not true. It is correct that He gives us guidelines to follow, and if we don't follow them correctly there can be bad consequences. For example, if we smoke, we run a high risk in developing cancer or heart disease. If we choose to drink excessively, we can run the risk of becoming an alcoholic. On the flip side, if we choose good things we can have good consequences in our lives. Take care of our body and eat properly, we can be blessed with health.

Now, that being said, some people who smoke their wholes lives do not get sick, some who take care of their bodies do get sick. So, what's up with that?  Well, we have been put on this earth to overcome trials. Each of us have different ones. Sometimes because of another persons action, we suffer; for example when I was 13, I had a friend of mine run over and killed by a drunk driver. Horrible thing! She was minding her own business coming home from a friends house...innocent, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone. This was a trial her family and friends had to endure. 

Heavenly Father gives us guidelines for us to follow. These are commandments. We can choose to obey or not. He will never change His commandments. He is a never changing god. If He did, it would be like Him changing the rules in the middle of a game. I feel that our society is trying to change God's rules in the middle of it all. It is not up to us to make changes in the commandments. 

Yesterday during our church service, someone made a comment that I thought was very good. They mentioned that we have certain rules or commandments to follow, and just because we have a vote that makes them right in the laws of man, does not make them right in the laws of God. We cannot vote to make sin not a sin. 

All of us sin. None of us will become perfect in this life. Some of us struggle all our lives with certain things. Sometimes we look at others and think they have no struggles. We think their life is just..."hunky dory." Sometimes people struggle with thoughts. This is something we probably would not recognize as a struggle because we don't actually see or hear it. 

Sometimes, our struggles might change. I do know that while I have endured struggles in my life, it could always be worse. Sometimes I start to feel sorry for myself, and then I realize there are others out there with worse problems. That's not to say that my struggles are not hard, but it is to say, that my struggles are something that the Lord knows I can handle. It is like that for all of us. He will never give us anything we cannot handle.  

I have some say to me that because I don't believe a certain way, that I am judging. This is not so. I choose to live the way the Bible and the Book of Mormon teach us. There are a lot of things I know are sin that the general public do not look to as sin. One being sex before marriage.  I choose to mention this because most people will disagree with me. It is very plain in the scriptures. Exodus 20:14 "Thou shalt not commit adultery." That is one of the Ten Commandments. 

Well, I'm not going to go on anymore, except to say, that I am grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel in my life. I know without it, I would not be very happy. I can honestly say that I do KNOW that for a fact. The Gospel has allowed me to become who I am today. I do have a long way to go to be what I want to be, but having that correct path to go down makes things so much easier. Right now, I am going through some trials of my own, and if it weren't for the Gospel, I would be very lonely and sad. Daily, I feel the comfort of the Lord, and know eventually, this will end.

And another trial will be waiting for me. 

One Word BIRKENSTOCKS

Lately, I have a lot of people ask me about my shoes. Most of these people are having foot issues.

Here's some background on my bad feet...

I grew up in Florida...probably enough said on that. Growing up in Florida = barefoot much of the time. We went to the beach a lot and had a pool, so, yes we were barefoot...A LOT. Family joke..."When you put your shoes on, you must be going somewhere, right?"

Not only did I run around barefoot all the time, I also was a dance major in college. We mostly danced in bare feet. At the time, I did not think much of it. When I hit 40, I started feeling the affects of that.

sorry, all my dance pics were too faded. :(

So, what to do? Well, a couple of years before my feet started bothering me, my sister and mom were turned on to Birkenstock shoes. You know those "ugly granola shoes?" 

Once my feet REALLY started to bother me, I went to an orthopedic doctor and all they wanted to do was give me cortisone shots and put me in an orthotic, which means tennis shoes for the rest of my life...even to church...with my dress. Well, that's lovely. Plus the fact, my feet enclosed in a shoe alllll daaaaay long...NO WAY. So, I decided to try the Birkenstocks; I've been wearing them every since.

Ya know what? They actually have some cute styles too!

These are my favorite pair!

These feet belong to my sister; the one who started the Birkenstock craze in our family.

Some of my issues I started having were that I felt like I was walking on sharp rocks (my heels). Because of the way I was walking due to being in so much pain, the rest of my body started to hurt too. The doctors said they thought it was fibromyalgia. I knew it was not. I went to another doctor, and I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis (this is the doctor that wanted me to wear tennis shoes with an orthotic all the time). I still suffer a little bit with sore feet. I also have bunions that burn and my toes tend to go numb. I think that is some sort of neuropathy. Just lately, I've been having these aches on that bone on the outside of my foot. If I remember correctly from my anatomy class it is your tuberosity. It feels bruised. I think I have these issues because I don't really wear my shoes 100% like I should; I just wear them about 90%.

Walking on the beach barefoot is a big no, no, even though I do it sometimes.

I'm sure banging around in my tap shoes don't help either, but I just can't help it. 

Oh, and no more of these type cute shoes either...
Oh well...

I Looked Out The Window

and what did I see?

A little bitty turtle under my tree!

 Actually, Scott came in from mowing the lawn and told me I needed to come out with my camera.

 So glad he did.

 I'm sure we were traumatizing this poor guy, 

so I took my pictures and then left him alone.

Pretty cool, though, don'tcha think?

Confidence In The Gospel

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was converted and baptized at the age of 19, that was over 35 years ago. As time has gone on, my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ grows daily. I have had ups and downs in my life, and know that is why I am here...to have these experiences and to learn and grow from them. 

Lately, there has been a lot of misguided people questioning some of the standings of the church. One is gay marriage. Many have made comments that because we do not believe in gay marriage that we are homophobic. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we not only believe in the Book of Mormon, but we believe in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. There are several places in the Bible that talk about how wrong homosexuality is. Here is a good website that has a couple of scripture references and a statement from our church leaders about this. 

As members of the church, we also believe that sex outside and before of marriage is wrong. Yes, even in today's world. God does not change the rules midstream. Wrong is wrong.

Now this being said, just because the church has a stance on certain things that the world sees otherwise, does not mean we "hate" those who are gay, or who have sex out of wedlock, etc. As a parent of four children, I think I know how God feels, at least somewhat. My children have done things that have displeased me...we all have sinned...but I don't "hate" them for disobeying. I still love them, and want what's best for them. God doesn't "hate" us for our sins, he still loves us; he is hurt deeply when we do sin, hurts even more deeply when we turn from him or don't repent. I use the word "hate" because so many jump to conclusion that because we don't look upon gay marriage in a positive light that we "hate" them. Nothing can be more far from the truth. We don't hate them, we may hate their actions, but we don't hate them. 

Each of us are God's children, which means we are all brothers and sisters. As members of the church, we love all mankind. A lot of us pray daily for the safety of this world. In our temples, we pray for our world leaders, we pray for our countries, for peace in the world, and this means EVERYONE and everywhere. But, just because we pray for all of mankind, we all still have our agency to choose what we think and do, therefore, the world is the way it is. There is a lot of wickedness going on, and there is also a lot of good that goes on.

I read something the other day that really hurt me. Basically this person said that she could not understand how "intelligent people stay Mormon."  It's because we have a testimony. No I did not have angles or some other Heavenly being come down and visit me. Faith is not a perfect knowledge. Heck, if we had a perfect knowledge wouldn't it be too easy? That was Satan's idea, for us to KNOW, and to be told what to do...No agency. We would just come down here, have perfect knowledge and then return. What would be the purpose of that? We are sent here on earth to learn and grow. To succeed and to fall. To fall, and then get back up and repent. 

I know many will read this and agree with what I say, others will read and think I am just a crazy person that follows a religion blindly. No, I don't follow my religion blindly. I have spent many years reading and praying. I cannot deny the Gospel. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and wants me to choose right. I hope that I can make good choices and return to His presence someday. I am by NO means even near perfection. I struggle on a daily basis with my patience and many other things. I know that when I have daily prayer and daily scripture study, my days go much better than those times when I don't give time to the Lord. He is always there for us, all we have to do is ask. He will not push Himself on us, so we do have to ask...and LISTEN. 

Missionary Mom Necklace

So, did I mention I am so proud of my son? He will be leaving on a two year mission in just over a month from now.  I've seen some missionary mom jewelry and wondered how I could make my own. I have never tried stamping and know it is not easy, so I found someone that is really quite good at it.

 Rachael, from Templestamping did a beautiful job with my custom order. She was very prompt, and I had it in hand within a couple of days of ordering it!

Then, I had to figure out how I wanted to put it together. I knew I wanted a purple stone, since Scott was born in February (birthstone is amethyst). After going through my bead stash, the pearl was the best choice. Pearls represent purity. Also pearls start from a small humble beginning and, over time with the help of the oyster, becomes something that it could have never become alone. My son, with the help of his Heavenly Father, and his family, has become a very nice young man. He will be a wonderful missionary!

So, now I had to come up with what to hang it on. I love lots of color, I love the beach. I also like to wear browns sometimes, so I started pulling different beads out, and this is what I came up with. Starfish, shells, colorful seedbeads, wood beads, and silver accent beads.

I love it!

Messy Telephone Wire Beaded Beads

So if you have been following me for any length of time, once I learn to do something, I go crazy with it. Well, these beaded messy beads are so fun and easy to make, I  thought maybe I should try some of that old telephone wire I've had laying around since the 1960's. Click here and here for more about that.

  This made into a pretty unique piece. I know some of you probably won't like it because it is so far out of the box, but because it is so different, that is why many of you will like it.

I love experimenting with different things.

Messy Wire Beaded Jewelry

I've been making jewelry for a LOOOOONG time!

 I love to experiment and come up with new funky things.

 This was a really easy and fun project I came up with this weekend.