Enough To Spare

"For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." - D&C 104:17

Today, I had a personal visit with David Pigott, a professor at BYU-Idaho. During the visit, he talked to me about some of his experiences in Africa. Because of some of those experiences, he and his wife have started a foundation to help children in Uganda receive an education.

Brother Pigott believes that the lack of education in Uganda is keeping the country from emerging from poverty. On Brother Pigott's desk, he has a stack of about 50 requests from children who don't have the money to go to school. Here is a link to the foundation website, you might find it interesting, as I did.

http://enoughtospare.org

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Church starts at 8:00. My alarm sounded at 7:10 this morning, and I couldn't figure out why, so I shut it off and went back to sleep.

At 7:46, I came to a certain degree of consciousness and realized that church started in 14 minutes. At this very moment, a decision stared me in the face. I could choose the easier path and keep sleeping or I could hurry and run off to church.

I quickly made the decision to get dressed and go. As I drove to church, I pondered about the significance of that experience. I wondered what woke me up at the precise time that would allow me enough time to get to church as the meetings were beginning.

I considered that it could have been the Spirit that woke me. Why? What was the purpose of waking me up at that very minute? I decided that by waking me at that very moment, I was literally forced to decide, in an instant, which path I wanted to take. Would I choose to stand in holy places or tarry where I lay?

This experience could seem small and insignificant, but to me I felt like I, without thinking, took one step towards being more trustworthy in the eyes of the Lord. In a small way, I showed that I could be trusted to make the proper decision.

As a side note and extension to this experience, today's church meetings were filled with spiritual thoughts, testimonies, and impressions that elevated and lifted my soul. Topics that were discussed and taught had been the subjects of my ponderings throughout this past week.

Now, what if I hadn't jumped out of bed???

How would I react?

Have you ever had a strained relationship with someone close to you? Did you ever wonder how you would react upon hearing that something terrible happened to them?

Having worked with grieving families who have lost loved ones; I have had the thought cross my mind many times. I worried that since I had a strained or weakened relationship with one of my loved ones, that there would be a possibility that I would be less sensitive or insensitive if that person passed on from this world.

Tonight my question was answered. I thought that something did happen to that loved one; and I reacted. My reactions, feelings, and fears showed me how much I truly love that person and how much they mean to me deep down.

Even though it scared me, it was a comfort to me finding out for myself that, deep down inside, I have strong feelings for a loved one with whom I haven’t had the best of relationships in the past.

Taking time for making friends

Tonight I got to thinking about how much I truly enjoy getting to know people. People bring so much joy into my life.

Last year, between semesters, I really enjoyed the chance I got to spend some time with my family. I realized how much I love them all and enjoy being around them. It gave me a little glimpse of what it's like to be with our families throughout all eternity.

This year, so far, I've tried to spend more time getting to know the people around me. I feel like I've gained some very important friendships that I will enjoy for years to come.

It's easy to keep my friendships at arm's length and not get too personal or involved in their lives. However, I've learned that true joy comes as we learn to love, understand, and cherish our friends. But sometimes this takes desire, effort, and time.

We don't have to focus on our differences. I could think of dozens of reasons why I shouldn't be friends with those I spend time with. There are differences in age, life experience, likes, hobbies, interests, etc. We need to just become friends and learn to put ourselves in each others' shoes so that the friendship has room to grow into a bond that will tie us together throughout the years.

As we do so, there will be more love, more happiness, less contention, and less depression. As we do this, we are taking some important steps towards understanding charity, the pure love of Christ.

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."
-Moroni 7:47

It's 4:30 a.m. or is it 5:30?

It's that time of the year again when we're supposed to turn our clocks ahead an hour. The problem is that we can't figure out which of our digital gadgets switched automatically!

A few minutes ago my roommate asked me if they switched and I wasn't sure myself. So, I started going from one thing to another- I started with my phone; turned it off and on; went to my iPod. The times on both of them corresponded, so I checked them against my watch (which I switched last night) and they all were the same time. SO, that means that the other two switched properly......right??? It's so hard to think at 4:30 (or 3:30, or 5:30 in the morning).

Oh well.