August

Scouting unleashed 

Project deprivation 

Do the work!

Who has passed judgement and blessed your life by ministering to you? 

Bishop’s story

Ministering is just being a good friend. 

those who want to live meaninfully and well must enrich the lives of others

the welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all. Helen Keller 

If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

The farmer had what Stephen Covey calls an “abundance mentality.”  An “abundance mentality” says, “There’s plenty to go around.”  A “scarcity mentality” says, “There’s not enough to go around, and if he gets some, that means less for me!” YW and YM programs prepare you today to be leaders of tomorrow. 

Nelson’s House. 

• I want the flower touch. I don’t need the gold touch liking Midas, but I do want the flower touch where everything I touch becomes better and more beautiful. 
• Help us to ha e the spirit of prayer in our home and in our hearts. 
• I am way too busy seeking entertainment for our family to hear and properly record the voice of the Lord. 
• Choose to bless the lives of thousands. 

Tanaka (YM pres) to YM:

We can do better and be better. Hold boys accountable. Part of putting on your full armor of God is putting down their weapons of mass destracption. Selfless men who think of others more than their own. Honor the women in your lives. How are you bringing joy and happiness into the lives of the women in your lives? Now is the time to prepare for your wife. Her input will improve your output. 

Wrestle with comparisons: 

Know your opponent 

Analyze

Strategy 

“What if?” Is distortion, from Satan. 

When we treat others as they have been rather than as they can become, we can hold them back instead, we can forgive and forget past mistakes. We can believe others can change. We can overlook weakness and point out the positive traits that they may not be able to see with them selves. “We have the responsibility to see others not as they are but rather as they can become.” -Monson

“Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve.” Holland

The choices we make our critical- they are the key to our future and happiness. Q. Cook

• Study conference talks and BYU speeches. Record quotes, insights, and personal stories that come to mind as blog entries. 
• Increased capacity for patience comes (directly proportional) with an increased capacity to love. Takes Mike’s level of love and patience with Derek. He loves everything about that kid and consequently has an abundance of patience for his quarks and challenges. 

Giving & Serving:

The Neuroscience of Giving

Body releases chemical as we serve others. 

“Humans are social animals, so it is no surprise that we are wired to help one another. In our complex modern society, there are many ways to give and the good news is that we now understand that both the giver and receiver benefit from the relationship. Neuroscience has demonstrated that giving is a powerful pathway for creating more personal joy and improving overall health.

While the brain is remarkably complex, the neurochemical drivers of happiness are quite easy to identify. Dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin make up the Happiness Trifecta. Any activity that increases the production of these neurochemicals will cause a boost in mood. It’s really that simple.

So if giving allows us to secrete all the chemicals at once, we owe it to ourselves to give as often as possible!

Helping others can take on many forms. Small repeated boosts of the Happiness Trifecta will produce the most benefit so find ways to give and to give often. Opening a door, helping a stranger change a tire, donating money or time, and giving advice are all wonderful ways to give. Anytime we step outside of ourselves long enough to help someone else, something wonderful is waiting for us when we return: the Happiness Trifecta neurochemicals are all boosted!

Helping others triggers impacts to our brain in many positive ways:

• Empathy: There are structures in the brain that are dedicated to helping you see things from the perspectives of others, so these mental processes get some great exercise when you put yourself in the shoes of another person and try to give them what they need.

• Mirror Neurons: Helping others is often a highly social activity, which creates a beautiful cycle of smiling. When you smile the whole world smiles with you because you are triggering their mirror neurons. Both the giver and the receiver can directly impact the others brain in a positive way.  

• The Happiness Trifecta: Helping others triggers a release of oxytocin, which has the effect of boosting your mood and counteracts the effects of cortisol (the dreaded stress hormone). Interestingly, the higher your levels of oxytocin, the more you want to help others. When oxytocin is boosted, so are serotonin and dopamine!

So give, give often, and bask in the mental and physical effects of your actions.  

Psychology Today, April 24, 2014

Because of the amount of angels ministering in the scriptures, I have no doubt that angels have ministered to every single one of us. 

Eye-to-eye, person-to-person exchanges. 

Ministering is not a license to end personal, home visits. Exhort. D&C 20:47

Romans 15:1-3

Service is more fulfilling and lasting than perpetual entertainment, trips, shopping, etc. 

HF wants us to enjoy “being” as much as He does. 

“It was from him [Joseph Smith] that I learned the true dignity and destiny of a son of God, clothed with an eternal priesthood, as the patriarch and sovereign of his countless offspring. It was from him that I learned that the highest dignity of womanhood was, to stand as a queen and priestess to her husband, and to reign for ever and ever as the queen mother of her numerous and still increasing offspring.

I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved–with a pureness–an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul from the transitory things of this grovelling sphere and expand it as the ocean. I felt that God was my Heavenly Father indeed; that Jesus was my brother, and that the wife of my bosom was an immortal, eternal companion; a kind ministering angel, given to me as a comfort, and a crown of glory for ever and ever. In short, I could now love with the spirit and with the understanding also.

Yet, at that time, my dearly beloved brother, Joseph Smith, had barely touched a single key; had merely lifted a corner of the veil and given me a single glance into eternity.” -PP Pratt

Fackrell 

There are choices and activities that benefit you now AND there are choices that might not benefit the present but will have large payouts in the long run. Do your future self favors by doing hard things now. Self-actualization and goal setting benefit your future self. Ex: PhD, keeping license, health. Sin is about the now. Sin does not help future self. 

Things that benefit Mike’s & My future Marriage: couple scripture study, 

Quarterly PPI & hold each child accountable; raise children individually, not in a “herd.” 1:1 dates, attention, time, conversations, adventures, interests. Listen. 

Be happy, positive, and uplifting at the crossroads. 

Talking square: who are you going to talk to when you’re in trouble? 

1. Adults. Connect them with another adult, that is not you, in your Villiage. Make sure they have other adults that will help shape you? Set appointments with those people (Tammy, Ama). 

2. Peers. Who is a peer that will speak up to you? 

3. Professional help or counseling. 

4. Talk to the person involved, including yourself. 

Marital commitment in the temple is a commitment to duties. Commitment to obedience of commandments. Commitment to doing these things even when one doesn’t want to do these things anymore. It’s keeping our promises to God and to our spouse. 

Pray hard. Think hard. Work hard. Play hard. 

We’re a work hard kind of family. 

Clean out your marriage, like cleaning out the garage:

-Trash can. Dump out the garbage. Thoughts and habits that aren’t serving you. 

-DI bin. Something that you have or have learned that you can share with others. 

-Place back. Keep and treasure what’s working and what brings joy. 

As you bring joy and the love of God in, the issues solve themselves. 

• James his love language is food, being driven, and one on one dates.
• Daniel’s love language is cuddling and playing games together. 
• Andrew’s is time. 
• Derek is patience. Eye contact. 

Be someone I look up to. 

You are never too old and it is never too late. 

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? John wooden

Don’t feel like it? Do it anyway. Mel Robbins

Setting patterns we want to follow for the rest of our lives. 

I leave Others better than I found them, I radiate love to everyone. 

My choices are driven by abundance; come from a place of abundance. 

Failure is coming. Do not fear it. You can always start over, and he will be stronger each time you do. Gail Miller

Everyone is on the spectrum. We are all somebody’s weirdo. Lynette Draper

A lot of the heritage we leave our children and grandchildren is memories. 

Divine discontent gets us out of our comfort zone and leaves us to action. It helps us act in faith. Elder Maxwell, Michelle Craig 

• Heavenly father doesn’t ever give us anything that requires us to stress or “rush.” He will give us promptings that we need to act on immediately, but not something that we need to break the law to make it in time. 

Mike:

We have this mirror in our house. 

Then I saw a home video. And then I saw how I looked. It’s in a prominent place in our home and is the main mirror I was using. 

Sometimes we’re measuring ourselves against the wrong thing. I was using the wrong standard. This is a physical example but maybe spiritually we’re using/ measuring against the wrong standard. 

“You never knew me.” How is our sabbath day observance?

Excuses:

This is how I was raised. 

So and so does this and they’re good people. 

• My perfectionism stems, not from caring how others perceive me, but rather, is my attempt at preventing pain, hurt, heartache, and other uncomfortable emotions caused by my mistakes, weaknesses, and in adequacy‘s. 

Getting my daily dose of vitamin T!  You’re amazing Tam 💖

Faith in god‘s plan for me by Jessica George, 2014.  story of the Kirtland temple and the stone quarry. Our lives are like the stone quarry, but unlike modern day, we can’t see the finished product of the temple in the distance. We have to trust and have faith, removing one stone at a time and trusting in a masterpiece to which our work and suffering are contributing. 

I’ve been watching over her for the last 18 month and I’ll make sure she makes it home safe. -bro Whitworth about daughter

• Encouraging makes weight gain has help me to feel better about my own. But, he has had counter affects as the gain has made Mike more on edge and less happy. 
• What I need to do is counterintuitive. As I encourage and support his fitness, mine improves as well. 
• I had a generosity breakthrough today. Lots of times I get the idea to give somebody something but the cheapskate inside of me keeps me from doing it. Well today I gritted my teeth through it and gave a pack of markers to a friend. Sounds small, but this is a big deal, people. when I give it to her she said “oh, thank you that made my whole day!” Sometimes listening to the spirit is tuning into the generosity from our heart. 
• James is just blossoming! I week into 6th grade and he’s talking about building muscles, running, is showering and eating new foods, and is so happy. Granted, he must have a crush, but something inside of him is happening as well. Piano is clicking for him. He’s excelling in soccer. His passion is swim team. He’s reading and writing. His automatic thoughts are becoming more positive and uplifting. He’s making more friends. And his little sense of humor is getting so fun. I love joking around with home and he’s getting good at throwing things right back to me. He is such a babe, and a blessing. 

Celebrate and commemorate each day together as a treasured gift from heaven. RMN

PTA “doing things we don’t want to do”

“This is the single most important day of your eternal life because it is the day you start your eternal family.” Sealer

YSA: Father, thank you for making me wait. 

I promise that in every single one of our lives, we will see if these words from a place of indescribable love, appreciation, and overflowing abundance of gratitude. 

I hate to say it, but I might even go as far as to say father, thank you for taking so-and-so prematurely. Thank you for causing that illness. Thank you for letting that consequence happen. Thank you for sending me to that dysfunctional home. Thank you for the failure, the loss, the heartbreak, the disappointment, and the unexpected. Thank you for the wait. 

Thank you for the hurt and the pain and the suffering. Because I would not have the capacity to love, appreciate and treasure what I’ve been given without it.