Someday

Good Morning, or Good Afternoon, or Good Evening,

this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish,

What is your definition and understanding of the word, "Someday"? What does it mean to an immediate relative? 

Throughout every SINGLE month since I have gotten married; I have been constantly getting asked questions that focuses on pregnancy related by many people including several friends whom I haven't spoken to for ages. I strongly feel it is NOT appropriate for anyone (I really do mean anyone despite their age) to ask me if I was pregnant despite how long I have been married for. 

The persistence of the same people who kept asking me those questions certainly does get me thinking about frustration, and upset with no intention to do so because I haven't been able to conceive of any children within the first year of my marriage. I strongly know that I would fall pregnant someday in Heavenly Father's timing NOT my own timing. I know that we CAN'T rush the Lord's timing no matter how hard we may try to do so without acknowledging it. 

There are many reasons why many women can do their best to avoid of answering pregnancy topic related questions that has been asked by their friends, and their relatives including their work colleagues, and so forth because I know that pregnancy topic related questions CAN be very sensitive to many women. We shouldn't have to feel obligated to make any assumptions or expectations how some women can fall pregnant so quickly because it might have taken you a few tries or several tries to fall pregnant so quickly. 

I know that we can choose not to consider and to take some time out to think about some of the possibilities why some women aren't pregnant within the first year of marriage, why some women aren't pregnant after two years mark of being in a relationship, and so forth. I strongly think that we should take some time to think about those possibilities instead of asking if they have spoken to their spouse or their fiancè or their boyfriend about having children, if they were pregnant, when they are having children, and so forth. 

Someday

The possibilities can be;

The terrifying fears that they might've to face according to reading about from other women's worse pregnancy experiences, they may would like to accomplish many things before having children (such as buy a house or build a bigger home to live in, to finish studying their current degree, saving enough funds to contribute towards raising children, and so forth), they may have had experienced some past complications and difficulties during their past pregnancies (such as they've experienced past miscarriages at any stage during pregnancies), and so forth. 

I know that my husband and I would really appreciate if people not asking us pregnancy topic related questions. 

My husband and I are strongly encouraging our FRIENDS and IMMEDIATE RELATIVES including EXTENDED RELATIVES despite how old they are is to STOP asking us the following questions; 

"Are you and your husband expecting?" "Have you and your husband spoken about having children yet?" 

"How many children are you and your husband are planning to have?" "When are you and your husband is going to start to have children?" What are you and your husband going to name the children?" "What is stopping you and your husband for having children?" and so forth. There are so many other questions that we have been getting asked and just before, I have shared the most common questions that we have been getting asked over and over again. 

My husband and I are currently NOT expecting but I do know that someday we would be expecting (we would even announce it to our friends and relatives when we feel comfortable and ready to share it before sharing the announcement on social media), we already have spoken to each other about having children, we trusting in Heavenly Father's timing and NOT our timing when we;re going to start and having children, and again, we feel that there are several things that we would like to accomplish before having children (such as we move and live into a bigger home, we would like me to have my driver's license - so I wouldn't have to rely on my husband or other people to take me to places for transportation, and so forth) and so forth. 

I know that I don't judge anyone, and I wouldn't say to anyone including my friends who gotten married and was able to be expecting within the first year of marriage was RUSHED and LUCKY, I always congratulate them and do my best to remember to wish them the best. I have acknowledged on my Facebook newsfeed of church member friends who fell away from the church and fall pregnant, I still congratulate them. I don't get upset at Heavenly Father and ask him "Why they are able to have children but not me?" I always do my best to stay positive, and hoping that it would be my turn when my husband and I are confident to be ready when we have children. 

Please DON'T rush us into getting pregnant, it's not fair on us, DON'T give us any bad suggestions of parenting (we know what we would be best for us to be parent), DON'T give us any negative suggestions of how to raise our children (we would know what would be best for how to raise our children), DON'T tell us to wait until we're in our thirties when to have our first child (we aren't in our teenage years, and we aren't in our early twenties), and so forth.

Stay Tuned until next time. 

Appreciate Your Opportunities ~ Part Two

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take four to seven minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on October 1975 BYU Devotional, and it is called "Appreciate Your Opportunities" by Brother Marion D. Hanks. This post is part two, I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional and I hope that you would be able to learn something new whilst reading this post. 

Elder Hanks has mentioned the following; "I read from the Book of Mormon: And now, my brethren, I have spoken to you concerning pride; and those of you which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it? Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever. [Jacob 2:20–21] .."

Appreciation for Yourself

Appreciate your own special spiritual heritage and value. ... In this world, where the Lord needs every strong heart and devoted hand and tongue he can find, I think that’s very sad indeed. What I’m saying to you is that we need to appreciate the special heritage and values that have come to us. Think for a moment what particularly distinctive insight the kingdom of God offers you in these matters: God, Christ, man, life, ..., marriage, family, resurrection, eternity. 

Special instruction has been given to us concerning conservation, pollution, liberation, population, elections, freedom, abortion, government, Christ. In these and many other very important principles, programs, doctrines, and matters, there are distinctive, special insights we have to share. But just knowing that or hearing it doesn’t really suffice, does it? We must learn to understand these insights and become really converted to them, and to act on them.

... To learn and then to act. I know a man who as a bishop won an award for his great skills and success in training teachers who work among underprivileged people. ... Appreciate your own particular, distinctive heritage and the religious insights which it offers. ...

"Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you
miss them." - William Arthur Ward.

Appreciation for Humility

Appreciate the importance of being humble. Do you remember the wonderful words of an anguished father recorded in scripture? “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Do you remember the wonderful line about matters of greater consequence “weightier matters” the Lord called them judgment, mercy, and faith (see Matthew 23:23)? 

... And do you remember the Pharisee and the publican, the one so congratulatory over his religious rigidities, and the other who “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13)?... In the name and worship of Jesus Christ we should be humble.

Appreciation for Responsibility

Two other suggestions and I’m through. Appreciate the responsibility of being an individual in an organized society, a person and a social being with responsibility to others. Avoid, I pray you, that lone-eagle complex that makes some people say, “It’s my life and I’m going to live it. I’m going to do what I want to do in spite of what it does to anybody else, what effect it has on anyone else.” ...

Appreciation for Covenants

Appreciate, please, the need we all have to keep the pledges we have made. ... I remind you to be grateful for your pledges, and to keep them. I exemplify my pledges in an experience I once had. In a small town I had a talk with a lovely young woman about an opportunity she desired and now felt ready for. We were talking about her qualifications. 

She was candid and humble and gentle and forthright, anxious for her great opportunity. As we finished, I said to her, “Does anyone else know about the problem that makes this conversation necessary?” She said, “My bishop and my stake president and my parents.” I said (and I have more often felt blessed by the Spirit to ask a question than in answering one), “What was the reaction of your parents when you told them?” 

She said, “My father put his arms around me and wept. He said, ‘Ah, sweetheart, how could you carry this heavy burden alone without us to help?’” I said, “Was that his first response? Was that his reaction?” She said, “Yes.”

I said, “Do you know how blessed you are? Could I have the honor of meeting your father before we leave here?” The arrangement was made. 

I said to him, “If I can express in my own life the maturity of Christian understanding of the gospel that you have, I will be very grateful.” I bid you remember that, please. It is important to have that quality of character, and that kind of mature understanding of what it is really all about, and that kind of love. I see that as an appreciation of what God really expects us to grow to and is pulling for us to accomplish.

This is a good place to stop, save one, and that one is a scripture:

And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ. ... And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things.[Ether 12:38–39] ..."

If you would like to read the Devotional either now or in your own time, here's the link below.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/marion-d-hanks/appreciate-opportunities

Stay Tuned until next time.

Appreciate Your Opportunities ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

Why should you appreciate your opportunities? Have you ever appreciated your opportunities in the past? If not, have you just had a moment to think about starting to appreciate your opportunities from now on?

This post focuses on October 1975 BYU Devotional, and it is called "Appreciate Your Opportunities" by Brother Marion D. Hanks. This post is part one, I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional and I hope that you would be able to learn something new whilst reading this post. Elder Hanks has mentioned the following; "... Someone has written, “New leaves do not come because old leaves are falling. Old leaves fall because new leaves are coming.” You are the new leaves. ...

Information and Appreciation

... Abraham Heschel wrote: Two things a man needs information and appreciation. Now when I look at our educational system and many other institutions for civilization, I see a tremendous emphasis upon information, 

but hardly any cultivation of the sense of appreciation. Unless there is appreciation there is no mankind. The 

great marvel of being alive is the ability to discover the mystery and wonder of everything. The real dignity of anything that is, is in its relationship to God Who created it. Unless we learn how to revere, we will not know

how to exist as human beings.

"Opportunity ahead."

For what information and appreciation shall we seek? ... A leaf, a rock, a star, swimming, biology, geology, astronomy all are wonderful. It would be wonderful if each of us had a broad enough base in the laws of nature and the basics of science and the facts of history and the principles of philosophy to be interested in and understand in a measure the great advances being made around us. 

This knowledge contributes richness to life and perhaps to making a living, but more important than any of it, central to all of it, giving it all meaning and coherence, is information about and appreciation of man himself, of 

his relationships with others and with God, and of his understanding of origins and heritage and possibilities, responsibilities, and an everlasting future. ...

Appreciation for Life

Appreciate life. ... These two or three sentences constituted the valedictory, of sorts, of Tom Dooley. Said the questioner, “Dr. Dooley, you are living on borrowed time, yet your contributions to humanity seem to take no account of the trials you personally are called upon to bear.” “Yes,” he said (this conversation was replayed the day he died), “I am living on borrowed time. 

So are you; so is every man who walks this earth. I may live to be as old as you are now; I may not live to see my next birthday. This does not matter. What really counts is what I do in terms of human good with the days, the weeks, the months or the years allotted to me by my creator.” Appreciate life.

Appreciation for Others

Appreciate others and be respectful of their values. I was called upon to pray at a public gathering a few days ago and found myself without premeditation thanking God for the qualities of gentility and civility and caring which permit people of diverse points of view and diverse ways of living to be together in an atmosphere of courtesy and graciousness. ... Do you remember the words of the great apostle who encouraged all of us to “honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17)? We also read of the Prophet, under the inspiration of God, preceding the marvelous words “let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly” with the admonition that we be filled with love toward all men, and to the household of faith (see D&C 121:45). ..."

Stay Tuned until next time.

A Season of Opportunity

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take four to seven minutes to read from start to finish.

For this week's topics focuses on Opportunities, and Pregnancy. What is your definition and understanding of the word, "opportunity"? What does "opportunity" means to a friend? What does "opportunity" means to a immediate relative? 

This post focuses on a October 1998 General Conference talk, and it is called "A Season of Opportunity" by H. David Burton. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk. I hope that you would be able to learn something new. 

Elder Burton has mentioned the following;

"... As our recent sesquicentennial celebration concluded, our beloved prophet refocused our attention when he said: “The time has now come to turn about and face the future. This is a season of a thousand opportunities. It is ours to grasp and move forward. What a wonderful time it is for each of us to do his or her small part in moving the work of the Lord on to its magnificent destiny” (Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, Oct. 1997, 90–91; or Ensign, Nov. 1997, 67).

All of us face challenges in our daily lives. Yet in challenges lie some of our greatest opportunities. As we recognize and act on our opportunities, progress, happiness, and spiritual growth follow. We need to be involved in moving the Lord’s work forward. ... Over and over again we have been reminded ... to fully observe the Sabbath day. If we are not keeping the Sabbath day holy, today is a wonderful time to commit to seize that opportunity, to receive the promised blessings that come from Sabbath day observance. ... The need to reverence the Sabbath day is not new counsel. 

We are only being told today what prior generations have been told by the prophets of their day and reconfirmed countless times by the prophets of our day. ... But I also know that remembering to keep the Sabbath day holy is one of the most important commandments we can observe in preparing us to be the recipients of the whisperings of the Spirit. This is the season of opportunity for families to stand tall and be counted among the faithful who obey the fourth great commandment: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Ex. 20:8–10).

... Early in this dispensation, our forefathers were blessed with the opportunity of sacrificing mightily to build temples. They offered generously of their meager financial means as well as the fruits of their physical labor. As temples were completed in Kirtland and later in Nauvoo, the sacrifice of the Saints was great. They were blessed as they responded. After the migration of the Saints to the tops of the mountains, temples began to appear in a number of locations in the West. Each temple project represented great sacrifice. Divinely promised blessings awaited those who availed themselves of the opportunity to participate in building temples.

"Today is an opportunity to get better. Don't
waste it."

The season of opportunity that awaits us today, in temple service, is different from that of the past. ... We are, however, extended a marvelous opportunity to faithfully pay our tithes so temple construction and the work of the Lord may go forward. We are also challenged to be worthy to offer ourselves in the service of providing sacred saving ordinances for those who have preceded us. ... A few years ago a major communications company used in their advertising the phrase “Reach out and touch someone.” 

President Hinckley has reminded us repeatedly of the many opportunities to reach out and touch someone. In speaking of those who have recently joined with us, he described a need to reach out and touch them with love and fellowship; to those who are estranged, a touch of encouragement, unconditional love, and a full measure of forgiveness if required; to our neighbors, associates, and friends who are not of our faith, the blessing of being touched by the Holy Spirit because of our words and deeds.

In a recent training meeting for stake and ward councils held as a part of a stake conference I attended, well-prepared presentations centered on the opportunities to be “inclusive” rather than “exclusive” in reaching out and touching new and less-active individuals, as well as those not members of our church. Sister Laura Chipman, a stake Young Women president, suggested five I’s to help us to be inclusive in our outreach. 

They are: (1) Introspection - Are we inadvertently communicating an exclusionary attitude? (2) Identify - Do we know the recently baptized, the less-active, or nonmembers who reside in our neighborhoods and communities? (3) Individualize - Do we seek to know the interests, talents, and skills of those we wish to fellowship? (4) Invite - Do we include neighbors and friends in appropriate activities? (5) Involve - Are there ways we can utilize the skills, talents, and abilities of those we wish to include?

... All of our memories were refreshed during the course of the service. ... When the stories and recollections were complete, we all realized that our physically challenged, loving angel of a friend had given us and the wonderful compassionate families who reached out so often in love, far more of real value than he had ever received.

Yes, today is, indeed, a season of many opportunities. It is a season to reach out to touch the life of someone, a season to commit to keeping the Sabbath day holy, and a season to help keep the lights of our temples burning brightly, to name just a very few. ..."

If you would like to read the whole talk either now or in your own time, here's the link below.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1998/10/a-season-of-opportunity

Stay Tuned until next time.