Where your treasure is....

I love giving little hand-outs to the Young Women so help them feel loved and to give them little reminders and thoughts to help them in their lives.  This one I did for St. Patrick's Day and I thought it turned out pretty cute.

I found these cute pretzel bags at Walmart for $1.25  You get 20 in each packet.

I wanted it to look like a rainbow, so i just used all of the Young Women value colors and it looked great.  I just got one bag of each candy at about $2.50/each and that was enough to make 17 bags.

I PRE-cut the paper to a 4x6 size and then printed them out front and back.  After both sides were printed, I cut out around the "treasure map" and then took my lighter and burned the edges to give it a worn look.  

You can download the PDF by clicking HERE

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

What is grace?  What is the Atonement?

I'm so thankful for a loving Savior!

The picture above really speaks to me.  I love that the Lord is weeping and feeling with us.  His arms are wrapped around him and you can see His love.

This is how it really is.  He really knows us and knows our feelings and thoughts.  The Atonement He made, made that possible.

WHAT IS THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST?

A:  The Atonement is the sacrifice Jesus Christ made to help us overcome sin, adversity, and death. Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. He paid the price for our sins, took upon Himself death, and was resurrected. The Atonement is the supreme expression of the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  (lds.org)

WHAT IS GRACE?

A:  Grace is divine help and strength that we receive through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through grace, we are saved from sin and death. In addition, grace is an enabling power that strengthens us from day to day and helps us endure to the end. Effort is required on our part to receive the fulness of the Lord’s grace.

Here is a handout I made for the YW as we will be talking about the Atonement, what it is and how Grace is used and applied through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I gathered several of my favorite quotes and pictures.

Office Space

I've slowly been working on my office space.  It's coming along.  I still need to paint above the paneling and label my drawers and then I will be close to finished.

I like it so far.  It's mostly IKEA of course.  My desk top was cut out at Home Depot for $26.00  I thought I would post some pictures of the process.

God's Work and Glory

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

Turning Hearts to the Family

The topic of families and home has been on my mind.  I can really see that the family is being attacked with a fierceness like no other time before.

Just the other day I was flipping through Netflix and was amazed at all the trash that was right at my fingertips, literally speaking.  I know there are plenty of good shows and entertainment, but pretty much the majority of what I flipped through was entertainment that promoted adultery, sex, living together before you're married, kids out of wedlock, abortion, selfishness, disobeying your parents, promoting zero population, self-gratification, etc.  I could go on.  What Hollywood is really trying to promote is unhappiness.  "Wickedness never was happiness" as we know and I found this great talk, entitled "That the lost may be found" by M. Russell Ballard and in it he quoted Pres. Joseph F. Smith:

He said: “There can be no genuine happiness separate and apart from the home. … There is no happiness without service, and there is no service greater than that which converts the home into a divine institution, and which promotes and preserves family life. … The home is what needs reforming” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 382, 384).


Wow!  Pres. Smith told us that to have genuine happiness we need to look to the family, to the home. Not to our businesses, our blogs, our communities, our government, our material possessions. We are to encourage service and love IN OUR HOMES.   It's in our homes where we all strive to feel the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is by feeling that spirit that we are then prompted to act and to do good and to BE good.

This next quote really stood out to me.

It's amazing to me how much we look OUTSIDE of our own families and homes to find that ultimate happiness.  

Christ centered homes = genuine happiness! 

I know and understand that a lot of crap can happen sometimes in homes and families and sometimes it is not a place you feel welcomed, loved or accepted.  BUT, we can always turn toward the Savior and Come unto Him personally and keep Him as our foundation.  We will be blessed with that peace and happiness that can only come through Him.  You can seek and find that happiness by serving and loving others.  We can always strive to strengthen our homes and families regardless of our different situations by having that Light of Christ within us and letting it shine through us.

Here are some other versions of this awesome quote by M. Russell Ballard.  You can right click and choose "save as" to save it to your computer.