Challenge #35—While of These Emblems

First of all, I apologize to anyone who has needed a new challenge for a few weeks…I really try to get new ones up every couple of weeks but sometimes life just gets in the way and time slips away.  I’m trying!  Today we do have a new challenge, and it’s a good one!

What are your thoughts, feelings and testimony about the Sacrament?

(Source)

This is something I never thought about recording before a few weeks ago.  Not coincidentally, I was listening to some older conference talks and one came up talking all about the Sacrament.  It’s by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, and it is an amazing talk—I recommend you read it or listen to it right now!  You can find it right here.  This talk is going to be the basis of our next FHE. 

So, you know the drill by now, right?  Think about how you feel about the Sacrament, then record your thoughts, feelings and testimony about it in the way you choose!  If you’re new here, see the tab up above for ideas of different ways of how you can record it your way.   

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What I did:

I haven’t had time to do my normal scrapbook page, so I just typed up a quick few paragraphs about how I feel about the Sacrament. 

When I think about the Sacrament, many things run through my head.  As a child, I never really understood what it was except a little snack.  As a teenager, I knew it was a way to renew my baptismal covenants and remember Christ.  All of that changed when I went away to college.

I remember my first Sunday at Church.  We actually met in the auditorium of an elementary school, which I thought was strange and wondered if I’d be able to feel the Spirit while not in an actual Church house.  We sang the Sacrament song, and during the prayer and the passing of the sacrament, it was deathly quiet.  I’d never experienced that before, and the Spirit was so strong that I vividly remember the warm feeling in my  heart.  It was the first time I realized how important the Sacrament really is.

As I grew accustomed to the quiet Sacrament meetings in that singles ward and others, I felt like I was sitting next to my Savior each Sunday.  It was really quite a renewal to my Spirit, and I looked forward to it each week. 

After I got married, it was quite a stark contrast to suddenly be in a family ward with all the kids talking, crying and sometimes screaming.  I still tried really hard to focus on the Sacrament, often reading scriptures or Hymns to help me.  But when I had children of my own, who were often crying or struggling during the Sacrament, I realized that I wanted to find a way to again capture that feeling I’d felt in my singles wards. 

I figured the best plan, would be to help my children think about Christ during that time, so that I could to.  We’ve done pictures of Christ, the illustrated scripture stories, The Friend magazine, and sometimes I’ve let them color pictures.  It’s my goal as a mother to really instill understanding of the sacredness of the Sacrament into my children’s minds and hearts. 

As they’ve gotten older, they have learned to be reverent and quiet during that time.  I find I can once again ready the words in the sacrament hymns or the scriptures and remember my Savior, and every precious drop of blood that He shed for me. 

I am so grateful for the Sacrament and for the opportunity I have to each week renew my covenants with Him, and to feel of His love for me. He has given us this great gift to be closer to Him, and I look forward to this sacred ordinance each week. 

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Now I challenge you to record your thoughts, feelings and testimony about the Sacrament!

Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas

This December, we won’t be doing any regular challenges here on the TIMC—LDS.  We’re going to just do one challenge, and I’d love it if we could get lots of you involved! 

I’m calling it
“Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas”. 

Here’s how you can help and get involved:

1.  Think of one thing you do with your family to help you remember Christ during this busy season.

2.  Record it in your own way.  (Write it down, video it, scrapbook it, etc.)

3.  Email me (emils24(at)gmail(dot)com), or leave a comment here with your recorded challenge.

4.  Check back on the blog at least once a week during December to see how other families focus on Christ, and be inspired by the ideas of others, and maybe even try a few of them out!

5.  Spread the word to your family and friends, so they can benefit from this too!

I will link all of the future posts about it right here, so you can just check here if you’d like!

So, who’s in?

Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas

This December, we won’t be doing any regular challenges here on the TIMC—LDS.  We’re going to just do one challenge, and I’d love it if we could get lots of you involved!  

I’m calling it “Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas”.  

Here’s how you can help and get involved:

1.  Think of one thing you do with your family to help you remember Christ during this busy season.

2.  Record it in your own way.  (Write it down, take pictures, video it, scrapbook it, etc.)

3.  Email me (emils24(at)gmail(dot)com), or leave a comment here with 
your recorded challenge.

4.  Check back on the blog at least once a week during December to see how other families focus on Christ, and be inspired by the ideas of others, and maybe even try a few of them out!

5.  Spread the word to your family and friends, so they can benefit from this too!

I will link all of the future posts about it right here, so you can just check here if you’d like!

So, who’s in?

Challenge #24—Clean Again

Since we are all human, we all make mistakes.  Sometimes they are small mistakes, easy to fix.  Other times, they are bigger mistakes and much harder to fix.  Whatever the case may be, we can learn from what we did and become better.  This week’s challenge is:

How did you come to really learn about the repentance process?

You can recount just one time (something big or small) or record a few times.  Focus on what you learned, and how the repentance affected your future actions. 

Since this is a pretty delicate topic, you don’t need to spill your transgressions—just give enough details to help your readers.  Or if you prefer, write the details down in a super private place that no one will find until after you’re gone.

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What Natalie did:

There was a time in my life that was really hard for me.  It took me a long time to admit that I had done something wrong.  The guilt ate at me again and again, before I was ready to do something about it.  I remember the day when I finally got the courage to take care of the situation.  Repenting was not easy.  As soon as it was taken care of, peace overcame me.  A huge burden was lifted off my shoulders.

When we repent of our sins, we are forgiven and the Lord remembers them no more.   "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  (Isaiah 1:18).
The atonement of Jesus Christ affords us the opportunity to repent and to be forgiven.  As we apply the atonement in our lives, we become more like the Savior.  The atonement is a gift to each one of our Heavenly Father's children. 

Elder D. Todd Christofferson said, "Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it. It points us to freedom, confidence, and peace. Rather than interrupting the celebration, the gift of repentance is the cause for true celebration."

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What I did:

(I just wrote my story down in a Word document and will print it off as well as make a digital copy of it.)

It’s amazing how something that seems so small can feel so big.  I felt like the “Princess and the Pea”—a little pea so covered up by piles of mattresses that I thought I would not feel it anymore.  But the truth was, that I could still feel it.

It was a harmless lie I told a group of friends.  Or so I thought it was harmless.  I was having a bad day, and it made me feel “cooler” and better about myself.  I felt a twinge of guilt at the time, thinking that it was no big deal—it didn’t harm anyone, so really, it wasn’t a problem.  I never really saw those friends anymore, and we were all scattered about, didn’t have contact information, etc. so it didn’t matter.  I buried the pea under mattress upon mattress of excuses, to try and hide that twinge of guilt…for over 10 years. But somehow, no matter how many mattresses I used, that little tiny pea could still be felt, and I swear it even got bigger.

Finally I connected with my friends through Facebook (so no more excuses in that area), but I was still too prideful to apologize to my friends and properly repent.  I still threw another mattress upon the pile—it didn’t really matter, they didn’t know I had lied, it didn’t affect anything, there was no reason to even bring it up. 

One day as I was studying my scriptures, the Spirit hit me so hard that I needed to repent of ALL my sins.  Big and small.  It was always easier for me to repent of the bigger sins, because it was pretty obvious that I needed to repent.  But this little “pea” (and others) also needed to be extracted. 

I finally mustered up the courage to write a message to my three friends.  I only heard back from one of them, but it didn’t matter that the other two didn’t respond.  I had done my part and felt that the chains of bondage, the “pea”, was gone!  Finally I could feel free of the little (nagging) twinge of guilt, that had really been a large ever-present burden.  In my pride, I had told myself that it was smaller than it really was.  But the chains indicated otherwise.

I learned from that experience that it doesn’t matter how big or small our sins are.  Sins are sins, and they keep us from fully experiencing the happiness we would otherwise feel.  Of course, being human I sin pretty much everyday, but since that experience, I’ve come to realize that I need pull my “peas” out on a daily basis to truly feel the happiness that my Heavenly Father wants me to feel.  And to have the blessings of the Holy Ghost as my constant companion.

I have also come to more fully appreciate the atonement of Christ.  He suffered for ALL sins—the big ones and the small ones.  I now think more about how my sins affected Him.  It helps me feel even more grateful that Heavenly Father allowed His only perfect son suffer so much in my behalf.

I love this quote by Elder Neil Anderson:  “We must become converted to daily repentance. President Benson taught that many of our troubles sprout from pride, which he defined as a selfish pitting of our will against God’s (see Ensign, May 1989, 4–7). We repent as we follow the Savior’s example in doing ‘not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matt. 26:39). As we gain sufficient faith and trust to meekly surrender ourselves to the Lord’s way, we are repenting.” (There are also a ton more awesome repentance quotes found here.)

I am indeed grateful for the gift of repentance, and I know that it is a gift we should not waste.

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Now I challenge you to record how you learned about the repentance process!

Gifts to Jesus

We did something Monday night for FHE that turned out so well, I thought I’d share it with you! 

In Church on Sunday, a sister in our Ward talked about how her dad wrapped a box up at Christmas time, and whenever the kids did something Christ-like, they would write it on a paper and put it into the present for Jesus. 

Well, I thought this sounded fabulous, and decided to make it a new Christmas tradition in our home!

I found a box that already had a small opening in the bottom, taped up the top, wrapped it really pretty, then cut the paper where the small opening was.  Then I wrote “To Jesus” on the top, and taped a pass-along card that has baby Jesus on it.  (I couldn’t find a small picture of Jesus, and my kids are always snatching the cards at Church.) 

I also cut 3 or 4 blank pieces of paper into rectangles (2 1/2 inches by 4 1/4), put them along with a couple of pens into a small can I had.  I tied a big red bow on it for fun.

 To start the lesson, I had my two older boys read the quote by President Monson that says, “What will you and I give for Christmas this year?  Let us in our lives give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living his teachings and following in His footsteps.” (I printed off the free quote found on Becky Higgins’ blog—go about half way down the page and look on the right side bar for it.)

We then talked about what that meant in little kid terms, “What IS the best thing YOU can give for Christmas?, “What is the gift of gratitude?”,  “What are some of the things that Jesus taught us?”, “What are some things we can give to Jesus this year for Christmas?”. 

After we talked about what the quote meant, I showed the kids the present I had made, explained what we were going to be doing, and then showed them the can and they loved the idea!!!  We made the rule that we can fill out a paper for something you did for someone else, or if someone does something for you.

A few days later, we are hearing a lot of, “Mom, I did_____, can I fill out a paper?”, or “_____ did ______ for me, can I write that down?”.  Even my 2 year old twins love doing this!  When I see them do something nice for someone, I tell them thank you and say that we should write it and give it to Jesus.  They run to the box and love to put their paper in! 

It’s even helping me too…today when I got stuck in line at the store with a new cashier who was going SLOW, I decided I’d be patient instead of getting all annoyed that I got in the slow line.  And yes, I wrote that down and gave it to Jesus! 

I’m seriously loving this, and so excited to make it a yearly tradition.  I’m planning on doing something with the papers—either keeping them and putting them in something, taking pictures of them, or at least typing up our gifts to Christ.  I think it will be so fun to look back on our gifts to Jesus Christ!

The Reason For Me

In the last challenge, I mentioned that I’d share a few ideas with you about this latest challenge of writing your testimony of Christ.  Today I’m going to share two things with you that I’ve done in the past.  (In the next post I’ll share some things that I’ve done recently just for this challenge!)

Now, before I share these, I want to stress to you that HOW you record the challenges is not as important as just doing it.  Remember, I am a scrapbooker, so that’s what I like to do.  If you are not a fan of scrapping, or just don’t have time, don’t forget that you can complete this (and all other challenges) in much more simple ways.  Even typing it up, or just writing it in your journal is great!  Do an audio recording.  If you have more time, you can write a poem or do a video recording.  Put together a slideshow of artwork and narrate your testimony.  Write a post about it on your blog.  Any way you choose, just get it down somewhere, somehow!   

The first thing I wanted to share is a scrapbook layout I made in 2007.  Originally I had intended to make the page about decorating for Christmas, but I felt that I needed to focus on the WHY we were decorating.  It’s not a normal “this is my testimony” page, but it shows some of my feelings for Christ. 

The second thing I wanted to share, is a page from my testimony scrapbook.  This is my basic testimony of why I believe that Christ is my Redeemer.

 

Now, if you haven’t had a chance to record your testimony about Christ, I challenge you to do it today! 

Challenge #14—The Reason for the Season

I know today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., but we are going to delve into the Christmas challenge for 3 reasons. 

1.  There will not be any more challenges until 2012.  This will give you (and me) time to spend with family and enjoy the season.

2.  It will give you a chance to do some catching up if you’ve not been able to keep up on the challenges. 

3.  It’s never too early to reflect on Christ!

So, here’s your challenge:

Record your testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Of course, you can do this by any means: write it, video or audio record it, scrapbook it, make a list of who He is to you, or tell how you gained your testimony of Him.  This is always a wonderful time to reflect on this, and I think this is one challenge that you should do even if you’ve never done one before!  Do this alone, or as a family (and instant FHE activity!). 

Usually I do the challenges ahead of time so I can record them on here, but this is one that I haven’t done yet (I’m hosting Thanksgiving, so I’m a little busy…).  I will be sharing some ideas with you in the next few weeks to serve as reminders to get it done, and to give you some inspiration! 

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!