Kurt's verse for the week of 11/22/15

This week I chose 2 Nephi 9:50 "Come, my brethren, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and he that hath no money, come buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price."

This verse stuck out to me because it reminds me that the gospel is truly for all.  Heavenly Father invites us all to come, eat and drink.  He wants to bless us all, we just have to go and take advantage of the blessings He has promised us.

Kurt's verse for the week of 11/15/15

I know it's late, but here's my verse for last week:

3 Nephi 22:10  "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

When things seem to be falling apart around us, it is always important to remember that Heavenly Father is always there.  It is helpful to remember that as long as we have built our testimonies on the firm foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have an advocate on our side and His "kindness shall not depart from" us.  I love this scripture!

I know I have been slow getting to this but I have done a little ponderizing.

The scripture I have ponderized for the last couple weeks is -

Mosiah 23:21  Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

As I thought about this verse it brought back a discussion I was part of in Relief Society a few weeks ago that sometimes, even when we are trying so hard to do what we should we still have trials.  This verse is a good reminder for me that Heavenly Father love me and wants me to learn and grow.  He has given me a wonderful family, the scriptures, a ward family, and other opportunities to be patient and be faithful even though the answers I am seeking have not been given or become apparent yet.

Cris's "verse" for the week of 11/8/15

I am still struggling with ponderizing.  I am trying, and it is on my mind, but I struggled this week.  I didn’t designate a scripture.

That’s not to say that I didn’t have spiritual things on my mind.  I had a couple of really bad traffic days that I got through by listening to General Conference.  I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the Priesthood session.  (I’m a bit ashamed to admit that this was the first time that I listened to or read it in its entirety.)  In fact, the scripture that I’m going to choose for this coming week is inspired by Elder Andersen’s talk from that session.

One thing that I’ve been thinking about in the last few days is family home evening.  Here’s why:

During tithing settlement, my bishop mentioned to me that a focus for the ward next year will be getting back to the basics of living the gospel: FHE, daily prayer, daily scripture study, and keeping the Sabbath day.  I do well with the middle two—maybe not always super effective, but I don’t know the last time I missed doing either of those at least once during the day.  Sabbath observance can be improved.  I don’t go out an overtly break it, but I could make better choices about my use of time after I get home from church.  That leaves FHE.  For obvious reasons (though not necessarily good ones), FHE hasn’t been all that high of a priority for me. 

So what I’ve been (sort of) ponderizing this week is how I can do FHE on my own.  And what I’ve come up with is to look at conference talks—at least one, but maybe more if the topics overlap.  For years I’ve thought about studying them as if I was preparing a lesson about them, but I haven’t acted on that.  But I think that’s what I’m going to do for my FHE.  And it could also be a way to improve my Sabbath day activities.  I do better preparing lessons when I give myself time to chew on the material before sitting down and laying it out.  So I’ll read my chosen talk(s) on Sunday in anticipation of Monday night.

How ‘bout that?  It all works together!

Cris's verse for the week of 11/1/15

My ponderizing scripture for this week was 1 Nephi 3:7—

“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

To be honest, I didn’t have to do much memorizing on this one.  But I did get some insights into it that I’d never had before.

When I decided on this scripture, a question came to me that I’ve been thinking about all week.  What things has the Lord asked me to do that I’m not doing?  My thoughts were drawn to something in my patriarchal blessing about being timid, specifically in the context of finding a companion.  I need more faith to act on that.  There are resources out there these days, especially of the on-line kind, which are theoretically less intimidating than in-person or on-phone encounters.  But I’ve still been hesitant to truly avail myself of them.  I need to get over that.

Another thing that came to mind was my desire to move back to Seattle.  After a brief burst of action (inquiring at the UW about the teaching program there), I haven’t done a lot.  Maybe it is because the next deadline for application to the program isn’t for another 11 months (I missed this year’s by about 2 weeks), so my procrastinating proclivities have kicked in.  But I have been thinking that to make my desire a reality, I need to be more diligent about looking into other options.

I love it when I get new understanding of a very familiar scripture!  And I am praying for help to develop the faith to be like Nephi—to go and do what the Lord has commanded because He will help.

Kurt's Verse for the week of 11/1/2015

This week I'm going with D&C 59:23

"But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come."

I like this verse because it reminds me that there are current and future blessings that come from doing the Lord's work here on earth.  Sometimes I tell myself that I'm too busy to do my calling or that my time is better spent with Charity and Hattie than going out home teaching.  But this scripture reminds me that peace comes when we are about Our Father's business.

Kurt's verse for the week

This week I chose Alma 7:12

"And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

I am in the process of writing a letter to my mission president and thought about this scripture.  I attended my mission reunion the Friday before conference and he asked me if my testimony of the atonement had increased with our recent experiences, the answer is yes!  It has!  The Savior knows exactly what we need and when we need it because he has taken upon him our pains, infirmities and grief.