Mormon Lives Matter

Weds, 7/28/2021 I was tired from staying up late today, working very hard (calls, selling, invoicing, follow up calls, pricing, customer services, monitoring CTM calls, texts, labeling CTM calls, monitoring jobber Texts, rescheduling etc, doing the workout (235 lbs sumo deadlift & leg day). I decided to list to a Classic BYU Speech and at first was bored listening to this one:  https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/george-w-pace/developing-personal-relationship-savior/ But an urging, my conscience and the holy ghost told me to keep listening, because I needed to hear this. (After moving the Cardenas, 4.5 hrs sweating my butt off, cleaning the kitchen, mowing the lawn, just was exhausting). I was feeling depressed and mentally, spiritually drained. I was feeling some resentment toward the Cardenas that they rarely come to 2nd hr and don't seem engaged in the 'wrestle' with Christ. I don't want to feel that resentment and frustration.  I'm grateful I listened to that urg...

FANOS is a great framework for intimate conversations. Especially between spouses, accountability partners and sponsors and even prayers and meditations. I wish I would have learned this acronym years ago. What are you FEELING?  Express AFFIRMATIONS/APPRECIATION. What do you NEED? Take OWNERSHIP.  Are you SOBER? Detailed definition:  F eelings: Share with your partner a feeling you experienced today. A ffirmations/ A ppreciations : Affirm your partner for who he/she is and tell him/her something you appreciate that he/she has done today. This is “you are _____” and “I appreciated it when you _____.” N eeds: State a need you currently have (not necessarily one that must be met by your partner). This could be a need you just recognized or one you have mentioned before that still has not been met. Don’t skip this one. Sometimes you may have to think for a minute before you can think of what you need you can share. O wnership: Take responsibility and apologize...

After tonight's recovery meeting, Cam asked me some questions about why I wasn't feeling connected to God. I want to feel like I want to pray and connect to God. I just don't want to. It's easily to be distracted with a RA Salvatore book, ps4 game, etc. I prayed on the way home with Dawson in the car. I felt the words when I was about to sit down to kneel and pray and that I would get comfort. And out of that prayer I wanted to pray for people in group and text people notes of gratitude. Thank you Cam, Mike, Austin, Renae, Dawson and God. 

Ken Wilber makes a great distinction in the book meeting the shadow. He says quote projection on the eagle level is very easily identified if a person or thing in the environment informs us, we probably aren't projecting, on the other hand, if it affects us, chances are that we are a victim of our own projections. And quote. If you truly understand this you will never see the world the same way again. Think about it this way. If someone walks by you and spits on the sidewalk and you notice but don't react, it probably isn't something you need to work on. But if you get upset and think, how could someone be so uncouth and disgusting?, then you are projecting.

You will need information, too, but in matters of great consequence it is not likely to come unless you want it urgently, faithfully, humbly. Moroni calls it seeking “with real intent” ( Moroni 10:4 ). If you can seek that way, and stay in that mode, not much that the adversary can counter with will dissuade you from a righteous path. You can hang on, whatever the assault and affliction, because you have paid the price to—figuratively, at least—see the face of God and live.

This is from the book The Dark Side of the light Chasers by Debbie Ford. In Love and Awakening John Welwood uses the analogy of a castle to illustrate the world within us. Imagine being a magnificent castle with long hallways and thousands of rooms. Each room represents a different aspect of yourself and is an integral part of the entire perfect castle. Your castle was full of light, love and wonder. As a child you embraced every room whether it was a closet, a bedroom, bathroom or a cellar. Then one day someone came to your castle and told you that one of your rooms was imperfect; that surely it didn't belong in your castle. They suggested that if you wanted to have a perfect castle you should close and lock the door to this room. Since you wanted love and acceptance you quickly closed off that room. More people came to your castle to give you all their opinions of the rooms which they liked and which ones they didn't like; you closed doors because you were afraid when you tho...

Building a strong testimony is just like growing a garden, we can't force it. Like Teancum did! Alma 52:6 " But he kept his men round about, as if making preparations for war; yea, and truly he was preparing to defend himself against them, by  a casting  up walls round about and preparing places of resort." Basically like going to the gym and getting ripped it takes focus and time. And if you stop going to the gym? (I stopped going to the gym for a week and a half and I lost 9 lbs. Of muscle.) Here's a positively down to earth quote: I believe many of us unknowingly accept a faulty assumption about the Lord’s pattern. And this faulty assumption then produces erroneous expectations about how we receive spiritual knowledge. And that faulty assumption and our misinformed expectations ultimately hinder our ability to recognize and respond to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Let me suggest that many of us typically assume we will receive  an  answer or  a  pro...