Since it is mandatory "write in your journal" day at my house (yes we are still doing it~amazing) I will just write about the family mission plan we are working on. I was asked to speak about it from my days as a ward missionary and we went to members homes helping them to develop one for their families. At this time I was using a copy of my BIL's family mission statement and an "invite" program that I talked about before. Using my BIL's statement was especially convenient because I didn't even have to change the name.
On a total side note. Today while taking the sacrament, I had my first piece of bread in 4 days. Jared brought the bread today and the left overs were placed next to me. Surprisingly I was just fine. I thought I may need to rip into the bag and start inhaling the bread, but I didn't. Also my friend that is a total health nut that is so into this juicing and detoxing thing had been giving me a hard time a couple weeks ago. I found enjoyment in teasing her by saying "you know what I did today? Didn't make a nasty green juice and drink it, that's what." Apparently someone ratted me out to her by saying that I had bought a juicer and was doing a detox program. The first thing her husband said to me when he saw me today was "so, guess what I didn't do today, buy a juicer!" Oh snap! Someone will pay. She had so much fun watching me eat my humble pie. I was feeling a bit shaky today from the lack of food and carbs and wasn't sure I should be standing in front of anyone, so I had her on standby. I figured she got me into this mess so she should be the one to get me out of it when I passed out in front of everyone. She was instructed to create a diversion and then get the bread to my mouth stat. Luckily I was fine. Surprisingly, it's true what they say about making it through the 1st 3 days and then life gets better.
Here is the talk I gave this morning for 3rd hour which was combined with the men. I opened it up by talking about one of my favorite apostles. When someone asked Elder Bednar in a training video about achieving success in a certain area with seminary kids he said something awesome (which I'm paraphrasing and hopefully pretty accurate about) "I want to be careful to not be too prescriptive in my answer and instead talk about the principle behind..." this thing that was trying to be achieved. "What works for me, may not work for you." I especially liked this because I fall into the trap of being prescriptive far too often and then find myself getting upset when someone doesn't heed the prescription and then comes back for more. Helping people figure things out for themselves is where true learning happens. It is also the greatest motivator for success.
So, instead of me getting up there and showing our families plan, I gave this talk instead:
For the past 3 years my family has been using the Family Mission Statement that Nathan's oldest brother had made. It was very convenient since it had the same family name. In preparation for speaking today I searched all over the house looking for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I figured that it was about time we repented of our laziness and made our own.
I drew up a rough draft and then presented it to the family. It is important that everyone gives input so that everyone can be committed to the plan. There were some things we changed and some things the kids were given to think about so that when we write up the final draft for FHE they will have participated fully in the process. I also decided to have each of the kids write out a poration of it instead of typing it on the computer in in effort to gain ownership and unity.
I have been studying in the New Testament and learning what it takes and what is expected of a disciple of Christ and who is a disciple. In D&C 88:62 it talks about sanctifying yourselves that your minds become single to God. We decided to make this the foundation of our mission statement.
Last night at the RS broadcast there was a lot of mention of keeping covenants and recognizing when we do so -keeping your mind single to God. As I've been studying the standard works I've come to understand the importance of becoming converted. As we seek not to declare my word but first to obtain my word as found in D&C 11:21 we are sanctifying ourselves. To sanctify is to make holy or set apart for sacred use. We understand more fully the will of God and the promised blessing he has for his children when we seek to obtain the word of God. This will naturally lead us to share the gospel. We need not be ashamed of the gospel as the warning found in Mark by the savior. These times are trying and difficult as the definition of tolerance and love and compassion are being defined not in God's terms, but in Mans. Where are our hearts on doctrines that some take to be hard? Are we fully converted? Do we know how to apply the doctrine. When the doctrine started getting hard is when many of the disciples left Jesus, have we left the path and just dot realize it yet?
My favorite section of D&C right now is 88 and in verse 77-78 it says that we need to teach each other the doctrine
So you can have
His grace attend you
be instructed more perfectly : in theory, principle, doctrine, law of gospel - all things - that you need to understand
things in heaven on earth, wars and contentions etc..
And then "the why" found in 80: that you may be prepared in all things.
There are some great promised blessings right there. It feels like now more than ever we need those blessing to survive the constant attacks by the advesary.
To me the work of salvation is doing good to ALL men continually. I have been thinking a lot about prayer lately and thinking that I should be offering to pray with friends more often. I have a neighbor who has a child that has a mysterious illness and I realized that prayer with her wasn't a form of help that I was offering. President Monson spoke about prayer last night at well. We need to be looking for opportunities to be true friends to those around us. We can be apart of heavenly father blessing his children if we will sanctify ourselves and then ask him through praye where he wants us to go and what he wants us to do. We can be reminding our children and friends of their baptismal covenants by helping them to mourn with those who mourn and build and lift their friends. Bringing the gospel into the lives of our friends both in the church and out of the church. We know from the BOM that the nephites problems were because of the nephites,not the lamanites.
Making our homes a MTC is part of this plan. Taking more seriously the responsibility we have as parents and friends to teach each other the doctrine of Christ and help each other to keep our covenants.
Just like the methods Christ used in healing the sick and lame, we too have the simple easy answers that will bring us the biggest blessings. Don't make having a family mission plan into something far more complicated than it needs to be. Make it into something you can actually achieve. Keep it simple. Break it into simple steps. What is your family committing to do? Is it starting with regular scripture study or prayer, is it role playing, is it inviting someone to a fhe or do you need to start by having the missionaries over for dinner because you haven't had them in your home, are you going to try to serve a certain amount of people in a day, are you going to the temple often or do you need a recommend, have you been neglectful of your VT route- which is missionary work, is your online persona inline with your real self, maybe it is committing to doing FH. Everyone has different talents and abilities that need to be utalized in building up the kingdom of God upon the earth. If you're not sure what yours and your families are, ask. You need to define what actions your family is going to take in being successful at missionary work. Get everyone involved because that is the only way to have a testimony of it and then plaster it around your house so that you are constantly reminded of it so the day will come when you shall see God the Father and be welcomed into his presence having been made clean through the atonement of Jesus Christ -and because you have been about your father's business those you love will be standing there with you -both those you helped on this side and those you helped from beyond the veil.
Because this is also my "journal" of sorts, I can be as prescriptive as I choose. So, above is the rough draft I took to my family. They didn't like "eye" single to God because they didn't feel like that made sense. It didn't matter that I explained it to them, they didn't like it. We chose a different scripture found in section 88 instead that talked about the mind instead of the eye. Now everyone was happy. I came to this little conference with 8 scriptures and notes scribble out on a couple of pieces of paper and I started outlining the new plan. The 2 little ones had no idea what was going on the entire time and kept fighting with each other. Jared had his head on the table and didn't want to contribute. Dad decided to give out some specific assignments for the kids to think about and then when we meet again for FHE we will write out the final product.
Fingers crossed that we can get it all written out tomorrow night and then we will actually use it to sanctify ourselves and keep our minds single to God so we can be the kind of disciples where, we like Ammon, can say:
12 Yea, I know that I am anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will bnot boast of myself, but I will cboast of my God, for in his dstrength I can do all ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
Who doesn't want to be apart of many mighty miracles? To be given strength, abilities and talents that you never thought yourself capable of? To be entrusted to carry out Heavenly Father's purposes and plans? What do you have to do to achieve such a thing? Be covenant and commandment keepers and pray (which was the theme from the RS broadcast last night)
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