{Smart}

Sometimes, I feel really smart. I'm not gonna lie! But I had to share this thought that I had.

So, last Sunday was our ward conference at Church. So the Bishop and the Stake President spoke. I am probably one of a few in our stake that have known the Stake President my entire life. Honestly, I bet my family is closer to him than our own Bishop. I love Bishop Johnson and am not belittling him in any way. But "Back in the day" before my Bishop even really lived in our ward boundaries, my dad was in the Bishopric with my now Stake President's Father. Because of how long my family has lived in the same house, and with this part of Layton basically being a "Love Family Reunion" we seem to know them pretty well. Because of this, I have enjoyed listening to him as a stake president. Just because I know him on such a personal level as well. 

Anyway, during President Loves' talk, he quoted this scripture found in 

St Luke 22:31

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:"

But the JST is very important here where it says "Satan hath desired you, that he may sift the children of the kingdom as wheat"

One cool thing to think about is house our names should fit into that scripture. I should read it "And the Lord said, Heidee, Heidee, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."

I love this, it shows such protection from the Lord.

But here is where my wheels started turning, and I had a "lightbulb" moment. 

The Lord is referring to us as wheat here. What is the first other scripture that you think of when you hear the word "wheat" 

For me, it is the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.

{Quick overview of the parable}

A farmer's servants plant a field of wheat. And enemy comes in the night and plants tares in with the wheat. Because you can't tell the difference between the two until they are basically grown, they don't notice. Then when the wheat and tares are mixed together, the servants want to dig out the tares. But because of the damage that it would cause to the wheat they are instructed to wait until harvest day and pick the wheat out first, and then the tares. This is a big 'ol reference to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

But hear this.

The Lord says that Satan is going to sift us like wheat. When sifting flour, we are letting all the fine and "good" pieces fall through the sifter while the "bad" stuff all remains on top. 

This is what I think. Satan isn't going to try and change us into a tare. He is just going to find all the bad stuff that could be in the wheat and have us become that bad stuff.

It is important for us to use the Lord and His atonement so that we can make it back and truly 

"Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work."  (D&C 10:5)

Until Next Time...

Peace & Blessings. :)

{What is this??}

So. I just have to say. I have no idea what has happened. I don't remember Utah randomly being moved to the Midwest. But, why did we have the freezing rain storm? I don't find it funny. Actually, I find it quite scary. Ha. So get home from school yesterday, and I had no real problems with the roads or walking around campus all day. But then, I go to pull into my driveway, and my car won't go up. So i'm like, FINE and park in the street, which is way less icy. But then as i try to walk up my driveway in wedge heel boots. I realize that isn't going to happen very easily. So. I take my shoes off. Successfully walk up the driveway, and walk into my house with freezing cold feet.
Such is life, right?
Until Next Time....
Peace & Blessings

{It's smee!}

Before I start this post, I found this title, very cleaver! hahaha! From Hook?? So funny! :) Anyway, I have decided a new post "series", for lack of better word, that I am going to write. :) This is going to be posts about me. I know I have written a few in the past, but these are going to be more "Random Facts." I came up with the idea because at work, I would say "random fact number 32 about Heidee."
Then, I thought, hum, I should actually make a list! hahaha. But of course, I can't think of everything at once. So here is a first few that I can think of right now. :)

Random Facts of Heidee :)

1.  I do not like Chocolate covered cherries.

2.  I do not like cinnamon. Not even cinnamon bears.

3.  The only mint chocolate that I like are Andie's mints

(Apparently chocolate sounds good. ;))

4. I am no officially a Psych-o-holic! Seriously, it's ridiculous!

5.   I could eat my weight in funyuns. mmm, delish!

Well, those are the few today.

Toodles.

(Speaking of Hook.)

Until Next Time..

Peace & Blessings.

{Kicks & Giggles}

Here is my funny picture for the week.

Hahaha! :) so true!

{Seek learning, even by study and also by faith}

Doctrine and Covenants 88:118

I have been having an amazing time in Institute this semester, and it has only been a couple weeks! Weeeoo! :) I am taking two institute classes. The first is a Parables of Jesus class, and the second is the second half of the Old Testament. Both are with the same teacher, whom I adore. 

I am going to share a couple of lessons, one from each class, that really hit home with me.

The Parable that I loved was "The Seed Growing by itself." It is found in Mark 4:26-29.

Really short. 

{That is one thing that I love about this class. The reading assignments are really easy. Whereas, the old testament, you are reading like two books in the old testament!}

Anyway, this parable is teaching that once the seed is planted, there is nothing you can do that will force it to grow. It has to grow on its own. This really hit home with me because of an experience with sharing the gospel I had. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I share the gospel, I feel like I have utterly failed. Anyone else feel this way? They don't seem to get it and I get frustrated that these things all make sense, and there is nothing I can do to make them understand. It was two days later, that I had this lesson in my parables class. It is my job to plant the seed. Then, I have to let the seed grow. Nothing I do or say is going to make it grow.  This lesson had taught me that I need to be patient with those who are seeking the gospel, because it could be years before the seed grows.  But when that seed produces fruit, how sweet will it be to see that testimony and pure joy that came from that one little seed. 

A good quote that came from class actually came from the Visiting teaching message this month.

"The Lord entrusts a testimony of truth to those who will share it with others. . . Even more, the Lord expects the members of His church to 'open their mouths at all times declaring His gospel with the sound of rejoicing'(D&C 28) Sometimes a single phrase of a testimony can set events in motion that affects someone's life for eternity."

Now, onto the Old Testament class, I seriously love the old Testament, and I find it odd a lot of the time, but I seriously love it.

The lesson that I needed was on The book of Job. 

For those who don't know the story, Job is a book that's time frame is not known.  Many people think that it is just a story and that Job didn't really exist. But we know this isn't true, because Christ would say to others "You have not yet become like Job." I really don't think that Christ would say this about a person that wasn't real. 

Anyway, Job was a rich man that loved the Lord. Christ sends all kinds of trials to Job. These included: taking away his riches, killing his kids, giving him nasty boils and wormy skin and terrible illness, nightmare and no sleep, temptation, confusion, placed in the hands of the wicked, hated by his friends, and losing all of his possessions. 

Pretty intense right?

Never once did Job say anything against God. And when his friends came and told him the he must have done something wrong, he still said nothing against God. 

There are four reasons, that we discussed, why we receive trials or hardships.

1.  Because of sins (Sometimes, our actions have a negative consequence)

2. Because of Weakness (our humanly bodies can't always receive blessings)

3. Physical (We can't do things sometimes because of our physical beings)

4.  Free Agency of others (Sometimes someone else's choices affect us)

This lesson was one that I needed, because I know that it is something that I should work on.  My goal this semester is to become more like Job. I want to fully trust and rely on the Lord. Because He is my salvation.

Here is a quote from this lesson, found in Richard G. Scott's talk in the 1995 October General Conference.

"This life is an experience in profound trust-trust in Jesus Christ, trust in His teaching, trust in our capacity as led by the Holy Spirit to obey those teachings for happiness now and for a purposeful, supremely happy eternal existence. To trust means to obey willingly without knowing the end from the beginning (See Prov. 3:5-7). To produce fruit, your trust in the Lord must be more powerful and enduring than your confidence in your own personal feelings and experience."

It is amazing to me to see all of the things that the Lord has put in my life to help me grow and come closer to him.

I am grateful for the blessing of Institute.

Until Next Time..

Peace & Blessings. 

{Thoughts}

Today has been a very interesting day. Weber State University closed for a snow day. Weird. They NEVER close campus. I like to think it is because the people that go to school there are made of steel. Even with that, they receive even higher calves of steel after walking up the hills.  But... It's probably because this whole "Gandolf" storm is the real deal. Even with WSU closing, and all of Davis County School Districts plus being closed, I still had to go to work. This may seem like your average sob story, but I just don't feel that this is logical. Why can't everywhere have a snow day? I guess people don't have any provisions for things like this, I myself have been to WalMart twice in the past two days. But it would have been nice to not have to drive to Ogden to wait on maybe..... fifteen tables in eight hours. I think that it would be wonderful for everyone to have a day off.
Anyway, I was reading facebook today and one of my friends was asking the facebook world what they wanted her to blog about. This got me thinking that I might want to do the same. Actually try and have a plan for this blog. I used to write a happy picture post, a weekly book report post, and then other random ones. I think that now I will post about the week, my spiritual life lessons learned during the week, the happy picture,  then maybe some other posts.
I just like the idea of having a plan for the blog. Lets see how long I can do this!
Until Next Time...
Peace & Blessings! :)

{Sometimes...} I babble.

Today is one of those days where I just felt like writing a blog post. So here I am, Blogging..
Can you believe that it is already 2013? I can remember 2002, like it was yesterday. I was in 4th grade. The Olympics were in Salt Lake City. This of course, was just shortly after the twin towers had been attacked, which I can remember like it were yesterday as well. And now, here I am. A junior in college, A high school diploma and an Associates degree in my pocket {figuratively of course. If they were in my pocket, that would be weird.}
Have you ever looked at life like this, a list of accomplishments? I find that when I look at life like a bunch of awards, that it seems like very little has happened. That I haven't really accomplished all that much. Life has just flown by, and sometimes I begin to wonder what I have to show for it.
When I begin to get discouraged about this, the things that would make a girl sad anyway begin to pile on top of me until it feels like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. Being a girl my age, in the state that I live, it is hard to not feel that I am utterly behind when it comes to life. Many of my friends are either, pregnant, married, engaged, or seriously dating someone. And then, Here am I. Sitting at home looking at my associates degree wondering if I have gone down some sort of wrong path. That I was supposed to do something different with my life.
As I was writing this, I was reminded of a picture than an Institute teacher recently posted on facebook.

I may not be married, I may not be seriously dating anyone, and I may not have a 4.0 grade point average in college. But, there is one thing that I have done, which is began to recognize the spirit and act on personal revelation. Sometime praying and acting on the spirit is hard. One can begin to wonder if it is really the spirit talking to them, or them just wanting to do something.
Me, I am personally grateful that I can receive revelation, and act on it. It is something that I hold dearly to me, and I hope that I will only grow closer to my Father in Heaven by doing so.

That is my babble for the week. :)
Until Next Time..
Peace & Blessings.