[such a good message for all the girls]

I thought it took guts to sing this song in the American Idol competition. The world/entertainment industry tells us women/girls that we need to dress provocatively to be noticed by the opposite sex or to be popular. The so called "stars" (such an unfitting name to people who so often don't radiate light) seem to compete with each other who can show more skin and get away with it. "Please look at me and my amazing body" is the message we get bombarded with every day. To me, modesty is way more sexy. It shows that the person has confidence and that they're not self centered.   

I love that the singer, Spencer, is a cute, young guy and that he felt strongly enough about the message of this song to sing it during the competition. Way to go Spencer and way to go all of you women and girls who dare to be modest in today's "show it all" world. It takes bravery to go against the popular choices of the world.

[an amazing man!]

I absolutely, completely, totally love this talk by Elder Holland! 
(click the link to read the talk)

Elder Holland is one my most favorite people on earth. I love him so dearly even though I have never met him. He has taught me so much! I love how humble he is. He is always willing to share his "I'm not perfect" moments for our edification. Look how far he has come! He wasn't an Apostle when he gave this talk (he was ordained as an Apostle in 1994) but he was one in the making. I couldn't imagine a more caring, loving, kind person. I can picture the Savior in my mind when I think of him.

Maybe I should start an Elder Holland Fan Club...

Love him!

[blows my mind!]

[source: found on Pinterest]

Moses 1:33

And worlds without number have I created...

[another great book]

Yes, I often have multiple books on the go. :)

This book has a chapter on 52 questions in the Book of Mormon. I was reading about the question "Have ye inquired of the Lord?" last night and I like what it says about how sometimes when we ask God something, He doesn't give a "yes" or "no" answer but kind of leaves us to figure it out on our own. Here's a quote from the book:

"But what about a yellow light? What about when we pray and do not receive a clear "yes" or "no"? We may receive a "maybe" answer - or no response at all. Does that mean the Lord doesn't care about us or that the question we are struggling with is not important enough for Him to guide us? Although we often interpret "yellow light" answers [versus red or green light] in this way, those may not be the messages God intends. Instead of viewing a yellow light answer as evidence that God is distant and doesn't care about us or our concerns, one possibility is that we may view it as evidence that God trusts us. We've made good decisions before, and He knows we can make good decisions again. Other possibilities are that perhaps the Lord wants us to gather more information or that the timing is not right.

Elder John H. Groberg taught, "Because the Lord knows we need the growth, He generally does not point out the clear direction. But if a decision is wrong, He will let us know - we will feel it for sure. I am positive of that. So rather than saying, 'I will not move until I have this burning in my heart,' let us turn it around and say, 'I will move unless I feel it is wrong.'"

Here are couple more quotes from the "Soft-Spoken Parent" book:

[omit anger from your life]

I have only read one chapter of this book so far but I can already tell this will be one of my favorite books ever. 

As parents, we often justify our angry outbursts towards our children when they aren't listening or if they aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing.

But anger does NOT help our children to respond positively and it really is just a destructive way to force our children to "do what they are told".

There is a much better way and this book shows you how.

The gospel way is ALWAYS the best way. Always.

Here is just one quote to start with but I'm sure I will be sharing many more in the future.

"Experience teaches me that when I have been angry, I am quite sure I did not have the Holy Ghost, and I was not in any proper condition to administer reproof. It took me quite a long while to learn that. When I became excited, fanatical, and over-zealous, I mistakenly thought it was the Spirit of the Lord, but have learned better, as the Holy Ghost does not operate that way. My testimony is that the internal fruits of the Holy Ghost are joy, peace, patience, long suffering, and kindness."

J. Golden Kimball

One more:

[more charity hearts]

Here are the next CHARITY HEARTS.

Just copy and paste the photos into a Microsoft Word document and print them out on card stock to be used in Family Home Evening or any other lesson.

[banner]

A free banner to print out. My gift to you.

How to use my freebies.

You can make the banner as large or small as you wish. I formatted three columns on a Microsoft Word document = 9 flags on a page (margins: 0.3"). You can print these on colorful card stock too.

Just print out the flags, use a paper cutter to cut them out, fold the top edge under, snip away the little triangles that show from behind, tape the flags to some cotton yarn. I like my banners simple but you can embellish the banner as much as you'd like.

I use painter's tape to attach these on the wall so the paint doesn't peel off.

Bonus: President Hinckley's 6 B's + his extra 3 B's. I was trying to find the source for the extra B's but wasn't successful. But here is the talk about the 6 B's:

President Hinckley's 6 B's talk

["Valentine's Day theme" FHE]

February is all about LOVE, right? I made these hearts for our Family Home Evening. These are just the first ones. I'll come and add the rest as I'll make them. We'll be talking about LOVE all month.

Tonight we talked about how it is a commandment to love everyone, not just "a friendly suggestion". Then we read 1 Corinthians 13: 1-4 and talked about in detail what each aspect of charity means. We'll do the rest of the charity (=LOVE) verses during next FHEs, plus other LOVE themed scriptures and stories.

Tonight we ended the discussion with this scripture from Moroni 7. We talked about how there are two things we can do to acquire charity:

1. Pray to Heavenly Father with all the energy of heart to be filled with this kind of love.

2. Be a true follower of Jesus Christ.