Love Heals

I have recently started a lecture series from the Teaching Company called The Science of Natural Healing. I really like it so far, it is taught by a cardiologist at the Scripp's Center for Cardiology. She has so year talked about what integrative and holistic medicine mean, that it is not alternative, not using any western medicine, but instead it is more of a bridge integrating Ayrvedic and Chinese medicines as well as herbalogy and homeopathy and other healing models. She has said a ton of really good things I don't have time to recap here, but in explaining her change from being a regular doctor, making a diagnosis and prescribing a drug to treat the symptom, she now sees herself more as a healer who wants to take a look at the whole person. She sakes questions and learns not only about their physical state but also their emotional, mental and spiritual states. She said that when she approaches her patients with love and acceptance instead of from a place of judgment, true healing can happen. She takes the people from wherever they are and goes from there. The person's sense of community is also very important to overall health and peace of mind. I am really enjoying this course so far, I've only gotten through 4 lectures. It feels so good to do this sort of thing again! I just listen while I pack, it's working out pretty well. I love learning! Here's the link: (blogger is acting up like crazy on my ipad, no paragraphs, won't let me put the cursor where I want, I like blogging from my ipad cause it's easy, I may be moving to Wordpress soon, sorry about the link, it is from the the teaching company. Wwwe.teach12.com

Robert D Hales Conference talk

Another winner-- this one is on patiently waiting upon the Lord-- great perspective:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/waiting-upon-the-lord-thy-will-be-done?lang=eng

Here are some of my favorite parts:

Why such terrible tribulation? To what end? For what purpose?

As we ask these questions, we realize that the purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures give us an answer in one simple phrase: we “wait upon the Lord.”12 Tests and trials are given to all of us. These mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His Son. He already knows, and we have the opportunity to learn, that no matter how difficult our circumstances, “all these things shall [be for our] experience, and … [our] good.”13

What, then, does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and to trust. To hope and trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.

In my life I have learned that sometimes I do not receive an answer to a prayer because the Lord knows I am not ready. When He does answer, it is often “here a little and there a little”33 because that is all that I can bear or all I am willing to do.

Elder Uchtdorf's talk

Fourth and finally, please understand that what you see and experience now is not what forever will be. You will not feel loneliness, sorrow, pain, or discouragement forever. We have the faithful promise of God that He will neither forget nor forsake those who incline their hearts to Him. Have hope and faith in that promise. Learn to love your Heavenly Father and become His disciple in word and in deed.

Be assured that if you but hold on, believe in Him, and remain faithful in keeping the commandments, one day you will experience for yourselves the promises revealed to the Apostle Paul: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Brothers and sisters, the most powerful Being in the universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a perfect love.

God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him.

Another home run talk. http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/you-matter-to-him?lang=eng

Too bad I can't read and write all day-- gotta get the day moving!

Another Great Conference Talk-- Boyd K. Packer -- following the Spirit

I'm kind of behind in the whole conference discussion, because I really don't pay that close attention during conference mostly because of all the excitement that is constantly around me when all 7 kids are awake. But then afterwards as a I read or listen to the talks, I find these great nuggets of inspiration. This whole talk is great. Every sentence contains great wisdom. I'll just blog about these couple quotes:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/counsel-to-youth?lang=eng

This quote is very comforting to me:

The gift of the Holy Ghost, if you consent, will guide and protect you and even correct your actions. It is a spiritual voice that comes into the mind as a thought or a feeling put into your heart. The prophet Enos said, “The voice of the Lord came into my mind.” And the Lord told Oliver Cowdery, “Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you.”

It is not expected that you go through life without making mistakes, but you will not make a major mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Spirit. This promise applies to all members of the Church.

As I get older, I am better at recognizing the promptings I receive. Especially as I look back on my life, I can see times where I should have recognized promptings better and other times where I am so thankful that I did follow promptings. There have been a couple times where I feel so bad about something, that even though there is no logical explanation for my feeling- I can't do the said thing.

The big one that comes to mind is from my BYU years. It was summer and I had gone down to the Y to finish setting things up and I stopped by my apartment for the year. While I was there looking at it, one of the girls who was living there for summer term asked me if I would trade apartments with her for the fall, her fall apartment was just upstairs. I said sure, because the only roommate I would know was the one I was sharing my room with, and I figured she wouldn't care. On my drive home, I just had a terrible strong feeling that I should not live in the apartment upstairs. It was so strong that I knew that I should either live in the apartment I signed up for, or find a different place to live. I called the girl and told her I wouldn't trade and when it came time to move in, I was very nervous because I had not met any of the other girls yet and I was afraid they really liked that girl and would be sorry that I had taken her place.

It turned out that we all 6 of us got along great. We still get together periodically and keep in touch. My room roommate especially bonded with the other girls in our apartment and that just wouldn't have happened for either of us had we lived with the girls upstairs. That was also the year I met my husband. He came to our apartment because he heard it was the fun place to be and it was. He never ventured to that other apartment. The Lord really was watching out for me and now that I can look back, when I get that bad feeling I know it is the Holy Ghost warning me about something. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what it is, depending on how strong it is, but the Holy Ghost truly acts in my life guiding me and helping me as I go along. I definitely get answers to my questions and prayers. It is such a profound blessing in my life.

I also loved this quote:

You may in time of trouble think that you are not worth saving because you have made mistakes, big or little, and you think you are now lost. That is never true! Only repentance can heal what hurts. But repentance can heal what hurts, no matter what it is.

We have a tendency to get down on ourselves when we are not perfect and I know people who feel they are too far gone to even try to take advantage of the atonement. I wish everybody knew what I know-- that God loves us and wants us back no matter what. His time was spent among sinners when He was on the earth, and it is never too late to come unto Him. He loves us and He will help us no matter how good or bad we are as long as we let him. He will take us from wherever we are and help us get better little by little- He won't make us do more than we can. He is perfect and He loves us.

Great Quote

Pondering a passage of scripture can be a key to unlock revelation and the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope, and a restoration of confidence in one’s ability to overcome the challenges of life. They have potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior. They can accelerate physical healing.

Richard G Scott October 2011 conference

I love the scriptures and I love this quote. I have found it to be true in my own life. I think when we have emotional challenges- heartache, fear, sadness, depression-- the scriptures can lift us and remind us that the Lord loves us and is watching over us and things will be O.K. even though we can't see how. This lifts our spirits and encourages us to reach outside of ourselves which in turn helps us put our own feelings in perspective. The scriptures have been my guiding light throughout my life- that where I turn for peace, solace and understanding. I like the idea of that they can accelerate physical healing. I believe it, because when we are happy we are less likely to get sick and more likely to get better. Reading the scriptures makes us happy and encourages us to do more things that make us happy!

LDS General Conference-- Elder Anderson's talk

What little bits of conference I caught today amidst our weekly 5 soccer games and playing catch up in the kitchen and making lunch and helping kids with math, was all very good. But Elder Neil L Andersen's talk made me cry. He talked about how we should not delay having a family and we shouldn't limit the size of our families and of course how it is a personal decision and we shouldn't judge each other, it is very personal. He also talked about how we need to support families and help each other and love each other in this endeavor and how children are precious gifts.

Having a large family is hard. The prevailing attitude I see from so many people in and out of the church is that it is too hard to be worthwhile, and they wonder why anybody would want to subject themselves to that endeavor. There is little time for anything besides just taking care of the immediate needs of these little people in a large family. It is nice when I am around people who appreciate what I'm doing and support me rather than mock me or subtly make things more unpleasant or difficult than necessary. A smile of support is really all I need, and it was very nice to have a vote of confidence thrown my way from the top leadership of the church. It was nice to hear some words of support, and confirmation that there is a good reason for subjecting myself to so many dependent little children. Thank you, Elder Andersen.

LDS General Conference Oct. 2010

I love listening to conference. It is the voice of reason, truth and happiness in a crazy world. I have to admit that I really don't get much out of it during conference with soccer on Saturday and a bunch of happy kids needing things during the sessions, but I love to relisten to the entire sessions on my mp3 player at night while I tidy up and get ready for the following day.

We did get everybody to sit quietly and listen to Pres. Monson's talk on gratitude. I especially liked this quote found at the Deseret News of his talk:

President Monson asked, "Do material possessions make us happy and grateful?" He answered, "Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, those are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted…. We often take for granted the very people who most deserve our gratitude. Let us not wait until it is too late for us to express that gratitude."

What a wonderful simple reminder of how to find happiness!! Just be grateful for what you have. I am soooooo grateful for my sweet family, my husband, the gospel, our health, my abilities and my friends and many loved ones. It's true, money can't buy any of those things and life would be so empty and lonely without them. Gratitude!!

Great April 2010 LDS General Conference Quote

This one came from Julie Beck, President of the Relief Society, actually quoting Eliza R. Snow, 2nd Pres. of the Relief Society :

… Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due, what matters? We know the Lord has laid high responsibility upon us, and there is not a wish or desire that the Lord has implanted in our hearts in righteousness but will be realized, and the greatest good we can do to ourselves and each other is to refine and cultivate ourselves in everything that is good and ennobling to qualify us for those responsibilities.

I have to admit that I was feeling a little sorry for myself and all the work I have to do to get things to even run semi smoothly and how little appreciation I ever get. This quote changed my whole outlook and I am much happier. What does it matter if I am ever acknowledged for what I do. Lots of people do things and they are never acknowledged. Things have to be done. I just needed to buck up and get to work and stop feeling sorry for myself!! What matters? I feel so much more control too. The harder it is, the harder I have to work, but I can over come-- by the way my twins are getting older and my life is getting a little easier and I do enjoy it!!

Thank you Sister Beck-- you are such an inspiration. I love your talks and your messages!!

Read the whole talk here

General Conference

I thoroughly enjoyed general conference today and yesterday, although it can be hard to get everything and hear everything in those 8 hours (10 hours if you're a priesthood holder) over 2 days especially when there are little ones who need attention and it's just a long time to stay focused with everything else going on. But what I heard, I really liked and enjoyed and my cup was filled.

My favorite talk was from Elder Hales Saturday morning on living within our means and accepting that we can't afford everything we might want. He has a good wife to refuse to allow him to spend their money on her when he really wanted to. What a great example.

I enjoyed all the good examples of righteous living and stories of people choosing the right. The gospel really is so simple and good and straightforward. Something I'm learning is that if a teaching, philosophy or idea claims to have higher knowledge or a new view and better of things, it probably doesn't. There is probably a flaw. If it is hard to grasp or understand, it is probably because it's not right and the presenter has to try to take you down another path in order to accept their strange notion. Anyway, the gospel is not like that. It is simple and true and real and open and easy to understand.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. He loves us. He wants us home. He wants us to be happy. He understands our pain and sorrow. Nothing is too much for Him. He loves us so much, He will help us follow His ways and keep His commandments and get and stay on the straight and narrow path. I am so grateful for this gospel. I am so grateful to have the true church on the earth again. I am so grateful for a living prophet and apostles with so much love and wisdom to direct His church with the proper priesthood authority from God. My heart is full of gratitude and love.

You can watch it for yourself at www.lds.org .

Groetens! Tot Ziens!! (til next time, that's Dutch!)