When I was a young mother, having one baby after another, people would ask me "how are you going to pay for their college education? I very matter of factly answered "I'm not." I have to say it took a great deal of positive thinking(faith) to have 8 children in todays world. I believed that God wanted me to have all those children and that, if I did what He wanted me to do, He would provide the miracles, and he did.
Our oldest daughter, Renada, lived at home and went to community college and paid the old fashioned way, working and paying her way. She finally finished her associates degree this year after getting married and having 2 children. She had one unfinished class to take. The next oldest, Taerra, also lived at home to save money and went to VCU her first semester. Then we were inspired to move to the little city of Buena Vista, Va. where a new college had been open catering to the LDS community, Southern Virginia University. Taerra moved with us and transfered and worked her way through 31/2 years at SVU. She received several scholarships that made it affordable.
We opened our icecream parlor here and the whole family worked in it. Bekah had spent her first year out of highschool working for the family for no pay so she didn't have money for school. A wonderful and generous man came into our icecream parlor and met Bekah and inquired about school. When he heard what she was doing, he offered to pay for her education at SVU. He made the same offer to our son Nate the next year. This year Tori, who has been working for her father, for pay, and did not go to college her first year out of highschool, will be paying her own way through SVU aided by living at home and earning scholarships.
It never dawned on me that having a large family would cause a problem with them getting a college education.
Now that's the power of positive thinking!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Just let it go
This one will be easier said than done, sometimes you have to bury your sword.
I was reflecting on an uncomfortable situation that I find myself in and beginning to let it bug me.
Once again someone has done one of those things that I really have an issue with. As I was pondering, the story of the converted Lamanites in the Book Of Mormon came to my mind. These people had become a bloodthirsty and wicked people. When they were converted to the truth they knew that they could not wield a sword again because of their “habit” of murder, so they buried their swords.
I know I need to “bury my sword”, but when it’s not a physical thing I find it hard to know how to
JUST LET IT GO!!
I was reflecting on an uncomfortable situation that I find myself in and beginning to let it bug me.
Once again someone has done one of those things that I really have an issue with. As I was pondering, the story of the converted Lamanites in the Book Of Mormon came to my mind. These people had become a bloodthirsty and wicked people. When they were converted to the truth they knew that they could not wield a sword again because of their “habit” of murder, so they buried their swords.
I know I need to “bury my sword”, but when it’s not a physical thing I find it hard to know how to
JUST LET IT GO!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I have decided not to give up
I knew after 90 days I would not necessarily write everyday, but I had a bad experience and I didn’t want to write about , plus it was the first full week of summer vacation. I will just say that I know controlling my thoughts will be a constant lifetime effort and sometimes I will let myself down. I can look back and see progress and I am learning from my mistakes.
I typed In “Positive thinking” on my church’s website and I read part of an article. I came to this comment that reminded me of what I needed to remember in this case.
“Letting go of the belief that we can control another person’s behavior does not mean that we cease to care about that person. Instead, it means that we trust that the Lord loves that person and knows better than we do how to help him. Our task then becomes being open to the Spirit’s promptings in our relationships.”
Jan Underwood Pinborough
Earlier Michaela was watching a Veggie Tales movie and the message was letting go of your anger. It is hard for me to get rid of negative thoughts and feelings when I feel and think someone has let me down. This has been a common theme in my blogs, but I have decided not to give up, so back in the saddle I go.
I typed In “Positive thinking” on my church’s website and I read part of an article. I came to this comment that reminded me of what I needed to remember in this case.
“Letting go of the belief that we can control another person’s behavior does not mean that we cease to care about that person. Instead, it means that we trust that the Lord loves that person and knows better than we do how to help him. Our task then becomes being open to the Spirit’s promptings in our relationships.”
Jan Underwood Pinborough
Earlier Michaela was watching a Veggie Tales movie and the message was letting go of your anger. It is hard for me to get rid of negative thoughts and feelings when I feel and think someone has let me down. This has been a common theme in my blogs, but I have decided not to give up, so back in the saddle I go.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
day 90- think happy, think chocolate
A lesson from Michael McLean:
Close your eyes and count slowly and silently from ONE to TEN.
Any problems? You don’t have to do this in a foreign language. Your native tongue is fine. Just get from 1 to 10 and open your eyes.
Great. Now the second part of this little exercise.
Wait. Before we go to part two, I need to know if you’re familiar with CHOCOLATE. Doesn’t matter which kind of chocolate: Swiss chocolate, dark chocolate, hot chocolate, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate candies, chocolate malted milkshakes. Anything that qualifies as that delicious brown sweet substance that actually forms one of the four major food groups in some people’s diets. If, for dietary reasons you’re unfamiliar with any or all things chocolate, you’re excused from this little test. Okay. We can move on.
Now, for the second part of this exercise, close your eyes and count slowly and silently from ONE to TEN only DON’T THINK ABOUT CHOCOLATE!!! If anything chocolate enters your mind at any time during your counting you have to stop and start over again, beginning at ONE.
You might want to think about something that’s NOT chocolate to keep your mind off chocolate, but this can be a tricky strategy because thinking about that OTHER THING simply reminds you that you’re only focusing on it because you’re not supposed to be thinking about the Chocolate this OTHER THING is meant to distract your from thinking about. Just don’t think about Chocolate. Stop it! If you can’t stop it before you start you’re NEVER going to make it from One to Ten without thinking about anything that melts in your mouth, not in your hands….Ignore that. If you have a marker, go ahead and scratch those lines out. Just don’t use a BROWN one.
Okay, begin.
Why is this taking you soooooo long? You did this effortlessly in Part 1. What happened?
The Official M2BJ Handbook would like to suggest what might have happened. In each case the goal was the same; to count from 1 to10. But when the focus was not on the goal, but on what we weren’t supposed to do while trying to reach that goal, everything became more difficult than it needed to be.
Life can do that to us. Distract us. Become the urgent, demanding, have-to- deal-with-right-now sequence of things that keeps us from CELEBRATING and REJOICING in the little miracles of happiness that are begging for our attention. Remember. Our MISSION is to be “willing to learn” how to celebrate and rejoice the ways we’ve been blessed and find happiness where we haven’t found it before.
Another thing that probably should be highlighted here before we move on is that bit about learning a new language. The language of JOY.
Those of us who are not natural linguists may be concerned about the foreign language required for this mission. Some of us aren’t familiar with the language of JOY while others THINK they know what it sounds like, but they’re wrong.
The language of JOY is not at all the same as what some might call
“happy-speak”. Happy-Speak is really a pseudo-language like pig-latin. It’s a made up way of communicating where someone can pretend the real tragedies and heart aches of the world can be minimized if they just say the correct happy-speak words to make it all okay. On a mission to be happy the REAL happiness we seek to rejoice and celebrate is not found in glossing over and denying the truths of life with our fingers plugged in our ears as we loudly sing, “la la la la la I’m Not Listening”. No, the language of JOY is nothing if not HONEST, tender and kind. The language of JOY is spoken in truth every single moment, with a faith that just because we don’t really understand why something impossibly difficult has happened to us, (or someone we love) pretending we understand when we don’t is a poor substitute for trusting the source of happiness to reveal the answers when we’re truly ready to receive them.
The reason it’s ultimately important to learn the language of JOY is not so much for the benefit of others, but for ourselves. If we can learn to think in this language there’s an excellent chance that we’ll be able to place language of joy descriptions in our hearts and minds of the “real deal” when it comes to happiness.
Close your eyes and count slowly and silently from ONE to TEN.
Any problems? You don’t have to do this in a foreign language. Your native tongue is fine. Just get from 1 to 10 and open your eyes.
Great. Now the second part of this little exercise.
Wait. Before we go to part two, I need to know if you’re familiar with CHOCOLATE. Doesn’t matter which kind of chocolate: Swiss chocolate, dark chocolate, hot chocolate, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate candies, chocolate malted milkshakes. Anything that qualifies as that delicious brown sweet substance that actually forms one of the four major food groups in some people’s diets. If, for dietary reasons you’re unfamiliar with any or all things chocolate, you’re excused from this little test. Okay. We can move on.
Now, for the second part of this exercise, close your eyes and count slowly and silently from ONE to TEN only DON’T THINK ABOUT CHOCOLATE!!! If anything chocolate enters your mind at any time during your counting you have to stop and start over again, beginning at ONE.
You might want to think about something that’s NOT chocolate to keep your mind off chocolate, but this can be a tricky strategy because thinking about that OTHER THING simply reminds you that you’re only focusing on it because you’re not supposed to be thinking about the Chocolate this OTHER THING is meant to distract your from thinking about. Just don’t think about Chocolate. Stop it! If you can’t stop it before you start you’re NEVER going to make it from One to Ten without thinking about anything that melts in your mouth, not in your hands….Ignore that. If you have a marker, go ahead and scratch those lines out. Just don’t use a BROWN one.
Okay, begin.
Why is this taking you soooooo long? You did this effortlessly in Part 1. What happened?
The Official M2BJ Handbook would like to suggest what might have happened. In each case the goal was the same; to count from 1 to10. But when the focus was not on the goal, but on what we weren’t supposed to do while trying to reach that goal, everything became more difficult than it needed to be.
Life can do that to us. Distract us. Become the urgent, demanding, have-to- deal-with-right-now sequence of things that keeps us from CELEBRATING and REJOICING in the little miracles of happiness that are begging for our attention. Remember. Our MISSION is to be “willing to learn” how to celebrate and rejoice the ways we’ve been blessed and find happiness where we haven’t found it before.
Another thing that probably should be highlighted here before we move on is that bit about learning a new language. The language of JOY.
Those of us who are not natural linguists may be concerned about the foreign language required for this mission. Some of us aren’t familiar with the language of JOY while others THINK they know what it sounds like, but they’re wrong.
The language of JOY is not at all the same as what some might call
“happy-speak”. Happy-Speak is really a pseudo-language like pig-latin. It’s a made up way of communicating where someone can pretend the real tragedies and heart aches of the world can be minimized if they just say the correct happy-speak words to make it all okay. On a mission to be happy the REAL happiness we seek to rejoice and celebrate is not found in glossing over and denying the truths of life with our fingers plugged in our ears as we loudly sing, “la la la la la I’m Not Listening”. No, the language of JOY is nothing if not HONEST, tender and kind. The language of JOY is spoken in truth every single moment, with a faith that just because we don’t really understand why something impossibly difficult has happened to us, (or someone we love) pretending we understand when we don’t is a poor substitute for trusting the source of happiness to reveal the answers when we’re truly ready to receive them.
The reason it’s ultimately important to learn the language of JOY is not so much for the benefit of others, but for ourselves. If we can learn to think in this language there’s an excellent chance that we’ll be able to place language of joy descriptions in our hearts and minds of the “real deal” when it comes to happiness.
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