The Best Thing My Neighbor Saw This Summer

I crossed paths recently with the only neighbor I know. His name is Tim. He said he saw the funniest thing this summer in my backyard. My three youngest children took the recycling bin filled it with water and then crammed themselves into it like a can of sardines. I guess you will resort to anything in the dog days of the Aridzona summer. I must admit I got a bit of a chuckle out of it too.

Crossroads

The entire talk this quote comes from is definitely worth the read:

We stand at the crossroads, each minute, each hour, each day, making choices. We choose the thoughts we allow ourselves to think, the passions we allow ourselves to feel, and the actions we allow ourselves to perform. Each choice is made in the context of whatever value system we've selected to govern our lives. In selecting that value system, we are, in a very real way, making the most important choice we will ever make. Those who believe there is one God who made all things and who governs the world by his Providence will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who hold in reverence that being who gave them life and worship Him through adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who believe that mankind are all of a family and that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who believe in a future state in which all that is wrong here will be made right will make many choices different from those who do not. Those who subscribe to the morals of Jesus will make many choices different from those who do not. [Those who believe they are sons and daughters of God, created in the image and likeness of the Only Begotten Son, will make many choices different from those who do not.] Since the foundation of all happiness is thinking rightly, and since correct action is dependent on correct opinion, we cannot be too careful in choosing the value system we allow to govern our thoughts and actions. And to know that God governs in the affairs of men, that he hears and answers prayers, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, is indeed, a powerful regulator of human conduct.

[Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living, ed. George L. Rogers, 3rd ed. (Eden Prairie, Minnesota: Acorn Publishing, 1996), 88­90]
Changes added by suggestion of Richard C. Edgely

Quotes for My Daughters

Be Loyal to the Royal within you!


"But there is a beauty every girl has, a gift from God as pure as sunlight and sacred as life. It is a beauty that all men love, a virtue that wins all men's souls. That beauty is chastity. Chastity without skin beauty may enkindle the soul. Skin beauty without chastity may enkindle only the eyes. Chastity enshrined in the mold of true womanhood will hold true love eternally."

"The flower by the roadside that catches the dust of every traveler is not the one to be admired and seldom is ever plucked. But the one blooming way up on the hillside, protected by the perpendicular cliff, is the flower with the virgin perfume, the one that the boy will almost risk his life to possess."

–President David O. McKay


"I say to you girls beware of the man who comes to you professing that he loves you and then seeks to destroy and rob you of the most precious thing you have in life. No man loves the girl that he wants to harm, and don't you forget it."

–President Harold B. Lee

"Whenever we live to the best that is in us, we live up to the ideals He gave us."

–Elder Adam S. Bennion

A Favorite Quote

"Those who seek to be offended are easily satisfied."
I do not know who this is attributed to or where I read it. I do know its impact on me is profound. I often alter this to remind myself of greater aims and to recalibrate my thinking, because of this my children often hear me say, "Those who seek to be grateful are easily satisfied." Or, "Those who seek to be happy are easily satisfied." The possibilities are endless.