Prone to Leave the God I love

Ever felt like this guy?  This is probably how it will be when I get back from my mission and see my parents again.  Big embrace of a hug.  My mom might tell me to get a haircut if it's like this guy's hair though.  Nice mullet!  Oh yeah! Business in the front, party in the back!  I got this from the church website. :)  I have fun sometimes.  I hope this made you laugh.  Laughing is healthy.

Before this life we lived with God.
After this life we will meet God.

This life is the ONLY TIME in our existence that we are separated from God.  We can feel him near when we pray.  We can feel His spirit when we read from the scriptures or when we are at church, but we are not physically with God.

Prone to wander Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.  Here's my heart, O take and seal it.  Seal it for thy courts above.

This is the chorus to one of my favorite songs, "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing."  As I wrote the title, I couldn't help but write the next line.  "tune my heart to seek thy grace."

check this out!                           

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor 

daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, 

bind my wandering heart to thee

CHORUS:

Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love!
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above!

My knowledge of the Plan of Salvation has helped me understand that I came here to receive a body and to make choices.  Although I am separated from my Heavenly Father for a time, I can feel him near me when I make righteous decisions.  When I make choices that my Heavenly Father would not want me to make, I feel separated from Him even more.  I feel I am as a sheep and "wander" from the fold of God.  I am so glad I have come to the knowledge of a Savior who gave his life, so I could get up, brush off, and try again to live a Christlike-life.   If YOU have ever felt like you have wandered from the fold of the Good Shepherd, then please... please know that you are loved and invited to come back.  There is a way back.  It is the only way back and I highly suggest it.  Seek out the Savior.  Learn what faith, repentance and forgiveness really are.  I know that the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and because of it, we can return to God again.

Alma says: God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.  (Alma 42:23)

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.  (Articles of Faith 1:3)

All mankind includes you. :)  I invite you to listen to the Holy Ghost which God gives us because He loves us.  Listen to His promptings.  Listen to... the MISSIONARIES! :)  I love being a missionary.

This is my invitation to all.  God loves you.  Sometimes when life gets rough, it makes it harder to feel His love... but sometimes God allows life to get rough, so we can turn to Him... humble ourselves... and choose to trust Him in all things and feel of the love He has for us.  

If you feel "prone to wander," keep trying to come back.  You can.

We will meet God again.  Of this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

-Elder Matthew H. Hart

Dano's Dinosaur: A Christmas Story

The Story of Dano's Dinosaur has been in my family since before I was born... because it happened to my parents before I was born.  It makes me cry almost every time I read it.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Dano’s Dinosaur

Trevor and I had been married almost a year, and we lived in a run down apartment building in South Orem, both students. The church had asked us to be Primary teachers of the seven year olds. These kids were beautiful, smart, good hearted, fun loving, clean, well dressed, loving, sweet little children and we adored them all. We had a set of identical twin girls, 2 boys and 3 other girls. 

As I prepared to give them our Christmas lesson, I worried and thought about what I could give them for a gift. We didn’t have any money to buy them anything, but I had everything I needed to make them each a sock puppet kit. In a paper bag I assembled a colored sock, used but in good shape, yarn, buttons, and instructions. I stapled the bags up, added a bow and name tag, and brought them to our Primary Class, aware that it was a very modest gift. I hoped the children might enjoy making the puppet anyway. As they filed in, I noticed we were missing one of the children, who had gone visiting out of town for the holiday.

Then in walked Dano. He had a long mop of wavy, light brown hair, and was dressed surprisingly. His jeans had holes in the knees, and his converse sneakers had a hole in one of the toes. It was WINTER. There was snow outside! Brrr, I thought. Everyone was introduced to Dano, and we settled down for our lesson. I loved observing the children with Dano, who didn’t seem to notice what he was wearing, or judge him in any way. They just accepted him. I watched with interest as he eyed the sad little "presents" I had invented. 

After the lesson and prayer, I passed out the presents as the children left one by one. Dano waited patiently as I rearranged to have his name on the tag. 

As I gave him the small brown sack, his reaction was something I will never forget! "Oh, thank you so, so much! I didn’t think I was going to get anything at ALL for Christmas! Thank you!" He wrapped his arms around my waist, and gave me a spontaneous hug. Then he stepped back and did something so sweet and unexpected: The boy reached into his worn jeans pocket to retrieve the small treasure he had brought from home with him. He held out his hand, and smiled huge, "Here! This is for YOU! Merry Christmas!" On the palm of his little hand lay a small, green, plastic dinosaur. 

It was all he had with him, and he wanted me to have it. He wanted to give ME something! Such a small, humble gift, from a little boy, in ragged clothes, yet he gave it with all his heart, in a spirit of giving. It was such an incredibly sweet moment. His gratitude for my simple offering, and his genuine desire to reciprocate, touched me deeply.

That year, Trevor and I had a miniature Christmas Tree. I had nothing to top it, so out of scraps of fabric, gold curling ribbon, and stuffing, I made a small angel, and drew a little face for her. She stood atop the Christmas tree as I tied a thin, white silk ribbon around the green dinosaur, under its front legs, and hung him next to her, and we have had him on our tree every year since.

We alerted the Church Leaders of the needs we saw, after finding out he and his two older sisters resided in a tiny hotel room, with one bed, and a tiny kitchen. The single mother family had fallen on very hard times. She was wheel chair bound, in a cast up to her hip. For Christmas, the girls wanted Trapper Keepers, like the other children all had at school. We found a few toys for Dano, and the Relief Society went to see how they could help. 

And so, our Ward embraced this struggling family in a spirit of love and service. The children received church clothes, and other physical needs were met. After several weeks, we went to the hotel to check on them. They had moved on.

Twenty three years later, we still unpack the ornaments, and the one our children most want to find and hang on the tree is the small, green dinosaur. It looks like a platypus, or harmless herbivore. They have enjoyed hearing the story of a little boy who had nearly nothing, but gave everything he had with him. He brought the dinosaur for security, to a meeting where he was unsure how he would be received. I am so very blessed that he came to MY class, and can honestly say that I instantly loved him as much as the others: little Dano, with the huge heart, and a ready gift!

Christ came, too, as a little child, to await finding how He would be received. He was born in the humblest of circumstances, and it was He, the Christ, who gave everything he had with him: His love, teachings, His healing power, and His very life. Some of us may feel we have very little, and may be overwhelmed with problems and trials. It is this Christ who will never leave us, who will bless us with His love and peace, despite our circumstances, and even bless us with miracles, if we will but have faith and look to Him always. If we feel hopeless, we must check what our hope is anchored in. For true and lasting hope, we can reach out to the only sure anchor, our never changing, eternally loving Savior. I bless the day Dano taught me how to give like Him.

That's an actual picture of Dano's dinosaur that we still hang up on the Hart Family Christmas tree every year.  I hope you all liked that story!  Go ahead, print it off, and read it to your family when everyone's gathered. :)

People are... Human?

We all make mistakes.  Simple as that.  I, myself, have made millions of them throughout my short lifespan of twenty-some years...

Shocking, right?

Mistakes are made, feelings are hurt, some choice words are said, then someone goes home with a knot stuck in their throat and a feeling that they've been wronged.
 
Accepting that truth has been something that I have had some difficulty with throughout my  life.

Let me clarify; I've tried to make a distinction between a person and their actions, President Monson puts it pretty well in this Mormon Message below-

We don't know the reason a person did the things he or she did unless they explicitly tell us.  We don't know their circumstances and feelings(completely).  We can make guesses, but we don't honestly know.  I know I've jumped to an entirely wrong conclusion before(many times :(...). 

"So be kind regarding human frailty—your own as well as that of those who serve with you in a Church led by volunteer, mortal men and women. Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we."[Emphasis Added]

-Jeffrey R. Holland, "Lord, I Believe"

Even when people do things for a malicious reason, I've tried to think about the bright side of things, after all, as Jeffrey R. Holland puts it-

Soul Writing

I'm a soul writer.
You're a soul writer.

In some way shape or form, we all just want to write down the things in our hearts.  We want to share it with others.  we want others to understand why these things are important to us.

    That's why I'm making this blog.

I want to share what I believe.  I want you to understand why it's important to me.  You may not accept the things I write; That's okay.

    Like Nephi(A Prophet from The Book of Mormon) wrote,

    "And upon these I write the things of my soul...  For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them... Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart Pondereth continually upon the things I have seen and heard..."  -Full Reference-

These things mean a lot to me.  I want you to know that.

Hopefully, I don't become a 'Sole' writer, where my writing is simply thrown on the metaphorical ground to be walked upon, left in the dirt, where the only ones who truly appreciate this are the soles of the feet that walk upon it.  Nephi (the same guy) was worried about this too.  So he included a couple of verses in his record, which I will put in the context of this blog...

    "Nevertheless, I do not write anything [in this blog] save it be that I think it be sacred...  For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet... I say, trample under their feet, but I would speak in other words-  They set [them] at naught, and hearken not..."   -Full Reference-

I know you can gain something from this blog.

It might be inspiration, you might be going through a hard time.  It might be knowledge, you might just be curious as to what goes on in my head, it might be uplifting, you may have an insight that helps you in your day to day life.

In the end, reading this will be what you make of it.  I invite you to, if nothing else, pay attention to the thoughts and feelings you have while reading.

That's all I ask.