Sunday 6/16/24 Moving Woes, a Major Injury, and My Answered Prayers Lately

Posted on June 16, 2024 by treeoflifemama

Sorry for the lull in blogging. I have been moving! Oh the joys of it all! Not!!!! This post contains some photos of our old place that we have lived in and loved the past almost 4 years. I call it the “Cottage on the Corner” as it was on a huge corner lot. The yard was bigger than the house! I so loved decorating this home. It was the first home I’ve had that I loved to decorate. I just loved the cheery yellow walls and the bright, white kitchen. (We were forced to move because our landlords sold the home. We want to wait to buy again for when we have a 20% down payment, according to Dave Ramsey’s guideline. I wonder if he will change his tune with the astronomical cost of real estate these days.)

A week ago today was our semiannual stake conference. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I get to attend this meeting on two Sundays, about six months apart, each year. I get to gather with the other members of my “stake” (a unit of congregation) which is roughly equal to about 3000 people, I believe. We hear testimony of Jesus Christ and words of encouragement from our stake leaders and fellow members of the stake to continue living Christ’s gospel. Normally, every week, I attend church with a few hundred people from my local congregation, or “ward.” A stake is equal to about 6-8 wards. It’s always interesting to see other people who live in our area in addition to those in our ward. Every stake conference has a theme. This past week’s theme was prayer.

During the stake conference, I heard many stories about answered prayers that I absolutely loved hearing. One of my friends in the ward got to speak. I was sad to hear her story about how as a child, she, her mother, and siblings suffered abuse from her father. She prayed many times for this abuse to stop and it never did until they all moved out. This just hurts my heart. Sometimes, because of other people’s agency to choose, we don’t get the answers to prayers that we want. Another person, a man about my age, shared the story of his prayers not being answered the way he wanted as well. As a young man, when he was 13, his dad announced that he was moving out because he was divorcing the young man’s mother. This broke the young man’s heart and shattered his world. He thought his family was going to be “together forever.” He fasted and prayed multiple times that his parents would get remarried. This never happened. His parents split up, with his younger sister living with his mom and him living with his dad, and the older siblings doing their young adult things, not living with either parent. The young man grew up and said that thirty years later, his prayer was answered in the form of seeing his mom accidentally embrace his dad at the young man’s younger sister’s wedding. His mother thought her ex-husband was the groom’s dad. They hadn’t seen each other in over 10 years. This led to them sitting on the beach talking and laughing the next day, which in a small way, was healing for the man. He also shared that although his parents never remarried, He felt God answering his prayers for help in the form of ward members who ministered to him. He said that every week someone would say “Hi” to him at church and ask how he was doing. He said that his ministering brothers shoveled his sidewalk and driveway every morning at 5 AM during a snowy winter so he could get to swim practice without having to shovel snow. He said that he loves attending church, being a part of a ward family, where he gets to help people feel God’s love by the way he ministers to others in his ward.

All this talk about prayer made me think of my prayers through the years. Of course, I’ve had times when my prayers haven’t been answered in my way. I remember Elder Holland’s quote somewhere (I’m sorry I can’t find it right now) about how a “no” from Heavenly Father is often just a “delayed yes.” I also thought of prayers that have been answered in my desired way. I agree with what was said during the conference, that prayers aren’t always answered in the way we want. God does hear every prayer, however, and He answers them according to His will and timetable.

I’ve been thinking of my prayers involved with our moving during the month of May, which was hard, as all moves are. If a move actually only involved “moving” it wouldn’t be so bad. It’s all the other stuff involved. So may decisions to make every day! I am weary with decision fatigue. So much sorting, dejunking, organizing, packing, and then moving, with cleaning mixed into all of that. That’s on top of the day-to-day ordinary business of living! Then the whole process repeats in reverse order, like some grand universal chiasmus that parallels the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only with new decisions of where to put everything in a whole differently configured home. I’m so grateful for every Sabbath Day I’ve had to give me a rest after every 6 days from the hard work of moving. I’ve decided that if you ever want to torture anyone, just force them in less than a month’s time to move all of their stuff into a new home and leave the previous home spotlessly clean. Fortunately, we had more than month’s time to do it all.

Then there was my accident, which happened on what was supposed to be the last day of “moving.” More on that later. Suffice it to say, I’m so grateful for homeopathy and prayers. I got a black eye, cut lip, and could hardly walk for a day. Plus a sprained thumb which made it hard to squeeze or hold anything in my dominant hand fatter than a tube of lip balm. All on top of moving! I have, however, been healing nicely, and have almost regained all my strength, with almost all the wounds completely healed and almost all the pain completely gone. I have had enough healing and strength in my right hand to unpack and organize which has been a huge blessing. At first, I couldn’t even walk without pain. I needed lots of rest. I’m so grateful I can walk without pain now.

In the move, which involved packing a TON of books, board games, educational supplies and memorabilia,(let’s just say when you are a homeschooling mom with 7 children and over 30 years of marriage, you have a lot of books!, plus binders, flash cards, learning kits, educational toys, journals, art and craft supplies, etc. etc.), I found this book shown above at the top of this post. Providentially enough, this is a book that I received as a hand-me-down when one of my relatives moved over 20 years ago. I remember reading it back then. It totally helped me during that time when I was living in my in-laws’ basement with 5 children and desperately wanting to move out into a home of our own. Seeing this book resurface during the current move reminded me that yes, prayers do have the power to bring about miracles, always in the name of Jesus Christ, the source of all goodness and all miracles. I have seen this happen in my own life for sure. (Partly because of reading that book and with the resultant prayers, we did end up buying a home of our own and moved out.)

Here are some of my answered prayers/miracles lately, mostly involving our latest move:

  1. We, my husband and I, found a house we wanted to move into which was still in our neighborhood but lacked a garage. We wanted to stay in the neighborhood so our son could stay with his friends in our ward. This is the first time that one of our children has had so many close friends in our ward. I value this and didn’t want to disrupt it. I figure three more years until he goes off to college in a house without a garage is a small price to pay for him to stay with close friends. You can’t buy such a great group of young men. So in moving to a home without a garage, we had to buy a shed to store all of our garage stuff. After determining that we wanted to buy a used shed (following the Duggars’ thrifting principle of “buy used and save the difference”), we basically had one week to find a shed, look at the shed to decide its worthiness, take down the shed, transport the shed, and build the shed back up. Then we could move the garage stuff. Then we could move other stuff. Moving from one small home into a different small home is like playing that puzzle game on a grid where there is only spot empty to shift things. Anyway, we prayed we would find a shed. I was able to find a Lifetime 8′ x 20′ shed, 4 years old, less than half the price of a new shed! With the help of my parents, sons, dad and brothers-in-law and nephew’s help, we got that shed down, transported 90 minutes by car, and up in a week!

2. On the appointed night of building the shed, it started raining. I gathered those involved for prayer and prayed that the rain would stop. It did. The men got most of the shed up that night, and then we finished it within the next two days.

3. On one of the last days I had to sort and pack, I felt so overwhelmed. As one of my homeschooling friends has said, when you move, “you hate everything you own!” So true. The amount of stuff I still had to sort though, dejunk and pack still felt endless. That morning, I pled with Heavenly Father to help me. I explained that I really needed help. I felt so overwhelmed! Later that day He sent three friends over who greatly helped me by cleaning and getting the stuff out with a lot of going to Deseret Industries. I felt so blessed! I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The next day, two friends came, then the next day, even more people, this time from my ward, came to help.

4. For months I have been praying that I would find my retainers which I got after getting my braces off over 30 years ago, during my first year of college. Ever since we moved 4 years ago from AZ, they have been missing. I really wanted to start wearing them again at night to prevent any more drifting of my teeth! Where, oh where could they be? I had unpacked every single box of bathroom/medicine cabinet stuff I could think of. They had never turned up. I began to wonder if for some odd reason I had somehow packed them with unrelated things like the huge painting of George Washington in Valley Forge that we had never unpacked. Well last week, on the first day I had after my friends arrived to help me, I was finally attacking the “room of doom.” This was the storage room, the Black Hole of the house, where we had stockpiled boxes of long-term storage, as well as suitcases, bags, seasonal decorations, gift bags, wrapping paper, long term food storage, and random odds and ends. Lo and behold, I opened a big ugly black work bag of my husband’s that he has used on and off for his lawyer job. I had no idea what could be inside. What did I find? A ziploc bag full of an old toothbrush, Boiron homeopathy medicine tubes, and…drumroll please….my retainers!!!! I felt as if the heavens parted and angels were singing above my head!!! I also found our furniture sliders that would have come so in handy the previous week when we had moved a ton of heavy furniture into the new home with a hardwood floor, and a measuring tape, which we had also been looking for! So that long-time prayer I had been praying for months to find my retainers was answered! Apparently, dear husband had packed this bag up at the bitter end on the day we finished packing in AZ over three years ago and just stuffed a bunch of random stuff in the master bedroom/bathroom into this ugly bag. Then he completely forgot to tell me he had packed my retainers. And I, not knowing that this bag in the Room of Doom held them, never thought to unpack anything in this room that held mostly stuff of long-term storage.

5. On the final day of the move, which happened after the original “final day,” (mercifully, we got an extension of one day due to my injury), I prayed that people would come help us. Because of my accident, I was completely out of commission. I needed to stay in bed at the new home and rest. It was now up to my husband and two children at home at the time to get the final push done. I also texted people and asked for help. At least 8 people, including my married daughter and her husband, showed up and got us out and cleaned for the final inspection with the landlady. She said it was the cleanest she has ever seen the home. Whew! I am so grateful!

I conclude with the LDS Bible Dictionary definition of prayer, from the LDS Edition of the Bible, copied and pasted from over here:

“As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.”

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Book Review: The Continuous Atonement

Posted on June 2, 2024 by treeoflifemama

I’ve been reading this book (which I found while thrifting of course) and absolutely love it! I’ve been moving, which took us the whole month of May. This is a luxury or curse, depending on how you look at it, but this made sense because we moved just a block away from the old house. It was sooooo nice to have this book to read a page or two at the end of the day in bed. I felt like I was slipping into a harbor away from the storm, with sleep and dreamland to follow shortly.

Here are some quotes from the book:

“Little children don’t learn to walk in a day. Between the time a child is carried in a parent’s arms and the great day when he is running on his own, there is a lot of hand holding, baby stepping, and falling. For a child learning to walk, falling down may not be desirable, but the lessons learned from it are.

“Similarly, before we came to the world, God knew we had progressed as far as we were able without an earthly experience. He could no longer carry us by keeping us in His presence. It was time for His children to learn how to walk on their own. That’s why He lovingly placed us here – across the room, so to speak – and stepped just beyond our reach, all the while beckoning us to come. He knew the tumbles that awaited us. He knew the ups and downs ahead. That’s why He planned from the very start to send our older brother to hold our hands, lift us up, and guide us across the room back to His outstretched arms. We left those arms crawling. We can return to them running.” (p. 19)

“Christ’s requirements (commandments) are not so that we can make the best of the Atonement, but so that –on His generous terms–the Atonement can make the best of us”

I love that he explains the verse from the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, from 2 Nephi 25:23 which says, “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” Here is how he explains it, which is actually him quoting Stephen Robinson of Believing Christ:

“We are saved by Grace after all we can do — We are saved by grace ‘apart from all we can do’, or ‘all we can do notwithstanding.’ or even ‘regardless of all we can do.’ … ‘We are saved by grace, after all is said and done.” (p. 104)

“No matter where I am on the mountain, the motivation to climb higher is found not in trying to impress God and Christ with my sacrifices, but in letting their sacrifices be more deeply impressed upon me.” (page number forthcoming)

“[God] is bound to love me–not because I am good, but because He is good.” (page number forthcoming)

Those are just a few of the beautiful words in the book. I highly recommend it! 5 out of 5 stars! If you want to better understand what Jesus Christ offers us with His grace-filled atonement, this is the book to read. If you want more of Brad Wilcox on this topic, go here.

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A Jeopardy!-themed God Wink

Posted on May 26, 2024 by treeoflifemama

I haven’t blogged much lately as we have been moving this current month of May. Sigh. My third move in 9 years. I have been working like a worker bee to sort, dejunk, pack and move. We finally have most of our stuff out of the old place. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Whew! God knew I needed a bright spot to lighten the load this past week. So, this is what He did. He knew I have been missing a certain book, shown above, ever since we moved to UT from AZ almost 4 years ago. On this past Thursday, He led me to find it. Ever since the TV game show Jeopardy! debuted in my 1980s teen years, I have been in love with the show. I just love trivia and I love the format of Jeopardy! I found this book by the G.O.A.T. of Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings, while thrifting in AZ.

I just love any type of book that has a section to read for that day, with tidbits of facts that relate to that day. Any kind of almanac of “this day in history” type of thing. I enjoyed reading this book in AZ, and now, for over a year I have been wondering where this book was. It seemed like it had disappeared into a black hole. Last Thursday I found it while sorting through the books in our upstairs game room/spare room that is off to the side from my daughter’s bedroom. I had to decide what to pack and what to get rid of. The room has such an awkward design, with sloping ceilings and three walls that have these “bed cubbies” or hollowed out spaces to put a mattress for a bed. I stored stuff in 2 out of 3 of the cubbies, in piles that were three deep. It was so not efficiently organized, I confess. Marie Kondo would be appalled I’m sure. What with me putting anything I couldn’t fit anywhere else, and a son who moved his stuff into that part of the room and moved my stuff around, I lost track of what was in there. Yep, it was a black hole. It was so hard to move things around to find stuff because there was not much room to move stuff around. (I’m sure most people would say I just have too much stuff LOL. Those people who say that don’t understand the complexities of being a thrifty homeschool mom of seven who has limited space and time.) Anyway, I was overjoyed to have found this book!

I immediately texted my husband and children about it. I opened it up to the day to read the quizzes having to do with that day. Turns out it, I learned from reading the page for that day, that it was Ken Jennings’ birthday, so the quizzes for that day had to do with winning streaks, since he has the longest-winning streak on Jeopardy! That success resulted in him being the host to take over Alex Trebek’s spot when Alex unfortunately died in 2020. It was just cool to find the book on Ken’s birthday. I feel that God was winking at me, and playfully telling me, “Hey I see you! I love you! Here’s a fun synchronous surprise about something you love amidst your heavy workload.” So that was so satisfying to me. The cherry on top was that the day before, the show had a clue about La Leche League, which I was involved with for about 15 years. God definitely works in mysterious ways to show us love and wonders personalized to each of us.

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How to Remember the Ten Commandments

Posted on May 21, 2024 by treeoflifemama
Image Credits Above and Below: John Hilton III YouTube Channel

I enjoyed this video by John Hilton III about the Ten Commandments as taught by Abinadi in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

The parallels he shares between Moses and Abinadi and the Ten Commandments fascinate me. See chart below.

In the video, at the 16:41 mark, you can see some fun hand motions and mnemonics that he teaches on how to remember the Ten Commandments. I learned a different method in my seminary days it’s always fun to learn other ways. As John says in the video, what’s more important than knowing them is living them. That’s because blessings come by living them that can come in no other way.

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The Force Can Be With You In Sunshine and Rain

Posted on May 19, 2024 by treeoflifemama

I had a whirlwind of the first weekend in May what with my son’s Shakespeare play for our homeschooling co-operative. The troupe of actors did three performances. My son did such an amazing job! He got to play Berowne for Love’s Labour’s Lost. Pics are here.

This is the end of an era as he is my baby. For 18 years now, since May of 2006, almost every single year, I’ve had at least one child involved with a homeschool co-op Shakespeare play in the spring. Usually after two years of being in a Shakespeare play the youth aren’t allowed to do it again so this is probably my son’s last year. At the end of the Saturday night performance, during the applause with all the young actors on stage, one of them announced that it was a birthday for one of the moms that day. We all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It was May 4. How fun to share a birthday with Star Wars!

I had wanted to post something on that very day about it being May 4 with the old Star Wars pun of the day “May the Fourth be with you” but just didn’t have time. I’m a sort-of Star Wars fan from afar. True confessions, even though I’m a child of the 70s and 80s, I’ve only ever seen one of the movies, the first one, Episode 4. That groundbreaking movie, Star Wars, debuted when I was a little girl. I remember the craze about the movie from the start, especially the ensuing Halloween of 1977, with a friend donning a Princess Leia costume and side-bun hairstyle, and tons of other children dressing up as the droids. I appreciate the cultural impact of the movie series and its wondrous tale of heroism, but I have a hard time following plot lines of fantasy and science fiction stories/movies in general with strange names of people and places and action that has nothing relevant to reality. I was hardly able to sit through all of Episode 4 as an adult, after I finally got over the trauma of the trash compactor scene, which I tried to watch as a tween. I do appreciate, however, its epic story of good vs. evil. So as much as it has become cliche in saying on May 4, “May the Fourth/(Force) be with you!”, I’m repeating it again to launch into some old-fashioned preaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’m sure it’s no revelation to any Star Wars fan that “the Force” is goodness. When someone says, “May the force be with you” they mean “may goodness be with you.” It’s the same thing when someone says “Goodbye.” When that happens, that person is literally telling you “God be with you.” “Goodbye” is a contraction of “God be with you.” All good comes from God, so they are telling you “May goodness go with you.”

Moroni 7:16-17 of The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ tells us:

16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

So Christ is the source of all that is good. He is the author of goodness. He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father in Heaven. He was born in Bethlehem, the promised Messiah of Isaiah’s prophecies in the Bible. He atoned for all of our sins and was crucified. Then he rose again with His spirit and body together, overcoming death. He doesn’t live on earth anymore, but He has sent the Holy Ghost to bear witness of Him and be with His followers. He is our pathway to heaven to live with God the Father again in eternal families.

If anyone wants God’s power that means keeping the Holy Ghost with you. The Holy Ghost allows one to tap into God’s knowledge, His power/force, and all His gifts. This is just such an amazing thought! One gets the Holy Ghost by following Jesus Christ and His example, including getting baptized by one who has authority, which is the first thing Jesus did when He started His ministry. Then one can have the Holy Ghost with him or her always by continuing to follow in Jesus’ steps and repenting and asking forgiveness for mistakes, moving forward and upward, with a brightness of hope in Christ for salvation (see 2 Nephi 31:20).

It’s just so cool that because of the Savior Jesus Christ coming to earth as Heavenly Father’s Only Begotten Son, each of us is able to receive Him as the intermediary between us and God the Father. Because of His atoning grace, we can be forgiven of our sins, be baptized, retain a remission of our sins with repentance, and have the Holy Spirit always with us. We can have the Holy Spirit with us before we are baptized occasionally but if we want the Spirit as a constant companion, we must be baptized.

I am fascinated by the truth that anyone can tap into God’s knowledge and know things He wants us to know, according to His will. We can know the things He wants us to know to build His kingdom, to help people as He would. He can transmit knowledge from our mind to other people’s minds to further his work. This is the Force! I have benefitted from this Force so many times!

From my own life, here are some examples of the Force/goodness/and most specifically the Holy Spirit being with me:

– Decades ago, my kitchen blender base broke, so I got a new one. I threw away the broken part of the old one but kept the blender pitcher/container with its lid since it was completely intact. The Holy Spirit told me, “Someone could use this, keep it.” Sure enough, just a few weeks later one of my girlfriends sent a pleading email out asking if anyone had a blender pitcher because hers just broke. I was so happy to say I had one and gift it to her!

-A few years ago, I was having an extremely rough day where I spent a lot of time crying. I desperately asked God for help, to send someone to help me. Just a few hours later, my ministering brother showed up on my doorstep. He asked if he could help with anything. He didn’t know the details of what was going on, but God did of course and inspired him to show up on my doorstep. I shared some details. He helped by commiserating with me, saying that he had had a similar problem.

-I put off going to the natural health foods store in my area and then finally went, days later than originally planned. I almost put the errand off again to do the next week, but the Spirit told me to go that day, at noon. While there, I got to see a dear friend I hadn’t seen in over 15 years! She gave me counsel for a problem I was dealing with that was very helpful. Only God could arrange such a meeting by the Holy Spirit speaking to me.

-I was having trouble dealing with someone in my life. The Holy Spirit gave me exact instructions on how to proceed in learning more about what this person was doing and how to deal with this person.

-I’ve had the Holy Spirit guide me in how and what to say to my husband and children to get us through tough situations.

– If you’ve read my blog for very long, you know how much I love thrift store shopping, as evidenced here and here. Sometimes, after I pick up an item, and I have it my cart, I have felt the Holy Spirit tell me to put it back. I have one checking account that I, unfortunately, don’t watch as closely as I should. (I’m getting better!) It doesn’t have a ton of money in it and I use it a lot for thrifting. Every time I have felt the Spirit tell me to put something back, it turns out later to be such a good thing. If I had bought the thing, I would have gone into the red because a monthly charge I forgot was coming came through a day or so later after the proposed purchase went through. Whew! I feel so blessed! I have avoided a problem by obeying the Holy Spirit.

-To continue with the topic of thrifting, I’ve felt the Holy Spirit guide me to sometimes stay away from the thrift store when I’m about to go, and then on other days, when I’ve told myself I don’t have time to go thrifting, I’ve felt the Holy Spirit tell me to go. Such was a day last winter. I had just dropped my son off to spend some time with his sister and his nephews playing in the snow at Forest School. I was going to head right back home, but the Holy Spirit told me to go inside the thrift store. I went ahead inside and looked around, silently praying, “OK God, what is it that you want me to find in here?” I looked at board games first, of course, but didn’t find anything, and then the books. Lo and behold, I found a book with pornography inside that I reported to an employee saying it should go to the trash. I didn’t leave until I saw the employee walk away with the book, hopefully, to throw into the garbage bin. During the same visit I also found a book for my close friend that I just knew she would be delighted to receive for her birthday. She was definitely delighted so that was so fun to give it to her. I had just seen the same book on Amazon for $20. I found it thrifting for only $2! This was definitely a fruitful, Spirit-led trip. Over here, I outline the story of my miracle in finding clothes for my daughter to wear at my son’s wedding a year ago. In the Summer of 2022 I found something I’d been looking for, the board game Moods, which is a great party game when you have the right crowd. The story is here. Then just this month, I was led again to go thrifting when I felt like I didn’t really have time. I was led to find a wonderful book full of family history research miracles that will help me in my calling as family history consultant. It’s the book below.

-I had some friction with some people who are close to me. We had different opinions. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to apologize. Of course the “natural woman” in me didn’t really want to. I justified myself in saying that what I had done wasn’t wrong, I was just offering helpful advice because I care. But the Spirit worked on me, telling me that didn’t matter. The person felt hurt anyway, even if the hurt it wasn’t intentional on my part. So I apologized and felt so much better afterwards, with the air cleared between me and the family members.

I’m so grateful for the Holy Spirit and the Force/goodness that it brings from Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Here are some stories I’ve found lately that share more about people tapping into God’s force/goodness/power:

-In this story here, a woman was guided by the Holy Spirit to give a man ride home in a rainstorm, and then she gave him a bunch of gifts to him and his wife. In the end she was so grateful because she found out it was the man’s birthday.

-This story here tells of a woman involved in a bike and car collision that could have easily killed her if she had landed just inches in the path of the car’s tire. She had no way of letting her children know that she couldn’t pick them up from school, as was the usual routine, when she was whisked away to the hospital by an ambulance. This was in the days before cell phones when one had to search out a phone in a public place. She was hospitalized for hours with different tests to make sure she was OK. During the procedures she prayed to God, asking Him to let her children know that she was OK and not to worry, that she would be home soon. She was finally released to go home, very late at night. She arrived home to find her children safely waiting for her on their porch. The oldest child said that he heard a voice telling him that his mother had been delayed, that she would be home soon, and that he and his sister were to play while they waited. This is the power of the Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost can relay knowledge to people beyond the limits of man-made technology. So amazing!

I testify that the Holy Ghost is real. The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, along with Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is a partner in all this goodness. You will feel the power of the Holy Ghost telling you Jesus is real as you read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ with a sincere and honest heart. When you follow Jesus Christ, including getting baptized, you can have the gift of the Holy Ghost to be your constant companion. May the Force be with you!

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Tree of Life Mama’s Top 10+ Books for Mother’s Day

Posted on May 9, 2024 by treeoflifemama

Mother’s Day is this weekend! Here are my top 10 books to celebrate mothers. It’s not too late to go get at least one of these from your local public library and read it in honor of all the mothers in your life.

The one shown above is from my childhood. I remember my mother reading it to me and I have passed down the tradition by reading it to my children. I just love it!!! It’s such a sweet classic. If you haven’t read it, you are missing out!

This one is a sweet tale about a girl who loses a home in a fire and saves money to buy a comfortable chair for her mother.

This one is a cute story about love that transcends language and generation barriers.

When my Bradley childbirth class teacher found out I was having a baby girl, she gave me the above book. I just love it! It’s full of everything a little girl says she will do differently when she grows up and has a daughter. It just brings a smile to my face every time I read it. Delightful!

Another classic from my childhood by P.D. Eastman. So fun!

This book is one to read aloud to your child in preparation for some kind of separation between the two of you. The little action the mom and child raccoon do in the story may prove to become a tradition for you and any sensitive child who has a hard time transitioning to a new activity. Absolutely charming!

Another classic from before I was even born, by the inimitable Robert McCloskey. It even won the Caldecott Medal.

Another one by the same celebrated author as above. You are missing out if you haven’t read any of his books!

Written by a real-life mother, Joanna Gaines, and her children, this one shows the power of gardening. After reading it you will want to get outside and plant something!

This one is a beautiful tribute to the unconditional love of a mother.

This one shows the unconditional love of a daughter for her mother, a reverse “mother-bear chemistry” which pushes through obstacles. I just love it!

A cute book about a mother bear and her cub! Perfect for younger ones who love to look at baby animals.

Who hasn’t sometimes wondered what life would be like if you had a different mother? This one shows a girl who decides to interview other women to be her mother and finds out that her true mother is the best one after all.

There you have it! A baker’s dozen of books for Mother’s Day. If you want more ideas of books about mothers or other springtime themes, check my list over here on my other site.

If you want some ideas for board games to play with and/or get for your mother, go here.

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What Do Shakespeare and the Book of Mormon Have in Common?

Posted on May 8, 2024 by treeoflifemama

Shakespeare and his plays have been on my mind a LOT lately. That’s because my youngest child just performed as Berowne in Love Labour’s Lost, one of the Bard’s many plays. He did a fabulous job! He had this billowy cape to add dramatic flair to his costume. It’s so fun to think he is following in his older siblings’ footsteps. Each of them has performed in at least two years of Shakespeare plays with whatever homeschool co-op we belonged to at the time. One of his big brothers played the same role, Berowne, 9 years ago. This is probably our last year doing a Shakespeare play as part of a co-op so we are feeling bittersweet. Of course, we can always read and watch his plays and learn the memorable lines that are so cleverly rendered. I’d love to get the book I heard about in this podcast by Sarah Mackenzie about teaching Shakespeare over here.

With Shakespeare on my mind, it’s so cool that I randomly found this video below from Scripture Central about Shakespeare. Did you know that Shakespeare and the Book of Mormon share the same literary device? Watch below to find out what it is! It features Jack Welch as one of my interviewees. For more of Jack’s story, go here.

Image Credit: Scripture Central/Book of Mormon Central

It’s just so amazing that God knew that the Book of Mormon, as Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is to go forth to all people, so He inspired its authors to use a literary device, chiasmus, that will translate into any language and retain its poetic beauty. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and as Joseph Smith said, “a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (See the introduction to the Book of Mormon.) I have been blessed so much by living by its principles, including having the Holy Ghost in my life to guide me. This book gives me so much peace and joy, I am so grateful for it. I testify that it’s truly the word of God.

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5/2/24 Tree of Life Mama’s Picture Book of the Week: Only in Texas

Posted on May 2, 2024 by treeoflifemama
Image Credit: amazon.com

I recently spent two weeks in Texas, so the Lone Star State is on my mind. I found the book pictured above for sale at a gift shop in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Like any thrifty homeschool mom, I didn’t buy it, rather, I took a picture of it with my phone, and then searched for it at my local library on my phone. The library had it listed! Score! I put it on hold, and as soon as I got home, I was able to pick it up! I’ve been enjoying it for Morning Basket with my son. We read a double-page spread every day. (More about Morning Basket here.)

This book is a great introduction to the magical, wonderful, wide world of Texas. The book has the following:

-double-page spreads about the bigger cities in TX: Austin, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Fort Worth, and Dallas

-double-page spreads about the following themes: natural wonders, flora, fauna, regions, inventions made in TX, a historical timeline, festivals, man-made attractions, sports, history makers, quick stats and facts, and weird things.

By reading these pages, you will learn so many fascinating things about Texas!

For example, did you know the following Texas related facts?

-A cave just outside San Antonio has the world’s largest bat colony.

-TX is home to the least populated county in the United States, Loving County, with fewer than 100 people.

-King Ranch’s in TX is the largest ranch in the US, at over 1200 miles, bigger than Rhode Island!

-that TX is home to so many cool inventions, like Southwest Airlines, the snow cone, the microchip, Compaq, Computers, Dell computers, laser tag, and 3-D printing, for starters!

-a stretch of highway in TX has the highest speed limit, that of 85 mph, between Austin and San Antonio.

-Texas is the birthplace of Bluebell ice cream, Dr. Pepper, Whataburger, the first dance drill team, the herkie jump, the modern pom pom, the Heisman trophy, and Fritos, among many other things.

This book tells you all about those things plus many more fun facts! I highly recommend it with 5 out of 5 stars! So go get it from your library today! (If it doesn’t have it, ask the librarians to purchase it.)

(On my trip I had fun listening to the theme song of Dallas as my son and I zoomed along the interstate seeing the Dallas skyline. It totally takes me back to my childhood. We weren’t allowed to watch the show, and I don’t recommend it, but the song is so epic. Listen below. It reminds me of my childhood life of the 1980s.)

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One Man’s Amazing Conversion Story to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Involving Cardinal Birds Acting as God Winks

Posted on May 2, 2024 by treeoflifemama
Photo Credit: Scripture Central YouTube Channel

This man’s story is so amazing! His name is David Boice. He went on a search for the true church of Jesus Christ by investigating 52 churches in 52 weeks. Right before he went to visit different church congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he saw cardinal birds. He also saw one right before he decided to read the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Then he visited the Manti Temple Open House and saw a cardinal bird in a painting in one of the rooms. Wow! These are God winks, as in winks from God telling you he’s there and loves you and helping you on your path for truth and joy. I love his story! I love the red cardinal bird, just because it’s so red and beautiful and I don’t see it very often since it’s found more prevalently in the east, and I live in the west. Just this spring for our drawing time during one of our homeschooling mornings my son and I sketched it one day. It is definitely one of God’s most beautiful creatures.

Photo Credit Above: Meganzopf on pixabay.com

I just love that the red cardinal bird is involved in David’s story. He explains that they are rare for him to see in his home state of Wisconsin as well. Nevertheless, he saw five in two days. Then he went to Utah and saw one on a painting in the Manti Temple. Below are two videos he did. The first video tells his conversion story and the second talks specifically about his recent baptism. A cardinal appears again in that story! I love that he shares a scripture from the Book of Mormon in the second video, which is 1 Nephi 8:24, “And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness,  to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.” He explains in his conversion story just below that he felt the fruit of God’s love as he visited the churches that believe in the Book of Mormon. This is such a beautiful story!

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“I’m Not Earning Anything, I’m Learning Everything”: a Latter-day Saint Christian View of Grace from King Benjamin’s Sermon

Posted on April 29, 2024 by treeoflifemama
Credit for Images Above and Below: Unshaken YouTube Channel

This past week for my Come Follow Christ study I read King Benjamin’s sermon in the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, in Mosiah 1-3. Ever since I first read this sermon when I was 12 years old, it has been one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon. I love that King Benjamin talks about how important it is as a leader to work alongside the people being led. This has been a fundamental teaching to me to follow as a parent.

This sermon has so many goodies in it! I love Jared Halverson’s explanation of the part in the sermon from Mosiah 1-3 about being indebted to God. He says that this is relational grace. This is the grace I have been learning about for years, ever since one of my neighbors told me that her son had written a book about relational grace. Watch the video below to hear it all! It’s so fabulous!

Brother Halverson explains that when you read these verses you realize that no matter how much work, how much thanks we give God, we are always in His debt, because He blesses us even more, even after we “pay him back” with thanks and praise. It’s like we have a ledger of debts and credits, and we come out still in debt to God.

The above images show the specific verses that he refers to. Based on those verses, Brother Halverson made this chart:

Looking at the above chart of our ledger of debits vs. credits with God, it could be easy to get discouraged, thinking, we will always be in debt to God.

Thankfully, as Brother Halverson explains in the video, we have a second ledger that shows that God is ok with our indebtedness. We can’t ever earn our salvation. He’s OK with giving to us and our “job” is to be OK with all His gifts and not feel we are in debt.

He doesn’t want us to think we earn salvation. He wants us to surrender to His grace and love, to gratefully accept His gifts of love, most especially the incomparable gift of His Son Jesus Christ’s atoning grace. He wants us to feel motivated to love Him. “I am not earning anything, I am learning everything,” as Jared said in the video. He likens it to the character of Daniel in the movie Karate Kid, and Daniel’s relationship to Mr. Miyagi, his mentor. You will have to watch the video to learn more!

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