Thought for Friday.

Here is some interesting food for thought.

We all know that social media is ever present in our lives.  If you didn't know that, you are clearly a hermit.  If you've heard about it, but don't agree with it, you're just kidding yourself.

After watching the clip below, I realised I am on the Internet almost all the time.

I usually function without checking my Macbook every hour on the weekends, and I am very good at controlling my Internet usage on my brilliant Samsung Galaxy SII.

But weekdays for me entail working on a computer 8-6pm, with blogging, facebook, reading other peoples blogs (I follow way too many people), googling everything possible from checking the weather to recipes to opening hours or directions to a store, planning Primary stuff, surfing through catelogues and hollywood hair styles ..... just catching my breath ... all before and after and even during work.

For the record, I loved that VW Darth Vadar Super Bowl ad.

And there are waaaayy too many invisible farmers out there.

The Book of Mormon will answer your questions – part 6.

Most of us have some hard questions in the back of our minds – the kind no one else can really answer for us. Some are far-reaching questions about the nature of our existence …

Note:  These questions are GOLD.  When chatting with someone, even just casually, and you feel you could offer them guidance, advice, or words of encouragement, the Book of Mormon can be PRICELESS.

See previous questions that the Book of Mormon answers here.



How can my family find peace and unity?

The Book of Mormon contains fabulous, priceless advice for our families.  This is especially so today, families can be so busy, loud, with lots of opinions and ideas.

I’ll focus on just one chapter, which is filled with gold.

Around 124 BC, a loving king taught his people to be fair, spiritual, and always serving others in an attitude of equality and humility.  It is recorded in the book of Mosiah.

That, in itself, is one of the ways which our families can find peace and unity – listen to the words of righteous leaders.  God is very present in our lives today, and other than personal revelation which you are entitled to (answers to prayers), we hear His words through His prophets.

Some claim prophets and apostles are a thing of the past; that it all ceased when the original 12 apostles of Jesus Christ died.  But that is simply not the case – if it was, God would cease being God.
Come, listen to a prophet’s voice here.

The people came to hear their king speak to them.  They all gathered around the temple, the literal and figurative centre of their lives, and listened.  They gathered as families, and pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might…hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them. (Mosiah 2:6)
That’s another thing we can do to strength our families – face the temple.

Please comment and tell me how YOU face the temple.

We are about to print photos for our home (... you heard right. Explanation later ...) and the first one to print is of the temple. 
A big canvas to hang in the centre of our home.

That way, my family can be reminded that (a) our family is eternal; (b) the temple is our focus, way high on the list of priorities; and (c) we should treat our home like the temple - with respect, reverence, and quiet appreciation.


What was the main message King Benjamin taught his people at the temple?  Service.

He told them that he was a mortal man, no different from them, and that they were all equal in the eyes of their Heavenly Father.  Therefore, they should all serve each other - not as people serving their King – but all serve all, because when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Could service help your family find more peace and unity? 
And not just service, but thanking your family for all that they do.  I say unto you that if ye should serve him who ha created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, … if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. (Mosiah 2:22)


Another bit of gold King Benjamin gives us:  Extend that attitude of gratitude to our Heavenly Father.  Do we pray together as families?  O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! … you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole sou has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you … (Mosiah 2:20).
God has created your family, kept them and preserved them. 
If we thank Him and pray to Him together as a family, our families will be more united.

This one chapter continues, but how’s that for some family advice?

1. Listen to the words of righteous leaders as a family
2. Face the temple
3. Serve one another, and our God

If you wish to order a free copy, let me know or click here.
Feel free to read or listen to it here.


Read what others have said about The Book of Mormon this month here.

Eternal bliss .. for a year.

I'm slowly recovering from a nice long break from work and blogs. 
And when I say recovering, I mean regretting the break is over.

It is super hot and sunny, here in Adelaide Australia. 
I am brown, slighly peeling on one shoulder, and loving the new year already.

Want to know what were in those three huge packages??  Strangely enough, there was a rumour going about town that they were all books.  The rumour even made its way to Sydney - everyone was asking about the books.


Well, before too much time passes, I want to update you on something else first.



A little over one year ago on the 16th of December, I was married for eternity to this dude.
Check out the photos here.

After a week or so in Fiji, we returned to spend Christmas with his family in Sydney.  There was no room for us in the house-turned inn, so we slept in a stable.  I mean tent.

One year later, the husband and I decided to keep the tradition going.
We slept in a tent once more, this time for our first wedding anniversary. 

We travelled down the Fleurieu Pennisula to a small town called Normanville.

My handy husband cleaned out the car especially.  He also picked up a flirty yet refreshingly apple-smelling M&M.

To get there, we drove down the coast, taking in all the beautiful Australian scenery of beaches, old houses, and lots of sheep.

We also drove on the worlds-only one-way freeway.  That's right, my very own city has the only one-way freeway.
What an accomplishment.

Have a look.

The arrows tell us the expressway is open in our direction.

See the signs?  They are back-to-back signs, so all may read no matter what direction traffic is flowing.

Handy .. and yet, odd.

Very odd.

FYI:  I hear there are plans to make it two-way in the future.

We continued our drive down the coast.

We sang out loud a lot.

The drive really didn't take that long.  I grew up in Sydney, so any drive in Adelaide, through Adelaide or out of Adelaide doesn't seem that long.  Because it isn't.

We arrived at Normanville, checked out the beach and local shops, then headed to our camping site near by to set up.

 
It took us no time to put up our tent.  A 6-man tent, although I don't know how six men could fit in there with our queen size air mattress.  The husband set up the technology, almost immediately, so we could watch movies and charge our phones throughout the night.  We then walked around the extremely secluded caravan/camping park, making our way to the beach.  It was quite windy.

 

It was so windy, in fact, that we ended up shifting the tent again, and tying it to a near by tree.  The sides kept bending over in the wind, but the tree branches helped.

 

We then went in search of food.

I had hoped to research some classy places for dinner prior to our getaway, but alas, the Internet did not help.  I only found the menu to a cafe in the local area.  It made me - the carefully planned and controlling one - a little worried that we wouldn't find anything other than local burger or fish and chip places. 

I demanded class, but could do nothing and had to hope we'd find something nice. 
Being spontaneous (= unprepared) has never been my strong point.

After some driving and GPS advice, we ended up going to the cafe I had seen on the Internet.  I had printed their menus (of course) and it looked .. promising. 

Well, dear readers, we stumbled upon the best meal we have ever had, perhaps bar one.  Seriously. 
As I ate my beautiful salmon with mash and salsa, and the husband ate his chicken, cous cous and pumpkin salad, we were amazed and the quality (and quantity).  We ended up listing all our favourite food places in Adelaide, and this new found place almost topped the list. 
(Number one goes to a place we could never afford without coupons).

We retired to our tent, and watched the Simpsons on the handy laptop.  It was super windy.  The tent kept bending over.  I kept going in and out of sleep, thinking I could see shadows around our tent and that we were about to die.

I awoke to find my hair = a rats nest.  Do rats have nests?  We then showered and dressed for the day .. in time for it to start raining.  So off we went, all packed up again and off to explore southern South Australia.

We made it to Cape Jervis, where you can catch the ferry over to Kangaroo Island.  Then drove back again.  We loved the driving, and ended up looking a beach-front properties along the way back home.  You know, in case we make it rich.

And then ... just as you thought the mini anniversary trip was over, we decided to be completely spontaneous, and ran onto a secluded beach in the rain.  We frolicked. We giggled.  We got totally soaked. 

Best decision ever.

Then .. it was back home, in time to shower and dress for the ward Christmas party, to direct the little people in a nativity play.


As the hubby said:  One down, 50 billion to go.