Tag: God

Thought

Random Thought Friday

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Maybe the last Friday of the month will be random thought Friday. We’ll see. For today, let’s see where this goes…

On my heart: “God meant it for good.” This is in Genesis (the Bible) where it talks about Joseph who was sold into Egypt. All the challenges Joseph went through were difficult for him, but the summary of the story in some ways is that one line- God meant it for good. All the bad stuff? It was leading to all the good stuff. Suddenly the entire land is in famine and he is in a position to help his family and many, many others. He was able to experience SO. MUCH. GOOD. – not despite the bad things he experienced, but because they led him to the good things. Fascinating. Is there something in your life that’s been really hard? Is it possible that “God meant it for good” in your life? My experience tells me if it’s true for Joseph and I, it must be true for you too.

On my counter: 6 zucchini and many cups of rhubarb. My garden is still giving and I’m loving it! Tomorrow I’ll be canning strawberry rhubarb jam (YUM!!). I’ve already frozen many bags of garden tomatoes, zucchini, etc, and done one batch of salsa. I think after the jam I’m going to make some fruit leather and maybe some applesauce! What fun!

On my playlist: 2 songs have been on my mind this week. One is a song that (I forgot) my mom introduced me to the month that I got engaged. It really was a turning point for me in deciding to marry my sweetheart. It had the sweetest message, talking about how I will be there for you in whatever situation, emotion, or struggle you may be in over the years- I want to be that person for you. My Mom recently reminded me of my experience hearing it for the first time and I thought it would be fun to share here!

Also, I have been listening to a Nichole Nordeman song (sung by Nathan Pacheco) that has been instrumental in helping me process a child leaving home. What a weird experience this has been. I am so SO proud of my oldest spreading his wings and doing wonderful things in the world. There’s nowhere else I’d rather him be right now. The joy and excitement I feel from his successful launch and wonderful experiences so far are incredible and sweet. Also, there are moments that it feels like the more independent he becomes, that my heart is gradually ripping out of it’s place. Can your heart bleed from emotion? It sure feels like it sometimes. It hurts. I find myself glowing in his growth and having a hard time shutting up when someone asks about him (I have to tell you all the great stories and brag on him endlessly!). I also have been grieving – waves of emotion well up from so deep inside of me that it can feel like I’m about to throw up. The feelings overflow into tears, or sometimes make me feel jittery or like I need to curl up in a ball. It’s hard to find words to express what I feel and I find myself reaching for something to help me feel better. Sometimes that’s music. Sometimes it’s a hug or someone to cry with. Sometimes it’s chocolate. Lots of chocolate :). I’m grateful for many good friends and a wonderful family that have been a huge support as well as a place to brag anytime I want to. Overall? I’m functioning just fine (don’t worry, I don’t spend most of my time curled up on my living room floor crying…) but the waves of emotion are as challenging as the highs are wonderful. I’ve been told that’s how it goes with your first leaving home. And I’m sure I’ll survive. For now this song has been helpful in processing the feelings. And if you ask about my boy you’ll probable get an earful. He’s doing wonderfully, and we are so proud of him.

On (in) my view: This sunrise was breathtaking this week. A little hug from heaven on my morning run. It filled my heart.

Okay that’s all for today, folks!

Happy weekend!

Love,

Laura

Uncategorized · Thought

Spiritual Growth

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Here’s my view of September!

It’s been a week already?! Wow, time is flying. September is well on its way and here I am for another Friday post.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual growth. How can we tell we (or someone we love) are growing spiritually? And if we want to grow more, what does that look like? In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we just went through an adjustment to our meeting schedule. We have 1 hour where the entire congregation meets together, and then instead of 1 meeting that alternates every other week (either Sunday School with all adults together, or split into classes for men and classes for women), we have 2 meetings so that each week we meet for Sunday School for 25 minutes and then in our classes for another 25 minutes. The meetings go quick and we are out of there before we know it.

With less time for any particular lesson or topic, I’ve been thinking a lot about conversion-(that state where our heart is progressively becoming more like Jesus Christ and turning toward Him). How can I use this meeting schedule change to deepen my conversion to Jesus Christ?

Our Sunday School President (shout-out to Sister Loftis!) prepared a beautiful bookmark recently helps us use the time during the week to do work on our conversion to Jesus Christ and prepare ourselves for our next set of instruction/discussions on Sunday. She wrote this:

Prepare your heart before Sunday

As you study this week’s Come, Follow Me, ask Heavenly Father to help you recognize something that will bless someone else.

What touched my heart? -an ah-ha!” moment, -a verse that stood out, -something I hadn’t noticed before

What is the Spirit teaching me? -a gospel principle I need to strengthen, -an invitation to change, -a prompting I received

What am I still pondering? -a scripture I don’t fully understand, -a question I’d love to discuss, -a connection I’m still exploring

What will I do? -one way I’ll follow the Savior this week, -one truth I’ll apply in my life, -one person I can bless

This week the Savior is inviting me to….

I found this set of thoughts SO helpful, and I’ve found myself pondering how similar our personal study is to practicing the piano. I’m a piano teacher, and if the student isn’t practicing between lessons (or only one or two days), we can do very little at the lesson to progress further. Lessons become a time to oversee the practice that should have been happening before getting here! Over time that gets really boring, and the student loses interest in learning the instrument. The minimal growth takes all the fun out of it. However, if the student is practicing most days during the week, by the time the lesson rolls around, they are ready to share what they’ve learned, and they’re ready to take another step. As their teacher I can help them do that.

Spiritual growth can happen much the same way. As we spend time during the week not just reading scripture but studying, asking questions, discerning truth, noticing things we hadn’t seen last time….and then go to church ready to share what we’ve learned with others and take another step forward spiritually, our Sunday experience is that much richer and all of our studies and meetings are directly impacting this upward spiral of conversion to Jesus Christ. Studying spiritual material won’t always feel amazing or enlightening- practicing the piano is like that too. Some of it feels rather routine and monotonous. That’s how it is being human! If overall our efforts are allowing us to come away feeling something, with our hearts or minds munching on something and our desires are taking us toward connection, balance and consecration, we are growing. That light inside us is growing brighter.

I can see more clearly how to be more committed, more diligent in my efforts to study, learn, grow, and share and come closer to Jesus Christ. I’m excited about the spiritual momentum I’m feeling and the opportunity to continue to share my feelings with my family, my church family, and now you!

Love,

Laura

Tell Me a Story...

Gardening

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Photo by Tim Cooper on Unsplash

I have loved gardening the summer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this is the first time we have experienced a generous crop. Tomatoes are still coming in – several a day, and I just picked two massive zucchinis this morning. I even made some raspberry jam (from the 1/2 cup of raspberries that I harvested today) just for fun! (It exploded in the microwave, but that’s a story for another day!). Turns out gardening is fun when you get things to grow! Our other experiences have been much less rewarding. At our last house our soil, after many years of working to amend it, was declared “beach sand” by an expert. But here we are! And I can’t help but exclaiming at dinner “…and the green onions are from our garden, and the tomatoes are from our garden, and the green peppers….”

Every morning for the past month, I have woken up relatively early, let Toffee out of her pen (our border collie/Australian shepherd) put out her food and water, and then went straight to the garden. Each morning I found at least one ripe raspberry. Earlier in the month I found one or two. Today I picked over 10. Each day it has felt like a miracle. How did something delicious like this grow in MY garden? I have eaten more than my share of them, but oh how I have savored each one in the early morning stillness.

Recently I have been thinking about my music room the same way- coming up the stairs to discover what raspberries (ideas) are fully ripe, and which ones need a little more time to incubate. It’s such a miracle when ideas come. Where do they come from? How do I access them? In much the same way as my raspberries. For one thing, we have a Creator who designs all good things. He is the Giver of good gifts. Good, juicy raspberries. But it’s not a free gift in the sense that we can sit on the couch and eat potato chips all day and expect to have some raspberries handed to us. No, with His guidance, we prepare the ground, plant, support the plants, fertilize, water, allow the sun to shine and patiently wait. Music writing is much the same.

As I nurture my garden and my creativity, I feel a guiding hand, helping me to discover true principles and delight in my own growth experiences. I came home a few nights ago and wrote the basic outline for a song with this idea in mind. I feel led by the Master “gardener” who knows all things and is teaching me His ways. It’s called “Gardening with the Gardener” (until I change the title…). Perhaps one of these days I’ll share it.

Love,

Laura

Music

The Willow is Weeping

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Hello friends! Hope this post finds you well!

This is my newly-finished song called “The Willow is Weeping.”

I read a poem by JRR Tolkien a few months ago that spoke to my heart (“All that is gold does not glitter”) and I decided to write music to it. Then, because Tolkien’s estate makes getting copyright permission nearly impossible, I decided to replace the original words with my own. It didn’t take me long to decide what this song would be about. The week I was trying to decide on a topic so I could begin the lyric-writing process, I had a conversation with a gentleman at a church party. He spoke of losing his father this past summer and the waves of grief he is currently experiencing. Before we left, he expressed hope that brighter days lay ahead- days where the weight of grief will ease. I went home determined to write this song about grief.

It didn’t take me long to develop the lyrics, pulling from my own experiences, as well as family members and friends who have lost loved ones. I wanted an analogy that helped me talk about grief, and the willow tree seemed like just the thing. I soon developed the verses to shift through the seasons, and loved phrases like “under the ground something’s yawning” and “the numb and the frozen are thawing.”

Enjoy!

(This is a link to youtube where you can see pictures of willow trees as the music plays.)

Cause it makes me happy...

Happy Mother’s Day!

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I’m feeling very spoiled. I was presented with breakfast in bed when I woke up, and then at church my eldest son gave a talk and paid tribute to me as his mother- what more could a mom ask for? And THEN all the children and teens in our church congregation (including my 3 boys) stood and sung to all of us mothers. The tears flowed freely and my heart was and still is so full. The title was “More than Enough” and its been running through my head on repeat today. It’s gentle, encouraging, and pays tribute to all the heart and work that goes in to being a mother. I thought I’d jump on and share it here. (See link below)

This week I’ve been thinking about how true it is that a mother’s influence is immesureable- not just in a superlative sense as we pay tribute to our mothers, but in a very accurate sense. My mother began mothering me YEARS before I can even remember being on this planet. Spent time caring for me, loving me, teaching me, cleaning up after me, guiding me, protecting me…

My memories of younger years don’t necessarily include what my mom was doing, but as a mother myself, I can see her hand in almost every memory I have. I stumbled over a verse in scripture recently that said something like “He was in and through all things.” It was talking about Jesus Christ, but I can’t think of a phrase that is more true of mothering.

Memories of camping? Who helped you pack? Bought the camera you used (and everything else for that matter)? Listened to your stories when you got home?

Memories with siblings? Who helped you develop those relationships and taught you to be kind? Whose idea was it to do that activity in the first place? And organized the room you were playing in?

Memories of school? Who woke you up that morning? Greeted you when you arrived home? Prayed for you while you were away? Packed your lunch? Wrote you a note? Helped you with the homework?

Memories of worshipping God? Who prayed with you before you can remember? Who created moments of strengthening faith? Who read scripture to you and with you day after day? Who took you to church each week when it would have been so much easier to stay home? Who showed you what it looked like to live a life focused toward God?

Not one of us claim to be perfect- it far too big of a responsibility to do it all “right”- and that was never the point anyway. The older I get, the more I give gratitude to God that I get another day to practice being a Mother. And I know God is pleased with those efforts to love, care and nurture, no matter how imperfect those efforts feel.

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mother who gave birth to me and is in and through my entire life.

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mother by marriage who has blessed my life in countless ways.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there – who are doing their best and tomorrow will get up and try again.

Love,

Laura