Saturday, October 23, 2010

A Halloween Special DON'T READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN "THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW!

Since Halloween is not a major holiday to take off from work or school, I figure since it’s the spirit of the holiday I figured what the heck.
Taken from Wikipedia: The Summary of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a sycophantic, lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head". Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related". Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom Bones in disguise.
Even though Halloween is fun and games, sometimes people take evil a bit too far.
Once I was in Boy Scouts at a camping trip and there is this tunnel that is a long tunnel to drive through and has no lights in it at all and is surrounding by the forest.  One of the assistant scout masters thought it would be nice to play a trick on us younger Boy Scouts.  So the older scouts went off to the tunnel to set up for their scary trick.  Once it was ok the scout master took us younger scouts to the tunnel.  We went in through the tunnel one at a time through one end and out the other end.  It was my turn to venture through the tunnel so I came up to the one end and saw two other scouts on the other end, I shouted for them to wait up they didn't hear me and kept on walking.  Just shortly after entering the tunnel the older scouts who were watching me turned on their flash lights and rattled their chains and I was a bit scared enough to run through the other end of the tunnel.  As soon as I got to the other side of the tunnel I turned around and was positive I saw evil spirits watching me.  They were colorless and no emotion at all.  They were standing in a group watching me; as soon as I saw them I was more scared I was terrified to death! My scoutmaster stopped me from running into the forest and getting lost.  A few seconds later I looked back and the evil spirits I saw were gone.  It took me a while to calm down and had to go through back the tunnel to camp.  There was no other way to go back to camp.  The scoutmaster said he would walk with me to make sure there was no one to hurt or scare me as I was walking back through the tunnel.  The assistant scout master who was in charge of the trick was saying, "I was pretending to be the devil and scare the wits out of everyone, turning on flashlights and rattle chains."  After that terrible and frightening experience I learned that evil spirits are real just as good spirits are real. 
At this holiday have fun and eat lots of candy!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Lord is in charge!

We don't always know the will of the Lord but, that he knows us perfectly.  He knows our name, dislikes, stuff we like to do, personality, fears, struggles, goals, inside our heart, etc. There is nothing that is hidden from him or anything else that no other mortal person knows.  He can see the big picture of our life from the beginning at birth to the end of life which would be death.  He knows who we can influence in our life; the people that we can touch.  We have the option to choose and then we have to face the consequence of that choice.

I was so wanting to work for the USPS at the building where they scan and read mail electronically.  I had training for two weeks to see if I was up to the task at working at this place.  My last day of training I tried as hard as I could to finish my tests and training in the allotted time limit.  But, at the end of the class I learned I had not finished the tests or training and was not allowed to continue my training for the USPS.  I was in tears and sad that I wasn't able to finish.  I was looking so forward to this job.  It took me quite a while before I stopped crying and realized where else am I going to work now.  The next day I got a call from my cousin, Bliss Allen, to come to work at the law office down in SLC.  I had heard about it and without any other job openings at the time I jumped the gun and took the offer.  Happily to say 3 years later I am still working at the law firm.

The Lord knew that this is where I needed to be, that I wasn't supposed to work at USPS.  At the time being my mind was clouded and not realizing that fact.  Now in the present day I could realize that the Lord was in control.  Since I have worked at the law firm, I have made some new friends, been able to be in a good job, start up this blog and go to school.  If I hadn't taken that job offer I probably wouldn't be typing this post in my blog.   For my lawyer friend is the one that suggested that I start up a blog.  The Lord knew that this blog is what I needed to help with my friends and family.

If you are thinking of school, job, friends, dating, starting a family, health, death of a loved one, anything for that matter; know that the Lord is in control.  You may not realize it right at first and it may take a months or years to see the results. Pray about it and if you get a good feeling about it then you should proceed with what you asked, where as if you get a stump of thought then or a bad feeling then don't go that way and go down a different path or it may be the one used most of the time is wait a while and the time will come when the time is right.

Nothing is hidden from the Lord even when evil tries to thwart something that is good.  For good will always triumph over evil!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Love and Friendship isn't for sale.

We see in so many movies of how one person is desperately trying to get the person to love them and be friends with them.  The way it usually goes is that the person gets turned down for the reason they are trying and learn the hard way. 

Love is a great tool.  To love someone you care for them and want to do what is best for them. 

Friendship goes hand in hand with love.  To love someone you have to be friends with them.  If you aren't friends but, strangers or enemies then there is no love and there is no friendship. 

You can not buy someones love or friendship.  There is no price for it and you can't go to some store and purchase a magic spell to have it work on someone.  Some people just don't get along with others for some reason or another.  To use money to buy someones love or friendship is wrong and is not in harmony with the gospel.

I'm not to say that I've been perfect in this aspect.  I've realized that friendship and love is once its lost is that it takes a long time to regain and sometimes may never be regained.  I've hurt some of my friends feelings over the years and some have lost their friendship and love for me, while others have understand my defaults and still my friend. 

Monday, October 11, 2010

Christopher Columbus can teach us something or two.

"Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492."

What can we learn from this famous person.  Two things we can learn from him, courage and prayer.

Courage: The time of his life that he lived the world was thought of as being flat.  That you would sail and then fall off the end of the world into space and never be heard from again.  He had figured that their had to be other life besides the land he currently lived on.  It took him forever to get a crew, ship and money to go on a quest.  He was able to finally go on a quest to find a land and bring back riches and gold.  He finally set on his quest.  He found the courage to realize that the Earth was not flat that he kept sailing and didn't fall off the planet as so many people thought he would.

Prayer: He had been on the ocean for a long time and the crew was getting restless if they didn't find land so and would start a mutiny.  He was a religious person and prayed to the Lord that they would soon find land.  The next day they did find land.  It was not North America as we learned but he did find land that was not from where he left.  He did find Indians and yes he was a cruelty to the Indians. 

He went on different other quests throughout his life and was poor at the end of his life and died without being married or having a family of his own. 

I may have got some of my facts wrong about Christopher Columbus, but that I know he had the courage and prayer to do what he set out to do.  He knew that the Lord was with him and that we don't judge him for the wrong things he did.  We are no different then he did. 

Happy Columbus Day!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Its a matter of RESPECT.

Respect for everyone.
Elderly care.
Saying Thank you and Please.
Politeness
Exceptional
Caring
To love your fellowman.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Foul language is unclean.

For us that have watched Bambi there is a scene in which Thumper, a rabbit, is reminded of a rule of the house, which is : "If you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all."

For those who have played the game Taboo, its a game played in teams and you read a word on a card and are not allowed to say anything below the word but get your team to guess the word.  The word in this case is Swearing.  The undisclosed words that are not allowed to say are: Profanity, Vulgarity, Language, Bad Habit, Symbols. 

If you haven't figured it out yet it is the post on Swearing.  Now I know I said earlier there will not be swearing in my posts.  Which you can assure I will not say a swear word in this post or any later posts.  I'm sorry if you feel uncomfortable about this topic but, the problem is here and will not go away even if we don't talk about it and I will talk about it! If you tell yourself that I don't need to read this post then that is fine.  You don't need to but, someone out there can benefit from this advice to overcome this habit and feel impressed to discuss it.  If you just sweep this topic aside, well my friend, it will still be there and will not go away. 

We all know what swearing is about and that it is a bad habit to get into and a hard habit to break. 

I am guilty of this bad habit and not proud of it.  I thought it was cool to swear and see how my vocabulary is.  It had a bad effect.  It drove friends away then bringing them closer.  It was all I could think about in my mind and sometimes I had a hard time stopping.  Now I have stopped doing it for several months now.  I have been clean and not said a swear word by way of speaking it aloud, email or text.  There have been times when it has been hard but I keep my goal and figured this is not the language I need to use.

Some ways to help overcome this habit. 
  • Look at wholesome media.  
  • Sing a song when the thought of swearing comes to mind.
  • Substitute the word for another word instead.
  • Ask your co workers, friends to not swear around you.
  • Think to yourself, "Will what I say change anything that has just happened?" most likely the answer will be no.
  • Be around people who don't swear.
  • Pray for help to overcome the habit.
  • When you hurt yourself say "Ouch" not a swear word!
  • Stay away from sites that promote swearing on their site.
  • Have help from friends to pray for you.
  • Do a group effort of friends that have the bad habit and make it a goal to not swear as a group.
Now you can either cold turkey it or take steps little by little.  You will realize that your mind will be clearer and you will be more happier.  As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out!  The bad words you put into your mind constantly will come out of your mouth!

The Lord does not like swearing.  He is one that will not make us say what we need to say but the same mouth that says I love you, Thanks, Your Welcome, is the same mouth that those words come out of.   The Lord understands your situation you are in.  He will forgive you and come judgment you will be accountable for the words that you said.  Sad to say that the mind is a powerful organ.  What we see, hear, speak will be in the mind.  If you repent of this habit the Lord will forgive you. 

Thanks for reading this post if you are still reading it.  I know that not all my posts will be liked or loved.  But this post has been on my mind and it is a topic that would have come up eventually.  Like I said, I hope I didn't hurt any ones feelings and if you wish to comment you may do so but be clean about it or you can email me as well. 

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Be careful about judging others.

We are told in the scriptures that we should be careful to not judge others lest we be judged.  Which means that if we are to judge someone then we will be judged the same manner as we just did. 

Its hard to judge someone who is doing when you doing the exact same thing.  Which I am guilty of times doing. 

Judging others causes hurt feelings, friendships to be broken, families torn apart, wars to start, to escalate into bigger problems that just started with one little incident. 

We should apologize when passing judgment to someone especially when we know we have done wrong.

The Lord is the one true judge and looks on the inward appearance while us as humans tend to look at the outside appearance and not know the reason behind the way the person is acting.  We should reserve the judgment to those who are in authority to do so.