Beware of Pride- A few thoughts based off of Ezra Taft Benson's 1989 Conference Talk

I've heard many times that pride is the mother of all sins, which means we really ought to avoid it all possible costs. No wonder we are told in the scriptures to beware of pride! No wonder, Ezra Taft Benson gave a whole conference address centered on this topic. 

However, before we can beware of pride, we must first we aware of pride- I mean what is it really? 

Is it thinking you are better than others? 

Is it feeling entitled?

Is it seeking the praise of man? 

Is it boasting?

In reality, boasting, entitlement, conceit, and haughtiness are merely symptoms of the root of real the problem. Ezra Taft Benson breaks it down for us using one simply word: Enmity. 

He then goes on to explain himself a bit better, stating: 

"The central feature of pride is enmity- enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means "hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition" It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us."

Perhaps to understand this concept a bit better, we can take a look at the best example of pride, someone who has it down to a science- the adversary.

The very first recorded encounter with Satan is the council in heaven. Not much dialogue is given of this event, but because of the scriptures, we know that Heavenly Father presented his plan and two of his children's responses are recorded.

Christ said: "Father, they will be done, and the glory be thine forever" (Moses 4:2)
Satan said: "Give me thine honor, which is my power" (Doctrine and Covenants 29:36)

Enmity begins as we "pit our will against God's" (Beware of Pride 1989), just as Satan did when he opposed Heavenly Father's plan. I think it is important to note that this enmity which was originally directed towards God, then led to an enmity towards God's children as Satan then turned to leading a third of the hosts of heaven away.

We've heard that misery loves company- and enmity is no exception! Just as loving god leads to loving our brothers and sisters, developing enmity towards god leads to harboring enmity towards our brothers and sisters.

So if we notice a pride towards fellowmen developing within ourselves, we can pretty much guarantee that the seed of enmity sprouted awhile ago when we decided to oppose one or more of God's commandments. This principle provides us with the full proof plan to avoid pride for the rest of our lives- simply align our will with God's and it is impossible to prideful! Humility is guaranteed when we seek God's will first. 

Keep Smiling :)
And the best way to keep smiling...?
You guessed it- align your will with Heavenly Father!  

Humility 100% guaranteed! :) 

Two Truths and a Lie

Have you ever played that middle school game where you sit in a circle and each person reveals three facts about themselves, two of which are true while one is a lie? It's one of those games we play at Girls Camp, Youth activities, sleepovers, birthday parties etc. and it's always a favorite.

The object of the game (if you want to win) is to distinguish every one else's lie from the truth, while not getting caught yourself. Fun right?
What's even more fun, is that the world plays this game with us all the time and more often then not, we don't even realize it! 

Let's take a look! See if you can spot the truths and the lies:

Let's start simple, with something a little less controversial:

And now for some topics slightly more controversial: 

In all honesty, this real life version of "Two Truths and a Lie" can be very dangerous and destructive to us both temporally and spiritually. It isn't any fun. It's scary because we are playing against the adversary, the Father of all Lies who desires nothing more then to "lead us carefully down to hell" (2 Nephi 28:21) He is good at what he does, and is capable of deceiving even the most intelligent, kind, well meaning people. If we ever think that we are immune to his deceptive influence, we are wrong.
But the purpose of this post is not to dwell on the confusing messages that we are bombarded with, nor to become petrified by the temptations and power of the devil, but rather to focus on how to win the game and determine what is true and what is false.
The first thing we have to realize is that truth is not subjective but absolute and the only reliable source of truth and light is our Father in Heaven. So really, the first step to discovering truth is to "believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." (Mosiah 4:9)
After belief, comes a desire to know God; to know who He is, what He thinks about us, and what His laws are. This is only possible through constant and consecrated communication with our God who gave us life. Scripture study and personal prayer are actions we need to take if we want to commune with the heavens.
I had an experience where I learned just how important personal revelation is to me when sorting through all the facts and logic that get tossed our way.
About a year ago, I was serving a mission in the South of France. I had talked with so many anti-religious people (specifically anti-mormons) that I felt I had heard every controversial issue and been bombarded with every tricky question. My testimony had not been affected by any of the problems that seemed to plague others, so I thought I was immune.
One day we were at a less actives house and she brought up a problem she had with the church that I had never thought of before. To make matters even worst, the more she talked about it, the more it made sense in my head. As my companion and I walked away from that appointment, I felt dark and sad and confused. I had never felt this way before, and for the first time in my life I realized I had a doubt. This scared me.
I turned to my Heavenly Father and told him how guilty and ungrateful I felt to be plagued by a doubt. I had seen the gospel work so many wonders and miracles in my life and then to all the sudden have one little string begin to unravel what I thought I knew was true broke my heart. How could I teach anyone anything if I had this ugly weakness weighing me down.
The question gnawed at the back of my mind all afternoon and into the night. The next morning, I woke up and started my personal study of the scriptures, still weighed down by the doubt. I was reading a conference talk by President Nelson, completely unrelated to doubts or resolving questions we have, and a phrase jumped out at me. He said something about how personal revelation was the key to protecting oneself from the adversary.
Immediately I felt a wave of peace and relief, realizing that I was protected from being deceived by anything because I am blessed with the ability to receive personal revelation directly from my Heavenly Father. It was then that I realized that God's ways truly are higher then mans ways and so if we, as mere mortals, don't understand something right now it may be simply because we don't have that eternal perspective that God has.
Turning to the scriptures, we can see that Heavenly Father has already patterned for us how to discern between right and wrong, even when what's right and what's wrong seems a little fuzzy. One of my favorite examples of this is the confrontation of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, and Sherem, the first anti-Christ in the Book of Mormon.
When describing Sherem, Jacob states:

"And he was learned, that he had a perfect knowledge of the people; wherefore, he could use much flattery, and much power of speech, according to the power of the devil" (Jacob 7:4)

Sherem is good at what he does! Like many apostates he is very convincing, eloquence is his forte. Likewise, when we are confronted with Satan's deceptive philosophies, more often then not, they sounds reasonable, convincing, eloquent, intelligent and pleasing.
Sherem, like Satan, is ambitious. He strives not only to lead away the weak, but to deceive Jacob, the prophet of the church.
Jacob states:

"And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore I could not be shaken." (Jacob 7:5)

I love how Jacob's faith cannot be shaken for he is protected by the personal testimony he has developed, a testimony that is a direct result of the personal revelation he has received.
We know that Satan desires to have each of us that he may "sift us as wheat" (Luke 22:31) but when we are grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ we are entitled to the protection of personal revelation. God will not lead us astray.
I am so grateful for the guidance of a loving Heavenly Father, and I know that he truly does communicate with each of us individually "according to our language, unto our understanding" (2 Nephi 31:3). We need not fear :)

~Keep Smiling! :) 

I'm Back!

Well it has been a while!
I was kinda outta the country for the last 18 months, and let me tell you, it was one of the coolest 18 months of my life! There really isn't a way to sum up that experience in one blog post, but maybe I can share a few highlights!

1: I met some of the coolest people ever

2: I saw some of the coolest stuff ever

3: I tasted some of the coolest food ever (yes I did try escargot and that was gross- I would not recommend it :)

That about sums it up
I am glad to be back but I will forever miss France

keep smiling :)

I'm Off!

Leaving today and checking into the MTC tomorrow! I can't wait for this adventure to begin!! :)

France Here I come!!!
~Keep Smiling!~ :)
See you in 18 months!

Catch Up

I feel like I haven't written in forever! (In my defense I have been busy preparing to leave the country :) Life is great, life is good and I am super excited. It is only 13 more days till I leave! (That's less then two weeks!!!) So let the countdown commence!

I feel like there are moments in our lives that we think will never happen... and then they do and we are left awestruck, standing just two steps behind and trying desperately to play a game of catch  That's kind of how I feel right now. I thought I had more time, but I don't and now I'm trying to chase after it as it slips through my fingers!

Wow, that was dramatic! I guess that's one of the hazards of loving acting and writing and the arts!

This post is my little game of catch up; an opportunity to flesh out what has happened in the past few weeks and write about where I'm at because writing about things helps me figure myself out.

Get it, Ketchup, Catch up....?!? Ok, not that funny... :) 

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I am almost done with work. I have two more shifts (tomorrow and Friday) and then I am DONE! I am so excited about this because it helps me feel like I'm tying up loose ends and finishing up things in Silverdale so I can move on. I have really loved working at Hallmark and I will miss it and all the cute old ladies who come in and buy birthday cards for their grandchildren.

I am sad about how much my little brothers will grow up when I am gone. They are so cute and fun and I think I will miss them the most (no offense to anyone else here at home) Yesterday I was watching them play upstairs in the bonus room (because they pretty much need supervision at all times) and they were doing something in our big black closet, chatting and having fun. All of the sudden I heard David shriek! The doors of the closet flew open and Matthew ran as fast as his little legs could carry him down the stairs and into the laundry room with David in hot pursuit, wielding a play wooden knife. Once I got everything sorted I discovered that Matthew had bit David and, not wanting to endure the wrath of his older (but smaller) brother, booked it! I love my little boys. I was laughing sooo hard!!! Also, Sunday morning I came downstairs in the morning to find Matthew sitting happily on the kitchen floor with a bag of walnuts from the freezer and a nut chopper. He was merrily chopping nuts and informed me he was making muffins. Again I about died laughing.

Here are the four youngest siblings in a dog pile :) 

I AM ALL PACKED!!! (Well almost all packed) Everything that I could pack has been packed away in my two large suitcases. (I think I just used the word "pack" like five times in two sentences) I now only have my work clothes, a few pj's and a couple sunday outfits out so I've been doing a lot of laundry. It's nice to have that pretty much done because it's just one less thing to worry about. I have an itemized list of the contents of each of my suitcases (and it's color coded) so if I think I've forgotten anything I can refer to my lists without having to unpack my entire suitcase to see if I remembered to bring neosporin or not. Smart right?

Oh and I got a haircut. My hair is must a little past my shoulders now (though I can already see it growing :) and I have bangs. I think I'm going to just let it grow while I'm on my mission. In 18 months it will probably be down to my waist again. Or... I might get tired of it and cut it again. It seems like once I start taking scissors to it, I can't stop!! :)

Here I am when I just let my hair dry naturally (and am wearing no makeup :) 

And here I am when I curl it 

So like I said, life is good and I am doing great! 

October 1st can't come fast enough! 

~Keep Smiling!~ :)

Good Morning

When you get up on the right side of the bed what does it look like? What does it feel like? For me, the "right side of the bed" is a place I rarely frequent since it includes waking up when I want to; gracefully lulled out of my sweet dreams by the taste of sunbeams on my face and the sound of chirping birds in the air. It's that beautiful moment when you are half awake and half asleep and there is nothing demanding your time or attention.
This morning I wasn't lulled from my sleep by chirping birds or sunbeams on my face. I was awoken Sleeping Beauty style; a big wet one planted on my kisser by this kid:

"Good Morning Nina!" this little three year old exclaimed in my ear. (This kid only has one volume: LOUD!) "It's a good morning!!"He cried.

And then this kid dashes in, yells "Good Morning Sunshine!" and runs out!

Can I just take these boys with me on my mission!? They make the best alarm clock ever (except when it's 5:30 and you really don't want to be awake :)

~Keep Smiling!~ :)

Recruit the Neighbor Kids

Tea Time Three was filmed and edited yesterday and now is ready for your viewing pleasure. This time we recruited the neighbor kids! So it's not just my family that likes being weird!! :) 

Enjoy!

~Keep Smiling!~ :)