New Family Blog

I am going to try something new. I don’t know how it will work or how big it will get but let’s see.

This blog is a result of my trying to find something I could do to get to know my family better and for us to help each other “get there” - to reach our full potential in a spiritual sense. To return to our Father again and have him say to us “Well done.” I am hoping to make this a place where we each can write our thoughts, goals, ideas, aspirations, inspirations, questions and whatever we need to know or to share that will help us in our spiritual progression.

It is not a place where we cast judgment on one another or bring in drama. It is simply a place for spiritual growth and encouragement.

By creating this blog I am not passing judgment on anyone. Anyone of our family is free to read, post to, lurk, whatever they want as long as it is good and uplifting.

I have been thinking lately what my place is in my family. What can I contribute because I don’t feel like I contribute much. A couple lessons at church lately made me think about where I am headed. Am I going in the right direction? Am I going to be okay?

I think I know where I am headed or at least where I want to be in the end. I am trying my very best to get there. It’s not easy. I’m not perfect. My family is not perfect. In fact if you walked in my door right now you would immediately see that we are flawed.

But we are trying. And I know that others in my family are really trying too. This is a way that we can share with each other our thoughts and help each other out. There was a talk recently where a story was told about a woman who’s mantra was that there would be no empty chairs. I need to go find that talk sometime and read it again. But she really did not want any of her family to be left behind. She wanted everyone to be there with her, to progress and do their darnedest to make it. That’s what I want too.

Anyways as I said, I know where I want to go. However, if I get there, will I find out that I could have brought someone with me and I didn’t? And they didn’t make it? It would be my deepest regret and sorrow. I want all of my family to be with me.

How are we all doing? I know everyone is at a different place in their spiritual lives but maybe we can help each other out. Like the picture of the angel helping the children across the stream we can lookout for each other too – be each other’s angels.

Mom gave a talk in church on Sunday and one of the stories she shared that really touched me was a conversation she’d had with a bishop once during a temple recommend interview. He asked her at the end if she felt worthy to go to the temple. This is a standard question and it’s up to us to answer it as we feel to answer it. She had said she didn’t know how to answer the question. She thought so but she wasn’t sure where exactly she stood in the whole eternal picture. I know we all have that same question. We all would like to ask Heavenly Father where exactly do we stand? How does He see us?

Well, the bishop told her to look back on the past year and ask herself if she felt that she had grown spiritually in any area of her life. If the answer is yes, then you are progressing and headed on the right path. If not, then you need to take a step back and see what you need to do differently. Then do that.

This is so important to remember. We do need to try to grow and progress a little bit at a time. We aren’t perfect and we have a long long road before we can ever be there. The Lord knows we aren’t perfect. If we were, we wouldn’t need Him. He makes up for our shortcomings after we have done all that we can do.

We also need to keep going, keep taking that look back and keep making changes that help us to grow. The more we do so the better off we are and the faster we become who our Father in Heaven sees we can become.

So, look at where you are. How are you doing? Are you progressing? Or are you taking a risk and not really caring right now? Are you trying but not sure how? Whatever the answer, now try out these questions: Will you regret not doing more? Will you regret not following Christ’s example? Will you be happy forever in the life you are living now?

Ack! sorry. This is not meant to be a guilt trip or to stress you out. It was starting to stress me out. Take a look at where you’re at. See what you can improve on. Don’t overwhelm yourself either. Pick one or two things to work on. If you pray about it and ask Heavenly Father what He thinks you should work on, I assure you He will help you to choose something that will benefit you the most right now.

Set a goal. Share your goal if you care to. We are here to support it. The blog is for our benefit. Maybe we can even all set a goal to work on together.

Also, when you have an insight from church or from your own personal study, share it here. It may help someone else too.

If you have a particular talk you liked from General Conference or an article in the Ensign share it here.

If you have a question about something, ask it here. If you get an answer and you want to share it, share it here.

If you felt the spirit and care to share it, share it here.

If you feel lost or need help, ask here.

If you just want to lurk for a while and soak up what you want, lurk here.

Let us support each other here.

If you are with me I’ll add you to the list as an editor. Assuming that’s possible. If it’s not possible then email me what you want to share and I’ll copy and paste it into a post.

I am hoping to set this up so that at the very least each of my siblings and their spouses/significant others can post to this blog. The goal is for everyone to write thoughts, questions, answers and for us to either together or individually set goals that will help us to grow more and more as we go along.

Let’s see if we can make this work. Who’s with me?