So I've spent the last week preparing a talk for church today.  I can't believe I was able to get it ready as far as I did with the kids all home from school 2 extra days for frigid temperatures.  But anyways. . . I thought I'd post the final write up here for all those interested in reading it.  Beware though, it ended up being 5 pages!

We all know Satan is attacking families. Elder M. Russell Ballard said, “the family is the main target of evil’s attack and must therefore be the main point of our protection and defense.  As I said once before, if you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactile point of view, fighting the family makes sense to Satan. When he wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O and casseroles. When evil wants to strike out and disrupt the essence of God’s work, it attacks the family. It does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception.”

 

So if we are to combat this attack what do we do?  Most importantly we follow the teachings and commandments of God.  We gain power and strength from the Lord and His blessings.  We pray (both as a family and as individuals), we utilize our Savior’s atonement, we forgive, we teach correct values, we read our scriptures, we attend church meeting, we support each other, we obey the commandments, we hold family home evening, we put ourselves in positions that we are able to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost, we build and maintain a good strong relationship with our Heavenly Father and with His son Jesus Christ, we listen to our children, and negotiate, we lead by example (never forcing anyone to do anything against their will thus infringing on their agency), we are kind, we serve, we soften our hearts, we let go of anger, and we endure.  It’s that simple, right?  Not true, it takes commitment and hard work to do what we must, but as we strive to do what is right, we will be blessed with a great power to withstand the temptations of the devil and be able to feel true lasting happiness in a world of chaos!  Which makes it absolutely worth the effort!

 

As I thought about what I wanted to share with you today regarding families, my mind kept turning to the blessings and strength our family has received by following the teaching of this church.  I can’t say we are perfect, we struggle with tiredness, laziness, and stubbornness when it comes to doing our best and we falter, but we have been taught that there is a way to become better and receive strength to overcome bad habits through the atonement of Jesus Christ of which I am grateful for.

 

So if you don’t mind I’d like to share a few blessings I’ve recognized that our family has received throughout the 10 years Dave and I have been married.  Before I begin though, I want to say I appreciate the comment Brother Durnfurd gave last week when he said something to the fact that if you are to look around at others and think oh how perfect are they, you probably don’t know them well enough to know any better.  So as I share things about us that make us sound so perfect, just remember you probably don’t know us very well.  We too are just like you, trying as we might to do a little better.

 

Dave and I right from the beginning decided to take the on the challenge recorded in Malachi 3:10 as well as 3 Nephi 24:10 it says, “ 10 Bring ye all the ^atithes into the storehouse, that there may be ^{bmeat in mine house, and cprove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not dopen you the ewindows of} heaven, and pour you out a ^{fblessing, that there shall} not be room enough to receive it.

 

At first, we may have only paid our tithing because we’d been commanded to.  After a while though, we started to see the blessings came and our testimonies grew to the point now, that nothing will ever stop me from paying.  I know without a doubt that we have been blessed beyond measure just as the scripture says, my heart is so full with blessings that there may not be anymore room.  We have not been blessed with a great abundance of money to use at our disposal.  Instead we have been given a greater understanding that our Heavenly Father loves us and that he wants us to obey Him so He can take care of us.  We still struggle to make ends meet, but we know somehow things will be just fine.  Sometimes we look back at different periods of our life and can’t figure how we ever paid our bills and still ate every day. 

 

One particular time back in Nebraska when finances were TIGHT, I remember standing in the grocery store aisle on the phone with Dave crying because we had little money, we needed groceries, and payday was not looking all that close.  That very day a dentist in town called Dave and told him we had some moonlighting set up for him as soon as Dave could do it.  Dave had previously talked to this particular dentist about the prospect of working with for him off and on, but before this day we had not heard if it was going to pan out.  Coincidence, I don’t think so!  Many times it seems that we’ve needed to struggle a bit before we were able to be blessed so that we would recognize the blessings and be humbled!

 

Just recently, finances again started looking pretty scary.  Christmas was coming, cold weather was coming, hospital bills were growing quite fast, and I began to be concerned.  I called the hospital to ask if it was possible to drop the amount I had been paying every month since we moved here just until after Christmas. . . .you have to remember we have 4 children so we automatically have a monthly hospital bill with the broken arms, ear surgery, belly aches, rashes, you name it.  The response I got, was oh no there’s no way you can pay less, it looks like in the last few months, your bill has dramatically increased, we will actually need you pay more.  I didn’t know what to say, I tried to explain our situation in between unexpected tears pleading to let us pay half of what I had been.  By the end of the phone call it was agreed that I would be able to pay half for two months, but then I would need to figure out how to manage our bill after that.  Without going into too many details I will say the heavens were opened again and blessings were poured out again.  Most importantly, I was able to feel peace again and through the kindness of others I was able to gain control again over our finances.

 

Now regarding family prayer, the Savior tells us in 3 Nephi 18:21 to, “Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed”.  James E. Faust has said, “In our day, the Church urges us to have family prayer every night and every morning. . . ."Family prayer is a powerful and sustaining influence. During the dark days of World War II, a 500-pound bomb fell outside the little home of Brother Patey, a young father in Liverpool, England, but the bomb did not go off. His wife had died, so he was rearing his five children alone. He gathered them together at this very anxious time for family prayer. They 'all prayed . . . earnestly and when they had finished praying, the children said: "Daddy, we will be all right. We will be all right in our home tonight."

" 'And so they went to bed, imagine, with that terrific bomb lying just outside the door half submerged in the ground. If it had gone off it would have destroyed probably forty or fifty houses and killed two or three hundred people. . . .

" 'The next morning the . . . whole neighborhood was removed for forty-eight hours and the bomb was finally taken away. . . .

" 'On the way back Brother Patey asked the foreman of the A. R. P. Squad: "Well, what did you find?"

" ' "Mr. Patey, we got at the bomb outside of your door and found it ready to explode at any moment. There was nothing wrong with it. We are puzzled why it did not go off" ' (Andre K. Anastasiou, in Conference Report, Oct. 1946, 26). Miraculous things happen when families pray together."

As many of you probably do. . . I tend to pray often that our family might be protected and safe not only from the adversary, but also from physical danger.   One night when Haden was about 15 months we went camping with friends.  It was getting late, all the kids except for Haden were already asleep in the tent and Dave and I were sitting around the fire enjoying time with our friends when a truck came barreling into camp and backed up to a camp site down the way from us.  There were several people who jumped out and started unloading what looked to be pallets from the back of the truck.  Within minutes the sky was ablaze with fire.  We decided to stay up long enough to make sure everything was under control when all of a sudden we say fire dart across the ground and people panicing.  Our ever prepared friend Clint darted off to his van, pulled out a fire extinguisher, and took off running to be of assistance.  What he found when he got there was a gas can on fire right next to the truck so he flung the extinguisher over to the guys, said good luck, and ran back to camp.  Of course now we weren’t going to bed until either they left or the fire was completely out.  The guys stayed a little longer after narrowly escaping a potential mess and then barreled back out of camp.  Of course our curiosity got the best of us and we had to investigate, but first Erin and I had to visit the outhouse.  So Erin and I heading in that direction, Clint headed toward the area the guys had just left, and Dave and Haden stayed by the fire.  As I was started back to our camp which was not far away I passed Dave on his was to where Clint was.  He said he had put Haden in the tent and that he thought he was going to go to sleep.  A few minutes later as I sat by our fire I could see a man walking towards me from a camp in the opposite direction of the crazy fire incident.  As he got closer I noticed he was carrying something. . . .it was Haden.  I didn’t know what was happening. . . . Haden was supposed to be in the tent.  The man said this little boy had wandered over to his fire and he had noticed we had kids earlier in the day and knew he must belong to us.  My heart dropped!!  What terrible parents, I had failed to mention to Dave that if the tent was not completely zipped Haden had learned to wedge himself out through the tiniest of openings and we had not even realized he had gotten out as Dave and I passed each other.  Was I ever grateful for the power of prayer!  I know without any hesitation that my Heavenly Father protected Haden that night.  Haden had to of passed right by our blazing fire pit, down a slop, past a few empty camp sites, and finally to someone who returned him safely to us.  If he had straight out of the tent he would have crossed a street into a field of tall weeds and trees with no one to find him.  There’s no telling how long we would have sat around thinking he was asleep in the tent.  Never will I stop praying as a family for our protection because I know Heavenly Father listens.

Switching gears again, in August of 2005 President Hinckley encouraged everyone to read or reread the book of mormon by the end of the year.  With this challenge came promised blessing for our dear prophet at the time.  He said,” Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.”

I remember taking this challenge and I know President spoke truth.  I don’t think I can even explain in words the feelings I felt as I read the book of mormon specifically because our beloved prophet challenged us to.  What a great blessing.  Since then we have tried to make it a point to read to the kids every day from the Book of Mormon.  Some days we have great experiences with the kids completely into the stories asking and begging to not stop until we find out what happens, but other days I don’t even think someone could even hear the words above the noise and fighting of the kids.  It gets very frustrating at times, but I think the most important thing is to always continue, to establish that routine that will hopefully be carried over into the families of our children.  If you push through the hard times that will unavoidably come and go throughout the years, I know blessings will come.  There will be times that the kids will surprise you with what they know and understand about the scriptures.  Even when you don’t think they are listening, they are.  Just the other day Dallin asked me why Heavenly Father kept blessing the people when he knew they would probably just sin again and become wicked again.  What a great teaching moment that would have never come it we did not persist.

These are just a few of the blessings we have received over the years as we struggled to choose the right and do our best to raise our children and to move toward an eternal family.  My ultimate goal is to make my way to the celestial kingdom with Dave at my side and our children right behind us with their spouses.  What a glorious blessing that would be!!

I know this Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the restored Church of God.  I know without a doubt we need living prophets today to lead and guide us through these perilous times.  I am ever grateful for the sacrifices of our prophet President Monson today!  It is true Jesus Christ came to earth and established his work which is recorded in the Bible, but I believe that through the years precious truths were lost through translation or taken away from the book as part of Satan’s plan to confuse the plan of God.  Therefore, it is necessary that we have another complete testament of Jesus Christ and his teachings untouched by the hands of men after it was sealed up to the heavens at the approaching end of a civilization until it was given to Joseph Smith to translate by the power of God.  How grateful I am that Joseph Smith endured such great persecution to bring to light the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  I pray that we all might try a little harder every day to realize the potential in our selves as well as our children and those around us.  That we may treat everyone especially our families with respect and love that we are shown by our Heavenly Father that we may work our way back to Him.  And please do not forget the blessing we are so freely given as we strive to choose the right!