30 MINUTES
It Takes Only Thirty Minutes a Day
By Barbara Stockwell, mother of four and social worker, teaches Relief Society lessons in her Springfield, Oregon, Ward.   Ensign July 1982
 
A few weeks ago I read an article about the importance of studying scriptures, so I set my alarm for thirty minutes earlier every day.  Then I remembered that I should write in my journal every day, so I stayed up a half-hour later each night.  Then last week in Relief Society we were admonished to exercise daily to keep our bodies fit, so I got up a little earlier each day to jog.
 
Later in the week, I read a magazine article that promised me beautiful skin in only fifteen minutes a day, and another one said that a half-hour a day of meditation could change my life.  A self-help book told me I should spend at least thirty minutes a day visualizing my desires and repeating positive affirmations.  I had to get up earlier to do this.
 
Still, I was able to squeeze other activities into my already heavily scheduled day.  I learned to do the pelvic tilt to relieve my lower back pain while driving to work.  And I did my isometric exercises while at my desk.  I cut my lunch hour in half in order to read the Ensign.  In only half an hour a day I was able to finish it before the next one came…except for the conference issue.  For that I stayed up a little at night and read, after my goal planning was done.  Another women’s magazine said I could give myself professional nail care in only ten minutes a day.  It also suggested that a foot soak after work would do wonders to relieve tiredness.  I tried to do that while I was preparing dinner, but I got so relaxed I kept dropping the carrot sticks in the gravy.  Dinner would have to be delayed a little, and that would push bedtime back about a half-hour.  But it was all worth it; I was becoming a new woman.
 
I learned in a class on success that the only way to make it in life is to write a “to-do” list each night and then review it every morning to set priorities for the day.  It only takes a few minutes and saves a lot of time in the long run.  And did you know that if you spend only an extra forty-five minutes a day on house work you never have to get bogged down in spring cleaning?
 
It is marvelous how many things can be done in such a short time, and I would feel negligent if I said I couldn’t find those few minutes.  After all, is a few minutes a day for all that improvement too much to ask?  I can always set the alarm a little earlier.
 
But last night as I was setting the alarm after my prayers I realized it was time to get up and jog.  Maybe I should make out a new schedule; it will only take a few minutes.
​

No other work transcends that of righteous, intentional parenting!

Russell M Nelson "The Sabbath is a Delight" April 2015​

The Processionary Caterpillar

The noted French naturalist, Jean Henri Fabre`, studied this unique little furry insect in great detail. What makes this caterpillar special is its instinct to follow in lock step the caterpillar in front of it. This behavior, not only gives the caterpillar its name, but a deadly characteristic also.

Fabre` demonstrated this unusual behavior with a simple experiment. He took a flowerpot and placed a number of caterpillars in single-file around the circumference of the pot's rim. Each caterpillar's head touched the caterpillar in front of it. Fabre` then placed the caterpillars' favorite food in the middle of the circle created by the caterpillars' procession around the rim of the flowerpot. Each caterpillar followed the one ahead thinking that it was heading for the food. Round and round went those silly insects--for seven days! After a week of this mindless activity, the caterpillars started to drop dead because of exhaustion and starvation. All that they had to do to avoid death was to stop the senseless circling of the flower pot and head directly toward the food-less than six inches away from those ever-circling crawlers. However, the processionary caterpillars were locked into this lifestyle and couldn't extricate themselves from this mindless behavior.

​M Russell Ballard…“Be Strong in the Lord”  Ensign, July 2004
 
“…One of the ways Satan lessens your effectiveness and weakens your spiritual strength is by encouraging you to spend large blocks of your time doing things that matter very little. I speak of such things as sitting for hours on end watching television or videos, playing video games night in and night out, surfing the Internet, or devoting huge blocks of time to sports, games, or other recreational activities.
 
Don’t misunderstand me. These activities are not wrong in and of themselves (unless, of course, you are watching salacious programs or seeking out pornographic images on the Internet). Games, sports, recreational activities, and even television can be relaxing and rejuvenating, especially in times when you are under stress or heavily scheduled. You need activities that help you to unwind and rest your minds. It is healthy to go onto the soccer field or the basketball court and participate in vigorous physical activity.
But I speak of letting things get out of balance. It is not watching television, but watching television hour after hour, night after night. Does not that qualify as idling away your time? What will you say to the Lord when He asks what you have done with the precious gift of life and time? Surely you will not feel comfortable telling Him that you were able to pass the 100,000-point level in a challenging video game.
 
One devastating effect of idling away our time is that it deflects us from focusing on the things that matter most. Too many people are willing to sit back and let life just happen to them. It takes time to develop the attributes that will help you to be a well-balanced person.
​

ulie B Beck “Choose Ye This Day” BYU Women’s Conference April 2010

“We know that there are some essential things that must be taken care of if we are going to achieve eternal life. Those things are making and keeping covenants and doing the things the Lord expects us to do. … Every day we start by doing those essential things. It’s not a long list; it’s a few things that tell the Lord we’re aligned with Him. …

We have a long list of necessary things. These are the things that help keep life moving. Then we have the list of things that are nice to do. But if we spend our time on that list, and essentials haven’t been taken care of first, then we’re not lined up with our Heavenly Father. [The "nice" things] won’t save us.”
​

D&C 88:119
​Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

Family Mission Statements

With permission, President Cobb of the Kuna Idaho Stake Presidency shared his family statement and motto…
Family Statement:  “Our home will be founded upon the principles of faith, prayer, order, respect, love and gratitude.  As a family we will go to church together, have family home evening together, eat together, read scriptures together, work together, pray together, and play together. As we do these things, we will have a Christ-centered home where the Spirit is present.” 

Family motto is: “Be there!”

Family Mottos

Creating Order

D&C 88:124

Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.

​

HOMEWORK:
Family Mission Statement---Address it.  Think about it.  Talk to your family about it.  Begin the operation of organizing and creating.
 
Look at your Weekly/Daily Schedule.  Is your family organized?  Do you have order in your home?  Does everyone know it.
 
Read the talk Larry Lawrence November 2010 “Courageous Parenting”
 

An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger-printed, and photographed, and then placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do?' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car!"

Conference Story….”The Music of the Gospel”  April 2015 Conference

Years ago I listened to a radio interview of a young doctor who worked in a hospital in the Navajo Nation. He told of an experience he had one night when an old Native American man with long braided hair came into the emergency room. The young doctor took his clipboard, approached the man, and said, “How can I help you?” The old man looked straight ahead and said nothing. The doctor, feeling somewhat impatient, tried again. “I cannot help you if you don’t speak to me,” he said. “Tell me why you have come to the hospital.”

The old man then looked at him and said, “Do you dance?” As the young doctor pondered the strange question, it occurred to him that perhaps his patient was a tribal medicine man who, according to ancient tribal customs, sought to heal the sick through song and dance rather than through prescribing medication.

“No,” said the doctor, “I don’t dance. Do you dance?” The old man nodded yes. 

Then the doctor asked, “Could you teach me to dance?

The old man’s response has for many years caused me much reflection. “I can teach you to dance,” he said, “but you have to hear the music.”

Sometimes in our homes, we successfully teach the dance steps but are not as successful in helping our family members to hear the music. And as the old medicine man well knew, it is hard to dance without music. Dancing without music is awkward and unfulfilling—even embarrassing. Have you ever tried it?

  “Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer” (Richard G Scott)

“How to Obtain Revelation & Inspiration for your Personal Life” (Richard G Scott)

“How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life”  (Richard G Scott)

Elder Richard G Scott “To Acquire Spiritual Guidance”  October 2009

“Spirituality yields two fruits. The first is inspiration to know what to do. The second is power, or the capacity to do it. These two capacities come together.”

Richard G Scott gave talks about abuse.  Forgive them. 

“To Heal the Shattering Consequences of Abuse” (April 2008)

In a talk in November 2009, Elder Richard G. Scott shared an experience that taught him how to gain spiritual guidance.  He said he was sitting in a Priesthood meeting in a small Spanish Branch in Mexico City.  As he sat there he began to receive personal impressions as an extension of the principles taught in the lesson.  They came as answers to prolonged prayers he had been asking.  As each impression came, he carefully wrote it down.  After the class, he pondered each impression that he had recorded, pondered the feeling to see if he had accurately expressed them in writing.  Then he studied their meaning and application in his life.  After he had pondered on them, he prayed expressing to the Lord the things he had been taught by the Spirit.  When a feeling of peace came, he thanked Heavenly Father for the guidance given.  Then he was impressed to ask, “Was there yet more to be given?”  Further impressions came, were recorded, pondered, and prayed over and again the prayer, “Is there more I should know?”


"When that last, most sacred experience was concluded, I had received some of the most precious, specific, personal direction I could hope to obtain in this life.  Had I not responded to the first impressions and recorded them, I would not have received the last, most precious guidance.”   (“To Acquire Spiritual Guidance”  Ensign, November 2009)

Elder Bednar…Oct 2013 “The Windows of Heaven”  

“We often receive significant but subtle blessings that are not always what we expect and easily can be overlooked. 

Sometimes we may ask God for success, and He gives us physical and mental stamina. We might plead for prosperity, and we receive enlarged perspective and increased patience, or we petition for growth and are blessed with the gift of grace. He may bestow upon us conviction and confidence as we strive to achieve worthy goals. And when we plead for relief from physical, mental, and spiritual difficulties, He may increase our resolve and resilience.”

“Sometimes you may struggle with a problem and not get an answer.  What could be wrong?  It may be that you are not doing anything wrong.  It may be that you have not done the right things long enough.  Remember, you cannot force spiritual things.  Sometimes we are confused simply because we won’t take “no” for an answer… 

Put difficult questions in the back of your minds and go about your lives.  Ponder and pray quietly and persistently about them… The answer may not come as a lightning bolt.  It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there, line upon line, precept upon precept (D&C 98:12).  Some answers will come from reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers.  And, occasionally, when it is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration.  The promptings will be clear and unmistakable.”   (President Boyd K. Packer, “Prayers & Answers” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 21)

President Henry B Eyring “We Must Raise Our Sights” Ensign Sept 2004 

“The world in which young people live is changing rapidly. When their older brothers and sisters return to visit the same schools and campuses they attended, they find a radically different moral climate. The language in the hallways and the locker rooms has coarsened. Clothing is less modest. Pornography has moved into the open. Not only has tolerance for wickedness increased, but much of what was called wrong is no longer condemned at all and may, even by our Latter-day Saint youth, be admired. Parents and leaders have in many cases bent to the pressures coming from a shifting world to retreat from moral standards once widely accepted.  

The spiritual strength sufficient for our youth to stand firm just a few years ago will soon not be enough. Many of them are remarkable in their spiritual maturity and in their faith. But even the best of them are sorely tested. And the testing will become more severe.”