#BecauseofHim

Happy Easter to Everyone!! I hope your spending the holiday with friends and family around you as we celebrate Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I have a testimony of the Savior. I love the song "I know that my Redeemer lives"

1. I know that my Redeemer lives.

What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead.

He lives, my ever-living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love.

He lives to plead for me above.

He lives my hungry soul to feed.

He lives to bless in time of need.

2. He lives to grant me rich supply.

He lives to guide me with his eye.

He lives to comfort me when faint.

He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.

He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.

He lives all blessings to impart.

3. He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly Friend.

He lives and loves me to the end.

He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing.

He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

He lives and grants me daily breath.

He lives, and I shall conquer death.

He lives my mansion to prepare.

He lives to bring me safely there.

4. He lives! All glory to his name!

He lives, my Savior, still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

“I know that my Redeemer lives!”

He lives! All glory to his name!

He lives, my Savior, still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

“I know that my Redeemer lives!”

I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that He atoned for each of us and know each person's trials personally. I know that He sacrificed for me and my sins so that one day I may be able to once again live with Him and my Heavenly Father. As I have gone through some hard times in the last couple months, I have become closer and closer to my Savior. I have been overwhelmed with the pain that just my path has caused and to think that He took upon Himself the worlds pain, those who are living and those who have died before. He knows the pain of the sad, of the abused, of the neglected, of the depressed, of the addicted, of the lonely, of the hurt and inflicted, etc. He knows and gave us away through it. Lean on Him! Trust Him to help with your burden! Praise this glorious gift that He so willingly gave. He has helped me through my trials and pain and He can help all those who come unto Him.

 

Christ the Redeemer

[The Redeemer’s] sacrifice blessed everyone, from Adam, the first, to the last of all human beings.

By Elder Carlos H. Amado

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born and died in unique circumstances. He lived and grew up in humble conditions, without material things. He said of Himself, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).

He never received honors, favors, recognition, nor preferred treatment from the political leaders of the earth or from the religious leaders of His day. Neither did He sit in the highest seats of the synagogues.

His preaching was simple, and even though multitudes followed after Him, His ministry always consisted of blessing people one by one. He performed innumerable miracles among those who accepted Him as the One sent from God.

He gave His Apostles authority and power to do miracles “and greater works” than those He performed (John 14:12), but He never delegated to them the privilege of forgiving sins. His enemies became indignant when they heard Him say, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11) or “Thy sins are forgiven [thee]” (Luke 7:48). That right belonged only to Him because He is the Son of God and because He would pay for those sins with His Atonement.

His Power over Death

His power over death was another divine attribute. Great Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, pleaded “that he would come into his house: for he had one only daughter, … and she lay a dying” (Luke 8:41–42). The Master heard his plea, and while they were walking, a servant came to Jairus and told him, “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master” (Luke 8:49). After entering the house, Jesus asked for everyone to go out, and straightway, taking her by the hand, He said to her, “Arise!” (Luke 8:54).

On another occasion, while He was traveling to the city of Nain, He came upon a funeral procession, a widow weeping for the death of her only son. Full of mercy, He touched the bier and said, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (Luke 7:14). The people, upon seeing the miracle, exclaimed, “A great prophet is risen up among us; and … God hath visited his people” (Luke 7:16). This miracle was even more noteworthy because they had already declared the young man legally dead and were on the way to bury him. With two young people brought back to life, the evidence of His authority and power over death astonished the believers and filled the defamers with fear.

The third occasion was the most impressive. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were siblings whom Christ would often visit. When people informed Him that Lazarus was sick, He remained two days before leaving to come to the family. In consoling Martha after her brother’s death, He categorically testified to her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

When the Savior asked for the mourners to remove the stone from the sepulchre, Martha timidly whispered to Him, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days” (John 11:39).

Then Jesus lovingly reminded her, “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). And having said this, He cried out with a loud voice:

“Lazarus, come forth.

“And he that was dead came forth” (John 11:43–44).

After Lazarus’s four days in the grave, the enemies of the Son of God were faced with irrefutable evidence they could not ignore, diminish, or distort, and they senselessly and maliciously “from that day forth ... took counsel together for to put him to death” (John 11:53).

The New Commandment

Later on, the living Christ celebrated in Jerusalem, along with His Apostles, His last Feast of the Passover, established the ordinance of the sacrament, and gave them the commandment to love one another through sincere service.

His Agony in Gethsemane

After that, in the most sublime show of His love for humankind, and in the full exercise of His will, He walked bravely and determinedly to face His most demanding trial. In the Garden of Gethsemane, in utter loneliness, He suffered the most intense agony, bleeding from each pore. In total submission before His Father, He atoned for our sins and also took upon Him our illnesses and afflictions in order to know how to succor us (see Alma 7:11–13).

We are indebted to Him and to our Heavenly Father because His sacrifice blessed everyone, from Adam, the first, to the last of all human beings.

Condemnation and Crucifixion of the Savior

Once His agony in Gethsemane was concluded, He voluntarily gave Himself up to His detractors. Betrayed by one of His own, He was hurriedly condemned, in a manner both unjust and illegal, in a trial both manipulated and incomplete. That same night He was accused of the crime of blasphemy and condemned to death. In their hatred and thirst for vengeance--because He testified to them that He was the Son of God--His enemies plotted for Pilate to condemn Him. To that end, they changed the accusation of blasphemy to sedition so that His death would be by crucifixion.

His condemnation among the Romans was even more cruel: their mockings and scorn regarding His spiritual kingdom, the humiliating coronation with a crown of thorns, His painful scourging, and the prolonged agony of His public Crucifixion were all a clear warning for every person who might dare to declare himself or herself His disciple.

At each moment of His suffering, the Redeemer of the world showed exceptional self-control. He always thought of blessing others; with kindness and tenderness, He pleaded for John to take care of His mother, Mary. He asked His Father in Heaven to forgive the executioners who crucified Him. With His work on earth fulfilled, He commended His spirit to God and breathed His last breath. The physical body of Christ was taken to the tomb and remained there three days.

The Work of the Redeemer among the Dead

While His disciples were suffering from sadness, discouragement, and uncertainty, our Savior, in another phase of His Father’s glorious plan, extended His ministry in a new way. In the short period of three days, He worked untiringly to organize the immense work of salvation among the dead. Those days became some of the most hope-filled of all for the family of God. During that visit He organized His faithful followers so that they would bear glad tidings of redemption to those who did not in life come to know of the glorious plan or who had rejected it. Now they would have the opportunity to be freed from their captivity and to be redeemed by the God of both the living and the dead (see D&C 138:19, 30–31).

The Firstfruits of the Resurrection

With His work completed in the spirit world, He returned to earth--forever to unite His spirit with His physical body. Even though He had authoritatively shown His power over death, the scriptural accounts of those He brought back to life before His Resurrection demonstrate that they were only coming back to a life that had been miraculously prolonged; they would yet die.

Christ was the first to be resurrected and never die again, to possess forever a perfect, eternal body. In His resurrected state, He appeared to Mary, who as soon as she recognized Him, began to worship Him. Our Redeemer, with great tenderness, warned her concerning His new and glorious condition: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17)--providing an additional witness that His ministry in the spirit world was real and complete. Then, using language that confirmed the reality of His Resurrection, He said, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). After going to His Father, He returned again and appeared to His Apostles. “He shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20).

The Redeemer Will Return

I testify that Christ will return in a way very different from His first coming. He will come in power and glory with all the just and faithful Saints. He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords, as the Prince of Peace, the promised Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer, to judge the living and the dead. I love and serve Him with all my heart, and I plead that we may serve with joy and dedication and that we may remain faithful to Him until the end. In His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

10th of November

So Thank Yous part 2

I would like to thank my sweet husband, John. When I received the prompting to "wait for John" I didn't understand why. We had always been best friends but I wasn't sure if it was right to marry you. Thankfully I trusted my Heavenly Father or I would have never found out what a great man, husband, and future father you would be. Thank you for pushing me to be better. Thank you for becoming my husband. Thank you for putting up with my love for change. Thank you for being strong in the gospel. And thank you for being perfect for me.

Craig & Sherry Michelsen

I want to thank you for a couple of things. Thank you for raising my husband. Thank you for teaching John the gospel and showing him how to be a strong priesthood holder. Thank you for showing him love and for being great examples as parents and as spouses. Thank you for helping him strive for high grades. Thank you for supporting his dreams. Thank you for teaching him to love and to be quick to forgive. Thank you for teaching John kindness and that every one is a child of God..

Thank you for raising him as a son of God.

The Eternal Blessing of Marriage

I loved this talk! It also helped push our wedding up like six months! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did......

The Eternal Blessings of Marriage

Richard G. Scott

The temple sealing has greater meaning as life unfolds. It will help you draw ever closer together and find greater joy and fulfillment.

That beautiful message by this magnificent choir describes, I think, the pattern of life for so many of us: “trying to be like Jesus.”

On July 16, 1953, my beloved Jeanene and I knelt as a young couple at an altar in the Manti Utah Temple. President Lewis R. Anderson exercised the sealing authority and pronounced us husband and wife, wedded for time and for all eternity. I have no power to describe the peace and serenity that come from the assurance that as I continue to live worthily, I will be able to be with my beloved Jeanene and our children forever because of that sacred ordinance performed with the proper priesthood authority in the house of the Lord.

Our seven children are bound to us by the sacred ordinances of the temple. My precious wife, Jeanene, and two of our children are beyond the veil. They provide a powerful motivation for each remaining member of our family to live so that together we will receive all of the eternal blessings promised in the temple.

Two of the vital pillars that sustain Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness are marriage and the family. Their lofty significance is underscored by Satan’s relentless efforts to splinter the family and to undermine the significance of temple ordinances, which bind the family together for eternity. The temple sealing has greater meaning as life unfolds. It will help you draw ever closer together and find greater joy and fulfillment in mortality.

Once I learned an important lesson from my wife. I traveled extensively in my profession. I had been gone almost two weeks and returned home one Saturday morning. I had four hours before I needed to attend another meeting. I noticed that our little washing machine had broken down and my wife was washing the clothes by hand. I began to fix the machine.

Jeanene came by and said, “Rich, what are you doing?”

I said, “I’m repairing the washing machine so you don’t have to do this by hand.”

She said, “No. Go play with the children.”

I said, “I can play with the children anytime. I want to help you.”

Then she said, “Richard, please go play with the children.”

When she spoke to me that authoritatively, I obeyed.

I had a marvelous time with our children. We chased each other around and rolled in the fall leaves. Later I went to my meeting. I probably would have forgotten that experience were it not for the lesson that she wanted me to learn.

The next morning about 4:00 a.m., I was awakened as I felt two little arms around my neck, a kiss on the cheek, and these words whispered in my ear, which I will never forget: “Dad, I love you. You are my best friend.”

If you are having that kind of experience in your family, you are having one of the supernal joys of life.

If you are a young man of appropriate age and are not married, don’t waste time in idle pursuits. Get on with life and focus on getting married. Don’t just coast through this period of life. Young men, serve a worthy mission. Then make your highest priority finding a worthy, eternal companion. When you find you are developing an interest in a young woman, show her that you are an exceptional person that she would find interesting to know better. Take her to places that are worthwhile. Show some ingenuity. If you want to have a wonderful wife, you need to have her see you as a wonderful man and prospective husband.

If you have found someone, you can form an extraordinarily wonderful courtship and marriage and be very, very happy eternally by staying within the bounds of worthiness the Lord has established.

If you are married, are you faithful to your spouse mentally as well as physically? Are you loyal to your marriage covenants by never engaging in conversation with another person that you wouldn’t want your spouse to overhear? Are you kind and supportive of your spouse and children?

Brethren, do you lead out in family activities such as scripture study, family prayer, and family home evening, or does your wife fill in the gap your lack of attention leaves in the home? Do you tell your wife often how very much you love her? It will bring her great happiness. I’ve heard men tell me when I say that, “Oh, she knows.” You need to tell her. A woman grows and is greatly blessed by that reassurance. Express gratitude for what your spouse does for you. Express that love and gratitude often. That will make life far richer and more pleasant and purposeful. Don’t withhold those natural expressions of love. And it works a lot better if you are holding her close while you tell her.

I learned from my wife the importance of expressions of love. Early in our marriage, often I would open my scriptures to give a message in a meeting, and I would find an affectionate, supportive note Jeanene had slipped into the pages. Sometimes they were so tender that I could hardly talk. Those precious notes from a loving wife were and continue to be a priceless treasure of comfort and inspiration.

I began to do the same thing with her, not realizing how much it truly meant to her. I remember one year we didn’t have the resources for me to give her a valentine, so I decided to paint a watercolor on the front of the refrigerator. I did the best I could; only I made one mistake. It was enamel paint, not watercolor. She never let me try to remove that permanent paint from the refrigerator.

I remember one day I took some of those little round paper circles that form when you punch holes in paper, and I wrote on them the numbers 1 to 100. I turned each over and wrote her a message, one word on each circle. Then I scooped them up and put them in an envelope. I thought she would get a good laugh.

When she passed away, I found in her private things how much she appreciated the simple messages that we shared with each other. I noted that she had carefully pasted every one of those circles on a piece of paper. She not only kept my notes to her, but she protected them with plastic coverings as if they were a valuable treasure. There is only one that she didn’t put with the others. It is still behind the glass in our kitchen clock. It reads, “Jeanene, it is time to tell you I love you.” It remains there and reminds me of that exceptional daughter of Father in Heaven.

As I have thought back over our life together, I realize how blessed we’ve been. We have not had arguments in our home or unkind words between us. Now I realize that blessing came because of her. It resulted from her willingness to give, to share, and to never think of herself. In our later life together, I tried to emulate her example. I suggest that as husband and wife you do the same in your home.

Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good. Righteous love is the foundation of a successful marriage. It is the primary cause of contented, well-developed children. Who can justly measure the righteous influence of a mother’s love? What enduring fruits result from the seeds of truth that a mother carefully plants and lovingly cultivates in the fertile soil of a child’s trusting mind and heart? As a mother you have been given divine instincts to help you sense your child’s special talents and unique capacities. With your husband you can nurture, strengthen, and cause those traits to flower.

It is so rewarding to be married. Marriage is wonderful. In time you begin to think alike and have the same ideas and impressions. You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trial, but the Lord guides you through all of those growth experiences together.

One night our little son Richard, who had a heart problem, awoke crying. The two of us heard it. Normally my wife always got up to take care of a crying baby, but this time I said, “I’ll take care of him.”

Because of his problem, when he began to cry, his little heart would pound very rapidly. He would throw up and soil the bed clothing. That night I held him very close to try to calm his racing heart and stop his crying as I changed his clothes and put on new bedsheets. I held him until he went to sleep. I didn’t know then that just a few months later he would pass away. I will always remember holding him in my arms in the middle of that night.

I remember well the day he passed away. As Jeanene and I drove from the hospital, we pulled over to the side of the road. I held her in my arms. Each of us cried some, but we realized that we would have him beyond the veil because of the covenants we had made in the temple. That made his loss somewhat easier to accept.

Jeanene’s kindness taught me so many valuable things. I was so immature, and she was so disciplined and so spiritual. Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. I think one of the reasons that we are counseled to get married early in life is to avoid developing inappropriate character traits that are hard to change.

I feel sorry for any man who hasn’t yet made the choice to seek an eternal companion, and my heart weeps for the sisters who haven’t had the opportunity to marry. Some of you may feel lonely and unappreciated and cannot see how it will be possible for you to have the blessings of marriage and children or your own family. All things are possible to the Lord, and He keeps the promises He inspires His prophets to declare. Eternity is a long time. Have faith in those promises and live to be worthy of them so that in His time the Lord can make them come true in your life. With certainty, you will receive every promised blessing for which you are worthy.

Please pardon me for speaking of my precious wife, Jeanene, but we are an eternal family. She was always joyously happy, and much of it came from service to others. Even while very ill, in her morning prayer she would ask her Father in Heaven to lead her to someone she could help. That sincere supplication was answered time and again. The burdens of many were eased; their lives were brightened. She was blessed continually for being an instrument directed by the Lord.

I know what it is to love a daughter of Father in Heaven who with grace and devotion lived the full feminine splendor of her righteous womanhood. I am confident that when, in our future, I see her again beyond the veil, we will recognize that we have become even more deeply in love. We will appreciate each other even more, having spent this time separated by the veil. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Our Second Anniversary

Today John and I have been married for two years!! Two years!! I can hardly believe it. Time has just flown by. I never would have imagined to go so fast or for us to be where we are.

Two years ago, John and I got married in the LDS Billings, Montana Temple. It was a beautiful day even when my mother got me up at six AM to do my hair! I didn't get to see my fiancé at all that morning as we got everything ready and then started the four hour drive to Billings. I was certainly nervous as we got closer and closer to the temple. Not nervous about who I was marrying but about the ceremony. But as we reached the temple grounds my nerves disappeared and I knew I was doing the right thing. It was amazing and beautiful. And I am so glad for our temple marriage. 

Our first year of marriage was a little rocky. We lived in a very tiny apartment barely big enough for us to move around. We had little time between our wedding and John starting school. And having moved to Rexburg, we had no jobs and our future was uncertain. Our ward was judgmental to the fact that I was not going to school and instead working (which is ridiculous). We were unsure of where we were and what we were going to do. Life was crazy and nerve-racking. 

But our second year of marriage has certainly gotten better! We live in a very nice two bedroom apartment where we have actually housed Leisha and Jaren (at different time) while they were here for school. We love our ward and our fabulous bishop. We first stole my golden retriever from my parents and now we also have two little kittens. John works at Playstation Tech Support in Idaho Falls while I work in Rexburg at Upper Valley Vet Clinic as their sole groomer. 

We have been blessed tremendously even though Rexburg is not my favorite place. We thank our Heavenly Father for all that has come our way and ask for his guidance in this next chapter: Our Third Year!  

Happy Two Year Anniversary!!!!