We have a friend who said that our family is experiencing the hardest time in our lives. I know others who have as great challenges as we have and some who are experiencing greater challenges right now. We reached the point, long ago, when I thought we had all that we could bear. Still things kept coming.

I marvel at the lessons God has given to us during these difficult times. I think of them as gifts of love. I am amazed at the many miracles He has created to share His love with us.

One of the great gifts of love he gives is friendship. In the last two weeks, I found that friendship and love can remain with us without frequent contact and I am awed by the amount of love that I can feel. I felt the strength of sustaining prayers. I felt the concern of others. I was literally enveloped in the arms of love.

I wish, sometimes, that life was not so hard. But how else can we learn the lessons so that we can grow to be more like God? I am grateful for the strength of my children and my husband through our experiences in the past year. How marvelous and great are the many bounteous blessings of our God in our lives.

I want to share one experience of the many great gifts given to our family. Last Thursday afternoon, after an especially long and trying day, my friend and I were going to visit someone who is sick. She was unable to see us and so my friend said that we could go for a ride. We did.

We decided to go shopping because she needed a new wallet. We went only in two stores. The second store, she found the wallet she wanted and I decided to buy one for me. My friend decided to give the wallet to me as a gift. I hesitated, but decided to be a gracious recipient.

I put the wallet in my bag and carried it around for a few days. Tuesday, I had a doctor’s appointment and I placed the check to pay the doctor in the new wallet. When I pulled it out to pay the doctor, I felt a sense of newness. I needed to have things that were new. I needed to get rid of the things that reminded me of my old life and start fresh. I hadn’t realized that such a small thing, a wallet, would help me move forward. It did. And each time I see it or touch it, I think of my dear sweet friend, who has been my strength over many years. Thank you, DeAnne. Thank you for understanding and loving me.

There are so many people who remain nameless right now, but someday, we will feel free to share their names and their gifts to us during our trials. I thank you too.

How can you show your love to a friend today?

Stephanie, our guest blogger today, is always ready to share her kind thoughts with those around her. She is a devoted mother and woman of great faith. She recently took up working with stained glass, and her quiet kindnesses speak volumes of her character. Enjoy!

It is the little things in life that help us along our way. I have read the blogs about empowering us to become better people, mothers, nurturers, sisters, etc. and thought I have little to nothing to contribute and have been putting off blogging as requested by the ladies who initiated this site. Then I stopped at a fast food restaurant on a busy day from running errands, feeling a bit frazzled. As I got my meal and sat down I saw a woman come in who looked more frazzled than I did. As she got her meal and looked for a seat our eyes met and I smiled at her. She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and sat a couple of tables from me, but facing me. We both ate in a silent companionship, strangers yet somehow acquaintances. As I finished my meal and prepared to go my way, she hesitantly spoke, very softly like she was afraid someone might hear her. She thanked me for smiling at her. She told me she had had a very trying morning and my smile brought her reassurance and comfort. It was a little thing and I don’t know who this sister of ours was, but it made me feel good to hear I had helped bring her comfort in a trying time. I left the restaurant with a lighter step and a smile in my heart. So sisters, smile as you go about your day, you never know who may be watching and needing that smile.

Thanks Mary Lynn for helping to create this venue. It was inspired.

Steph

There is a song that says “that’s what friends are for” and I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of friends in our lives. We have social networks like Facebook (by the way the mpowergen.com has 200-fans Hurray!) to help keep us connected and to open the door to re-connecting with friends from long ago. We had a blog from Wyddeth talking about the power of the written word to keep us connected through generations. We have cell phones and home phones with unlimited calling times available. All these things and others, keep us connected to the people we love.
Dictionary.com states that a friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard; a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter; a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile; a member of the same nation, party, etc.
Friends are the golden threads in the tapestry of life. They bring the color, light and sometimes even life to our lives. Friends tell us what we need to know about ourselves. They encourage us when we are struggling, they lift us when we are low; they tell us how we truly look, in a nice way; and they are always there to listen to our thoughts, concerns and triumphs.

Yesterday was a particularly hard day for me.  Yet, I was surrounded by my friends, my family and people who care about me.  Even those who were far away were praying for us.  I felt the strength that comes from prayers others offered in my behalf.  The day was hard, but the support of my friends made it possible for me to have the strength and the courage I needed.  I will be forever grateful to those beautiful people in my life.

Best of all, friends become a part of our family.  Some, like sisters, are kin by blood and also by friendship. We love them and want to share in their lives too. How blessed we are to have wonderful friends. My mom always told me to be careful who I chose to be my friends. I am glad I followed her counsel. I have the best friends in the world!

How can you share your love with a friend today?

Oh well… (I borrowed this phrase from a very dear friend of mine), I am posting my blog contribution a day late again. Our family has been under siege, as of late, and I promise, promise, promise that after we get through this, things will get better (this phrase is for my sister) and I will be able to post my blog on time. Ha! Ha!

I have been thinking a lot about what I would say today. The words which come into my mind are “thank you.” I cannot think of anything more profound or important to say than “thank you.”
My heart is full to overflowing with gratitude for the love, comfort and help we have been given recently.

As we have gone through this experience, I have been awed and amazed at how many friends we have; amazed at how we can be connected with people from far away, not having kept in daily contact, but still have the same love and attachment that we felt years ago. We are family. We are one, big, gigantic family. We are the family of God.

I hope I remember always that we are brothers and sisters. I actually don’t think I ever forgot it; I just didn’t always pay enough attention to the connection which occurs at each of our births. But now, my eyes are wide open, and I am fully awake. So, I won’t write a long blog. After a while, you will understand our experience because I believe we have to share our experiences with each other so that others can benefit from our mistakes and benefit from the growth we experience as a result of learning from those mistakes.

I also want to express my gratitude for a loving Father in Heaven who takes good care of us. Without Him in my life, I don’t know how I would be able to look forward and keep moving in that direction.

Our family has been strengthened. We have reopened doors wide to reconnect with the people we love. Thank you to each of our family members and friends who have supported and sustained us. You have empowered us to continue and to fight, even when we were too tired to go on. Your encouragement and your love nourish us daily. Thank you.

How can we help to sustain and support you?

This week has been one of the most difficult weeks of my life. I made a major decision, and by acting on it, made a major change. Some of the ramifications of that decision have been extremely difficult to deal with.

And what I have discovered through all of this is that I have an amazing support system that is way better, way stronger, and way bigger than I ever thought existed. People have come into my life and been there for me in the most astounding of ways. The hand of God has been in my life every day.

This week has been one of the most amazing weeks of my life.

We are moving to a new office. That is always a fun thing to do! We go through things, deciding which things to take and which to discard, which to store, which to destroy, which to send to the client, which to have the client come to get. There is more fun in getting phones relocated (this always seems to be a complicated thing here), fax machines and computers in operation and just the physical moving of furniture, file cabinets, book cases, equipment, and it goes on and on.

There are joyous things about moving, too. Reminiscing about all the people we have met with and loved in this space and time. This is a chapter in the book of life we are closing, but we get to open a new chapter, a new place, new people to meet, new friends to get acquainted with, and a new space to get used to.

At the end of the year, we get to do this with the past year we have lived. We get to reminisce and remember all the things we have learned during that year. We can reflect on how we have grown; how we have gotten through trials, with Heavenly Father’s help, we didn’t think we could ever endure; changes made to bring our life back into balance, the people we have met, new family members, trips, and just quiet reflection about how we are better because of these experiences.

We also get to look forward to a new year. A new year filled with possibilities. There will be more changes, exciting things to look forward, to help us grow and progress. We are empowered to be a little bit kinder, a little more loving, a little more prepared or whatever it is we decide to be.

Yesterday, my grandson came by the office. He is a year and a half. His grandfather walked with him and then, after a while, he was on the floor. Grandpa made a phone call and Hyrum followed him into the now, mostly empty conference room. There were still two chairs. Grandpa was sitting in one and Hyrum climbed into the other. He mimicked the position his grandpa was sitting. I called to my daughter to get a picture. This picture will be a memory of this experience.

The experience with the chairs reminded me that no matter what changes we go through, we have our family to go through them with us. We are never alone. We have friends who love and support us. We have each other.

Because of my wonderful friend Louisa’s supportive request, the blog entry I am writing for you today is about my newly famous wheat free apple crisp.

Now, I’ve never been one to experiment with alternative flour ingredients and wouldn’t have changed except for one thing that changed in reference to me. A few weeks ago my mom found out that she is allergic to what, at the time, seemed to be almost everything…eggs, wheat, dairy, pineapple, red grapes, asparagus, just to name a few. Cutting out these major ingredients from her diet has been difficult for her. She has chosen to stick with it despite the challenge of finding things that fit in the non-allergic category. I know that if I were allergic to all these things, I would be saddest not to be able to enjoy the yummy sweets that are everywhere this time of year.

On Sunday afternoon she asked if I could make her a pumpkin pie using coconut milk. It would’ve been perfect except for one thing: I haven’t learned to substitute eggs yet. She was sad until we came up with something that might just work. I was hesitant to try it…

I grabbed the ingredients that had the most potential to work. I didn’t know how it would taste, I didn’t know if we could even choke it down,  it was a labor of love that I hoped would work. Wishing, hoping, praying and waiting I mixed together everything I had and popped the desert into the oven. I still wasn’t sure how things would turn out,but I loved mom and gave it all I had for her sake.

The apple crisp came out of the oven and soon made its way into the bowls. I had left to go visit a friend and came back to my oldest sister and mom ooing and awwing over something yummy. To my honest surprise it was my crisp they were savoring. Could it be possible? Had this totally spontaneous effort actually yielded edible results?

I have learned that the taste of love can bring together all sorts of flavors in our lives. Whether or not the recipe turns out how we expect it to, if we make it with love, we can count on it meaning something more than what we might find in the average cookbook. 

What loving creations of life will you cook up today?

Our guest blogger this week, Jean Sabin, has become a fast friend to our family.  She loves jogging outdoors and singing karaoke with friends and family; she enjoys and appreciates all mediums of art, and her favorite color is pink.  She is sensitive to the needs of others and is often looking to help those around her.  Though we have yet to meet face to face, we feel a kinship with her and are grateful for her contribution to MPower those around her.

Today I had to come to the realization that sometimes we can’t have it all, but only have what God wants for us.  A great friend of mine likes to coin the phrase “you can push and pull God’s hand, but he moves it on his own so much easier.”  He also utilizes his scriptures more than anyone I know; he would never admit it that his favorite verse is Psalm 25:9–”He teaches the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.”

If there is anyone who has been humbled in the past few years, it is my friend Dre.  But none more so than the past few months.  He has survived two life-threatening surgeries–and has had to bury a best friend–and a childhood friend–within days of each other.  He even has had to lose his job due to his health.  But he was always grateful for what God has given him.  He always has a positive outlook on things, and, as he says, “just tries to love life for what it is.”  This is a man who at one point (not too long ago) had it all–the girl of his dreams, the job he always wanted, and the house that he thought up.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any of that anymore yet he is still grateful for what God has given him.

I love this man, and in many ways I am in awe of what he has had to endure. Today he had to face failure (now I have known this man almost my entire life and I can’t remember him ever failing at anything he puts his mind to, but today unfortunately he failed an exam that he really wanted to pass so that he could work for a company that he has always wanted to work for but as I previously mentioned he didn’t get what he wanted).

Sometimes having to be there for our loved ones in their time of need could be as simple as making them comfortable or just by letting them grieve. Anyone who has dealt with failure knows the value of encouragement, yet all too often we are quick to point out the mistakes and failures of others rather than their successes and the things they do well.  Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement,” was a person who grasped the enormous value of blessing others with words. He came alongside believers in the midst of trials and troubles of all kinds, and he encouraged them to press on and to be all that God had called them to be.

The value of lifting up the hearts of men and women is immeasurable. Encouragement strengthens character, increases confidence in God, develops loyalty, deepens faith, and stimulates joy.  We as women have a choice each day about whether our daily lives will be marked by encouragement or discouragement.  May we earn the same reputation as that of Barnabas.