Opening the heavens

On the day the August 2009 Ensign arrived last week I was drawn to the cover story: Opening the Heavens. I read it immediately and it prompted me to write "A Promised Land" and now this little poem. The math major in me sees formulas in spiritual things as well as physical things and in this article I saw a powerful formula for opening heaven. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our Own "Sacred Grove"

May we each be one
With the Father and the Son.
May we commit to His way
At the beginning of each day.
May we draw close to Him
And give away worry and whim.

May we each find an alcove,
Our own special "sacred grove",
Where His voice we can hear,
Where His presence can draw near.
May He walk daily by our side
And may with Him we one day reside.

25 July 2009 Suzanne Halliday

"Opening the Heavens" by Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi, August 2009 ENSIGN "Do you want to feel the love of God more powerfully in your life." "There is a way you can feel a daily renewal of God's everlasting love and drink from 'the fountain of living waters' (1 Nephi 11:25). I speak of a morning devotional time spent in prayer, meditation, and scripture study. If you have a devotional every morning, even if only for a few minutes, you will be deeply blessed. I know this to be true. "The key to gaining the spiritual strength we need lies in what President Thomas S Monson once described as entering a 'sacred grove' of our own. He was teaching bishops, but the counsel applies to all members of the church: 'Every bishop (every member) needs a sacred grove to which he can retire to meditate and to pray for guidance... "We don't enter into these devotional times expecting to see the Father and the Son any more than Joseph Smith did. But we can trust that Heavenly Father will answer our prayers; how He answers them, however is up to Him. "There is great power in setting aside quiet, prayerful, meditative time. In the stillness that accompanies our pondering, we can come to know the Father and His son (see Psalm 44:10; D & C 101:16) I know from personal experience the spiritual power that can flow into your life if you follow this practice. You will feel the love of God and a cleansing, purifying regeneration of your spirit (see 1 Nephi 11-25; D & C 50:28-29). You will experience moments of revelation, when the Spirit whispers to your spirit what you need to do to be a better father, a better mother, a better son or daughter, a better disciple of Jesus Christ. See Elder Melvin J Ballard's account of his dream. "I don't know if you will have that same kind of experience in this life. But I do know that if you continue to meet daily with Heavenly Father in the private chambers of your home, you will come know Him and our Savior in ways you couldn't otherwise. May you do so and have the heavens open to you in whatever glorious ways your Heavenly Father has prepared for you."

God will see us through.

As my walking partner and I walked by a neighbor's home, we marveled that she was still able to sit on the ground and pull weeds, while we can no longer even sit on the floor and if we should somehow get down there, it takes helping hands to get us up again. I thought too about this neighbor's problems. She can sit on the ground and pull weeds but she has her own set of troubles. All of this thinking prompted me to write the following poem:


Growing Old

Things I could do before
Like sit on the floor,
I can do no more.
Bending down too
Is very hard to do,
But God sees me through.

Maybe you can't bend
Or a mountain ascend
Without loosing wind.
What is hard for me to do
Might be easy for you,
But God will see us through.

Growing old is not easy;
Sometimes even queasy,
Or at times quite breezy.
But there is more to do,
And no time to be blue.
God needs us to be true.

16 July 2009 Suzanne Halliday

Hymn 52, "Still let us be doing, our lessons reviewing, Which God has revealed for our walk in his way; And then wondrous story, the Lord in his glory Will come in his pow'r in the beautiful day."

Hope

Thread of Hope

There is a thread of hope
That can run through your life.
It will bring power to cope
And to risie above the strife.

Don't let the thread break;
Hang on through thick and thin.
Ride out your heart ache
And one day you too will win.

Let not your thread bend down
And touch upon the ground:
For God has promised a crown
To all whose hope doth abound.

Sing songs of faith and hope;
For they will strengthen your thread.
As you braid the thread into a rope,
Blessings will break upon your head.

17 July 2009 Suzanne Halliday

In my mind's eye I beheld a thread of hope broken in two and bending down to touch the ground. It had been severed by despair. I knew I must get up and write about the thread of hope.

Freedom of America

I believe that this country is a promised land and that many were gathered from other countries to come to this land where they could be free from oppression. But we must take lessons from our forefathers and work hard to keep America free.

Keep America Free

To keep our country free
Takes work from you and me.
We cannot ever sit idly by
And just moan and cry.

We must be up and doing,
The ways of truth pursuing.
We must love one another
And treat each other as a brother.

We must turn our hearts to God,
And learn how His path to trod.
We must each come to see
What a gift it is to be free.

We must come to always cherish,
And never let this freedom perish.
Let us learn from forefather's past
How to make this freedom last.

4 July 2009 Suzanne Halliday

You will be taken care of.

Yesterday I was feeling quite down. As I stood in the kitchen, I remembered a quote from an article I had read: "If we live as we should live, then we will be taken care of." The words, you will be taken care of touched my soul. I knew this was true. I will be taken care of. No matter what happens around me, God will take care of me.

Instantly my spirits lifted and I felt lighter. About 5 minutes later my son Stephen called to say that a recent physical had shone that he may have something wrong with his liver. I was able to be cheerful and to feel that all would be okay. He is to have an ultra sound on his liver this week. I was able to bear testimony to him that God would take care of him too.

Measure of the Day

Last Sunday was Flag Day. I woke early and had ideas for a poem running in my head. I didn't intend on finishing it until after church but my grand daughter was running slow so instead of pushing on her to hurry, I took the time to finish the poem: Flag and I printed it before church. During church ideas came to me for another poem about the Savior. I wrote lines down on my program and typed it up after church. After church Bruce came over and I made spaghetti. Then it was time to get on line and answer the phones. We were busy. All this time I was not feeling well. In the evening I realized that because of how I was feeling physically, I was judging my day to be a bad day when in reality it was not. One of the patrons I helped, told me that I did good work and another was so excited with the answer I gave her. As I looked back I could see that I should not measure my day by how I feel physically but rather rejoice in how the Lord works through me and what I am able to accomplish despite how I feel.


Measure of A Day

What is the measure of a day?
Is it imbedded in how you feel?
Or is it in all you do and say
After the Lord you humbly appeal?

When you look back on a day,
Look for answers to your prayer,
Look at how he guided your way
To help others know His care.

Let your heart find cause to rejoice
Over all He helped you to do and say,
Over all that came because of your choice,
To ask him humbly to guide your way.

How you physically feel in a day
Is you see not really a true measure,
But rather it is your choice to follow His way
That leads you to a wonderful treasure.

So when the sun goes down on your day
Look around to see His hand guiding you,
Leading you to help others along your way,
And helping you to make it through.

Look deeper than the surface of each day.
Feel within your soul His loving care.
See Him leading you along the way.
See the answers to your humble prayer.

20 June 2009 Suzanne Halliday

Little miracles

Today I have had many little miracles. It all started with a poem I wrote early this morning, "Wonder", which helped to focus on beautiful things.

We are getting ready to take a trip on Monday and I had several loose ends. One was a mishandled case that I wanted to resolve by getting an arbitration batch with a similar problem where both key A and key B were the same but yet the wrong answer. I have been looking and praying for days. Tonight it simply fell into my lap and I was able to take screen shots and send it to my assistant so she can show them to the team.

The second was a problem one of my missionaries was having with his skype phone. He has been on vacation for 2 weeks and this week was his first week on phones for indexing. Nothing went well this week. He kept dropping calls. I helped him set his skype options but it did not help. Tonight he was still dropping calls. Finally he thought to have me call his skype phone. The message I got was that his phone was disconnected. He called Skype and discovered that it had happened when he renewed his contract with him. He got it straightened out, was back on the phones and took two calls. I am so thankful. Now I do not have to worry about him and the phones next week.

I helped with both calls but the last one was amazing. God helped me to remember something that I had learned earlier in the week and brought to mind an Australian Project I saw two weeks ago. I was amazed. Jesus said that he would send the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost would bring all things to our remembrance. John 14:26

I also was able to remember countless things that I needed to take with us. But the last miracle was one of prevention of a bite. Bella found a tarantula on my bookcase. Daniel was able to get it outside. The bookcase is right over my bed. If it had bitten me, I would have swollen up and had to go to the emergency room. Blessed be the Lord my God. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Wonder

To stop and wonder
At the world around,
To ponder the thunder
Is to let miracles abound.

The world is a busy place
From morning to night.
We must stop the race
And ponder God's might.

Wonder at a mountain tall
With its towering peaks
Or listen to a cricket small
And wonder what he speaks.

The world is full of wonder.
Do we stop and look around?
Do we listen to the thunder
Or is our nose to the ground?

God's work is everywhere.
It can be seen and heard
If we but look here and there
And let our hearts be stirred.

5 June 2009 Suzanne Halliday