Thankful for challenges

Today at church the bishop challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in the month of Aug. That would make 18 pages a day of reading. Our family took the challenge and started today. I have never read the Book of Mormon in a month. I normally take it very slowly and read a chapter a day. I am thankful for this challenge. The kids put on the Book of Mormon cd's we have and they were excited when they finished their 18 pages. This will not be an easy challenge for me. But I am up for it.

I only had one girl in my primary class and the lesson was about David and Goliath. Did you know that Goliath was close to 9ft 9 inches tall? WOW. And his armor alone weighed 150 pounds. David was just a small guy. He was young yet brave.

The purpose of the lesson was to help the children seek Heavenly Father's help in overcoming obstacles.

Challenges in our lives can be stumbling blocks or stepping stones depending on how we handle them. If we become unhappy and angry because of the difficulties we face in life, they are stumbling blocks to us. If we handle our difficulties with a positive attitude and learn from them, then we become better people and our challenges are like stepping stones to us.

Even though David was small he had the help of the Lord. Goliath was huge and his body was covered in armor. This just goes to show that the Lord is much more powerful than any physical strength one can possess.

I am thankful for this lesson. I think it was for me more than for my one primary child. Lately I have been complaining about the 'Goliaths' in my life. And my attitude hasn't been the best about a few things that we are facing right now. I know that I can turn any trial into something positive if my attitude is different. There is soooooo much to be said about a persons attitude. And I need to change mine.

It has been awhile since I have had a cold sore. I usually get them when I am under a lot of stress. So if I can rely on my Heavenly Father and have faith that everything always works out I could save myself alot of unneeded stressful times. Always a bit easier said than done. But I am working on it.

Recently I came across a blog that really hit me and helped me again to realize that our attitude and the way we handle things says so much about who we are. This family just lost their little girl to drowning. These young parents are handling this loss amazingly well. It is the attitude that the parents have that is affecting so many people. So many strangers have written on their blog how they have been strengthened because of their story. A marriage has been saved. Mom's are treating their children better. Families are coming together. And because of this one HUGE TRIAL so many other people are being blessed. It would have been easy for these young parents to become bitter and angry at God. And they had many people ask them if they ever thought "WHY US". And their response to that was....Why not us? And so many times I have been brought to tears for their testimony and their strength and I realize that my trials are not nearly that stressful and yet I have complained about what I have been going through. I am thankful for the way they are handling this trial in their life and it has helped to open my eyes more and to see that I really don't have it that bad. I am thankful to Heavenly Father for putting us through trials to help strengthen us. He never puts us through things to cause us misery. It is all for our good and it is to help us to learn and grow and to become better people.

Here is the blog if you are interested in reading. Also...a stranger to this family wrote them a song about their daughter. You can download it for $1. That money goes to the family to help pay for expenses from the funeral. I downloaded the song and it is very beautiful. I hope all who read my blog will do so as well.

http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com