Brief Prayer Quotes

Yesterday, a special day of fasting and prayer, I looked for short quotes …

and wanted to share three of my favorites:

“Pray Always”

Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

"For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth”  (Moses 3:4–5).

“We learn from these verses that the spiritual creation preceded the temporal creation.  In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day.  Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other.”

– General Conference, October 2008

"Make [group] prayers brief"

"We ought to worship Him with our hearts and not with these long, flowery sentences.  ...  We can pray by ourselves and we can take as long time as we wish ..."

"When others are kneeling down with us, we ought in our prayers to be direct and brief, and not pray about everything there is on the earth and imagine that we must mention everything in detail or the Lord won't know about it.  He does know ...  If we pay attention to the Lord's prayer  that He taught His disciples, we will see the beauty of that, how simple it was and direct; it contained no superfluous words ..."  (See St. Matthew 6:9-13)  – Gospel Truth Volume 2

Discourses and Writings of President George Q. Cannon, compiled by Jerreld L. Newquist, ©1974 Deseret Book Company, p.172

"Pray without ceasing.  In every thing give thanks ..."  

– 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

I know from experience, and pray that we will all find true happiness through sincere prayer to our Father in Heaven.

Click to enlarge – stranger looks like he's praying.  Press Escape.

Its Bak to Scool

Memories have faded, but feelings are still there … of first days of school … fear, anxiety, excitement, friends, bullies … lovable teachers uninhibited by surprise-evaluation SS systems.  A fast memory search (quick! … before I totally lose it!) recalls nap time in preschool, nap time and playing store in kindergarten (northeast corner of basement), learning to read Dick & Jane and write words in first grade (Miss Nash, I think, next to the cold-storage room where I helped carry crates of chocolate milk), more reading in second grade (Miss Cottam (sp?) in basement south side), singing in third grade (upstairs south), learning arithmetic (times tables) in fourth grade (upstairs east side), and searching the library for science fiction books in fifth grade.  After that, I watched my avenues school burn down one summer night (name withheld to protect the innocent) … huge, exciting, not too sad (should’ve been – my father attended that historic SLC school) … so sixth grade was downtown within walking distance (uphill both ways when snowing, of course.)  I only remember being superior at 6th-grade mathematics. 

Beginning junior high school was the biggest change, coupled with our summer move up the hill to the big house with my private view of city lights (temporary one-year residence while I helped Dad build a new home nearby) ... a long walk to Bryant with friends.  As I vaguely recall, we had seven classes each day!  I think my favorite teacher was Mrs. Yost for English, where I wrote my first book report (memory is clear here:)

“Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint is the first novel in the Danny Dunn series of juvenile science fiction/adventure books written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams. The book was first published in 1956 and originally illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats.”  – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

By eighth grade I was adjusted to the new life … my boy-girl-party year with a close group of clean-living friends who loved to dance .. best year of K-12, as I vividly recall.  (Maybe my memory isn’t so faded after all.)  Ninth grade favorite was algebra, taught by Mr. Allen (I'm quite sure), whom I will never forget.  I also loved ninth-grade early-morning seminary taught by Francis L. Urry, who played the role of Lorenzo Snow in The Windows of Heaven.
– en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_L._Urry

Dear old East High – what can I say …  My favorite class was the awesome a cappella choir …  I will never forget many performances I enjoyed with my beloved choir directed by the legendary Lorraine Bowman; (recalled in my "Christmas Choirs" post December 23, 2012.) Max Pinegar was my very favorite seminary teacher; I just saw that he passed away last February, and will be greatly missed.  Special memories ... dedicated with all my love to Sister Bowman and Brother Pinegar.

Whew!  Not too fast to surprise myself with details dug up from the deep.

  

Photo courtesy of Google Images and mybetanyc.com

Photo by Ned Cannon at Concord School of Philosophy

Temple Open House

Words cannot adequately describe – certainly not in this quick post.  Before today’s tour, we already know the renovated Ogden Utah Temple is built with the finest design, materials and workmanship available today.  All that the public sees inside and throughout the grounds surrounding the temple, invites everyone to come unto Christ.  That is the purpose of temples, for the living and the dead; saving ordinances for both will be performed therein, following the rededication 21 September 2014. 

During our 43 years of marriage, my wife Kay and I have attended a number of public open houses for temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Today we meet good friends, our former neighbors in Ogden, to take the tour across the street from where we all lived in the morning shadow of the temple which was originally finished in 1971, and dedicated in January 1972 by Joseph Fielding Smith.  We cherish our memories of those four years, and the two previous years on the east bench of Ogden, near historic homes of many of Mother’s family.

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a news release with interior photographs of the renovated Ogden Utah Temple ...  The general public, including children of all ages, is invited to attend an open house.  Admission is free, but reservations are requested."  – ldschurchtemples.com/ogden
See templeopenhouse.lds.org/tickets for Open House Reservations.

Last Thursday we had the privilege of serving as ushers at the open house by our former home.  The five-hour shift was an experience that Kay and I will never forget.  After the half-hour training, and hours of standing as “smiling, silent sentinels” in various locations inside the temple, we felt physically exhausted but spiritually renewed.  We loved seeing all kinds of people of all ages … many families with beautiful little children and great grandparents … who were eager to walk (or ride in wheelchairs) through that extraordinary edifice.  As I looked into their eyes, many responded with a grateful smile, reminding me they are all my sisters and brothers – children of our loving Heavenly Father.

Notepad & I or Me

Tough decision.  This is about my favorite computer accessory and me, you see.  Notepad and I have a long-standing love affair since 1996.  Kay and I got it on a new PC with Windows 3.1, a crude attempt by Microsoft to copy Apple's amazing GUI (graphic user interface) I'd used for custom production since the late 1980's.  So, undecided about the title, I include both personal pronouns.

Lean and mean, Notepad frees me from constant attempts by programmers to correct me, shape me, and otherwise force me into their ideas of what writing should be.  I prefer free-form writing without bells and whistles to distract the user.  Thank goodness for a word processor that does not process me to death. Furthermore, Notepad takes text from anything that can be selected and copied to the clipboard memory, and removes the ... (what's a nicer word?) – codes and stuff I don't want.  Notepad and I can then copy the clean (ASCII standard) text to Word, website builder, blog, e-mail or whatever.  My favorite keyboard commands (another subject for another post) keep hands where they belong, not straying to reach for a mouse unnecessarily.  Old-school, but faster and easier for some elders who are slow to abandon the good old days.

Notepad is searchable and transferable (1996 files open in Windows 7, and I assume on Win8.)  Great for documenting family history work and keeping a journal (F5 key inserts time & date.)  Way better than a typewriter or phone! Oh, and did I mention its lightning-speed launching & saving, and leaner file size?  (I grow old waiting on Word.)  Sorry, Microsoft – I don't need or want your cute Sticky Notes.

As a team, Notepad and I are a work in progress, as is this post.  If I had a photo of us together, the caption would read (my standard :)
"Notepad and me".  How sweet it is – like icing and the cake!

Keeping One's Sanity

Our favorite beach town for a relaxing getaway is not a well-kept secret, though we wish it were.  So, to help keep the crowd down in the Northwest, we avoid revealing it, except to a few close family and friends who are not likely to travel that far anyway.  However, one young couple, close friends we’ve loved since nine years ago, developed a habit of vacationing there every year, and loving it.  Who knows how many people they’ve shared the secret with.  (I recently learned that what my English teacher taught me is a myth: avoid ending a sentence with a preposition.  

– quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar)

In 1982, I bought my first personal computer (a 28-lb Osborne “portable” with 64K memory, if my own memory serves me correctly; Google has sweet images!)  A wise young accountant friend of mine, Rich T., came out to East Mill Creek and helped me design a spreadsheet for our family budget.  I never forgot this secret of success he shared with me:

“Regularly budget money for entertainment … to help keep your sanity, because without sanity {repeated to avoid ambiguity}, everything else is in vain.”

Holding hands, quiet walks on (we think) the longest, most beautiful sandy beach in the NW, scenic surf, romantic night fire roasting hot dogs out there – alone under the bright stars, relatively few tourists, extraordinary food and fascinating shops in town (I love the used book store, which struggles to survive the digital age) … reading & sharing wisdom literature, little if any TV – delightful digital detox. It was all there again last week, and well worth the price!

For low-cost sanity preservation, we love the local white-sand beach on Antelope Island, and (at no cost) the 4,400-acre Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve with boardwalk, especially in summertime.  We thank God for providing such beauty in nature.  You, too, can sing your own “There’s a Place for Us”.

The Rich Trek

This week, Utahns celebrate Pioneer Day, since the first company of Mormon pioneers arrived around July 24th, 1847.  The “Days of ‘47” holiday includes parades, concerts, speeches, rodeos, and of course … fireworks!  Friday night, Kay and I with friends enjoyed the Tabernacle Choir and orchestra concert, featuring Broadway singer/actor, Santino Fontana (the bad guy in Frozen, as he described it.)  Inspiring!

To learn something new about the pioneer trek, I took an old book from the library here in our frontier house: Charles Coulson Rich / Pioneer Builder of the West by John Henry Evans, ©1936, The Macmillan Company, printed by Norwood Press Linotype Inc., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

My mother’s signature as owner of the book about her great grandfather, is dated 1941 Toronto, where she was serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I found this little background history published by the State of Utah:

“After a mob murdered Joseph Smith in 1844, his followers started to think about moving somewhere where <[I'd edit] they could live peacefully. Enemies were still attacking Mormons in different ways. Because of this persecution, in the cold of February 1846 the Mormons began to leave Nauvoo. They journeyed to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and set up a temporary community.

... the people gathered in Winter Quarters got ready to move again. Where to? It seemed that the Great Basin would be a perfect place to go.

In April 1847 the first group of Mormon settlers left and headed west along the California Trail. Brigham Young led a group of two children, three women, and 143 men.  ...  Brigham Young himself arrived on July 24, 1847.”

http://ilovehistory.utah.gov/people/groups/immigrants/mormons/

The Riches and Cannons made the trek two months after that first group of pioneers.

“From Winter Quarters, now Omaha, Nebraska, to what was to become Salt Lake City, Utah, is approximately eleven hundred miles, as the pioneer companies went.  Leaving Elkhorn, the rendezvous for the trekkers a few miles out from the river, on the twenty-first of June, the Riches [and Cannons] arrived at their destination exactly one hundred and three days later, on October 2, 1847.  They had bettered the time made by the pioneer company by a full week.  The company in which the Rich family traveled to the West numbered about two thousand persons.”

(Charles Coulson Rich, p. 131)

“The situation in which this small colony of Mormons found themselves, from the autumn of 1847 to the summer of 1848, was extremely critical …  Perhaps no group of people in pioneer America was put so clearly and certainly on the spot.  …  that the colony here did not utterly perish was due more to the wisdom, the energy, and the forethought of Charles C. Rich than to any other human cause.”

(Charles Coulson Rich, pages 142-143)

No Place like Home

Several weeks of helping our daughter with her family in Arizona – not my wife’s original idea of summer vacation from school teaching – turned out to be a joy, hard work, and a hot time in the new town alright.  Although Anthem is often over 100 degrees during the summer, we were fortunate to see the beginning of the cloudy monsoon season, with daytime temperatures sometimes dipping below 100 – so cool (loved the cloud patterns.)

Getting better acquainted with four grandchildren (including a fun ten-year-old helper from SLC), being amazed by unstoppable-grandma Kay's taking care of every need, early-morning wake-up calls (my favorite time of day), quiet walks around the block with a happy baby boy, picnic in the duck park, family home evenings well organized by devoted young parents, word games I never win, great cooking, all-you-can-drink ice water, community pool, friendly neighbors, church meetings in a wonderful ward, a new temple soon to be open, freedom from yard work, and (last but not least:) lively, artistic, gorgeous little girls!

After all that, for which I am grateful, this thought came to me on the way back to Utah: there’s no place like home.

And hey! – summer is only half over!  More fun!

Part 2 – just for future reference to remind myself before traveling:

Without mentioning what's missing at my favorite old motel in Kanab, Redrock Country Inn, I can think of a few things about home that I appreciate more now:

Food in the fridge that I can heat in the microwave.

Vent fan in bathroom; 2nd bathroom for myself.

Quiet room away from noisy fridge.

VCR, VHS tapes, and old radio.

Secure WiFi network.

Care-free walking barefoot on carpet.

Plenty of electrical outlets with ground (3-prong).

My own kitchen cupboard for reusing items not ready for dishwasher or recycler.

An old-fashion way of turning off a noisy A/C (unlike the remote I discovered next morning on the motel desk.)

A place for everything, and everything in its place; no need to pack bags, load car, unload car, and unpack bags every day.