Flecks of Gold = Great Wealth

This is a wonderful story about a young merchant who was caught up in the Gold Rush in the 1850's. He was discouraged when he didn't find large nuggets of gold as he panned and searched.  He overlooked the small flecks of gold that didn't seem worth his time.  He envied a nearby old prospector and his full pouch of gold.  Imagine the young man's surprise when the prospector showed him that his bag was full of small flecks, not nuggets.  He said, "The patient accumulation of these little flecks has brought me great wealth."

I love this analogy and  I agree that by small and simple things great blessings are brought to pass.

Elder M. Russell Ballard shares:
"The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. Like the small flecks of gold that accumulate over time into a large treasure, our small and simple acts of kindness and service will accumulate into a life filled with love for Heavenly Father, devotion to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sense of peace and joy."

Primary Talk - Prophets and Apostles Show Me How to Serve

Prophets and apostles teach us a lot about service. Not only do they TELL us about service but they SHOW us by how they live their lives.

Here’s a story about President Kimball who was the prophet when my parents were younger.  This story is from when he was an apostle.

It was a stormy winter night.  At the airport in Chicago, many people were stranded due to delayed or canceled flights.

Burdens, Backgrounds and Battles

Catastrophe, Compassion and Kindness

I live in a house full of males.  Despite this fact, we have sure had a lot of CHICK DRAMA lately.  Let me explain.

We have chickens.  Ten to be exact.  We became "chicken owners" about 2 years ago.  Click HERE to read about how our middle son added chickens into our home life.

While we currently own 10 chickens, we've actually owned 17 chickens total over the past few years. Never all alive at once though sadly.

My elementary school age son has been learning about ratios at school lately.  Here's our ratio related info on how many chickens we've managed to keep alive and in our yard -
Ratio of living chickens in our yard to total chickens: 10:17, Fraction: 10/17, Percent: 59%.

My teenager point out to me that our statistics stink.  (Teenagers can be blunt!)  Did I mention that we do have 8 very healthy full-grown chickens and 2 baby chicks that are still alive?  Let's look at the positive side folks, right?

Ding Dong Ditching

For Family Night, we are going to go DING DONG DITCHING!  We bought individually wrapped Ding Dongs at Costco (around 24 for $5.99).  Put them in a bag, slap on this fun note, and then put them on someone's porch as you ding dong ditch.  My boys are very excited for this new tradition.

Feel free to use and share the sign I created.

Update - We went Ding Dong Ditching and it was a huge success.  Kids and teenagers alike thought it was super dooper fun and clever.

Talk - Gratitude is the Currency of the Gospel

This talk was given by my friend at church recently. Thanks for sharing it Ethan!

I grew up in Whittier, CA and was raised by a single mom. My mother was a very hard worker and did everything she could to provide for my older sister and I. She is a very loving woman and she is also very proud and independent. Although she was able to provide for all of our needs, some of our wants had to be forgone as we rarely had the finances for luxuries. I remember in Jr. High School that the fashion trend at the time were these brightly colored patch-work board shorts that were worn by the popular skaters and surfers of the era. Unfortunately for me these shorts were very expensive and due to the fact that ordinary shorts could be purchased for a third of the cost, my mother told me that we just couldn’t afford them.

That’s why I was surprised on my 13th birthday, to open up a present and find a beautiful pair of board shorts inside. I had never seen any that were so cool. Being a 13 year old, I quickly looked at the label to see what brand they were (since branding is very important at that age). I was again confused to find that there were no labels in the shorts. My mom could read the puzzlement in my eyes and went on to explain that she had made them for me from scraps of material she purchased from a fabric store. To save on the cost of the pattern, she had disassembled one of my other pairs of shorts to use as a pattern. Afterwards, she then reassembled the shorts so that I could continue wearing those as well. I was so grateful to her for making me those shorts and immediately put them on and went out on my skateboard to show them off to my friends. I think I wore them 3 days straight before I could bear to take them off for cleaning.

Helpful People

Click here to see a video that shows their are still some helpful people in the world.

Quote - Life is too short

Benjamin Disraeli once said “Life is too short to be little...”

Upon dealing with a sad situation at school today (where some students were being unkind to a boy), a variation of that quote came to my mind...

"Life is too short to BELITTLE."

Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place if we could all strive to be a little kinder?

I personally will strive to not belittle anyone either intentionally or by accident.