By Alan on Mar 24 in Blog tagged bad, choices, consequences, Desire, good, heart, mind, pornography, thinketh | Comments Off

See how a moment’s decision can have far-reaching consequences—for good or bad.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Prov. 23:7

“Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.”
Alma 30:8

For The Family

By Alan on Jul 16 in Blog tagged a sacred time, adjustments being married, Alan's poem, ball parks, bannana splits, being in demand, Big Al, birthdays, BYU Cheerleader, chores, Christmas Eve, clean their rooms, consequences, cousins, deprive something, discipline, eight sons, family traditions, gives me order, grandparents, His Gal and His Pals, home, interview, large family, life began after I fell n love with you, live very normally, measure up, moment's notice, mother, Nativity set and story, non-profit charity, odd hours, One Heart, pajamas, people watching, plays violin, responsibility, reunions, ride horses, schedules, sent to room, soccer games, Suzanne Osmond, temple ordinance workers, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The World, time for dinner, time-out, traditions, traveling, Valentines Day, water and snow skiing | 6 Comments

Today is Suzanne’s and my 38th Wedding Anniversary!  I repost this article which I wrote a while back about how Suzanne and I met and how the Lord brought us together to create an eternal marriage and family.   Oh how I love my wife Suzanne!

An interview with Suzanne Osmond given several
years ago as she was raising her family.

Suzanne was born on May 11, 1953 in Payson, Utah. She is the third oldest of seven children born to Kenneth J. Pinegar and Ruth Richardson Pinegar. She married Alan Osmond on July 16, 1974 and together have eight sons.

As a young woman, her favorite sports were water and snow skiing. She also loved to ride horses.  Suzanne is also a very good piano player and Alan really loves to hear her play.  She is also playing violin in a local orchestra.

She was really active in school. She was a baton twirler and a cheerleader for her high school band and also a BYU cheerleader.

Suzanne is 5’5″ tall and she has blue eyes and blonde hair.

Suzanne remembers, “Seven days before they were married, Alan sent Suzanne seven red roses with a note that said:

“For every day there is a rose,

For every rose there is time;

And when they’ve all been counted for,

I’ll come and make you mine.”

Isn’t that romantic?”

While in Europe, Alan and Suzanne celebrated being married for one month by sending a postcard to themselves at their new home in Provo, Utah telling each other how much in love they were and then signing it “Big Al and His Gal.” After having several sons, they have also added more words to it that reads,  ”Big Al, His Gal, and His Pals.”

The first time Suzanne saw Alan perform was the day  they were married!  She sat in the audience with her “mouth wide open.”   Afterwards she called her mother to tell her about it.  All she could say was, “I’m so amazed, I can’ t even talk!”

Suzanne said, “There’s never a dull moment being married to Alan. Alan is one who is always busy and involved doing all kinds of projects. He has such a creative mind. Its fun to watch him create and see his creations come about.

I’m a very structured person and like my schedules. Alan has taught me to be more spontaneous and just flow with what’s happening or with what his ideas might be. Being married to an Osmond, I’ve been able to do a lot of traveling and see the world, and experience things in that realm that I never had before. I’ve met interesting people too. I remember when we were in the Middle-East and able to meet with Mrs. Sadat. We also met with Prime Minister Begin, President Reagan and other people. That’s been interesting for me, to be in circles where there have been influential and important people. To be able to meet them and see them first-hand.

The toughest adjustment to being married into a family that’s in the entertainment field is being in demand a lot.  You have to be able to pick up and go at a moment’s notice sometimes. The spontaneity has been the thing that I’ve probably had to adjust most to and learn to accept the most. They sometimes keep odd hours, which has been another thing with which to adjust. It’s also having people who are probably watching every move that you make, and feeling like there are always eyes observing everything that you do. You really feel an obligation to set a good example at all times.

I think each one of our boys has the knowledge that there are a lot of people watching what they do and expect a certain standard out of them. So, I think that has actually helped. They have more than just their parents expecting them to measure up to those standards. There are a lot of other people who are leaning on them and watching them. They feel that and they are aware of that responsibility.

Being the mother of eight boys is very, very busy. Boys are very loud and very physical and always hungry! So you’re always running to keep up with them and making sure their stomachs are full. We’ve spent many, many hours at ballparks and soccer games. I don’t know what it would be like to have a daughter. I just can’t imagine that because our home is so boy-oriented.

As a family, we live very normally at home. Our boys do chores. They come home and do their homework and help out with younger brothers. They have to get up, make their beds, and clean their rooms just like any other teenager. It’s the same kind of normal life around this household as what I grew up with so I don’t think there’s anything different here than any other home.”

How do you handle discipline?

Suzanne explains, “There are always consequences for everything that we do. There are good consequences for good things and not-so-good consequences for when we do things that are wrong. The best thing is to take away something, deprive them of an activity or something they want to have. It makes them stop and think. For the little boys, usually they’re tired and so they are sent to their room and have to sit on their beds. A lot of times I’ll have books there that they can sit, read and calm down; think about what’s going on. A lot of people refer to that as a time-out period and I think it helps to take that time to let tempers settle down and think about what the problem is and find solutions.

It is important to manage your time with a large family.  That’s why I like schedules. If I don’t have a schedule then I get frustrated. I have to have order and know what the next move is going to be so that I can plan. You have to control your time. It’s the only way you can get through without having the chaos that can come so easily. With a lot of people going a lot of different directions, that can happen very easily. There’s usually a set time for dinner that we like to gather for every evening as a family. That’s an important time and a sacred time in our home, to have dinner together. That keeps me on track. It gives me order in my life.“

What are some of your family traditions?

“We love birthdays. We always celebrate birthdays and make it really fun for the person who is having the birthday. My mother always calls on the telephone with a certain song she always played for us when I was growing up. Now she does it with the grandkids on their birthdays.

Christmas is probably our very favorite season of all. On Christmas Eve, everyone gets to open one gift and it’s always pajamas so they always look nice for the family videos the next morning. We always read the Christmas story and have a Nativity set that we use as we tell that story. Alan started a tradition several years ago of having banana splits on Christmas Eve, so that’s the last thing we do is have banana splits. Then everybody hustles off to bed so that Santa can come. On Christmas morning, the kids get up and they’re filmed walking into Christmas for the first time and all the excitement with that.

We also have family reunions throughout the year and that’s always fun to see everyone and catch up on brothers and sisters and cousins.”

Currently . . .

Now, after Alan and I have spent 38 wonderful married years together, we have 8 sons, 7 daughters-in-law and have become grandparents to 20 grandchildren with 2 on the way!  We continue having family nights with many of the same family traditions today and we love life.

Several years ago, we started a non-profit charity called One Heart for Strengthening Families.  One Heart truly describes the kind of marriage and family that Alan and I share together and know that our family will be together for all eternity .”

Alan and Suzanne serve as temple ordinance workers in one of the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

.

.

.

Alan & Suzanne Osmond
For The Family

By Alan on Feb 08 in Blog tagged children, Children need a Mother and a Father, cohabitation, compliment, consequences, deficits, different, divorce, Father, legal, mother, parents, physiological impacts on children, problems, rightful opportunity, same-sex marriage | 3 Comments

Parents are NOT “Up For Grabs” . . .

Children Need A Mother AND A Father!

At the core of the case for marriage is the reality that children need a mother and a father.  Divorce, among other problems, threatens a child’s relationship with his or her mother and father.  Cohabitation, with its inherent instability, does so as well.  Same-sex marriage openly endorses the idea that mothers and fathers are interchangeable and the related idea that children should be able to make do without either of them.

These legal revolutions threaten to deprive children of their rightful opportunity to have a relationship, wherever possible, with their own mother and father.  This relationship is crucial for a child’s well-being.  Mothers and fathers provide different, but equally valuable and important, contributions to their children.  We’ve learned about this primarily from research that shows father absence creates deficits in child well-being.

This does not just mean that a child needs to be around two adults, because deficits persist where there is cohabitation and step-parenting.  Research suggests that father absence even has physiological impacts on children.  We know less about mother absence because motherless homes are rare, but common sense and experience tell us that there will certainly be sad consequences for children deprived of a relationship with their mother.

In parenting as with other matters, men and women are different.  They complement one another.  Their children benefit from having both of them around where it’s possible for that to happen.  It is a matter of basic fairness that they should have the opportunity to know and be raised by their own mother and father.

Sincerely,

William C. Duncan

Director of Sutherland’s Center for Family and Society, and director of the Marriage Law Foundation

By Alan on Feb 08 in Blog tagged bad, consequences, devil, good, Jesus, life, right, Satan, school, test, the way, truth, wrong | Comments Off

Do you remember the old TV Game Show called “Truth or Consequences”?
Well, Life is the SAME … but IT IS NOT A GAME!

You were born with the freedom to choose. In heaven, before this world, you chose freedom. It caused a war in heaven!

There were two plans or choices of how we would live our lives on earth.  Satan presented his and Jesus presented His.  We were allowed to choose ‘The Way’ of Everlasting Darkness, OR ‘The Way’ of Eternal Life!  2 Ne. 10: 23
Two thirds chose Jesus’s way and it caused a war.  One third were removed from heaven and even denied being able to have a body of flesh and bones.  You are here today because you chose Jesus’s Way.

Your “WAY” of Life is your Choice!  It still is!

What you chose in heaven determined where you are today. What you choose today will determine where you will be, tomorrow.

You may say, “I don’t believe that! There is no God. It makes no difference what I do. I can eat, drink, love, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. I want what ever and all that I can to get ahead in life and I’ll do anything that will make me rich, famous and popular with no worries about tomorrows except that which is good for me today!”  If that is the case, then someday you will know great sorrow.

None of us remember our past life for a good reason. Our memories were blocked from our life before because we are now in a “School of Life”, and we are being TESTED! Have you ever gone to school where you were not tested? If we could remember our past, it would be like cheating and would not be fair because we would already have the answers.

We are God’s children and He is testing our hearts and minds plus those creative powers we have to create life that He lets us ‘test-drive’ these bodies of ours as co-creators of life to see if we are ready to advance; to grow up and become more like our Heavenly father and mother, both creators, as children always do. Like Father . . . Like Son. Like Mother . . . like Daughter.

This is God’s ‘Plan or School of Life’. We all will die to end the “TEST”. That’s okay because our spirit bodies live forever. And, because of Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice that He gave for us to help pay our debts for all of our mistakes and “bad choices and bad grades” in this school…we will be resurrected like Him and have our bodies reunited with our spirit bodies to never be separated again. Doesn’t this make sense?  There are opposites in all things! There is Light…and there is Darkness. There is Male…and there is Female. Right and Wrong; Up and Down;. Left or Right; Good and Bad; Life and Death.

Much time has passed and we are living in the last dispensation of the fullness of time. This world has been turning around for many, many centuries. There has been War . . . and there has been Peace. Happiness and Sorrow. There have been wrongs and there have been rights. We each were born into this world with those unalienable rights and freedoms to choose and to make choices.   Jesus came to show us The Way of everlasting life.  Satan showed us His Way of Life which is everlasting darkness.   2 Ne. 10: 23

If you find yourself with guilt, pain and suffering for bad choices that you have made in your life and wish that you could change, you can! Remember that Jesus continues to say, no matter how dark your sins may be, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; if you “Come Follow Me”.  With faith and repentance and baptism to wash away your sins, and in receiving the Holy Ghost from Jesus or one of His anointed servants who has been given the authority to act in His name, The Holy Spirit can help guide your ‘way’ through life. You can be forgiven of your mistakes and sins if you will humble your hearts, take these steps, and make promises to follow the Lord.  If not, you will be following Satan, the father of all lies; the evil doer and the fallen son of darkness who was denied a body of flesh and bones and who lives in outer darkness with fire and damnation, or Hell with his followers.  Damned? Yes, just like a dam or reservoir that holds water back, you will be held back from your eternal progression.

So, lets wake up and get rid of those ‘clothes of darkness’ covered with mistakes and sins and put on the ‘robes of righteousness’ and light, or TRUTH, and ‘choose ye this day whom ye will serve’! Otherwise there will be CONSEQUENCES!

It’s your choice whether you WIN or LOSE! This is NOT a ‘Game of Life’ … but God’s ‘Plan of Life’.

It’s the Truth! Jesus is THE WAY!Learn more?

By Alan on Dec 16 in Blog tagged bodies, choose, consequences, darkness, Freedom, game, God, happiness, heaven, life, light, mind, opposites, spirit, test, the way, truth, war | Comments Off

Do you remember the old TV Game Show called “Truth or Consequences?

Well, Life is the SAME … but IT IS NOT A GAME!

You were born with The Freedom To Choose.  In Heaven, before this world, you chose Freedom.  It caused a War in Heaven!

Your “WAY” of Life is your Choice! You can choose ‘The Way’ of Everlasting Darkness, OR ‘The Way’ of Eternal Life! 2 Nephi 10:23

What you chose in Heaven determined where you are today.  What you choose today will determine where you will be, tomorrow.

You may say, “I don’t believe that!  There is no God.  It makes no difference what I do.  You can eat, drink, love, and be merry, for tomorrow you die.   I want what ever and all that I can to get ahead in life and I’ll do anything that will make me rich, famous and popular with no worries about tomorrows except that which is good for me today!”

If that is the case, then someday you will know great sorrow.

None of us remember our past life for a good reason.  Our memories were blocked from our life before because we are now in a “School of Life”, and we are being TESTED! Have you ever gone to school where you were not tested?  If we could remember our past, it would be like cheating and would not be fair because we would already have the answers.

We are God’s children and He is testing our hearts and minds plus those creative powers to create life that He lets us ‘test-drive’ to see if we are ready to advance, to grow up and be more  like our father and  mother as children always do. Like Father . . .  Like Son.  Like Mother ,. . . like Daughter.

This is God’s ‘Plan or School of Life’. We all will die to end the “TEST”. That’s okay because our spirit bodies live forever.  And, because of Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice that He gave for us to help pay our debts for all of our mistakes and “bad choices and bad grades” in this school…we will be resurrected like Him and have our bodies reunited with our spirit bodies to never be separated again. Doesn’t this make sense?

There are opposites in all things! There is Light…and there is Darkness.  There is Male…and there is Female.  Right and Wrong; Up and Down;.  Left or Right;  Good and Bad;  Life and Death.

Much time has passed and we are in the last dispensation of the fullness of time.  This world has been turning around for many, many centuries.  There has been War . . . and the has been Peace.  Happiness and Sorrow.  There have been wrongs and there have been rights.  We each were born into this world with those unalienable rights and freedoms to choose and to make choices.

Jesus came to earth to show us ‘The Way” of everlasting Life.  Satan was allowed to be here to represent the opposite or ‘The Way’ of everlasting darkness.

If you find yourself with guilt, pain and suffering for  bad choices that you have made in your life and wish you could change, you can! Remember that Jesus continues to say, no matter how dark your sins may be, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; if you “Come Follow Me”.

With faith and repentance and baptism to wash away your sins, and in receiving the Holy Ghost from Jesus or one of His anointed servants who has been given the authority to act in His name,  The Holy Spirit can help guide your ‘way’ through life.  You can be forgiven of your mistakes and sins if you will humble your hearts, take these steps, and make promises to follow the Lord.

If not, you will be following Satan, the father of all lies; the evil doer and the fallen son of darkness who was denied a body of flesh and bones and who lives in outer darkness with fire and damnation, or Hell with his followers.

Damned? Yes, just like a dam or reservoir that holds water back, you will be held back from your eternal progression.

So, lets wake up and get rid of those ‘clothes of darkness’ covered with mistakes and sins and put on the ‘robes of righteousness’ and light, or TRUTH, and ‘choose ye this day whom ye will serve’!  Otherwise there will be CONSEQUENCES!

It’s your choice whether you WIN or LOSE! This is NOT a ‘Game of Life’ … but God’s ‘Plan of Life’.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

OR

Jesus Christ

He is “The Way”

of

Truth and Life!

(Learn More?)

Alan Osmond
For The Family