By Alan on Sep 05 in Blog tagged be wise, feng shui, meditation, mental, rules, think | Comments Off

By Alan on Jul 27 in Blog tagged care, corner, cowboy, cruel, dance, dirty, ears, experience, fences, forgive, grudge, influence, interfere, judge, judgment, kindly, life, love, older, saddle, sermons, skunks, think, tractor, troublemaker, wallow, whispered, wisdom, words | Comments Off

WORDS of WISDOM from the SADDLE

By Alan on Feb 13 in Blog tagged apologize, better care, borrowed, Call a friend, complacency, courage, demands, discourage, don't blow horn, encourage, free of malice, gratitude, I love you, kaugh, kind and thoughtful, lighten up, make a promise, make effort, pay a debt, pesimist, principles, read, reality, resolve problems, share stories, smile, smoke, soft answer, tall, think, understand | Comments Off

Do the things you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t find the time.

• Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories.
  
• Share a funny story with someone whose spirits are dragging.  A good laugh can be very good medicine.
  
• Vow not to make a promise you don’t think you can keep.
  
• Pay a debt.
• Give a soft answer.
  
• Free yourself of envy and malice.
  
• Encourage some youth to do his or her best.  Share your experience, and offer support.  Young people need role models.
  
• Make a genuine effort to stay in closer touch with family and good friends. 

• Resolve to stop magnifying small problems and shooting from the lip.  Words that you have to eat can be hard to digest.
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• Find the time to be kind and thoughtful. All of us have the same allotment.  24 hours a day.  Give a compliment.  It might give someone a badly needed lift.
  
• Think things through. Forgive an injustice.  Listen more.  Be kind.
  
• Apologize when you realize you are wrong. An apology never diminishes a person.  It elevates him.
  
• Don’t blow your own horn. IF you’ve done something praiseworthy, someone will notice eventually.
  
• Try to understand a point of view that is different from your own.  Few things are 100 percent one way or another.
  
• Examine the demands you make on others.
  
• Lighten up. When you feel like blowing your top, ask yourself.  “Will it matter a week from today?”
  
• Laugh the loudest when the joke is on you.
  
• The sure way to have a friend is to be one. We are all connected by our humanity, and we need each other.
  
• Avoid malcontents and pessimists. They drag you down and contribute nothing.
  
• from trying something risky.  Nothing-ventured means nothing gained.  Be optimistic.  The can-do spirit is the fuel that makes things go.
  
• Go to war against animosity and complacency.
• Express your gratitude. Give credit when it’s due- and even when it isn’t.  It will make you look good.
• Read something uplifting. Deep-six the trash.  You wouldn’t eat garbage – why put it in your head?
  
• Don’t abandon your old-fashioned principles. They never go out of style.
  
• When courage is needed, ask yourself, “If not me, who?  If not now, when?”
  
• Take better care of yourself. Remember, you’re all you’ve got.  Pass up that second helping.  You really don’t need it.  Vow to eat more sensibly.  You’ll feel better and look better, too.
  
• Don’t put up with secondhand smoke. Nobody has the right to pollute your air or give you cancer.  If someone says, “This is a free country,” remind him or her hat the country may be free, but no person is free if he has a habit he can’t control.
  
• Return those books you borrowed. Reschedule that missed dental appointment.  Clean out your closet.  Take those photos out of the drawer and put them in an album.  If you see litter on the sidewalk, pick it up instead of walking over it.
  
• Give yourself a reality check. Phoniness is transparent, and it is tiresome.  Take pleasure in the beauty and the wonders of nature.  A flower is God’s miracle.
  
• Walk tall, and smile more. You’ll look 10 years younger.
  
• Don’t be afraid to say, “I love you.” Say it again.  They are the sweetest words in the world.
• If you have love in your life, consider yourself blessed, and vow to make this the best year ever.

By Alan on Jan 11 in Blog tagged act, action, agency, belief, care, choice, choose, common sense, decision, education, Freedom, happiness, heart, judge, judgment, life, money, risk, self, the way, think, values, wisdom, wise | Comments Off

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O be wise; what can I say more?  Jacob 6: 12

Agency:

Agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. Agency is essential in the plan of salvation. Without it, we would not be able to learn or progress or follow the Savior. With it, we are “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” (2 Nephi 2:27).

God’s children have power to choose; they had this ability even before they were born.

In this life, people continue to have agency; even if their personal freedoms are restricted or taken away, they can choose how to feel and react. Their use of their agency determines their happiness or misery in this life and in the life to come. People are free to choose and act but are not free to choose the consequences of their actions. The consequences may not be immediate, but they will always follow. Choices of good and righteousness lead to happiness, peace, and eternal life, while choices of sin and evil eventually lead to heartache and misery.

Choices:

“The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.

”If we do not make good choices in life and the media we choose, our decisions can devastate our families and pull our children away from the narrow gospel path. In the virtual reality and the perceived reality of large and small screens, family-destructive viewpoints and behavior are regularly portrayed as pleasurable, as stylish, as exciting, and as normal. Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up. Immorality and sexual innuendo are everywhere, causing some to believe that because everyone is doing it, it must be all right. This pernicious evil is not out in the street somewhere; it is coming right into our homes, right into the heart of our families. . . .

Therefore,cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.  2 Ne. 10: 23

Education:

We should always work to educate our minds and our hands so we can succeed in our chosen fields. Our education should be an influence for good and our use of it should distinguish us as people of integrity. A good education will prepare us for opportunities as they come and will help us be an asset to our families, the Church, and our communities.

Wisdom:

Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; with equality of being wise.• the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge, and good judgment

Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; with equality of being wise.  It is the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge, and good judgment.

The Word of Wisdom is a law of health revealed by the Lord for the physical and spiritual benefit of His children. On February 27, 1833, as recorded in section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord revealed which foods are good for us to eat and which substances are not good for the human body. He also promised health, protection, knowledge, and wisdom to those who obey the Word of Wisdom.

Become Self-Reliant:

The responsibility for our social, emotional, spiritual, physical, and economic well-being rests first on ourselves, second on our family, and third on the Church. Under the inspiration of the Lord and through our own labors, we should supply ourselves and our family with the spiritual and temporal necessities of life.

Good Judgment

Judgment is an important use of our agency and requires great care, especially when we make judgments about other people. All our judgments must be guided by righteous standards. Only God, who knows each individual’s heart, can make final judgments of individuals.

Debt:

One of the great dangers of debt is the interest that accompanies it. When it is necessary to incur debt, such as a reasonable amount to purchase a modest home or to complete one’s education, the debt should be repaid as quickly as possible.

”Look to the condition of your finances. Discipline yourself in your purchases, avoiding debt to the extent you can. In most cases, you can avoid debt by managing your resources wisely. If you do incur debt, such as a reasonable amount in order to purchase a modest home or complete your education, work to repay it as quickly as possible and free yourself from bondage. When you have paid your debts and accumulated some savings, you will be prepared for financial storms that may come your way. You will have shelter for your family and peace in your heart“.

Risk / Gambling:

Those who participate in risk or gambling soon discover the deception in the idea that they can give little or nothing and receive something of value in return. They find that they give up large amounts of money, their own honor, and the respect of family members and friends. Deceived and addicted, they often gamble with funds they should use for other purposes, such as meeting the basic needs of their families. Gamblers sometimes become so enslaved and so desperate to pay gambling debts that they turn to stealing, giving up their own good name.

By Alan on Jan 01 in Blog tagged advice, Be, caution, More, suggestion, think, wise | Comments Off

…..http://obwise.com

Be Who You Are!

Don’t matter  if  you’re a farmer or a super Star
What matters in life is that you be who you are.
With real eyes, realize from whence you came and
Stop seeking for riches with power name and fame.

Everybody pants goes on a leg at a time
You can take what’s yours but don’t you touch what’s mine
Take time and listen to others who need to say. . .and
Give thanks to the man when you pray

Life is for livin’ and you can take . .  if you give
But Don’t forget what you learn is what you keep
You gotta love so give your heart some time to see who’s out there
Marry the one that makes you dream when you sleep

Look for the good if you can see what you’re doin’ and never
Go back cause that’s where you’ve been . . you need to
Keep on the fire  . . your heart’s greatest desire and
Create a world for you’re next of kin.
“O be wise; what can I say more?”  Jacob 6: 12

By: Alan Osmond
Copyright (c) 2011
For The Family

By Alan on Nov 11 in Blog tagged alan, choice, decide, disability, MS, Multiple Schlerosis, Osmond, positive, Suzanne, think | 1 Comment

I want to comment on an article that Professor Carl Heinrich Bloch at BYU recently wrote about disability.  She said, “The thinking on disability has changed somewhat over the past century. But there are still misconceptions and fears that create an unsafe world for those who are different”.

Dyches, who has a doctorate in counseling psychology and special education with a research emphasis on children’s disabilities, told an audience Nov. 4 at the Harold B. Lee Library that the abortion rate in the United States for babies diagnosed in the womb with Down Syndrome is still 85 percent.

Dyches said the world’s view of disability is proving slow to change. Even as recently as 1999 “Killing a disabled person was really “not wrong at all” while — in contrast — LDS Church doctrine emphasizes “the worth of souls in God’s eyes.“

Disabilities can range from mental disorders and disease to physical problems. They include a wide variety of symptoms and behaviors. Deformity and disability used to be considered a punishment for sin. “We know it is NOT,” she said.

In the 1880s it was rare to see a family picture that included a disabled member. The Nazi regime routinely killed infants and toddlers with mental and physical deficiencies.

In the Old Testament, those with disabilities were not allowed to approach others. Babies born with deformities were left out to die of exposure.

Yet in the New Testament, Christ consistently showed his compassion for the lepers, the blind and the lame. Christ healed those who were blind or dumb or ill. In fact, 21 of the 30 recorded miracles were performed on people with disabilities!

The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote in his King Follett address that “All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.”
“Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda”

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, a late member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said “every instrument in God’s hands is precious”. Elder Russell M. Nelson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, stressed that “life has great value for all, including those born with disabilities.”

“Because of our theology, we have great hope for the future,” Dyches said.

“This (disability) is a spiritual experience.”

Disabled and mentally or physically challenged individuals contribute to society and offer opportunities for those around them to serve and grow.  We’re here to serve one another. These individuals bring blessings, opportunities; labeling people provides a way to identify needs and the types of care that can be given, it also creates an artificial barrier.  Labeling is good when it leads to solutions but harmful when it segregates and hurts people.

She discussed the proper etiquette for addressing and talking about people with disabilities and recommended referring to the person as “a person” rather than using descriptions like “wheelchair-bound.”

Disabled people need good home and visiting teachers and ward members who are alert and kind.

Do you know what I think?

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE!  

YES, I have had Multiple Sclerosis for about 24 years and am disabled! Yet, my wife and I work at the Temple with several workers that are also challenged and disabled; even in wheelchairs. They are the most positive thinkers that I know!

The Lord said, “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”  Ether 12: 27

“And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.” Ether 12: 37

“As a man thinketh in his heart, SO IS HE!”  Proverbs 23:7

As I look back at all of the blessings I received, the values and principles that I have learned, the time I had to gain knowledge and experience, and in knowing what “TRUE LOVE” really is with my wife Suzanne who stood behind me “in sickness and health”,  and the support from my family and friends that I have made . . . then I can say, ” IT WAS WORTH IT!  I AM  A BETTER MAN FOR HAVING HAD IT!”

YES, “I MAY HAVE M.S….BUT, MS DOES NOT HAVE ME!

One Heart Foundation is in support of TheFamily.com whose mission is to help “Strengthen Families”.  If you would like to get involved and help out,  a donation to One Heart would be very much appreciated.

By Alan on Nov 01 in Daily Inspiration tagged dream, ideas, mind, think | Comments Off

You can Be What You Want to Become… if you Become What You Want To Be!

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  Prov. 23: 7