GRAPPLE

The first time I saw this word it was for a new creation. Apples that smelled and tasted like Grapes. Therefore they were known as GRAPPLES. Makes sense.

Then I was reading and this phrase stuck out to me.
'Grapple the hard things in life.'

Do apples and grapes help us with the challenges of life?

So of course I looked in the dictionary.

Grapple

1. to hold or make fast to something

2. to engage in a struggle or close encounter
3. to try to overcome or deal
4. a grip or close hold in wrestling

We need to grasp the hard things in life and keep them alongside of us so that we know exactly what we are up against. Its the only way for us to keep our head held high and know that there are great things ahead.

Then I got thinking about GRAPPLES

Its funny how apples and grapes really do help us with the challenges of life.

APPLES-
The fruit of the forbidden tree
Knowledge of good and evil
To understand the purpose of life we need oppostition
The Lord is a respector of your agency from the very beginning

GRAPE-
Wine, The Sacrament
The Saviors Atonement!

Phillppians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me

MASTER CARVER

How s l o w the forming-

How HARD some blows-

But I, the stone, must come to know

In my own person, my own soul,

Thy will, Thy purpose here below.

O Master, now I plead to Thee,

Cut off my roughness, form my face,

Refine my feelings, make of me

A fit reflection of Thy grace.

Yea, haste the day when I may kneel

Before Thee and great Elohim,

Accepted, peaceful in Thy home,

At last like Thee each grain of stone.

J. Devin Cornish

The Atonement

Ive been studying the Atonement for the past year or so.
A dear friend of mine shared this with me.

We know that on some level Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that He experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implication of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means Jesus knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother and how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the gas chambers of Dacau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism... his last recorded words to His disciples were, "And lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world." What does that mean? It means He understands your mothers pain when your five years old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your 5Th grader, when your daughter calls to say the new baby has Down Syndrome... He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children who ever come are visitors, when your hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your 50Th wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that.

Chieko N Okazaki

Lessons from my Father

I look forward to those random moments when something my father would said to us girls over and over again and then within a matter of time~ what he says actually makes sense.

My father would always say, "Pain in good, it lets you know that you are alive."

Who in their right mind would want more pain?

My father was talking more a the lines of physical pain. Working on the farm and living in a household with 10 girls, you are lucky if you don't break a nail~ let alone get 5 new bruises from something or someone.

I got thinking about this statement and the different aspects of pain. Spiritual pain.

The Savior suffered the Atonement for us.

For the most part, we can't comprehend the actually pain the Savior went through.

ALMA 7:11-13

And He shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith He will take upon Him the pains and sicknesses of His people.

And He will take upon Him death, that He may loose the bands of death which binds his people; and He will take upon Him their infirmities, that His bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that He may know according to the flesh how to succor His people according to their infirmities.

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that He might take upon Him the sins of His people, that He might blot out their transgressions according to the power of His deliverance; and now behold, this is that testimony which is in me.

LOVE & PAIN

What if there is LOVE that we can't comprehend ?

The Savior was willing and able to perform the Atonement for us.

He loves us more than we will ever know so He suffered beyond our understanding.

"Pain is good, it lets you know you are alive. "

The pain our Savior went through was "good" and because of it we are able to "live" with our Father in Heaven and our Savior once again

This I know more than I know anything else.

At what point in His mortal life can you see an instance when it was easy for Him?

Education for Real LiFe

Just when I thought all was lost....

"Your life is carefully watched over, as was mine. The Lord knows both what He will need you to do and what you will need to know. He is kind and He is all-knowing. So, you can with confidence expect that He has prepared opportunities for you to learn in preparation for the service you will give. You will not recognize those opportunities perfectly, as I did not. But when you put the spiritual things first in your life, you will be blessed to feel directed toward certain learning and you will be motivated to work harder. You will recognize later that your power to serve was increased, and you will be grateful."

President Eyring

Something I learned today...

Folly of Materialism

Material scientist use the forces of nature to make the environment of man better and more comfortable.

Spiritual scientist use mind-power to enlighten the soul. (Mind power shows man the way to inner happiness, which gives him immunity to outer inconveniences.)

WHICH one renders the greater service?

Tribute to my sisters!

Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will EVER change, so much to the point where we're not all still friends.