Thursday, February 20, 2014

Spiritually Centered: SS Question

Sunday School Thought Question (for #8 Living Righteously in a Wicked World)

At first Lot "lived in the cities of the plain, "outside Sodom, but he "pitched his tent toward Sodom" (Genesis 13:12).  In contrast, the people of Benjamin in the Book of Mormon gathered to hear King Benjamin.  "And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door towards the temple."

Do you think are our choices only evil or good? And what are some ways that might be equivalent to pitching our tents towards Sodom or the towards the temple?

I've been working my way through the Ensign this week and have been thinking about  the Modern Moral Relativism article.  Brother Belnap describes moral relativism as "the idea that questions of right and wrong behavior are relative."  He goes on to list the teachings by the Anti-Christ Korihor in Alma 30.  Geesh!  Some of those cut a little close to home in both how I think as an individual as well as how society thinks collectively.  Great article!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Live Healthier: Commit to Cooking

In my Prevention's Total-Body Shape Up magazine, February’s focus is to Commit to Cooking.  Ugh.  Have you ever consistently cooked for one?  If you make something like a casserole you eat it every day for a week and toss the second half.  I could make something and then give half away, but I still have to eat the leftovers.  Basically, it may be more work to cook for many people, but the food is much better! Still, there is something to be said about fast food.  It’s fast, easy clean up, fattening, and contains no nutritional value. 

I’m late in posting, but I hereby commit to a Fast Food Free February.  There's twelve days left in the month.  I think I can.  I think I can. I think I can. 

Prevention makes three suggestions:
  • Plan Ahead. Spend a half-hour on Saturday or Sunday mapping out your meals for the week—both what you’re going to make and what nights you’re going to cook.
  • Become a Prep Cook. On the weekend, tackle time-consuming prep work: cook meats, prep salad dressings, cut fruits and vegetables.
  • Rethink Your Idea of a Home Cooked Meal. “A hot, freshly prepared meal is great , but in a pinch, a PB&J sandwich, some baby carrots, and a glass of milk is much better than going out,” says Cassie Dimmick, MS, RD, a sports dietician in Springfield, Missouri.
So I’d like to pick your mind for a moment and wonder if anyone has some low-calorie non-cooking no-leftovers snack/meal ideas?


Walking Program Update:  My goal this year is to walk a 5K on July 12th, so I’m trying to exercise regularly.  To date, I've gone to the gym 18 times.  Not the 5 days a week the walking program suggests, but it’s a start.  And I found I don’t totally hate exercising.  I really love checking it off when it’s done and knowing that each step takes me closer to a healthier me!


Spiritually Centered: SS Question

Sunday School Thought Question (for #7 The Abrahamic Covenant)

I'm doing better with some New Year's resolutions than others, but I'm determined to do most of them most of the time.  How about that for drive?!

This morning I was using the Old Testament Class Member Study Guide to find out what the Sunday School lesson would be on today.  I was impressed by the very first sentence: "In these passages Abraham seeks to be righteous and worthy of the blessings of God."  Me too!  I want that too!  But I'm taking a wild guess, he was probably better at it than I am.

So my Sunday School Thought Question for the week is "How?"  How did he seek to be righteous and worthy of the blessings of God? And how can we?

I read in Abraham 1:2 that Abraham sought great knowledge.  The footnote led me to Doctrine and Covenants 42:61.  It says, in part, "thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge."  This in turn brings joy.  I'm going to try reading my scriptures and the Ensign to see if I can also learn revelation upon revelation and knowledge upon knowledge!