Mormon Messages

I just saw this link for the first time and I wanted to share it with everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages

I also put it on the top right hand side of my blog. I think it is so cool to see the Brethren using the technology and media we have to spread the gospel. Who would have thought? Anyway, enjoy the video clips, they are great!

What are you doing?

I realized a powerful principle in my life this morning. There is an old story about a man that comes across a man laying bricks. He asks the man what he is doing and he replies without looking up, "I am laying bricks". The man continues and sees a second man similarly working and asks him what he is doing, the man replies with a smile, "I am building a wall". Eventually the man comes across one last man and asks what he is doing. with a light in his eyes the man enthusiastically says, "I am building a temple for my God".

I go to school every day and have felt lately that I am just laying bricks. My vision and excitement for what I do each day has been almost non existent. To take this a bit further I was reading Nehemiah chapter 6 this morning, here is the setting as far as I understand it: Nehemiah is a governor over Judah and they have just returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. Nehemiah wants to re-build the walls around Jerusalem and undertakes to do it. There are some of his enemies that entice him to come down and meet them in the plain of Ono and "they thought to do [him] mischief". He wisely replies "why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"

I believe that the things I do each day are laying a foundation of a great work. Satan is incessant in his attempts to get me to cease the work that I should be doing. One way he does it is by trying to get me to believe that all I am doing is "laying bricks". Later Nehemiah's enemies resort to scare tactics and try to put doubt into his mind, telling him they cannot accomplish building the walls up again. He prays "O God, strengthen my hands." and when it was all done, in exactly 52 days, his enemies "perceived that this work was wrought of [their] God."

Life can be monotonous but the trick is to find joy in the journey. Remember that you are laying a foundation for eternity each day. You are building the Kingdom of God. Don't let Satan distract, doubt, discourage, or derail you from the work that you are doing each day. God will strengthen your hands, and others will see that the work you do is being wrought by God.

Easy to Understand Economics

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

The late Dr. Adrian Roger