Please Be Aware

Whatever direction the education of our children takes will be the direction that our country takes.  Many people know this, including people with agendas that are anti-freedom and who want power to further their cause.  We are too trusting sometimes.  Please take time to inform yourself about what is going on with our country's education system! Even if you think you can't do anything about it anyway - being informed IS doing something.  You can even go the extra mile and share the information with someone else.

Here are some videos to help you get the basics of what is going on.  She doesn't dumb it down for us so I wasn't familiar with everything she referred to, but it is easy to research those things I wanted to know more about, but even without any extra research the videos themselves tell you the basic information you should be aware of in regards to the direction of education in our country.

There are 5 videos but the total running time is only 30 minutes.  Just listen as you wash dishes or fold laundry.  It is worth your time.
(I do wish she wasn't quite so blunt in the first video since it has the tendency to turn some people off, but the information is important).

I don't want to sound like a nut with all of my concern, but I do feel I would be adding to the problem if I just sat back and did nothing when I see the downward spiral we are embarking upon.  Writing a blog post isn't much, but at least it's something right?


 

I know most people have other things to be thinking about, but if you want to know more, another great website (not just for Utahns) is http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/ It's where I saw the videos (after a great friend sent me the link). Please take the time to watch and share.

The Healing Arts

I have some friends that are kind of nutty.  They use "essential oils" as medicine and talk about learning to use energy to help heal emotional and physical problems.  Now, if I didn't highly respect these people, and know them to be good, intelligent ladies, I would probably have dismissed their thoughts as somewhat "looking beyond the mark." Instead, as I listened to them, I could sense there was truth in what they were saying, but I did not know what that truth was or how it fit in with my understanding of the gospel. I was being drawn to learn more about it though, and I even bought some essential oils to start experimenting and learning.

At the retreat I went to a few weeks ago, a lady named Tamara spoke about the "Healing Arts" and how they fit into the teachings of the prophets and the gospel in general.  You can visit her blog here: http://tamarasbook.blogspot.com/  She used a lot of quotes from scriptures, prophets and scientists and again, I could see there was truth there, but didn't know how to discern the truth from the "teachings of men mingled with scripture".  I bought her book because she seemed like a very sincere person who was very concerned that all she did was in alignment with the words of the prophets and who wanted to follow the spirit.  I also knew that the spirit would guide me to what I needed to learn.  I felt impressed to talk to a particular friend and schedule an energy session with her to see what they were talking about for myself.  Truth can be found almost everywhere so I figured that whatever truth I learn from all of it could be beneficial.  Besides, for some reason I was feeling drawn to it, so I figured it would be good to find whatever truth I needed to learn from it.

The energy session was interesting.  I had learned a little about energy (life-force, chi, ki, prana, mana... whatever you want to call it) from when I was in Kung Fu for several years.  They had us do what they called "internal power" which was a form of meditation in which we learned to channel energy into our hands.  It was kind of mysterious to me, but I did learn to feel energy in my hands, even though I didn't know if it was in my mind or actually there.  Anyway, in this session, she started by working around my feet and I was amazed that I could feel heat coming from her hands - or from my feet - I couldn't tell which.  Anyway, I thought it was interesting and somewhat strange, but I felt good and still intested in learning more so she told me of some books to read.

The next evening, I realized that a physical problem I had had since college was gone.  I was amazed.  It hadn't even occurred to me that something like an energy session could heal this problem. I knew it was not coincidence since this problem had been constant for a long time, but I wondered how long the "healing" would last.  I had gone to a chiropractor about the problem before, but the adjustments would only last for an hour or so.  (I had also looked at the option of surgery, but it was expensive and it was a battle with the insurance about how much of it they would pay).

Anyway, the problem has not come back yet.  I still don't expect it to never come back, but how long it has been gone has convinced me that there is a lot of truth in "energy work" and I am more motivated to learn more about it.

The big question that has lingered in my mind, though, is "Why?"  Why did Heavenly Father wait to heal my body until I was willing to look into this stuff? You don't hear about this kind of thing very much in "mainstream" culture.  If it there is truth there, why don't we talk about this stuff? 

I think it has a lot to do with our culture.  We are seeped in Western medicine for healing our bodies.  I believe there is truth in Western medicine, but there is a lot of truth in other healing practices as well.  I don't know all of the answers, but I have come to some answers as to why I was personally inspired to learn more about it.  I have found that learning about the relationship of our bodies to our spirits will strengthen my family relationships.  I have learned that it is easy to confuse our emotions with the spirit, so learning to manage our physical emotions can help us be better conduits of the spirit.  I have learned that healing our spirits can heal our bodies and emotions, but also that we can use our bodies to help us heal our emotions and better receive the spirit.  There is a reason that it was important for us to receive bodies to become like God.  Our bodies are amazing and have much power and Heavenly Father is willing to teach us about them when we want to learn.

So I guess I am becoming as nutty as some of my friends ;-)  I only hope I can become like them in other great ways too. 

I found some great articles about some of this in Meridian Magazine.  They talk about emotional healing techniques from an LDS perspective.  You can read them if you are interested in learning more:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

I know that, as with any truths, Satan can confuse and deceive, so I am trying to be very careful and to pray for discernment as I come across new information.  Like I said, I don't know a lot about it, but the more I learn, the more things seem to fit together and make sense with what I already know.  Some things still seem pretty strange to me so I am dismissing them for the time being and looking at what I think will be a blessing.  I am focusing on the doctrine or principles behind these practices to see if the doctrine stands up to the truth I know.  It's an interesting study and I'm thankful for the insights I have received so far.