To have eternal life, to receive instruction of righteousness:

2 Timothy 3:15-16

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

To learn how to live:

Scriptures are not only for reading, but most importantly, for following by doing what it says. Here is a very important one:

Mathew 19:19
Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

So how do you love others as thyself?

You need to show them love:

1. Be friendly to others
2. Help others when they need
3. Be patient with others
4. Forgive their faults
5. Don’t get angry with others easily
6. Call others and check on their well being

There are a lot more to the list. Pray hard for the ability to do.

Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Titus 1:6
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;

10/11/10
Rachel couldn’t figure out what’s the top and sole of foot, so she started googling.

9/25/10

Mama: “Rachel, would you like to play with Power Point?”

Rachel: “What is it?”

Mama: “You can make slides with it.”

Rachel: “Sure, show me.”

And I showed her.

Rachel: “Where is the slide?”

Mama: “Here it is.”

Rachel: “I want slide you can ride on it.”

Mama: “Of course you can write on it. Here is how.”

Rachel: “No. I thought you meant slide that goes like this.” (moving her hand up and down)

…………………………………………..

Rachel: “Mama, when I grow up, I want to have 20 children, 2 per year.”

This is one of the purposes of being alive, to learn patience and endurance. My personal experience is that I’ve made a lot of progress, although no one can be 100% patient. It’s a long way to get there.

First of all, no matter how much you read about patience and endurance, if you don’t learn and practice in real life, you’ll never master them. That’s why we come into this world to practice while we learn.

I found it very helpful if I listen to happy songs/music. I’ll be in a good mood and less likely to be angry or frustrated when difficult situation arise. Happy mood helps to endure difficult people for sure.

Also, reading my own blog helps me to refresh my learning too. When I have a clear mind, it’s easier to do those things that are difficult to do with a clear understanding.

This life is all about improving our attitude toward every being.

Do you think God will let us go to Heaven when we are arrogant, full of pride, blame all on others, never admit faults, full of hatred and resentment, uncaring, unloving toward strangers, being cruel to those whom we dislike, disrespect those who we resent, think evil of those who has done us wrong?

Seriously, it’s time to take a look at our inner thoughts – our attitudes toward every being and every thing. If you were to pick new friends, of course you’ll pick those who are merciful, humble, admit faults, don’t blame others, loving and caring. Same thing, God will pick those too to let them enter into his house.

If you can’t forgive someone, just think what he has done wrong to you today. If he hasn’t done anything wrong today, then you should recognize the improvement and be friendly. Don’t keep going back further and further. Even God set rules to forgive debts from over 7 years ago. There has to be a line drawn between today and yesterday and everything happened before that has to be wiped out. Don’t dwell on misery, otherwise you’ll never experience happiness. Always prepare for a new start and forget about everything bad happened before that.

What’s your attitude today? Are you friendly today? For some, it’s all about trying to be friendly. Life will be better. I believe many people don’t even need to learn. They are born with the quality already.

It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Your personal health and safety depends on your attitude.

For many, we tend to ignore what’s described in the book of revelation and refuse to believe it’s true simply because it was written a long time ago by someone whom we’ve never seen. So here is a living revelation by a lady whom we can see and hear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBm9JRggXOY&feature=related

Why is that some people don’t believe in hell while it’s clearly said in the scriptures? When I first read the Book of Mormon, it convinced me that it’s wiser to believe there is a God and there is hell instead of refusing to acknowledge. When I told this to some people one day, they couldn’t believe there were verses regarding hell in the Book of Mormon, or maybe they didn’t want to know even though I can point it out to them where the verses are.

Revelations 20:15-20 “lake of fire and brimstone”

Luke 16:22-24 “I am in agony in this fire.”

Mark 9:43 “where the fire never goes out”

Matthew 25:30 “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”

Some words from the videos above:

All mockers and unbelievers will suffer

Hell was made for demons, not a place suitable for human souls, thus, it’ll be eternal torment for the souls.

You were given chance after chance to repent and accept the gospel.

Satan does not want the world to know hell

Far beneath the earth

You cause many to stumble

Satan has many ways to deceive people, many ways he uses to get people to turn from the way of God, by temptations of drug, strong drink…

The first place Jesus went after coming off the cross was hell

7/10/10
May you find your greatest need is to be close to the Lord for he will nourish you, protect you, and guide you. I prayed because I was lost and the answer was I needed the Lord the most.

12/25/09
This is probably the most important post.

So you are wondering what’s the purpose of this life. That’s a wonderful question. Not many 18-year-olds have time to question such a serious one. It means your mind is clearer as you know most of the things in life are not that important any more. You are very lucky that you asked this question at a young age without anyone asking you to think. This is not a question that people who are doing well physically, financially, and socially tend to even think. Your Grandpa and Grandma are in their 70′s now and I’ve asked them many times to think, but they refused to. They don’t care about what happens after they die.

It’s usually the lonely and insecure people, or the super rich who have done it all and seen it all, who would question what’s the purpose of this life. And that’s why I started my blog by asking, “What’s this life all about?” I did not want to put my belief out there at first because I wanted people to think for themselves. That way they’ll be most convinced when they found the answer. But to this time, I think it’s better to put my belief (or what I have found out) out here so you can judge for yourself.

So I’m going to write a lot about the purpose of this life and I’ll modify my writings to make it more perfect in the end. Here is what I wrote last night:

I know the purpose but you might not agree with me. Even though I know the purpose, I often forget when dealing with troubles in life. There are many reasons for us to be born and come into this world. Does that mean we never existed before we were born? No. We existed in the spirit world, generally called Heaven, where our Heavenly Father lives. But the spirit world is perfect in many ways in that there is no sickness, no pain, no hatred, etc.

Were we perfect as spirits? Not really, at least not all of us. I think that some spirits are of better quality than others just like some people were born with better qualities than others, e.g. they are kinder, more patient, and more loving toward strangers. Then why didn’t Heavenly Father create each spirit to be perfect like Him? That’s a long story and the reasons behind are mysterious too.

Since the spirits were not perfect like Heavenly Father, or have not progressed advanced enough like Heavenly Father, they needed to progress more. Why do they need to progress more? The more progressed they are, the happier they would be. For the happiest state they could achieve, it’s worth the effort to progress.

In order to progress, there has to be opposition. For example, in order to learn patience, we have to have opportunities to wait; to learn endurance, we need hardship; to learn forgiveness, we need offensiveness. In Heavenly environment, there is hardly any opposition. That’s why the spirits don’t have the conditions to progress further there. Opposition only exists in this world, and in order to progress further, we have to come here.

So every difficult situation around us is actually an opportunity for us to progress and advance. Once we learned patience, endurance, forgiveness, etc., troubles won’t be that big any more. It’s not easy to remember these when we do face opposition in life. But a reminder once in a while will make us to feel better. When we get impatient, when we couldn’t tolerate certain situations any more, it simply means that we were given an opportunity to progress further and we have to make an effort to overcome the opposition in order to advance.

The condition was that our memory of the spirit world would be wiped out. Another thing we need to learn here is to distinguish between good and evil. So while we are here, the Gospel is taught and there are many evil influences. We learn and practice between choosing good or evil. We are free to choose whom we want to follow. This is the only way to test our own free will, if we want to choose following God or choose following the Devil. If we choose to follow God, we can go back to His place and live with Him again. If we choose to follow the Devil, we’ll go with the Devil and live with him. See, in Heaven, there aren’t evil influences. So we don’t have a chance to exercise our free agency to make choices between good and evil. This ability to choose good when evil is everywhere is a significant progress marker that our Heaven Father wants us to learn to obtain. That’s why we come to earth and there are evil spirits everywhere here.

Depending on our performance here, our destination in the after life will be determined. Everything we thought, said, or did is recorded in Heaven. So we’d better be careful. Now as I’m telling you all this, I realized that I have not been performing well myself.

No one can accomplish this journey and achieve perfection alone without Jesus’ help as we have all sinned. That’s why we must acknowledge Jesus as our Savior in order to get His help. If we don’t accept Jesus, there will be no way we can return to Heavenly Father’s home on our own. This is part of the Plan of Salvation. We shouted for joy in the spirit world when the Plan of Salvation was announced (Job 38:7).

Depending on our performance, We’ll achieve different degrees of glory after the final judgment day. (1 Corinthians 15:41) But before that day comes, Jesus will come again and rule the earth for 1000 years. This is the best part that I like because Anna will be resurrected as a baby and if I’m faithful, I’ll raise her again. And we shall never die. By the time we reach death, in the twinkling of an eye, we’ll return to our 20′s (or 30′s) and stay that way forever. There will be no evil that can influence the people on earth again. And humans and animals will live together peacefully including the tigers and lions.

The day Jesus comes again, don’t try to return to your house to get your things. Drop whatever you are doing and get ready to go with Him. But first of all, you need to be baptized in order to accept Him as your Savior.

That’s enough for now. It’s a long story. It also has a lot to do with families when the degree of glory is concerned. You need to be sealed in the temple in order to achieve the highest exaltation.

6/26/2009
Life has many trials awaiting ahead for you. Always stay close to the Lord Jesus by following his words so you could stand strong and get up quickly from a fall.

We tend to focus on certain commandments and ignore others. For example, it’s easy to focus on “Do Not Steal” than “Love your enemies.” It’s those commandments that we tend to ignore or forget that are most important for us to remember to follow, or our trials will be huge pretty soon.

6/24/2009
So you don’t even check your emails any more. No activities on twitter.com/richardxthripp either. If I can’t get hold of you, there will be no way to communicate with you. The only way left to save you is probably for you to live with me so I can influence you each day. Hopefully the Lord will arrange that.

Remember what happened on 12/6/08 at 3:28 AM:

“I prayed to God for guidance. Very focused now.” 3:28 AM Dec 6th, 2008

6/3/2009
It’s good that we can pray over the phone. This is the only way left for some hope.

6/2/2009
So I thought the only way to change you is through prayers over the phone. Thanks for listening today. I hope you didn’t get too nervous about child support ending. Don’t worry. You’ll get money from me but you have to be nice and respectful. Come and visit me often. I love you. Ma

6/1/2009
Dear Son, it seems like the only way left for me to do is to pray for you. I hope the Lord can forgive your attitude. May you grow to be a good boy, respectful toward others, particularly the Lord who had suffered for your sin. I really hope you are close to me so I can help you better.

Your sister is doing much better this evening. I had a lot of patience for her tonight.

Love you, Mama

5/31/2009
I’m waiting for the Lord to do something to change you all. Life can’t be forever like this. Your sister has been gone all day again and won’t listen to anything I say. And the only way to change you is if the Lord helps somehow. Same with my parents. My Dad has a kidney stone, but he is not much troubled yet. You all need some more pressure.

I’m grateful for the changes that have occurred. I don’t worry much about your physical condition any more. I’m grateful for my own progress. I need more patience and control of my worries and emotions.

5/30/2009
Can’t find you today. I guess you are doing well. Today I’m being challenged. I’m still learning to love those who don’t seem to love me. I hope someday you’ll understand me. I prayed a lot for you and Rachel last night. Sometimes I feel my heart is broken because of you and her. And I can’t give up either. It’s a painful life.
Love, Mama

5/29/2009
I’m having a hard time to get your sister to study scriptures. She does not want to stay home. Finally I was able to teach her a little bit about the 10 virgins. I had to kneel down and say a prayer for her in order to get her to listen. I explained to her what oil in the lamp means. It means to be prepared for the Lord’s second coming on an hour by hour basis. How to prepare? First of all, we need to repent of our sins. We have to know how we sinned. The only way to find out is through reading the scriptures and understand what types of sins there are. After repentance, we need to get baptized. After that, we have to read the scriptures and learn on a daily basis to understand God’s expectations of us. Then pray often for the Holy Ghost to help us to obey and follow God’s commandments. This is a daily exercise. If we skip a day, we are not going to have enough oil in our lamp when Jesus comes again. We need to constantly fill that oil so we’ll have enough for the lamp to burn and guide us to find the door to the kingdom of the Lord in the dark.

I don’t know how much this means to you. Each day I pray for you and your sister. I’m fully burdened. And I still have my parents, other relatives and friends to worry about. Not enough time to do much. I’m hoping that God will help me somehow to bring you and your sister to Him.
Love, Mama

5/27/2009
Jesus said, “whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24).

Let’s try to build our houses on a rock from now on. So we need to take a look at what Jesus talked about:

“That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39
This means if someone hurt you (emotionally), don’t fight with them. Get ready to take the pain again if they hurt you again. I think they’ll get tired of hurting you over and over. I think that’s very smart. Get it done once and no more later on.

“Love your enemies, … do good to them that hate you,” Matthew 5:44
So we need to at least be friendly to those who are unfriendly to us, and help them out whenever we can. I know this is the hardest part. Usually we avoid those people if we can. But sometimes we have to face them, like in the same family or workplace.

5/26/2009
Life has improved a little bit. It needs proper communication.

5/25/2009
What can I do to make you come to God? I need to pray. I can’t even get your sister to go to bed. Yelling doesn’t help. It just make things worse for me. I need to pray for both her and you.

5/24/2009
I wanted to learn to be meek, but my daughter won’t let me. It’s a hard trial.

Dear Son,
I miss you so much. I really wish to see you. I keep thinking about the spirit prison. I don’t want you to go there. I want you to follow Jesus and get baptized so I won’t be tormented forever. Don’t ever delete my messages and please remember what I said. That’s the main reason I want to keep a journal. I hope you’ll keep it and read it someday even after I die. I’ll worry about you even in the spirit world.

5/23/2009
It’s better for you to be tired than to be sick, Son. It’s such a relief now that I don’t have to worry about you that much. I really have to thank God. Let’s concentrate on being respectful to everyone. I’m learning to be meek. It’s hard to do when your sister does not listen.

5/22/2009
It’s a battle today. Son, I don’t know what to say if you can enjoy yourself playing a game online with strangers. Life could always be worse. I got an email from a stranger today and it has tons of pictures in it showing the poor people in China. Is this the way God reminds me to be content?

Your sister does not want to come back home. I had to make her say a prayer on the phone. Life is not always easy, and it could be a lot worse.

5/22/2009
Obviously God had something for me to do that I woke up at 3 something in the morning. Here is what came into my mind. I made a song:

I like you and I love you,
No matter who you are or what you’ve done to me.
I don’t mind you dislike me, resent me, punish me, or persecute me.
I’ll always find a way to adjust my attitude to like you and love you.
And God will have mercy on me.

5/21/2009
Tolerate all men and their behaviors.

5/20/2009
A prayer to share:
Let the Lord help us to do better and not judge others. Be a little bit nicer to everyone. We all need help to improve. Help instead of criticize. Be calm and patient. Pray often.

5/19/2009
I’ll try to focus on getting Rachel to study scripture tonight. So far I have not succeeded. How about you, Son? I hope you get to study some scriptures too.

And guess what, she said she was going to study with me after she finishes her game. But she went into the bedroom and watched TV. When I called her, she pretended sleeping. Finally I got her agree to listen to some songs. She liked Elvis singing Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art. That’s not too bad. And she fell sleep. No chance for prayers.

I’ve been focusing on Matthew 5:

46     For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47     And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48     Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

These give me some incentive to say hi to those who don’t seem to be friendly enough to me. Of course, it was my own fault. It was hard for me to be friendly to some people. I’m learning to be friendly to people these days.

5/18/2009
Rachel has been playing Wii all evening. Can’t get her to read any scriptures. And I spent the whole evening looking at pictures. There are so many of them. Got to stop.

5/17/2009
Unfriendly people (including me) just need help to learn to be friendly. Unkind people just need help to learn to be kind. And the best way to teach someone to be friendly is to show friendliness to them. The best way to teach someone to be kind is to be kind to them.

5/16/2009
Sonny, so good to hear your voice today and glad you are doing well. Thanks for asking about your sister.

5/15/2009
My Son, thank you SO MUCH for bringing your website back up again! Even though I can’t find you to talk to you, as soon as I saw the site is back up, I know you are ok. Thank God! And your sister is finally back home. I have all the patience for her now. Thanks to the Lord’s help.

5/11/2009
Son, when can you be saved? I worry about you not following the Lord. Can you please do me a favor? Now I’m going to go and worry about your sister. When can I be a good teacher instead of begging the two of you day after day? Lord, please help me.

5/10/2009
I’m dedicating this post to my son. I’m hoping that he will find the true purpose of his life.

I’ve been trying to get hold of him for a while and finally I got hold of him today right at the beginning of his 30 minute nap. I think he is lost in his php codes. His life is all about php and url trimming right now.

I’m glad he still remembers me and even talked to me for a while. I don’t consider myself to be a loser in raising children. I just have tough situations to deal with. It’s like if I’m not with my daughter for a couple of days, she will drift backward in her behavior. I have progressed so much these days in how to deal with her. I’m trying very hard not to get emotions involved when she does not behave. I found that when I show her love, she responds in a loving way. That’s how to teach her to be kind.

With my son, it’s harder since we are so far away from each other. I have very little chance to communicate with him. I wonder if he deletes the emails I sent him and don’t get to read them. I’ve been thinking hard how to help him, and my parents who are even further away. Finally I thought this is the best way, to leave them something permanent to read when someday they have time, bored, or just need to hear my voice.

My life is dedicated to bring them back to Heavenly Father. I have found the way. Jesus will help me to draw all men onto him. I’m sure whoever is going to read this will eventually find his way back to God. That’s my biggest wish for I love God and I want to find a way to show him that I love him. I need to help other people to come back to him. If you are reading this, you are included. That’s the main purpose of my life and why I spend all my time thinking about what to write here. For it is so important. You might not know that as I close my eyes and type, I really should be shutting down this computer and rest because I’m very tired today. But my mind couldn’t rest knowing that my son has not been saved. My parents have not been saved.

Last night I was able to get my husband and my daughter to study a little bit. Usually he just read something from the book. But I wanted to say a prayer before he started last night and they agreed. I tried my best to touch them so that they’ll be more serious. I hope it worked. It hurts me to see my daughter have her ears filled with meaningless songs. She almost behave like a teenager. It’s very hard to change her. My usual approach won’t work on her any more. The only way left is to be a better teacher to her. I need a lot of patience and love.

10/25/09
Hope comes by little steps at a time. There is always hope.

5/24/2009

I don’t think there are computers in heaven. Neither TV, poker, or games. What shall we talk about then? About life on earth in the old days?

5/17/2009

There is this elderly brother in church who is always kind, slow, wears a smile, and speak kind words and greetings to people.

5/16/2009

A little bit unexpected communication improved my day. I really need to learn to communicate better instead of keeping everything within.

There is not much good to talk about Ah Q except it’s always easy for him to manage to be happy quickly. This is what happened right after he was beaten:

“Fortunately after the thwacking stopped it seemed to him that the matter was closed, and he even felt somewhat relieved. Moreover, the precious “ability to forget” handed down by his ancestors stood him in good stead. He walked slowly away and by the time he approached the wine shop door he felt quite happy again.”

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lu-xun/1921/12/ah-q/ch03.htm

5/8/2009

I’m writing a song and making it more perfect eventually:

Lord, why is that everything you taught sounds difficult to do at first, but once I accepted and tried, I’m freed from bondage of misery?

Lord, how could you be so correct? And why you spent your life here just to teach all men how to live?

Has any man claimed the power to draw all men onto him but you?

I wish I know earlier that I could never love you enough for what you’ve done for me and taught me.

You are all my life is about.

I’ve learned with your help that I could face all men with a smile no matter how they treat me.

I’ve broken the bondage of misery with you on my side to help me to walk this life.

Every minute I spent with you in my life is worthwhile.

You gave me the strength to endure long darkness. You gave me the hope of eternal brightness.

Lord, tell me that you are not far, for without you, I’m nothing. Teach me how to live.

5/6/2009
I just don’t care about how other people treat me any more. For myself, I need to treat everyone nice no matter who they are.

5/2/2009
I have not loved the Lord enough as he deserves. If someone died for you, you’ll never match his love no matter how much you think you love him. I need to follow his teachings better so my house will be built on a rock. I wish Jesus lives among us so I could have a role model to follow. There is no limit in repentance, in learning. Each day, I need my heart to be cleaned, to examine myself to see where I need to improve upon. Don’t think of other people’s faults before you find all your own faults.

5/1/2009
To live is to learn by experiencing. You’ll not master something just by reading. Only through experiencing and doing can one improve. So if I tell someone I love Jesus, that person will not feel what kind of love that is until s/he experience it him/herself. To tell you the truth, it’s a wonderful feeling of love when you put all your heart into singing for the Lord. The only way to find out how wonderful it is is to find the right song to sing. I like Holy Night, How Great Thou Art, Amazing Grace, and I Sing Praises to Your Name. I could sing all day and feel really good. It makes a better person out of me. Try it. You won’t regret. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to sing to the Lord.

4/28/2009
We each go through this life as if we’re being processed to become diamonds. Some of us need more processing than others, thus we face more trials and tribulations. Trials and tribulations offer us more opportunities to be of better quality diamonds..

So next time when you face tribulations, you can consider it as that God wants to process you even more so your quality will be better.

To be truly happy, one really has to learn to forgive and love all. To love, we each need to ask the question more often, “What can I do for you?” Put ourselves at the service of others is the best way to love.

Change is a process, not just an event. Only when the heart is willing that changes will happen.

4/27/2009

I was driving home with my daughter in my car. Instead of listening to the radio, I decided to sing to her “Amazing Grace.” It was a wonderful experience to teach her this way. She behaved well. And she searched “Amazing Grace” on You Tube and we listened to Elvis singing it when we got home.

4/26/2009
Learning to speak kind words: http://speakkindwords.com
Learning to be sweet and kind
Learning to do kind things
Learning to do better house work

A kind person -
is an understanding person,
has sympathy, compassion,
is merciful
can endure offensive words without reacting back in the same way
could let go the unkind things other people did to him/her and treat those people with kindness instead.
is a living example to those around so they could see the light
thinks of others’ needs before self
serves others first before serving self
doesn’t complain
gives when asked
has no need
is always happy
endures pain without complaining

4/25/2009
What causes a person to change for good? What guides a person in his actions? If a person considers being angry is not a good thing to do, he will make a conscious effort to not to get angry. An old lady told me that when her son was little, he used to come back home upset because he was beaten up by another boy in school. She told him that next time he’d better punch whoever beat him really hard and win. Chairman Mao taught that if others don’t violate us, we don’t violate them. If they do, we must revenge. These teachings are totally contrary to what Jesus taught.

To change for the good, the force has to come within. The first comes from remorse when a person did something wrong. Usually we don’t realize it when we did something wrong. For example, being cold to certain people when we thought we had good reasons. We need to remember that no matter who they are, as human beings, they need respect and dignity to survive. The other two forces are either because of love or because of fear. Love and fear are two strongest forces that can make people change. I pay tithing because the amount of love for God has exceeded the fear of sacrifice. I struggled to accept the command of loving my enemies because I have tremendous concern for my eternal life. I was listening to Joshua 7 today and I could hear the Lord’s voice was really firm in punishing the man who had taken the accursed thing. A sense of fear arose when I heard that voice that made me feel that every command the Lord gave should be heeded without any arguments. I seem to follow certain commands strictly, but others, reluctantly or ignored.

Matthew 6: 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Of course, many people have heard these words. Me too, many many times. The usual response is, “So what?” That’s because I have not feared God enough. I certainly never thought about to make God happy to do that, and never had any remorse for not being forgiving. Then why I have to consider these words seriously. The only motive left would be increased fear and taking it seriously because of the eternal impact. Shall I be compliant?

I certainly hope everyone whom I offended in the past forgives me.

If everyone can learn to forgive, this world will be so much better and so much easier to live in. Why not start from you?

I think to be able to forgive easily, you really have to be humble to take the blame and to have a better understanding of why others behave in certain ways in order not to get offended. The more you can accept others the way they are the easier you’ll be able to forgive and let go.

4/24/2009
Today, these verses woke me up a little bit:

Matthew 7: 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

I feel like that foolish man sometimes because I couldn’t follow what Jesus said sometimes:

Matthew 6: 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

And these verses are really hard to do:

Matthew 5: 40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away

4/20/2009
I’ve been thinking about people who are suffering these days. I’ve been including them in my prayer for them to find comfort in Christ. Life could be extremely hard. Even with Christ, it’s not always easy. But at least there is light and direction from Christ. Sometimes, being alive is similar to traveling in a deep long tunnel. It’s so important to be able to see that light at the end of the tunnel. It’s not an easy thing to do to be simply happy when you suffer hunger, disease, loss of loved ones, and wars. I could imagine how Mother Teresa felt when she labored to find a home, to beg for food and supplies during her first year in the slums. I know I won’t be able to do all that. It will be hard for me to give up my family, and I don’t have enough mental and physical strength to deal with that type of situation. I just wish that there will be no poverty and wars. Poverty and wars go together. The more wars we have, the poorer we get. I believe we need to teach everyone, particularly children, how to love each other, how to get along and not get into conflicts. That’s probably the only way to prevent wars.

4/19/2009
Learning to overlook other people’s shortcomings.

4/18/2009
One of the reasons I want to make an impact in this world was that I could not forget those pictures I saw about Nanking Massacre. I keep thinking about that poor man tied up to the post, being stabbed by that Japanese soldier with a sword again and again. If I were him, I would want people to remember what happened to me, to know my sorrow and pain, to prevent such cruel things from happening to anyone again. That’s why I have to try my best to make peace in this world. I think I can teach people to be kind to each other, to learn how to treat enemies like Jesus taught.

I think Mother Teresa used her actions as a good example to show all men how to love. And she has made a significant impact to this world. Many people from all quarters of the earth, all religions have loved her and respected her for what she did. We might not be able to contribute that much to world peace, but we can make small foot steps each day. And every effort counts.

It was my turn to cook dinner for the missionaries today. My husband offered to give them a ride after dinner. And he even washed all the dishes.

I had a good time playing with my daughter this morning. I found myself to be more loving to her and with more patience today after I found this statement yesterday:

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. Og Mandino

4/17/2009
I was watching Mother Teresa videos last night and she mentioned about these verses:
Matthew 25:   35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Matthew 25:  40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I thought that was really nice of Jesus to care about the least of his brethren. It encourages me to do better.

I was wondering how Mother Teresa started helping people because it seems to me to be very hard even just taking care of one friend. I was helping out a new friend at one time and pretty soon I found myself spending more time visiting her and taking her to places than staying home with my family. In the end, I had to slow down. The moment I slowed down, I could sense she wasn’t happy with me much any more. The friendship ended after I stopped helping her as I didn’t like what she was doing. I felt it to be hard to even accomplish things I have to do each day. How am I going to maintain friendship if a friend needs my help all the time?

Now I learned that Mother Teresa’s first year to venture out into the slums was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. She wrote in her diary:
“Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. ‘You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,’ the Tempter kept on saying … Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.”

I would think that the best way to do good is to do it as a family if possible. If family members need care, priorities still should be family members first because that’s our primary responsibility. You need a group to take care of a group. That’s why I was impressed to see there were sign up sheets at my local church for people to volunteer preparing meals for needy families.

4/15/2009
This is very interesting. I was listening to Matthew 5 this morning again and again, and all of a sudden this verse touched my heart with a strong force:  “but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” At that moment, I realized that I’d better be very careful not to get angry from now on.

As I listened on, more verses touched me with a strong force:
“For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. ”

There, I have to compete with scribes, Pharisees, and publicans in order to do better than them.

I really appreciated these teachings and thought I should be listening to Matthew 5 every day from now on since it’s getting into my heart and I like to listen to it often.

Changes come on gradually. I listened to Matthew 5 many times before. But today it really made a dent on me. You just never know when that happens. Usually when dramatic changes happen, there is a serious cause. It took me some huge reasons to improve in the past. It’s better to improve just by listening to scriptures than to wait for that type of reasons.

Eph. 4: 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Clamour means a loud protest or a loud and persistent noise or outcry. I hope I can remember that.

4/14/2009

How did I come up with the idea of publishing a journal?
I want to remember this day when both of my children have not been saved, and both my parents have not been saved yet. How much faith do I have in that they will be saved someday?

My son is 17 going on 18. He doesn’t read scriptures and doesn’t pray any more. He sleeps 12 hours a day and doesn’t give me much a chance to talk to him.

My daughter is 7 going on 8. She is not interested in scriptures and hates me telling her to study scriptures. She does pray before she falls asleep on some days. She acts like a teenager almost.

My parents are far away and they don’t seem to want to have anything to do with God. I’m just lucky now that they will tolerate me talking about my belief.

And another big challenge for me is my husband. I need to do a lot of work on myself first before I can do anything else.

It’s been a blessing in the last few years that God has helped our family so much, particularly myself. God has helped one of my sister-in-laws to be very kind to me. He’s helped my Mother-in-Law too to be kinder. And my husband has changed some too after he started reading scriptures. The biggest help was what God gave to my daughter. She has improved so much!!! I have so much less headaches today than just 7 months ago.