July 31, 2016

"I'm Sick"



“I’m Sick”

cji
8/1/16

See at three years old
excuses are few to learn
but laying down defiantly
saying, “I’m sick” works
at least I think it does
as all ask if I need sleep
willing to put me away
quickly into my bed awake
then no longer am I sick
just a three year old
buying more time to play!


Copyright © 2016 – cji

"Seaweed Chips"


“Seaweed Chips”

cji
8/1/16

‘Grandpa I’m eating seaweed’
greetings upon answering phone
Sunday night conversations
across the nation we partake
time to share our weeks and time
books we’ve read or begun
but this eating seaweed
caught me off-guard – fully
then she said ‘a goldfish’
goodness had me wondering
telling me ‘tastes like goldfish’
to my wonder she eats goldfish
asked I, ‘is that Sushi?’
she laughed and said ‘crackers’
thus discerned seaweed chips
dried and true – for sure!


Copyright © 2016 – cji

"Losing a Tooth"


“Losing a Tooth”

cji
8/1/16

Lost a tooth wondering if
tooth fairy knew I was here
(grandpa called her a bunny
and we looked at him strange)
he was unsure if I’d be found
yet awakened in the morning
the tooth fairy knew where
thus unworried again she came
once finding me in Missouri
now at grandparent’s home
traveling far and wide always
seeking lost teeth to replace
making little children happy!


Copyright © 2016 – cji

Visiting Teaching Message August 2016





VISITING TEACHING MESSAGE  Nurturing Families Together

Prayerfully study this material and seek to know what to share. How will understanding “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” increase your faith in God and bless those you watch over through visiting teaching For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

A “husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.”1 “The home is to beGod’s laboratory of love and service,” said President Russell M.Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
“Our Heavenly Father wants husbands and wives to be faithful toeach other and to esteem and treat their children as an heritagefrom the Lord.”2
In the Book of Mormon, Jacob said that the love that husbandshad for their wives, the love that wives had for their husbands,and the love that both had for their children was among the
reasons the Lamanites were at one point more righteous thanthe Nephites (see Jacob 3:7).
One of the best ways to invite love and harmony into our homesis by speaking kindly to our family members. Speaking kindlybrings the Holy Ghost. Sister Linda K. Burton, Relief Society
general president, asked us to consider: “How often do weintentionally ‘speak kind words to each other’?”3
Living Stories Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the TwelveApostles shared a childhood experience that impressed uponhim the importance of a loving family. When he and his brotherswere boys, 
their mother had radical cancer surgery that made itvery painful for her to use her right arm. With a family of boys,there was a lot of ironing, but as his mother ironed, she often
stopped and went into the bedroom to cry until the pain subsided. When Elder Christofferson’s father realized what was happening,he secretly went without lunches for almost a year to save enough money to buy a machine that made ironing easier. Out of his love for his wife, he set an example of nurturing within families for his boys. Of this tender interaction, Elder Christofferson said, “I was not aware of my father’s sacrifice andact of love for my mother at the time, but now that I know, I sayto myself, ‘There is a man.’”4
Consider This
How does loving and caring for one another invite the Spirit intoour homes?


“Producing Eternal Thoughts”

cji
8/1/16

Learning to be in tune with others
thinking of the eternal not just here
what would Father do if he were here
and all that can make us eternal;

Watching over sisters and brothers
making thus the veil more sheer
producing eternal thoughts clear
learning that which is eternal!


Copyright © 2016 – cji