Newest Poems & Writings: 2016/07

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!

"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!

"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!

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

Additional Scriptures Romans 12:10; Mosiah 4:15; Doctrine and Covenants 25:5

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!