English Essay #1 - Love Letter to my Treadmill

I haven't had to write essays for over 35 years. I am actually enjoying my English class. I'm learning more now than I did then. I am enjoying the process of learning how to write better. I decided to post my essays I've written just for the fun of it. 

My Dearest Treadmill,

     Our relationship is one that will last for miles and miles. I appreciate that you are there waiting for me each day I need you. You are willing to go on a walk whenever I want, and I appreciate that you give me so much of your time. It could be raining, snowing, or one hundred degrees outside but you make me feel safe. The view I get to admire through the windows while I walk, of the meandering creek, the tall evergreen trees, the forest critters, and the birds rejuvenates my soul.

     I love so many things about you, your wide belt with traction that keeps my tennis shoes from slipping, the color of black you wear looks good on you and doesn’t clash with anything I choose to wear, also when I get too hot your fan will cool me off. You even let me choose whether to have it on high or low. Your willingness to let me take our relationship fast or slow lets me know you want what is best for me. On the days I play with my friend, Blue Bicycle, you don’t get upset with me. I love you all the more for that.

     My heart broke a couple of years ago when you left me. You thought I was using and abusing you. You were broken and refused to be with me. I felt awful. I researched with the treadmill doctors to see why you wouldn’t run for me. It was a miracle, but I found the part needed to bring you back to me. When it showed up at the doorstep it didn’t take long until our relationship was repaired. I was so grateful you forgave me.

     I am a better person because of you. You relieve my stress, and I am happier. I know you will help me to live longer. I treasure my moments with you so much that my mornings are scheduled around our time together. Let’s go the distance babe. When your power is turned on, your belt starts, and my feet get moving, my heart beats for you in a true musical harmony of love.

With Love, Linda

Family Is Where It’s At

I have been memorizing ‘The Family – A Proclamation to the World’ for extra credit in my religion class. The difference between reading something and committing to memory the words is a stark contrast. Words your read, and then you let them go until you read them again. When I memorize I need to repeat the words over and over, and then I add the words into sentences and the memorizing becomes personal.

I was memorizing the 3^rd paragraph which is

In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enable family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God, and for families to be united eternally.

We are children of God. We came to this earth to gain a physical body. The next part I memorized I knew already, we came her to get a body and return to live with God. Committing it to memory and then repeating it out loud several times the Holy Ghost let me know by reaffirming with his spirit that I am an heir of eternal life if I do what is necessary in my earthly experience to progress towards perfection.  Who are we an heir of? An heir of our Father in Heaven.  Whose whole purpose is “… to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Mosiah 1:39. Everything He has done has been for our benefit.  

It’s interesting to me that we were part of a family - God’s and our Mother in Heaven- before we came to this earth. The ideal place for us to come to earth is in the same structure we left, a family, with a mom and dad. Our Father also set up a way that we can be with our family in the life after this through sacred ordinances and covenants we make in temples as it says in the proclamation.  

My husband and I began our family in the Manti temple and made those covenants we needed for our family to be a forever family. That's not a guarantee though. On a daily basis we need to keep God's commandments. Thanks goodness for repentance! 

In memorizing the words about the family it brings to me a sense of right, and an ownership of what I’m saying, and what it means. 

The Three Big Bad Wolves

In an October 1996, LDS General Conference talk by Elder Bruce C. Hafen he talks of the 3 big bad wolves that can test a marriage. In the world today marriage and family is under attack. There are 3 areas in which Elder Hafen counsels us to watch for as these wolves want to destroy our family. 

The first wolf he talks about is natural adversity.

What is natural adversity? It is what happens in this mortal world we live in. Spouses or children getting sick, death of a loved one, your home being destroyed by natural causes, losing employment , and the list could go on. 

I can think of many times in my marriage that natural adversity has come to play. We've had house fires, floods, forest fires, children really sick, grandchildren really sick, business not doing so good, 

The second wolf he talks about is the test of our own imperfections.  

No one of us is perfect. One spouse should not degrade the other for whatever reason. We are to lift each other up. Be kind, considerate and loving. Their will be disagreements, but it's how you handle those that will make the difference. No one likes to be put down or belittled. 

Not only the imperfections of the spouses can effect the marriage , but the imperfections of the children. Many times our children can come between a husband and wife in how we decide to raise and discipline. 

The third wolf he talks about it the excessive individualism that has spawned today's contractual attitudes. He explains this best. "A seven year old girl came home from school crying. "Mom, don't I belong to you? Our teacher said today that nobody belongs to anybody - children don't belong to parents, husbands don't belong to wives. I am yours, aren't I, Mom?" Her mother held her close and whispered, "Of course your'e mine - and I'm yours, too." Then he goes on to say "Surely marriage partners must respect one another's individual identity, and family members are neither slave nor inanimate objects. But this teacher's fear, shared today by many, is that the bonds of kinship and marriage are not valuable ties that bind, but are instead, sheer bondage. 

A marriage should be one of partnership, where each spouse is willing to give 100 % and not expect anything in return. 

Marriage is not easy. But, it is something worth working at. Be watchful of the adversary who wants to destroy the covenant marriage between you and your spouse.