This past week, I have been spending time with my amazing daughter Brianna and her sweet family. Of all the things I’ve done throughout my life that the world says will bring us happiness, I can honestly say nothing brings me more joy than my family.
I believe family is a precious gift from our loving Heavenly Father. As parents and grandparents, it is our privilege to “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6). My brothers and I were blessed to have parents who loved and taught us the eternal value of family and faith.
I won’t be posting on Saturday or Sunday. This will be my post for the weekend because it's our church's General Conference. It happens two times a year, in April and October. I will be watching it with my family on Saturday. Then, on Sunday at noon MST (in between the two conference sessions), KSL-TV will be airing an interview we just did with all of my brothers and myself. We spoke about our love of God and family…of course. 🤭👍 I thought maybe you might want to watch it. We did all of our interviews separately, so I’m interested to see how they put it all together. 🥰 You can watch at https://ksltv.com/live if you would like.
With this being conference weekend, I thought I would re-share a Sunday message I wrote on October 6, 2019, and remind you that we all are children of a loving God. Remember, always choose to think positive thoughts, and know that I love you!!!
Marie’s Sunday Message
October 6, 2019
The average person thinks about 70,000 thoughts a day. That’s a whole lot of thinking! And isn’t it true that sometimes we allow our thoughts to work against us? Imagine if we had 70,000 negative thoughts; how could anyone be happy? But imagine choosing to have 70,000 positive thoughts; well, we could move mountains!
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase one million times, but it bears repeating... “If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought again.” Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones takes work and practice; it’s a choice, but it is doable. When we listen to the negative thoughts going on inside us like, “You are the only one with the problem,” or “What makes you think you can do that,” or “I’m such a loser,” we destroy our self-worth and confidence, diminish our desires to try new things, and can even become fearful and depressed.
When we start saying no to negative thoughts and actively replacing them with positive ones, we can lessen anxiety, fear, and worry. Sometimes, those big opportunities can be missed when our inner voice tells us not to try—or worse yet—we aren’t good enough. The adversary and his minions are great at playing on our fears and insecurities. I have thought on occasions when I’m beating myself down, would I talk to my children like this? Absolutely not! So why do I allow myself to do it to me? Those negative thoughts are not coming from me but from darkness. In those moments, we can protect ourselves with some very simple tools.
Remember who you are! Your Father is God, and you are his child!!! By virtue of that one amazing thing, you are good enough, and capable of anything, and worth all good that comes from Him.
This scripture from the New Testament shows us how: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
Isn’t that scripture amazing?!!! Right there, we are given a perfect guideline for choosing our thoughts. It’s one of my favorites! And next and maybe most importantly, believe you can do it! We have all had negative things said about us, but we cannot internalize them or let them get into our heads. We CAN choose not to listen to them simply because they are not true. We know who we are, and like the little girl in the picture, we just need to straighten our crowns again and keep going.
Let’s all make a promise to ourselves right now that we will start each day paying attention to our thoughts and catch ourselves when they try to get negative. Another great way to start today is to join me in watching The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints General Conference or go to LDS.org and watch it there. It’s very uplifting and a place where everything is definitely set to be a positive influence in our lives. Have a wonderful Sabbath day, and always remember how much I love you!!!