Thoughts and stories, by Pal

      To those dear readers who occasionally read my blog: I truly am sorry for not writing for the last 7 weeks!  I got a slipped disk in my back, and I was in a fair amount of pain, and I basically became quite sedentary!  Just this last Monday I was able to get into a pain specialist doctor and get a shot in my lower right back, which has taken away quite a bit of the pain.  Also during this time, I had a lot of nerve twitching, and tremors all the time in my right foot!  It was so noticable whenever I walked, that I sat most of the time!  I didn't dare drive, as that was my driving foot!     I have been to a good chiropractor, who has done traction, electrical stimulation, etc. but I stubbornly had decided to go only 2 times a month -- to save money! I'm going again today--driving myself!      I learned that my thinking was quite wrong, when I saw my sister who had so much pain in her back due to having gone ...

  I need to comment on the article below!  I wanted to be a mother, and I was able to have nine children.  My late husband was also happy to have a large family, and he was a school teacher, and I a stay at home mother.  I did teach some piano lessons, but otherwise he worked extra jobs, either early in the morning, of after school, and in the summer.   Now our nine children are truly a great help to the whole world!  Our children include an insurance agent, teachers, a nurse, a skilled craftsman carpenter, an administrative secretary, a paralegal, and a teacher's aide with 7 children. Their spouses include very successful people, several more teachers, psychoanalysist, computer expert, etc.  Of these,7 children have bachelor's degrees, all have college education, 3 have Master's Degrees, and we have 29 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren, and one more on the horizon!  They all pay taxes, are honorable citizens, and a great help to the worl...

A great article by an LDS therapist -- a great dad himself! Latter-day Saint Therapist: 7 Principles Amazing Fathers Practice by Jonathan Decker, LMFT  | Jun. 14, 2019 Makes You Think Mormon Life For daily gospel-based relationship insights, join Jonathan’s  Facebook group . To submit a question,  click here  or schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation  here . The lasting effects of a great father cannot be underestimated. I should know, because my dad is amazing. I say this neither to boast nor to gush, but rather because, in both my personal and professional opinion, he's got this dad thing pretty much figured out. Allow me to share seven fatherhood lessons that I learned from him (along with a few of my own thoughts). 7 Things Amazing Dads Do 1. Be a good man. Recognize the importance of your example. Your kids will do what you do, not what you say. If you want honest kids, be honest. If you want polite, graciou...

Doesn't this apply to all of us in some way? 6 Tips for Parents of Adult Children Who Don't Believe in the Church by David Ostler  | Jun. 08, 2019 Makes You Think Mormon Life If you are a believing Latter-day Saint parent, your greatest hope is that you and your children will all be together in eternity. But—with increased disaffiliation from the Church—many parents, maybe even most, have or will have adult children who no longer believe.  The phrase “No empty chairs” is a part of the Latter-day Saint lexicon and is used to describe parents’ desires to have all their children with them in the eternities. It’s powerful imagery that reflects the beautiful doctrine of eternal families found in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Like you, I love my children and I want all of them to have the blessings of eternal families. Some even apply it to having all their children together at one time with them in the temple.  I googled the history ...

Family Counselor: How Parents Can Avoid the Destructive Messages We May Be Sending Our Children Without Realizing It by Christy Kane PhD, CMHC  | Mar. 23, 2019 Makes You Think Mormon Life The other day I was in a grocery store when I noticed a small child giving his mother a run for her money. As I watched the two of them, I could tell the mother was getting very tired; and in a moment of desperation, she directed a few unkind remarks toward her small son. As she did so, I wanted to say, “Please don’t. You may not mean what you just said, but your little boy will believe you! If he believes you, and such exchanges between you and him continue, I may find him in my office years later as a teenager or a grown man, wondering why he is such a failure and why he is never good enough.”  I think sometimes we forget how very powerful words are. For example: • a stirring orator raises a crowd to their feet in momentous accolades • a funer...

If you have even a small amount you could donate monthly, this is one of the best places to donate! Rescuing Children from Sex Slavery: One Latter-day Saint's Inspired Mission by Jamie Armstrong  | Oct. 18, 2018 Famous Mormons Makes You Think Mormon Life EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article addresses the atrocity of child sex slavery—one of the fastest growing and most lucrative criminal industries in the world today. While we have made every effort to avoid graphic language, this article might be disturbing for some readers. In 2014, on a balmy February afternoon in the poverty-stricken country of Haiti, Timothy Ballard was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by local law enforcement. Lifting his head from the asphalt, he watched as the woman who just sold him two young children—a brother and sister ages 2 and 3—for $15,000 apiece was hauled away by police. Little did the woman know that Ballard is a former CIA and Homeland ...