Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Are You Getting In Your Own Way? By Joni Hilton  · August 30, 2017 Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please  CLICK HERE Do you ever feel stagnant, as if there’s no forward progress in your life? Sometimes it’s a relationship, life in general, elusive goals, a stale testimony— many of us hit such snags when we realize we’re just not going anywhere. We just suddenly realize we don’t enjoy our job. Or we’ve lost the motivation to work on our marriage. We feel flat when it comes to spirituality. Maybe the future looks dismal. We’re in a rut. Usually we look around for the cause—it is our upbringing? Is this someone else’s fault? Is it bad luck? Circumstances? Just the way life goes? Surprisingly, it’s often us. Though it’s hard to admit, sometimes the reason is because we’ve become our own worst enemy. Without even realizing it, we get in our own way. And it can happen without our awareness. We pray for God to intervene and create ...

This is such a fun article!  Check out if you are remotely related to your spouse, or a friend, or famous person! RelativeFinder: Are You Related to Your Spouse? By Maurine Proctor  · August 31, 2017 Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please  CLICK HERE This summer, my husband Scot and I led a British Church History tour. Many of the people who came on that tour had British ancestry and clutched their family trees and pedigree charts to them with great glee, particularly if we came close to the winding byways of their ancestral homes where ancient homes still stand. We told them that being in the land of your forebears makes your genes “jump around” with mysterious excitement, and it was true. It’s the DNA dance. You just feel something when you are in the places your great, great grandparents came from. The history belongs to you and you can almost feel the passion and drama of their lives as they played in scenes across time. Some o...

5 Crucial Relationship Questions You Didn’t Realize Were Answered in Alma 32 by Zack Oates  | Aug. 30, 2017 Mormon Life Alma gives a beautiful dissertation about the seed of faith in Alma 32. But as I read this chapter recently, I realized that the advice and principles in it are just as true if you change the word “faith” to “relationship.” Here are the answers to five common relationship questions, as explained by Alma 32. 1. How do I know if I’m dating the right person? “Now we will compare the [relationship] unto a seed. Now if ye give place, that a [relationship] may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true [relationship], or a good [relationship], if ye do not cast it out by your [pickiness, laziness, busyness, fear of commitment, etc.]…it will begin to swell within your breasts…” We must try things out! We can’t close off our heart to the possibility of love! And though you might experience fireworks, you also mig...

                            More beautiful thoughts for the day! August 26, 2017 Persecution SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY Matthew 5:11-12 "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." QUOTE OF THE DAY Joseph Smith "When I do the best I can---when I am accomplishing the greatest good, then the most evils and wicked surmisings are got up against me. . . . He that will war the true Christian warfare against the corruptions of these last days will have wicked men and angels of devils, and all the infernal powers of darkness continually arrayed against him. . . . Shall a man be considered bad, when men speak evil of him? No. If a man stands and opposes the world ...

For those of you with zucchini from your garden, or your neighbor's garden! Zucchini Sticky Toffee Pudding Oh, my. The banana sticky toffee pudding is good but I think this is better. We have the best, friendliest neighborhood. And so, in the heat of the summer, everyone shares their zucchini. I love zucchini but I can’t eat them that quickly. Some of them get grated for baking and freezing. This is a great recipe for using some of your extra zucchini. You will be tempted to leave the flavors out but don’t. The sauce is good with vanilla flavor; it’s phenomenal with a butterscotch flavor. Caramel flavor, brown sugar flavor, and French vanilla flavor are all good and each gives a distinctly different tone to the sauce. For the toffee sauce: This is not complicated to make. You will need a candy thermometer. Just cook it until you reach the desired temperature. 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup (1/2 cube) salte...