The Worth Of Your Soul

What happens to us in this life does not determine our value. You may think you are less valuable because you have been abused, beaten, and broken. Your value is not in what has happened to you, but in who you are. You are a child of God. No matter what has happened to you or what will happen to you that will not change. Nor will his love for you.

Change....

A marriage can be strengthened or destroyed on one word....Change.... 

A marriage requires two people constantly changing, constantly becoming better for each other. The sad thing is many of us get married then forget we are in it together. Instead of growing old together we grow apart. 

We often marry someone because we felt they had characteristics which we needed in our lives to be happy. As soon as we get married we begin trying to change one another instead of becoming more like one another. Find your spouses strengths and try to become like them. 

Change together, Grow together. Grow together, Stay together.

How Do You See Freedom?

I believe that the Spirit of Freedom is the Spirit of God. I believe that our freedoms are inherently attached to our  God given agency. Without the ability to exercise our agency we can not progress. To be forced to do what is right takes away our agency and takes away our own ability to figure out what is right or what is wrong.

How we see freedom often times shows our attitude towards it. Do we see what freedom has done for others? Or do we look at what freedom has done to others? Do we see what freedom will do for others? Or do we see what freedom may do to others? How do we use the freedoms we have? Do we even know what freedoms we do have?
I personally choose to see what freedom does for the majority of those who live within its influence. Freedom, however, is like money or a gun, used in the right hands is a blessing to the barer and a benefit to those around them. In the wrong hands it is a curse to themselves and a danger to those around them.

Where much is given much is expected... It is our responsibility to protect our own agency by doing what we know is right. It is our responsibility protect our freedoms by understanding them and by electing those who will defend our rights. And it is our responsibility to warn others of those things which will destroy both our agency and our freedoms.

Never Fear The Idea Of Facing Your Past

We all at times make decisions that we wish we hadn't, a decision that takes us on a path of decisions we shouldn't have made. Sometimes we invest ourselves in the belief that these decisions will pay off, even though we feel uneasy about staying the course. Sometimes these decisions lead us into extremely dangerous territory, even though we do not realize it at the time.

Being committed to a task is a good thing, but when we feel obligated to the task, more so than we feel obligated to doing what we know we should, we stand the real possibility of putting ourselves and others in danger. 

Prepare yourself to face the decisions you have made, and faith will be your guide, repentance your shield, and the truth your sword in delivering you from your past. Love and triumph will be your reward. 

A Vacation Adventure We Will Not Soon Forget.

A vacation is just a vacation if you don't have episodes of Man vs. Wild or Dual Survival dancing through your heads.....

Before I start to make myself look foolish. Please take note do not do what you read about in this story. It was not the most brilliant thing I have done, but having survived it, I can now say that I have probably seen more of Capital Reef than anyone should in a mini van. Stay on the paved roads and you will get to actually enjoy, the Park much more. Although it does take some of the adventure out of it.

We started our adventure leaving Salt Lake City about an hour later than we had planned, but still not a bad start.

On our way down to Capital Reef National Park in the southern part of our state, we decided our atlas was not detailed enough so we better get a map, which is not as easy to find nowadays as you might think. I guess GPS is the way to go, but what happens if all those satellites get blown out of the sky? Or even worse what happens if our battery dies? Will we ever be able to read maps again? So, we decided get a map and do it the old fashioned way.

Who would have thunk you would have to go clear to Nephi to find a gas station that sells maps. Geewizz, Oh well, so we got our map and headed south on I-15 all was going well we had it planned until DeeAnn started looking at the map. :) Okay so, in her defense, had I been in charge of the map I probably would have done the same thing. But I wasn't so I can say she did it.

Our Hotel was in Torrey, so we left the comfort of I-15 and headed toward the east taking a detour from our destination we drove up to view Fish Lake. The colors were incredible and the lake was gorgeous the blues and yellows were simply unbelievable.


However, not wanting to be too distracted we headed towards Loa, when DeeAnn saw that there was road that would take us to Cathedral Valley on the upper portion of Capital Reef National Park. She said it was a dirt road, but undeterred she said, "It's a National Park. Maybe the roads aren't that bad. Well knowing me, this was just an invite to take the mini van on dirt.... I am game. Woot!!!

So, we went past the Loa turn off, and up through Fremont. We found the road that would take us to over to Cathedral Valley. About 8 miles into the dirt road we saw an over look point. It was simply beautiful. The colorful red and white cliffs where so magnificent and intriguing. The road, by-the-way was nice enough, that it felt safe enough to continue...so we did.

As we began to descend down toward the brilliant red and white cliffs that we saw, we passed from Fish Lake National Forrest into the Capital Reef National Park at which time we stopped briefly to pick up an information pamphlet. Which might have been nice to have read it earlier when our heads were clear enough to think straight and before we could see that the road really wasn't "that bad," except now we could clearly see that the warning for high clearance vehicles and 4wheel drive did not apply to us in our mini van.

After seeing that there were 2 roads through the area we thought taking the lower one would take us to the other side of the Park and closer to our destination of Torrey a little faster, so we proceeded. We stopped briefly to over look Cathedral Valley got back in the van and headed down the road. Oh yes I did fail to say that this at about 2:30 at this point. 29 miles of dirt road how bad could that be?

After about a mile a portion of the road had a pretty good sized hole in it but I thought... now this is a dangerous thing to say, because I know that I leave myself very vulnerable when I say that, but... I thought that if I stayed to the right I could... Well I couldn't and we got high centered. Bummer deal except we had a shovel and the sand was really easy to dig. I put a log in the hole and just under my tire and we were able to get past that obstacle in little to know time. After a prayer of gratitude for deliverance we proceeded forward. Just another story to tell....

We could have turned back but I really didn't want to face that hole again so, we thought lets just see what we can see. we stopped to see some incredible sights, but continued down the road. As we got down in the bottoms, last weeks rains were very evident as the road in several places had been washed out. leaving the road somewhat rough in places, but nothing that would "require" 4wheel drive. So, we proceeded as we approached the half way mark the wash outs started getting to the "almost need 4wheel drive" point, but we were handling it pretty good. Besides after that first little incident, I did not want to face that hole again if I didn't have to.

At about the end of the low lands we had one significant drop into the river bed, but still it was not enough worry me too much because the other side looked do able and we certainly weren't going to have to face it again. So, we went forward undaunted. After that everything went pretty smooth for the next 10 miles or so. We are now about 4:00 pm....

After driving through the Bentonite Hills, that was kinda funky. the crust on top of soil was crunchy, but it was soft and kinda silty underneath. We passed an old mining truck or water pump truck that had been abandoned years ago along on our way over to the promised land...


We knew we were getting close, our anticipation and anxiousness to be off this road was getting pretty high when we came over the top of this hill and saw the power poles about a quarter mile across a small valley full of greenery, which in and of itself was hopeful when sage brush and cactus and an occasional juniper tree were all the signs of life we had seen for miles.

We descended the hill with feeling relieved it was almost over... Only to be stopped dead in our tracks. We had been following the tracks of another vehicle up to this point but they just ended. They didn't turn around. They didn't seem to stop but right in front of us was a dead end. We got out to investigate. Apparently God was telling us something we probably ignored him along the way several times, but this time He weren't going to be ignored. There was a boulder in the road. Not one of those measly little boulders the size of a compact car but one the size of a motor home.... Not cool.

This was about the time that Man vs. Wild and Dual Survival became a serious thought... This was about 5:30 and I knew we only had about an hour of sunlight before things would get more dicey. To top that off we were now looking at little over quarter tank of gas left.

Now that I knew the lay of the land I could go much faster on the roads back at least until we had to go through the wash areas again. Oh boy, the thought of facing those things which I did not want to look back at was pretty scary.

My daughter reminded us the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Which took on a new meaning as I began facing the consequences of the decisions I had made to go where I probably should not have in the first place. I faced my biggest fear approaching the last wash which was now the first wash. getting in the wash wash not to difficult, but as I gassed it to make the run to get up on the other side we spun.... My heart fell. I tried again and nothing... finally we had every one get out of the van and DeeAnn pushed me while I put the van in reverse. We got out of the rut, but still not out of the wash.

We had everyone climb up on the other side of the wash so that I was the only one in the van. I do not believe I have said a more fervent prayer as I asked the Lord to guide me through this wash.. I pushed on the gas and moved around the area I had already been stuck in once and caught the only perfect angle that allowed me a smooth exits from the wash.

The rest of the ride back went fairly quickly with little incident. An occasional thump of an unseen wash, but not too bad. I was racing the sun at this point so a few small bumps I was willing to deal with. With Lauree reading the Book of Mormon in the background. We made it back to the first hole and a little maneuvering of the log and we got up no problem. It was 7:30 now and it was dark, but we were past the point of feeling in danger... Little did we know just how much danger we might have been in.

We made it back to the Highway and through Fremont, when we realized that we needed gas sooner than later and not knowing how far it was passed Loa, to the next town we thought we better stop and fill up.

Now, small towns Utah shut down at dark... No lights were on at any of the two gas stations in town so at the second station we, out of desperation checked to see if the pumps were still active. Thank goodness it was so we filled up. Only when I went to start the car it wouldn't start... talk about feeling helpless.... We pushed the van over to the station office and grabbed our stuff and were headed to the Snuggle Inn a couple of blocks back on the drag of Loa, Utah when a woman asked us if we could use a ride. We accepted and she gave us all the information we would need, come the next day.

We hadn't eaten but the nice gentleman who worked at the hotel eatery said he would make us a pizza even though he was just about to leave for the night... Oh, the kindness we received in Loa, I would not hesitate moving there if I knew I could make a living there.

I would tell you about the rest of our adventure, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as our first day. The second day we told the Rangers about the boulder to which they said, "that road is closed." Yeah, well it would have been nice to tell us that. We told them they might want to post it so no one else tries taking their mini van through. :)

Turns out our battery was dead. So, we ate breakfast paid for our battery and were on our way. A couple of stops in Capital Reef, a pie in Fruita, a look at the Petroglyphs, and on to Goblin Valley. As much fun as we had on the dirt road I think Goblin Valley was by far the best way to end our activities for this adventure. From there we headed home.

A vacation we shall not soon forget.

But I tell you I drive a mean mini van...

Do Not Blame Yourself, Nor Deny Your Children....

There are too many things that our children are having to face when they are not emotionally prepared to deal with them. It is our responsibility as adults to protect our children, however, when we are unsuccessful at stopping it, we must not blame ourselves, and deny them comfort. We must teach our children how to deal with those emotional traumas that have been thrust upon them.

In our frustration and helplessness we can not afford to think our own problems are greater than our children. Be strong but gentle. Be firm but giving. Be willing to cry. Teach them the temporal nature of pain, the eternal principle of forgiveness, and the power of God to heal.
We must learn to be their rainbow at the end of the storm.

When Our Last Leaf Falls....There Is Hope...

 Autumn is a natural time to reflect back on what you have accomplished through the year. The leaves that once provided shade now have painted our  memory with their beautiful colors and finally have fallen to the ground to remind us of our own mortality.
It is amazing to me the patterns that we can see in life are patterns that follow us through time. Each day is born in darkness shares its light then fades back into darkness.

Just as today is time to prepare for tomorrow, Spring is the time to prepare for winter. When the sun rises we know at the end of the day it will set. This days tasks must be done before the day ends so that we can rest.

At the end of the day it is nice to be able to reflect back on what we have accomplished during the day and hopefully we have a little time to enjoy the sunset.

And when we reach into the autumn of our life, when our leaves have turned color and our last leaf is about to fall. We can be assured that our time has not been wasted. Others have found comfort in our shade and enjoyed the color of the memories we have shared. It is then that we begin to look forward with hope, knowing that Winter is followed by Spring. Life does not end at death. Death is but the beginning of a New Life.

Anger Is A Demon

Anger is a demon that ravages your mind until your body loses control leaving you feeling empty, cold, demoralized. Anger is something that we must get under control or it will take over our lives. Often times those things which cause us to get angry are not that important anyways. The best description of anger or grudges is this: "Holding a grudge is like drinking poison hoping someone else will die."


Anger like any demon can be harnessed and used to create change, but you must remain in control or it will turn on you and devour you. It has no loyalty to you and it never will. It is better to get rid of it all together, but if you are prone to it's power you must keep it under control use that power to serve others and you will defeat it.

Pray always and when you feel its presence drop to your knees for you are never stronger than when you call upon your Savior for help. In this way your weakness can become your strength.

We Thank Thee, Oh God, For A Prophet

Our Heavenly Father has given us a wonderful gift. What is that gift? It is the gift of a Prophet in these latter days. I testify to you that God is not silent, He speaks to us today as He did in days of old. He has not left man to wander in darkness, but has given them light and knowledge and has challenged us to prove Him.

I do not expect you to take my word for it. As in all matters concerning God and truth, ask God himself and see if the Holy Ghost does not testify of the truthfulness to you. I promise you God will answer your prayers. He is your Father he loves you he wants you to know he loves you.

Who is Your Neighbor?

Sometimes laws are created in an attempt to legislate love. The problem with creating a law to legislate love, is that so long as their is a law on the books with the threat of retaliation for disobedience to that law, you can not know if love is the motivation for obedience.


Laws are a threat to freedom. It is our responsibility to control our own actions that laws are not needed. When laws are not needed then we will realize the power of freedom.



God gave us freedom knowing that failure was possible. He knew that we would make mistakes. With freedom comes a great responsibility. The responsibility to change, to become better, to improve our surroundings, to love our neighbor and expand our definition of who our neighbor is.
 Teach your children to become better than you and to love more. Encourage them to recognize their conscience that they may understand what is right and what is wrong from within, so that laws are not needed.