By His Grace I Can.

Per request of my Sister-in-law, a year ago March, I started a series about Creating Calm at home (read the first post  here ).  She and her cute family were visiting us this weekend and I suddenly remembered my promise of writing a second post.  Oops.  Better late than never. Let me start with a little walk down memory lane. When I was a first time mom and my daughter was probably 8 or 9 months old, we went for a play date.  At one point during our visit, my baby girl was sitting on the carpet reaching for toys.  Whatever she reached for was quickly snatched away by the 2 year old play mate.  Every time she'd grab the toy, the little girl would yell, "it's mine!" and throw it in to her crib. Naively I thought to myself, "what a rude little girl.  Can't she share?" Fast forward a few years when we had a couple of little siblings over to play.  The littlest child picked up one of our toys and almost instinctively my daughter yanked it from his...

  Years ago, while preparing for a natural birth with our first daughter, my Nother Mother mentioned relaxing and submitting to the process--that my body would know what to do.  Even tension and tightness in my jaw would hinder my progress while laboring. Several times I've felt impressed that this part of my journey is like  transition during child birth.   It's the discomfort, pain and rigor that make way for new life. BUT fighting it only delays it. Have I mentioned that I've resisted EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing)?  I'm quite proficient in analyzing situations cognitively, but seem to avoid FEELING my way through them. The last few times I've gone to therapy I've prayed and asked that I will allow myself to feel and learn what I need to, instead of resisting it. On Friday, my therapist asked a question to guide me to where my work needed to be for the session.  The memory that came to mind felt like the tip of the iceberg for unde...

It has been eight weeks since our little guy was born.   Today while driving up the hill, after dropping off my daughter [late] for preschool, the thought came to me how crazy life is right now.   I started thinking about the last year and realizing that everything about this last child has been harder than I imagined.   Honestly I figured it being our 5 th child, God would make it really easy on us.   But the pregnancy was one of my hardest, his birth was definitely the most challenging, postpartum has been a roller coaster physically and a consistent and “normal” life continues to feel out of reach.   As a small (yet important) caveat I will say that emotionally and mentally I’ve never been better after having a baby.   I told my husband tonight that it feels like there is a veil of patience and calm over me.   Daily situations that would have completely overwhelmed and upset me have barely been ruffling me.   That being said, things ...

(See Introduction video here) On my journey for greater overall health, my sister introduced me to Lauren Daigle.  Have you heard her music before??  I fell in LOVE with it, bought her CD and have been listening to it on repeat for almost 2 months!  Her voice is beautiful, her lyrics are so inspired and uplifting and her music is energizing.  I've been buying copies and sharing them with close family and friends (in fact in my intro video I'm holding up a print out of her album because I recently gave my copy away too.) AND decided I want to share the love with one of YOU & one of your friends. SO, the Giveaway WINNER will get 2 copies of the album mailed directly to their house. TEN Ways to Enter the Giveaway: (You can enter as many times as is specified below BUT only comments listed below on this post will be counted) 1) Watch my intro video (linked above) and comment below on what brought you here to the By His Grace I Can Blog B...

This is one of my all time favorite addresses on Grace and I can't help but share it! His Grace Is Sufficient Brad Wilcox July 12, 2011 I am grateful to be here with my wife, Debi, and my two youngest children—who are currently attending BYU—and several other family members who have come to be with us. It is an honor to be invited to speak to you today. Several years ago I received an invitation to speak at Women’s Conference. When I told my wife, she asked, “What have they asked you to speak on?” I was so excited that I got my words mixed up and said, “They want me to speak about changing strengths into weaknesses.” She thought for a minute and said, “Well, they’ve got the right man for the job!” She’s correct about that. I could give a whale of a talk on that subject, but I think today I had better go back to the original topic and speak about changing weaknesses into strengths and about how the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient (see  Ether 12:27 ,...

This year as I reflect on the Savior, what comes to mind the most is His compassion. In the Book of Alma (7:11–12) it says that, “he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people . “And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people ; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy , according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities .”  He chose to go through ALL things so that He would know what we are experiencing and would know how to help.  He wants us to know that we are NEVER alone in our suffering, even if our choices are what brought the pain and suffering upon ourselves. He is there suffering with us, full of compassion, concern and love. My husband and...

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2009 Truths & Lies It's always relieving to me when I read an article in the Ensign on a topic that applies to me and realize that I'm not the only one that is dealing with such things. I just was skimming through the October 2009 Ensign and came across such an article, "Truth & Lies"...the author, Jennifer Nuckols, identifies lies that satan uses to bind us down and burden us. Lies that make us feel inadequate, insecure, anxious and depressed. BUT then also include the TRUTHS that can bring us feelings of hope and peace and love. If you want to read the article for yourself online click here . In any case, here are a few quotes that I wanted to share: "the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be (Jacob 4:13, Book of Mormon)." "LIE: Because of my weaknesses and failings, God is continually disappointed in, frustrated with,...

SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2013 Kitchen Floors and Repentance. Lately as I've been sweeping, I've been thinking about how my kitchen floor and repentance are similar.   If I don't give my floor a good scrub each week, it gets dirtier and dirtier until we're sticking to it...and there are more dirty spots then clean floor.   Definitely know this from personal and recent experience ;0)   BUT, the weeks I do mop and get it sparkly clean, I am much more apt to spot clean when minor accidents and spills happen.   Not only can we enjoy a cleaner floor throughout the week, but it doesn't take so much Saturday scrubbing to get it back up to speed.   It got me thinking that it's similar with us and repentance.   It gave more meaning to being prepared to attending church and partaking of the sacrament each week, and the importance of "spot cleaning" throughout the week when we make mistakes. Many Saturday mornings we work together with the kids to get our a...

Click here to watch The Gift of Grace. The Gift of Grace by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most long-awaited and glorious event in the history of the world. It is the day that changed everything. On that day, my life changed. Your life changed. The destiny of all God’s children changed. On that blessed day, the Savior of mankind, who had taken upon Himself the chains of sin and death that held us captive, burst those chains and set us free. Because of the sacrifice of our beloved Redeemer, death has no sting, the grave has no victory,1 Satan has no lasting power, and we are “begotten … again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”2 Truly, the Apostle Paul was correct when he said we can “comfort one another with these words.”3 God’s Grace We often speak of the Savior’s Atonement—and rightly so! In Jacob’s words, “Why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him?”4 But...

Click to See Video . What started as a very frustrating experience became a sweet lesson for me & my kids about the love, tenderness, care and cleansing power of Jesus Christ.  He doesn't belittle or abandon us when we stray from the path, He removes the remnants of our sins and makes us clean.  And He invites us to come and come again, every time that we need to be made new. (Watch above linked video to hear the story) We are here on Earth to learn to become like God.  That is no simple task.  God KNOWS that we will stride & strive yet struggle, stray and sin. It's all part of our mortal experience and thus He lovingly made provisions for cleansing.  He sent us a Savior who truly can & WANTS to make us clean, no matter how far we've wandered, no matter how long it's been. One of my favorite songs about the Savior beckoning to us to come back is Come As You Are by Nathan Pacheco. (Click to Enlarge Lyrics)

(Image from special need parenting.net) “Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference.  Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.” ― Brad Wilcox Several months ago in the early morning, the thought came to me again to start an inspirational blog. I got out of bed, came down here to our craft room office.  I knew the first thing I'd need was a title for my blog.  Grace has been a theme of mine for awhile and I thought something with Grace would be fitting.  I wanted to pick By His Grace I Can Do All Things, but it was already taken.  But I like what it left me--- By His Grace I can. By His grace what can I do?  What can I become?  What can I abandon?  What can I intentionally make a part of my life? I can___________ overcome an addiction. become a better parent. learn to love difficult family members. better follow the Savior. create joy each day. reach my greatest potential. see m...