By Way of "B"

I found comfort in the following Mormon Message by Elder Jeffrey Holland. My husband and I have been living in "B" for quite some time. And it has been a rocky, slow moving road... or roller coaster. One day we will arrive at "C" (I think!). Until then, I am relying on the Lord's strength to see us through.

Wrong Roads
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2013-09-016-wrong-roads?lang=eng

"I have absolute certain knowledge, perfect knowledge, that God loves us. He is good, He is our Father. And He expects us to pray, and trust, and be believing, and not give up, and not panic, and not retreat, and not jump ship, when something doesn't seem to be going just right. We stay in, we keep working, we keep believing, keep trusting, following that same path and we will live to fall in His arms and feel His embrace and hear Him say, 'I told you that it'd be okay, I told you that it'd be alright."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Happy Father's Day!

"Satan, in his carefully devised plan to destroy the family, seeks to diminish the role of fathers. Increased youth violence, youth crime, greater poverty and economic insecurity, and the failure of increasing numbers of children in our schools offer clear evidence of lack of a positive influence of fathers in the homes. A family needs a father to anchor it.

Surely we have learned by now, from the experience over centuries, that the basic family provides the most stable and secure foundation for society and is fundamental to the preparation of young people for their future responsibilities. We should have learned by now that alternate styles of family formations have not worked and never will work. This was stated plainly by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 'The Family: A Proclamation to the World.'"

-L. Tom Perry, "Fatherhood, an Eternal Calling"

Dear Neighbor-

The other day I went on a walk alone. I crossed paths with you walking your dog. You and your husband are older than us, but do not have kids (not my business). But you have your dogs and take good care of them, and you don't dress them up so you've earned points in my book. You both seem like really interesting people. Luckily, our family has a dog because otherwise I'm not sure what else we would talk about. All of our conversations revolve around dogs. 

Recently, I decided enough is enough and that I need to take a proactive approach to expand our conversation topics. As we talked the other day, I made a conscious effort to think outside the doggie box. I thought it was going well until a lull came in our conversation. You filled the silence by asking how my dog was doing. Not my children, not my husband, not me- our dog. I was a bit stumped by that one. I responded, "Oh, fine. She's a funny little dog." I sensed it was an unsatisfactory answer, but I honestly couldn't think of anything else to say about my dog that could actually be interesting to a human. 

I've thought over the last few days how I could have handled that question better. I'm really more accustomed to fielding questions about the people in my house. We just have different life experiences and perspectives. Please help me understand what you want to know about my dog.

Do you want to know:

• the latest weird thing she ate and yacked up in my house?
• how many times a day she chases lizards?
• the last time she had a dingleberry?
• how many hours a day she sleeps?
• how much food she eats in a day?
• where she likes to lay in the sun?
• how many hours a day she spends cleaning her bottom?
• which toy is her favorite?
• the last doggie bottom she sniffed?
• the last human bottom she sniffed?

These are the only things I can think of to report about my dog. Please let me know if these are the kinds of things you want to know about or if there is anything I'm missing. It would help me out a ton.

Thanks!