CH _ _ CH

What’s missing?         ( U, R)

These are things we could do without,    IF the whole world lived by the Ten Commandments:

Armies, Police, Frivolous Lawsuits, Crime, Thoughtlessness, Selfishness, Fear, Starvation

So raise your hand and take a stand, all those who’d like to do without these things.

Do you realize that the kind of music you listen to, affects your body as well as your spirit?  When I have listened to fast paced rock music, I can feel my heartbeat increase.  While not physically painful, it isn’t exactly comfortable.  The music a person listens to, can actually affect the emotions.  Whether one wants to acknowledge this or not, listening to hard rock, heavy metal, etc., can and does make one spiritually vulnurable which in turn can make it easier for the devil to gain influence over you.

Do you feel sad all the time?  Do you have triuble sleeping, or do you just want to sleep all the time?  Is it hard for you to feel motivated to eat, or be around people?  Does it feel like you can’t feel any other way?  Does it feel like life will always be full of nothing but pain?  This is depression, and it is a very real medical problem of the brain.  The brain has chemicals that have different functions for it.  When there is an imbalance in a brain chemical, it shows outwardly, as depressed behavior.  You will feel sad and in pain.  This is just as genuine a medical problem as a diabetic’s pancreas not being able to give out enough insulin.  A diabetic can take insulin and a depressed person can take an antidepressant medication.  This does not make such a person a “freak,” or different in a bad way.  It just means that such a medicine helps take care of a medical problem.  I  want to tell anyone who reads this that I am living with such a problem.  It is hard, but as a Latter-day Saint, my best comfort is that I know, from what I’ve been taught about the pre-existence, that I knew I would come to earth with this problem, and I agreed to it.  But it doesn’t mean I have to go through mortality and suffer.  I do what I can to take care of myself and that means I take medicine and will for the rest of my life.  I am just glad the medicine exists.  I see it as a gift from God.  We were not meant to go through life and be happy-go-lucky all the time.  There has to be pain to learn from, and then we can better appreciate joy and peace.  Life is one big school for us.

Now that it’s June, retailers are already making plans for Christmas sales.  Yes, the preparation starts that far ahead.  So please start keeping in mind now, that when you walk into a store this winter, you can say “Merry Christmas” and not have to settle for Happy Holidays.  Now some stores have pressured their employees to use the cold and secular greeting, but these employees need to remember that they have free speech rights under the Constitution and should point that out to their bosses.  Christmas is about Christ.  It is in remembrance of Him.  Just because we have manmade celebratory customs doesn’t mean that it should ever be called Commerce Day.

I can still remember the first song I ever learned in public school.  It was first grade, and the song was “Jesus Loves Me.”  I still remember my fifth grade teacher leading us in prayer and then reading from the Bible each morning before we began our work.  I remember that the possibility of a gun or knife being brought to school never existed.  I remember when the worst offenses a student could commit were: talking without raising one’s hand, chewing gum in class, or not paying attention.  This was what school life was like with religion IN the public schools.  Today, religion is banned from public schools.  Look at what school life is like now.