Red Carpet Gutter Nominations for Thanksgiving

Artist Mark Jenkins has made a very simple statement here about the value placed in our fellow human beings.


I suppose it could represent the non-corporate bail-out plan in place for the last decade of politics in many parts of the world. If you are not at the head of a corporation big enough to be invited when your government is making budget plans for the coming years, you may qualify for "The Red Carpet Gutter Nominations." If nominated you too could be on the "Fast Track" for the exciting new titles of the decade, like "Loser" or "Trash," some may even go as far as to name you a "Waste of Space" or "Burden of Society" if your cup has run empty. 


Maybe, if we all treated everybody according to their God-given potential, viewed people as who they might rise to be if given half a chance and we could all hold our heads up with dignity, facing each other again--without shame.


Wars, suffering, injustice and misery are not all indicators that God is an immortal God or a cruel and imperfect God with shortcomings but rather that we have been given the freedom and choice to act on the needs of our fellow human beings. Everybody helping everybody may seem a simple matter, yet people suffer and die all around us every day of the year.


Thanksgiving is a good opportunity to remember that God is the provider of all the good in our lives and we should recognize this by responding with thanks and gratitude in our personal prayers. But, blessings are not just for us to enjoy by ourselves, there is a great deal of happiness and joy to be found in showing compassion and helping others. In helping others we also help ourselves and it's difficult to remain depressed and worrying about material matters, if constantly surrounded by the gratitude, joy and happiness of those you've kept from falling and those whose sufferings you've eased.


When you lend a shoulder to keep someone from falling, suffering, pain and even agony, you not only spare them the scrapes and bruises but you also warm and strengthen their heart and resolve. We are all our brothers keeper--and they are ours. All is well when we remember just that.

Expressions of Love - Forever

Elder Jepsen - Thank you God for blessing my son, his new wife and our family

He's home, he's released and he's happily married but I came across this comment in the blog and it warmed my heart all over again. I can't help being reminded that it really was all worth it and how great a feeling it is when others feel the same way. Missionary work is truly a great blessing to our youth and all the rest of us!


Jan 14th 2011, a comment was made a comment on "Minnesota Minneapolis Mission Update" that I think gives credit not only to Elder Jepsen and the Spirit in missionary work but also the many people behind the scenes making it all possible. Thank you to all of you, I hope and pray that Elder Jepsen earned his place in the mission field:

I just returned from my mission in Minneapolis. I was in the MTC with Elder Jepsen, I think I met him his first day there. I only served near him once in the field though, the transfer he trained an Elder from Finland. He's an extraordinary missionary, well respected, loved by his fellow missionaries and by the people of Minnesota. Thanks so much for sending him on a mission. He was a great example to me.
- Martha Harper (returned Sister missionary from the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission)


Thank you to all of you many wonderful people that made it possible that my sons could go on a mission. Thank you for support and thank you for being there. Thank you to Mission President and Sister Howell, thank you to the many missionaries of the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission, thank you to the wonderful members of the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission, thank you to all the people writing and supporting him while out there without whom it would not have possible, thank you to friends and family everywhere and thank you God for blessing our son with faith and spiritual knowledge, thank you God for letting our son be instrumental in helping people's lives find faith and strength in you as Elder Jepsen has done so many times before, thank you God for keeping and returning him back home safely, thank you God for blessing my son, his new wife and our family, these are the things that matter most. Thank you!
  

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