Peace, love & hugs

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My heart has been breaking lately over all of the violence and mudslinging and hate happening in our country and worldwide.  It is unbelievable and really leaves me speechless. How can people be so cruel?  Why is our world so sick?  Should I tell my kids or would it worry them?  As I've pondered some of these questions over and over, I thought of a scripture from the Pearl of Great Price (scripture that was uncovered and restored, features prophets Moses & Abraham), Moses 7:26-

"And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced."

Is this not our day?  Satan has such a hold on the hearts of men right now.  It's easy to get down about it.  To wonder what we're going to do.  How we're going to make it.  But, in the end, it will be Christ and His followers who will come out victorious.  Genesis 3:15 -

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

What a great promise from the Father!  Satan's got nothing on us, if we do our part!  We can crush Satan's head, with the help of our Savior.  But what is our part?

Less judgment, more understanding
Less drugs, more hugs
Less media, more personal connecting
Less selfishness, more service
Less seeing differences, more common ground
Less sin, more righteousness
Less hate, more love

The time for that is now, and the place for it is first in our homes.

A few songs have come to mind in light of these recent news events -
First from the Aquabats: "We don't need no thugs, unless those thugs was givin' out hugs." ("Hey Homies!" from their Hi-Five Soup album)

Then from Jackie Deshanon -  "What the world needs now is love, sweet love.  It's the only thing that there's just too litle of.  What the world needs now is love, sweet love.  No, not just for some but for everyone."

"Jesus said love everyone.  Treat them kindly too.  When your heart is full of love others will love you." ("Jesus said Love Everyone" from the Children's Songbook by Moiselle Renstrom)

And while we might not ever have world peace again until the Prince of Peace returns, we can have the peace in our lives that only Jesus Christ brings.

”Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid“ (John 14:26-27).

And that brings great peace & love!

Big fun in the "big" city of Billings

Dave had to head to Billings for official orientation and some training/meeting with folks there, so we decided to go with him and make a mini trip out of it.

The drive is 5 hours away and we drove down on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We read and sang songs and tried to remember it was His Day, the Sabbath. We arrived at the hotel Sunday night, all of the kids restless, of course.  But we tried to keep them quietly busy.  But they crashed soon enough.

Monday morning, we slept in (all kids did...heaven's choirs sang!), ate breakfast and headed out to the Zoo MT.  It was a nice little zoo!  The kids loved the red panda, the tigers, the owl, the otters, and farm animals best.  The kids loved feeding the koi fish, goats, and ducks food out of the dispensers.  Cov loved pushing the big kids in the stroller.  Lucy wanted to take some home as pets.  Cal thought the huge cougar was awesome and had to take a picture for Daddy and say "Go Cougs!"  Emma loved all of the animals, especially the big cats.  I enjoyed the well-manicured gardens and watching the excitement of my kids.  The park they had there too was awesome and the kids played there until they couldn't walk anymore.

We headed to McDonald's for a late lunch and got some happy meals, which made our kids especially happy since we are usually dollar menu people.  That afternoon, we did some back to school shopping and hit up a few other stores.

We went back and met Daddy and drove around the city.  We loved the "rimrock" that acts as a back drop for the area, it was beautiful!  Then we went out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse and they gave the kids these little stuffed animals so we took turns hiding them on the table and finding them,  We talked about Dave's day at orientation and what we did.  We visited Cabelas after that, and the kids loved the animals and fish and other fun things to see.  Then we went back to the hotel to cozy in and watch a kids movie.

Tuesday, the kids wanted to go to the mall.  We played at their play area for a long time, the kids loved it and said it was like a bunch of giant legos.  They had some other neat things there as well.  We went to a few stores as well.  Then we went to Hobby Lobby and scored some sweet deals.  After that, we took some lunch to Pioneer Park and went to play.  The kids took a dip in the splash pad after that and loved it.  It was a baby pool with a bunch of water features, too.  They looked so cute in their goggles when they all had them on but I couldn't get all four in a picture at the same time.  We stayed forever!

We met up with Dave again and let Cov take a little nap for a bit  We drove around again, and went to have dinner - hello, Cafe Rio!  That night, we went to Scheels and the kids loved the giant video games, fish tanks, fudge, photo op, play place, bowling, and carosel we did!  Lucy was not scared at all, putting her hands up and loving it, but Emma and Cal were a little hesitant, especially when they were stuck at the top, they held on tight.  Haha!  Lucy kept begging to go again and Cov was happy just watchhing.

Our last day in Billings was making trips to Costco and Sam's Club, then to get an oil change and visit Toys 'R Us, followed by a trip to the beautiful temple.  Oh, what peace came to my soul!  I love the house of the Lord!  The kids also enjoyed walking the grounds.  After, we talked about how they felt and they came back with responses like "happy", "good", "peaceful".  So explained that that was the Spirit telling them they were in the right place and they should come back some day!  Can't wait to return again and again!

We drove back and saw Pompei's Pillar from the freeway (next time we'll get out to it).  We had so many other things we wanted to do but didn't have time, so we'll do some on the next trip!

We had a few bruises and scrapes and some fighting, and though it wasn't perfect, we aren't either, but most of our time together was so nice!  Love exploring new places with my crew!