Enduring Trials

This week we studied Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, and Philemon.  These books contain the letters from Paul to the people he has served during his missions.  Paul wrote most of these while he was on house arrest.  As I studied each of these letters I kept thinking "He wrote this while he was in jail."

We all endure times of trial in our lives.  We may not be in an actual jail cell, but sometimes those trials make us feel trapped or that there is nothing we can do to change our circumstances.  What can we learn from Paul that can help us to endure those trials?

Paul could have written letters about how unfair his imprisonment was or how burdened he was to be there.  Instead, over and over again he basically said "Don't worry about me, let's talk about you."  He used the time that he was there to write letters reminding the people of the things that he taught them.  He encouraged them to continue to learn and grow in the gospel.

A few months ago I went through some particularly trying times.  I found that I went from one extreme to another.  On some days I wanted the whole world to know how much pain I was in.  When I was in those moods it felt like my trial would never end.  On other days, I did my best to completely ignore the things that were weighing on my mind.

As I have studied the scriptures more in depth during this class and as I have pondered the teachings of Paul this week, I have come to recognize that as I put my focus on living the gospel; as I read my scriptures and look for opportunities to serve, my heart is healing.  I'm able to look at the things that were going on in my life and I'm able to let go of the pain that was associated with it, while at the same time I am able to learn and grow from the experience.

Perhaps Paul experienced something similar.  Perhaps as he focused on all of those that he shared the gospel with, he was given the strength he needed to let go of the worry or anxiety of his own circumstances. Perhaps as he took the time to strengthen others through his writing, he also prepared himself to take on the rest of his journey.

Feeling Clean and Whole

This week we studied Romans.  In Romans, the Apostle Paul is writing a letter to the people while he is on his mission in Corinth. Paul warns them about wickedness and teaches about the importance of combining works with the grace of God.

I have always found many nuggets of wisdom in Romans that come to my mind often as I try to navigate life.

Romans 2:13
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

This scripture reminds me that it is not enough for me to hear the gospel, I must also live the gospel.  What does that mean?  It means that I continually look at my life and make sure I have things in balance.  Am I attending my meetings?  Am I reading my scriptures?  Am I leading a life that is in keeping with Gospel standards?  Am I using good language?  Am I serving my fellow man?

I could go on and list many other questions that I ask myself at different times, but that list would make it seem daunting and I don't feel like that is the intent.  We are not expected to BE perfect, but we are expected to seek perfection.  We know we will fall short.  We have so many temptations and demands upon our time.  Part of our journey here is to experience these things so that we can learn to choose.

For those times when I fall short and I know I have made mistakes, I am grateful for the Atonement.

Paying attention to symbolism

As I practiced my study skills for my religion class at BYU-I this week, I selected "symbolism" from our list of choices.  I was surprised at how much more this could impact my study and interest in the scriptures.  I realized that many times I don't actually stop to really ponder the symbolism.  I get a general idea of what it means and I move on.  As if reading the number of scriptures is more important than actually stopping to really contemplate the meaning of one verse.

In 1 Cor 10 there are three verses in a row that use symbolism.  I spent about an hour just studying those three verses.  I looked up the symbols in the topical guide, read related scriptures, and contemplated why those specific words and references were used. It was interesting and helped make the scriptures come alive for me.

In 1 Cor 10:2 it  says "all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea." I would have skimmed this in the past, but as I stopped to ponder it, I thought this is more than being baptized by immersion in the water.  What does it mean to be baptized unto moses in the cloud?"

Here are my rough notes about the three scriptures and how I pondered the symbolism contained:

I Cor 10:2 "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea"

• sea - water, baptism by immersion
• cloud - heaven, promised land

1 Cor 10:3  “spiritual meat”

• Meat – food
• Moses food – manna
• Spiritual food – the gospel is our spiritual food and comes from heaven like manna.  We are given as much as we need to sustain us. May not be able to feel it or appreciate it if we “fall away.”

1 Cor 10:4 “spiritual drink” “spiritual rock” “Rock was Christ”

• drink – sustaining,
• rock – Ex 17:6 smite rock, water
• Rock of Christ – foundation, strength
• Drinking of the rock of Christ – building a foundation of learning by drinking the teachings of Christ.

Have you stopped to ponder the symbolism in the scriptures?  How has it impacted your study of the scriptures.

Hello September and National Stamping Month!!

I am sooo excited about September!  I don't even know where to begin!  Our new CTMH Idea Book goes live today.  It's National Stamping Month and I love, love, love the September SOTM!

Let's start with the SOTM because I am planning to share cool samples all month long.  This is definitely a stamp set you are going to want to add to your collection.

Here's a beautiful sample made by the artists at the Home Office.  I love how they made it look like watercolor!

Next Up:  Three fun stamp sets to celebrate National Stamping Month!!

September is National Stamping Month, and this year Close To My Heart has something to help every kind of papercrafter say a big “hello” to life! Available only during the month of September, these exclusive C-size My Acrylix^® Hello, Life! stamp sets can be purchased for $13.95 USD / $16.50 CAD each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 USD / 41.50 CAD—a savings of $6.90 USD / $8 CAD! Each stamp set is designed to fit with a specific type of papercrafting, whether that’s scrapbooking, cardmaking, or pocket scrapbooking. However, all the stamp sets coordinate with each other and can be used together to create dynamic artwork. These stamp sets also coordinate with shapes from the new Cricut^® Artistry collection to help expand your artwork options even further. Remember, these stamp sets are available for one month only, so get your orders in for one stamp set—or all three—before these gorgeous stamps disappear! Make certain to follow Close To My Heart’s blog, Instagram, and Facebook page for artwork inspiration featuring these lively stamp sets all month long. You can post your own artwork to your social media channels using the hashtag #ctmhHelloLife.

Dates: Offer valid September 1, 2015 (9:00 am MDT)–September 30, 2015 (11:59 pm MDT).

Shop here to get yours today!

But wait - Did I say NEW IDEA BOOK?

Not only is the NEW idea book live today, but our Fall Seasonal Supplement is too!!  If you're like me, your wish list will be HUGE!!  Don't worry though!  I'm always here to help you get the most for your hard earned dollars.  You can order a little bit each month to fit your budget or... you can host a party and get some of it FREE and even earn 1/2 off items too.

Woo Hoo for Woo Rank!!!

This week we ran our websites through Woorank to find areas where we can improve and optimize our sites so that we can improve our ranking and online visibility.  This was probably my favorite assignment of the semester!  Why?  Because I feel like I have a handle on most of the items, but I miss the mark when I forget to incorporate all the different tasks.

For instance - I always include alternate text when posting pics at work, yet somehow I missed it on my website.  It might have just been an oversight when I posted the picture, or it might be that the place I enter that information wasn't obvious and I have to research how to do it on that system.

Another area that I have to improve on is my meta tags.  I felt like I was being too "wordy" when I added mine.  Turns out, I was too brief and I need to add more.

I appreciated how quickly woorank gave me the results and now I have a nice little checklist of things to improve.  I love checklists so that works for me!

Power of social media

This week real life, my job and my school all coordinated together!  It was time to study social media for my class, I have been working hard to be more consistent and develop my social media presence and I am currently at a convention where we talked about...social media.  It was like a little in depth social media education for me this week.

I am super grateful that we learned about google adwords and analytics and everything else we have studied this semester, but I truly feel like social media is the place where I can truly impact my business.

My goal is to continue to post consistently on facebook and to expand my postings on instagram and pinterest.  In addition, I want to make sure I am promoting my products.  While I think there should be a good blend of posts that just provide information, with promotional type posts... I think that sometimes I just post info and I don't really ask for the sale....

In a weird coincidence, I also saw the power of social media this week.  While we were at convention my buddy Gail and I decided to post a few videos about our experience to our team page.  Well after just one or two silly one minute videos, we suddenly had a following.  Even people here at the convention had seen them and asked if we would doing more.  We even had people volunteer to be "special guests" on our" show.  I posted all these videos on our private team page, but I am definitely trying to figure out a way to capture that same enthusiasm so I can do something as rewarding to promote my website.

Landing Page Optimization and SEO

This week we spent some time analyzing our landing pages to make sure that they contain the information that users are looking for and that they match our ads.  It can be frustrating for a site visitor to follow an ad to your site, looking for the promotion from the ad, but not see it right away.  If they don't find the information quickly, they will typically jump right back off your site, making the money you spent, worthless.  Therefore it's important to protect your investment and make the experience better for your visitors.

We also spent some time studying SEO.  Once again, this was just a little look and it will definitely require more study.  I discovered that I will need to spend some time getting some backlinks to my site, in order to increase my rankings.  I believe I have set up my meta tags correctly, but now I more fully understand why and how they work.