New Eyes for the New Year

I wrote this note to a friend this morning:

"I am so excited to tell you about the books that we have been reading this month! Because Richard is the Stake Preparedness Leader, he has felt compelled to study the Last Days, the prophets' cousel, etc. His dad lent us a series of books that we have read over the holidays (now that's festive! NOT!). The author, Roger K. Young, has a website here and THIS is the first book in the series (the longest). Seriously--if I had the cash I would buy these books and send them to all my loved ones. I read the first one while Rich was driving to AZ, so now at night he reads the first one and I just finished the second one over Wednesday and Thursday nights, so I am on to #3, and then we are going to read "Approaching Zion" by Hugh Nibley and "New Lies for Old" by Anatoly Golitsyn . I am going to blog about this, but I thought of you because of our recent conversation. I am starting to really see things with new eyes--see a bigger picture and put things in perspective. I can already feel my priorities re-organizing, and I am seeing how totally lame and "worldly" some of my priorities have been. As we've read about what will be required, I can see that there is so much more we need to do spiritually and physically to be ready. I don't feel alarmed or scared, I just feel motivated to move our family in another direction; I feel peace and urgency at the same time."

So, yeah...I can't help but see things a lot differently since studying the things that are to come over the next few years. For example, a lot of our Christmas celebrations seem a little lame or excessive, and I am feeling so compelled to follow the word of wisdom better (I know I am one of the last of my friends to jump on this bandwagon, but I have some poor habits to shake...I look forward to putting fruits of the tree and field to work in my life and finding some great treasures). Wanna help? Wanna join me? I have a lot of work to do to change our lifestyle.