Weighing of the Heart

This week, a couple different times I have heard or read about hard hearts.When I took my Egyptian history class this summer we talked a little about the judgement ceremony from the book of the dead called the "weighing of the heart". After death an individual's heart was weighed on a giant scale against a feather of Maat, goddess of truth, order and justice. If the heart balanced against the feather then the deceased would be granted a place in the Fields of Hetep and Iaru. If it was heavy with the weight of wrongdoings, the balance would sink and the heart would be grabbed and devoured by a terrifying beast that sat ready and waiting by the scales. Its interesting wording that is used in Leviticus when God sends plagues to Egypt and it says that Pharaohs heart was hardened. If the deceased was found to have done wrong and the heart weighed down the scales, he or she was not to enter a place of torment like hell, but to cease to exist at all. 

I found a video of a discussion group with Elder Bednar and a group of Young Adults that taught me more about knowledge, understanding and intelligence. He taught that knowledge in the scriptures almost always deals with the mind.  Understanding comes through the heart. He said that today we tend to think of intelligence being associated with IQ. In the gospel we are taught that we gain intelligence when we act on what we know and feel to be true. It is what we become, who we are as God intended. In the General Women's conference in October 2012 Sister Burton quoted Jeremiah "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. …"   The ancient Egyptians considered the heart to be the center of thought, memory and emotion. It was the heart that was associated with intellect and personality and was considered the most important organ in the body. It was sacred enough that it was never removed as were other organs. The way back to our Heavenly Father is through our hearts. 

Peach Pie

Our peach tree is so loaded down with its burden of beautiful orange/yellow fruit. It looks how I feel sometimes with its drooping branches brushing the ground.  We've been picking a few ripe ones all week, but they should be full on in the next couple days. 

Sitting there eating my peach I remembered a funny experience I had while making a peach pie on my mission. I was serving in Corry, PA and had been teaching a wonderful man Al Wood, who had gone through several sets of missionaries at this point. He and his wife Karen would have us over often and we all became really good friends. One day in February they had us over to help make pie.  We ended up making a strawberry pie and a peach pie. They looked so beautiful! I had some of the peach pie and the first bite was a little disappointing.  The second bite was disgusting!  We found out that instead of using frozen peaches he had pulled out a bag of frozen squash instead! They both looked so similar in color that during the whole baking process we didn't have a clue. Good times that. 

The law of the harvest in Gal 6:7 says . . 'for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap".it continues on in vs9 'And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.' We don't enjoy the fruits of our labors immediately or sometimes even soon after.  Like putting up fruit, sometimes our pay day comes later. It is motivation to keep on planting seeds and await the promised blessings. Al was finally baptized at the end of that month, but so many times we don't necessarily see the fruits of our labors. Sometimes we must plant trees that we will never sit under, if only to help those who come after us.

iFly

Jacob was invited to go with a friend to iFly in Ogden.  I have never even seen this before.  It looks like a blast though.  He had a good time. I tried to upload a video but it's giving me grief.  Guess these pics will have to do.

Hunters Ed. Graduate

For about two weeks Isaac has been taking classes for Hunter's Safety.  On Saturday he took the written and shooting test. He got 94% on the written and 24/30 on the shooting. (We had to borrow a .22 so he could take the test.)  He has wanted to do this for the past couple years, so we finally got it done.  He's pretty excited about it and wants to make some plans with the uncles.

Learners Permit

Its official, and legal and a little scary.  Jacob is behind the wheel.  He drove to Walmart that night and even got on the freeway. I think he even hit 65mph.  He said it was scary, and yeah it was a little bit. Well here we go.  Its time to get this kid comfortable driving.

First Day of School

Yep. . another school year is here.  Jake started his first day of high school as a 10th grader.  (Still floored over this one.)  Isaac is not longer the little kid at the Jr. High since he's now an 8th grader.  And. . . Jacob now has his learners permit. . . yikes!!  He drove us to the school today through the back roads.  Dennis and I dropped off the boys at school before going to the temple this morning.  Such a beautiful day today!

Beautiful Drive this morning!

First day of 8th Grade

First day at the High School as a Sophomore

How was the first day of school?
Isaac - The first day of school was the worst, my lunch period is too crowded and only lasts 15-20 minutes and we can't go in the gym to play basketball and we got kicked of our buss cause it's too crowded and cause some seventh graders are now on the bus and now we have to walk 3 blocks to get to the nearest bus stop.

Jacob - I think its going to be a good year.

Isaac has PE, 3D art, Honors English, Honors Math, Foods, U.S. History and Science.  He goes to these classes everyday.

Jacob has A days and B days.  His classes for the first half of the year are ASL (Sign Language), English, Biology, Math and B days are Engineering, Health, Scrapbooking Art and Seminary.

The girls and I started our History, Geography, and Art lessons today as well. It was a good day.

I know all the smog and smoke that we are experiencing is nasty but it sure makes for some beautiful sun rises and sun sets.  The girls and I went chasing the sun set tonight so that we could take a picture without trees and houses in the way, but we didn't make it in time. The sun was almost pink!  It was so beautiful. Tomorrow maybe.

Fayette Celebration

We celebrated the 24th of July in Fayette this year.  We missed it last year when mom and dad were gone. It was good to be there and enjoy it all. It really is something that I look forward to every year. This celebration is all about tradition.  We had our own little fireworks show at grandpa and grandmas place and didn't even start anything on fire!!  For as long as I can remember its been the scout breakfast, parade and relay races.  Its fun to see my children participate in these same things each year.  It was also good to be with my brothers and their families. Our children enjoy being together. It was fun to visit with friends from home as well.The next morning we woke up just in time for the parade.  Good old small town parade. There was the traditional creamy's from Bown's dairy though so that's all that really mattered. The girls were really excited about getting tiaras from the royalty princesses that were in the parade. I thought it was really cute! For the relays there were the foot races, three legged race, wheel barrow race that the kids all participated in. Jacob, Isaac, Kylee and Khora won there respective age races.  They were pretty pumped about that. Afton did the hoola hoop contest and went for probably 10-15 minutes before it was hurting her side too much.  Jacob and Isaac, Khora, Afton, Kylee, Bonnie and Brinley were a part of the watermelon eating contest.  That part was very entertaining!  They also had a giant blow up water slide and a few other water games that afternoon. The guys got in a few rounds of horse shoes as well.  We had marinated turkey for lunch before going back to the house to hang out.  It was fun being together. Good times.

Bonnie after her relay