Temperate!

I have been so down the last few days....I have been focusing more on the challenges that we have and less on the great blessings that have (and are) being poured out on my family. I pondered that today and then went to my Heavenly Father in prayer....I asked for His forgiveness and prayed for the ability to focus once again on what I have and not on what I don't. I have been reading in the Book of Alma lately in the BOM and I have consistently had one word stand out at me over and over...it is "temperate". I looked it up and have read all the scriptures associated with that word...it's something I want to be, something I am not...I want to be steady and serene...calm, unwavering, conistently obedient, even keel. I like that word, in fact I love that word....I am trying hard to be more temperate in my life, with my children, in the gospel, in my marriage.

I have the opporutnity to go to the temple each Friday with a friend of mine and I love it. I listen carefully when I sit inside those walls and I come away pondering my ability to be temperate in all things....because I have been pondering so much on that word lately, I decided to do a FHE on this subject so tonight in FHE we talked about the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins and how we can continually fill our lamps with oil. I asked the kids to each draw a picture of an oil lamp and write at the top "Drop by Drop" and that would remind them of President Kimball's counsel to us that each thing we do such as saying our daily prayers, reading our scriptures, attending sacrament, being kind, serving others, etc. added daily to our oil lamps and increased our desire to be like Christ. If we keep in the front of our minds the little things that increase our faith and we do them consistently then we will be like the wise virgins. I have thought about people in my life that are consistently obedient and I am grateful for their examples...I have learned so much.

I know it may seem like that lesson didn't go with my word, temperate...but it did because the five wise virgins were temperate in all things...they were faithful, diligent, consistently obedient, and prepared. I am trying so hard to learn this one principle in my life...if I can become "temperate in all things" as it says in Alma 7:23: "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive."
I know that the Lord wants us to be temperate and that is what I am trying so very hard to do now...the more I read and study, the more I realize I need to be better. Going weekly to the temple, reading daily in my scriptures, praying in private, in my family and always in my heart keep in the forefront of my mind how dependent I am on the Lord and His mercy and grace. I am thankful for my blessings and I will strive harder and harder to be temperate, to be grateful, and to always realize that I can be better each day. I will fill my lamp drop by drop each day with the Lord's help. I pray we all will!