Earthly vs Heavenly Rewards

Today, I had the opportunity to study in the New Testament about earthly and heavenly rewards. In Matthew 19 we learn about a young man who approaches Jesus and asks him, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus answers him by listing some of the commandments. The young man answers him saying that he had done all of those things and asked what more he needed to do. Jesus then asked him to sell every worldly thing he had, give to the poor, and follow him. If the young man listened to Jesus’ counsel, then he would have treasure in heaven. Unfortunately the young man was discouraged and walked away because he treasured his earthly riches and didn’t want to give them up. This young man had turned down the treasured blessing of eternal life for treasures on earth. Jesus Christ has promised us that if our eye is single to him, we shall be full of his glory. If we treasure his gospel, then our heart will be set on eternal life and we will receive it.

I believe that if I remember God first in my life, I will be truly blessed. When I remember to pray and read my scriptures at the beginning of the day, I am full of life and the spirit. I believe in the eternal perspective that if we put God before our earthly wants and desires we will be able to feel his love for forever in his kingdom. I think it’s important to get further away from worldly things like TV, internet, magazines, movies, PDA’s, iPods, etc. because even though they can be really good for us, they aren’t the most important thing in our lives, God is. Sometimes we are more concerned about having a nice car or a nice house instead of worrying about whether or not our Neighbors have food. We need to leave the world behind just a little more and put God first. The heavenly rewards really are greater than the worldly rewards.

October Outings

October has been a delightful month full of fun activities. We were really excited to kick it off with conference weekend. We went down to Utah for my mission reunion and had a great time with the family watching conference. My new favorite part of Idaho is the annual "spud harvest" which gave me two weeks off of work so that my kids could go pick potatoes. Sweet deal if you ask me. Toward the end of the break, we were excited to have a visit from Amy and Chris and their kids. We ate a lot of yummy food, carved pumpkins with Spencer and Alyssa, and went up to my school to play in my classroom. Everyone helped make examples for my art lesson this week.
Right before heading back to school, Mom and Jim came to stay! We also ate fantastic food...including my favorite new homemade chicken nuggets and crap cake...I mean, dump cake! (It really was good, Jim!) Mom came to play with me at school while Jim tried to find Bambi. One night we had dinner and carved pumpkins with Jimmy and Vanessa and their too cute kids, Braden and the brand-new Brinley. While Mom and Jim were here visiting, we invited some friends to go to the Straw Maze.



David and I made it through the maze the first time in seven minutes flat. While we were pretty proud, we headed in for round two to get our money's worth. Sadly, we were not able to even find the end a second time! We wandered around and eventually made it back out the entrance! Afterward, we all headed back to our place for donuts and apple cider. It was an aMAZEing night. :)
David and I were also able to venture up to West Yellowstone thanks to our awesome cousins, Travis and Katrina who run Hibernation Station! They gave us a weekend at their adorable cabin resort for our wedding present and we went up before the snow came!
Of course we ate in style at the local 1950s diner...


We saw TONS of bison...




A bunch of bears...





And other interesting wildlife!





We are nerds, and we know it. We embrace it. :)