Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving spending time with the Cooper Clan. It was great to sit back and relax for a full week. It was a lot of fun with delicious food, good games, and enjoyable family.

Fun at the park




Aunt Corey thought it would be fun to put the olives on Casch's fingers! It was funny! He didn't quite know what to think of it.




Then my crazy Mother-in-law jumped in the un-heated pool out side. And it was freezing! She is one brave lady!!





Our great family! It was so good to be able to see Grandma and Grandpa Winter! Casch was very tired at the end of the day!






The next day Casch helped Grandma clean up the house! He loved the swifter!




Casey and I are very blessed to have such an amazing family on both sides who support us and help us become better people! Thanks for such a great trip Mom and Dad Coop!

Wisdom

He who speaks from the lips chatters. He who speaks from an empty mind adds confusion to discord. He who speaks from a full mind feeds the minds of men. He who speaks from his heart wins the confidence of mankind. But he who speaks from his soul heals the heartbreaks of a world and feeds the hungry, starving souls of men. He can dry the tears of anguish and pain. He can bring light, for he will carry light.

Effort

It is not enough to want to make the effort and to say we’ll make the effort. We must actually make the effort. It’s in the doing, not just the thinking, that we accomplish our goals. If we constantly put our goals off, we will never see them fulfilled. Someone put it this way: Live only for tomorrow, and you will have a lot of empty yesterdays today.

Weakness

Pain is weakness leaving the body

Dwight Eisenhower

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." Dwight Eisenhower

Humility

When King Benjamin spoke of man’s nothingness (see Mosiah 4:5), he was speaking of man’s utter dependence upon God. Man must rely upon God for everything: life and breath, food and the ability to produce it, health and strength, salvation and eternal life. Without God and the Atonement, man is, in a very real sense, nothing. Humility comes from realizing our dependence upon the Lord.

Fitness

Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit." The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. In order to achieve an extraordinary level of fitness we need to strive for extraordinary exercises, which challenges us to step out of our level of comfort. Champions are those who remain courageous in the presence of ridicule.

Good Men

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!"

"Receive the Holy Ghost"

Nephi 31:13. “Receive the Holy Ghost”
“Now I am going to say something that maybe I
could not prove, but I believe is true, that we have a
great many members of this Church who have never
received a manifestation through the Holy Ghost.
Why? Because they have not made their lives conform
to the truth. And the Holy Ghost will not dwell in
unclean tabernacles or disobedient tabernacles. The
Holy Ghost will not dwell with that person who is
unwilling to obey and keep the commandments of God
or who violates those commandments willfully. In
such a soul the spirit of the Holy Ghost cannot enter.
That great gift comes to us only through humility and
faith and obedience. Therefore, a great many members
of the Church do not have that guidance. Then some
cunning, crafty individual will come along teaching
that which is not true, and without guidance which is
promised to us through our faithfulness, people are
unable to discern and are led astray. It depends on our
faithfulness and our obedience to the commandments
of the Lord if we have the teachings, the enlightening
instruction, that comes from the Holy Ghost.
“When we are disobedient, when our minds are set
upon the things of this world rather than on the things
of the kingdom of God, we cannot have the
manifestations of the Holy Ghost. Did you ever stop to
think what a great privilege it is for us to have the
companionship of one of the members of the
Godhead? Have you thought of it that way? That is our
privilege, if we keep the commandments the Lord has
given us” (Joseph Fielding Smith, We Are Here to Be
Tried, Tested, Proved, Brigham Young University
Speeches of the Year [25 Oct. 1961], pp. 4–5).

Integrity

The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching.

Hypocrite

Speaking about the many times Jesus condemned
hypocrisy, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., said:
“Taking the New Testament alone, you will gain little
idea of the kind of life the Romans led in Palestine, the
kind of life that the Christ condemned, and yet . . . it
has seemed to me that the one sin that the Savior
condemned as much as any other was the sin of
hypocrisy—the living of the double life, the life we let
our friends and sometimes our wives believe, and the
life we actually live” (in Conference Report, Oct.
1960, p. 90).
The word hypocrite is translated from a Greek
word meaning an actor on the stage. A hypocrite is,
therefore, a person who pretends to be something he is
not, or one who assumes different roles that do not
reflect his real thinking and feeling.
Nephi wrote that we must follow Christ “with full
purpose of heart” and “with real intent” (2 Nephi
31:13) to receive the blessings of the Holy Ghost.
“Full purpose of heart” suggests a total commitment of
the inner man to Christ; “real intent” conveys the idea
of sincere or pure motives. Moroni later wrote of this
principle when he indicated that a testimony of the
Book of Mormon is received through seeking “with a
sincere heart, with real intent” (Moroni 10:4). He also
wrote that true righteousness is based on the intent of
the heart (see Moroni 7:6–9).

Companionship

Never forget that it was you who selected your companion. It was you who felt that there was no one else in all the world quite like her. It was you who wished to have her forever. But in too many cases the image of the temple experience fades. A lustful desire may be the cause. Faultfinding replaces praise. When we look for the worst in anyone, we will find it. But if we will concentrate on the best, that element will grow until it sparkles.