Ella Wheeler Wilcox

WORTH WHILE

It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows along like a song;
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong;
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
But the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.

It is easy enough to be prudent,
When nothing tempts you to stray;
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor on earth,
Is the one that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered today;
They make up the sum of life.
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile-
It is these that are worth the homage on earth,
For we find them but once in a while.
_________________________________________

This poem is one I found as a youth and it touched me deeply then. I even had it memorized for a time. Parts of it have been racing through my mind and heart for the last month and I finally did the searches to get it written down where I can read it regularly during this last week. I just thought you might like it. I hope it is as inspiring to you as it is for me.

Interesting News as of Today
Jess will be teaching a food storage Food Use class next month. It'll be about 1 and 1/2 weeks after our Ward has a Bishop's Storehouse/Cannery trip. Our Elder's Quorum President was talking to Bishop, and I heard, that he was asking to do a class about using the food storage shortly after members in the ward have added to their home stores. That way they could learn how to make use of it. I'm very excited about this assignment (request) since this subject is so dear to me (if it wasn't for food storage, we would have had to ask for assistance from the church a LOT more than we have thus far)! It should be interesting! ^_^

When Jess and I first came together, he'd never really heard of food storage. But it has always been a source of deep concern for me. I've had nightmares about this subject from the time I was quite young. Although the nightmares have been garish and very upsetting, I'm grateful for them because I have a very keen interest in HAVING food storage as a result of them! Even though Jess didn't really have any previous knowledge of or belief in food storage, he still encouraged/allowed me to put food aside as our stores from the very beginning. There was a bit in the sort of middle of our relationship thus far that he sort of made fun of me for being such a storer, but I know he has gained a testimony of it. I know this because whenever I do talk to him about my plans or what I've done for it, he is completely supportive and totally NOT teasing me about it anymore! He is a gift of a guy! ;)

Further Food Storage Stuff; Dealing with LAW
A friend of mine, Joey, challenged me last week to find the law behind the rumor that we in FL are only allowed to have 3 months supply of food storage in our homes. He and I have both looked extensively and have found no such documentation. If you know how I could find this information, please tell me. I can use all the help I can.

Thus far I have done searches for Florida Statutes, food storage; Florida Law, food storage; and lots of variations of that sort. My friend has used the term "food hoarding" and many variations on law in Florida for his hours of searching. He's also looked for Executive orders concerning the subject and come up with NONE!

This is SUCH a big deal to me because I REALLY believe that we (Gollihughs and, really, everyone else!) should have a year supply (at least) of food storage for our family because I want us to follow the prophets. BUT I also believe that even our current prophet wants us to obey the Laws of the Land (as our Articles of Faith say we believe we should). So, I don't want to disobey EITHER through ignorance, hearsay, or misinformation! My friend had said a while back that he was going to do a year supply regardless, but since I spoke to him about the whole Articles of Faith thing, he's been troubled.

This week I have been particularly troubled by this subject. I feel like Heavenly Father was telling me what I should do through a talk given in Sacrament Meeting today. It was all about following the voice of the prophet and how the current prophet's words trump all preceeding info. I'm still uneasy and I know I need to pray about the whole thing....

END
If you're wondering why I'm posting on Sunday... well, this post has NOTHING to do with work (thus, not working on Sabbath). AND I actually have a bit of quiet time to myself.