My Testimony

I have a testimony.
Yes, I can say it's true.
God has walked beside me
and helped to pull me through.

Doubt and faith can not
both share the same invading space.
Faith is a gift of God, my friend.
With it your doubt erase.

Faith, Repentance, Baptism,
They lead you to the gate.
Enter obediently into His arms.
Let Him there embrace.

The Holy Ghost is your friend.
He testifies of Christ.
He calls upon our memory.
His counsel, there, is wise.

Ask, Knock, Invite Him in.
Our Savior has come to stay.
We can know his will for us.
He asks us all to pray.

I've asked my Heavenly Father.
"Is there only one?"
"One way, one hope, one path?"
He answered, "Yes, my son."

So did brother Joseph.
He saw them both, divine.
My testimony is my witness.
And yes, It's truly mine!

When

When you can keep your faith when all about you
Are loosing theirs and friends are but a few.
When you can keep your head while discouragement surrounds you,
And hold a lifeline to the drowning crew.

When you can count both vice and virtue
As hollowed ground you've traveled o'er,
And know repentance has lifted you from quicksand
And stand erect although your feet are sore.

When faith and hope, and love and service,
Have found their place inside your heart.
When every breath is exercised in kindness
And no ill thing can seed and get it's start.

When you can stand alone in crowds and be surrounded,
yet feel alone because you honor self,
or stand alone and feel exalted.
When God and angels minister your health.

When you endure until the harvest,
The race and prize will then be won.
And God & Christ, and saints and angels
Will echo, "Well and faithfully done!"

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are obedient,
to the sun's eternal light.
Drawn upward by the sun's warm rays,
they praise Him, day and night.

Their constant obedience
to the radiance from above,
is seen in their growth and beauty,
a reflection of their love.

They are a simple flower,
not chosen for their frame,
yet other flowers model them
and look upward just the same.

There are a thousand flowers
could be chosen for a bouquet,
there color and their fragrance,
a glorious display.

Yet the glory of the sunflower,
for it's not a lowly weed,
is often seen by man and beast
for they bless us with their seed.

Returning Home

You can't return, others say.
You must return. It is the way.

Our Heavenly Father sent us here,
to parents, kind, and family, dear;
to wander on this earthly plain,
until we see that life is vain.

Unless we have the charity
that God has given, unselfishly.
The prodigal in his painful way
Determined that he could not stay.

And, so, went home to hope and prayer.
His father felt he should be there
as they slayed the fatted calf.
His sibling showed his foolish wrath.

For his brother's joy was not his loss.
Forgiveness refines gold from dross.
And family, complete, not family, scattered,
Is joy, profound, and really mattered.

Perhaps our inheritance has been spent
With little show from where it went.
We can renew. We can refresh.
We can endure. We can conquer flesh.
And find, eternal, lasting love
With family, here, and God, above.

Integrity

Virtue is it's own reward.
To be the best that we can be
is to conclude, with fortitude
,and show integrity.

Awful is the plight of man
if selfish he must be,
for the whole world
can be blessed
by a person's integrity.

He Walked

He walked upon the water.
He calmed the raging sea.
He suffered in Gethsemane.
He died for you and me.

Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor,
Jesus, the risen Lord,
Jesus, the perfect example,
Jesus, the adored.

You can follow His teachings.
You can feel His love.
You can give comfort to others.
You can feel peace from above.

I feel His friendship envelop.
I know He embraces me, still.
I come to Him humble, obedient.
"Yes, Blessed Master, I will."

They all await His coming,
to bring in a millenium of peace.
May we all choose to assist Him
May His wonders never cease.

Gratitude

An attitude of gratitude
leads to joy profound.
Carelessness and regretfulness
spreads misery all around.

For all we have
and all we'll be
is modeled
in His grace.

Ugliness is not
a pictured scene,
but is absence from
His embrace.