All but me? December 17, 2006

All but me?

What does the word “all” mean to you?

When someone refers to all people, are you included? If all will die, will you somehow avoid passing from mortality?

Does God love all his children, or just some few? Did Jesus lay down his life for all mankind – except for you? Was his infinite atonement not quite enough to pay for the last few mistakes – the ones you made? [But strangely Christ's payment works for others, born after you made your mistakes?] - Absurd you say? I fully agree.

Yet the father of lies – the devil of devils promotes as his greatest lie that you or I have sinned beyond the power of God's infinite atonement. Or – really that God is not God, and cannot forgive those who repent.

I testify to you I have felt the power of the Savior's forgiveness in my own life for things of which I have repented. But I had to believe enough in Jesus Christ as God's gift to us all was for us all. Even for me.

And I know for sure that the ALL includes you. How grateful I am for the gift of God's Son!

May we all rejoice and receive the gift of God's Only Begotten Son, whose birth we celebrate in the Christmas Season.

Love, Dad/Granddad Jett

How Important? July 23, 2006

How Important?

How Important is Family Prayer? I guess that would depend on who is asking the question, and who is being asked!

So, who are some of the whos? Could be a dad or a mom, a child or a home teacher, a bishop, or maybe even your Father in Heaven. I suppose you could get a different answer from differing children – depending on their age or experience. One might say it was just too long and boring. Another might feel bad if the family got busy one morning and neglected to make time to pray together. We know it must be important to God because there is so much instruction about it, like in Alma 34:19-27 for example. I'll bet everyone likely to read this “gem” all agree Family Prayer is important.

But just how important is it? A husband and wife might think it's no big deal, since they have no children living at home with them – but what do you think? A dad might think “my baby doesn't understand words yet and can't even say ma-ma ” Do you think your baby cannot feel the spirit of God in prayer? How will they learn prayer if they don't feel it?

So, is it important enough to actually have Family Prayer? Important enough to turn off the TV? Important enough to skip a meal if there isn't time for both? Important enough to loose a little sleep? Or get the children up when Dad is almost ready to leave early for work? Do you think God actually expects you to stop what you may be doing to pray together as a family? Maybe we feel it is just too hard, because it isn't yet a habit for our family. If we could have the wonderful blessings mentioned in Alma above, I think we might be eager to have those Family Prayers!

For me, I quickly answer with a resounding YES! I am certain it is important enough to make any needed sacrifice to hold regular Family Prayer. The where, when, how is all up to you, of course.

But the important WHO I have in mind right now is YOU! – Just how important is family prayer to YOU?

Love, Dad/Granddad Jett

Six Words! June 10, 2006

Six Words!

What are you doing right now?

Take each word separately and think about it. First it's about YOU!

Next, are you doing what's RIGHT? Whose view? Because someone else is pushing you? Is it YOUR view of what's right? Or maybe it's Heavenly Father's view. [Let's hope!]

So – are your DOING it? or just thinking about it or talking about it?

Then – are you doing it NOW?

Well, if you are one of my children [or spouse thereof], or grand children, or great grandchildren . . . then you are doing something right, now. You are reading a message of love, and hope, and concern for your eternal happiness.

As you strive for the constant influence of God's holy spirit to be with you, you will be guided and will know what the best what to do is. And that is my hope for each of you.

So – what are you doing right now? Think about it!

Love, Dad/Granddad Jett

I am willing! Are You? May 17, 2006

I am willing! Are You?

I really like Alma's discussion of the covenant of baptism found in Mosiah chapter 18 in the Book of Mormon.

He suggests that I would want to be baptized as a token of my feelings toward God and my fellowman if I had certain hopes or desires. He speaks of being a witness of God and His word, serving God and keeping His commandments, having God “pour out his spirit” abundantly upon me, and showing my love to others by comforting them as they might need, being willing to mourn with those that mourn, and being willing to bear one another's burdens.

I feel there is a great key to all of this in one small phrase in verse 8 of chapter 18. It tells me, in part, why I would want to do this. It also gives a clue about how to do it and how I can tell if I am doing it!

Do you recall Jesus explaining that His yoke is easy and his burden is light? Have you ever heard the phrase “Many hands make light work”?

The end of verse 8 has the five word clue: “that they may be light” I can tell if I am willing to help bear other's burdens because then our burdens will be light.

Because I love my neighbor, I want to help their burdens be light, and comfort them in their hours of need. I think this is what King Benjamin was referring to when he said we are in the service of God when we are serving our fellow beings.

I feel that this especially is applicable in our family. Whose burdens would we want to lighten, more than those of our own family members? And this is just what will happen as we help bear one another's burdens. I'll bet you are willing, just as I am!

I hope all your burdens may be light.

Love, Dad/Granddad Jett

Seeking a Fullness - Mar. 31, 2006

Are You Seeking a Fullness?

I sure hope so. Did you notice that over half of my gems so far have mentioned this topic in some way?

It’s part of the Christian jargon, right? The fullness of times, the fullness of the gentiles, the fullness of the gospel, the fullness of the Father, a fullness of His glory.

But just what is fullness, anyway? Well, if I fill a glass, then it can hold no more, right? Did you know that if I use water, a glass can hold more water that its volume. [Go ahead and try it! If you are careful you can add water above the top of the glass because the surface tension will help you. Look at it from the side. You will see a convex meniscus with some of the water higher than the top of the edge of the glass.]

Here are some important thoughts about this idea of being filled.

Jacob taught “before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.” [Jacob 2:18]

The Sermon on the Mount records “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” [Matt. 6:33]

Jesus said “blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost”. [3 Nephi 12:6]

Can you think of any better blessing than having so much of the spirit of God with you that you could not have any more added? Think of it – the maximum influence of the Holy Ghost in your life!! Can you imagine being filled with the Holy Ghost? And a confirmed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been given the power to receive this amazing gift!

It is available when we seek it. And we seek it by developing our desire for keeping God’s commandments and trying to do His will – to the extent that we are actually hungry and thirsty to do so.

Seek righteousness and put God first in your life, and your life will be full. I have been making my best effort become filled with the Holy Ghost, and I witness to you that this effort is making a wonderful, beautiful, and powerful difference in my life each day.

When we seek in this way we will be filled in every way we want to be. I hope each of you will make the effort to be filled with the Holy Ghost and his marvelous influence.

Love, Dad/Granddad Jett

My Best Friend is . . . Feb. 26, 2006

And my best friend is . . .

Your mother? Your spouse? Your buddy you have known since you were 11-year-old scouts together? - - I don't think so.. My view? My best friend is my Savior, Jesus Christ!

How can I say this? You maybe are just really starting to know Jesus is. But I am not talking about who you are best friend to, but who is the best friend to you!

How is Jesus my best friend?

A friend is someone who wants to be with me – and wants me to be with them, and wants to share what He has, with me. Listen to this: “I will call you friends, for you are my friends, and ye shall have an inheritance with me”...”What I say unto one I say unto all,” [D&C 93:45, 49] “... and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also” [D&C 27:18]

He can be there to guide and comfort me when no other will or can.

A friend is someone who will lay down His life – for me.” With His help and His power, I can achieve eternal life! He has paid the price for my every mistake. So - I can be made pure enough to dwell with God in heaven.

Through prayer, He is always available to listen to my every concern, every joy, and every heartache. He knows how to help – and wants to! I can share the innermost secrets of my heart, and He will keep them in confidence. He will not laugh at what I feel is important. - - and - - He will help me understand what IS important. Is this not a true friend?

He will be patient with me, when I am tired of being patient!

I confirm to you that I know that Jesus is my best friend. I have felt His guidance and comfort in my life countless times. I know He has heard my every prayer – and helped me when there was no one else that could.

I also know Jesus is YOUR best friend. I hope you already know this, too – and my witness is simply confirming what you, too, know.

If this friendship is just beginning for you, I hope you may soon feel the comforting peace of knowing that the God of the whole earth is in fact your best friend.

Love, Dad/Granddad Jett

Dues Paid? - Feb. 12, 2006

Have you paid your dues?

I get a good feeling when I pay my dues, like when I send in my check for my radio club membership each year. I get many benefits of club membership, and want to contribute my part. But this principle goes much, much farther than it might seem on the surface. There is a principle of exchange involved here that touches almost every aspect of life.

Let me amplify this thought. There is an important order to the things of life. Here are some examples:

I aim before I fire.
Study belongs before the test.
Classes come before the Degree.
The interview comes before the job.
I work before I am paid.
I have to practice before I perform.
Pregnancy comes before birth.
A missionary teaches before he testifies.
Tithes & Offerings are given before the windows of heaven open.
The trial of faith comes before the witness.
I have to admit a mistake before I can correct it.
Obedience comes before blessings.
Faithfulness comes before eternal life.

Do these things seem obvious? Perhaps they are, but the seed of love must be planted and nurtured before the fruit of love can be plucked.

I feel richly blessed by the wisdom and order of these principles that I have been applying through my life. I can happily share my personal witness that the blessings do come when the dues are paid. LeeAnn & I are now seeing and feeling the joy of “paying our dues”. Thanks to all you children and grandchildren for the joy and blessing it is to us to see you prospering as you, too, pay your dues!

much love to you all, Dad/Granddad Jett

Every Day - January 2006

Happy New Year – Every Day!

Are you excited a new year has begun? You may have heard some talks in church about goals, improving yourself, commitment, “enduring to the end”, and “resolutions”. I heard some great talks on those very topics!

I was already thinking along those lines. And I have some new and some renewed objectives that I have committed myself to strive for in the future.

Have you made resolutions too? Maybe you’ve made some in years past as well. Have you sometimes felt discouraged when you didn’t reach your goal of doing something important on a daily basis – like I have? Wow! I didn’t even succeed for a week!

Instead of viewing this as a failure, would you please take courage and consider something new instead of waiting for next January first to try again?

One way I can think is “Today is the first day of 365 days starting right now. I will start a new year’s resolution today, January 16th!”

You see, a new year starts every day. There is no value in waiting 349 days to set an achievable goal and start again right now!

Best wishes for a great new year [starting every day!]

Dad/Granddad Jett
January 2006

Joy - August 2005

Do you have it? Do you wish you did? Maybe you do have joy, and you just forgot you had it? There is a whole page of references to joy in the Bible’s topical guide, but you can check those out on your own

Did you know it is even a commandment? Check out John 16:33 where Jesus tells us to “be of good cheer”! And he even tells us why – because HE has overcome the world! So from that, we know that when all is completed in mortality – the outcome is already known. Another way to say it is “our team wins – guaranteed”. All we have to do is to get on and stay on the winning team, the Savior’s team.

You may be aware of the analogy of an optimist seeing a glass of water half full and the pessimist seeing the same glass half empty. Satan, the great deceiver, does not want use to have joy, but rather sadness and misery. He makes every effort to tempt us to make choices that give the appearance of joy, but are only a counterfeit. He wants us to dwell on the half empty part of the glass.

I have learned that the negative view or discouragement is not a position of strength, but of weakness – something of which we should repent. Over the last year I came to a perspective that the glass is actually 99% full and I should exercise repentance to focus on that 99% instead of dwelling on the 1% empty.

I have learned joy comes line by line, experience by experience – as good choices are made in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joy continues to grow with each new blessing. Let me note some experiences & blessings that have brought joy to me: being baptized unto repentance, serving a mission for the Lord, meeting & marrying LeeAnn! learning in November of 1975 a baby would join our family in May 1976, Ben’s birth into our family, Rachel’s birth, John’s, Sarah’s, Daniel’s, Stephen’s, Dave Jensen joining our family as our first son-in-law, Emily – our first granddaughter, Christy – our first daughter-in-law, Natalie, Scott, Elisa, Emma, Jackson – can you believe our family has doubled in just 7 years?!

But it is better than that. God has promised us a fullness of joy – check out D&C 59:13, 101:36. Let me tell you what Christ’s viewpoint seems to be – He as overcome the world – and our joy will be full through Him. Guess what? The glass is 100% full!

This fullness of joy is a gift to us from Jesus Christ – all we need do is follow His plan of happiness and receive his gift of life eternal and his promised fullness of joy.

As your family patriarch, I hope you may accept the Savior’s challenge to be of good cheer! And notice that His glass is 100% full!

Dad/Granddad Jett

The Blessings of Stewardship - April 2005

What an honor to be a steward! But you ask – “What is a steward, anyway?” The dictionary says it is one who acts as a supervisor or administrator of finances or property for another. I would say a steward is someone who takes care of that which belongs to someone else, for that someone else, that is – for the owner.

So - - for me to be a steward, an owner must put something of his or hers in my care, to administer for them.

And who is the owner? I believe the true owner to be our Eternal Father in heaven. You may have considered this concept when you read that God “has created you from the beginning, … lending your breath, … and even supporting you from one moment to another” [Mosiah 2:21] and “your substance … doth not belong to you but to God” [Mosiah 4:22].

This means to me that God is owner of all that I am, and that I have. In Moses 2:27-29 we learn God created our bodies and instructed us to be fruitful, multiple, replenish the earth, subdue it, have dominion over all living things as he put all these things in Adam’s and Eve’s care – even the first stewardship.

I feel we each have this same stewardship today. What are some of the things it includes? It is much more than just heaven, earth, plants, and animals! To start with, we each have a sacred body for which to care – even a temple for our spirit. When you marry, you receive a spouse whom you are to love and for whom you are to care. She or he is not yours to own, but someone precious to God, for whom you may care as you would your own temple. Then, when a baby joins your family, your stewardship from God expands again! Another precious child of God, for whom you now care, counts on your for love, protection, and nurturing.

There are many other items with which God blesses our lives. Think of the talents you have developed and the blessings you have. Do you play a sport? Take target practice? Teach others? Play a musical instrument? Sing? Wrestle? Earn a living? - Do you have a testimony of Christ? Each of these things was placed in your care, by a loving Father in heaven.

Have you thought “why would God give me care of such important things?” Reasons, I think, are many. You are His child, and He wants you to mature into the divine nature within you. We read in D&C 84:33-39 that in faithfully obtaining the priesthood and magnifying our calling [= caring for your stewardship], that all that our “Father hath shall be given unto him.” God wants you to share in all that He has! To have with Him a fullness of joy! He trusts you – to follow His Son, Jesus Christ – and love and serve those around you, and develop your talents. No wonder I said “what an honor to be a steward”!

Is there more? Yes! We learn in D&C104:11-13 & 70:4 that our Father takes this stewardship idea very seriously. We know He expects our faithful efforts, when He says everyone is accountable over their earthly blessings.

How fitting that our living prophet would report in General Conference on the stewardship God has given him to help the whole world come unto Christ. What a great example of a faithful steward Gordon B. Hinckley is.

Perhaps you can more fully realize the significance of this topic from our Savior’s prayer of stewardship “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Jesus came to do what His Father wanted done, upon His earth for all His children.

This is my hope and prayer as your patriarch – that each of us may be counted a wise and faithful steward over all God’s blessings to us!

Much love to you all, Dad/Granddad Jett

Tradition - Feb 2005

Tradition -

A tradition can be a very powerful tool for teaching, remembering, and helping us focus on and stay committed to something really valuable or important. I’m sure you can think of many – like birthdays, family reunions, Christmas celebrations, Fourth of July, father-son campouts, etc. A tradition transmits important values from one generation to another.

Many values and traditions in my life have come from the family in which I was raised. – Through my life’s experiences, I have been blessed to be exposed to values and ideas beyond that with which my Mom and Dad blessed me. For these new things – I have had no tradition to use to help pass these values from one generation to another. Hence the need to develop new traditions in our family! Many are church related – you may not even think of them as traditions, but I feel they are. Some of them are sacrament meeting, family home evening, family prayer, family scripture time, attending the temple.

One of the most precious traditions in my mind is that the father priesthood holder, serve with his son in the priesthood the first time his son exercises his responsibilities in his new priesthood office. It is truly wonderful to me that I have had 4 fine sons. How many of you recall that I have passed the sacrament with each son the first time he served as a deacon? How about the first time each son knelt at the sacrament table to bless and sanctify the emblems of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? – Yes, I was there, too. I was the first man in our family to hold the priesthood and do these important things. I have tried to establish this father-son pattern, as a tradition, to pass on to the next generation in our family, the importance of priesthood and the ordinances done in that authority.

I was also blessed to be the first in our family to serve a full time mission as a young man. I know of nothing more important a young Melchizedek Priesthood holder could do. My father started a tradition related to this, although perhaps not deliberately. Did you know that he paid for my entire mission? [Even though not a member of the church, he knew it was important to me – and he paid for my mission!] I continued this tradition as Mom & I supported John in the mission field. I’m sure you remember the many, many prayers we offered for him, and you may know that I also wrote to him each week of his mission [another tradition MY Dad started].

I hope these thoughts on traditions may bless each of you in the families you are now [or soon will be] leading. I ask that you continue all the traditions that you can, which I have started or passed along, or even improve upon them with the guidance of the Spirit of Our Father in Heaven. These might include church attendance, service to others, serving full time missions, family prayer, family scripture study, worshiping in the holy temple, fathers serving with sons in the priesthood, husbands honoring wives by opening doors for them, wives honoring husbands by waiting for those doors to be opened, holding family home evening, fathers and sons going out to dinner together before priesthood session of General Conference.

Perhaps one day you may even have a website with “Gems” on it!

As your family patriarch, I hope you may have great success passing our family values along to all future generations of our family by using traditions!

Dad/Granddad Jett

God's Love - Jan 2005

It is a privilege and honor to be at the head of such wonderful family! I love each of you so dearly. These feelings of love are my motivation to bless your lives in every way I can, to the extent that God may grant me knowledge and ability in my capacity as the patriarch of the George James Jett family.

For this reason, from time to time, I will share with you thoughts or ideas that come to my attention that I feel are worthy of your consideration as each of you continue to grow and learn throughout your lives. I ask that you share your feedback with me whenever you read what I pass along here – especially when you find it of value in your life. I am interested in your thoughts about how I can make this area a blessing in your life and your loved ones. I hope to improve this little process as time progresses. [I would be pleased, too, if you can help me develop a better title than “Jim’s Gems” for this feature!]

The following ideas are from Elder John H. Groberg in his General Conference address from October 2004 which begins on page 9 of the Nov. 2004 Ensign.

“Only as we feel God’s love and fill our hearts with His love can we be truly happy.”

“… we are all born with the capacity and the desire to love and to be loved.”

“The more we obey God, the more we desire to help others. The more we help others, the move we love God…. Trying to find lasting love without obeying God is like trying to quench thirst by drinking from an empty cup – you can go through the motions, but the thirst remains.”

“Being filled with God’s love is the most joyous of all things and is worth every cost.”

“Never underestimate the power of true love, for it knows no barriers.”

“When filled with God’s love, we can do and see and understand things that we could not otherwise do or see or understand. Filled with His love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength and bless and help others in ways surprising even to us.”

As your family patriarch, I hope you may all be filled with God’s love.

Dad/Granddad Jett