Raise Your Standards High

Not to long ago, my Mom went on a trip to Las Vegas with some of her friends to get away from the kids for a few days.

One day, they were walking down The Strip. One of the ladies had been to this certain part of Las Vegas before and she new what was coming, so she told the others "Don't take ANYTHING they try to hand you." and then they continued onward and as they did people tried to hand them flyers with VERY inappropriate images on them and my mom and her friends would not take them. And as they got farther down the street people would try and hand them to the people in front and behind them but not these women. The ground was covered in these papers, so they looked straight ahead and made it through safely.

They were tested and then protected by Heavenly Father.

You may ask, "What does this have to do with 'raising your standards high'?" Well, I'll tell you.

They raised their standards so high that people could tell just by looking at them that they would not look at or take anything  they tried to give them, but would continue onward past the cave infested with spiritual dragons.

We must also raise our standards to the world. We must raise them together. We MUST declare to them that This is what we believe in. And they shall not tear us from it. And we shall not fall into iniquity, no matter what challenges they throw at us, what tempests may rage around us, nor when we are shaken to the brink of our breaking point, we shall not falter! We love our God in heaven and we love our Savior Jesus Christ and we are not ashamed of this, no matter how much they may ridicule us.

And if we declare these things to all the world we will be blessed to the point where we will be able to walk through the caves infested with spiritual dragons and we will be protected with the whole armour of God.

Let us Raise Our Standards High.

~Aria

Spiritual Dragons

Spiritual Dragons are something I came up with in a post that I shared from my other blog called Quests.
Spiritual Dragons are our daily challenges, trials and worldly things that distract us from what's most important. Mind you, these Dragons have their Caves and Lairs that we must avoid, but we can't always avoid them.
In order to defeat these Dragons and destroy their Caves we must be defended.

We must remember and read Ephesians 6:11-17 and prepare ourselves.
I invite you all to do this and prepare yourselves for battle. The hardest battle there is. The battle against Satan. But if we prepare ourselves we WILL win.

~Aria

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy! I had the wonderful chance to read the 2nd book in the Of Great Value series that my Momma wrote (it's coming out on Tuesday everyone!!!). I started this morning paused for church, read more after church until Mom started dinner and after dinner I went and read some more. But then I had some (actually A LOT!) of dishes to do, but I did NOT want to put the book down so I continued to read until finally dishes had to be done and I finished them an hour later (we have to wash our dishes by hand) and compleated my bedtime routine and said my prayers and started to read again. Finally two hours later at 12:30 I put it down with tears of happiness and the Spirit and a joy in my heart! I pretty much felt the spirit the second I started to read after I got in my bed.

I also read the first one and it was wonderful, but the second book is even MORE AMAZING!!!!! If that's even possible! I am truly ecstatic over this experience and hope others will read it and feel the same feelings I've felt this night. These book may be directed at Young Women, but I also suggest Young Men read them too. Besides it might give you guys an insight (at least a little) into the brain of a girl, which just might be helpful considering we're pretty confusing.

I just want to share my Testimony that The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints is truly true! And that we are Sons and Daughters of our Heavenly Father and he loves us and he gives us blessings and trials, which are blessings in disguise. I am thankful for the Temples and the blessings they bring into my life. I am thankful for my friends and family who love me, care for me, set examples for me and support me in all my good choices.
I am thankful for all the Lord's blessings; but most of all for the Atonement of Christ, that all men might be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
And I say these things, In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

-Aria

p.s. let's see if I can sleep after this...

*•<Handmaiden>•*

Today, people are confused as to what Handmaiden REALLY means and pretty much to them it's just a cool name for a medieval maiden. I'm sorry to those who believe that's what it is, but that is not what it means.

Handmaiden has a very special meaning to it. It means this person is a servant of the Lord and they are doing his work without complaint or question.

There is no way for me to express the deep love and respect I have for the word Handmaiden. It has brought meaning and purpose and happiness into my life, simply because I know what it means.

••/*Aria*\••

1st Post {on this blog}

 I created this blog to share with others my spiritual views, thoughts, and insights.

This is a post I wrote on my other blog and I wanted to share it with you as a starting post.

 ~QUESTS~

In days long past brave knights set out on QUESTS to fight off dragons and save the maiden and then they would get married and live happily ever after...

My QUEST is harder... I must rise each and every day to face and to fight the temptation "dragons" and save the virtue that is mine and continue to be the handmaiden of the lord that I try my very hardest to be, so someday I can fall in love with a man who is honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, praiseworthy, doing good to all men and loves me more than anyone except our Father in Heaven and together we can ride in triumph up to the Holy Temple, to be sealed together forever... And as we face more dragons each day, we can and WILL endure to the end and live happily FOREVER AFTER...

I hope to meet this man someday and for all I know I might have already met him. But first I must prepare myself while I am in the years of getting ready for such a journey and how have I started?

Well, I read my Book Of Mormon every day, I write in my scripture journal about what I read every day, I write in my normal journal every day, I do my best to keep clean thoughts and an unclean one comes I take that thought and I simply BLOW IT UP!!! I keep the commandments, I keep the word of wisdom, I keep the law of chastity, I encourage others to do so with me and when my dragons get bigger and more fierce I get down on my knees and pray to my Lord above.

I would like you all to know that I am not perfect *gasp* and when I say I do these things I mean that I simply TRY MY HARDEST!!!! There are some things that I've been doing for so long that they have become a second nature to me but there are still times when I am tired and don't want to read my scriptures but I do it anyway because I have learned to love it and I look forward to it each day.


-Aria E. Clawson:)