Because of others

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 1981 Conference.

A while ago when we were shopping for and thinking of buying a grand piano, I was feeling so blessed and grateful about it. It just seemed so AMAZING that I would ever be the owner of such a big and beautiful instrument! And I started thinking about all the people that had contributed to that possibility. My parents, of course. Giving me piano lessons and encouraging me and buying my music and paying for competitions and putting up with my practicing at 5 a.m. for years and years. Sam, obviously, too, for putting in time and work and being willing to go without other things we certainly could spend our money on—and for thinking that this was even important! My piano teachers. The assistant principal at Provo High who let me get a class credit for practicing on the school's Fazioli during my free period every day of Junior Year. Music professors at BYU. People I served with in church callings that taught me about sharing talents generously. Ward members that loved me and encouraged me and came to my recitals all through my growing-up years.

As I thought about this, the circle kept widening. I thought about the composers who wrote the music I had learned to play and love. Performers I had watched and been inspired by. I thought about the people who make pianos! (We watched a documentary once about the making of a Steinway Piano. So much time and craftsmanship goes into it!) The people who own piano stores! The people who take pianos apart and wrap them in padded blankets and deliver them to your house without breaking them! It started to feel like everyone in the world had had a hand in my being able to have a grand piano! And it might sound silly, but I felt a real and profound gratitude toward ALL those people as I thought of them. I felt like I was the beneficiary of some great coordinated effort toward my happiness—an inadvertent effort by some of the people, of course, who didn't even KNOW me—but a vast and important effort nonetheless. I felt like Heavenly Father was so amazingly kind, to put me in the middle of that great web of prosperity and opportunity and goodness!

I returned to these thoughts again when I read Elder F. Burton Howard's talk, "In Saving Others We Save Ourselves." He says:

None of us could have arrived at the point where we listen to and enjoy this great conference without others. Our testimonies, our greatest blessings, our membership and activity in Christ’s church—all of these we owe to the often unremembered and always unnumbered hundreds who gave of their time and their patience and their love to us when we were trying to find our way in the desert. They brought living water to us, or to our parents, or to our parents’ parents. Whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we are grateful or not, we are where we are because of others. We cannot say, indeed we must never say, “It was a difficult journey, but I have arrived. Let others get here as best they can. I don’t have time now to take water to those who are lost. I have no obligation to those in the desert.”

It's such a good reminder to me that no matter how hard I think I've worked, most of what I have and am is because of other people. It's because of the blessings of God, ultimately, of course—but those blessings have largely come through those around me. And that makes it so important that I share my own blessings now! Not only have I made covenants to do so, but it's also just the best way to show Heavenly Father that I notice and appreciate all the things that other people, under His influence, have done for ME!

Other posts in this series:

• A Lesson from Elder Hunter on Science and Faith by Nathaniel Givens
• What is Our Errand as Latter-day Saints? by Jan Tolman

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Miraculous and contagious

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the April 1981 Conference.

Elder James M. Paramore gave such a good talk about the love of God. I wish I could quote it all. But here are some of my favorite parts:

This love from Father in Heaven and its effects upon one of His children or the whole world is miraculous and contagious. He is constantly and everlastingly watching over us to lovingly and gently nudge us along. 

When God’s love is known and felt and His commandments followed, the results are always the same. There is a newness of life—a spiritual awakening—that comes to man, its own witness that it is true… 

This love reaches deep into the inner man, removes barriers, and causes an open spirit to emerge to be receptive to truth, goodness, and change. As it develops in man, he is turned outward toward others—gradually overcoming himself. When we humbly seek our Father in Heaven by prayer, and by learning and keeping His commandments, He transfers to us His love and many of His powers.…

Then the miracle really happens. Men thus touched and changed by this love of God begin to look upon their neighbors with profound respect and awe for who they are, what their potential really is as children of an eternal father.

When he describes what people transformed by the love of God are like, it makes me want to be one of those people! And I certainly have felt the love of God, so I ought to be experiencing some of that transformation! I guess he does say it happens "gradually," so even though I can't say I always look upon others with the "profound respect and awe" that I should, if I keep seeking God's love, I hope I will learn to.

Other posts in this series:

• What makes self-reliance a spiritual law? by Jan Tolman
• Shifting our expectations of God by Nathaniel Givens

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Penguins, Monkeys, Meese

Well. We have some events and pictures up on which to catch, as…er…someone would say. Some notable. Some alarming. Some downright strange. You can click to enlarge any of them, if you dare!

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We went to the aquarium for Daisy's birthday. I always feel grumpy about how much it costs, but at least they keep adding to the exhibits—and, of course, the salient feature for this birthday visit was the PENGUINS. Daisy loves them so! Even if it was impossible to get a picture in that dark room.

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In the downright strange category: • dressed-up animals including Star the Orangutan (always); 

• little goblins cavorting around a hole (it doesn't make any more sense in context); 

• Teddy festooned with headbands. Green with bunnies, of course!

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106 to 6

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1981 Conference.

Maybe I'd heard this story before, or maybe it just seemed like the quintessential Elder Haight Football Story. Anyway, I liked it:

Football came to our country town later than most. The school board had neither the money for equipment nor a coach. Then the great day arrived. Our high school principal was able to buy twelve inexpensive football outfits, except the expensive cleated football shoes (we used our basketball shoes), and our coach was recruited from the faculty because he had witnessed a game. 

We learned a few simple plays, how to tackle—or so we thought—and set off for our first game with Twin Falls, the previous year’s Idaho state champions. 

We dressed and went out on the field to warm up. Their school band started to play (they had more students in the band than we had in our entire high school), and then through the gates came their team. The twelve of us—a full team of eleven plus one all-round substitute—watched in amazement as they kept coming through the gates—all thirty-nine of them in full uniform. 

The game was most interesting! To say it was a learning experience is rather mild. After two plays we didn’t have any desire to have the ball—so we would kick it, and soon they would score. When they got the ball, they would run a baffling play and score. Our problem was to get rid of the ball—it was less punishing. 

In the final minutes of the game they became a little reckless. A wild pass fell into the arms of Clifford Lee, who was playing halfback with me. He was startled, not knowing for sure what to do—until he saw the “Dallas Cowboys” thundering after him. Then he knew what to do. He was fast. He wasn’t running for points, but for his life! Clifford made a touchdown; six points went up on the board. The final score—106 to 6! We really didn’t deserve the six points, but with our torn shirts and socks and our bruises, we took them anyway. 

A learning experience? Of course! An individual or a team must be prepared. In all things success depends upon previous preparation.

As I read this, it seemed like some sort of metaphor for something…and then I realized that it was a perfect description of my parenting right now. Before each new stage I think I am somewhat prepared…but I quickly realize that I have no idea what I'm doing. And when my kids get the ball, they "run a baffling play and score." And now the score is 106 to 6 against me. And I think I earned those six points by mistake. Ha!


Other posts in this series:

• Great Things, Fathers! by G
• Covenants: The Gospel Way of Life by Jan Tolman
• The desire, diligence, and determination of fathers by Nathaniel Givens

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Developing faith

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1981 Conference.

I was talking to a friend recently who said, "I don't think I'm very good at walking by faith. But I'm good at being obedient. Once I know what the Lord wants me to do, I'm willing to do it."

I thought that was a good way to express what I feel too. It's the uncertainty that's hardest for me. And yet I know that sometimes the uncertainty is exactly what I need most for my own growth. So I've been trying to learn more about faith, and how to develop a trust in God that will carry me through the times when I'm not really sure what God wants me to do!

In Elder Loren C. Dunn's talk, "Building Bridges to Faith," he gives six steps to develop the gift and power of faith. Many of them were things I hadn't really connected with faith before. I'll list some of them here in my own words, with my own interpretations, but you should read the actual talk too! These are just the things that stuck out to me as some practical steps I could implement right now, as I work on nurturing my faith.

1. Recognize that God can help you with any aspect of your life.

I have learned this repeatedly in the past, but somehow it still surprises me to hear stories of Heavenly Father helping people in highly specific situations or with specialized fields of knowledge. I wrote about my experience with piano practicing here, and I know there are lots more areas where I could show faith by asking for God's help on things I don't usually ask for His help with.

2. Do the things that come into your mind, promptly—and even if they don't seem related to anything important.

Elder Dunn tells a story about praying for help with some problems as a mission president, and feeling prompted instead to give a blessing to his son. The inspiration that came through the blessing was really important, but, he says, "this would have been lost had I stopped to question why the Lord was turning me to…my family, when I was seeking a blessing for the mission." I want to get better at acting on the principle that God has many purposes in mind when He gives us direction. Maybe the random-seeming thing I'm prompted to do will be just what I need to help with other problems that seem unrelated!

3. Believe in goodness and don't be cynical.

Elder Dunn says, "Faith cannot be nourished in a heart that has been made hard by continued cynicism, skepticism, and unforgiveness." My natural instinct is to be very rational and methodical about problems (maybe that comes from being born into a family of physicists). There are good things about that. But I am also trying to learn to do things that don't make perfect sense, as in the paragraph above. I'm trying to be whole-hearted and unguarded in my responses to God's direction, rather than always holding something back "just in case" I've understood wrong. I want to work on listening to other people without cynicism, too. I've realized recently that saying, "Eh, that experience was probably just coincidence or an overactive imagination"—even to myself—inhibits my ability to receive more blessings from God.

Other posts in this series:

• Why You Can't Nurture Both Faith and Cynicism by Nathaniel Givens
• We Have Nothing to Fear by Jan Tolman

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