Resurrection is another creation

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 1992 Conference.

This is a good week to contemplate Resurrection! And of course President Nelson would be the one who thought of this:

The Lord who created us in the first place surely has power to do it again. The same necessary elements now in our bodies will still be available—at His command. The same unique genetic code now embedded in each of our living cells will still be available to format new ones then. The miracle of the resurrection, wondrous as it will be, is marvelously matched by the miracle of our creation in the first place.

I also liked this:

Meanwhile, we who tarry here have a few precious moments remaining “to prepare to meet God.” Unfinished business is our worst business. Perpetual procrastination must yield to perceptive preparation. Today we have a little more time to bless others—time to be kinder, more compassionate, quicker to thank and slower to scold, more generous in sharing, more gracious in caring.

Then when our turn comes to pass through the doors of death, we can say as did Paul: “The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

Other posts in this series:

We have higher goals—by G.

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Camels and other surprises

The other Saturday morning I was sitting in my room reading when Teddy and Goldie came running in saying they saw a truck drive by. With a camel in it.

!!!

I told them it probably wasn't a camel. Maybe a horse. Or possibly a llama?

But then I went outside, and sure enough there was a camel being unloaded from a truck at our neighbor's house! Along with a whole bunch of other animals. And our neighbor called out, "It's Winnie's birthday party! Get your kids and come over!"

Well, we didn't need to be asked twice. 

They had so many fun animals! Daisy got to hold a wallaroo (I don't even know what that is…kangaroo + wallaby maybe?). They had a wallaby too. And ponies, a baby calf, a hedgehog, a chinchilla, chickens, ducks, bunnies, a pig…it was amazing.

A bunny for Teddy

A pig for Junie

We brought Gus over and he was quite pleased.

He liked this sheep. (One second after this picture was taken, he leaned down and BIT it! Right on the back!)

He tolerated sitting on this pony.

And he had fun chasing these ducks. 

Ziggy was a tiny bit nervous about petting the animals. He held back behind his sisters a bit…

but eventually became braver. After a couple hours he was an animal-petting machine!

But the camel! It patiently gave rides all morning, up and down the street. Who would have ever thought the kids would get to ride on a camel! It was so cool.

Other than the dizzying excitement of the animal birthday party, here are some other things we've been doing:

Daisy and Junie haven't dressed alike that much for a little while, but recently they made up for it by wearing everything exactly the same for an entire week. Right down to the strands of hair escaping from their braids! As if it weren't hard enough for me to get their names right.

Windy day—Daisy trying unsuccessfully to fly a kite while Goldie throws her blankie in the air.

There was a man using a leaf-blower across the street and Gus stood at the window and watched him, totally fascinated, for 20 minutes.

The weather has been all over the place. Here is the snowy hill.

Gussie being tickled and Ziggy looking on, amused

A nice day—nice enough to swing!

Cold day for snuggling on the porch swing

Our ward has started having Primary over Zoom, which is…interesting. But cute. Ziggy's Sunbeam teachers brought over this little sunbeam sign for him to hold up during introductions. Instead, he held it up dutifully for the entire meeting. It was the cutest thing ever.

Another of Zig's winning outfits. Two hats (bear hat/tricorne hat). And big "glubs," as always.

Sleepy Gus.

Excited Gus.

I was so happy to see the sun coming in through this little window in my room! I have prisms hanging up there, but the sun doesn't come in that way through most of the winter. But one day the angle had changed enough that we saw rainbows on the wall for about 15 minutes. Hooray!

Do you want to know what Gus' first word was? POKE. That's what. He said it while he was poking Sam. So I guess it's only fitting that he loves reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Every baby loves to poke his finger in those little holes! You can see that Gus has his poking finger all out and ready.

Boys licking the beaters at Grandma's house

Junie with a stack of duct tape on her arm

Headphone twins

Ready for church!

We are learning about the Revolutionary War for homeschool right now. We played a game where I timed the kids dressing up as minutemen and racing each other around the house. Super fun.

Also fun: Gus and Goldie playing some game where they…give each other…a sock??

Very fun.

Hot cocoa bar for Family Home Evening. (The bag of bunny food on the counter isn't part of it.)

Ziggy wearing a bear hat. Over his face.

The weather was SO beautiful for almost a week. Sam and I went out for date night one night and left the kids having a pizza picnic on the hill. It all looks fairly innocent and above-board…

until you see this baby Gus holding AN ENTIRE PIECE OF PIZZA! Not good!

And we'll end with a few more pictures of Gus, running into his sisters' arms and chortling and looking entirely more like a little boy than he ought to!

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Healing gratitude

 This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the April 1992 Conference.

Recently I was praying about something and had the words come into my mind: "Jesus has already begun to heal you." I was surprised, because I still felt pretty upset and worried. But when I really looked inside of myself, I could sense that it was true; that even though the difficult situation was ongoing, the healing was ongoing too! Little by little, I was already being healed.

I thought about that when I read this statement from Elder Robert D. Hales:

In some quiet way, the expression and feelings of gratitude have a wonderful cleansing or healing nature.

I suspect that the reason the above statement is true is that the two things go together—gratitude from our hearts to and for the Savior, and the Savior's work of healing. In my experience, sincere efforts to feel and express the former actually do increase the effects of the latter, though I don't know if I'd understood it in quite that way before. I like thinking about it. Knowing that Jesus Christ is working on me, healing me, even  in the moments I'm feeling most wounded, makes me even more grateful, and the cycle continues.

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The very best available

 This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1992 Conference.

One talk I really liked from this session was President Hinckley's talk "Believe the Prophets." It's a catalog of experiences President Hinckley had with previous presidents of the church (he was personally acquainted with seven of them!), and it was just cool to read it. I just liked reading his testimony of their prophetic callings, and the way he loved and admired them while  still working closely with them for many years. I know people talk sometimes about how our church venerates the prophets and apostles too much, and then it leads to people struggling when they realize that those leaders aren't perfect. Maybe that's true, but lately I feel like I run into the opposite problem a lot more often—people who want to focus on the fallibility of the prophets to the exclusion of their divine calling. I loved what President Hinckley said about that: 

Now in conclusion, may I repeat that I have worked with seven Presidents of this Church. I have recognized that all have been human. But I have never been concerned over this. They may have had some weaknesses. But this has never troubled me. I know that the God of heaven has used mortal men throughout history to accomplish His divine purposes. They were the very best available to Him, and they were wonderful.

These men whom I have known and with whom I have worked have been totally unselfish in their zeal to build the kingdom of God and bring happiness into the lives of the people. They have been unsparing in giving of themselves to the great work for which each had responsibility in his particular season.

I believe all that was true about President Hinckley himself, and I certainly have seen it in the life of President Nelson as well! I'm so glad we have prophets on earth today!

Other posts in this series:

Rhythm and Contrast—by G.

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Clear away the clutter

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1992 Conference.

I have gotten a little bit tired of hearing about how much life slowed down for everyone during the pandemic—not because I don't relate, of course! Life obviously did slow down for us too, especially during those first few months, with lessons and sports and church activities canceled. But I guess I get a little envious when people talk about it, because there were so many ways that things didn't slow down for us, and it sounded so nice to be one of those people who suddenly found themselves with oodles more time to study the scriptures and contemplate what was really important in life. Ha! We always want what we don't have, I guess, and we families with lots of kids did not have weeks of stillness and contemplation!

However, the underlying idea—that the pandemic, by subtracting from our lives many things which we hadn't even considered as optional, gave us new perspective on what really mattered—is still relatable. And this talk by Elder William R. Bradford, though of course given decades before our current world events, goes right along with the lessons I think we were supposed to learn from them. It was interesting for me to think about my current intense desire for things to just return to normal, and to ask myself which things I might not want to pick back up again, given the chance.

Elder Bradford says:

A cluttered life is a life that you do not have control of. It is a life in which the things you have surrounded yourself with, and allow to use up your time, are controlling you and negatively influencing your happiness and eternal progress.…

Other things that clutter our lives and use up our time are not as obvious as the material. They are more subtle and just seem to evolve, taking control of us.

Whenever I think of something subtle—you know, kind of hidden, something we know is there if we stop to think about it but do not suspect it of cluttering up or negatively influencing our lives—whenever I think of something subtle like this, I know that Satan is busy at his work.

Nothing suits the devil better than to become a silent partner with us. He knows that we have agency and are at liberty to make choices for ourselves. He also knows that while in mortality we are subject to time. If by his subtle means he can become our silent partner, he can then influence us to make wrong choices that use up our time unwisely and prevent us from doing that which we should.

We give our lives to that which we give our time. As I have said, while here in mortality we are subject to time. We also have agency and may do what we will with our time. Let me repeat: We give our lives to that which we give our time.

Sometimes hearing that truth—that "we have agency and may do what we will with our time"—has irritated me. I think, "Not true! There are so many things I have to do; I don't have a choice at all! If I don't make meals for the kids, who will? I have to change diapers, don't I? I have to drive people places. I have to buy groceries!" But I know, really, that I DO have a choice in all of it. (And the pandemic did help show me that even in activities we've already "chosen" to do, to keep doing them is also a choice!) In addition, I have so many choices about which order to do things in, specific ways to do them, who to ask for help from, and so forth. And sometimes my choice is also in HOW I do these duties. Cheerfully? Willingly? Or grudgingly? I hate the idea of the devil being a "silent partner" to fool me into thinking I'm not in control of my own time!

Elder Bradford goes on to advise:

…We need to develop a list of basics, a list of those things that are indispensable to our mortal welfare and happiness and our eternal salvation. This list must follow the gospel pattern and contain the elements needed for our sanctification and perfection. It must be the product of inspiration and prayerful judgment between the things we really need and the things we just want. It should separate need from greed. It must be our best understanding of those things that are important as opposed to those things that are just interesting. It should have nothing to do with trying to stay in the fast lane.

We need to examine all the ways we use our time: our work, our ambitions, our affiliations, and the habits that drive our actions. As we make such a study, we will be able to better understand what we should really be spending our time doing.

When I read this, it made me think about how much of a blessing it is, really, to take responsibility for what is in my life. It's almost…cowardly to pretend "I have no choice" about this or that. I know from experience that I feel happier and more satisfied when I frame all the elements in my life as things I have chosen, rather than things that are just happening to me.

Then I loved this:

There are, then, some serious and soul-searching questions that we must ask ourselves. One of these questions would surely be, do I have time for prayer? I don’t mean just an occasional, quick, repetitious prayer that is like giving a wave of the hand to your Father in Heaven as you pass Him on your way to something important. I mean sincere, honest, “from the depths of a contrite spirit and a broken heart” prayer; kneeling in humility, demonstrating to the Holy Father that you really love him; private prayer which involves you in the process of repentance and pleading for forgiveness and allows time for pondering and waiting for the answers to come.

As you examine your list of basics, the next question would be, do I study the scriptures?… I solemnly testify that the holy scriptures are the word of God. Constant study of them is the act of holding to the iron rod. They will guide you to the tree of life. If you are one who has said, “I want my life back,” I exhort you to go to the tree of life, where you will find the pure love of God.

With an uncluttered life, you will not be so busy doing terrestrial things that you do not have time to do those things which are celestial. God’s plan is a plan of simplicity. It involves being obedient to simple laws, laws that have within them an automatic blessing and happiness for obedience and an automatic punishment and unhappiness for their disobedience.

And this:

I urge you to clear away the clutter. Take your life back. Use your willpower. Learn to say no to those things that will rob you of your precious time and infringe upon your agency to choose to live in exactness to God’s plan of happiness and exaltation.

Don’t let the subtle influences of Satan take away any part of your life. Keep it under your own control and operated by your own agency.

It's all such good counsel. You think I'd know all this by now; and I guess I'm learning it bit by bit. But this talk made me re-resolve to make sure I'm not letting things into my life, and our family's life, involuntarily, without considering them first. It made me want to recommit to use my agency, and consciously admit that I'm using my agency, to decide what I'm going to spend my time doing. And it made me feel anxious to be able to give a good accounting of how I spend my days. I don't want Heavenly Father to say to me someday, "But I gave you that gift of time during the pandemic to see what an uncluttered life looked like! And then you just let all the clutter back in!" I want to feel like I spent my life doing what He wanted me to do, and learning to love it, because I love Him.

Other posts in this series:

The Road to Heaven is Paved with Clutter—by G.

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