Feb 20 Diversity Talk part 1

 

The two conference talks I finally settled on were “Hearts Knit in Righteousness and Unity” by Elder Quentin L Cook (here) given in October 2020 and “Room in the Inn” by Elder Gerrit W. Gong (here) given in April 2021.

Elder Cook started off his talk by relating a story about the Kane family who had traveled from Pennsylvania with Brigham Young and company. One day the Kanes were visiting with Thomas and Matilda King and their family in the King home in Fillmore, Utah. As the Kings and Kanes were sitting down to their dinner, there were five Native Americans who came into the room.  Matilda King spoke to them in their dialect and one of their guests, Elizabeth Wood Kane, asked about what had been said. 

Elizabeth learned that Matilda had told the group that she had prepared a meal for the Kane family who would be eating their meal first and that the other five would have to wait but assured them that she had another meal for them cooking over the fire.  Each received the same meal and the same amount of food. Elizabeth had been impressed with the compassion Matilda had to do the same for all that entered.

Unity is enhanced when people are treated with dignity and respect, even though they are different in outward characteristics. Although outward appearance may seem easier to identify, there are inward characteristics as well.  We are always going to find people that think differently than we do or worship differently than we do or may have different values or seemingly no values at all.     

We are all children of God regardless of our backgrounds, whatever challenges we may have faced and what walk of life our path has led us to.  We are ALL equal in His eye.  He doesn’t label us his brown children and white children or his Mormon children and Jewish children and so forth. God wants ALL of His children to return to him and desires for ALL to come to Him in His inn.

I have a granddaughter who appears to be on the chunky side as well as academically or perhaps socially challenged compared to some of her peers.  Recently the school she attends celebrated the first one hundred days of school.  Each child was told to bring 100 items of his or her choosing.  Ally chose Band-Aids as it is a product that she uses on a daily basis and because “she has some really cool ones."

Ally has a rare disease called Kabuki syndrome which requires her to receive two shots per day. Her mom had figured that Ally will go through over 120 Band-Aids a month on average.

 She says, “My girl is a warrior. She is strong. She is brave. She recognizes that she is different but let's it be known that being different is okay.”

 There are some of us who embrace the differences, and then there are others who feel threatened or afraid of the unknown – why that man has a different skin color, why a parent would allow his or her child to dress a certain way – but until we really get to know a person, we don’t know what makes them tick – and even when we do learn something that makes up part of their personality, we still don’t know everything.