What?????

 Last week when Roland left the house, it was always below freezing.  This week it will be in the low 50's.  Are you kidding me?  I am going to die come summer.  If I look at 40s and 50s as "no coat" weather, how am I going to survive 90 and triple digits.  I'm not.  My posts are dwindling as it is.  When they cease to exist (probably in the summer) than chances are looking good that I will too. (Well, I will exist, just not in an earthly form;  I am okay with leaving my body behind)

Appreciating Learning

 I'm grateful for the talents of others that have assisted in educating me.  

Feb 20 Diversity Talk part 3

 Here is the rest of the talk.  No links to provide for this one.  I had heard this example in an institute class I had taken.  Dee Hadley was the one who shared the Good Samaritan/six scenario example.

       Another example I have is a true incident that took place on the University of Utah campus.  Students who made their way to the institute building may have passed one of six scenarios – for example, there was a crying youth who’d been riding his bike but had stopped because the chain had come off and was looking for someone to assist with putting it back on. There was an older gentleman walking out of the library with a stack of books in hand – which he dropped.  There was a woman who tripped and fell. 

The students on their way to the institute building were having a test and their instructor had told them not to be late.  When it was time for class to start he shut the door and turned to the students who had arrived and said, “Congratulations.  You just failed your test”  for the old man with the books, the woman tripping, and the crying youth along with the other three scenarios had been staged.  Those who stopped to assist – if any – would have been late for class but are the ones who passed the test.  They had served with Christ-like love.  They were good Samaritans who hadn’t judged and served a higher purpose than being on time.

God wants us to embrace our diversities and become good Samaritans to everybody and not just those we choose to assist but those that we don’t understand or even like or know. We are all God’s children and He would like each of us to come and meet Him in His inn and fellowship one another and build each other up. 

with compassion, the Good Samaritan stops and binds our wounds with wine and oil. He will put us on his donkey and provide us shelter.

We need to focus on our good qualities and talents and learn from one another instead of focusing on the negative or what we don’t understand. We are not here to fix people according to our own definition but to help one another overcome any fears or doubts and work together at bringing one another to joy and light.  I challenge each of you to look at everyone with the same eyes that God does that we may lift one another and share and learn.

Feb 20 Diversity Talk part 2

This next part of my talk may sound familiar to those who have read past posts here and here

We are all made of many puzzle pieces, some more complex than others. Some might view others’ puzzles as near completion, but we don’t really know. 

Only God sees the entire picture. He knows what the puzzle pieces are and where they fit. Sometimes He will send people into our lives to help us find our puzzle pieces.

Many of us realize that our own puzzle may not be complete for ourselves, so why would we think it is for another? If I don’t know about all the pieces that are missing from my own life or what pieces will make me whole or tie me to somebody else,  what makes me think I can view another’s completed picture?  I can’t. None of us can. 

Only God can see the complete picture. He knows how we fit.

Each of us comes from different backgrounds.  There are some people who have adapted diverse cultures or traditions that may not be our own.  That doesn’t make them wrong.  It doesn’t make us wrong.  We really can and do learn from one another.  It’s not our place to pass judgement but to fellowship and love.

We should all know the parable of the Good Samaritan who came across a traveler who had been beaten and left in despair.  Others had noticed the broken traveler but had passed him by. They may have crossed the street to avoid him.  He was NOT their problem after all.  Perhaps they were too busy – or more likely too prideful.  They probably didn’t share common interests or values    so why bother?  Maybe he had deserved to be beaten.

This reminds me of a picture my brother had shared to his Facebook feed.  He had taken a picture of a homeless man bent over in humiliation with a cup outstretched in his hands.  Although my brother had taken the photo in December he had not shared the image with anyone until he posted in June with these words:

“I saw a homeless man whose figure felt so tragic, I wanted to capture it because it was such a haunting and sad image to me. I really second-guessed whether I should do so because it felt cruel of me to take a photo of this man's misery like some sort of exploitative tourist. But there was something pathetic, and yet also filling me with a sense of compassion, about the man's posture, that I wanted to safeguard the image as a reminder to me that there are people in low places in life, and it behooves us to stand up and take notice and help each other, if we can.”

He goes on further to compare the image in the photo to a homeless cat that had wandered into his yard:

“ we remarked how it feels like he wants to be loved and held . . . but still is a bit guarded in doing so, as if the world has so abused him and tossed him aside, that it is a challenge for him to trust and learn to love again.

“I do not know what traumas this little guy has faced, but I know he has, and it is taking time for him to adjust to a life that is different than the one he had. . . .we discussed the parallels of foster kids or recovering addicts or war veterans or anybody, really, who has experienced trauma or betrayals or disappointments and is trying to heal.

“I wish at times that we could really see into each other's hearts and intimately know the burdens and pains that make us who we are and how we act. I think if we could see deeply into each other's souls, we would be more compassionate, patient, and understanding with one another.”

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.

Will Jeopardy be put in Jeopardy Again?

         I did not go into detail about the cancelled R.S. activity in this post.  I had suggested it before but it had always been on the back burner either due to the weather or stake activity that took precedence or lastly, the pandemic. 

https://jeopardylabs.com/

     We had scheduled the activity to celebrate the RS birthday but also a category for St. Patrick’s sounded fun.  We had planned to meet for the activity on a Saturday.  We had discussed whether to continue with it or not – but hey, enough is enough already.  Let us play the game that I had prepared – more than one time.  But no.  On Thursday the prophet announced no more meetings.  We stayed home for the next six to eight months and the game was living in the closet all that time.

https://www.steelecreek.org/churchathome-daniel

     Thus I wonder if we will have to cancel again.  I finally brought the game home to reprocess everything.  March 17^th is on a Thursday which is the same night we have decided to hold RS activities this year.  I don’t know what kind of a turn-out we’ll have. 

     So this will be today’s post and I will follow it with three posts on diversity as I relate the talk I had given in Church on Sunday.  Stay tuned.

Removing the Joy from Reading

        I remember taking Jenna to the library and checking out books.  We would read together.  She would look at books on her own.  She looked forward to any reading contest or book clubs.  She enjoyed traveling through books and acquiring knowledge.  Reading was a positive thing. 

        Fast forward to the school years that required certain books to analyze in order to receive a good grade.  Reading was no longer fun.  We had to dissect each sentence and look for symbolic meaning.  Why can’t we just enjoy books for the sake of entertainment or learn about subjects that really do interest us instead of something that the educational system came up with? 

        Jenna’s frustration leads her to say, “ why do you suppose the author chose the word ‘the’?  What does that mean? What can we learn about the author illustrating the sky was blue rather than orange or gray?  What do these colors represent?”

        I understand her frustration.  I felt the same way, and we’re not alone.  Being forced to read To Kill a Mocking Bird would not have been so bad if being graded on the representation of every word and character had not “killed” the joy of reading.  At least Jenna will read and memorize script.  I find myself relying more on video or audio entertainment than reading.  I get tired reading. 

        I’ve never been an avid reader.  I am slow.  I would rather read on my own terms though I often wish it was at a faster pace.  I do enjoy learning – but I’d rather research what interests me and what is easiest for my mind to handle.