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Better Nature

As the American Revolution wound to a close, the Continental Congress, reliant on the contributions of the states for income, had failed to follow through on promised payments to soldiers.  While Congress debated their financial fate, several high ranking officers began gathering support to use their skills and resources to force the hand of the government to receive their due.  Learning of their plans, General George Washington made the journey to Newburgh, New York to address the officers and soldiers.  He outlined the cause for which they they had fought and condemned “any who wishes, under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our Country, & who wickedly attempts to open the flood gates of civil discord, & deluge our rising empire in blood.”  He brought with him a letter from Senator Joseph Jones of Virginia, promising the good intentions of Congress.  Unable to read the letter, Washington reached for his pocket, ““Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in service of my country.”  Tempers were tamed, patience renewed and the fledgling United States of America did not turn on itself.  
 

In 1861, with several southern states seceding from the United States, the newly inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln encouraged, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” While it is easy to speak the words, Lincoln also set an example, naming his political rivals, including an abolitionist from New York and a former slaveholder from Missouri, to his cabinet where he listened to disparate views and built bridges throughout his presidency.

On President’s Day, we celebrate in gratitude leaders who during dark days have set aside anger and hostility and encouraged us to listen, have faith in liberty, remember all that we share and give heed to “the better angels of our nature.”

George Washington Source
Abraham Lincoln Source

Let Him Warm You

My childhood home had three woodburning stoves, two in the basement, one on the main floor and a pile of wood that was always stacked next to the back wall of the house.  Our home which was close to the mouth of the canyon felt the powerful east winds and one winter a snow and wind storm knocked out the power for several days and made travel treacherous.  Once when dad left the house to get wood from the pile, the wind blew him into the wall.  No one else was allowed outside.  We gathered blankets and pillows making beds on the floor in the room with the main floor stove.  We played games, cooked grilled cheese and soup on top of the stove and even whipped up cookie dough that we baked pancake style in a pan.  We watched out the large front window as the wind created an ever changing landscape of drifted snow, warm and happy next to the fire.

In an interview Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked, “Have you found that your relationship to God has changed as you’ve grown older?”  He responded, “Yes. I am learning to shut up more in the presence of God….previously, I… ha[d] a kind of shopping list that you bring to God. But more and more, I think you are trying to grow in just being there. Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter, you are just there in front of the fire, and you don’t have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.” (Interview by Renee Montagne, March 11, 2010)

“I think that is a lovely metaphor—just sit with the Lord and let Him warm you like a fire in winter. You don’t have to be perfect or the greatest person who ever graced the earth or the best of anything to be with Him.  I hope you will take time…to sit for a few quiet moments and let the Savior’s Spirit warm you and reassure you of the worthiness of your service, of your offering, of your life….come away spiritually strengthened and better prepared for all that is going to come later. Let that moment be one of rest and refreshing and reassurance and renewal.” (Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Ensign, December 2015)

While winds and storms rage around us, we can draw close to the fire of His love to warm and sustain us.

Let us be Faithful

I have been helping my dad work on his personal history and pondering the arc of a life where seemingly small events became pivotal moments that have reverberated through generations.  While sorting through a box of papers, I ran across a letter I had written to my missionary brother almost twenty seven years ago describing a night that had occurred several years earlier.  I had graduated from college, started my first full time job and was feeling that the Lord had led me to a place I did not want to be. 
 
“I was not happy.” I wrote, “I was shocked to find thoughts of doubt creeping into my mind.  I wanted my own will so badly that I couldn’t see clearly.  I remember one night spent crying, not only tears of unhappiness but tears of anger.  I was startled to realize that I was following the road of pride and destruction.  I had always felt that no matter what I would be faithful, nothing could shake me, but here I was shaken over something so small….I straightened up…I have learned so much.  I am so much stronger.  I have never been happier in my life.  I marvel at how good the Lord is to me and am so grateful that my will was not exerted over the Lord’s plan for me.  He has blessed and prospered me in ways I had not thought possible.  He has given me marvelous opportunities.  I am so grateful.” (June 26, 1997)
 
I recounted the story to my brother to explain a new situation I was facing.  While praying for a much hoped for outcome, I received a prompting that I believed ran counter to my desires.  I “had myself a good cry [as] my mind struggled between what I wanted and what I had been impressed to do. The Lord has never harmed me.  He has blessed, prospered, loved and protected me, and this situation is not an exception….The desires of my heart will not go unfulfilled.  I have felt at peace.  The last three years have taught me how to be faithful….As the hymn goes, ‘We doubt not the Lord nor His goodness, we have proved Him in days that are past.'” (Ibid)
 
Now, with nearly three decades of hindsight, the wisdom of God in that moment astounds me.  We can trust in the Lord and His goodness. He knows and loves us more than we can understand.  He wants our happiness more than we want it ourselves.  “Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.” (1 Nephi 7:12)

Scratch and Dent

I was moving into student housing for fall semester of my freshman year at BYU.  The parking lot was full of students and cars and every person walking back and forth was carrying something.  In the days before back up cameras, I cautiously backed my car out of the parking stall with my eyes watching out the back window.  I was almost out when I heard a dreaded crunch as the front of my car nicked the back end of the car in the stall next to me.  Though the dents on both cars were small, I felt sick.  I left a note with my name and phone number on the car I’d hit and went into my apartment to call my parents.  My dad picked up the phone, I explained what had happened, and waited through the moment of silence.  He gave me our insurance agent’s phone number and then to my surprise, he chuckled and told me of a time he had performed well at an athletic event.  With the adrenaline of post game exuberance, he pulled his car too sharply into his parent’s driveway and nicked the edge their house.  Though my situation remained the same, I smiled.

Remarkably, a couple of weeks passed without a phone call about the dent I had caused.  Then while making a quick trip with one of my new roommates, I was surprised to find the car I had hit was hers.  “Did you see my note?” I asked.  She replied that the scratch wasn’t enough to notice and not to worry about it.  She never mentioned it again. 

While mortals do not always react with kindness and circumstances are rarely erased, the Lord leaves no doubt about how He will respond when we reach out to Him.  “I am He that comforteth you…Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive;” (2 Nephi 8:12; 3 Nephi 9:14). Whether we turn to Him or not is completely up to us, how He will greet us when we do is assured.

Small Steps

One of the blessings of living in the same place for so many years is the opportunity to observe people over a lifetime.  This week I attended sacrament meeting in a neighboring ward and found Sister Ockey at the organ. As I listened to the prelude, I could see her in my mind playing the same organ forty years earlier for stake meetings.  Her hair has turned white now and her steps have slowed.  Feeling gratitude for her many years of service I watched her carefully make her way to her seat.  As she neared the bench where her husband was sitting, he reached out, took her hand and held it as she walked past him and settled in next to him.  
 
It was a tender, small gesture.  It took little time or energy yet it caused me to ponder how small acts, repeated over and over again change a life, change a relationship, change a family.  Perhaps the impact of our loving words, generous thoughts, and small efforts cannot be measured on their own, but the results when multiplied over a lifetime can produce our greatest blessings.  “Happiness does not spring from perfection but from applying divine principles even in small steps”  again and again and again.  (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Ensign, October 2012)
 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2012/10/one-key-to-a-happy-family?lang=eng

This is Real

Saturday morning cartoons including Looney Tunes were a staple of my childhood.  Wile E. Coyote chased the speedy roadrunner with ingenious traps that often backfired and left Wile E. flat as a pancake, folded like an accordion or with little birds chirping in a circle above his head.  The roadrunner always outsmarted the coyote yet even as children we knew the depiction was imaginary. Over the years, though, the line between reality and fiction in many facets of life has become increasingly difficult to discern.  
 
Several weeks ago, we saw roadrunners in the desertscape of Palm Springs, California.  They didn’t look much like the roadrunner I’d seen as a child on television but I enjoyed watching them strut near the shrubs on the golf course. However, when an actual coyote came running down the fairway, it was clear, truth was not relative.  A roadrunner who played with the coyote wouldn’t live long.  The coyote and roadrunner of my childhood were not real.
 
Some things are absolutely true and “the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life….A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the very object of His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan predicated on the truth ‘that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, April 2016)
 
This is real.  Trust in His plan, trust in His way, trust in His light, trust in His Son.  Stay the course that has always been true.

Dew Distilling

A couple of years ago, I sat listening to my husband’s great Aunt Betsy recount memories of her parents, Gaylen and Mary (Ross) Young.  Betsy shared her father’s quiet sacrifice of walking or taking the bus the several miles to work each day so that her mother would have the use of the family car and she recalled with affection the tender care her mother gave their favorite sibling, Teddy, who was born with Downs Syndrome.  Several grandchildren chimed in with stories as well and I noticed how many of the memories were ordinary events; a picnic at Liberty Park of tuna fish sandwiches, Grandma enjoying listening to her granddaughter play the piano, and a round of golf with Grandpa.  

Gaylen and Mary (Ross) Young

The memories described were not grand acts or large gestures, but the repeated acts of encouragement, love, thoughtfulness and time.  As I listened I saw the small interactions, efforts, conversations and laughter that were building however imperceptibly, relationships, love and security.  The phrase, “as dew distilling” came to my mind.

Several times in the Old Testament, the Lord refers to the “dew”.  Dew is not a rainstorm, it is much more subtle than that, it is the water in the air that as the night cools, condenses in droplets on the ground.  In Israel, the dew that “distilled” nightly, from air filled with ocean water, nourished and fed the plant life in the arid parts of the country.  Its regularity, not its volume, brought the needed sustaining.  We can long for and focus on big events, swift changes, and miraculous interventions but so often, the Lord works in the small details of daily life.  In the book of Hosea the Lord describes His work, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely…I will be as the dew unto Israel.” (Hosea 14:4-5) Like the common interactions of daily life that are soon forgotten, we may miss the “dew” of the Lord that quietly “heals [our] backsliding” and “loves [us] freely” nourishing and strengthening us.  Every effort we make to study His word, to follow His path, to live as He lives will be met with the healing, loving, “dew” of heaven and almost imperceptibly, we will be “led in the more fertile parts of the wilderness” of our lives. (1 Nephi 16:16)

Familiar Voice

As we drove through a snowstorm over the holidays, my mind went back to many childhood memories of making the same winter drive.  One is more vivid than the rest.  I was 14 or 15 and riding in a little Honda CVCC with my older brother and two of our cousins.  My parents were in a Suburban in front of us and my uncle and aunt’s car brought up the tail of the caravan.  
 
My cousin and I settled into opposite sides of the back seat, ready for a nap on the drive home when I found that the seat belt on my side of the car was broken.  My mother was a real stickler about seat belts at a time when not many people were so I rationalized in my mind that I would sleep better in the side seat with a window to rest my head against.  The seat belt in the middle seat was only a lap belt, I really didn’t want to sit on the “hump” seat.  Even as the argument in my head continued, I slid over next to my cousin, put on the seat belt and remarkably fell asleep.  I woke to the sound of my cousin’s voice. “Hold on!” he called and my eyes opened to see our car sliding head on toward the underside of an eighteen wheel semi truck.  A black box hung from the undercarriage of the truck, our car hit it and slid on ice back out from beneath the moving truck.  My cousin managed to get the car stopped on the side of the road where my uncle had plowed into a snowbank in his effort to avoid colliding with us.  As we exited our cars, we were grateful to find that everyone was unharmed and safe.  
 
I was grateful I had put on my seatbelt and even more grateful the next morning when I saw the bruises where my hips had hit the lap belt with more force than I had realized.  The decision to move to the middle seat did not feel like the result of a spiritual impression.  The voice I remembered and heard was the voice of my mother and I grumbled at it.  I learned that often the Holy Ghost sounds a lot like my mother, urging me to take care of myself, sharing a testimony of the plan of redemption, reminding me who I am and that the Lord has a plan for me.  He nudges me to be a little better, to be a little more kind and to choose to have a little more faith.  He confirms that my prayers have been heard and that the scriptures I read are true.  He urges me to repent and try again.  He helps us all to remember God’s commandments, the covenants that bind us to our Father and the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Who guarantees our covenants and the promise that we can always have His Spirit to be with us. Through every new effort, new challenge, new day and new year, His familiar voice reminds us of Heavenly Parents and the lessons of our heavenly home.

Greatest Gift

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14)…”which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

“And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.  He is despised and rejected of men…He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed….he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:2,5,12)

“…Now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you…come unto me and ye shall have eternal life.  Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.” (3 Nephi 9:13-14)

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more…For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:16-17)

“We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary.  He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world…

“We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood and His Church have been restored upon the earth- ‘built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone’ (Ephesians 2:20)…His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.  God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.” (The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Angels Sweetly Singing

I grew up in a home where music and singing were encouraged.  Some of my favorite family home evenings were nights when we opened the hymn book and just sang, song after song as they were requested.  I love to sing and though I don’t mean to, singing quietly does not come naturally to me.  Perhaps that is one reason that in a December sacrament meeting all my children, who were then quite young, came in with great enthusiasm to sing “Angels we have heard on High”.  Their voices echoed through the chapel as they sang with all their hearts.   At a time when fatigue was a common companion for me, tears came streaming down my face as I heard their testimonies of our Savior in the music they were singing and it  filled even the weary corners of my heart.  As the song ended, my son asked, “Mom, why is everyone smiling?”  “Because your singing makes them happy,” I responded. 
 
It was not a planned performance, the voices were not trained but the testimony and the joy were real and that testimony and joy radiated to all who heard it.  Our voices may not be trained, our words may not be eloquent but as we give our efforts to sing our own song of the redeeming love we feel from Jesus Christ, His love can radiate to those around us and expand to the corners of our own hearts that are too heavy to feel like singing right now.  
 
I am grateful for the heavenly choirs, seen and unseen, who “sing the matchless love, Of Him who left His home above….Let heav’n and earth His love proclaim.” (Hymns, no 177)