Showing posts with label Gospel Ponderings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gospel Ponderings. Show all posts

Apr 20, 2009

Meat


This weekend was Stake Conference. I accompanied Leanne Turcios on the piano for the musical number on Saturday evening. I arranged the hymn "If You Could High to Kolob". I've decided that hymn is now in my top ten. Craig had to speak twice and did a great job. All of the talks, both Saturday and Sunday morning were awesome. They were hands on, applicable, no-nonsense spiritually uplifting messages. I like to refer to it as the real 'meat' of the gospel.

A Little Lesson:
I spent more than a few years of my young childhood thinking the stake center was actually the steak center. I wasn't so far off.



Aug 20, 2008

Sacred Work


On the way home from camping we stopped in on our temple to see how it was doing...glorious!  It was this time last year that those piles of wood and concrete were actually a beautiful grove of trees and the primary children came from across the stake for a special activity to hear the exciting news about the temple that was coming.  It was such a beautiful day.  Emily was asked to sing "I love to see the Temple" and I accompanied her on the guitar.   President Christensen told the story about how President Hinckley chose this spot for the temple even though he couldn't even see it, as it was behind a row of 40 foot trees!  Everyone here in the lower mainland loves that story!  

A Little Lesson:
     Although it is going to be so convenient and comfortable to drive a handful of minutes to now go through the temple, the real and ongoing challenge is to allow the temple to go through us and our lives.  Is it's sacred work and purpose woven into the fabric of our days, weeks or months, or is it just a place we attend out of duty and obedience.  One of our prophets said it best:

"May you let the meaning and beauty and peace of the 
temple come into your everyday life..."
~President Howard W. Hunter


Aug 11, 2008

Reluctant Pruner


I have let my tomato plants grow for too long without pruning.  I don't like to prune.  I have made many mistakes in the past.  There I am pruning away when all of a sudden there is cut branch in my hand with little tomatoes growing on the end.  For the gifted gardener, pruning is simple and enjoyable. They understand that every sucker left on the vine takes valuable energy and resources away from the growing fruit.  The scriptures often use the concept of pruning.  In Jacob 5...

And the Lord of the vineyard caused that it should be digged about, and pruned, and nourished, saying unto his servant:  It grieveth me that I should lose this tree; wherefore, that perhaps I might preserve the roots thereof that they perish not, that I might preserve them unto myself, I have done this thing.

Even the Lord does not enjoy the process of cutting back but has a perfect understanding of how essential it is for his children to experience this process.  Today I will prune my tomatoes so that I will in fact have tomatoes at the end of the season!

A Little Lesson:
I am grateful I only have to prune tomato plants and grapevines, the job of pruning my children I will gladly leave up to the Lord.  As for loving them and teaching them...I'm on it!


Aug 10, 2008

The Sabbath Day Race

I feel like when I wake up and my feet hit the floor on a Sunday morning it's like the conductor of an orchestra raises his hand, the musicians are poised to play, I stand up out of bed and the William Tell Overture begins to play.  Out of no where the voice of a horse-racing commentator begins to give play by play of my morning...

"And she's off...!"
"She hops in the shower, gently calls out to her sleeping children to wake up, mixes her shampoo and conditioner to save time, gently calls out to her sleeping husband to wake up, dries off, run's girls bubble bath, she get's dressed and starts brushing her teeth while walking to girl's bedroom picks out dresses, NICE MULTITASKING, hugs Emily and it looks like...is it?...wait for it...YES! Emily woke up in a fabulous mood and heads to the bath, Jordan stumbles out of bead and heads for his shower, she gently nudges husband and YES he's out of bed and getting ready, she hear's some rustling from the baby's room, she runs downstairs, prepares a bottle, runs back upstairs and gives Benjamin a bottle and just bought 10 more 'not having to hold baby' minutes, she gets Clara out of bed and walks her lethargic body towards the bath and Clara hops in,  she irons Emily's shirt and leaves the ironing board out for Jordan, calls out the girls to wash their hair, she starts looking for Benjamin's church clothes, girl's ignore her and she reminds them she can wash their hair for them and they immediately get started washing their own hair, she pulls baby out of crib, pulls baby's clothes off and dips his naked body in the bath with the girls, girls wine out "don't put him in - he smells like pee!",  wraps up baby in towel and begin dressing him on her bed, she puts Benjamin on the floor, hands girls their towels and tells girls to go put their dresses on, she blow dries her hair with her left hand and puts on some lipstick and mascara with her right, she discovers Clara has woken up on the wrong side of the bed and has to use carefully worded sentences to get her to put her dress on without tears and tantrums, she starts telling everyone to go downstairs for breakfast, she asks Emily to put the bowls and spoons and cereal out, she helps Clara feel better by blowdrying her hair and tells dad to take Benjamin downstairs, she distracts Clara while putting her dress over her head by telling her about Naomi's baptism that's coming tonight,  she arrives at the breakfast table to eat with her family, she feeds Benjamin peaches and barley while helping Clara see that her yellow spoon is as nice as Emily's silver spoon, she reassures Emily that she has as many cornpops as Jordan does, asks dad to pass out the scriptures, she listens with one ear to the verse he reads while hearing the phone in the background with the other ear, she runs to grab it and heads back to the table just in time to tell everyone to get their shoes on and head out to the car, she runs to the basement to help Clara find her church shoes, she gently threatens Emily to find her church shoes or she will be wearing rainboots, she pulls Emily's hair into a ponytail, finds Clara crying in front of the mirror as her little girl is truly realizing that her hair is really not growing back since she cut it, she hugs her four year old gives her a kiss and a squeeze and puts a purple head band in, she shuffles her out the door grabs her scriptures, the diapers, the bottle, the wipes, the dvd to return to Sister Triggs, looks for some earrings to no avail, hops in the car, says a prayer with the family not forgetting to pray for Colleen and her talk in Sacrament meeting up in Kelowna and she's off with her family dressed, fed, groomed and ready for church."  

A Little Lesson:
I am grateful for the prelude music I hear when I enter Sacrament meeting.   I sit there, wipe the sweat from my forehead,  mentally shift gears and try to remember the reason we do what we do as moms who love the Lord.