Pearls & Perfection Pending

I really enjoyed the General Relief Society broadcast last night.  Sister Allred said what I needed to remember the most, especially after the angry mom episode the other day.  She said that charity is a divine gift which we must seek and pray for.  We must have charity to enter the Celestial Kingdom.  Charity is being patient with those who let us down, or call and yell at us... Most of all, as I'm sure is true for many, I LOVED Elder Uchtdorf's talk.  Below are the notes I took on the talk. It has been a lot of fun learning to use Photoshop, which my sister-in-law, Kristen, got me for Christmas last year.  I still have TONS to learn, but...look what I made! :) Forget me not... 1. Be patient with yourself.  God knows that you are not perfect.  Do not ever compare your weaknesses to the strengths of others.  Celebrate all of your successes.  God notices them.  Do not miss out on life's meaningful experiences.  Seek quality and meaning, wonder and delight, n

I did it again.  An angry, irresponsible Mom called me this morning at 7:55 informing me of every reason under the sun that I am a horrible teacher.  I dealt with this last year and read a lot about how to come off conqueror this year.  I told myself all about how angry people need validation.  They are angry for a reason and I need to show empathy.  I need to remember that they, like myself, have this poor kid in mind when they turn on the spigot of ignorant and unkind nonsense that pours freely out of their mouths  speak.  Yet, when I picked up the phone and listened to insult after insult, my defenses kicked in and that kind, validating woman I'd hoped to be hightailed it out of there.  The sassy, "oh no you didn't" version of myself came out and I couldn't stop myself from thinking horrible things about this woman whom I have never met. I tried to make it through the conversation calmly, especially since my entire class was listening to my end of it.  I then a

I headed out to the car, late as usual, but hot chocolates in hand as always, hoping to make up for my perpetual tardiness to everyone in the carpool.  I don't remember anything about seminary that early morning, but I remember the snippets from the radio talking about some trade center building, whatever that was. Meagan and I headed to our locker to pick up our IB European beast of a book.  We met Ross Barnes  on our way to class and walked into what we thought would be another morning full of Nazis and Fascists.  As we entered the room, everyone was watching something on the television screen.  A plane zoomed into a skyscraper and Ross shouted, "Cool!  What movie is this?"  Mr. Chamberlain with his perfectly groomed goatee and squarely knotted tie said nothing.  It was then that we realized the gravity of the situation.   We spent the rest of the day watching the news in every single class.  We watched the second tower fall and the planes crash over and over

A lot of people look at religion and commandments as inconvenient obstacles or annoyances.  Rules and expectations are becoming more and more obnoxious and old-fashioned.  As a school teacher, I notice a strong feeling of entitlement in children and a demand for fun and pleasure.  There are few children who like to work hard and even fewer who understand the principle that following rules brings positive consequences. I once heard a story about a little boy who went out to fly a kite with his father one afternoon.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and the wind was just right.  The little boy was so excited to see his kite flying high above the earth. He thought the only thing that could make his experience better would be to see the kite go higher and higher into the sky.  He told his father that he wanted to cut the string so that the kite could fly as high as it could.  His father gently broke the news that it was in fact the string that kept the kite up.  Obviously, his fath

1 Nephi 10 is the first time in the Book of Mormon when anything specific is actually prophesied about the life and mission of Jesus Christ as the Son of God to come to Earth. It seems that it is the first time that Lehi and his family really learn about what Christ would come to do. It teaches of his role as a Redeemer, "Wherefore, all mankind were in a lost and fallen state, and ever would be save they should rely on this Redeemer." Lehi also prophesied about John the Baptist who would prepare the way, and Christ's ability to take away the sins of the world. He went on to talk about the scattering of Israel and the way that they would be able to come to a knowledge of Christ. I can't imagine what listening to this for the first time might have been like if you had been living the Law of Moses your whole life and not really known anything about Jesus Christ... I think a lot of times when our prophet says something new, we are much more eager to listen than

"Sometimes God calms the storm...Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child." I was reading 1 Nephi 1 today and found interesting the process that Lehi goes through in his discovery of the events that were about to unfold. He finds out that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, so he prays about it on behalf of his people. It says that he sees and hears much in a vision of some sort, "...and because of the things which he saw and heard he did quake and tremble exceedingly." He goes home and is overwhelmed by what he has learned. Another vision is shown to him in which he sees more and is comforted because he understands the plan a little better and is given the reassurance that those who come unto the Lord "shall not perish." He is overjoyed because he knows that there is hope. So the first thing he does is he goes into town and tells everyone the good news. That didn't go over very well. They tried to kill him. While the Lord ha