Memorial Day Memories

Holidays are interesting in that they give us markers to hang memories on. Things happen all the time, but we can’t remember exactly when it happened. We remember it once in awhile, but the memories tend to fade. However, when something happens on a holiday every time that holiday comes around the event gets remembered.

I know Memorial Day is about remembering those who have passed on, especially our soldiers, but like any holiday, it also has memories of the things that happened on other Memorial Days. For me the memories include many outings with my parents to cemeteries. But the most significant Memorial Day event for me was 27 years ago. We were having a barbecue with friends at their home beside their swimming pool. We’d gotten the lunch ready and were gathered around the picnic table praying over the food when suddenly we heard a splash. I turned around to see my three-year old, D7, lying under ten feet of water at the bottom of the swimming pool.

A seventeen-year old son of our friends dove into the pool, swam to the deep end, and pulled D7 up. By then I had reached the pool and Lamar lifted the limp body out of the water to me. Her head and arms dangled from her body, I can still see her blue lips and face as if it just happened, and the way her eyes rolled in their sockets like doll eyes. Quickly I turned her over and pressed on her chest. Water gushed out of her, but as it did she started to breathe, turn pink, and revive. There hadn’t even been time to be scared. But afterward I trembled uncontrollably at the thought of what had just happened and kept thanking my Father in Heaven for the great blessing of preserving her life.

The interesting thing is that she is my only child that ever swam on a swimming team. She came home from school one day and announced that she had signed up for the high school team. I asked, “Don’t you have to know how to swim to be on the swimming team?” Without batting an eye she said, “The coach said he’d teach me.” And the coach did. She went on to win many ribbons and to qualify for the state tournament.

She is now a wife and mother of four beautiful children and I am still thanking my Heavenly Father for her and my other children.

Oh... one more thing. This last semester Lamar's son just happened to be in my Book of Mormon class. Life is interesting!

(Picture is of me and Carl with D7's family. She is taking the picture.)

Sunny Sabbath!

Good Sabbath to one and all!

A Good Week

This week has been a very emotional week for me. It was my father’s birthday. He would have been 89 years old, but he left this mortal sphere three years ago. It seems like everything I did or looked at reminded me of him. He was one of the major influences in my life as far as making me what I am today and I miss him.

It was also my oldest daughter’s birthday, the one that made me a mother. This caused me to think about all of my children and how much I love them and how they have influenced my life and changed me. I’ve often heard people talk about the influence that parents have in children's lives, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about the influence children have been in parent's lives. Maybe we think that because we are older we are supposed to be the ones influencing. But in my case, my children have influenced me more than I ever influenced them. They are amazing and I learn from them daily. They support me and one another. They live all over the world—from Africa in the East to California in the West and yet they manage to be each others best friends. Even my one son, who could be the odd man out, is very much involved with his sisters. They love him and he loves them. They are always there for each other. Watching them love and care for each other is one of the greatest joys of my life.

This doesn’t mean we have never had problems. What it does mean is that together we have weathered the problems. We have forgiven and forgotten and moved on. Such a simple thing that forgiving and forgetting is and yet so many find it so hard to do. If I could have a wish it would be that everyone could learn to do it. It makes all the difference in life.

Memorial to Family

There is nothing quite as amazing as family when you need them. They step up to the plate and support and help. They cry with you and for you. They pray for you. They patiently put up with your faults and idiosyncrasies. They give you a swift kick when you need to be motivated, and a hug when you need to be encouraged.

Maybe that is why seeing families fail hurts so much. When you understand the strength family can and should be, it causes so much pain to watch a family fall apart.

We all need each other. Especially we need family. This Memorial Day weekend is all about celebrating our heritage and the people (family members) who have passed on, but let's also celebrate the family members that are still with us and the bonds that tie us together. Let's celebrate family in all it is and should be.

Down With Competition!

I’ve been studying pride lately and pondering over ways to get rid of it. Long ago I realized how detrimental to spiritual health pride is, but I have been unsuccessful at getting rid of it. Pride just keeps resurfacing in me. I think pride is going to be a life-long battle for me! And I don’t like it because I realize that it is the root of all other vices.

But the other day I came across this from C. S. Lewis, "Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone." (Mere Christianity, p. 110). This gave me some new thoughts to ponder and I’ve begun to think of ways to apply the Truth Tools to destroying the feelings of competition within me. Competition was Lucifer’s downfall in the premortal life and has been a big problem for me all my life.

So . . . I’d love for any and all ideas you have about getting rid of a competitive spirit and thoughts on using the Truth Tools to do that.

Prayer Power

I got one of those calls yesterday—a call from my mother asking me to pray for my niece who suddenly began having seizures. BBS (Before Brain Surgery) I would, as soon as I could, dutifully pray when a call like this came, and I would think about the person and the situation hoping for the best. But ABS (After Brain Surgery) when calls like this come, I drop everything immediately and pray with all my heart that all will be well and that the person will feel the prayers and love of others as much as I did.

The healing for me was a wonderful miracle. The love and the tangibility of other’s prayers was a delightful surprise. That feeling sustained me while I waited for the miracle. That feeling kept fear at bay. That feeling warmed and comforted me. And I know that feeling was part of the healing. Prayer works. It is real. We should all be praying for each other because life is meant to be a community affair. None of us will make it to the Celestial Kingdom without helping someone else get there, too. There are many ways we do that, but prayer is part of all of them.

Thanks again for all of your prayers when I needed them. I still can feel the strength they gave me. And pray for my niece, Jessica, who lovingly offered to cut her long, strawberry-blond hair to make a wig for me when Grizelda plagued me.

Straightening

Christianity teaches us that "the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam" (Mosiah 3:19). In other words, because of the Fall of Adam, we are born into a telestial world as “natural” or “fallen” creatures and the task of life is to be raised up—to become spiritual and saved creatures. I like the way C. S. Lewis explains it, "Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms" (Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 59). Lewis goes on to explain why this is so important. "A creature revolting against a creator is revolting against the source of his own powers-including even his power to revolt. . . . It is like the scent of a flower trying to destroy the flower."

I don’t bring this up to depress or discourage. Instead I bring it up because it is so important that each one of us realize that we need someone to raise us up because we can’t raise ourselves up. We need a Savior.

In another of Lewis's works, a science fiction story entitled Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis uses a word to describe our fallen condition that I like better than carnal or fallen. Lewis says we are “bent.” When the scientist, Ransom, describes the dangerous motives of other space travelers to the inhabitants of the planet Malachandra, he says they are “bent” which implies that they are distorted rather than broken and something that is bent can usually be bent back or corrected. I like this because it gives me a mental picture of me bent with sin and my Savior straightening me out. Yes, it is painful at times, but if I hang in there and don’t resist, I will be straightened. I will be saved. I like that a lot.