BYU Education Week Day 5

Physically I am drained, tired, and ready for the week to end, but spiritually and emotionally I am very sad to have this amazing week end.

I am so thankful for the many new friends I have made and the stories they've shared with me. I've been hugged by former students and filed with delight in seeing them again. I've been hugged by people who are feeling the spirit of the things I've been teaching. I've been hugged by people who are in pain and excited about the new hope they have received. I've been hugged by friends I haven't seen for years and friends I see frequently. I love hugs so it has been good, and I hope you are feeling a cyber-hug as you read this because I'm sending all those hugs on to you!

Today Mr. J and I are going off to relax and renew and enjoy. Next Sunday is our 45th wedding anniversary and we thought that deserved a week away together. I'm going to do some studying, read a good book for purely escape, crochet, swim, bike, hike, snuggle for more hugs and kisses from Mr. J, and just plain enjoy. It will be a whole week of Anchoring and enjoying every precious moment! 

BYU Education Week Day 4

I hope you are enjoying Education Week. Besides the wonderful feelings generated by all these people, the setting here at BYU is one of my favorite in the whole world. Y Mountain rises majestically just east of the campus and this morning the sunrise was a soft pale pink hovering over the mountain top. The delicate beauty of it sent chills up my spine!

Yesterday went well. The Truth class was full, but the Lewis class on his fiction writing was only about 7/8 full. That could mean I am boring people and so they didn't want to come back to the class or that people aren't as interested in Lewis's fiction as they are his life and his non-fiction or maybe some people are going home early.

Since I Live in Truth and that means I am the storyteller of my life, the one who chooses which story to tell myself (After all, the truth is that there is no way to know for sure why there were less people!), I am choosing to think that people aren't as interested in Lewis's fiction.

There. I am at peace. No vexation. I am happy and life moves on. See how simple it is! It is such a change from the way I used to live when I would have vexed for days because I was sure I had bored people. So much Unnecessary Pain! I love Living in Truth!

BYU Education Week Day Three

It is such a joy when people stop me and talk to me or come up after I speak to chat. I love the many interesting and beautiful people I've met this week. I especially love it as they tell me stories of their quest to Live in Truth and how it has changed them. I know how it has changed me and that is what makes the work and effort and time to do this so worth while.

Yesterday both the Living in Truth and the C. S. Lewis classes were over-flowing. I like that because it adds an energy to the room that benefits me and everyone participating. The preparation was a little frustrating and I had to apply a few Truth Tools because I got to my office and realized I had the wrong PowerPoint slides and so I had to start over and recreate them before my class and I realized I had left the Lewis books I was supposed to quote from at home. Mr. J kindly drove home to retrieve the books and in the end everything worked. Wow, am I thankful for what I've learned about Living in Truth. A few years ago a day like yesterday would have had me so vexed and sunk me so deep in the Pit of Illusion it would have taken a week to crawl out. But yesterday I arrived at my class with no residual negative feelings, unvexed and roaring to go.

Have I mentioned before how very much I love Living in Truth?!!!!!  :)

BYU Education Week Day Two

Education Week went well yesterday. It was so busy I didn't even have time to post about it. The devotion was given by Elder Tad Callister and was fantastic. Again if you want to be part of Education Week and are not able to be here, get on BYU Speeches as soon as his talk is available and read it. He spoke about our divine nature and what that means and how it separates us from other religious ideals. The main point was that as spirit children of God we have inherited godly characteristics that we need to be aware of and develop. It was encouraging and uplifting and informative!

Since I said the prayer at the devotional I was invited to a small luncheon afterward. Elder Callister and his wife were there, President Samuelson and his wife, as well as several vice presidents of the University. It was fun to mingle and chat and relax with them.

After that I taught my two classes. First I taught "'Come What May, and Love It' But How?" and right after that I taught The Life of C. S. Lewis. Elder Callister had quoted from Lewis four times in his talk and that served as a wonderful introduction to my class which was so full they needed to open up two overflow rooms. All that energy makes teaching all the more fun and so I had a great time that hour talking about one of my mentors. I can't wait to meet him some day!

The energy, love, happiness, joy, and fun are abounding and I hope in some small way to share that with you. Enjoy!

BYU Education Week Day One

The first day of BYU Education Week has gone well. I taught my class on Faith Works By Words and met some wonderful people. That is what keeps me coming back to teach at Education Week. Just walking around campus with all these amazing people lifts and encourages. I wish I could transmit the feeling to you, but hopefully by talking about it and you reading about it you can feel it. But remember WORDS are powerful.

If you read this and think the words, "Poor me. I can't be there,"then the words will create negative feelings that destroy faith and instill depression and dismay.

But if you read this and think, "At least I get to hear about it, and I can imagine how it is," then you will have almost the same experience I am having. The WORDS you use make all the difference in the world.

So use your imagination and think about what it is like to be among thousands of believing, faith seeking, wonderful people. Feel the aura that exists, the love that emanates from them. Enjoy the sounds of people greeting each other with kindness and every where you go people making new friendships. It is a little taste of heaven.

It's Coming -- BYU Education Week

It's that time again--BYU Campus Education Week is coming--August 13th to 17th. This year I'll be presenting the same three classes I did last year with a few new twists.

On Monday I'll be teaching "Faith, Then, Works by Words" at 11:10 until 1:25. This class is based on The Lectures on Faith.

Tuesday through Friday I'll be teaching "Come What May, and Love It" -- But How? at 1:50 in the Madsen Recital Hall of the HFAC. This class is all about Living in Truth and I am excited about doing it again. I've learned some new things that I'm incorporating and I'm excited to share them.

Tuesday through Friday I'll also be teaching The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis  at 3:10 also in the Madsen. Here again I've made some changes and the last day I'll be teaching a whole new lecture, Christian Theology in the Narnia Tales.

If you are coming to Education Week be sure and come say hello!

Last Day

Today I do the last Truth class--the one about joy and the Savior and His love. You all know that listening to those things makes you feel good but preparing them and teaching them makes you feel even better. I've had a wonderful morning reading and pondering and preparing.

In the Lewis class I'm teaching the Chronicles of Narnia--again the preparation has been wonderful but at the same time frustrating. How do you capture the essence of the Chronicles in 55 minutes? I'm struggling with what to put in and what to leave out. I guess I can only hope to instill in people a desire to read the books for themselves so they can experience it.

Lewis came under a lot of criticism for what some claimed was a degrading thing--writing for children. But I love how he defended himself. He said, "Critics who treat adult as a term of approval instead of a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. … When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” 

I love it! The child in me (the child I embrace with whole-hardheartedness) loves it! The Chronicles are wonderful reading when a child, but no child can fully comprehend the eternal truths hidden in the symbols and metaphors. The books are for adults as well as for children. 

If you haven't read them, you should.

My Week So Far

Yesterday went very well. It is the first time I've taught the "Faith Works by Words" class at Education Week and it was exciting even though the microphone went out in the middle of the class. When teaching you have to learn to roll with the situations that present themselves!

The "Life of C. S. Lewis" class is always fun. I am teaching it again today and then the rest of the week will  discuss his non-fiction, his fiction, and finally on Friday the Chronicles of Narnia. I've never taught the Chronicles and so that will be another fun first. (At least I'm counting on it being fun!) I am still amazed at the adversity Lewis overcame and how he exemplifies Living in Truth.

Thanks to all of you who came to my classes! And especially thanks to all of you who came up and talked to be afterward. I love the hugs you usually give me!

Wish you were all here with me!

BYU Education Week

BYU Education Week begins Monday. It will be a busy week but a fun one. I love meeting so many wonderful people from so many different places. Just walking across campus you can feel the positive energy and the way even strangers greet you with so much love and kindness. It always makes me think that this is how it will be and feel in the millennium.

If you are coming to Education Week be sure to look me up and say hello. If you aren't, I'll try and keep you informed as to what is happening.

Monday morning I teach "Faith Works by Words." I've been researching this for a long time but haven't taught it before, so this week I did a practice run through with some friends. They gave me some good suggestions and so I hope I'm ready.

Hope to see you there!

BYU Education Week is Coming

Brigham Young University Education Week is fast approaching (August 15-19). This year I am teaching three classes and am very excited about it. On Monday I will be teaching a new two hour class on the subject of “Faith Works by Words.” I’ve been doing the research on the relationship of words and faith for the past two years and this will be the first time I’ve shared what I’ve been learning. They also asked me to do the lecture on the “Life of C. S. Lewis” on Monday afternoon.

During the Tuesday to Friday classes I will be teaching “'Come What May and Love It'--But How?” which are the Living in Truth principles, and “The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis.” On Tues. the Lewis class will repeat the Monday lecture on the life of Lewis and the following days I’ll do classes on the fiction, non-fiction, and finally the Chronicles of Narnia.

It is going to be a fun week and I hope to see you there!

It's Over

It is over and I am so sick. I guess I pushed too hard this week and my body still isn't ready to be pushed that hard. But then even before Grizelda this pace would have taxed me!

I do want to share with you a little miracle. Yesterday during the class on C. S. Lewis, while I was speaking the room suddenly began to spin and my knees began to buckle. I couldn't see my notes because of the spinning, but I managed to keep speaking (I don't know if I made any sense or not!) and inside I was saying a prayer, "Please don't let me pass out!" About then my stomach started to churn and I have no idea how I held on except that it was a miracle. Mr. J said he could tell something was wrong, but others in the audience said they didn't notice. All I can say is that the spirit must have taken over for a few minutes because my body was no longer running the show.

After that class, Mr. J took me to his office and gave me a blessing and that got me through the last class. Besides being sick it was a wonderful week and I found myself using the Truth Tools in a new way. (Someone is always teaching me new lessons!) I haven't thought much about using the Tools against physical ailments and physical pain, but yesterday I began to do that. They work! Not so much that they take away the sickness or the pain, but they helped me endure it and "over ride" it.

Well, Education Week is over and now its time to get ready for next semester. Time moves on.

The Last Day

It's the last day of Education Week. In ways that is a relief and in others a disappointment. My cold has moved to my chest and I need rest, but I will miss the wonderful spirit that exists during Education Week.

I've had so much fun with the Lewis class, I thought I'd share with you just a snippet of why. First of all, I am mathematically challenged, but so was Lewis. He failed the math part of his entrance exams to Oxford and would not have gotten into Oxford if it had not been for the war. (He was an officer and after the war all veterans were allowed admittance without passing exams!) Concerning his lack of math skills, Lewis later wrote, "I could never have gone far in any science because on the path of every science the lion Mathematics lies in wait for you.” Oh yes, I've seen the jaws of that lion!

The other thing I love is Lewis' humor. He loved animals, especially dogs, and at one point he described his dog Tim, by saying he “was the most undisciplined, unaccomplished, and dissipated-looking creature that ever went on four legs. He never exactly obeyed you; he sometimes agreed with you."

But most of all I love Lewis because he holds a mirror up to my face and allows me to see things about myself I've never seen before--necessary things that will help me return to my Father in Heaven. He's facilitated some of the miracles in my life.

Third Day at Education Week

Last night I couldn't go to sleep. I'd start to doze off and then jerk awake thinking, "I forgot to tell them this about Lewis." I'd finally drift back to sleep and again jerk awake, "Oh, I didn't tell them this, and it is so important." And on and on it went for what seemed like hours. All I thought about all night is what I left out! But 55 minutes is not long enough to include everything. Hopefully the point came across that despite the adversity and trials, Lewis was a man who lived in Truth. He exemplified it every moment he lived.

Today I'm talking about the non-fiction of C. S. Lewis in the morning and the Truth Tools in the afternoon. In the Lewis class we're going to talk about Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. I have a feeling I'm not going to get much of the Problem of Pain covered, and tonight my sleep is going to be a problem of pain as I recall all I didn't explain. But then, maybe a miracle will happen and we will be able to get all of my mere notes covered in the 55 minutes.

Once again, I wish you were all here. It is amazing to be surrounded by so many loving, caring, kind people all seeking to learn and grow. The very air rings with their joy!

Day Two of Education Week

Somehow I picked up a bug and am fighting a cold, but I'm depending on a higher source to get me through this.

I had a surprise yesterday when I found I had made the papers. Click the link and you can see for yourself. The picture of me is awful, but I love the way he captured me pointing at miracles! It captures my whole last two years of life.

Even though I'm sick and so tired, I'm loving this because of the people. I get so many hugs and smiles and just watching all these wonderful people affirms me. I imagine this is a glimpse into what heaven will be like.

Today I start the Lewis class and then in the afternoon I'll be talking about necessary and unnecessary pain. I wish you were all here to enjoy this with me. It is a whole different life than what the headlines of newspapers report life to be like!

The First Day (adventure!) of Education Week

Education Week is amazing. Yesterday I saw friends I hadn't seen in twenty years! I met new friends, and relatives and friends that I love very much showed up to support me. But the most amazing thing is that EVERYONE is so wonderful. The glow that emanates from them is out of this world! Before my first class I had a few moments to just look out on the crowd of people--what a handsome crowd--and my heart was touched by the thought that these were all my brothers and sisters and I wanted to know more about every one of them--wanted to give them all a hug! But, of course, I couldn't.

One very interesting thing happened after my last class (and remember I was teaching "Miracles in the Messages of Jesus" and the last class was on the Sabbath day miracles). A woman came up to me and introduced herself as a Jew from Israel who just happened to be on campus for a few weeks as a visiting professor and decided to come to one class today to see what this Education Week thing was all about. Of all the classes, I don't know why she picked one on Jesus, but she did. One of the first things she said to me was, "Thank you. I now know what to do on the Sabbath."

That comment surprised me coming from a Jew, but then she kept going on and on about what she had felt during the class. She left, but then my mother and I ran into her again when I was going to my car and I talked with her for almost an hour. She again kept talking about what she was feeling at BYU and how wonderful and nice the people are and I said, "That's what the gospel does to us." She smiled and nodded, but didn't say anything.

She is a very nice, intelligent woman herself, and I am looking forward to getting together with her in the future and learning from her. You just never know what will happen at Education Week!

I'm Working Hard

I’m busy preparing for BYU Education Week next week. Monday I teach a three hour series on The Messages in the Miracles of Jesus. Tuesday through Friday I am teaching two classes. At 11:10 Wednesday through Friday I will be teaching a class on C. S. Lewis and his Writings. At 1:50 Tuesday through Friday I will be teaching a class on called Escaping the Bondage of Your Negative Emotions By Living in Truth. (That’s certainly a mouthful!) This last class will cover the things about Truth that we talk about on Good News!

If any of you are coming to Education Week, I hope you will say hello. I love meeting the people who read my blog. It is like encountering an old friend after years of not seeing them.

I hope to see you!

Summer is Here!

Summer is finally here and it is going to go fast. On July 5th Mr. J and I are going to New York to be Volunteers at the Hill Cumorah Pageant for two weeks. We already have our assignment--we will be at the Smith Farm so if you are visiting the Pageant this year be sure to find us and say hello. We are very excited to spend two weeks at the Sacred Grove and to be a small part of the pageant. The bonus is that D1 and her family are going to be in the pageant so we will get to see them.

We finish our work there on the 18th and on the 19th we fly to Ireland. Mr. J served as a missionary there a few years ago and he has always told me he'd take me back there and finally we are going.We arrive in Ireland on the 20th and will meet D8 and her family who are currently living in Africa there. We will spend the first five days in Northern Ireland near Belfast and then are hoping to go south to the Republic of Ireland to spend the next five days there. We don't have a place to stay there yet, but D8 is an amazing tour planner and she is looking for cottages for us to rent for the week. If you know of any, or if you've been there and have some good ideas of places to visit, (especially places with good food!) send them to me.

We get home late on July 31st. Several other daughters will be here visiting and then on August 16th BYU Education Week begins. This year I am teaching three classes. I am teaching Messages in the Miracles of Jesus in a three hour block on Monday. During the week I am teaching a class on the life and writings of C. S. Lewis which I am very excited about and a class on Living in Truth called something like Ridding Your Life of Negative Emotions. (I can't remember the exact title!) If you are planning to be at Education Week be sure and come say hello. I love the fact that at BYU Women's Conference several of you introduced yourselves to me. It turns all that work of preparation and presentation into fun!

For now, I just need to get my foot healed so I can do all of this!!!!

This is the Big Week!

With all that’s been going on around here, I got behind on answering your comments. So I’ll say right here to all of you, “Thanks you so much for your love and support!” You don’t know how it has helped me. My appointment with the doctor is this afternoon at 3:00 and I am counting on good news, but no matter what the news I know that my Father in Heaven will help me through it and that I have many, many friends (YOU!) who are there to support and cheer me on. I’ll try to post a quick note later this afternoon after I get back from the doctor with a report of what I find out.

It’s also a big week in that tomorrow I begin teaching at BYU Education Week. I am looking forward to that. People come from all over the world for Education week, and I meet so many wonderful people and learn so much. It is one of my favorite things to do.

So today I am knee deep in studying one of my favorite things to study—Truth. Remember that Truth is knowledge of what is, what was, and what will be (D&C 93:24). Truth is not what should be or should have been. Understanding that basic principle has changed my life. When I let myself wander into the realm of Illusion by thinking things shouldn’t be the way they are, I create unnecessary pain and misery for myself. When I stay in the realm of Truth and deal with what is, the Spirit is always there to comfort and guide me. Life becomes so much simpler!