The Gospel Is Personal

Last Sunday was my turn to speak in Sacrament meeting.  I was assigned a general conference talk to "loosely" base my talk upon.  The problem was, I had a very difficult time with the existential nature of that talk.  As I pondered the talk, I hunted down scriptures and memories of other conference talks I'd remembered taking notes on in my journal over the years and then the talk coalesced.

Then on Sunday, I sat listening in amazement while the youth speaker, Madi Koski detailed the Gospel instruction that particularly struck her during the EFY conference she attended earlier this month.  Our talks had many points in common.  Something the Lord evidently really wanted spoken from the pulpit yesterday.  Because I didn't attend EFY and hear the things Madi did, the Lord had to lead me a merry chase through research to achieve the same results.  I was very cool.

This is my talk...

Minds of Men Fashioned a Crate of Thunder

The flight to Florida was one of my personal pre-vacation stressors. And, it was all about The Boy.   My easy-going, charming, enthusiastic, curious Urchin Boy was suddenly none of those things and decidedly NOT keen to go to Disneyworld once he realized that we'd be flying there. In fact, he lobbied intensely throughout November and December to persuade us either to a) let him stay with Grandma Jane instead (until we explained that that also required air-travel), or b) delay the trip until Daughter #1 was in college (maybe hoping that if we put it off we'd forget and not go?  I never quite figured out why that option appealed to him.). 

 

In response, we cajoled, and comforted, and attempted to engage his enthusiasm with comparisons to riding in a race car. All to no avail. His lobbying program didn't cease until I stated firmly that, as we'd already paid for the tickets, his attendance was compulsory and he WOULD have a fantastic time. I then declared the discussion officially over. To my great surprise, I didn't hear another word about it. Gosh, if only that tactic worked in all situations.

Understanding the Trick Doesn't Spoil the Illusion

We spent months preparing our son with autism for air travel and then flew six people from Minnesota to Florida in the dead of winter (somehow managing to leave and return between snowstorms). We purchased resort accommodations, travel insurance, meal plans and theme park tickets for seven people (and then spent two days reworking those arrangements when the resort messed them up upon our arrival). And, throughout it all we coordinated those plans with seven other family members and an additional family friend, who joined us at the resort and parks. It was a LOT of work for a weeklong family vacation at Disneyworld...

...and it was totally worth every penny and every moment of stress. 
 

Talking Turkey and Other Traditions

When the children were very young, just to be silly and to mess with them a little (because it's in the contract) I told them that in order for the turkey to thaw properly for Thanksgiving, it needed to be talked to.  Like houseplants.  Seriously.  Every time they opened the refrigerator, or it wouldn't be ready for Thanksgiving.  And, of course, the earth would implode if they didn't get turkey for Thanksgiving.  (This year they started audibly pining for Thanksgiving on November 1st.  It's a new record.)

 

I was VERY persuasive. 

Wonder of Wonders

I came home to a miracle, recently.  Seriously - rainbow across my living room, blue birds singing on the windowsill (well, yellow finches, it is Minnesota).  I even thought I heard the soft refrain of a choir of angels in the distance.  That kind of miracle.

If I had known a miracle was in my future, I wouldn't have run errands that afternoon and missed the first half of it. 

But then, I think the miracle occurred expressly because I wasn't there. 

Navajo Code Talkers WW2

Come away, human child...

The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is not the sort of place I'd normally be eager to take my Celtic hoard.  I like gardens, and my children  appreciate being outdoors. But, as I've said at other times, my children's appreciation of things tends to be of a physical rather than emotional or mental nature. Flowers tend not to survive such appreciation. However, the experiences of one of my friends intrigued me; and I was assured that this Arboretum could survive our visit. 

 

Oh, it was a beautiful afternoon. (Click on a photo to enlarge it.)