- Richard is a busy Scoutmaster. One night he took Mark with his Scout troop to tour the State Capitol.
Family update
Category: Church
Relief Society message
I give a 5-minute message at the beginning of our weekday Relief Society activity which happens 9-10 times a year.. This is the message I shared last night at our service activity. We had sisters ages 8 and older there, preparing fleece blankets, cards, framed gospel art, and necklaces for people in El Salvador. I told someone I would post my message because she wasn’t able to be there. I stumbled a little as I spoke, trying to remember what I prepared to say without reading from my notes. This is the more complete version of what I hoped to say.
When I was about 10-years-old, I was invited to participate with the Relief Society in a quilting activity. I came by myself because my mom wasn’t able to attend. I walked to the church and sat down next to my white-haired neighbor. The sisters showed me how to thread the needle and begin the stitches on the quilt that rested before us in the frame. My stitches weren’t tiny like the others, but I remember the women were so kind to me and said I was doing a good job. I ran home at dinnertime and told my mom I wanted to go back and spend some more time quilting.
Why do I remember this experience? I have an idea, but first I want to develop it with another story.
Just before Jesus went to Jerusalem for the last time, he was in Bethany, in the home of Simon the leper and a woman having an alabaster box of precious, expensive oil came and anointed Jesus’ head. (Mark 14) Some thought it a “waste” of precious money. Jesus said, “Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me…She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.” In other words, he taught that her generous act showed that she understood that he was the Christ (The Anointed One).
Jesus also said, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of her for a memorial of her.” In the Gospel of Mark, the woman is not named, but her action is. Through her act, she testified of Christ.
Going back to my experience as a 10-year-old girl, quilting with the Relief Society sisters, perhaps I remember this experience because this was my first glimpse into what Relief Society really is: more than a club, more than a class, more than a place to go. It is the Lord’s organization for women of covenant, where women again and again do as the unnamed woman disciple: we do what we can to show that Jesus is the Christ. I couldn’t have put it into these words when I was ten, but I felt something special was going on with these sisters.
Beyond quilts and casseroles, we are true disciples when are patient with weaknesses in others and in ourselves, giving the benefit of the doubt. We do what we can and allow the Lord to make up the difference. Relief Society is one way the Lord helps us keep our baptismal covenant to always remember him and keep his commandments to serve others. I hope you remember that as you serve. You are a woman or young woman of covenant.
Holes in the wall
If the book club is meeting at our house, I will need to redecorate for weeks beforehand. Even after this, the gallery wall will need to be rearranged the day of the meeting, still to no effective end.
If I am arranging a gallery wall, I can’t handle climbing into the attic to place the bucket in the usual spot when the roof starts leaking. Richard will need to come home and do it because my mind can only juggle so much.
The gallery wall isn’t really what occupies my mind the most; it’s the new baby in the ward and a neighbor grieving; illnesses and milestones in people’s lives that I want to help them face; it’s juggling motherhood and being a wife; It’s worry for my grandmother who has had a major stroke. But I obsess about the gallery wall.
I need to do something that doesn’t involve making more holes in the wall, I think.
General Priesthood Session
Richard and the boys got to attend the General Priesthood session at the Conference Center. That outtake in the second position just makes me laugh. I didn’t watch the session, but it didn’t take me long to learn there was a Chewbacca reference in one of the talks. They never talk about Star Wars with the sisters, not that I am complaining.
Temple Celebration
My parents have served for many months on the Provo City Center Temple open house committee. They are so excited about the new temple near their home. My dad worked on the missionary committee and he and my mom helped direct visitors that walked through the temple. Did you hear that over 800,000 people toured this temple? There were many nights spent at planning meetings to make this run smoothly.
They took Paige and Daniel to the cultural celebration in the Marriott Center on the night before the dedication. Paige walked a few steps from her dorm and met them there.
My mom is an ordinance worker and organist for the new temple. She played for patrons for the first time yesterday. This is such an exciting time.
Our voices are needed
I shared this cartoon with my Relief Society sisters last night. I have seen over and over again how much our Priesthood leaders count on hearing the sisters’ perspective about issues; how sisters are needed in the complicated times of illnesses, births, weddings, deaths, and grieving, along with every day moments. Their voices are needed, not just to find pretty things, but to help with concrete, difficult issues.
The sisters in my congregation have been helping someone pack her house for a move. On Saturday our brothers carried the boxes we packed to the storage unit. It’s one of many examples of how we are all on the same team, doing the same work, but with different roles.
Sisters need their brothers’ perspectives and talents. Sometimes it’s the bishop who sees the roses when all I can find are thorns. More important than that, I am comforted to know that the bishop holds the priesthood keys to direct the Relief Society. His voice is essential to the work, but it doesn’t diminish my role. I counsel with the bishop and then we both work for a common goal. In my marriage, I depend on Richard to help me see situations with greater clarity. We have different jobs and ways of doing things, but the same work. And it’s a great work, requiring each person’s voice, heart, mind, and strengths.
Winter sights
Snow continues to fall often. Mark’s art on the refrigerator keeps things cheery in the house. When the sun comes out we have dazzling light, reflected off the snow, stream through the house. Today is one of those dazzling days.
Every few days I get a call about someone else that has been hospitalized. Winter has been hard on this neighborhood and my congregation. I feel grateful for health and strength to help, and see real service being rendered by so many people. It is so humbling to have a front row seat to goodness.
Looking back
It’s amazing that out of all the billions of people who had ever lived, no one has had a heartbeat exactly like yours.
In the same way, God has given each of us a unique emotional heartbeat that races when we think about the subjects, activities, or circumstances that interest us. We instinctively care about some things and not about others. These are the clues to where you should be serving.
…Don’t ignore your interests; consider how they might be used for God’s glory. There is a reason that you love those things.
-Rick Warren, “The Clues to Where you Should be Serving,” RickWarren.org, September 26, 2015
Last January my friend Heather shared this quote in a lesson at church about making goals for the New Year. This quote inspired me to make some specific goals according to my interests.
My goal to make dolls was my favorite from last year. It only brought joy…and empathy…and love…and friends.
I realized that writing is a way I can serve. I gave myself permission to write, from little pieces about family and motherhood, to letters and journal entries. I learned that people enjoy a great letter; that sometimes a piece of writing is just the right thing to help someone through a confusing or heartbreaking time. I have loved writing our family stories to share with the kids and Richard.
I focused on music, resolving to always have a piece or two ready to perform on my violin. I wanted to be more prepared for last minute requests to play. I played only two times in public last year, but I was calm and prepared. The extra practice made a difference.
There were other goals, met with varying success, but I learned that our interests ARE an indication of where we can focus our efforts and serve people best. So many New Year’s resolutions are about improving what we can’t do well. Last year I learned to make goals that emphasized my strengths and interests to help others. It was a good year.
Bags for Every Occasion
Bags for every occasion
Let me confess to you my naïveté about women’s handbags of any kind. I didn’t know that there was a world of high fashion bags until I was in my late twenties. Petunia Pickle Bottom bags weren’t invented when I bought my first diaper bag. When I became a mother, I went down to Kmart and bought a mint green diaper bag with pastel animals printed all over it. I had no opinions about diaper bags until I got home from that shopping trip.
Someone looked at my new bag and said, “I’ve always felt that the bag should reflect the taste of the mother, not her baby.”
“Ouch,” I thought, and never felt good about that bag after that.
There was a Louis Vuitton purse in my mom’s closet in 1997 that was a hand-me-down from my Great-aunt Susan. My mom didn’t like the purse and gave it to me. I was looking for a bag that could hold diapers without looking like a diaper bag since my mint green bag was juvenile, apparently. After a few months I realized that this cavernous purse without pockets didn’t suit my needs. It wasn’t attractive to me, so I donated it to charity along with some worn out clothes. Later, I learned that the bag was worth hundreds of dollars. (Facepalm.)
One of the most important bags that I have carried as a mother is the church bag. In the mothers’ room at church I learned from other women that plastic bags, multiple changes of clothes, and blankets were necessary for the newborn. When babies became toddlers and didn’t want to sit still, the church bag carried anything that would entertain.
For a typical week at church when the kids were young I would load my long-handled, fabric church bag with our Baby Bible, a bag of dry cereal, sippy cups, extra pacifiers, diapers, wipes, and toys, toys, toys. We had child-sized etch-a-sketches, magnetic paper dolls, fabric swatches to make dresses on princesses, sewing cards with laces, Bible cards, Book of Mormon games, puzzles, and markers that wouldn’t mark anything but their allotted book.
When Mark was born, Richard sat on the stand each Sunday with the bishop during sacrament meeting. I had 4 children to keep quiet on my own, so I got more inventive. Into the church bag went Great-grandma’s heirloom costume jewelry and porcelain dog. I let the children hold these if they were very good. Many children can hold precious things carefully, and this is an exercise in reverence. I filled plastic Easter eggs with small surprises. I purchased handfuls of hand puppets and finger puppets. I cut out felt books of stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
I wouldn’t carry all of my tricks at once. I would rotate them in and out of the bag week by week. If I took the time to load the bag with plenty of quiet activities, not cars and action figures, the kids were more reverent. I learned that cereals with a lot of sugar were not a good idea because the kids would be grumpy after they ate these. I tried to serve snacks in the hallway before sacrament meeting so we weren’t crinkling wrappers and the kids didn’t learn to expect food when we sat in the chapel. These ideas, typed out in front of me now, seem like basic wisdom, but I they were hard-earned.
I have carried many bags over the years, but the diaper bag and church bag have been the most important. When I hear a young child upset at church I still look in my bag to find something to entertain. Unfortunately, my church bag just has pens and paper in it now. And it still doesn’t reflect my incredibly classy taste. Also, to those young mothers who have a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag, good for you. All of you. A good bag, well-stocked, whether it is pretty or not, can make all the difference.
Provo City Center Temple Open House
This picture is a a memento of a day which was very sweet. We toured the newly completed Provo City Center Temple on Saturday, hosted by my parents, who are on the open house committee. I loved the wood work, stained glass, staircases, and stencils. (Richard and Timothy were camping with the Scouts.)
I spent a lot of time in the Provo Tabernacle growing up and I have good memories of the pews and organ and walking around the grounds after church meetings. We visited Provo just days after a fire destroyed the building. It was so sad to see the ruins.
Here is a nice video of the transformation from burned tabernacle to temple.