What gifts can you give Him?

I love the month of December!  I love being able to hang up pretty Christmas lights, listen to songs on the radio, going home to family, and the spirit that accompanies this special season.  Music especially is the best part.  I grew up in a home where music was everywhere, and I mean everywhere.  

My five brothers and I grew up with our best friend: a beautiful, 7 foot Yamaha grand piano.  My earliest memories revolve around that instrument.  My father is masterful pianist and song writer.  There were nights when I was a little girl that my Dad would begin practicing the piano and I would rush to get into bed so I could fall asleep to his playing.  One of our most favorite songs he played was the "Raindrop Prelude" by Chopin.  We loved to dance around the room to the "rain" in the music but when the thunder came, we would dash under the piano and giggle hysterically as my dad pounded the keys as loud as he could.  When we were old enough, each of us was enrolled in piano lessons.  When we reached middle school, we chose an additional instrument and joined either the orchestra or band.  All our instruments combined included: cello, violin, viola, piano, organ, guitar, clarinet, oboe, and saxophone.  The joke in the family is my mother plays the whip; she gets us all to practice.  Of course, I'm not sure how she survived.  There were some days when each person was practicing an instrument in a different room of a house.  Like I said, music was everywhere.

With my fathers great talent for writing and arranging songs, my family was blessed with the opportunity to perform in many scenarios together.  Although rehearsals didn't always go smoothly and more than once involved tears (yes from the boys too), it was and is one of our favorite things to do.  As we rehearsed my father would always stress using music to bear testimony.  It was through our feelings and the way we played our instruments that the spirit could be communicated to others.  This is probably why when I run music rehearsals I always try now to drive home the purpose of each piece.

And now to point of all this.  My favorite Christmas carol is "Drummer Boy."  Several years ago I was in the Las Vegas city-wide Mormon Youth Orchestra.  Our conductor read us the words of the song and it stuck with me.  The lyrics are below (I removed the pa rum pum pum pum's):

Come they told me
A new born King to see
Our finest gifts we bring
To lay before the King
So to honor Him
When we come

Little baby
I am a poor boy too
I have no gift to bring
That's fit to give our King
Shall I play for you

On my drum

Mary nodded

The ox and lamb kept time

I played my drum for Him

I played my best for Him

Then He smiled at me

Me and my drum 

I love the story the song portrays.  A little boy is told to go see the newborn King.  Others have such fine gifts to offer to the babe but the little boy has nothing, that is nothing but his music.  He offers the Christ-child the gift of his music and "[he] played [his] best for Him."  In so many ways, I feel like the little drummer boy.

President Monson said in the recent Christmas Devotional:

“May we give as the Savior gave.  To give of oneself is a holy gift. We give as a remembrance of all the Savior has given. May we also give gifts that have eternal value, along with our gifts that eventually break or are forgotten. How much better the world would be if we all gave gifts of understanding and compassion, of service and friendship, of kindness and gentleness.

“As the Christmas season envelopes us with all its glory, may we, as did the Wise Men, seek a bright, particular star to guide us in our celebration of the Savior’s birth. May we all make the journey to Bethlehem in spirit, taking with us a tender, caring heart as our gift to the Savior.” 

Christmas is here and New Year's is right around the corner.  I invite each of us to consider what we can give to the Christ child now and throughout the coming year.  He offered his life for us and He asks in return to give of our lives (time, talents, etc.) to Him.  I hope we can be as the little drummer boy and give of ourselves, and give our very best. "Then He smiled at me, Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum."

The Social Media Dare

Do you ever feel like this?

Do you ever walk out of class and look around and count how many cell phones you see or headphones in ears?  How about when you walk into the classroom and every head is looking down at a cell phone?  Or do you see everyone on lap tops during class looking on Facebook, Pinterest, and their email?  How about going to church and seeing people pull out their cell phones to check Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and whatever else? 

I find it so sad that people are more interested in connecting with the people who are on the internet than those who are right in front of them and around them.  I know I am not perfect at this either.  We get overly excited about that little buzz and chime that tells us someone cares; whether it is a "like" on Facebook or a comment on Twitter.  We can't resist the urge to check our phones all the time.  Do you ever find yourself saddened when you go a whole day without notifications or with very few and forget that you have people around you that could talk to you instead of "notify" you on your phone?  Do you ever accept a friend request from someone you haven't seen in years and instead of making genuine contact you review their profile and feel that is good enough and you are now caught up on their life?

Back two years ago a talk was given in General Conference by Elder Ian S. Ardern that made a big impact on me.  After hearing what was said I went home and deleted my Facebook account.  I hesitated only a little.  Admittedly, I went almost a year before I returned to Facebook.  What did I learn from my time of exile?  I learned how freeing it is to go back to a time before social media.  I felt I had more time on my hands to do things and was happier.  I also realized that I never knew of the parties or activities that were going on around me but luckily I had good friends who kept me updated.  I also learned that I was more fair with people.  Instead of passing judgement on someone because of their Facebook profile I could ask them sincere questions about their lives because I didn't know what was happening.  

So why did I go back to using Facebook?  The truth is I want to stay connected to people from my mission and from my past and also because it is helpful in creating more of a social life.  I realize that there are benefits to using social media and it can be a great tool however, tools can be damaging when overused.  It is concerning that people tie up their emotions and their lives in the use of social media.  Elder Bednar gave a powerful talk in 2009 for the young single adults of the church titled "Things as They Really Are."  He drives home the message that social media is not real life and our overuse of it can create a false reality.  I strongly encourage you to read his talk.

In summary, social media is not bad but our use of social media can be.  I think everyone should evaluate how much they use it and how emotionally attached they are to it.  I think everyone would rather have genuine contact and connection to those around them than to hear from them via internet.  I would also issue a challenge that I do every once in a while to refocus myself.  Log out of all your social media sites on your computer and phone and see how long you can go without them.  Hours? Days? A Week?  Try it!  I dare you...

Community

As part of my studies at BYU, I am taking a course that is training me to be a Family Life Educator, where I can teach courses on relationship strengthening. I love this class because there are only six of us in the class and we are privileged to work very closely with our professor. We have teamed up with Mountainland Head Start and have been teaching couples for the past month with the last class being last night. It has been awesome to teach, interact with, and learn from these couples as we teach them ways and techniques to better communicate with their spouses. For anyone interested, the organization I am now authorized by to teach as a Family Life Educator is called PREP Inc.  Within Our Reach is one of the course they have developed specifically for married couples. It is the leading researched relationship strengthening program and is incredible! My hope is to start teaching the classes on my own in the near future.

Last night I was driving home from the last class and was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love for my parents and for their marriage. I recognize that no marriage is perfect and there is going to be strain and conflict but that is the same with life and any relationship. To make a stronger relationship or a stronger person, there must be opposition and adversity to overcome. I feel like my parents have modeled a strong relationship for me to learn from. I was never aware of any arguments in their marriage and they always were expressing and demonstrating their love for each other. It always amazes me as I have gone through my studies that my parents seemed to know everything on how to have a strong marriage and naturally do everything the experts suggest. I feel blessed to have been raised in my family with my amazing parents!

A big part of our lesson last night with the couples was on allowing your community to strengthen your marriage and using your marriage to strengthen your community. I'll admit I have not been as involved in my community outside of my church. The LDS church provides such a strong community support that is awesome and great to be a part of. I realize that there is another community though that needs all our support.

This last week I went to a showcase for an organization called Revive Humanity to learn about the humanitarian work they do all around the world. I was amazed by the organization, their goals, and the impact they have on people. They locations around the world they are focused on and create service tours where volunteers are organized to make a trip and go give service. The volunteers fund their own trip. Each tour runs for about a week and gives the person an opportunity to see some of the sites and serve the people. All proceeds going to the organization go directly to helping the people. I think I annoyed a few people by questioning where my money would actually go. Some of the locations they go to are: the Philippines, Thailand, Jorand, Egypt, Bethlehem, Congo, Samoa, Hawaii, Georgia (USA), Tanzania, and more I can't even remember. You can go to their website to learn more. They also have a way to donate money while getting a t-shirt. You pay $3 a month plus $1 for shipping and get a new t-shirt each month.  Also, a reminder that the people of the Philippines have a huge need of help right now from the recent typhoon.

I am so inspired by the good in the world I have seen. I think it can be easy to see a lot of negativity and evil but there is so much good! and we can add to the good in the world! My challenge to each of us is to look at ways we can serve and ways we can give to help build a better world-wide community for everyone.

The Divine Role of Women

I was studying for my religion class today and came across a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson that jumped off the page at me.  Here it is:

“The first priority for a woman is to prepare herself for her  divine and eternal mission, whether she is married soon or late. It is folly to neglect that preparation for education in unrelated fields just to prepare temporarily to earn money. Women, when you are married it is the husband’s role to provide, not yours. Do not sacrifice your preparation for an eternally ordained mission for the temporary expediency of money-making skills which you may or may not use” (Ezra Taft Benson, “In His Steps,” 64).

I absolutely love this quote!  I feel though that some people may get the wrong impression from it or misinterpret it.  He is not saying women should not get an education or not look for ways to provide for themselves.  He is saying men have the primary role to provide for the support of a family and women should always keeps in mind their ultimate preparation of being a wife and mother.  I believe that a woman can get caught up in having a career and seeking ways to make more money and look for lucrative business opportunities that could be demeaning to their character.  I should mention that the brethren of the church are aware of circumstances where women are in the work force and they are supportive of this.  Let me say, however, that I have been in the work force for the last 7 years and worked with many wonderful, talented women who would really rather be home with their kids.

After I returned home from my mission, I got a job working in the accounting department of one of the top oil and gas companies in all of Canada.  I excelled in the job and did well.  I worked there for a year and a half and learned something about myself.  I remember talking with my mom and telling her the more I am in the workforce the less appealing being a homemaker and mother seemed to me.  This notion did actually frighten me as I know it went against my divine role.  This also helped motivate me to return to school and leave the job.  Again, I reiterate that it is at times necessary for women to work and that is okay.  President Benson gave this caution:

"Working mothers should remember that their children usually need more of mother than of money” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1970, 24).

There are so many other great quotes from prophets on this subject matter.  I would also refer you to read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World."

I am grateful for the divine roles of men and women!

Wrong Roads

There was recently a Mormon Message published on-line called "Wrong Roads" by Elder Holland.  I just finished watching it and can't seem to stop thinking about the message he shared.  He tells of an experience in travelling with his son.  They reach a fork in the road and pray about which way to go and pray.  They both feel strongly to take the road to the right but soon find it was wrong.  They turn around and take the other road.  Elder Holland's son questions why they had received the prompting to take the wrong road.  His response was the Lord must have wanted them to know with confidence which road to take.  By taking the wrong road they were able to know without a doubt the other road was the right road to take.

I guess this message struck me because I can relate to the parable in so many instances in my life.  I often joke there is no reason to plan my life because my plans are always changed from what I originally wanted to do.  Am I unhappy because of this?  Quite the contrary!  I have gained a firm witness multiple times of the love of my Father in Heaven and the care and attention he gives to my personal life.  I always wanted to attend Ricks College and when it was changed to BYU-Idaho my enthusiasm increased.  After only three semesters I was strongly told to transfer to BYU.  I always thought I would marry like my mother did and would not need to consider a mission but a year before I turned 21 I was strongly told I would serve.  After fighting it for the next year, I turned in my papers and served in Raleigh, North Carolina.  The same pattern has followed with choosing a major and even deciding what to do after the mission.  In all of it, I know I have been guided.  Now facing the decision of the future I have tried different options.  Grad school, a career option, and in all of it Heavenly Father has led me down those paths only long enough for me to see it isn't what I want or should do.  Looking at the past and seeing this pattern also helps me have confidence to face the future.  I should add that I do have goals for the future and plans of what I want to be.  I still feel goal setting is important in our progression in this life.  The real challenge of this life is submitting and working with our Father in Heaven to become what we need to be.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.  - Ether 12:27

Stake Conference Weekend

This past Sunday was Stake Conference and I was given the opportunity to speak.  Below is my talk.  I was given only 4 minutes to speak.  A few minutes before it Conference was supposed to start they checked the microphone to find that it wasn't working.  It didn't work until 15 minutes after we started.  In the meantime we had the opening prayer and a few musical numbers to fill the time.  It all worked out well in the end.  The stake president closed his remarks and mentioned there were 2,000 people in attendance.  Kind of an awesome site to sit and look at the faces of that many saints.  Overall it was a great conference.

Making and Keeping Sacred Covenants

In the most recent General Conference Sister Burton stated:

"Making and keeping covenants means choosing to bind ourselves to our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. It is committing to follow the Savior. It is trusting Him and desiring to show our gratitude for the price He paid to set us free through the infinite gift of the Atonement[i].

In the Book of Mormon we read of a group of people called the Anti-Nephi-Lehites.  These people were once wicked Lamanites who had been taught the gospel by Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah but who "became a righteous people" [ii] and "were converted unto the Lord." [iii]  As a result of their conversion "they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.  And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives." [iv]  Later when their brethren, the Lamanites come to battle with them, the Anti-Nephi-Lehites remained firm in their covenants and many lost their live.  "And thus we see that, when these were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin." [v]

For 90% of us in this room there are still covenants we have yet to enter into.  We look forward to, wish for, and hope for the opportunity to make these covenants.  But are you worthy today?  Are you prepared?  True conversion is what helps us prepare to make those future covenants.  Your desire to follow the Savior should not be decided on the day you enter the waters of baptism or on the day you walk through the doors of the temple but must be demonstrated each and every day when you kneel in prayer, and when you read and ponder the scriptures, and as you strive daily to recognize and respond to the promptings of the Spirit.

A few years ago I was called to meet with my Bishop and was extended a calling I felt completely inadequate to fulfill but did accept the call.  I remember that week being weighed down with the responsibility that was soon to come.  I attended the temple with my ward and as I sat through the temple endowment I was reminded in full force of the covenants I had made and the obligations I promised to fulfill.  Covenants should not be entered into lightly for "where much is given, much is required."[vi]

Elder Russell M. Nelson has stated:

"The greatest compliment that can be earned here in this life is to be known as a covenant keeper. The rewards for a covenant keeper will be realized both here and hereafter."[vii]

I invite each of us to consider on the covenants we have made and on the covenants we have yet to make and measure our level of preparation or our level of covenant keeping and notice ways we can improve.  I know there are great blessings in this life and in the next that come from making and secret covenants.  I have been strengthened by my covenants.

I testify that our Father in Heaven lives and demonstrates His love to us by giving us the opportunity to make covenants with Him which allows us to be bound ourselves to Him and allows Him to bless us.  I testify of the Savior Jesus Christ; that He lives and has made all things possible for us through the sacrifice of His atonement.  This is the true church with all the priesthood keys, ordinances, and covenants to provide us the way back to our Father in Heaven.  I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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[i] "The Power, Joy, and Love of Covenant Keeping", Linda K Burton, RS President, October 2013

[ii] Alma 23:7

[iii] Alma 23:8

[iv] Alma 24:17-18

[v] Alma 24:19

[vi] Luke 12:48

[vii] “Covenants,” Russell M. Nelson, October 2011