WISDOM FROM FOOTBALL AND WAR

Vince Lombardi is credited with saying, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." The same words have also been credited to General George Patton. Irregardless, the truth remains that if manly men of football and war know that fatigue can break our spirits and cause us to cower, we can admit it too.

We've all had those days when the laundry list of life overwhelms us and instead of beginning at the top and working through it, we slump in a chair and whimper, unable to organize our thoughts enough to even choose where to start.

I remember day five of a siege of illness that plagued our family. The laundry backed up with fetid linen--the refuse of the children's illness--the dishes were piled like Mount Vesuvius and you could have turned my stove top into a Science Fair contender. Still, meals needed to be prepared and well-intended classmates kept stuffing make-up work through the doorway, despite my complete disinterest in participles, dangling or otherwise. It had been days since I had had more than two hours of uninterrupted sleep, and REM was a distant memory.How did I handle it? I sat in a chair and stared at the greasy water marks running down the front of the sink cabinet, the residual by-product of the well-est of the children's attempts to do the dishes. . . and then, good soldier that I am, I cried.

Tom was out of town as I recall, but other help was available. It almost always is, but I was too stubborn or proud to ask. And so, determined to stay in the pocket, to march on, I wore myself to a frazzle. I'm two decades older now, and I'm still that way to a degree. I'm buried by obligations right now and pressed against a wall of deadlines, but experience and wisdom have taught me to recognize when it's time to accept proffered help. And help is coming in abundance this weekend.

It's Conference weekend for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will sit and listen to the voices of modern day apostles and prophets of God, and feel the Lord's peace. And next week? Some of the things I pushed back today will still be there, but they'll concern me less. I'll remember what few things really matter, and I'll be still and remember that God is ultimately in charge.

Sometimes we get ourselves into trouble. But sometimes stuff just happens. Stuff is happening to a lot of people these days, but help is still at the ready, if we will accept it. Comfort? Peace? Could you use some of that? Then push the debris back for a few hours, and come listen with me. Their counsel isn't just for Mormons. It's for anyone hungering for a pocket of quiet and hope in the storm.

(Links above for internet feed. Also available on Directv 374, Sat and Sun- 10-12 Mountain , 12-2 Eastern; 2-4 Mountain, 4-6 Eastern.)

ENOUGH and MORE

My trip to the Storehouse, mentioned in the post below, was enlightening in other ways as well. A senior missionary couple runs the Storehouse with the help of a senior service mission couple and other local volunteers. At lunch time, the sister missionary in co-charge cooked us a wonderful lunch, all from basic items that came from the storehouse shelves. And it was gourmet quality!

The point here is two-fold. First, the Lord asks that we help Him provide for the needs of his children not with cast-offs and crumbs, but with the best of what He has created. And secondly, when we know what to do with what He has provided, we can do very nicely on basics.

I've been blogging about food storage down in the right corner. Each week, I'm posting an item we should buy and add to our storage. In 52 weeks, if we follow the list, we should have a balanced, inexpensively-acquired supply of food storage that can be incorporated into our menu planning and therefore, easily-rotated. We don't need to store only vacuum-packed or freeze-dried food. We just need to rotate what we buy by incorporating it into our daily meals.

The reasons for having a food supply are many. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been doing this for decades, responding to the counsel of living Prophets who have warned us to lay in store for times of need. But any person who reads the papers or listens to the news can surely see the wisdom is storing extra food against times when storms prevent us from getting to the store, or as a hedge against inflation, a bridge between jobs or when extra bills upset the family budget. By having some storage, we can wait to purchase items when they are on sale because we can do without until the price comes down. And when reports of tainted foods are raised, we can fall back on food that was packed before the outbreak occurred.

Tom and I pull from our storage regularly for this or that. But we have relied on our food storage exclusively a few times when we were between jobs and what little cash we had was needed to meet the mortgage and utilities. I canned back then--a hundred quarts each of peaches, pears, applesauce each summer, and a freezer stocked with vegetables put up from a summer garden. We ate well, and because we had the foresight to also store five pounds of chocolate chips and nuts, there were delicious cookies and cakes to make the meal special. Instead of a poor man's diet, we were still dining. And I believe that made a major difference in my husband's attitude as he headed out the door to apply for work. He was down, but he was not out, because he knew he was still providing for his family from our previous abundance.

There is peace in preparation. I don't can the way I once did. We buy cases of what we enjoy now, and buy in bulk when things are on sale. But we don't need to have a Costco in our cellars. A few basic items, paired with the skill to prepare them, will be enough to weather the storms that threaten our families.

The Lord sets patterns. All we need to do is see them and follow. The Storehouse showed me yet another pattern of preparation, that storing simple foods and having the skill to prepare them will see us through.

The Title of LIberty is Raised Again

I've spent quite a bit of time lately, listening and reading wonderful talks in preparation for a women's conference at which I was recently invited to speak. I've also been thinking a lot about the election and the Prop 8 results. Some people are still angry about the election. Some are filled with hate and no longer feel America is their home. Conversely, some are angry with the Church because of Prop 8. After all this thinking and pondering, what I've concluded is that I have no place for hate or anger in my heart. Resolve? Yes. But hate? Anger? Bitterness? No. My heart has no place for these. There is simply too much work to be done to allow ourselves to be crippled by these feelings.

I think the Title of LIberty was raised again by Elder Packer in October's Conference during his talk entitled "The Test". Americans who understand Democracy also understand that sometimes the pendulum swings away from their position, but the examples Elder Packer illustrated about the Saints and their love of America, despite being denied the protection of her principles, seems prophetic now.

Perhaps it was.

Is there any question that the Brethren knew about the battle to defend the family long before we did? I believe they knew this firestorm was coming way back before 1995 when they drew the line in the sand, defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and asserting that gender matters. The Proclamation to the Family was as much an effort to align us on these principles as it was to teach the world. And in these last weeks, we discovered how critical it was to have unity among the saints on this.

Likewise, I don't think it was by accident that Elder Packer spoke about love of country and passing the test of patriotism, especially during times of adversity. The media foments what they will to drive their numbers up. But listen to the voices of the Brethren who advice us to find happiness in our circumstances, to be unified, to seek peace and to remember that God is at the helm.

Still, there is much work to be done. While Prop 8 passed this round, new battle fronts are being raised in new states. Like Captain Moroni's relentless efforts to rally and protect his people, I don't think we will ever be able to rest from this fight. The American Revolution was a young person's cause because those who began the fight knew they would be long dead and gone before the dust settled on the new republic. Likewise, this battle we fight to defend the family is also going to be our children's battle, and our grandchildren's.

But we must remember what our end goal is. In the words of Elder Holland, "Something is going to be asked of this dispensation that has never been asked before. [We] must be prepared to present the church of the Lamb, to the Lamb. And when that happens, we must be looking and acting like His Church."

As we rise to the task before us, we must look and act like members of the Church of the Lamb. We must be positive and joyful, and we must use our talents, which are many, to allow the Spirit, not force, to change hearts. I am going to work harder on this. I hope we all will.

I discovered this lovely song on youtube. Thank you, Barry Hansen, for inviting the Spirit to teach better than words alone. May we all be united in our cause, which is the cause of love.

Laurie


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez0vgS5UDdg

ADDICTED TO HOLLYWOOD

There is no question that the Hollywood establishment has pumped millions of dollars to fight passage of Proposition 8. Perhaps more upsetting is the influence they've peddled to voters, using their status and star power to influence voting and to persuade their fans, (might I say, the electorate) to vote "the Hollywood way".

I've already addressed how deeply saddened I was when one beloved celebrity went on the Jay Leno Show to issue a tearful plea to "stop the hate", her reference to the individuals who are fighting to protect the traditional understanding of marriage. I still can't understand why protecting the meaning marriage has held since the beginning of time is considered a hateful act. I wonder if anyone else would have seen it that way if Hollywood had not named it so.

I don't want to force anyone to do or believe anything. Free will is a sacred principle. But neither do I want to be coerced to call something right when I believe it is not, nor do I want to be forced to legally expand my definition of the traditional, historic, God-given meaning of marriage for fear of legal recrimination.

What happened to the separation of Church and State?

Hollywood exerts far too much influence. By painting the controversial with humor or victimization, what was controversial becomes sympathetic, until after seeing it frequently enough, it becomes the norm. Then, like the frog in the pot, we become deadened to the danger.

When a manufacturer produces something harmful or even possibly detrimental to my family, I don't buy it. When a vendor treats me poorly, I don't give them my business. When an institution betrays my trust, I withdraw my support.

In my mind, Hollywood has done all of the above, yet we give them our patronage. We fill the very treasuries they use to beat down our values.

I wish we could exercise the moral strength to boycott Hollywood--to consider our money as sacred as our votes. We wouldn't surrender our sacred vote to a candidate whose values undermine ours, so why do we turn a blind eye to the agendas of actors and production companies whose goals are so controversial?

I wish we would form an aliance, refusing at the very least, to pay ticket fees for movies or buy products from companies whose ads feature stars who openly, brazenly push these efforts. I wish we'd throw our support to those actors who bravely stand for truth and goodness, sometimes at the risk of their careers.

The next time we stand in line to buy a theater ticket or to rent a movie, let's remember that we're casting some of the loudest and most powerful votes available to us. And let's be wise.

On A DIME

There's that old saying that goes something like, "It can turn on a dime". In other words, things can change suddenly, and if you, like me, have been watching the current financial news with some trepidation over the status of your retirement, or ability to ever achieve that status, you know how real the adage is.

Ponder the counsel we Latter-Day Saints have been receiving steadily for the past years--get out of debt; prepare, prepare, prepare; live within your means; save, save, save; lay in store. . . Now is the time we ask ourselves, "Did we listen? Did we follow their counsel?"

I wonder if more people than usual will make it a point to listen to more sessions of Conference this October. My guess is, yes. That would be a sad commentary on our spiritual motivations, but whatever brings us to the well, it's just good to gather there . . and to bring our neighbors along.

I keep thinking about President Hinckley. After Sister Hinckley's passing, he indicated how ready he was to follow her, but how as a willing servant, dedicated to the Lord's work, he vowed to exhaust himself in the work to which he was called for as long as he was needed. And work he did. He wore his life out in the Lord's service. And not without a cost. He endured the first hospitalization of his life, and surgery as well, to extend his life and service. And why? Perhaps because he saw the events about to unfold, and as the Watchman on the tower, he tried to remain at his post, warning, warning, warning for as long as he was able.

All those warnings and counsels? The Brethren were right, and they continue to be blessed with the ability to see "afar off". Will we be all right? Yes, if we heed the counsel we're given. All of it. And then we too can be Watchmen . . .for others who don't yet know what we Latter-Day Saints have been blessed to know.