FOR WHAT AM I GRATEFUL?

(I share this excerpt from a talk given by Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during the October 2010 General Conference. It's one of my favorites. Happy Thanksgiving. I hope it adds to your holiday.)

I share with you an account of one family which was able to find blessings in the midst of serious challenges. This is an account I read many years ago and have kept because of the message it conveys. It was written by Gordon Green and appeared in an American magazine over 50 years ago.

Gordon tells how he grew up on a farm in Canada, where he and his siblings had to hurry home from school while the other children played ball and went swimming. Their father, however, had the capacity to help them understand that their work amounted to something. This was especially true after harvesttime when the family celebrated Thanksgiving, for on that day their father gave them a great gift. He took an inventory of everything they had.

On Thanksgiving morning he would take them to the cellar with its barrels of apples, bins of beets, carrots packed in sand, and mountains of sacked potatoes as well as peas, corn, string beans, jellies, strawberries, and other preserves which filled their shelves. He had the children count everything carefully. Then they went out to the barn and figured how many tons of hay there were and how many bushels of grain in the granary. They counted the cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and geese. Their father said he wanted to see how they stood, but they knew he really wanted them to realize on that feast day how richly God had blessed them and had smiled upon all their hours of work. Finally, when they sat down to the feast their mother had prepared, the blessings were something they felt.

Gordon indicated, however, that the Thanksgiving he remembered most thankfully was the year they seemed to have nothing for which to be grateful. The year started off well: they had leftover hay, lots of seed, four litters of pigs, and their father had a little money set aside so that someday he could afford to buy a hay loader—a wonderful machine most farmers just dreamed of owning. It was also the year that electricity came to their town—although not to them because they couldn’t afford it.

One night when Gordon’s mother was doing her big wash, his father stepped in and took his turn over the washboard and asked his wife to rest and do her knitting. He said, “You spend more time doing the wash than sleeping. Do you think we should break down and get electricity?” Although elated at the prospect, she shed a tear or two as she thought of the hay loader that wouldn’t be bought.

So the electrical line went up their lane that year. Although it was nothing fancy, they acquired a washing machine that worked all day by itself and brilliant lightbulbs that dangled from each ceiling. There were no more lamps to fill with oil, no more wicks to cut, no more sooty chimneys to wash. The lamps went quietly off to the attic.

The coming of electricity to their farm was almost the last good thing that happened to them that year. Just as their crops were starting to come through the ground, the rains started. When the water finally receded, there wasn’t a plant left anywhere. They planted again, but more rains beat the crops into the earth. Their potatoes rotted in the mud. They sold a couple of cows and all the pigs and other livestock they had intended to keep, getting very low prices for them because everybody else had to do the same thing. All they harvested that year was a patch of turnips which had somehow weathered the storms.

Then it was Thanksgiving again. Their mother said, “Maybe we’d better forget it this year. We haven’t even got a goose left.”

On Thanksgiving morning, however, Gordon’s father showed up with a jackrabbit and asked his wife to cook it. Grudgingly she started the job, indicating it would take a long time to cook that tough old thing. When it was finally on the table with some of the turnips that had survived, the children refused to eat. Gordon’s mother cried, and then his father did a strange thing. He went up to the attic, got an oil lamp, took it back to the table, and lighted it. He told the children to turn out the electric lights. When there was only the lamp again, they could hardly believe that it had been that dark before. They wondered how they had ever seen anything without the bright lights made possible by electricity.

The food was blessed, and everyone ate. When dinner was over, they all sat quietly. Wrote Gordon:

“In the humble dimness of the old lamp we were beginning to see clearly again. … “It [was] a lovely meal. The jack rabbit tasted like turkey and the turnips were the mildest we could recall. … “… [Our] home … , for all its want, was so rich [to] us.”

A 72-HOUR MIRACLE FOR THE VICTIMS OF SANDY

It might be said that local help sent to Nassau County, New York residents—some of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Sandy—came as the result of one couple being in the right place at the right time, and prepared for “such a time as this.”

President Kevin Calderwood and his wife Sydnee are residents of Reston, Virginia currently serving a three-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the New York, New York South Mission, which covers this devastated area which includes such hard hit villages as Lynbrook, Rockaway, Broad Channel, and Freeport. President Calderwood is the president of that mission, supervising two hundred missionaries from various parts of the world who rode out the hurricane. As soon as it was safe to venture out, President Calderwood and the president of another mission of three hundred missionaries mobilized their young men and women into work teams to relieve suffering and assist in the clean-up efforts.

Flooding left buildings dark and cold, a dangerous set of circumstances made more so by plunging temps and reports of another storm heading for the coast. Seeing the level of need, and the difficulty agencies were having addressing those needs, gave President Calderwood an idea. Fifteen years earlier, when he served as the ecclesiastical leader for the Church’s Oakton Virginia Stake, a district of nine congregations, President Calderwood and his wife supported a Church-based program called Gifts of the Heart, which collected donations of clothing, household goods, toys, etc, which were made available to others in need. The program continues to be a giant success in Oakton under the leadership of a new stake President, Scott Wheatley, who is also a close friend of the Calderwoods.

On the evening of Friday, November 2, President Calderwood contacted President Wheatley describing the critical needs in Nassau County, and the concerns he had for the army of five hundred missionaries who were dispersed and displaced in dangerous circumstances as they served the people of the Rockaway Penninsula.

President Wheatley immediately called for an emergency run of Oakton Stake’s Gifts of the Heart program, then he contacted the presidents of surrounding stakes including Washington, DC; Annapolis, MD;  Baltimore, MD; McLean, VA; Mount Vernon, VA;  Frederick, MD;  Ashburn, VA; and Annandale, VA; inviting them to organize their own drives to collect warm clothes, shoes, coats, and other critical items, including $25 gift cards to buy food for the missionaries. What happened next was nearly miraculous.

Through emails, and announcements from LDS pulpits, the invitation was passed to congregants who in turn passed the word to neighbors. The response greatly exceeded all expectations as families in each of these areas filled bags, and eventually filled church buildings with goods to be loaded Monday night and shipped to New York by Tuesday. When the size of donations was reported, President Wheatley knew they would need more trucks than the two contracted to carry the goods to New York. When Paxton Van Lines owner Kevin Paxton heard about the need, he offered trucks, drivers, and boxes to assist in the relief effort. Five trucks were needed Monday night, and more trucks are being sent over the following days to other locations as more donations pour in.

The Frederick Stake—which consists of eight wards or congregations across Frederick County, and parts of Carroll, Howard, and Montgomery Counties—received hundreds of bags of clothing and raised over $9000 in donations. A few dozen workers sorted and packed two pick-up trucks and a medium trailer, all of which were filled to capacity when they left for Oakton Monday night. The men who drove the loads were astonished to see cars and trucks in lines that spanned blocks as they waited their turn to deliver goods. Another semi-truck will ship the remainder of Frederick’s donations in a few days.

Laurie Turner, Assistant Public Affairs Director for D.C. Metropolitan Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints estimated that between four and five hundred volunteers were on hand in Oakton to receive, sort, pack, and load the combined donations. It was also reported that over $50,000 dollars was collected that night, and more money and donations were collected the following week.

A high school student volunteering at the Frederick chapel on 199 North Place was astonished by the constant arrival of donations. Said she, “It’s like the miracle of the loaves and the fishes.”

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.)

CHRISTIAN COURAGE: The Price of Discipleship

We members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints have been taking it on the chin for some time now, with barely enough time to take a breath between blows. A question from a young member of the church voices what many in and out of the Church want to know. “Why doesn’t the Church defend itself more actively when accusations are made against it?” The following reply is taken from an address given by Elder Robert D. Hales Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, October 2008.

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The Savior responded differently in every situation. When He was confronted by wicked King Herod, He remained silent. When He stood before Pilate, He bore a simple and powerful testimony of His divinity and purpose. Facing the moneychangers who were defiling the temple, He exercised His divine responsibility to preserve and protect that which was sacred. Lifted up upon a cross, He uttered the incomparable Christian response: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)

When we do not retaliate—when we turn the other cheek and resist feelings of anger—we too stand with the Savior. We show forth His love, which is the only power that can subdue the adversary and answer our accusers without accusing them in return. That is not weakness. That is Christian courage. . . This is not to suggest that we compromise our principles or dilute our beliefs. We cannot change the doctrines of the restored gospel, even if teaching and obeying them makes us unpopular in the eyes of the world.

As true disciples, our primary concern must be others’ welfare, not personal vindication. Questions and criticisms give us an opportunity to reach out to others and demonstrate that they matter to our Heavenly Father and to us. Our aim should be to help them understand the truth, not defend our egos or score points in a theological debate. Our heartfelt testimonies are the most powerful answer we can give our accusers. And such testimonies can only be born in love and meekness.

. . .We are always better staying on the higher ground of mutual respect and love. In doing so, we follow the example of the prophet Nehemiah, who built a wall around Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s enemies entreated him to meet them on the plain, where “they thought to do [him] mischief.” . . .Nehemiah wisely refused their offer with this message: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” Nehemiah 6:2–3. We too have a great work to do, which will not be accomplished if we allow ourselves to stop and argue and be distracted. Instead we should muster Christian courage and move on. . .In His Intercessory Prayer . . . the Savior warned of persecution, (but) He promised peace: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27)

. . .To my inquiring sister and all who seek to know how we should respond to our accusers, I reply, we love them. Whatever their race, creed, religion, or political persuasion, if we follow Christ and show forth His courage, we must love them. . . .He is “the way, the truth, and the life”
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In closing, allow me to add this quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who is also a Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

"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."