Reflections

On Saturday, I attended Joshua's sealing to Amy and Ben, and their family. What a miracle to have the sealing power on earth and see it bless the lives of endless families. There are four children in the Wiederhold family, and three of them are adopted. Each of them have different skin color and come from different backgrounds, but when you see this family, the Spirit of Elijah takes you beyond skin color and culture boundaries. What I see when I see them is this eternal family that have been bonded through love and eternal sealing of God. As I was capturing their joy in pictures afterward, I couldn't stop my heart from rejoicing at this eternal bond very visible to my natural eye. At those moments. I didn't see angels, but I did see love surrounding this family. I'm grateful for those tender mercies of the Lord when He allows us to actually see a bit of eternal life.

On Sunday, the Lord showed me another one of his tender mercies. It had to do with the scriptures. We have read the scriptures as a family almost every day this past year. Initially, we started doing it because it is a commandment and we knew it would bless our lives. Later, it became a habit; we couldn't understand ending our night without reading them. Toward the end of the year, our children looked forward to reading them. We felt blessings of harmony and love come into our family just because of that 20 minute scripture reading. One not-so-good factor came out of it as well. I thought that reading to my children fulfilled my own reading time also. My natural self allowed that excuse to prevent me from receiving blessings from my own personal reading. I kept pushing that nagging feeling aside. I thought I had read the Book of Mormon many times, and I would get bored reading it over again, especially after reading it to my children each night.

And then, as I sat in Sunday School comfortably nestled near my husband, ready to enjoy another Sunday School lesson, but not really expecting to learn anything major, Heavenly Father humbles me in a very merciful way. I learned several insights from the scriptures that day that I had never thought before, or if I had I had forgotten. Furthermore, my heart was touched by Heavenly Father's patience and love for me. As a bonus,the insights I learned were directly connected to strengthening my testimony of reading the scriptures continually. I'm humbly grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord, and the wisdom we find in the scriptures.

Here is one of the insights I learned that day:

We were reading from 1 Nephi 8, and discussing the Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. We learned in that chapter of the different kinds of groups that participate in the story. Two such groups were of interest to me. The first one's description is found in verses 24 and 25;

24 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, ^aclinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the ^bfruit of the tree.

25 And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ^aashamed.

The other group is described in verse 30:

30 But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the ^arod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.


One of the class members made the point that the different outcome between these two groups lies in two words. The first clings to the rod, and the second holds fast. And then our instructor illustrated it in a very visual way, which worked great for me. She said that recently she has been helping her daughter become proficient with the monkey bars. Her daughter really wants to be good at it. The instructor said that because she doesn't have sufficient strength to hold fast to the monkey bars, she just "clings"to them just so she can get to the end as fast as she could. Sufficient strength was the key to my quest. If I don't read the scriptures, I won't have the kind of strength that is needed to hold fast to the rod. I'm grateful for the scriptures, but especially for God's tender mercies that allow us to grow.



On Monday, we remembered Martin Luther King Jr. and his powerful influence on the Civil Rights movement. As I reread his "I have a dream"speech, I was grateful for his amazing foresight and unbending courage to stand up for what he believed at a time that doing so would put him to danger, as it ultimately did. I admire people that know who they are and what they believe in and are not afraid to stand tall against the world. I've met very few people with such integrity and fortitude, my husband being one of them.

As I went through Dr. King's words, I kept thinking about the world today. Have we become a better society? Is there more love and equality? Are we more accepting of each other's differences? Of course it is hard to answer these broad questions with definite answers. I initially felt the answers would all be no, but as I pondered those questions further, I felt that many things have changed in our world today, some for better and some for worse. And many things have yet to make a difference. However, whether in Dr. King's time or ours, it all has to start with the individual, with us, with me.

I received a priesthood blessing tonight from my husband concerning some personal goals, in achieving of which I was in need of the Lord's help. In the end of the blessing, the Lord advised me to: "Be humble, be grateful, and be guided by the Spirit." What amazing counsel that is! If each of us were to follow that simple advice, Dr. King's dream would truly come true. I will do my part. I know it will make a difference in my life, my children's life, and by serving others as guided by the Spirit, it will make a difference in my neighbor's life as well.

I'm reading a book about how to achieve happiness (The Happiness Project.) I'm really enjoying it. In it, the author quotes Aristotle saying: "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." And so it is. There are so many ways to achieve happiness, as this book that I'm reading is clearly demonstrating, and as our own life experiences have shown. But I couldn't help but think that the happiness that Martin Luther King Jr. had in mind in his dream had everything to do with loving our neighbor as we love God.

This year in Relief Society we are studying the words of President George Albert Smith. As soon as I started reading about his life and the principles he lived by, I felt this absolute love and admiration for him as well as a personal connection. His life of service, love and kindness is one that I saw my parents live, and one that I strive to live myself and pass it on to my children. President Smith's words are full of honesty and penetrate deep into my heart. I wish there were more people like him. This is what he has to say to all of us:

"Our ministry is one of love. Our service is one which enriches our lives. … If we are living as God intends that we should live, if we are ministering as he desires that we should minister, every day of our lives is enriched by the influence of his Spirit, our love of our fellowmen increases and our souls are enlarged until we feel that we could take into our arms all of God’s children, with a desire to bless them and bring them to an understanding of the truth.⁹"

And then as if to an answer to our quest for happiness and a fulfillment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s plea for equality and kindness toward each other, President Smith simply says this:

"Do not forget no matter how much you may give in money, no matter how you may desire the things of this world to make yourselves happy, your happiness will be in proportion to your charity and to your kindness and to your love of those with whom you associate here on earth.

It isn’t only what we receive that makes us happy; it is what we give, and the more we give of that which is uplifting and enriching to our Father’s children, the more we have to give. It grows like a great fountain of life and bubbles up to eternal happiness.^17"

In his speech Dr King, amongst his very powerful words about his dream, shares one sentence that captured my attention. It is short, but it speaks volumes. He says: "We cannot walk alone." How true those simple words are. I am my brother's keeper!