Point of View

The blogging has been slow as of late, and it will probably get slower.  Why, you ask?  Currently we are in Ashton, ID.  People in Ashton don't have time to blog, they have GRASS!  Why would you blog when you and your kids could be sitting on GRASS, running IN GRASS, looking AT GRASS.  A funny thing happens when you have lived in Southern Nevada for 7 years, South East Idaho suddenly becomes Ireland and all you can see is GREEN! 



This is a picture from my front room window.  (They have trees too!)  Do you see that street light hidden among the trees.  I have literally spent days of my life staring at that light.  During the winter, when night fell, the street light would either lay perfectly still, revealing just how cold it was outside, or it would unveil the snow falling.  And depending upon the amount of flakes and the angle at which they fell, I knew exactly how much faith I could place behind my nightly prayer that tomorrow would be a SNOW DAY (no school).

This is THE PINE TREE that stands in front of the house and blocks everything west of the house from view.  It was planted in the year 1973, the year my parents moved into this house.  At the time it stood 3 feet tall.  it grew as we grew.  Each year on the 1st day of school we would take a picture in front of it.  When we came home from killing gophers mom and dad would meet us in the shade with a treat and GRAPE kool-aid.  The Christensen boys would then proceed to fall fast asleep.  Before its height outgrew our decorating skills, we would string lights on it each Christmas.  And at night, if the branches were coated in snow and drooping slightly, and I squinted my eyes just right, it was a Christmas miracle.  It think it is quite possibly the most perfect tree in existence.  I think my mom thinks so too.  Yesterday she told Jared that we were to "tear the house down before we cut that pine tree down."

Now here is an interesting picture.  It is taken from the kitchen window.  If you look far in the distance, you can see the Ashton Hill.  I love the ASHTON HILL!  However, in this picture you can barely see it. If you were to ask me to imagine the view from the kitchen window in my mind, I would tell you that there are lush green fields leading to the hill and the view was perfect.  Now if you were to ask me if there was a logging business next door to my house I would say - Yes!  And I might even tell you that they store logs and random ugly equipment in the field directly behind my house (like the picture).  However, that never got in my way of seeing how beautiful the Ashton Hill was.  This little scenario reminded me of a recent conversation I had.

My sister said, "Kathryn did you know that Jesse (code name) did something really stupid?"  I said to my sister in return, "I really like Jesse, I tend to think that he has never done anything wrong."  It sounded funny when I said it, but as I have continued to think about it, it is TRUE.  When I have seen the REALLY good and kind part of someone's heart, it is so easy to overlook anything not so good, logging equipment, in other words.  It reminds me of a quote from Joseph Smith...."When persons manifest the least kindness and love to me, O what power it has over my mind, while the opposite course has a tendency to harrow up all the harsh feelings and depress the human mind." Sometimes all I see is the LOGS and sometimes all I see is the HILL.  I need to be a little better at looking for the hill before I look for the logs :)

And My Response IS......

Yesterday I read an article featured on businessweek.com.  It was called, "God's MBA's."  The premise of the article was that several men that have served missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have gone on to be very successful leaders in the business world.  The article was mildly interesting, however, it did not prove to be the most interesting part of this experience. 

 I decided to check the comments after the article.  This is generally a bad idea, yet I went against my better judgment and read several pages of personal commentary.  Most of the comments were all things that I had read before, including the one that I am about to talk about.  However this specific comment made my heart race, and after a day of quiet contemplation, I am ready to write my response.  On my own blog!  (My niece is starting a blog!  She is worried that people wont like it.  I told her,  "Addie, that is the great thing about a blog.  You write to NOBODY and NOBODY has to respond!") Back to the subject at hand….

The Comment:

 "I find it interesting that there are no Mormon women cited in this article."

My Response:

To that I say, You are wrong.

There is only a feature, an article, a story, because a mother took the time to nurture a child and a wife continued in the cause.  Speaking as a mother, I guarantee that the joy would have been somewhat diminished to have seen my own face on the cover, and not that of my child.

It must feel good to see your name displayed in lights or on the cover that millions will read.

To run or produce a company that crawls through the world with success and fame.  Buildings and Bank accounts untold. 

But to see a child, your child,  with integrity in his heart, and dignity guiding his actions, is true success. 

To see One that you nurtured become a CEO or President and, even greater , respectable enough to bear the name of "father" well...no amount of worldly lights or glittering words could ever compare. 

The only thing that this short-sighted feminist movement has done, is to foolishly convince us that trading lasting joy for a mess of pottage would be a "purposeful" life. 

Perhaps we could all take a lesson from David of old.  Most would say that his reign as king was BRILLIANT!  He united all tribes into a nation resting on a religious foundation, all the while securing the "undisputed possession of the country."  Yet as brilliant and as famous as he was, his family affairs were a MESS!  And in agony he cried out, "Have mercy upon me, O God!" 

In the end, David may have been a great warrior and a fabulous king.  However, everything enduring and eternal was in shambles.  How your family feels about you when you leave this mortal life, will be your greatest heartache or your greatest comfort. 

Sometimes I think....

Sometimes I think that Ally needs a sister.  This morning I overhear this conversation.  "Gary I am going to do your hair this morning."  Okay.  "We are going to do a mohawk!"  No Ally!  "Come on Gary!"  NO ALLY!  JESUS DOESN'T LIKE MOHAWKS!"  I am not sure where that came from, but it works for me.  I love my job!

It's the Little Things!

One time my mom told me about an experience that has changed my life.  She told me of a conversation that she and my dad had while they were engaged.  Although she didn't tell me where they were when it happened, I imagine them sitting in a car in front of a 7-11, perhaps just grabbing a treat for the drive, with the world bustling around them, yet having a life defining moment, acting like nobody else exists.  Only the type of conversation you can have when you are engaged. 
So, in her words, as I remember them, "When your dad and I were engaged, we had a talk.  We decided that in our house, we were always going to be obedient to the small things that the Prophets had said...no face cards,, fake swear words, caffeine drinks...It made sense to us that if we took care of the small things, the big obedience crisis would never come." 
Well, that makes sense to me too.  In Relief Society yesterday, the lesson was on obedience.  The manual contained two questions that I have been thinking about for the past 24 hours.  First, "Why are you obedient?"  I don't know if my answer is RIGHT, but if I am truthful, it is my answer.  GOD KNOWS BEST!  I have a testimony that he has provided the SAFEST and SUREST path to happiness through obedience to his commandments.  I just read a scripture this morning that really RINGS TRUE with me....."For ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity."  I think in our heart of hearts, we know that WICKEDNESS NEVER WAS HAPPINESS.   
The other question that has weighed on my mind was, "When have you received blessings as a result from your obedience to commandments that seemed small."  By the time I was through thinking about this, I realized that the Lord's blessings far outweigh our efforts.  I would like to share two things I thought of. 
#1 - A couple of years ago, President Eyering talked to us about journals and recording daily our thoughts and spiritual experiences.  I have tried to do that.  The blessings are COOL.  I now have volumes of thoughts that I want my kids to know.  Not only that, my sense of memory has heightened.  When  I write things down, I remember them.  To top that off, I can make connections!  When I hear or see something important, it REMINDS ME of something that I had already heard, seen, or experinced.  It deepens my testimony and adds layers to my life. 
#2 - Around the time I married Jared, I listened to a talk by Sherri L. Dew.  I really don't remember anything that she said specifically, however I remember her talking about the importance of General Conference.  Since that time, I have tried really hard to study and absorb all that I could from each 6 month conference.  It has literally changed my life.  I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE. 
The list goes on, and so does my testimony.  It is the SMALL THINGS, that make  the difference, and that makes sense to me. 

So Little Time

 

“Your first duty in life is toward your afterself. So live that the man you ought to be may, in his time, be possible, be actual. Far away in the years he is waiting his turn. His body, his brain, his soul, are in your boyish hands. He cannot help himself. What will you leave for him? Will it be a brain unspoiled by lust or dissipation; a mind trained to think and act; a nervous system true as a dial in its response to the truth about you? Will you, Boy, let him come as a man among men in his time? Or will you throw away his inheritance before he has had the chance to touch it? Will you turn over to him a brain distorted, a mind diseased, a will untrained to action, a spinal cord grown through and through with ‘the devil-grass of wild oats’? Will you let him come and take your place, gaining through your experience, happy in your friendships, hallowed through your joys, building on them his own? Or will you fling it all away, decreeing, wanton-like, that the man you might have been shall never be? This is your problem in life—the problem which is vastly more to you than any or all others. How will you meet it, as a man or as a fool? It comes before you today and every day, and the hour of your choice is the crisis in your destiny!”

David Starr Jordan

Hall Of Fame

I LOVED my college years.  Okay, the first couple were a little rocky, but after I learned that "nobody has ever died from homesickness" (thank you dad) Utah State opened my life to so many friendships and fun times.  Many memories reside in the halls of Cobble Creek and Brook Lane Apartments.  They are all written in several journals, all of which I cringe at the thought of my children reading (nothing bad, just a tad bit on the dramatic side). 
Brook Lane and Cobble Creek made up the Utah State 34th ward, with Bishop Gill presiding.  When my three years as a member of the 34th ward came to a close, I was a little melancholy and recorded the following in my journal, "I think that we meet different people at different times in our lives for a reason, each one creating a little piece of the person we call ourselves.  My hope is that the next life will contain lots of reunions.  Meetings with these people you never thought you would see again.  You can thank them for the memories and more important the lessons they taught you.  It will be a time to celebrate in the final product of "you" and all the people that made you so spectacular."  I am hoping that the "spectacular" part comes to fruition someday before these reunions are to take place :) 
This week I was listening to a talk by Sterling W. Sill entitled, "Each Of You Has a Hall of Fame."  He begins his talk by telling of an experiment.  (I paraphrase, but do so with quotation marks) "Once a piece of silver and a piece of gold were put next to each other for a long period of time.  At the end of the allotted time the metals were separated.  However, during this period of time, molecules from each metal were transferred to the other...The gold had flecks of silver in it and the silver had flecks of gold in it."  The moral.....The character traits of the people we place ourselves next to, will "rub off" on us. 
Realizing this, Elder Sill literally created his own "Hall of Fame" by studying and extensively writing about more than 70 people that he wanted to influence his life in some way.  He then encouraged his audience to attempt the same task. 
The idea fascinates me, and I have vowed to undertake the same project.  I think I will start long before the Utah State 34th ward, perhaps about 20 years before...perhaps on Spruce street in Ashton, Idaho.  I think there were a few people there that hoped one day some of their own gold flecks would rub off on me. 

Funniness

Every day Jared and Sam have the EXACT same conversation after school. "Sam, how was school today?"  "Great dad, nobody moved their clip to yellow."  Moving clips to yellow is Sam's teachers discipline tactic, and it works!  Sometimes the conversation goes like this, "Sam, how was school today?"  "Not so good dad, I moved my clip to yellow."  Those aren't very good days! 

Sam has had a fascination with these clips all year longs.  So I engaged in a very funny conversation with him yesterday.  I began to ask him about each child in his class and if they ever had to move their clips. "Sam, does Cloe (code name) ever have to move her clip to yellow?"  Long Pause, and funny look... 
Smiling he says, "Mom!  Cloe is a GIRL!  Girls don't get in trouble!" and then as an afterthought, he looks at Gary and says, "Only when they talk too much, and they do that A LOT!"

FUNNINESS!