If The Savior Stood Beside Me

My Sunday School lesson this week is on being born again, or born of the spirit. To be born again we must become like Christ--a pretty tall order! It is something impossible for the natural man to do alone. To be born again--to have "no more desire to do evil, but to do good continually!" (Mosiah 5:2) Wow! Bruce R. McConkie taught that to be born again is a process. Like any other process we "become" line upon line, little by little. How grateful I am to have the gospel, to have the privilege of attending church each week which feeds my desire to do good continually, and reminds me that when I dissapoint the Lord and myself, that I CAN repent!

What a wonderful reminder this is for me, and for all of us to re-examine our lives and answer the question posed to us by a prophet of God in the Book of Mormon: "Alma 5:14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?"

As I ponder this, I see the plaque my daughter-in-law gave me a few years ago that reads:

CHRIST
The center of our home
A guest at every meal
A silent listener at every conversation

It has been a wonderful reminder and has inspired me to try harder to live my life so that I can share with the Savior every conversation I have, every book I read, every movie I watch, every song I listen to and when I do so, I feel comfortable in His presence and I know that my eyes shine a little brighter with His Image and His love, and I want nothing more than to do good continually. (And then, when I dim that light by dissapointing Him and myself, He loves me still and allows me to repent!) I want to try harder this year to emulate the primary song, "If The Savior Stood Beside Me" by Sally DeFord.

If the Savior stood beside me,
Would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example?
Would I live more righteously if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
watching over me?
If the Savior stood beside me,
Would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel?
Would I speak more rev’rently if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
watching over me?
If the Savior stood beside me, would my thoughts be clean and pure?
Would His presence give me strength and hope and courage to endure?
Would His counsel guide my actions?
Would I choose more worthily if I could see the Savior standing nigh
watching over me?
Watching over me, watching over me,
He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly,
I am in His watchful care,
So I’ll be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be
if I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me.
I will be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be
if I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me.

"The Last Waltz" vs. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"

I read a book review on Meridian Magazine a couple of months ago on the book “The Last Waltz” by G.G. Vandagriff. I was intrigued because I learned that she is of Russian German descent and wondered if there might be a genealogical connection perhaps to my father’s people.

I never start a book without first turning to the last page about the author. I know it’s considered weird, but I have always been wary of whom I let sing or read to me. I grew up in a home of constant contention and probably as soon as I could read I found solace in books. They were so often my only, and always my best friends! The “Little Princess,” “Secret Garden,” “Pollyanna,” “Wizard of Oz,” and later “Anne of Green Gables,” “Girl of the Limberlost” and other such sentimental books (in today’s vernacular “cheesy” or “sappy”) were such sweet escape. But, as soon as I was old enough to be assigned reading and found that so much of it could depress or frighten me (I’d had enough of that in real life) I learned to be wary. I found and will always believe that “we are what we eat” both physically and spiritually! I guess that is why I just couldn’t and still don’t like the Beatles. Most people, my children especially, think I am pretty weird for this---a child of the 60’s who does NOT like the Beatles? Everyone I know still likes the Beatles! And hey, I remember watching their début on T.V. and I’ll admit that I thought their “bowl” haircuts were kind of cute and everyone I knew was swooning over them. But, I made the fatal mistake of reading about them. How could I ever trust immoral drug addicts to sing to me? I learned to keep my opinions to myself because in the 60’s you could be stoned for not liking the BEATLES! But I’m over 50 now so . . . It’s kind of like going to the grocery store without my makeup on---doesn’t matter because no one is looking anyway. But I digress. This blog post is not about the Beatles.

After reading about the author and checking out her website (http://www.ggvandagriff.com/) I read the book---all 591 pages of it! It is a sweeping saga of romance and war that frustrated me at times. The protagonist was a good, kind young woman who showed incredibly poor judgment in the beginning, with life-long consequences! I know my dear young people I’m being wary or weird again, but that’s why I can’t get into the Twilight Series. Bella’s dangerous naivety drives me CRAZY! I’m not very patient with that, considering I don’t even trust the Beatles. But, back to “The Last Waltz”---throughout this saga from World War I to the beginning of World War II, Amalia Faulhaber found herself torn between three men. You have no idea who she will end up with! Just when her life seems to be reaching a point of blissful happiness . . . well, with 591 pages you can imagine.

Though, at times, I felt the book was too long, it does move along. Being painfully ignorant of the history surrounding Europe during World War I, I found that I had to look up some of the geography, i.e. mainly Prussia and its relationship to Germany. But, if a book inspires me to further research well that’s a good thing! And, I learned some great lessons about politics. Lessons that, quite frankly, leave me with a chill as I watch the very foundations and principles of our own blessed nation being changed before our very eyes. It has been said that if we cannot learn from history we are destined to repeat it. For my grandchildren’s sake, I HOPE not.

Probably most readers will not be as frustrated with the protagonist in the beginning as I was, but in the end I found myself cheering her on, and the final third of the story really kept me turning the pages! This is definitely a must read!

For The Beauties of the Earth

On Sunday I taught my gospel doctrine lesson on the Sermon on the Mount! All last week I played the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "Consider The Lillies" CD. Ever since, I have been absolutely filled with "the beauty of the earth!" I played the music as prelude music with a note on the board asking everyone to look up the corresponding scriptures to items I had placed on the table. All items I found in my own home---salt, a picture of lillies that Ron gave me that I had printed, a rock from the yard, bread, a picture of my newest little bride, a beam of wood, a picture of my neighbor, and many many more things.

This idea came to me so clearly as I prayed for guidance in teaching. Before prayer, I had no idea how to present so much absolutely wonderful material in half an hour! We really didn't have time to discuss each item, but they got the message before class even started. The wonderful thing was how reverent it became even before starting class! The power of sacred music has always been wonderful to me. It never fails to bring the spirit! After my son Robert died it was the ONLY relief and comfort I could find. Several of my friends who knew how much I love reverent, spiritual music gave me new CD's and they were, and still are my lifeline to the Lord and to hope!

I spent most of that class time talking of the Beatitudes and of their progressive nature as outlined in the Bible Dictionary! It is worth reading, really worth reading! I have pondered so much since preparing and then giving this lesson. We all have to go up the steps---line upon line---from being poor in spirit and finally learning to love ourselves, to then mourning for our sins enough to repent, being meek enough to submit to the prophet and thus to the Lord, which leads us to actually hunger and thirst after righteousness! Those steps teach us to love the Lord! Then on to being merciful, in other words, treating others with patience, kindness, and long-suffering, while always remembering our OWN weaknesses. This leads to our becoming pure in heart---being purged of all desire to do wrong by the Holy Ghost---till we become peacemakers. A person wanting to live in unity, law abiding, pleasant agreeable and generous. (Doesn't that sound like Ron? He's pretty wonderful!) These three beatitudes teach us to love others! And, then---the hard one---learning to love our enemies, by being willing to suffer trials and NOT compromise our ideals to win approval of the world! And, I think even harder, to do this without offense to man or God (Well, some men will take offense no matter what) but even when they do, the Savior actually commands us to pray FOR our enemies.

I am so thankful that He judges us by the intent of hearts. He is so merciful when we fall short! He just wants us to get back up and try again! I think I realized after studying these principles this time around, that we can go through all of these steps in certain times and phases of our lives, and then boom---we are right back to having to learn to love ourselves all over again. Life gets more challenging. We find ourselves at the top of the ladder only to discover that it is, in fact, the bottom of the next ladder, and so on I suppose to the end of our lives and even beyond until we have become perfect!

I pray that the Lord will help all of us. I think if we just find ourselves going up ... just keep going up we can make it! But, even when we slip down, the minute we reach for Him, our Father in Heaven is there. It has always amazed me that when I turn to Him, He just overwhelms me with his love!

And, I believe that things will always get better. They always will! The world is indeed beautiful. Like this picture I took while Ron and I were in the canyon on Saturday! It was a beautiful, beautiful autumn day! The big rock in this picture reminds me of the "rock of our salvation" Jesus Christ. Ron is also a rock for me---strong, steady, safe and kind!