Grabbing bees and the nature of God

I'm amazed at what Chiara teaches me. This afternoon I was getting into my parents' van after a little trip to Shopko to get some dorm stuff for Shauna. As I was putting Chiara back into her car seat I saw that there was a bee in the van. Let me just tell you, I hate bees. I hate anything smaller than a hummingbird that flies. Especially if they sting. But as I stood there in full mommy mode my reaction to seeing the bee flying near my baby was to reach out and grab it so it couldn't hurt Chiara. My protection reflex was so much stronger than my self-preservation reflex that I have been thinking about it for the last ... eight hours or so.

This experience made me think of the Atonement. I know it sounds a little corny/bad testimony meeting-ish, but I was overwhelmed with gratitude for a God and a Savior who love me enough to protect me from the painful consequences of sin despite the tremendous personal cost to themselves. I know the parallel is seriously skewed, but I was deeply moved by my imaginings of how I would react if Chiara thanked me for what I did. I imagine God's reaction would be similar (in a much more perfect, holy way of course). Something like, "Oh, my daughter, of course I did it. I love you."

Please forgive the comparison. I just love how much Chiara teaches me about the nature of God. It changes me forever.

Humbly sinful

Brother Farrell offers some thought-provoking insight into the process of self-justification. He says that because our innate attributes are godly - full of light and truth -- we feel a subconscious need to distort our reality in an effort to retain our claim on some of that goodness within us. We want to be righteous, we want to be good, so we reason with our sins and offer excuses for our behavior that deflect blame. His example is Adam and Eve's reaction to the Lord's discovery of their choice to eat the forbidden fruit. They both blamed another. Farrell says we do the same thing in our lives, and it's that denial of responsibility that creates a hardness in our hearts that doesn't feel a need for a Savior to forgive us. If we don't see ourselves as guilty we don't see Him as a necessary figure in our salvation. What an incredible idea. "Losing sight of our sinfulness, we lose sight of our need for the One who has come to heal the sinner" (23). It's the beginning of turning our hearts away from Him, serving another master, and forgetting who we truly are.

Good Poem

Overnight
by Pat Schneider

The day your son calls you on the telephone
and is no more your boy, you know
he is someone else's man.
Hi, Mom! he calls across a chasm.
You guess the joy that carved it,
and you cry, Hello!

She will be the bridge, now,
between you and your son.
Overnight he has become shy with you.
Now that he knows her secret
he has guessed your own, guessed
the journeys that his father made
to fetch a son from darkness
on the other side of utter letting go.

Hello, you say, and suddenly remember
how in the fourth grade he brought a pigeon home.
How, as if it were an ordinary coming home,
he opened the front door, walked in and called,
Hi, Mom! How his eyes were pleading,
with love, like pinions, feathering the air.

Funny Poem

Nonsense Song
by W. H. Auden

My love is like a red red rose
Or concerts for the blind,
She's like a mutton-chop before
And a rifle-range behind.

Her hair is like a looking-glass,
Her brow is like a bog,
Her eyes are like a flock of sheep
Seen through a London fog.

Her nose is like an Irish jig,
Her mouth is like a 'bus,
Her chin is like a bowl of soup
Shared between all of us.

Her form divine is like a map
Of the United States,
Her foot is like a motor-car
Without its number-plates.

No steeple-jack shall part us now
Nor fireman in a frock;
True love could sink a Channel boat
Or knit a baby's sock.

Inspirational Quotes: Obedience

"The youth of this generation [1997] have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation." - Elder Neal A. Maxwell

"God has reserved spirits for this dispensation who have the courage and determination to face the world, and all the powers of the evil one, visible and invisible, to proclaim the Gospel, and maintain the truth, and establish and build up the Zion of our God, fearless of all consequences. He has sent these spirits in this generation to lay the foundation of Zion never more to be overthrown, and to raise up a seed that will be righteous, and that will honor God, and honor him supremely, and be obedient to him under all circumstances.” -President George Q. Cannon

Inspirational Quote: Body

"Our spirit and our body are combined in such a way that out body becomes an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character." - President Boyd K. Packer

Responding to previous quote: "Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and act in accordance with truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. In the classroom of mortality, we experience tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, diappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, 'according to the flesh' (1 Ne. 19:6; Alma 7:12-13)." - Elder David A. Bednar

"A truth that really is and always will be is that the body and the spirit constitute our reality and identity." - Elder David A. Bednar

Sometimes the choices I allow myself to make place my body and my spirit in opposition. That should never be the case. The body should be a willing, equal partner with the spirit in demonstrating the true personality and loyalty of man.

Inspirational Quote: Obedience

"The moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power." -Joseph Smith, Jr.