Alma 32 -- Sowing the seeds of faith

Reading Alma 32 this week I saw a different perspective on this chapter that I hadn't seen before or remembered. I think the recent emphasis on the Savior by church leaders (including the newly released web site http://JesusChrist.lds.org) has focused my mind on Him.

Filtering Alma 32 in this mind-set, I saw how the seed we need to plant is Faith in Jesus Christ.
For instance in Alma 32:28 it reads "Now, we will compare the word unto a seed." The word of the Gospel can be a reference to Christ and his Gospel (see Mark 4: 14-20, 33). If you plant Christ in your heart and read the remainder of the chapter what are the results?

Alma 33 attempts to answer this question by giving examples of prophets who have preached of Christ and the results which ensued from their followers not having sufficient faith or belief in Him. For example, Alma 33:19-21:

33:19 Behold, he [meaning Christ] was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a ^btype was ^craised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live.

33:20 But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would ^aheal them.

33:21 O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in ^aunbelief, and be ^bslothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?

What are the "types" which have been raised up by the modern day prophets for us to look upon and live? Where do we fall in comparison to those listening to Moses' words? Do we refuse to ask for the healing power of the Atonement to help change us and the circumstance we find ourselves in?

While Alma 33 provides the description of different situations we might find ourselves in when we need the Savior's healing in our life. Alma 32 provides the steps we can take (or the prescription) to let Him in.

A boy in need

I was touched by the efforts of two BYU students to help a Romanian boy who was severely burned in a fire which killed both of his parents. They are seeking donations to bring the boy to the US for surgery.

Read more here: http://www.teammarius.org/

Tornados and wild weather

For those who have seen the national news...YES we had some rough weather this past week in North Texas.

The town of Crowley was hardest hit with a confirmed EF2 tornado which destroyed some homes and damaged others. This storm made the national news. In Mansfield, we were hit with big rains and a lightning storm, but the strong winds passed us by--phew!
The storm which hit last Thursday (April 17th) while we were out of town did some damage and flooded Walnut Creek near our home. We're waiting for the insurance adjuster to visit and tell us if they will replace our roof due to hail damage. The rain on Wednesday washed a ton of the roof down onto the driveway.

Josh's Talk

Josh was assigned to give a talk in Primary next Sunday. The theme is "I will follow the prophet." Tuesday I talked to him about what he wanted to say. He decided what to say; I put it in order and wrote it for him. Here is his talk:

President Hinckley used to be our prophet, but now President Monson is our prophet. President Monson likes to fish. He helps people. The prophet teaches us in General Conference. Heavenly Father tells him what to say and what to do. I will follow the prophet. I will keep the commandments and be kind. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

He has been practicing, and last night he read it all by himself (I don't think he really knows how to read all those words, but he can 'read' it since he knows what it is supposed to say.) I hope he does well with it on Sunday. I am proud of him.

As a side note, this morning, Josh has been listening to music and dancing. Right now he is playing Christmas music. Josh really loves music.

Reading

Brittany loves to read. She started reading even before Kindergarten, and she has never stopped. Her speed of reading amazes me. I often try to read the books she reads, and she can read the same book faster than I can. About the time of spring break, her friend convinced her to read Harry Potter. She has now read all 7 books. A neighbor let her borrow the 7th book Saturday afternoon, and she finished it on Sunday. Have you seen that book? I think it is as thick as the Bible! She amazes me. Her favorite books by far are The Little House on the Prairie books. Grandma gave them to her a year ago, and I think she has read them all at least 20 times! I'm glad Brittany loves to read. I have always liked to read too; I liked being able to "visit" so many different places, times, and cultures through books. And it is fun to read the same books she does so we have things in common.

The *New* Mansfield 1st Ward

We met today as the *new* Mansfield 1st Ward. Two weeks ago the boundaries for most wards in our stake were redrawn. Today was the first chance to meet.

The children all have new Primary teachers. Paul had new nursery teachers and actually stayed in the class after I took him!! The first time since we started trying to take him at 17-1/2 months old. As for Shawnie, she still plays the piano for Primary and is an assistant for Activity Days.

I'm still Elders Quorum President. My two new counselors were sustained and set apart by the Stake President during priesthood meeting and most of the rest of the leadership callings were set forth today as well. The next big task for my new presidency is to work out the Home Teaching list. We've been tasked by the Bishop with keeping as many Home Teachers and the families they visit together. The Stake President spoke today about how we are not called to keep the status quo. The balancing act will happen this week!

"Think"

A few weeks back while I was eating lunch, Shawnie had the radio tuned on to a local NPR radio show called THINK. The local host has guests on from around the country and world to discuss topics which are important to local listeners.

One day they had a Doctor on talking about technology. So I emailed in a question. I was suprised that it made it on the air...I guess they were desperate for questions.

The link to the whole podcast of the Think episode I submitted a comment to is
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510036

Whatever the case, I didn't like the answer given. He essentially said that technology doesn't or won't play a role in the care of patients. Not a very forward thinking doctor. To be fair though he was talking about care of the aged and his answer made some sense. However, if embraced, technology could improve care. Examples: electronic health records, PDAs and other devices which doctors can carry around to access information, monitors tied to web applications to give access to patient information online from anywhere, kiosks for registering at the hospital (think airport kiosk), clinical intelligence systems, and many more.

I look forward to a future where technology provides many more benefits to the care I receive.

Can we have church at home?

In the past, we have gone to the church to watch at least one session of conference (even when we could watch at home) so the children would understand that Conference is not a break from church. This time we watched all 4 sessions from home. On Saturday, Kyle was trying to fix a system failure at work, and I was doing some work in the yard pulling weeds and preparing a flower bed. I stopped just in time to listen to conference, but that meant that the children were soon hungry, so we had to help them get lunch during conference. We didn’t require them to watch on Saturday, but they all stayed around me and listened at least some. (I felt good that they made that choice.) Sunday morning Kyle and I discussed if we should go to the Stake center. We wanted to make sure we were more focused on listening than we had been the day before. In the end, we decided to stay home, but Kyle suggested that we walk out of the house through the garage and then back in the front door to make the point that we were now “at church.” We helped all the children eat an early lunch, get dressed for church, and gathered a bag of amusements. Several times they asked why we couldn’t just stay home. When we were ready, it was about 10 to 11, so we decided to drive to “church.” Kyle drove around the neighborhood, with the children asking why he wasn’t going the right way, and then pulled into the driveway. We explained ourselves, but some were not very happy with us. Megan seemed to feel that we had done her a great injustice (“THIS IS NOT CHURCH!!!”). After some time and a discussion with Dad, she calmed down, and all the children were very well behaved. And we had the benefit of putting the little ones down for naps in their beds. We also had a discussion after conference about all the different places where church can be held.

Apparently I didn’t do a very good job of listening, though. I just looked at a friend’s blog where she commented on her General Conference experience, including notes on things that impressed her from a dozen talks. I, on the other hand, can barely remember the talks, though most of her notes jogged my memory. (Unfortunately, a few of her notes left me wondering where I was during that talk.) When Pres. Monson gave his final talk and talked about one side of his family, I was wondering why I didn’t remember him talking about the other side of his family in his previous talk. Even so, I stopped what I was doing and listened to all the sessions of conference, and hopefully I will remember what I need to when it is needed. I will definitely need to read the Ensign. I am grateful to have General Conference; the Solemn Assembly was particularly impressive. We are definitely blessed to so easily be taught by our prophet and other leaders.

Answer to prayer

Today the Human Resource directors and managers have a new dashboard to view. This past Friday there were big questions whether the system which hosts the dashboard would be ready for today’s unveiling.

A number of issues were identified as I worked from home on Friday. So I went to work putting patches provided by the software maker into place.

Saturday night after about 30 hrs of work, as I was finishing the final touches on the installs, for some unknown reason a folder on the server disappeared. I frantically searched for the files which were needed to make the system run. A call to the backup people revealed that somehow this server was overlooked and not backed up. There was no easy way to fix the problem! I had less than 48hrs to rebuild a server which took over a week to install.

About this time I heard through the door Shawnie and the children saying the nightly family prayer. It was as if the volume was turned up so I could hear "please bless Daddy that he can resolve the problems he's dealing with." Immediately after hearing those words, I noticed a change. Instead of concern and frustration, a thought entered my mind and my heart felt peace. I needed to check something I had already looked at. Upon looking again, the folder and files needed were there!

Heavenly Father knows the challenges we are facing and answers prayers! In this case immediately, even before the prayer was finished!

Losing faith in technology

I'm really quite fed up with everything to do with technology of late. I don't really like talking bad about things, but it seems lately that there is no end to technological 'issues' in my life.

From the dust of the latest unresolved issue another issue arises. Nothing I've tried seems to fix the issues. And another issue crops up before the first one is fixed.

Technology is a broad word, in this case I think it includes the computer issues I deal with at work, the oven going out at home, Paul's grip on my glasses causing failure of the hinge, and even the fact that the tires on my car have worn out prematurely in an annoying way which causes annoying road noise.

Maybe I should just start from scratch? I'll wipe the slate clean and start over. I'm sure that would go over well ;-> Sell the car, get lasik, and find a job outside of technology.

Anyway, back to reality. A new oven is coming on the 11th, I need to cough up some cash for new tires and new glasses and make due where I'm at until the next opportunity arises.

Technology is just great, just don't get too involved as it really won't save the world.