Turbulent times and the Fall of Adam and Eve

Recently I had an experience which highlighted to me the challenging world we find ourselves in. The verses found in Moses 4: 17-21 best summarize the experience. Until the recent experience, I read these verses with the same perspective I gaines years ago in a BYU religion class. I read them in context of this being the pattern Heavenly Father provided for parenting. But this time around I saw something deeper. I also saw a patern for dealing with the consequenses others' poor choices have upon us.

My thinking was changed as I thought about the challenging times we live in. The troubled times we live in are directly tied to these verses (the Fall of Adam and Even and Satan's part in the Plan of Salvation). Satan was cursed for tempting Adam and Eve. Even so, he was also provided power. He is using the power he has to cause as much trouble in this world as he can. Ultimately though, Satan can bruise our heel but we can crush his head. The experience strengthened my testimony. We will come off conqueror, even when another's choice is to turn away from God. Satan’s power may be unleashed to its fullest, but if we keep the faith and keep our covenants we will come off conqueror in the end!

Christmas Photos

From December 2008

Name this car!

2009 Ford Taurus

2010 Ford Taurus

A new addition to the family

We caved in and finally got a pet. "Slider" (a long-haired hamster) joined our family this past week as a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad to Megan.

The children have been clammering around the cage ooo-ing and ah-ing at every little thing the animal does. "It's getting a drink," or "It's awake!" or "It's in the food dish." The added level of family energy caused by the rodent is exciting. I am sure the poor little animal doesn't know quite how to deal with all the attention. I think it is still adjusting to its new surroundings as my attempt to pet it today only led it to posture in self-defense.

Time will hopefully allow this little animal to grow accustom to our busy lives and provide the play animal Megan was looking for. Until then, the boys will shake the table its on, Paul will announce in his loud voice hamster play-by-play's, and the children will gather round to gawk and a small rodent named "Slider."

"The Family Is of God"

I discovered this song because of my calling as Primary pianist. Each year the church distributes an outline of subjects to study in Sharing Time and songs to learn each month. For January, a choice was given for the song: "I Lived in Heaven" or "The Family Is of God" (printed in the October 2008 Friend). So I looked up the song and was very impressed with the message. We decided to teach it to the children in our ward. Other wards may choose differently, so I thought I would share the words with you here. You can hear the song by going to www.friend.lds.org and clicking on the link at the right side of the page.

"The Family Is of God" by Matthew Neely

"Our Father has a family. It's me!
It's you, all others too; we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam'lies.

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.

A father's place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam'ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.

A Mother's purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam'ly.

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.

I'll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam'ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I'll help my fam'ly remember:

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God."

Paul and Popcorn

At some point, our family developed a bit of a habit of eating popcorn, with the bowl on a kitchen towel on the floor, during movies. It is one of the few instances when eating outside of the kitchen/dining room is permitted. This afternoon, the children watched a movie. They asked to watch the movie, which I approved and helped to get started, but no one asked me about popcorn. I was busy doing something on the computer. Paul kept coming to say something unintelligible to me, but he was very insistent. I though maybe he was saying "torn." I asked him what was torn, he ran off, and I went on with what I was doing. He kept coming back saying the same thing. Finally he insisted I follow him to the kitchen, where he showed me the popcorn popper and bowl that he had gotten out of the cupboard on his own. The light went on for me, and after I tried to get him to say "POPcorn" a few times, I agreed to make popcorn because he was so industrious. I started the popcorn popper and went back to finish what I was doing.

Before long, Paul was back repeatedly saying "butter, butter," so I went to melt some butter to put on the popcorn. When I checked the fridge, there was no butter there, so I got a stick from the freezer. When I went to get a knife for cutting the butter, I happened to glance in the popcorn bowl, where I saw 3/4 a stick of butter, unwrapped, sitting in the bowl (fortunately no popcorn had popped yet). Yep, Paul was still being industrious and taking care of the butter, too. I cut off a little butter to melt in the microwave and found some waxed paper to wrap the rest of the butter in.

All of a sudden Paul was yelling again. When I turned around to look, the popped corn was flowing over the sides of the bowl. I started cleaning it up, but Paul's eye was caught by an unpopped kernel which he grabbed and put in his mouth before I could stop him. Of course, it was very hot, but I gave him a drink, and he was alright. He was undaunted and quickly got out a towel to put the bowl on while I added butter and salt. So Paul triumphantly delivered the popcorn to the family room, which all the others devoured without even thinking about all the work he had done to bring it to them.