Delivered from Want

Tucked so neatly at the end of my favorite talk from April conference that I almost missed it was this little remark: "I pray that you will always have His Spirit to be with you to guide you and deliver you from want, anxiety, and distress." (Elder Christofferson) Being delivered from want struck me as very interesting thing to pray for.

During my May visiting teaching trip, Laura (miss you!) pointed out that the opposite of 'to want' is to be satisfied. When we are satisfied we are often free from want. For me that has been a good way to think of it. However I still find myself wanting a lot of good things. . . to raise a righteous family, to have a happy family (here and now), to be of service to those around me, for my sister to get better. . . . Isn't okay to want good things like that?

Then I remembered Alma. He wanted to be an angel to cry repentance. Wasn't that a good thing? But then he explained that he sinned in his wish and that he should be content with what was allotted him. When I went to look up that scripture, this is what I found:It's a little post-it note that I had printed out with an Elder Maxwell quote regarding Alma 29:1. The quote says, "Ponder how Jesus was and is the Lord of the universe. Yet His ministry, as we all know, was accomplished in a very tiny geographical space. His ministerial travels were very limited. Yet therein the Savior accomplished the Atonement for all of mankind! There were certainly much more prominent hills than Golgotha and much more resplendent gardens than Gethsemane. No matter; these were sufficient to host the central act of all human history!"

The quote spoke to me again like it must have when I put it in my scriptures. I felt again of Heaven's presence in my life and that I didn't need to have any wants. Heavenly Father desires my happiness more than I do and He will help fill the righteous desires of my heart as I submit my will to His. I need to focus my energy on being satisfied with my blessings and making sure I use the opportunities allotted to me.

The quote also led me to the talk that it came from and with this new thought process I gleaned a few more applicable tidbits:

"Pondering often precedes contentment. "

"Meanwhile, the discontented continue to build their own pools of self-pity, some Olympic size. "

"Being content means acceptance without self-pity. Meekly borne, however, deprivations such as these can end up being like excavations that make room for greatly enlarged souls."

After studying this I have come to realize the importance of being free from want. Taking it back to the terms that brought on this mini study session, Elder Christofferson prayed that we would be 'delivered from want' which leads me to think that it is not something we can do entirely on our own as mortals. While it is important to avoid pity pools especially Olympic sized, (don't you just love Elder Maxwell's imagery?) I think mud-puddle and kiddie-pool-sized wantings are part of mortality and can only be filled by the strengthening and enabling power of the atonement (see page 697 in the Bible dictionary under 'grace') which comes to us as we keep our covenants--and that is what Elder Christofferson's talk was all about. Through keeping our covenants it is possible to delivered from want. What a wonderful promise!

Cycling Merit Badge

To date, this is our most expensive merit badge---even more than all the others the boys have earned combined--and some of them have not been cheap. The cycling merit badge shouldn't be expensive if one already has a bike--which both boys did. The requirements besides knowing a few things (first aid, how to care for a bike, repair a flat etc.) includes two 10 mile rides, two 15 mile rides, two 25 mile rides and a 50 mile ride. So why has this merit badge cost us thousands of dollars?

Wrecks.

When we moved into this ward, the troop had already done the 10 mile rides, so Cache had to make those up to get the badge. Tom took him on a mountain bike ride to make one of them up. It was his first time mountain biking. Early in the ride, he came around a bend, went onto a little ledge then got a bit nervous and ran into a tree. Bike was fine and other than a bloody nose, Cache appeared to be fine; however the next day he looked like this. After trips to different doctors over a few month's time, things with his face were still not resolved. Eventually we found ourselves at an oral surgeon's office. He ordered a CT scan--which finally answered a few questions. There was foreign matter in his cheek. (Later we discovered they were branch pieces --one was almost one inch long. They had entered through the mouth so there were no outer skin lacerations which was why there was such great mystery.) Two surgeries later we finally got things corrected. Not cheap.

Then came Caleb. . . on one of his 25 milers, he went around a corner and looked back to check on those behind him. Next thing he knew he had hit a car. A parked car. (According to the scout leader it was the only non-BMW in the neighborhood.) After hitting it, he rolled onto the hood taking the bike with him. They apparently left a few dents. Thankfully that wasn't the expensive part since the owners (who saw it happen) forgave him because the car had already seen better years. And other than putting a crack in Tom's expensive helmet we didn't feel too badly. However after another 25 miler, he said his bike wasn't shifting properly and asked Tom for help getting it fixed. Neither of them could figure out how to fix it. So I took it in for a tune up for the 50 miler. The shop called the next day saying it would be more expensive to fix than to get a new bike. (the fork was bent) They also said it was unsafe for riding (OH!--and suddenly we were more thankful he was safe while up to that point). So Caleb secured a good story for the cycling merit badge too.

Hoping that Chandler doesn't have to keep up the family tradition . . . . guess we'll see in a few years.

My Grandma Porter

Three years ago today my Grandma died. I miss her and think of her often. I think of her every time I make her ham chowder, her scones, finger jello and sausage and waffles. I think of her whenever I attempt quilting and some sewing projects. I think of her often as I'm overwhelmed with 5 children--she had 11! (and she raised them in much smaller quarters than I have.) She continues to be a good influence in my life--and I've wished many a day that I could call her and ask her how to do something that I remember her doing.

I attribute a lot of my creativity to her (my dad has it too, along with all of my siblings). She was always thinking up fun new things to do or try. She was ever inventive in her cooking, sewing and crafting projects. She was always on the look out to create things with the simple resources she had. I am thankful every day for the gift of creativity. It blesses my life in so many ways. I made this layout a few years ago of my memories of her and Grandpa--click on it if you are interested in reading the journaling. (This layout was published in September 2003 issue of Creating Keepsakes.)

In honor of her, here is a link to a recipe for the wheat snacks she used to make. (cinnamon sugar + salt is also yummy combination on them) Maybe some of you will try it. And today I think I'll make mini cream puffs and serve them up with a chicken/celery/mayo mixture for dinner. (She used to always make those and I had forgotten about them until I was thumbing threw a bunch of her recipes yesterday.) Porter family, what else do you remember about Grandma?

Grandma, thanks for being a wonderful influence and example. I love you and miss you.

She's Paying Attention!

As I put something to eat in front of her: "I need my scriptures."
"Tessa, what are you doing?" "I'm typing my blog.""Tessa what are you doing here?" "This is my Eagle project."

In the mail today. . .

Our BYU football season tickets arrived. Everyone swooned over them and chatted happily about the upcoming football season. After the hubbub died down a bit, I took a little peek. Each ticket had a different football picture on it and as I assessed them, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that be cool if your kid was on the ticket?" As I looked more closely at the kids on the ticket for Utah State, I thought I recognized some of the kids!!! I jumped up and turned on a light for a better look. My eyes hadn't fooled me! A few were nephews and one was my son!! The circled one is Chandler. (click on picture for a closer look) Then after closer inspection, we decided that the far left one (with only a chin showing) is Caleb. The ones around Chandler are Christine's kids Matt, Jake and Andrew, and we think one of them is Sally's Danny. Kinda cool huh?!? (Cache claims his fame for being in one of the highlight videos a few years back.) Around here, BYU football is a family affair, in a big way!

Quote

Yesterday I was feeling super overwhelmed and perhaps a bit sorry for myself. I went back in my room to feed Greta thankful for a little retreat; as I was letting out a big sigh of exasperation these words came to me:(If you can't read it very well, it says: "Life doesn't have to be easy or fair for you to be happy.")

I decided that was great advice for myself and my family and I marched right out and wrote it on my quote board. (and I worked to apply it the rest of the day).

So that night at supper I said, "Did anyone notice I put up a new quote today?" Everyone turned to look at it. After a little light hearted discussion about it I said jokingly, "Do any of you think I'll become famous for my quote?" Caleb said, "Mom, (in a bit of a what-planet-are-you-from tone) you have to be famous before you say something people will quote." I laughed right out loud. Perhaps he is right. I still think it is a good quote and I've gotten good mileage out of it so far. (The kids, however, have yet to be convinced that I have said anything valuable enough to make it on the quote board----thus far the people who have made it onto my quote board have been famous!)

Park City

Chandler asked me the other day if I was going to post about our Park City trip on my blog (he's my big blog reader--I often catch him on many of your blogs :). So I guess I'd better get to it. I'm sorry to report that pictures from the trip are very lacking. I hate that that happens, but juggling five children and their gear all while driving a suburban-sized stroller, the camera stays in the bag more often than not. But I'll share the few I took.

We spent one entire day at Park City Resort. Tom wanted to make sure we all got well over our moneys worth out of our full day passes--and we did! We could have each done more, but someone had to sit at the bottom with Greta the whole time. It was mostly me sitting with her because I wanted everyone to have fun. Tessa love, love, loved the slide and she liked to go full speed--not much fear in her! When she wasn't doing the slide, she was on the airplanes, train or merry go round. There was also the coaster--we all (except Tess--too young) liked that. I only got one chance on that and wanted to ride it with Tom. He rode in the back where you can control the brake--and he didn't use it at all. Although it was a little faster than I would have gone had I been in control, it was fun. Later while sitting with Greta I overheard some people talking saying that the coaster was WAY more scary than the zipline. I hadn't thought the coaster was that bad so when Tom asked me if I would ride the zipline with him, I said I would. I was feeling pretty brave and proud of myself for being willing to do it until I got to the top and saw the top end. They have you step on these stairs then sit in a chair and hold yourself up with your feet on a door that will fly open as soon as you are strapped in. At that point I couldn't believe I was doing this. But I didn't want to disappoint Tom because he really wanted me to go on it with him (it was his first time on this ride too) and so I didn't back out. When that door opened, I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and muttered "I can't believe I am doing this." and then prayed individually of each of my 5 kids! (I'm weird I know.) When I was close to the bottom I opened my eyes a little and wondered how in the world I was going to stop. There was a sign at the top telling you what to do, but I couldn't remember what it said! So I closed my eyes again and prayed harder! Then suddenly I jerked to a stop and it was over. The young attendant asked me if it was fun. I was polite even though I felt like kicking him in the shins! (I'm a pretty big wimp!!) Oh well. I have bragging rights and I didn't let my husband down :).

Another day we went to Utah Olympic Park. Tess, Greta and I stayed and watched skiers go off jumps into the pool. Cache and Tom rode the bobsled (pulling 4gs and traveling about a mile in 90ish seconds going almost 70mph!). Caleb and Chandler rode the slide and zipline there. The rest of the time we played in the condo's pool, went shopping, played games, watched TV (we don't have cable, so it was a treat--we all LOVE The Food Network! and were disappointed, however, that we didn't catch The Iron Chef!) and went to dinner. All super fun times!

Integrity

"I feel it is always good strategy to stand up for the right, even when it is unpopular. Perhaps I should say, especially when it is unpopular." --President Ezra Taft Benson--

I put this quote on the wall a few years ago in hopes that it would strengthen my children when they came to a difficult choice. But lately it has been pulling me through. . . being the mom of teenagers I'm not always popular with them, even though that would sure be easier sometimes. But I am reminded to stand up for the right especially when it is unpopular. (and it will be okay)

How to be Prosperous

My lesson in FHE last night started out something like this:

"Tonight we're going to talk about how to get rich, be successful and be happy. And my text for this lesson comes from a talk by a Roman Catholic economist. "

That got their attention.

During the course of the lesson we had more discussion than we normally do and I could really tell those boys, who I felt strongly needed this lesson because they will be the providers of families someday, were mulling over and considering this information more than usual.

My text came from this BYU forum by Arthur C. Brooks. And I found it very interesting. As an economist he wanted to prove that John D. Rockefeller was wrong in his position that he was rich partially because he gave money away. He said that numbers just don't work that way. He spent months researching and crunching numbers and kept coming up with the result that 'when people give money away, they tend to prosper'. He thought that was counter intuitive so he threw away his findings, got a new computer and started again. He got rid of the old data, looked for new data, recrunched numbers and got the exact same result. Statistically, people who give (money, time, talents--even blood) are richer, more successful and happier than those who don't.

One quote I found very interesting: "I am here to tell you, having looked at the data, that the day the government takes over for you in your private charity is the day we get poorer, unhappier, and unhealthier. We must demand to take our place as givers and support the communities and people who need the services we can provide."

I just found the whole thing interesting because the prophets have told us all along to be of service and that we'll be blessed and happy for it and now there are hard facts to back that up! Tom added that a friend at work (who is not LDS) took a class on becoming wealthy (taught by a group that is not LDS based) and one thing they recommended you do to increase your income is give 10% away to charity. All very interesting.

Two things . . .

that I love about this photo:Greta's 'thumbs up' and Tessa displaying the {inherited?} Waddoups trait of the tongue out--even in the exact form of her Grandpa and Daddy. . .