My head was swimming with thoughts generated during the Recovery support group meeting I had just attended. I pulled into the garage, walked into the house and set my key, scriptures, journal, pen and Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing on the kitchen counter. What to do next? I dialed my daughters cell number just to check in on a summer afternoon. I could tell by the noise behind the, “Hi Mom, what’s up?” that she and the kids were out and about having a bit of fun in the sun. We visited for a minute and I tried to hear the news of her day over lots of background commotion when suddenly she yelled out, “T.J., don’t drink out of your shoe!”
Now I wasn’t in church or a recovery meeting, but in that very moment God spoke to me about my recovery through a two and a half year old little boy. My grandson, T.J. had apparently gotten a little thirsty at the water park and thought he had no other alternative than to fill his shoe with water and take care of his problem right then and there.
What the Lord said to me was, “Whatever you do next Nannette, don’t drink out of your shoe!” Living in recovery, living clean and sober from my drug of choice (excess food) is about trusting that God will feed my soul and quench my thirst. I don’t have to grab the most accessible, quick acting, “unclean” thing at hand to take care of my immediate need. I don’t have to drink out of my shoe.
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
“Have You Considered the Math Lab?” - Seeking Support
Today I am writing in honor of, but not exclusively to, the many fall 2008 students who have almost made it past the September mile marker but not yet across the December finish line. My heart goes out to you and my prayers reach up for you, but I know it won’t be adequate!
“What?” you say, “Prayer, not adequate?”
I’m reminded of my son Andrew. Before he left to serve an LDS mission, he completed his first four-month experience at the university. Math was the biggest challenge of the semester. He showed up for class, did his homework, and prayed for help. But his test scores were not encouraging. At the beginning of the semester I discussed with him the blessing the “math lab” had been to his older sister. He exhibited absolutely no interest. As the semester wore on and math depression set in, every once in a while, in my best “Cautious now, don’t give your college boy too much motherly advice” voice, I would suggest he make a visit to the math lab. He would look at me with a bit of disgust in his eyes and say, “Oh…they won’t be able to help me!”
Finally, when there was just enough time left to pull his grade out of the cellar he came home one day with a big grin on his face and announced that the math lab was the greatest place on campus.
Like math, application of the 12 steps is not a do it yourself project. A common discovery among those who struggle with compulsive/addictive behavior and are finally reaching out for help is that, “It was my best efforts that got me into this mess.”
So often we decide that we are either beyond the help of others or that our problem is to menial for anyone’s attention. “Oh…they won’t be able to help me!” We wait and wait and try to go it on our own, making promise after promise, resolution after resolution, until the pain of our problem finally drives us to seek the help we needed and could have had much sooner.
Those who are finding success living in recovery reach out for help everyday and sometimes multiple times a day. It takes humility to admit you need to be in the math lab, that you can’t figure it our by yourself. It takes great humility to make a phone call during a time of temptation; to go to recovery meetings; to make an appointment with the Bishop and tell him you are ready to accept his assistance in the repentance process; to ask someone to help you do an inventory of your part in some problem or situation and to help you see how you might make amends. When we reach out we let go of our prideful need to be self-sufficient.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Addiction Recovery Program is the “lab” for anyone who is struggling with compulsive/addictive behavior, and for those who cannot readily identify with addiction. It is the “lab” for anyone who feels helpless and powerless to resolve any of the problems of life. The Mission Statement reads, “…As we practice these 12 steps in our lives, we receive power through the Atonement of Jesus Christ…” Practicing the steps is not a solitary work.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said that you need, “a friend in the Church to whom you can constantly turn, who will walk beside you, who will answer your questions, who will understand your problems” (Ensign, Oct. 2006, 4). He also said: “…Band together and strengthen one another. And when the time of temptation comes, you will have someone to lean on, someone to bless you and give you strength when you need it. That is what this Church is for, so that we can help one another in our times of weakness…” (Eugene Oregon Regional Conference, September 15, 1996)
I don’t want to resist my need for the “lab” (my need to receive help). My progress requires that I seek support. The Lord has made the recourses available so that I don’t have to wait until the end of the semester, or the end of day, or even the end of hour.
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 29, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
“What?” you say, “Prayer, not adequate?”
I’m reminded of my son Andrew. Before he left to serve an LDS mission, he completed his first four-month experience at the university. Math was the biggest challenge of the semester. He showed up for class, did his homework, and prayed for help. But his test scores were not encouraging. At the beginning of the semester I discussed with him the blessing the “math lab” had been to his older sister. He exhibited absolutely no interest. As the semester wore on and math depression set in, every once in a while, in my best “Cautious now, don’t give your college boy too much motherly advice” voice, I would suggest he make a visit to the math lab. He would look at me with a bit of disgust in his eyes and say, “Oh…they won’t be able to help me!”
Finally, when there was just enough time left to pull his grade out of the cellar he came home one day with a big grin on his face and announced that the math lab was the greatest place on campus.
Like math, application of the 12 steps is not a do it yourself project. A common discovery among those who struggle with compulsive/addictive behavior and are finally reaching out for help is that, “It was my best efforts that got me into this mess.”
So often we decide that we are either beyond the help of others or that our problem is to menial for anyone’s attention. “Oh…they won’t be able to help me!” We wait and wait and try to go it on our own, making promise after promise, resolution after resolution, until the pain of our problem finally drives us to seek the help we needed and could have had much sooner.
Those who are finding success living in recovery reach out for help everyday and sometimes multiple times a day. It takes humility to admit you need to be in the math lab, that you can’t figure it our by yourself. It takes great humility to make a phone call during a time of temptation; to go to recovery meetings; to make an appointment with the Bishop and tell him you are ready to accept his assistance in the repentance process; to ask someone to help you do an inventory of your part in some problem or situation and to help you see how you might make amends. When we reach out we let go of our prideful need to be self-sufficient.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Addiction Recovery Program is the “lab” for anyone who is struggling with compulsive/addictive behavior, and for those who cannot readily identify with addiction. It is the “lab” for anyone who feels helpless and powerless to resolve any of the problems of life. The Mission Statement reads, “…As we practice these 12 steps in our lives, we receive power through the Atonement of Jesus Christ…” Practicing the steps is not a solitary work.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said that you need, “a friend in the Church to whom you can constantly turn, who will walk beside you, who will answer your questions, who will understand your problems” (Ensign, Oct. 2006, 4). He also said: “…Band together and strengthen one another. And when the time of temptation comes, you will have someone to lean on, someone to bless you and give you strength when you need it. That is what this Church is for, so that we can help one another in our times of weakness…” (Eugene Oregon Regional Conference, September 15, 1996)
I don’t want to resist my need for the “lab” (my need to receive help). My progress requires that I seek support. The Lord has made the recourses available so that I don’t have to wait until the end of the semester, or the end of day, or even the end of hour.
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 29, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Real Life is an “E-Coupon” – “Accepting Life on Life’s Terms” and “Living in the Present”
Minivan packed stem to stern…Kids, drowsy with thrill overload, and clutching bear, light saber, and Simba, bought with this years souvenir savings…Driving home through the desert…Our sunny California adventure at our backs…
I’m full of the “end of holiday” feelings I always experience during the “it’s time to go home” part any adventure. Here I sit in the middle seat with sunshine all around feeling like there’s a little gray cloud hanging over my head. I believe it’s a sign that I’ve got work to do at home. Not laundry/dishes type work, although I guess that will have to be done too. I’m talking about the work that leads to being more happy, joyous and free outside the theme park, in any given situation, the work of focused, willing, deliberate, eager participation in life as it comes. I don’t have this concept down yet, not down deep where it needs to be.
Wednesday night, as we exited the Magic Kingdom, Ethan put my resistance to going home and facing real life into words. “I love Disneyland! You don’t have to do any chores. Just have fun!”
“That’s great!” I thought. “I think like a seven year old when it comes to the work of real life.”
“So Nannette,” interrupted that Spirit whose full time job is helping me keep my thinking in good shape. With a twinkle in His eye, I’m sure, He said, “Let’s talk about theme park fun…Last week before you came on this family adventure you were hustling to take care of your everyday work and get ready for your trip too! Things were pretty crazy. You commented to your sister, ‘It will just feel good to get off the Merry-Go-Round for a while.’ When did the Merry-Go-Round get such a bad wrap? You’ve been on it numerous times this week and each time wished you could stay for another round with the one to four year olds. You like the Merry-Go-Round Nannette. You also like moving really fast, the anticipation of the uphill climb, the thrill of not being able to see where the track goes next, being jerked around, being challenged, surprised, and yes, even terrorized. You even like coming off a ride and being told, ‘Mom, you are all wet!’ Nannette, you’ve got all this and more at home. You’re just leaving one adventure and heading for another.”
As we walked round Disneyland, having paid the admission and checked in at the front gate, we were able to zip onto any ride we pleased. I told my kids and their kids that “when I was a little girl” (that phrase makes me feel really old) the tickets to Disneyland were handled a bit differently. Before you entered the gate the parents decided what they could afford and then they purchased a book of tickets. In the book were coupons for A B C D and E rides. All rides were rated and the choices were listed on the coupon. The “best rides” were the E’s. The more you paid the more E coupons you got.
I think what the Spirit was trying to say was,” Nannette, real life is an endless coupon book full of E tickets. So why be afraid to go home? Why resist doing real life? If you have a taste for family fun, exciting heights, moving fast, and the thrill of not knowing what’s around the next corner, then Real Life is the ride for you.
I share this little interchange with you all so that if you ever catch me unawares, standing in my kitchen trying to do twelve things at once with my roller coaster arms and hands high in the air and a high pitched, very loud scream exiting my vocal chords you’ll know I’m just having a good old “E Coupon” time of my life!!!!
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 28, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
I’m full of the “end of holiday” feelings I always experience during the “it’s time to go home” part any adventure. Here I sit in the middle seat with sunshine all around feeling like there’s a little gray cloud hanging over my head. I believe it’s a sign that I’ve got work to do at home. Not laundry/dishes type work, although I guess that will have to be done too. I’m talking about the work that leads to being more happy, joyous and free outside the theme park, in any given situation, the work of focused, willing, deliberate, eager participation in life as it comes. I don’t have this concept down yet, not down deep where it needs to be.
Wednesday night, as we exited the Magic Kingdom, Ethan put my resistance to going home and facing real life into words. “I love Disneyland! You don’t have to do any chores. Just have fun!”
“That’s great!” I thought. “I think like a seven year old when it comes to the work of real life.”
“So Nannette,” interrupted that Spirit whose full time job is helping me keep my thinking in good shape. With a twinkle in His eye, I’m sure, He said, “Let’s talk about theme park fun…Last week before you came on this family adventure you were hustling to take care of your everyday work and get ready for your trip too! Things were pretty crazy. You commented to your sister, ‘It will just feel good to get off the Merry-Go-Round for a while.’ When did the Merry-Go-Round get such a bad wrap? You’ve been on it numerous times this week and each time wished you could stay for another round with the one to four year olds. You like the Merry-Go-Round Nannette. You also like moving really fast, the anticipation of the uphill climb, the thrill of not being able to see where the track goes next, being jerked around, being challenged, surprised, and yes, even terrorized. You even like coming off a ride and being told, ‘Mom, you are all wet!’ Nannette, you’ve got all this and more at home. You’re just leaving one adventure and heading for another.”
As we walked round Disneyland, having paid the admission and checked in at the front gate, we were able to zip onto any ride we pleased. I told my kids and their kids that “when I was a little girl” (that phrase makes me feel really old) the tickets to Disneyland were handled a bit differently. Before you entered the gate the parents decided what they could afford and then they purchased a book of tickets. In the book were coupons for A B C D and E rides. All rides were rated and the choices were listed on the coupon. The “best rides” were the E’s. The more you paid the more E coupons you got.
I think what the Spirit was trying to say was,” Nannette, real life is an endless coupon book full of E tickets. So why be afraid to go home? Why resist doing real life? If you have a taste for family fun, exciting heights, moving fast, and the thrill of not knowing what’s around the next corner, then Real Life is the ride for you.
I share this little interchange with you all so that if you ever catch me unawares, standing in my kitchen trying to do twelve things at once with my roller coaster arms and hands high in the air and a high pitched, very loud scream exiting my vocal chords you’ll know I’m just having a good old “E Coupon” time of my life!!!!
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 28, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Sea Treasure! Can You See It? - Step 7
A trip to Southern California has to include a trip to the beach. That's where the eleven of us headed yesterday. We stayed until all of us had gotten wet, dug for crabs, built roads and castles and tunnels in the sand, until the seagulls had eaten Carson's sandwich and Diana's mini Oreo's (all of them), until the babies were caked in sand, until it was time to reapply the sunscreen, until all the big dudes and some of the little ones had tried the rented boogie board and finally, and this is where my thought for the day begins until we had discovered and collected and rinsed and bagged up lots and lots of seashells.
My collection of sea treasure began on a solitary stroll to the pier and back to the family spot on the sand. As the water spilled up and then hurried back out to the sea it left behind hundreds of shells. I collected the good ones and with the next wave, everything I hadn't deemed collectible disappeared. I wondered how many “go a rounds” these shells had made. Some of them were pretty beat up.
I shared my seashell collection with the “grands.” They became interested in making a collection of their own. So leaving sand castles behind, we went down to where the water meets the land. What I observed for the next thirty minutes was the tremendous difference in the way I collect shells and what the children see as buried treasure revealed. Where I collected a pocket full, they collected several plastic sand buckets full.
“Grandma, look at this one, it's beautiful!” “Wow”, I say, not wanting to make four, seven and nine year olds feel bad about their collector’s eye. What they were all excited about were pieces of shells, chipped shells, shells with holes in them, certainly not like the perfect specimens in my pocket. They were thrilled over the kinds of shells I had rejected and allowed to wash back out to sea.
I think God is like a little child when it comes to collectibles. He sees the chips and the holes and the broken pieces in us as evidence of experience, not as a disgrace and a reason for rejection. “As adult children" of God, we see, and think we know exactly what he's looking for. We're hard on ourselves and we're hard on others. In our minds, few of us make the cut. But much of what we see in ourselves and others are the scars of submitting ourselves to earth life experience, not indicators of our value. Our appearance is often the indicator of a life long tussle with mortality. Our condition, as we finish the war that started in heaven, makes us more God's treasurer, not less. And like my grandkids, our Savior hopes to take home every shell on the beach.
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 26, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
My collection of sea treasure began on a solitary stroll to the pier and back to the family spot on the sand. As the water spilled up and then hurried back out to the sea it left behind hundreds of shells. I collected the good ones and with the next wave, everything I hadn't deemed collectible disappeared. I wondered how many “go a rounds” these shells had made. Some of them were pretty beat up.
I shared my seashell collection with the “grands.” They became interested in making a collection of their own. So leaving sand castles behind, we went down to where the water meets the land. What I observed for the next thirty minutes was the tremendous difference in the way I collect shells and what the children see as buried treasure revealed. Where I collected a pocket full, they collected several plastic sand buckets full.
“Grandma, look at this one, it's beautiful!” “Wow”, I say, not wanting to make four, seven and nine year olds feel bad about their collector’s eye. What they were all excited about were pieces of shells, chipped shells, shells with holes in them, certainly not like the perfect specimens in my pocket. They were thrilled over the kinds of shells I had rejected and allowed to wash back out to sea.
I think God is like a little child when it comes to collectibles. He sees the chips and the holes and the broken pieces in us as evidence of experience, not as a disgrace and a reason for rejection. “As adult children" of God, we see, and think we know exactly what he's looking for. We're hard on ourselves and we're hard on others. In our minds, few of us make the cut. But much of what we see in ourselves and others are the scars of submitting ourselves to earth life experience, not indicators of our value. Our appearance is often the indicator of a life long tussle with mortality. Our condition, as we finish the war that started in heaven, makes us more God's treasurer, not less. And like my grandkids, our Savior hopes to take home every shell on the beach.
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 26, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The High Priced Ticket
A ticket to Disneyland these days is a pretty big investment in giving children some time in the “Happiest Place on Earth”. The price of a ticket, plus food and lodging, not to mention the price of gasoline to make the big journey totals quite a chunk of money.
Eleven of us entered Disneyland first thing yesterday morning, two of my children, their spouses and six children. Some of the children are Disneyland veterans. But today was Sammy's initiation into the Magic Kingdom!
She entered, donning her “first trip to Disneyland” button. She was greeted by smiling Disneyland employees and the Disneyland Band and the glorious bed of flowers depicting Mickey Mouse himself. Sammy's eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. As we entered Main Street USA her three most experienced cousins surrounded her with orientation and motivational information. “Sammy you are going to love Big Thunder Mountain. You are going to get really wet on Splash Mountain. You are going to get so scared in the Tower of Terror. Sammy, they have an Alice in Wonderland ride. “
That was the moment that pure delight shot through Sammy. It was visible from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. Her papa looked on. As the moment of joyful excitement and anticipation brought his little four year old off her feet he exclaimed, “That right there was worth the price of the whole ticket.”
Now I know there is no comparison in real terms between the sacrifice we make for the happiness of our own children today and the sacrifice our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ have made for our eternal happiness, but I do know this: When we are full to the brim with excitement, anticipation and appreciation for what THEY have provided, I can almost hear them say, “That right there was worth the price of the whole ticket.” And what a price that was!
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Eleven of us entered Disneyland first thing yesterday morning, two of my children, their spouses and six children. Some of the children are Disneyland veterans. But today was Sammy's initiation into the Magic Kingdom!
She entered, donning her “first trip to Disneyland” button. She was greeted by smiling Disneyland employees and the Disneyland Band and the glorious bed of flowers depicting Mickey Mouse himself. Sammy's eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. As we entered Main Street USA her three most experienced cousins surrounded her with orientation and motivational information. “Sammy you are going to love Big Thunder Mountain. You are going to get really wet on Splash Mountain. You are going to get so scared in the Tower of Terror. Sammy, they have an Alice in Wonderland ride. “
That was the moment that pure delight shot through Sammy. It was visible from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. Her papa looked on. As the moment of joyful excitement and anticipation brought his little four year old off her feet he exclaimed, “That right there was worth the price of the whole ticket.”
Now I know there is no comparison in real terms between the sacrifice we make for the happiness of our own children today and the sacrifice our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ have made for our eternal happiness, but I do know this: When we are full to the brim with excitement, anticipation and appreciation for what THEY have provided, I can almost hear them say, “That right there was worth the price of the whole ticket.” And what a price that was!
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
The GPS, Me and God - Step 11
Hi, my name is Jane. My sister Nan, was unable to write today, so she told me I could take a stab and write an experience of my own. We think a lot alike, so hopefully this will help give you a lift for the day.
The other day my son, Todd, came to pick my husband and I up from the airport after returning from a trip. This was the first time I had ever had exposure to the new technology of our day called “GPS”. It's a little black box that sticks to the front windshield. He was showing us how it worked. The first thing you do is to enter your final destination, so he entered our home as that final destination. The next information you put in the system is where you are at present, which for us was the Salt Lake City Airport. With this information the GPS then calculates the fastest way to get to your destination. After beginning, we noticed that several hundred feet before a turn, the GPS would speak to us making us aware of the upcoming turn so we would be prepared to take it. I thought it was a great! Shortly after leaving though, Todd showed us another interesting feature of the GPS. He said that he didn't really believe that taking I 15 going south was REALLY the fastest way home, even though the GPS had told him to do it on the way out. So, he decided to not obey the GPS and he turned onto I 215 going south. Immediately the GPS started speaking to us. Instead of telling us we were wrong and to go back, it started saying, “recalculating, recalculating, recalculating.” This was interesting to me. After recalculating, the GPS started telling us how to proceed forward to get to our destination instead of turning us back to where the mistake was made to begin over again.
The other day I got to thinking about this. I drove over to the high school to go running and I accidentally locked my keys in the car which, I thought, left me with no other way to get home but to walk the extra mile or so. I did have the impression to find another runner or walker to see if I could borrow their cell phone to call my husband to come with another set of keys, but I didn't want to bother anyone, so I decided to start walking. While walking along I saw the elementary school and thought it might be a good idea to stop there and call, but again, for whatever reason (mostly pride), I didn't follow the prompting. After passing the school, I passed a couple of friends along the way, but they didn't have a cell phone. I felt like I had blown my chances of quickly getting back to my car that day, as my husband was shortly, if not already gone to meetings and I didn't think I could get home soon enough to have him help me and I certainly didn't want to bother anyone by asking them to go out of their way to take me back to the car! Then I had the thought that maybe a friend of mine could help me when she went to that school to pick up her daughter at lunch time. After returning home, gratefully, my husband was there and we were able to get the car.
After walking and passing up all my obvious options I began thinking about the GPS. I thought about all the opportunities I had been given to get my car. My first prompting might have been the one Heavenly Father wanted me to follow, but my unwillingness to heed it for whatever reason didn't deter God from giving me other promptings to solve the problem. His job was to do everything he possibly could to help me “get home”(which in this case was to get the car). It was up to me to decide if I would follow that prompting. I never felt chided for not following the prompting, I just felt bad for the precious time possibly lost because of my stubbornness.
I began to see how this analogy applies in my life in general. Maybe because of stubbornness (pride), or weakness I get off the best and most direct course to happiness and peace, but I have found that in his mercy, God will take me wherever I am and do all he can to get me “home.” Many times I have felt lost or off track, but he never makes me go all the way back to the start, he takes me WHERE I am, “recalculates”, and we proceed forward.
By Jane M
Posted Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Jane M. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
The other day my son, Todd, came to pick my husband and I up from the airport after returning from a trip. This was the first time I had ever had exposure to the new technology of our day called “GPS”. It's a little black box that sticks to the front windshield. He was showing us how it worked. The first thing you do is to enter your final destination, so he entered our home as that final destination. The next information you put in the system is where you are at present, which for us was the Salt Lake City Airport. With this information the GPS then calculates the fastest way to get to your destination. After beginning, we noticed that several hundred feet before a turn, the GPS would speak to us making us aware of the upcoming turn so we would be prepared to take it. I thought it was a great! Shortly after leaving though, Todd showed us another interesting feature of the GPS. He said that he didn't really believe that taking I 15 going south was REALLY the fastest way home, even though the GPS had told him to do it on the way out. So, he decided to not obey the GPS and he turned onto I 215 going south. Immediately the GPS started speaking to us. Instead of telling us we were wrong and to go back, it started saying, “recalculating, recalculating, recalculating.” This was interesting to me. After recalculating, the GPS started telling us how to proceed forward to get to our destination instead of turning us back to where the mistake was made to begin over again.
The other day I got to thinking about this. I drove over to the high school to go running and I accidentally locked my keys in the car which, I thought, left me with no other way to get home but to walk the extra mile or so. I did have the impression to find another runner or walker to see if I could borrow their cell phone to call my husband to come with another set of keys, but I didn't want to bother anyone, so I decided to start walking. While walking along I saw the elementary school and thought it might be a good idea to stop there and call, but again, for whatever reason (mostly pride), I didn't follow the prompting. After passing the school, I passed a couple of friends along the way, but they didn't have a cell phone. I felt like I had blown my chances of quickly getting back to my car that day, as my husband was shortly, if not already gone to meetings and I didn't think I could get home soon enough to have him help me and I certainly didn't want to bother anyone by asking them to go out of their way to take me back to the car! Then I had the thought that maybe a friend of mine could help me when she went to that school to pick up her daughter at lunch time. After returning home, gratefully, my husband was there and we were able to get the car.
After walking and passing up all my obvious options I began thinking about the GPS. I thought about all the opportunities I had been given to get my car. My first prompting might have been the one Heavenly Father wanted me to follow, but my unwillingness to heed it for whatever reason didn't deter God from giving me other promptings to solve the problem. His job was to do everything he possibly could to help me “get home”(which in this case was to get the car). It was up to me to decide if I would follow that prompting. I never felt chided for not following the prompting, I just felt bad for the precious time possibly lost because of my stubbornness.
I began to see how this analogy applies in my life in general. Maybe because of stubbornness (pride), or weakness I get off the best and most direct course to happiness and peace, but I have found that in his mercy, God will take me wherever I am and do all he can to get me “home.” Many times I have felt lost or off track, but he never makes me go all the way back to the start, he takes me WHERE I am, “recalculates”, and we proceed forward.
By Jane M
Posted Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Jane M. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Morning Glory, Weed or Flower? - Step 7
When I first became the proud owner of a yard, my most familiar enemy was the morning glory. It seemed to spread everywhere, wrapping itself sneakily around the roses and in and out of the evergreens. One day I was perusing my book "Wildflowers of North America" and was surprised to see my weed listed and described as a flower. Flower was certainly not the name I had given my pest.
The question came to my mind, "When does a flower become a weed?" And the answer, "When the environment is so supportive to the particular flower that it grows out of control, entangling, crowding out, and eventually killing all the other flowers."
Our Heavenly Father has made available to his children the riches of the earth, good things that can enrich our lives and be a blessing to us. Occasionally something that was meant to be a blessing becomes a curse, a flower turned weed. Examples of these mixed blessings might be food, money, love, and medication. Why is this so?
Let's look at the morning glory for our answer. Morning glory is not inherently bad, and yet given the right living conditions it can totally crowd out other growing things. The flower becomes a weed. Food, money, love, medication and other seemingly good things can become weeds to our souls as they flourish in a particular environment and run rampant, crowding out our relationship with God. How do we stop the infiltration of soul strangling weeds?
Let's look again to the morning glory. I can never get rid of the morning glory completely once the seeds have been sown. I labor to keep the weeds in check. So it is with food, money, love, drugs etc. To keep these flowers from becoming weeds we try, we labor, we work at self discipline trying to keep these things in check.
The only way to truly rid my yard of morning glory completely is to change the environment so that the seeds no longer lie on ground that promotes growth. I imagine I will be controlling morning glory forever as I have little influence over Utah's morning glory producing environment. So I keep it in check.
In regard to my soul I strive to keep it's garden in check also, weeding daily through repentance and forgiveness so that nothing runs out of control on a mission of destruction. But at times even with "weed" in hand, the futility of the task becomes overwhelming. I often despair knowing the living root is buried just under the ground, out of sight, and in such rich soil.
For some known and unknown reasons, the environment, which is me, and has been inherited from God and man, is more conducive to the rampant spread of some things over others. I have and have had little influence on the making of it and seem to have even less ability to change it. I am in fact powerless to do any more than to weed it by repenting of excess. I'm trying not to add things to my environment that encourage weeds.
But there is one Jesus Christ who has purchased the right to transform my nature. It is only through and with Him, because of Him that the soil of my soul can be changed, that my environment of self can be altered. If I allow the Lord to do his work, no longer does the flower of food become the weed of compulsive eating or compulsive starving. No longer does the flower of success become the weed of materialism. No longer does the flower of sorrow become the weed of anger and hatred. No longer does the flower of love become the weed of lust.
It is not because He is out there weeding the garden and keeping excess in check. He is capable as a result of his love and sacrifice for us, and our willingness to be altered, to actually change us so that weeds cannot flourish. The very nature of the ground upon which seeds fall has been transformed.
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 21, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
The question came to my mind, "When does a flower become a weed?" And the answer, "When the environment is so supportive to the particular flower that it grows out of control, entangling, crowding out, and eventually killing all the other flowers."
Our Heavenly Father has made available to his children the riches of the earth, good things that can enrich our lives and be a blessing to us. Occasionally something that was meant to be a blessing becomes a curse, a flower turned weed. Examples of these mixed blessings might be food, money, love, and medication. Why is this so?
Let's look at the morning glory for our answer. Morning glory is not inherently bad, and yet given the right living conditions it can totally crowd out other growing things. The flower becomes a weed. Food, money, love, medication and other seemingly good things can become weeds to our souls as they flourish in a particular environment and run rampant, crowding out our relationship with God. How do we stop the infiltration of soul strangling weeds?
Let's look again to the morning glory. I can never get rid of the morning glory completely once the seeds have been sown. I labor to keep the weeds in check. So it is with food, money, love, drugs etc. To keep these flowers from becoming weeds we try, we labor, we work at self discipline trying to keep these things in check.
The only way to truly rid my yard of morning glory completely is to change the environment so that the seeds no longer lie on ground that promotes growth. I imagine I will be controlling morning glory forever as I have little influence over Utah's morning glory producing environment. So I keep it in check.
In regard to my soul I strive to keep it's garden in check also, weeding daily through repentance and forgiveness so that nothing runs out of control on a mission of destruction. But at times even with "weed" in hand, the futility of the task becomes overwhelming. I often despair knowing the living root is buried just under the ground, out of sight, and in such rich soil.
For some known and unknown reasons, the environment, which is me, and has been inherited from God and man, is more conducive to the rampant spread of some things over others. I have and have had little influence on the making of it and seem to have even less ability to change it. I am in fact powerless to do any more than to weed it by repenting of excess. I'm trying not to add things to my environment that encourage weeds.
But there is one Jesus Christ who has purchased the right to transform my nature. It is only through and with Him, because of Him that the soil of my soul can be changed, that my environment of self can be altered. If I allow the Lord to do his work, no longer does the flower of food become the weed of compulsive eating or compulsive starving. No longer does the flower of success become the weed of materialism. No longer does the flower of sorrow become the weed of anger and hatred. No longer does the flower of love become the weed of lust.
It is not because He is out there weeding the garden and keeping excess in check. He is capable as a result of his love and sacrifice for us, and our willingness to be altered, to actually change us so that weeds cannot flourish. The very nature of the ground upon which seeds fall has been transformed.
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 21, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Catch a Falling Star – Scripture Study
Those of you who know me know that I love the scriptures. I don’t think there is anything more fantastic than slowly feasting on the word of the Lord, as recorded by His prophets.
I’m a slow reader. The unhurried style suits me just fine. I take time to write and think and counsel with the Lord and allow the Lord to counsel with me through the Spirit. I’m never disappointed. I’m always well fed, even if all I cover is a verse or two.
I look up words in the dictionary for greater understanding. In my ward and family I'm known for carrying around my little electronic dictionary along with my scriptures. I often search cross-references, and as I study I always record the Lord’s message to me in my journal.
This way of coming unto Christ has been a great blessing to me. It has awakened a love and appreciation of Jesus Christ and His work in my behalf, that has literally transformed my life.
I want to share an experience I had with President Hinckley’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon quickly. I say challenge because that is exactly what it was for me. One week I wrote in my journal: “President Hinckley has challenged all members of the Church to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the year. To accomplish such a task I have to read six pages a day. I am doing it, but it is very frustrating! I feel like I am being asked to eat thanksgiving dinner in five minutes.”
I finally started using my Book of Mormon CDs to help me move along. One particular day, as I was listening, following along, and finishing up 2 Nephi, I was particularly amazed at the number of verses I was familiar with in my six-page reading:
“For ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ…Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ…Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ…Feast…The words of Christ will tell you all things what you should do…I glory in plainness…in truth…in my Jesus…”
These were verses I had come to love during my slow study. They were verses preciously associated with my love for Jesus. They had become beautiful to me. As they whizzed by on this particular day a new picture came into my mind.
I recalled our late-summer family trip to Yellowstone. After an evening rain, the sky cleared and we were in a privileged position to view a wonderful meteor shower. “Did you see that one! Oh, Look! That was a bright one! Wow!” We must have exchanged comments like that for an hour or more before settling in our tents.
Using this memory, just as I began to feel frustrated over not being able to catch a verse “and put it in my pocket,” the Lord reminded me that the quick read is a great opportunity to go “star gazing” in the scriptures. Now, instead of bemoaning the quick trip through God’s word, I find myself saying: “There’s another one. Wow, that was beautiful.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 19, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
I’m a slow reader. The unhurried style suits me just fine. I take time to write and think and counsel with the Lord and allow the Lord to counsel with me through the Spirit. I’m never disappointed. I’m always well fed, even if all I cover is a verse or two.
I look up words in the dictionary for greater understanding. In my ward and family I'm known for carrying around my little electronic dictionary along with my scriptures. I often search cross-references, and as I study I always record the Lord’s message to me in my journal.
This way of coming unto Christ has been a great blessing to me. It has awakened a love and appreciation of Jesus Christ and His work in my behalf, that has literally transformed my life.
I want to share an experience I had with President Hinckley’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon quickly. I say challenge because that is exactly what it was for me. One week I wrote in my journal: “President Hinckley has challenged all members of the Church to read the entire Book of Mormon by the end of the year. To accomplish such a task I have to read six pages a day. I am doing it, but it is very frustrating! I feel like I am being asked to eat thanksgiving dinner in five minutes.”
I finally started using my Book of Mormon CDs to help me move along. One particular day, as I was listening, following along, and finishing up 2 Nephi, I was particularly amazed at the number of verses I was familiar with in my six-page reading:
“For ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ…Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ…Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ…Feast…The words of Christ will tell you all things what you should do…I glory in plainness…in truth…in my Jesus…”
These were verses I had come to love during my slow study. They were verses preciously associated with my love for Jesus. They had become beautiful to me. As they whizzed by on this particular day a new picture came into my mind.
I recalled our late-summer family trip to Yellowstone. After an evening rain, the sky cleared and we were in a privileged position to view a wonderful meteor shower. “Did you see that one! Oh, Look! That was a bright one! Wow!” We must have exchanged comments like that for an hour or more before settling in our tents.
Using this memory, just as I began to feel frustrated over not being able to catch a verse “and put it in my pocket,” the Lord reminded me that the quick read is a great opportunity to go “star gazing” in the scriptures. Now, instead of bemoaning the quick trip through God’s word, I find myself saying: “There’s another one. Wow, that was beautiful.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 19, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
“The Second Mile” – 12 Step Parenting and Perfectionism
I would never want to stand before the Judge and plead guilty to the charge of hindering my children’s righteous use of agency, of squelching their freedom and desire to do good and so I “encourage” the children in my life by saying things like: “Don’t just do what’s required! Go the extra mile! Butter the edges!”
When the kids were little they seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm for doing just that. As they grew older the response to my “suggestion” to “Do a little more!” to “Raise it up a notch!” was not always well received. I have direct experience with the grunts, groans, moans, and non-translatable mutters, spoken under teenage breath. I’m the mother of five human beings who’ve traveled through the second decade phase (10-20 year-olds) where grunts, groans, moans and mutters were the weapons of intimidation.
So what happens between ages four and fourteen? Where does all that enthusiasm go?
Well, a lot of things happen and I’m not going to take responsibility for all of them, but as I pondered this phenomenon one day I was reminded of the following experience and was taught a principle that helped me take some inventory and make some changes.
One night as I as hurrying to get away for my weekly Friday night retreat with my husband, my nine-year-old Jenny walked through the kitchen. I quickly asked her if she would butter the toast. She agreed and I left to dress for my date. Now that’s ALL I really wanted her to do. I had things planned to the minute, and if she would just follow this simple instruction I could have things “my way.” Dinner would be over; everyone bathed and in pj’s, beds turned down, and every light in the house turned out except for the one over the TV. I was not messing around! (Can you tell why I attend meetings for those struggling with compulsive behavior)
Well, I walked back through the kitchen and Jenny had not only buttered the toast, she’d made MENUES for each child! The scrambled eggs had been moved from the stove and dished into a large SERVING BOWL. She was about to make JUICE and was asking if she could make PUDDING!!!
“Jenny, put the juice away and NO pudding! I don’t have time!”
“I don’t have time?” What did you really mean when I said that, Nannette? You meant, “Jenny, don’t do anything MORE than I asked you to do. I don’t trust you to be responsible and I don’t have time to be responsible for you. DON’T go the extra mile. Don’t use your agency for good unless you clear it with me.”
Because of their lack of skill and our lack of patience our younger children’s “extra-miler” exuberance often ends in messes large and small, discouragement for the child and frustration for us parents. However we may be wise to endure these moments of inconvenience rather that kick ourselves later, when they have developed the skills but lost the desire. I have come to realize that as my children and grandchildren creatively express their sincere love of life by going the extra mile, I would be well advised not to continually act the part of the “road block.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
When the kids were little they seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm for doing just that. As they grew older the response to my “suggestion” to “Do a little more!” to “Raise it up a notch!” was not always well received. I have direct experience with the grunts, groans, moans, and non-translatable mutters, spoken under teenage breath. I’m the mother of five human beings who’ve traveled through the second decade phase (10-20 year-olds) where grunts, groans, moans and mutters were the weapons of intimidation.
So what happens between ages four and fourteen? Where does all that enthusiasm go?
Well, a lot of things happen and I’m not going to take responsibility for all of them, but as I pondered this phenomenon one day I was reminded of the following experience and was taught a principle that helped me take some inventory and make some changes.
One night as I as hurrying to get away for my weekly Friday night retreat with my husband, my nine-year-old Jenny walked through the kitchen. I quickly asked her if she would butter the toast. She agreed and I left to dress for my date. Now that’s ALL I really wanted her to do. I had things planned to the minute, and if she would just follow this simple instruction I could have things “my way.” Dinner would be over; everyone bathed and in pj’s, beds turned down, and every light in the house turned out except for the one over the TV. I was not messing around! (Can you tell why I attend meetings for those struggling with compulsive behavior)
Well, I walked back through the kitchen and Jenny had not only buttered the toast, she’d made MENUES for each child! The scrambled eggs had been moved from the stove and dished into a large SERVING BOWL. She was about to make JUICE and was asking if she could make PUDDING!!!
“Jenny, put the juice away and NO pudding! I don’t have time!”
“I don’t have time?” What did you really mean when I said that, Nannette? You meant, “Jenny, don’t do anything MORE than I asked you to do. I don’t trust you to be responsible and I don’t have time to be responsible for you. DON’T go the extra mile. Don’t use your agency for good unless you clear it with me.”
Because of their lack of skill and our lack of patience our younger children’s “extra-miler” exuberance often ends in messes large and small, discouragement for the child and frustration for us parents. However we may be wise to endure these moments of inconvenience rather that kick ourselves later, when they have developed the skills but lost the desire. I have come to realize that as my children and grandchildren creatively express their sincere love of life by going the extra mile, I would be well advised not to continually act the part of the “road block.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
"The Sixth Brave Man" – All Steps
One day in our home school I read to my children of a fireman and four of his fellows who rescued a man from a burning building. At the conclusion of the story the author referred to “six brave men.” At hearing this, the children said, in unison: “But there were only five brave men!” Of course the kids were referring to the five-man team of rescuers. We concluded together that the sixth man referred to must be the one who was rescued. Then I posed this question to the children. “Does it take courage to be rescued?” “Yes,” they resounded. “The man in the story had to be willing to jump from a window ledge high above the ground, away from a burning building, and grab hold of the coat of a fireman who was dangling over the roof top of a neighboring building and who was being kept secure by four other firemen sitting on his legs.” We concluded that yes, it takes courage to be rescued!
Every day we have the opportunity to observe efforts to rescue those among us who are in trouble or in danger of some kind. As observers we often acknowledge only the brave efforts of those doing the saving. After all, what choice does the endangered man have? Does he have a choice?
He can choose “not to choose” and simply go down in flames! Or, he can exert himself in the direction of his rescuer, reach out, cry out, let go, or just hang on to the will to live until help arrives. No matter what is required, it takes courage to take the action that moves the endangered toward those striving to save him. It required courage for the man in our story to leap into the promising emptiness.
Just as real is the courage required by those of us desiring to be rescued from the deadly flames of addictive substances, compelling destructive behaviors or from any of the trials of life that threaten to destroy. It always requires courage to flee the known enemy and enter the unknown, reach out, cry out, let go, or just hang on. The giant leap toward being saved has been broken down into 12 Steps. They are the detailed directions to those who finally recognize the peril they are in, to those who are being consumed by something beyond their control. God centered, principle-based progress is not passive.
The 12 Steps teach the endangered “natural man” exactly how to reach out to his Rescuer, his Savior, amid the flames that threaten his life. They teach us how to make the saving Atonement part of our lives today. It has been said that taking the steps is simple but not easy. When one is frozen in fear, engulfed by that which would take his life (physically or spiritually) even the simplest act of will takes undying courage, the courage to not die, to be saved from our sins, from our circumstances, from our infirmaries, from our sorrows, and from the compulsive addictive behaviors that threaten our very lives at worst, and at least the happiness of our lives. It takes courage to reach out to The Savior. Taking the structured gospel centered steps represents our brave effort to move in the direction of the Lord’s powerful, loving arms. The temptation to do faithless nothing or to pridefully attempt self-rescue is very real. Yes, it takes courage to be the “sixth brave man” and move toward “The Rescuer.” May God grant us that courage today!
By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Every day we have the opportunity to observe efforts to rescue those among us who are in trouble or in danger of some kind. As observers we often acknowledge only the brave efforts of those doing the saving. After all, what choice does the endangered man have? Does he have a choice?
He can choose “not to choose” and simply go down in flames! Or, he can exert himself in the direction of his rescuer, reach out, cry out, let go, or just hang on to the will to live until help arrives. No matter what is required, it takes courage to take the action that moves the endangered toward those striving to save him. It required courage for the man in our story to leap into the promising emptiness.
Just as real is the courage required by those of us desiring to be rescued from the deadly flames of addictive substances, compelling destructive behaviors or from any of the trials of life that threaten to destroy. It always requires courage to flee the known enemy and enter the unknown, reach out, cry out, let go, or just hang on. The giant leap toward being saved has been broken down into 12 Steps. They are the detailed directions to those who finally recognize the peril they are in, to those who are being consumed by something beyond their control. God centered, principle-based progress is not passive.
The 12 Steps teach the endangered “natural man” exactly how to reach out to his Rescuer, his Savior, amid the flames that threaten his life. They teach us how to make the saving Atonement part of our lives today. It has been said that taking the steps is simple but not easy. When one is frozen in fear, engulfed by that which would take his life (physically or spiritually) even the simplest act of will takes undying courage, the courage to not die, to be saved from our sins, from our circumstances, from our infirmaries, from our sorrows, and from the compulsive addictive behaviors that threaten our very lives at worst, and at least the happiness of our lives. It takes courage to reach out to The Savior. Taking the structured gospel centered steps represents our brave effort to move in the direction of the Lord’s powerful, loving arms. The temptation to do faithless nothing or to pridefully attempt self-rescue is very real. Yes, it takes courage to be the “sixth brave man” and move toward “The Rescuer.” May God grant us that courage today!
By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Sunday Dinner – The Picture of Perfect Imperfection
Sunday dinner is generally at my house. We divide up the food groups and everyone brings an offering. We set a general time and as soon as each family has completed their Sabbath day work and their individual dish has been prepared we all gather. Everyone strives to be on time, give or take thirty minutes. We serve buffet style and use paper plates and plastic utensils. Every Sunday there are anywhere between 15 and 25 men, women and children to dinner. One Sunday a month we invite my siblings and their children and grandchildren. On that Sunday we don't take a count.
As soon as we have a majority we gather in the kitchen and in the family room. Someone stands in the middle, between the two rooms and ask the Lord to bless our food. Next we line up and dish up. Moms and dads place teaspoons of each dish on little children’s plates and then load a plate for themselves. We each find a place at the table and then, snuggled elbow to elbow, we eat and visit, and visit and visit.
It’s fun. It’s tradition. Sometimes it gets a little bit crazy. There’s lots of, “No you can’t get down until you eat you broccoli.” “You have to at least eat four bites because you’re four.” “Could someone get a towel? We've got a spill!” The combination of tired parents and children who are tired of sitting and being inside and who have not developed the skill of “visiting” makes for after dinner segregation. Kid-cousins move to the family room with the toys and the Living Scriptures or a very antique video of “My Turn on Earth.” The adults remain in the living room and chat.
It never looks like the Norman Rockwell picture of Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t own any silver and the china remains in the cupboard. No one wants to do all the dishes. We don’t say please pass the potatoes. We just get up and get some more. Sometimes we can’t get the little kids to all be quiet as we pray and sometimes part of the entrée arrives just as the rest of us are ready to eat dessert. The adults take turns solving squabbles amongst the kid-cousins. Generally the parent of who ever cries out the loudest is next in line as the peacekeeping force.
A couple of Sundays ago a blood-curdling scream came from the room filled with kids.
Dad calls out, “What’s wrong Ethan?”
Ethan replies, “Carson bit my leg.”
Carson’s explanation, “I didn’t mean to!”
I Know! We should have stopped and had a little Step 10 mini lesson. “Now you kids need to learn to, ‘Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it!’” But a little, “Don’t bite your brother,” and we went on with life.
In the adult room we don’t always perfectly agree about the topic at hand either, but we have learned that it’s better to talk things out than to bite.
A lot has been said recently about the value of the family dinner. Some studies show that kids who regularly have dinner with their families are less likely to turn to drugs for support. President Hinckley was a big proponent of family dinner. Sometimes as a parent I have been discouraged about doing the family things we have been commanded to do (family dinner, family prayer, family night, family scripture study) because the event always turns out less than “perfect.”
The look of our Sunday effort to dine together is not perfect. You wouldn’t find us in a church film on the value of eating together. There will not be a picture of us on the front cover of the Ensign Magazine. But we are trying. We’re giving it the best we’ve got. We believe in perfection but so far all we seem to be able to achieve is progress. No one is learning the art of formal dining on Sunday afternoon at my house. I’m not sure we are learning anything, but we are feeling the reality that we each belong to a supportive, patient, forgiving community called a family and that’s a feeling that can make a lifetime of difference. Sometimes the value of doing the right thing is so high that it's worth doing the right thing badly.
One of the results of applying the 12 Steps to my daily life is that the Lord has helped me have the courage to do the perfect thing, the thing He asks me to do, imperfectly.
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
As soon as we have a majority we gather in the kitchen and in the family room. Someone stands in the middle, between the two rooms and ask the Lord to bless our food. Next we line up and dish up. Moms and dads place teaspoons of each dish on little children’s plates and then load a plate for themselves. We each find a place at the table and then, snuggled elbow to elbow, we eat and visit, and visit and visit.
It’s fun. It’s tradition. Sometimes it gets a little bit crazy. There’s lots of, “No you can’t get down until you eat you broccoli.” “You have to at least eat four bites because you’re four.” “Could someone get a towel? We've got a spill!” The combination of tired parents and children who are tired of sitting and being inside and who have not developed the skill of “visiting” makes for after dinner segregation. Kid-cousins move to the family room with the toys and the Living Scriptures or a very antique video of “My Turn on Earth.” The adults remain in the living room and chat.
It never looks like the Norman Rockwell picture of Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t own any silver and the china remains in the cupboard. No one wants to do all the dishes. We don’t say please pass the potatoes. We just get up and get some more. Sometimes we can’t get the little kids to all be quiet as we pray and sometimes part of the entrée arrives just as the rest of us are ready to eat dessert. The adults take turns solving squabbles amongst the kid-cousins. Generally the parent of who ever cries out the loudest is next in line as the peacekeeping force.
A couple of Sundays ago a blood-curdling scream came from the room filled with kids.
Dad calls out, “What’s wrong Ethan?”
Ethan replies, “Carson bit my leg.”
Carson’s explanation, “I didn’t mean to!”
I Know! We should have stopped and had a little Step 10 mini lesson. “Now you kids need to learn to, ‘Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it!’” But a little, “Don’t bite your brother,” and we went on with life.
In the adult room we don’t always perfectly agree about the topic at hand either, but we have learned that it’s better to talk things out than to bite.
A lot has been said recently about the value of the family dinner. Some studies show that kids who regularly have dinner with their families are less likely to turn to drugs for support. President Hinckley was a big proponent of family dinner. Sometimes as a parent I have been discouraged about doing the family things we have been commanded to do (family dinner, family prayer, family night, family scripture study) because the event always turns out less than “perfect.”
The look of our Sunday effort to dine together is not perfect. You wouldn’t find us in a church film on the value of eating together. There will not be a picture of us on the front cover of the Ensign Magazine. But we are trying. We’re giving it the best we’ve got. We believe in perfection but so far all we seem to be able to achieve is progress. No one is learning the art of formal dining on Sunday afternoon at my house. I’m not sure we are learning anything, but we are feeling the reality that we each belong to a supportive, patient, forgiving community called a family and that’s a feeling that can make a lifetime of difference. Sometimes the value of doing the right thing is so high that it's worth doing the right thing badly.
One of the results of applying the 12 Steps to my daily life is that the Lord has helped me have the courage to do the perfect thing, the thing He asks me to do, imperfectly.
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Monday, September 15, 2008
A Call to Become
Sometimes I wonder what the Lord must have been thinking when he decided to call us a church of Saints. Webster defines a Saint as “a person sanctified, a holy or godly person, one eminent for piety and virtue.” I know I don’t measure up. What was His intent in giving us a name that doesn’t really describe our current state? Why a title of such exaggerated goodness?
An answer came to me one day while studying the Book of Mormon. In 1 Nephi 2 a great flowing river and a wonderful firm valley are named after Laman and Lemual, Lehi’s sluggish, wishy-washy, murmuring sons. His hope seems to be that they might learn from the naming and rise to the titles.
1 Nephi 2:8-10 “And it came to pass that he called the name of the river, Laman…And when my father saw that the waters of the river emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea, he spake unto Laman, saying: O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness! And he also spake unto Lemuel: O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!”
Maybe the Lord’s purpose or motivation in naming us Saints is similar to Lehi’s naming of the River Laman and the Valley Lemual. Perhaps He hopes we will learn from the name itself and rise to the definition.
Yes, I think our name; “Latter-day Saints” is a call to become! It’s a call to move forward toward this wonderful distinction rather than a declaration of fact. It’s an invitation.
It is a very lofty call, but the first five words of our name teach us how becoming a Saint is made possible. We are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The key to our becoming Saints is in becoming more and more “of Christ.” As we apply the 12 Gospel Principles represented by the 12 Steps to our lives we do just that, our thinking and our actions become more and more rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ and his power to help us become. The call to become Saints is answered every time we surrender to the One who calls us.
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 15, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
An answer came to me one day while studying the Book of Mormon. In 1 Nephi 2 a great flowing river and a wonderful firm valley are named after Laman and Lemual, Lehi’s sluggish, wishy-washy, murmuring sons. His hope seems to be that they might learn from the naming and rise to the titles.
1 Nephi 2:8-10 “And it came to pass that he called the name of the river, Laman…And when my father saw that the waters of the river emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea, he spake unto Laman, saying: O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness! And he also spake unto Lemuel: O that thou mightest be like unto this valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!”
Maybe the Lord’s purpose or motivation in naming us Saints is similar to Lehi’s naming of the River Laman and the Valley Lemual. Perhaps He hopes we will learn from the name itself and rise to the definition.
Yes, I think our name; “Latter-day Saints” is a call to become! It’s a call to move forward toward this wonderful distinction rather than a declaration of fact. It’s an invitation.
It is a very lofty call, but the first five words of our name teach us how becoming a Saint is made possible. We are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The key to our becoming Saints is in becoming more and more “of Christ.” As we apply the 12 Gospel Principles represented by the 12 Steps to our lives we do just that, our thinking and our actions become more and more rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ and his power to help us become. The call to become Saints is answered every time we surrender to the One who calls us.
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 15, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Little League Soccer and Early Recovery/Change – Step 1 – Part 4 of 4
“When the going gets tough the tough get going!” Really?
Ethan is a new boy on the soccer field this year, not new to soccer but new to a competitive, go fight win attitude I didn’t see in him last spring. As his mom sat on the sidelines Saturday she was a little shocked to suddenly hear Ethan yell out to the guys on the other team, “You’re gonna wish you stayed home!”
Not more that a few minutes into play Ethan got knocked to the ground and received quite a kick. Tears ran down his cheek as he ran off the field to the sidelines for some TLC from mom. At that point I think Ethan probably wished he’d stayed home. After some parental reassurance he was back out on the field, not quite so bullish as before but willing to play.
Likewise there are days in early 12-step work (whether we’re working to overcome addiction or applying the 12-step process to overcoming any kind of difficulty) when we feel brim with a new kind confidence. Recovering addicts often call it the honeymoon or the pink cloud period. Surrounded by a fellowship of support, we discover or rediscover a God who lives and who is willing to be involved in solving our individual problems. We begin to experience times when we feel His Spirit. We start to see His hand in our everyday lives. And sometimes we start to feel a bit invincible.
Then life happens. We get roughed up a bit. We get kicked. We fall down, and our God centered bravado melts into tears or anger. It’s OK to run to the sidelines for some reassurance from a healthy support team. Sometimes in recovery when the going get tough the tough (those who have had to be or have pretended to be tough) have a good cry. Then they get back on the field with a little more humility and that can only improve the game!
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 14, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Ethan is a new boy on the soccer field this year, not new to soccer but new to a competitive, go fight win attitude I didn’t see in him last spring. As his mom sat on the sidelines Saturday she was a little shocked to suddenly hear Ethan yell out to the guys on the other team, “You’re gonna wish you stayed home!”
Not more that a few minutes into play Ethan got knocked to the ground and received quite a kick. Tears ran down his cheek as he ran off the field to the sidelines for some TLC from mom. At that point I think Ethan probably wished he’d stayed home. After some parental reassurance he was back out on the field, not quite so bullish as before but willing to play.
Likewise there are days in early 12-step work (whether we’re working to overcome addiction or applying the 12-step process to overcoming any kind of difficulty) when we feel brim with a new kind confidence. Recovering addicts often call it the honeymoon or the pink cloud period. Surrounded by a fellowship of support, we discover or rediscover a God who lives and who is willing to be involved in solving our individual problems. We begin to experience times when we feel His Spirit. We start to see His hand in our everyday lives. And sometimes we start to feel a bit invincible.
Then life happens. We get roughed up a bit. We get kicked. We fall down, and our God centered bravado melts into tears or anger. It’s OK to run to the sidelines for some reassurance from a healthy support team. Sometimes in recovery when the going get tough the tough (those who have had to be or have pretended to be tough) have a good cry. Then they get back on the field with a little more humility and that can only improve the game!
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 14, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Little League Soccer and Early Recovery/Change – Step 1 – Part 3
Early soccer and early recovery/change have a lot in common. This is the third thing I observed at last Saturday’s game.
Which way did she go?
Up and down the mini soccer field they ran. Their little legs, completely covered by what’s supposed to be a shin guard, were just a goin’. During the game there was a tremendous amount of energy expended, but technically no goals for us.
Well…there was a ball kicked into the net by a little girl from our team during the second half of the thirty-minute game. Her parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins cheered like you can’t believe. You would have thought this was the World Cup and their little girl had just scored the winning point. But soccer in the early years can be confusing. At half time the competing teams switch goals. That kind of throws four and five year olds off. The net she kicked the ball into belonged to the other team.
I’m not sure she was ever even aware of her error in direction. In early soccer no one keeps score. Disqualified point? Maybe, but her family came out of their seats cheering. What was that all about? Her family cheered out of love and because of this child’s great effort, not because the result was technically perfect.
Likewise I believe the Lord does not withhold his thrill over you and me, waiting until we achieve perfection! He cheers for our efforts. He understands that it takes time to straighten out years of confusion. He cheers me on. He will cheer you on. He cheers so we will keep going and never give up. He cheers so we will know He is at the game. He cheers so we will know He cares. Today I want to imagine that the Lord attends all my games and that my effort and even my smallest victories bring the Him right out of His seat!
By Nannette W.
Posted Saturday September 13, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Which way did she go?
Up and down the mini soccer field they ran. Their little legs, completely covered by what’s supposed to be a shin guard, were just a goin’. During the game there was a tremendous amount of energy expended, but technically no goals for us.
Well…there was a ball kicked into the net by a little girl from our team during the second half of the thirty-minute game. Her parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins cheered like you can’t believe. You would have thought this was the World Cup and their little girl had just scored the winning point. But soccer in the early years can be confusing. At half time the competing teams switch goals. That kind of throws four and five year olds off. The net she kicked the ball into belonged to the other team.
I’m not sure she was ever even aware of her error in direction. In early soccer no one keeps score. Disqualified point? Maybe, but her family came out of their seats cheering. What was that all about? Her family cheered out of love and because of this child’s great effort, not because the result was technically perfect.
Likewise I believe the Lord does not withhold his thrill over you and me, waiting until we achieve perfection! He cheers for our efforts. He understands that it takes time to straighten out years of confusion. He cheers me on. He will cheer you on. He cheers so we will keep going and never give up. He cheers so we will know He is at the game. He cheers so we will know He cares. Today I want to imagine that the Lord attends all my games and that my effort and even my smallest victories bring the Him right out of His seat!
By Nannette W.
Posted Saturday September 13, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Little League Soccer and Early Recovery/Change - Step 1 - Part 2
Early soccer and early recovery/change have a lot in common. This is the second thing I observed at last Saturday’s game.
Is there a plan here? What play are they running? What the strategy?
The answer to these questions in early soccer is, “No! No! There isn’t any yet!” The hope is that the kids will show up for the game and be willing to get out on the field, and they will actually move (preferably run) around the field. Staying on the field if they get a little winded is promoted. Moving the ball anywhere using their feet and not their hands is acceptable. Finally they are encouraged not quit before they have exhibited sportsman like behavior by “high fiving” the members of the other team, win or loose. They are rewarded but not until after the game is over with a post game “good job” treat from the designated parent. That’s it. No big complicated plan. No big plays and not a lot of strategy! This is not the big league! It’s the beginning!
Likewise early application of the principles of recovery to any problem you have not been about to solve on your own, is about showing up, participating in a supportive fellowship and taking the steps, one at a time, that bring about change. For those new to the application of these principles, the advice of those living in recovery is “Come to meetings.” Before you leave, plan your next meeting. Don’t use or act out between this meeting and the next. Get a copy of LDS Family Services A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing
(see www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,6629-1-3414-1,00.html )to use in meetings and between meetings.” That’s it! Is there more? Of course there is, but when we demonstrate our willingness by doing these initial things, the Lord can help us with the next thing and the next. It’s not the big league! It’s the beginning!
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 12, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Is there a plan here? What play are they running? What the strategy?
The answer to these questions in early soccer is, “No! No! There isn’t any yet!” The hope is that the kids will show up for the game and be willing to get out on the field, and they will actually move (preferably run) around the field. Staying on the field if they get a little winded is promoted. Moving the ball anywhere using their feet and not their hands is acceptable. Finally they are encouraged not quit before they have exhibited sportsman like behavior by “high fiving” the members of the other team, win or loose. They are rewarded but not until after the game is over with a post game “good job” treat from the designated parent. That’s it. No big complicated plan. No big plays and not a lot of strategy! This is not the big league! It’s the beginning!
Likewise early application of the principles of recovery to any problem you have not been about to solve on your own, is about showing up, participating in a supportive fellowship and taking the steps, one at a time, that bring about change. For those new to the application of these principles, the advice of those living in recovery is “Come to meetings.” Before you leave, plan your next meeting. Don’t use or act out between this meeting and the next. Get a copy of LDS Family Services A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing
(see www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,6629-1-3414-1,00.html )to use in meetings and between meetings.” That’s it! Is there more? Of course there is, but when we demonstrate our willingness by doing these initial things, the Lord can help us with the next thing and the next. It’s not the big league! It’s the beginning!
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 12, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Little League Soccer and Early Recovery /Change - Step 1 - Part 1
Sometimes my Coach shows up at my grandkid's soccer games. I’m talking about the Coach that can’t be seen, the one who whispers in my ear or speaks to my heart. This fall I am the visiting grandma at the coed games, age 4/5 and 6/7. This last Saturday I saw that early soccer and early recovery have a lot in common. Here some things I observed.
Hurrah for the coach!
The patience required by the parent/coach is…well, I’m not sure it can easily be described. My son is the coach of the four and five year-olds. He served his mission in Spain where Soccer (Football) is king. He loves sports and is very competitive. As I put out my lawn chair and sat down to watch the game I heard him give the team the last minute instruction. “Come on you guys! Stand up!” That’s where it’s at with the “Golden Eagles.” The first order of the game is pretty basic. “Stand Up!”
James doesn’t coach soccer because he loves soccer, or because it fulfills some passionate need to play ball. He coaches soccer because he loves his little girl and his nephew. Likewise the Lord volunteered to be my Coach because he loves me. He has all the patience necessary. He is willing to invite me to stand up and get in the game as many times as it takes.
I have seen James lift Sammy and Carson right off the ground and literally place them right where they need to be on the field. I’ve seen him walk out onto the field and turn them around when they were headed in the wrong direction. I have seen him pat a bumped head and comfort hurt feelings.
That’s the kind of coach you and I have too. If we’re willing to show up (and that’s important), He encourages us, He places us where he wants us to be, He’ll turn you and I around if we get going in the wrong direction, He comforts, and over time He teaches us how to move more continuously down the field toward The Goal.
By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, September 11, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Hurrah for the coach!
The patience required by the parent/coach is…well, I’m not sure it can easily be described. My son is the coach of the four and five year-olds. He served his mission in Spain where Soccer (Football) is king. He loves sports and is very competitive. As I put out my lawn chair and sat down to watch the game I heard him give the team the last minute instruction. “Come on you guys! Stand up!” That’s where it’s at with the “Golden Eagles.” The first order of the game is pretty basic. “Stand Up!”
James doesn’t coach soccer because he loves soccer, or because it fulfills some passionate need to play ball. He coaches soccer because he loves his little girl and his nephew. Likewise the Lord volunteered to be my Coach because he loves me. He has all the patience necessary. He is willing to invite me to stand up and get in the game as many times as it takes.
I have seen James lift Sammy and Carson right off the ground and literally place them right where they need to be on the field. I’ve seen him walk out onto the field and turn them around when they were headed in the wrong direction. I have seen him pat a bumped head and comfort hurt feelings.
That’s the kind of coach you and I have too. If we’re willing to show up (and that’s important), He encourages us, He places us where he wants us to be, He’ll turn you and I around if we get going in the wrong direction, He comforts, and over time He teaches us how to move more continuously down the field toward The Goal.
By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, September 11, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
TEMPTATION, the Enemy’s First Shot – Step 1
A huge turning point in my recovery from addiction occurred at a support group speaker meeting. People struggling in many ways attended this meeting, but our speaker (someone who shares his or her recovery story with a group) was a recovering alcoholic. His experience, strength and hope have had a lasting impact on my own personal recovery.
As he shared his story the powerful message that came through to me was that even with the enabling power of Jesus Christ (grace), the steps, the tools, the fellowship and all else we have been given to aid us in our recovery from addiction, no one sails through. It is hard. The temptation to relapse is real and often very intense. It takes work and the percentage of addicts living in recovery is small. You might be thinking, “Wait a minute. This is very discouraging information.” Actually, the hard truth he shared helped me understand some faulty thinking that was affecting my own recovery. Until this point I had mistakenly thought that if recovery was hard, if I was experiencing temptation, then maybe I was doing it all wrong. As my recovering alcoholic friend spoke, my perfectionist view of recovery was replaced with reality, a reality that makes a difference to me every day.
I have finally come to know that the help of the Lord is not the removal of temptation but rather the strengthening of the tempted. I had falsely supposed that if I attended meetings, applied the principles (worked the 12 steps) and used of the tools, sin would become dead to me. No! The truth is that with direction and strength and the conversion (change) I can experience through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can become increasingly dead to sin.
The scriptures teach us that temptation is part of the mortal experience. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor. 10:13)
Temptation is not my problem. Being tempted is not a sign of my weakness. If I believe I have lost the battle because the enemy has fired a shot, then the enemy wins, hands down. If I believe that I am responsible for Satan’s aggression then I loose before the battle has begun. It is self-righteous to believe that with my “goodness” I can completely eradicate the devil’s appetite for my soul.
The good news is that as we come unto Christ by living the principles of recovery we receive strength through the Atonement to overcome temptation. Every new day we live in recovery puts powerful distance between the torment of physical and emotional dependency on a substance or behavior and our current desire to abstain from addiction.
In recovery we learn what to do about temptation, so “that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” (Helaman 5:12)
Experiencing temptation, craving, and having to put up a good strong fight with all the tools the Lord has given us does not mean lack of recovery. When Satan tempted Jesus, in the early stages of His ministry, Jesus was perfect, but He was TEMPTED. As we know, He was victorious! We can be too! Temptation is not the last word. It’s the enemy’s first shot!
By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
As he shared his story the powerful message that came through to me was that even with the enabling power of Jesus Christ (grace), the steps, the tools, the fellowship and all else we have been given to aid us in our recovery from addiction, no one sails through. It is hard. The temptation to relapse is real and often very intense. It takes work and the percentage of addicts living in recovery is small. You might be thinking, “Wait a minute. This is very discouraging information.” Actually, the hard truth he shared helped me understand some faulty thinking that was affecting my own recovery. Until this point I had mistakenly thought that if recovery was hard, if I was experiencing temptation, then maybe I was doing it all wrong. As my recovering alcoholic friend spoke, my perfectionist view of recovery was replaced with reality, a reality that makes a difference to me every day.
I have finally come to know that the help of the Lord is not the removal of temptation but rather the strengthening of the tempted. I had falsely supposed that if I attended meetings, applied the principles (worked the 12 steps) and used of the tools, sin would become dead to me. No! The truth is that with direction and strength and the conversion (change) I can experience through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can become increasingly dead to sin.
The scriptures teach us that temptation is part of the mortal experience. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor. 10:13)
Temptation is not my problem. Being tempted is not a sign of my weakness. If I believe I have lost the battle because the enemy has fired a shot, then the enemy wins, hands down. If I believe that I am responsible for Satan’s aggression then I loose before the battle has begun. It is self-righteous to believe that with my “goodness” I can completely eradicate the devil’s appetite for my soul.
The good news is that as we come unto Christ by living the principles of recovery we receive strength through the Atonement to overcome temptation. Every new day we live in recovery puts powerful distance between the torment of physical and emotional dependency on a substance or behavior and our current desire to abstain from addiction.
In recovery we learn what to do about temptation, so “that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” (Helaman 5:12)
Experiencing temptation, craving, and having to put up a good strong fight with all the tools the Lord has given us does not mean lack of recovery. When Satan tempted Jesus, in the early stages of His ministry, Jesus was perfect, but He was TEMPTED. As we know, He was victorious! We can be too! Temptation is not the last word. It’s the enemy’s first shot!
By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Picture of Submission: A View of the "Other Side" From the Inside – Step 3
One of the most exciting days in the life of a modern mother is the day she gets to have a view of the little baby growing inside her. My daughters and nieces look forward to this day like they used to look forward to Christmas or Disneyland. It’s the day they get to see that everything is proceeding well and it’s the day they will finally know, after all the weeks of waiting, whether to paint the nursery blue of pink.
I’m a little old fashioned myself, a fan of the nine month, “Surprise, it’s a _______!!! But life goes on and technology seems to have the power to bless us with many things we used to have to wait for.
Besides being old fashioned about opening up gifts early I’m also really challenged when it comes to looking at the sonograms. My girls and their husbands come from the doctor’s office with pictures and videos they are so excited to show me. I know I’m a big disappointment to them because I really can’t see what they are telling me I should be able to see. “Can’t you tell mom?” they say. “There’s his eye and one of his arms. See, it’s a side view and this is a view from the top of his head.” Any more I just nod my head and smile, but truth be told, I really don’t know what I’m looking at.
2007/2008 was an unusual season for our family. Between my sister’s daughters and my own we would be blessed with nine new babies within a nineteen month span. This year there would be sonograms a plenty, but there is one I will never ever forget.
I entered my house on a miscellaneous Friday after attending the noon recovery meeting. I found the family room filled with home schooling moms chatting and children having recess together. My niece, Jeanine, had just come from the doctor where the medical worries for her growing baby had become a reality. Her little baby boy would most likely not live for more than a few days or hours. We were all stunned.
Then Jeanine brought out the pictures, just like all the others girls do, to let us have a first look at her little man. As I looked at them I “smiled and nodded” as she explained what I was seeing (or not seeing, in my case). Then she showed me the picture below, a picture of a perfect, celestial little boy in a body just right for his eight-day experience on the earth. To me his little bowed head resting on his prayerful arms and hands was the absolute picture of submission.
Spencer and Jeanine named him Kaden. As the weeks and months before his delivery went by, I thought a lot about his willingness to do the will of his Heavenly Father. And as the sisters and cousins delivered one healthy baby after another I thought even more about the willingness of Kaden’s parents to submit to the will of their Heavenly Father, and I marveled at just how far back in eternity they had all agreed to this arrangement.
Kaden was born on February 15, and went back to Heaven on February 22, 2008. Kaden was and continues to be a great blessing to our family. When I think of this picture today I like to think that Kaden is praying for us, praying that we will never take each other for granted, praying that our faith will not waver but increase and that we will all continue to grow in our desire and capacity to turn our lives and our will over to the tender care of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. For me it’s the picture of submission, a piece of Heaven, a view of the "Other Side" from the Inside.
To learn more about Kaden and his family see: http://kadenmatthewmack.blogspot.com
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
I’m a little old fashioned myself, a fan of the nine month, “Surprise, it’s a _______!!! But life goes on and technology seems to have the power to bless us with many things we used to have to wait for.
Besides being old fashioned about opening up gifts early I’m also really challenged when it comes to looking at the sonograms. My girls and their husbands come from the doctor’s office with pictures and videos they are so excited to show me. I know I’m a big disappointment to them because I really can’t see what they are telling me I should be able to see. “Can’t you tell mom?” they say. “There’s his eye and one of his arms. See, it’s a side view and this is a view from the top of his head.” Any more I just nod my head and smile, but truth be told, I really don’t know what I’m looking at.
2007/2008 was an unusual season for our family. Between my sister’s daughters and my own we would be blessed with nine new babies within a nineteen month span. This year there would be sonograms a plenty, but there is one I will never ever forget.
I entered my house on a miscellaneous Friday after attending the noon recovery meeting. I found the family room filled with home schooling moms chatting and children having recess together. My niece, Jeanine, had just come from the doctor where the medical worries for her growing baby had become a reality. Her little baby boy would most likely not live for more than a few days or hours. We were all stunned.
Then Jeanine brought out the pictures, just like all the others girls do, to let us have a first look at her little man. As I looked at them I “smiled and nodded” as she explained what I was seeing (or not seeing, in my case). Then she showed me the picture below, a picture of a perfect, celestial little boy in a body just right for his eight-day experience on the earth. To me his little bowed head resting on his prayerful arms and hands was the absolute picture of submission.
Spencer and Jeanine named him Kaden. As the weeks and months before his delivery went by, I thought a lot about his willingness to do the will of his Heavenly Father. And as the sisters and cousins delivered one healthy baby after another I thought even more about the willingness of Kaden’s parents to submit to the will of their Heavenly Father, and I marveled at just how far back in eternity they had all agreed to this arrangement.
Kaden was born on February 15, and went back to Heaven on February 22, 2008. Kaden was and continues to be a great blessing to our family. When I think of this picture today I like to think that Kaden is praying for us, praying that we will never take each other for granted, praying that our faith will not waver but increase and that we will all continue to grow in our desire and capacity to turn our lives and our will over to the tender care of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. For me it’s the picture of submission, a piece of Heaven, a view of the "Other Side" from the Inside.
To learn more about Kaden and his family see: http://kadenmatthewmack.blogspot.com
By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Only His Signature is Appropriate – Step 12
Last Summer my husband and I attended the Church’s Addiction Recovery Mission Conference. It was held in Salt Lake City at the Conference Center. He and I spent the morning before the Mission Conference with a friend of ours from who had come to attend the conference from Boston. He is a fellow missionary, recovering alcoholic, and someone I have worked a great deal with in the development of materials for the Church’s recovery program. The three of us spent the afternoon before the conference enjoying a few of the opportunities available near the Conference site. We had lunch at the Lion House and took a tour of the Beehive House and then we took him to see the movie about Joseph Smith at the Legacy Theater. The film was powerful, closing with the stirring words, “Shall we not go on in so great a cause?”
As the three of us exited the theater my husband became involved in a discussion about our mission with the sister missionaries. My attention was completely captured by a breathtaking statue I had never seen before. It is a relatively new sculpture of the First Vision. I stood, taking it in and wondering whose work it was. I started walking around the statue looking for a signature. Seeing no name, I glanced up and there was our friend coming around the other side, in search of the same information. He said: “I’m trying to see who the artist is.” “Me too!” I responded.
A sister missionary overheard our conversation and immediately came to offer not only what she knew about the creators of this work but with what I feel was a message from The Creator, to my friend and to me – maybe to all of us.
“Are you trying to find the name of the sculpture?”
“Yes, we can’t find it!” we said in unison.
“The other day one of the artists of this piece came through. He told me that those who participated in this particular work felt their experience was extremely sacred and together they decided that they would not – could not put their names on it.”
We gave each other a knowing smile and my friend replied, “We understand that kind of situation.” The Lord’s message came to us just hours before the opening the 2007 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Addiction Recovery Program Conference. This is a program so many nameless folks have given their days and years and even their lives to develop.
Jesus works in the shadows. As I write this I am struck with the willingness of our Lord to labor anonymously in this work of recovery for such a long time. For years He has been willing to be know only as “a power greater than ourselves.” What an understatement!
Sometimes we are called to individually stand up and plainly state our name and share our own story and our personal witness of His power to save, for we have experienced it! At other times our witness, in the spirit of anonymity, is the thing that’s required. Perhaps it’s so that all the light can be directed to Him, as we strive to bring Him out of His Higher Power obscurity.
In the spirit of those wondering, awe-struck, nameless shepherds who were the first witnesses of His coming, I thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing of being part of one of the most timely, far reaching, Christ directed efforts of this dispensation. I want to be continually willing to be bold, ready to stand and state my name and give a reason for my hope when it is called for, but I also want to be genuinely willing to stand for Him in the spirit of anonymity.
When I do sign my name to His creation it is as one who has been a witness of Him, of His love, His ability, His creativity, His skill and greatness and glory. He is the owner who at times allows each of us to participate with Him in creation. In actuality, all things bear His name. When it comes to the work of the Lord, Only His Signature is Appropriate.
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 8, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
As the three of us exited the theater my husband became involved in a discussion about our mission with the sister missionaries. My attention was completely captured by a breathtaking statue I had never seen before. It is a relatively new sculpture of the First Vision. I stood, taking it in and wondering whose work it was. I started walking around the statue looking for a signature. Seeing no name, I glanced up and there was our friend coming around the other side, in search of the same information. He said: “I’m trying to see who the artist is.” “Me too!” I responded.
A sister missionary overheard our conversation and immediately came to offer not only what she knew about the creators of this work but with what I feel was a message from The Creator, to my friend and to me – maybe to all of us.
“Are you trying to find the name of the sculpture?”
“Yes, we can’t find it!” we said in unison.
“The other day one of the artists of this piece came through. He told me that those who participated in this particular work felt their experience was extremely sacred and together they decided that they would not – could not put their names on it.”
We gave each other a knowing smile and my friend replied, “We understand that kind of situation.” The Lord’s message came to us just hours before the opening the 2007 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Addiction Recovery Program Conference. This is a program so many nameless folks have given their days and years and even their lives to develop.
Jesus works in the shadows. As I write this I am struck with the willingness of our Lord to labor anonymously in this work of recovery for such a long time. For years He has been willing to be know only as “a power greater than ourselves.” What an understatement!
Sometimes we are called to individually stand up and plainly state our name and share our own story and our personal witness of His power to save, for we have experienced it! At other times our witness, in the spirit of anonymity, is the thing that’s required. Perhaps it’s so that all the light can be directed to Him, as we strive to bring Him out of His Higher Power obscurity.
In the spirit of those wondering, awe-struck, nameless shepherds who were the first witnesses of His coming, I thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing of being part of one of the most timely, far reaching, Christ directed efforts of this dispensation. I want to be continually willing to be bold, ready to stand and state my name and give a reason for my hope when it is called for, but I also want to be genuinely willing to stand for Him in the spirit of anonymity.
When I do sign my name to His creation it is as one who has been a witness of Him, of His love, His ability, His creativity, His skill and greatness and glory. He is the owner who at times allows each of us to participate with Him in creation. In actuality, all things bear His name. When it comes to the work of the Lord, Only His Signature is Appropriate.
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 8, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Who is Going to “Pretect” Us? And What is a “Harmerax”? - Step 2
I was your classic scared of the dark “Heavenly Father, Please bless me that I won’t have any bad dreams,” “Close the closet doors mommy,” “Please check under the bed daddy,” kind of a kid. After I was put to bed I would lie there, full of anxiety, anticipating the moment when everyone in the house would be asleep and then it would just be me, in the dark. I would completely miss my chance to fall asleep while my parents were still up and going and then the whole house would become quiet and dark and all that was left were the shadows and the bumps in the night! I would lie there until I couldn’t stand it any more, and then I would sneak out of my bed, tip toe into my parents room, lean my little girl head over my daddy’s sleeping face, getting as close as I could and in a half whisper I’d say, “Daddy, I’m scared!” After he recovered from a child induced heart attack, my dad would kindly escort me back to my room, muttering something like, “You’re the biggest spook in the house,” and re-tuck me in, and check the closet and under the bed for monsters and such things.
Fear seems to be one of the things we have in common. Some of us come by it rightly. Some of us have grown up in very terrifying situations. For others, “the fall” itself seems to be reason enough for earth life anxiety. My upbringing was not frightening except that someone killed the president of the United States and his brother and a black preacher and in my school there were sit-ins and walk-outs. When we moved from Utah to California we had to start locking our doors and someone stole some stuff out of our garage one night. Once when we were on vacation in Utah some people, who didn’t like the way things were, burned up a city near our home in California. I think I came to earth scarred, but the world around was not exactly reassuring, even if my parents were.
Carson, who is experiencing “four years old” right now, seems to have come to earth with some fear, just like his Grandma Nan. Lately and frequently, if he knows his parents are going out he asks, “Who is going to ‘pretect us’?”
In our family the most repeated phrase in family prayer has always been, “Please bless us that no “harm or accident” will come upon us and that no robbers will come and steal anything or steal us.” One night when my son Andrew was little he finished saying the family prayer, as he had done many times, and looked up at me and said, “Mommy, what’s a harmerax?"
Fear is a foundational problem for those who struggle with compulsive/obsessive behavior. Out of fear we turn to things for comfort that are ultimately self-destructive. In recovery there are two questions answered for us that seem to help us turn a corner from living in fear to living in faith. The two questions are the same questions asked by Carson and Andrew. Who is going to “pretect” us? And what is a “harmerax” or in other words, what do we need to be afraid of?
Recovery principles are leading me to a personal knowledge of a very loving, powerful, protecting, saving God. I experience His protection every day in multiple ways. And this God who is so worthy of my trust is teaching me that I can turn all my fears over to Him, “harmerorax” and all.
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 7, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Fear seems to be one of the things we have in common. Some of us come by it rightly. Some of us have grown up in very terrifying situations. For others, “the fall” itself seems to be reason enough for earth life anxiety. My upbringing was not frightening except that someone killed the president of the United States and his brother and a black preacher and in my school there were sit-ins and walk-outs. When we moved from Utah to California we had to start locking our doors and someone stole some stuff out of our garage one night. Once when we were on vacation in Utah some people, who didn’t like the way things were, burned up a city near our home in California. I think I came to earth scarred, but the world around was not exactly reassuring, even if my parents were.
Carson, who is experiencing “four years old” right now, seems to have come to earth with some fear, just like his Grandma Nan. Lately and frequently, if he knows his parents are going out he asks, “Who is going to ‘pretect us’?”
In our family the most repeated phrase in family prayer has always been, “Please bless us that no “harm or accident” will come upon us and that no robbers will come and steal anything or steal us.” One night when my son Andrew was little he finished saying the family prayer, as he had done many times, and looked up at me and said, “Mommy, what’s a harmerax?"
Fear is a foundational problem for those who struggle with compulsive/obsessive behavior. Out of fear we turn to things for comfort that are ultimately self-destructive. In recovery there are two questions answered for us that seem to help us turn a corner from living in fear to living in faith. The two questions are the same questions asked by Carson and Andrew. Who is going to “pretect” us? And what is a “harmerax” or in other words, what do we need to be afraid of?
Recovery principles are leading me to a personal knowledge of a very loving, powerful, protecting, saving God. I experience His protection every day in multiple ways. And this God who is so worthy of my trust is teaching me that I can turn all my fears over to Him, “harmerorax” and all.
By Nannette W.
Posted Sunday, September 7, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Living in the Wilderness – Step 1
In the opening scene of the Book of Mormon the Lord told Lehi He wanted him to take his family and leave Jerusalem. Lehi didn’t sit around wondering if this was a “command command” or just a divine suggestion. It was God’s will. That’s all he needed to know. They left Jerusalem and moved to an unpredictable, frightening place where the elements of survival were out of human control. It was there they learned life’s most important lesson. They learned to rely entirely upon the Lord in every facet of living!
At some time everyone on this earth is commanded or invited or placed in the wilderness. It may not be a wilderness with “lions and tigers and bears, oh my”, but it is a place or circumstance where the things we are use to depending on are no longer available or effective and we have to rely wholly on the Lord. In order to survive we have to seek to know His will, and then do His will. The strength to act comes directly from Him. When we live this way in the wilderness we not only survive, we thrive and we come to know our Savior Jesus Christ.
Most of us only venture into the wilderness when the call is obvious and we are seemingly without a choice, when catastrophe strikes; death, financial ruin, incarceration, loss of relationships, life threatening illness. But most of us keep our big toe in Jerusalem where our treasures are, the treasures we figured would see us through anything (money, position, organization, personality, education, our own strength, friends etc) and when the traumatic experience ends we move back to Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is coming down.
We think that this “Jerusalem” where we are seemingly in charge is the great reality, but this is not so. In Lehi’s vision we are taught that we all agreed to follow the Lord to “a dark and dreary waste.” That sounds like the wilderness to me. The greater reality is that we are already in the wilderness and have only to acknowledge it, take His hand and allow Him to lead us to a place of promises, a state were we keep our promises to Him and He keeps His promises to us. That’s the Promised Land! It is a place of covenants, of love and of complete dependence on Jesus Christ. Its glory and power and greatness surpass all, and the joy of remaining in this place is divine. Being in the wilderness with the Lord was and is the ultimate classroom.
By Nannette W.
Posted Saturday, September 6, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
At some time everyone on this earth is commanded or invited or placed in the wilderness. It may not be a wilderness with “lions and tigers and bears, oh my”, but it is a place or circumstance where the things we are use to depending on are no longer available or effective and we have to rely wholly on the Lord. In order to survive we have to seek to know His will, and then do His will. The strength to act comes directly from Him. When we live this way in the wilderness we not only survive, we thrive and we come to know our Savior Jesus Christ.
Most of us only venture into the wilderness when the call is obvious and we are seemingly without a choice, when catastrophe strikes; death, financial ruin, incarceration, loss of relationships, life threatening illness. But most of us keep our big toe in Jerusalem where our treasures are, the treasures we figured would see us through anything (money, position, organization, personality, education, our own strength, friends etc) and when the traumatic experience ends we move back to Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is coming down.
We think that this “Jerusalem” where we are seemingly in charge is the great reality, but this is not so. In Lehi’s vision we are taught that we all agreed to follow the Lord to “a dark and dreary waste.” That sounds like the wilderness to me. The greater reality is that we are already in the wilderness and have only to acknowledge it, take His hand and allow Him to lead us to a place of promises, a state were we keep our promises to Him and He keeps His promises to us. That’s the Promised Land! It is a place of covenants, of love and of complete dependence on Jesus Christ. Its glory and power and greatness surpass all, and the joy of remaining in this place is divine. Being in the wilderness with the Lord was and is the ultimate classroom.
By Nannette W.
Posted Saturday, September 6, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Friday, September 5, 2008
“No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” - Fellowship: Meetings and the Help of Trusted Support People
The rhyme “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” is a favorite among all the little kids in my world. For those of you who don’t know, it starts out, “Five little monkeys jumping on a bed. One fell off and broke (or “bumped” depending upon the rendition) his head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, ‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed.” It goes on to tell the story of the four that were left and how they learned absolutely nothing from the one who is now under a doctor’s care. One by one they mindlessly take up jumping again. One by one they repeat the experience of the first little monkey until all of them have been carried off on a stretcher and there are literally, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed!” Why? Because there are no more monkeys left! One day I was singing this song with a group of kids I care a lot about and the thought came to me, “You know Nannette, there’s a message here!”
One blessing of attending recovery meetings and seeking out and working with the support of those who have personally applied the 12 Steps, is the opportunity to learn from the experience of others. And what experience do we share? We share what life was like for us when we refused countless times to learn from the suffering of others and the resulting fall that broke our bodies, our spirits, and our relationships. Then we share the great contrast between life then and our life in recovery today.
This is a rhyme about five little monkeys who refused to begin a life in recovery by learning from the experience of their fellow primates. My hope is that someday there will be an end to the cycle of needless damage to bodies and souls. Someday there will be “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” not because the last little monkey has fallen of, but because we choose to learn from each other, from those who have gone before, to accept God’s direction and power, and to opt out of destructive behavior. Any one of us can put an end to this rhyme. We can say, “This Little Monkey’s Done Jumping on the Bed!” With God’s help I can do it today!
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 5, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
One blessing of attending recovery meetings and seeking out and working with the support of those who have personally applied the 12 Steps, is the opportunity to learn from the experience of others. And what experience do we share? We share what life was like for us when we refused countless times to learn from the suffering of others and the resulting fall that broke our bodies, our spirits, and our relationships. Then we share the great contrast between life then and our life in recovery today.
This is a rhyme about five little monkeys who refused to begin a life in recovery by learning from the experience of their fellow primates. My hope is that someday there will be an end to the cycle of needless damage to bodies and souls. Someday there will be “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” not because the last little monkey has fallen of, but because we choose to learn from each other, from those who have gone before, to accept God’s direction and power, and to opt out of destructive behavior. Any one of us can put an end to this rhyme. We can say, “This Little Monkey’s Done Jumping on the Bed!” With God’s help I can do it today!
By Nannette W.
Posted Friday, September 5, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
“That’s All My Plans!” – Keep it Simple
If you know me you know that I’m a planner and a list maker. It’s an attempt, I’m sure, to keep myself in line. There probably isn’t anything inherently wrong with using a plan. A prayerfully made sketch of the day can be a great tool to help me be prepared to do the things that reinforce my life in recovery - like daily scripture study, prayer, meetings, writing, service in the work place, at church, and in the home. But, I have a love/hate relationship with my plan. My struggle begins first, when I think that the power to do, to take action, lies in the plan, and not in the Man Jesus Christ. And second, when I, in perfectionism, add addendum after addendum to the plan until it is no longer a representation of God’s will, is certainly not doable, and takes a great toll on the way I feel about myself and others.
My Granddaughter Sammy obviously watches me. She must know that I keep a daily “to do” list and a log of my activities. The other day I was sitting at the dining room table with papers spread about me. She walked over to the table with her little “Dora the Explorer” notepad and a pencil in hand. She climbed onto a large vacant chair and without addressing me she took her pencil in her little four-year-old hand, scribbled a wavy line across the page once and said, “Go swimming. Check!” She scribbled a second line and said, “Play with my Papa. Check!” She scribbled a third time and said, “After that, go home. Then after that eat. That’s all my plans.”
Sammy didn’t say a word to me, but God did. He said, “Keep it simple Nannette!”
By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, September 4, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
My Granddaughter Sammy obviously watches me. She must know that I keep a daily “to do” list and a log of my activities. The other day I was sitting at the dining room table with papers spread about me. She walked over to the table with her little “Dora the Explorer” notepad and a pencil in hand. She climbed onto a large vacant chair and without addressing me she took her pencil in her little four-year-old hand, scribbled a wavy line across the page once and said, “Go swimming. Check!” She scribbled a second line and said, “Play with my Papa. Check!” She scribbled a third time and said, “After that, go home. Then after that eat. That’s all my plans.”
Sammy didn’t say a word to me, but God did. He said, “Keep it simple Nannette!”
By Nannette W.
Posted Thursday, September 4, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
“Not My Feet Only” – Steps 6 and 7
I sat in Gospel Doctrine class one Sunday as we were flying through the New Testament. “So what lesson do we learn from this story?” the teacher asked.
“That we must serve as Jesus served,” came the quick answer from the audience.
That’s true, I thought, but I think there is more…
In John 13, beginning with verse 4, we read that after Jesus and His disciples finished eating their final meal together our Lord prepared Himself, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet. He then wiped them dry with a towel He had wrapped around Himself.
As Peter’s turn came, he held himself back. He was not about to submit his filthy feet, which were covered with the streets of the city, to be washed by his Lord. Peter said to Jesus, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Washing feet was work of the lowliest servant. It was nothing he would allow His Lord and Master to do for him.
The Lord replied to Peter in this way, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” This single sobering statement by the Lord leveled Peter’s pride.
The idea of ending his relationship with the Lord over this thing was unthinkable, and so Peter submitted wholeheartedly by saying, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
Even as Peter, we must each come to realize that our desire to cleanse ourselves, as noble as it might seem, does not bring us to God, but instead creates distance between us. If we want “part” with the Lord we must humbly submit to His cleansing.
The lesson Peter learned directly at the hand of the Lord, Himself, has been taught to me during my years of activity in 12 Step Recovery. The struggle in my life, which drew me to this program, was compulsive/addictive overeating. My seemingly futile battle with it had caused me to feel “unclean,” as if I too had dirty feet. The shame it caused me had gone on for years. I supposed that in order for me to feel comfortable before the Lord I would have to conquer this weakness myself (clean my own feet). However, in studying the Gospel principles represented in the 12 steps, I began to realize that I must submit my dirty feet (or unclean behavior) to the Lord, Jesus Christ. As I became willing to do so, then He would purify me.
In order for me to be clean before the Lord, I had to be willing to be made clean by the Lord, not on that far away day of reckoning, but right now, today. I could no longer postpone my coming unto the Lord with the excuse that I was standing in the shadows making myself perfect enough to have part with him. I had to step into the light, His light, where my defects were well lit, and then submit myself unto Him for His divine cleansing.
As I continue to witness His power to overcome compulsive/addictive eating and the love He has for this work of saving me, even from myself, I find myself more and more willing, even as Peter, to submit all. I am beginning to desire to honestly lay everything before Him- my guilt, my angers, my fears, my worries. With Peter, I too would cry, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday 3, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
“That we must serve as Jesus served,” came the quick answer from the audience.
That’s true, I thought, but I think there is more…
In John 13, beginning with verse 4, we read that after Jesus and His disciples finished eating their final meal together our Lord prepared Himself, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet. He then wiped them dry with a towel He had wrapped around Himself.
As Peter’s turn came, he held himself back. He was not about to submit his filthy feet, which were covered with the streets of the city, to be washed by his Lord. Peter said to Jesus, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Washing feet was work of the lowliest servant. It was nothing he would allow His Lord and Master to do for him.
The Lord replied to Peter in this way, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” This single sobering statement by the Lord leveled Peter’s pride.
The idea of ending his relationship with the Lord over this thing was unthinkable, and so Peter submitted wholeheartedly by saying, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
Even as Peter, we must each come to realize that our desire to cleanse ourselves, as noble as it might seem, does not bring us to God, but instead creates distance between us. If we want “part” with the Lord we must humbly submit to His cleansing.
The lesson Peter learned directly at the hand of the Lord, Himself, has been taught to me during my years of activity in 12 Step Recovery. The struggle in my life, which drew me to this program, was compulsive/addictive overeating. My seemingly futile battle with it had caused me to feel “unclean,” as if I too had dirty feet. The shame it caused me had gone on for years. I supposed that in order for me to feel comfortable before the Lord I would have to conquer this weakness myself (clean my own feet). However, in studying the Gospel principles represented in the 12 steps, I began to realize that I must submit my dirty feet (or unclean behavior) to the Lord, Jesus Christ. As I became willing to do so, then He would purify me.
In order for me to be clean before the Lord, I had to be willing to be made clean by the Lord, not on that far away day of reckoning, but right now, today. I could no longer postpone my coming unto the Lord with the excuse that I was standing in the shadows making myself perfect enough to have part with him. I had to step into the light, His light, where my defects were well lit, and then submit myself unto Him for His divine cleansing.
As I continue to witness His power to overcome compulsive/addictive eating and the love He has for this work of saving me, even from myself, I find myself more and more willing, even as Peter, to submit all. I am beginning to desire to honestly lay everything before Him- my guilt, my angers, my fears, my worries. With Peter, I too would cry, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Wednesday 3, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit. This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Verse Six – The Verse I Wish I’d Learned - Step 12
In the spirit of missionary preparation, I had the impression to start memorizing the hymns of the church. So, one week I memorized the first five verses of How Firm a Foundation. On Friday I was supposed to memorize the sixth verse, which turned out to be about old age. “Well I’m not old,” I said to myself and decided to skip verse six and move right on to verse seven.
The next day I went to visit my 92-year-old grandma in a rest home. Before I left she asked me to sing her a song. I told her I had been memorizing How Firm a Foundation. As she lay there so weak, on her side, all snuggled up in a blanket for the winter of waiting, she sang every word with me, and as we rounded the bend of verse five she went right on and in her little faltering voice she sang every word of verse six (the one about old age) alone.
E’en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sov’reign eternal, unchangeable love;
And then, when gray hair shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs shall they still in my bosom be born.
The sixth verse was not about me. It was not for me. It was for her. I went back the next week to see her, and before I left, you can bet I sang her the sixth verse! I wish I could sing it to her today.
As I prepare my head and my heart to carry the message, I want to remember not to predetermine who will and who will not come my way in need of the word of the Lord. You never know who might need the sixth verse.
By Nannette W.
Written November 18, 2001
Posted Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit.
This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
The next day I went to visit my 92-year-old grandma in a rest home. Before I left she asked me to sing her a song. I told her I had been memorizing How Firm a Foundation. As she lay there so weak, on her side, all snuggled up in a blanket for the winter of waiting, she sang every word with me, and as we rounded the bend of verse five she went right on and in her little faltering voice she sang every word of verse six (the one about old age) alone.
E’en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sov’reign eternal, unchangeable love;
And then, when gray hair shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs shall they still in my bosom be born.
The sixth verse was not about me. It was not for me. It was for her. I went back the next week to see her, and before I left, you can bet I sang her the sixth verse! I wish I could sing it to her today.
As I prepare my head and my heart to carry the message, I want to remember not to predetermine who will and who will not come my way in need of the word of the Lord. You never know who might need the sixth verse.
By Nannette W.
Written November 18, 2001
Posted Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit.
This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Too Grown Up for a Hand? – Step 2
Madeline is apparently four going on fourteen. Maddie recently and suddenly announced her own coming of age. Just before an ordinary mother/daughter crossing of a busy street, Kendra, completely unaware of Miss Madeline’s growth sprit, reached down to take her hand as she traditionally does. But this time the little paw was claimed back quickly by its owner with this confidant announcement, “I don’t need to hold your hand. I’m almost a teenager.”
I don’t know how old I am on the eternal growth and development chart, but I do know that I’m Heavenly Father’s little girl. It’s difficult to acknowledge that in some respects I probably am just four and it’s a great challenge to resist the mistaken notion that growing up somehow means growing away, growing out of need for my Fathers hand, becoming independent of Him. Truth be told, the greatest sign of growth, of being four going on four-ever, with Him, is the yearning for and taking of God’s hand not only at life's busy, scary crossing but on the little seemingly innocuous park paths as well.
I want to seek out His hand and grip it tight and not draw back and roll my eyes in disgust as a sign of growth and independence, even if I am “almost a teenager.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 1, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit.
This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
I don’t know how old I am on the eternal growth and development chart, but I do know that I’m Heavenly Father’s little girl. It’s difficult to acknowledge that in some respects I probably am just four and it’s a great challenge to resist the mistaken notion that growing up somehow means growing away, growing out of need for my Fathers hand, becoming independent of Him. Truth be told, the greatest sign of growth, of being four going on four-ever, with Him, is the yearning for and taking of God’s hand not only at life's busy, scary crossing but on the little seemingly innocuous park paths as well.
I want to seek out His hand and grip it tight and not draw back and roll my eyes in disgust as a sign of growth and independence, even if I am “almost a teenager.”
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, September 1, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
Making or sending copies is permitted if the page is not changed in any way and the material is not used for profit.
This notice must be included on each copy made or sent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
