Stronger Through Him

  Sometimes what may seem like opposites aren't.  Like being warm and being strict.  Doug Lamov does a great job of explaining that not only do we sometimes need to be strict and sometimes need to be warm, but we frequently need to do them at the same time.  It's not that we love someone and we also need them to have consequences.  It's that they need to have consequences BECAUSE we love them and we desire for them to learn and grow and progress.  This is true of our role as teachers, parents, managers, and many more.   One way that we can express that caring love is by explaining the why.  For instance, I had a student who was talking and giggling to her friend during class.  I reminded them once and then quickly told them that I knew they were really good friends and cared about each other, but that we would find another time for them to spend time together.  Right now I needed them to move to their tables so that everyone could hear the lesson and they could

  "Mrs. Potter, There was a big mess on the floor in that bathroom." Teaching kids how to use and share public restrooms in a hygienic fashion is not my favorite job.  But it has to be done. "Okay, I'll let the custodian know, do you still need to use the bathroom?" "No, I just walked carefully in it." And then across the floor and into the halls.🤢 Common sense says we look where we are going.   That we avoid messes and try to keep our feet clean in bathrooms. According to the grand authority, Wikipedia, a proverb is " a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience." Both my experience with bodily waste and years in elementary bathrooms and simple common sense says we should look where we are walking (and always wear shoes in there, but that's a story for another day!). But it's good spiritual advice as well. Proverbs 4:26 says to "ponder the

 Mary Ann Pepper Kidder was born in Boston in 1820. History has some ambiguity as to her particular faith and where she lives at specific points in her life, but it is agreed she was a prolific hymn writer composing as many as a thousand hymns in her lifetime. Many of them were lost as new hymnals were organized and published but of those that were passed on there was  a familiar theme.   God will be there for us, if we do as He has asked. This is a message she learned firsthand when as a teenager she was blinded and later regained at least partial sight.  No stranger to tragedy, her husband died in the Civil War, her son drowned and her daughter died of heart disease.   Yet her hymns were reminders of her faith and included these: Don't Forget to Read the Bible Don't Forget to Do Good Go To Sunday School, Dear Children  Jesus, Help Me Day By Day  Fear Not Little Flock Says the Savior And in our hymnal- Did You Think to Pray.  Ere you left your room this morning, did you think

  For many years when our children were small, their favorite Family Home Evening lesson was "the flashlight one".  Whoever was teaching the lesson would shut off all the lights in our basement and we would descend carefully into total darkness.  The lesson-giver would ask what we could see and then turn on the flashlight to represent  the Holy Ghost guiding us through the dark.  Sometimes we would talk about other aspects such as keeping our batteries charged and knowing where the light was, but mostly we stumbled through the dark laughing and then turned on the light to find our way.  I don't even know if it had any lasting impact on our kids, but the pattern was there.  Reading in Come Follow Me today, Psalm 119:105 reminded me of that lesson. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." We know that God the Father, and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost work together for our good.  It would make sense then, that just as Jesus Christ

  Saturday Ella had a golf match.  When she got there and met her group of three, one of the girls started by sharing that she didn't know what she was doing and would need help. "Oh, is this your first year?"  "This is my first week." She literally had not touched a golf club prior to that week.  Ever. She was playing using borrowed clubs, and her uncle's old golf balls.   But she was humble enough to be honest about her inexperience and ask for help. And the other two girls were incredibly kind, encouraging and patient with her.  "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted" (Ephesians 4:32) There are people all around us who are new to things we know.  Whether it's the routine of a parents' group, the unspoken culture of the office, a group of friends, a new face at church or even someone new to the grocery store we know well, we have the opportunity to help. To put them at ease.  To encourage.   To laugh together

 My friend's daughter was recently baptized into her church and when her dad was sharing his feelings he simply said, "Never forget to show the world how much you love Jesus!" What great advice for us all. Especially those of us who have also promised to take His name upon us.

  We are what I would call sometimes gardeners.   As in some years we do and some years we don't depending on our summer schedule.  This year we had planned to have a garden as we weren't traveling but then I was hospitalized and then too weak to do much so George put in some tomato plants but otherwise left the garden unplanted and untended. Last year's bean plants came back as voracious volunteers and we were pulling up bean plants all over the yard around the garden boxes.  Those still in the box we left and now have fresh beans we are harvesting in spite of absolutely no watering or weeding.  Why were they able to do so well untended?  Because they were good seeds in good soil.  Fortunately when we had the time and energy last season we had put in the effort to weed and cultivate.  I think life can be the same.  We will have seasons in life where trials and difficulties make it so we have to run on the faith and momentum of our precious gospel efforts for

  We went to Ella's golf tournament today and got the very last golf cart. And it was a real winner! It had two speeds- 1/4 mph or 60 mph- with nothing in between.  It was also very loud so it sounded like we were gunning for people as every time George tapped the gas it surged forward with the roar of a go-kart at the track. I had a headache from the fumes and Ella was a bit embarassed because it was just so loud!!  So we lurched our way around the course careening toward objects and then coming to sudden stops until George finally had his very best moment when the golf cart actually backfired.   It was actually quite comical but as we were leaving and I limped away from the course with my knee still braced as I wait for surgery, it occurred to me that we had spent most of the morning laughing and complaining about our cart compared to the nicer electric well-functioning and smooth riding carts that we hadn't even been appreciative of the fact we hadn't had to walk all ove

 The start of a school year is such a beautiful time to become more focused on our prayers for our children.  Our prayers should encircle our kids with love and safety.   They should praise Him for the gift of children in our world.  President Henry B Eyring said, "You can pray for your children, love them, and reach out to them with confidence that Jesus reaches for them with you. When you keep trying, you are doing what Jesus does." Now that is something doable.  Just keep trying.  And keep praying.

  One of my favorite parts of teaching seminary is to hear the Devotionals  my students share.   It allows me to see their faith and growing testimonies. To see them trust and work through their questions.  To see their love for others and God. And it helps me learn and grow. This morning one of them shared Psalm 77 and it's been on my mind all day. It's real.  Just read and feel the emotions.  2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. 8Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? All of us have felt this way at times.   Sometimes for long seasons, sometimes shorter.   Troubled. Inconsolable.  Complaining. Overwhelmed.  Wondering if we've been abandoned.   If we've angered th

  In 1455 Gutenberg chose the Bible as his book to showcase his invention of movable type.   Prior to this, people had to simply hear their monks' and priests' interpretations of the Bibles in their possession.   With the ability to print bibles, common people were suddenly able to access, read and be inspired by scripture on an individual basis. Today we have scripture SO accessible, literally at our fingertips most of the time, that it becomes easy to be complacent and fail to take advantage of that gift.   We can now access thousands and thousands of opinions, interpretations, podcasts, memes, and postings.  Like this one for example.   These can be great tools for additional insight, understanding and learning, but if we let them take the place of our actual personal scripture study, we can lose the blessings of personal scripture study that have been promised.   What a subtle way for Satan to distract and edge us ever so slightly at a time.   We have inadvert

 It's the third day of school and today one of my littles was skipping through the hall and dropped her nametag.  I picked it up and started to hand it back to her when she got a funny look on her face. A guilty look.  Like I had caught her enacting one of her creative plans.  And trust me, this kiddo comes up with some great ones.  Like the mouthful of rubber bands she had when she told me she had just gotten braces.   Or the time she showed us all how to properly draw "the black stuff to cover up the bald spot on the head if you are drawing your dad". Or the time she left her classroom to go make a "special announcement" to all the classrooms at school about her birthday. 😂 I would soon discover that I had just caught her in another one.  The nametag was her KINDERGARTEN one from last year. (Right off the bat I was impressed.  My kids are forever losing their name tags that they had a few hours ago and paying the $1 fine to replace them. And she found hers af

  It's the first day of school.  And we had lots of smiles and some joyous "I'm so glad to see you!" exclamations as we were overwhelmed with hugs.  It's definitely my favorite part whether they find me, or whoever their person is in our building. But we also had some newbies, including lots of kindergartners.   One little girl came in with tears rolling down her face and stopped at the door refusing to go further.  I was summoned and walked over and gently leaned down.   "I can see that this is hard for you.  Your eyes look worried." She nodded her head and glanced up. "What you didn't know is this school is full of people to help you stay safe the whole day.  Would you like me to walk with you to your class?" "I don't know which way to go." "I can help you with that, but you will need to let go of that door so we can walk there together. I will stay with you until you feel safe." I could see her me

  When Alex called this week she shared with excitement a lesson she had learned. Two of the eternal laws of heaven are those of justice and mercy.   Justice insists that when we make choices, we also choose the attached consequences of those choices. But sometimes our poor, selfish or even hateful choices also bring consequences to those whom we hurt. Which doesn't feel very fair or just. Yet in 2 Nephi 9:26 we read: For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel. Even though the atonement does save those who are sinning in ignorance, what about those who face what seems like endless torment, suffering and hurting because they have been unfairly wronged?   Yes, the Savior offers h

  Today I was at a training where we discussed the important intellectual and emotional need to fail. We talked about "failing forward" which means learning from mistakes but continuing to progress, rather than giving up in despair. And we talked about how it really isn't starting over, because we have new experiences to guide us if we let them. We also talked about how when children think they will always be right and always be successful that is incompatible with human experience.  And that creates distress for them because their expectations are not realistic.  The same is true for adults.  As President Gordon B Hinckley wisely reminded, "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Li