Stronger Through Him

My friend Mike shared a beautiful Thanksgiving story with me today.   I wish you could hear the passion, excitement and gratitude in his voice but I will do my best with my words. Mike and his wife joined the church earlier this year and have found so much goodness in the fruits of the changes following Jesus Christ has made. This week, as his extended family gathered for Thanksgiving, for the first time in 52 years his family sat around the table together. And Mike was asked to say grace. He had the privilege and blessing of uttering the first prayer for his family to give thanks to God for all the goodness they have been blessed with. Can you imagine the joy??!! As Mike shared “by their fruits you will know them”.   They are seeing the fruits.  The light in Mike and Shyla’s life. And it’s making a difference. What a beautiful miracle!  A family gathered together, around a table in a circle of love. Praying with Thanksgiving.  Thank you, Mike,  for sharing that miracle and letting me

  It’s Monday and in my EL class that means we are sitting on the floor and passing the microphone for speaking practice. Today’s prompt: I am thankful for ___________ because ______________. I gave them time to think and shared some examples.   The kids started out with their usual answers.  “I don’t know.” I repeated the prompt in both Spanish and English and told them we would take as much time as we needed.   The first student took eight minutes of silence.  It’s a comfortable silence we are used to in our classroom.  Time to plan out the words and practice mentally.  To translate as needed.  To summon up courage. The next took only five and by the end they were moving fairly quickly. Phones, friends, their beds to sleep in.   Pets, video games and favorite snacks. Then they went back to their seats and began to write their answers. They needed to write down three things they were thankful for and tell me why.  It was an exercise in English grammar. This ti

  I was at another building to lead some professional development today and walked through our alternative high school program. A sign on the wall caught my attention. “Excuses make today easy but they make tomorrow hard. Discipline makes today hard but tomorrow easy.” I thought of that repeatedly as I watched students at school today. “I don’t feel like doing the assignment.” “I left my paper in my locker”. “I was distracted so didn’t do any work.” “Since you helped me finish my assignment yesterday I took a nap today in language arts. It will be on my late list tomorrow and I’ll do it then.” “They made me mad so I hit him. It was a natural reaction.” Making today, or this moment easier.  Making tomorrow harder. Each of them. My first friend will now have to either use his evening free time to complete his work or somehow complete two tomorrow. The next will have to use one of his limited passes to go retrieve his paper.  He will miss instructional and valuable work time.   Distractio

  This morning at seminary I gave the students this task. Listen to the song I was sharing and write down any of the lyrics that stood out to them. There was, as expected, a variety of answers penned to paper but one phrase popped up over and over again. “Listen to what I’m whispering to your heart”. Helaman 5:30 speaks of that whispering voice.  “It was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul.” President Rosemary M Wixom stated, “We can learn from that voice from heaven. It was not loud, scolding, or demeaning; it was a still voice of perfect mildness, giving firm direction while giving hope. Firm direction, mildness, hope. What message is your Father trying to whisper to you? 

  One of my students came into the room today, a lineman who is already in the body of a grown man in 8th grade. He was a crucial part of our football team’s success but has his fair share of life’s struggles. And he loves to come to the NEST. Today after finishing some work and talking through some of his frustrations he asked if he could write a quote for us on the board. I agreed, with the disclaimer that it contain no profanity, and he laughed and said, “No worries Mrs. Potter. I got you.”   Then he wrote this message: “The Devil would not be trying to stop you if there was nothing good inside of you.” The bell rang as he was finishing and he turned back and tapped the board. “Don’t forget it.” Have you ever thought that the very fact you are being tempted by Satan is evidence of your goodness?  He certainly isn’t in the business of wasting time on lost causes. He is actively fighting against every spark of light he sees within us.  And as President Michaelene P Grassli warned, he

 One of the things that has proved most rewarding to my students in The Nest actually surprised me a bit. But it shouldn’t have. We all like to have our efforts recognized.  To measure our progress. To shift the focus from our deficiencies to what we ARE accomplishing. So when a visitor came to my classroom today and watched a group of teenagers, actively at work studiously completing their work and then getting up with a fist pump and audible “yeah” before adding a sticker to our new chart, she shook her head in wonder. “These kids are in trouble?” she asked.  “We are all in trouble at different times but these kids all needed some support in getting their assignments caught up and this is a great place to do that.” “And they do this for a sticker?” I smile.  “And someone saying well done, I believe in you.  Let’s find the tricky part and work on that together.” “Amazing.” I smile again.   Because these kids WANT to do well.   They want to be successful.   And they aren’t perfect and