Letter - Bryant's 11th birthday, talk in church: spiritually prepared

August 16, 2015

It’s been a good week.  Bryant turned 11 years old on Wednesday.  He is such a joy.  He keeps me on my toes because he is observant and a deep thinker.  He is kind and helpful and a peacemaker.  He is very intelligent and does well in school and on the piano and trumpet.  Chad and I each wrote him a personal letter on his birthday.  In it we told him the things we love about him and what we hope for him in the future.  We want to write letters for each of the other kids’ birthdays in the next year too.  Hopefully we will remember!!-- I just put a reminder on my phone on each of my kids’ birthdays to help me remember.

Monday as usual I did laundry and I think I ran to Costco that day.

Tuesday Tilly’s and my LBC club was canceled because it was stormy and we had planned to go to a splash pad.  Spencer had an orthodontist appointment that day and we were going to have to cut the activity short anyway.  Spencer found out that he only has 3 months left for his braces.  He now has to wear rubber bands to align his bite and got a tighter chain band so his mouth has been pretty sore.  That night for mutual the Beehives put on a wonderful combined activity.  The father of one of the Beehives is a DJ and has all the equipment and then another couple in the ward teach dance so they set up an activity for all the YM and YW to learn the 50’s swing dance.  They also taught the boys how to ask a girl to dance.  It was awesome.  Everyone participated.  They had the youth switch partners often so if there were any awkward pairs, it didn’t last very long.  J  That night we had a really big storm.  Read my talk at the end of this letter for some of my thoughts about it.

Wednesday was Bryant’s bday.  I had a dentist appointment that morning.  Then I took Bryant out for lunch.  He chose Panda Express.  That evening we all went out to dinner and he chose In and Out. 

Wednesday morning Tilly and I saw lots of broken tree's throughout the neighborhood as I was out walking for a little exercise.  I was given lots of applications to use in my talk as I was walking.

Bryant's b-day lunch at Panda Express

Tilly invited a few friends over Wednesday afternoon.  She gets a little bored while all the big kids are at school.

After Bryant's b-day dinner we stopped at the blue park so the kids could check out and climb on the big tree that fell down.

Thursday Tilly and I met with the LBC club for lunch at Chick-fil-a.  I am planning the next two LBC activities.  For this Tuesday I’ve arranged for us to tour Krispy Kreme.  Next Thursday we are going to host a Pajama party story time at our house and have every kid bring their favorite book.  We’ll read until the kids attention span runs out and then they can just play while the mom’s visit.  I’m excited for those activities.

After LBC Tilly and I went to the QC Walmart and we bumped into Leah while she was working!  It was such a nice surprise.

Friday morning while Tilly had Grammy Days I came back home to work on writing my talk for today’s sacrament meeting.  I had read many articles about it during the week and had it kind of planned out in my mind, but I hadn’t put it down on the page yet.  It took me several hours to finally finish.  That afternoon after the kids got out of school, I took them swimming at the Moore’s house.  It has been SO hot.  That evening we all hung out at home and went to bed early for a Friday night.

Bryant shooting arrows into the target block he got for his b-day.

Yesterday Chad and I woke up at 5:00am and went kayaking on the Salt River with our friends Derek and Nicole Rudd.  Chad has regularly been checking Craigslist and he found a great deal and bought us a second kayak so now we can go on kayaking dates.  Since we woke up early we were rewarded with a nice sunrise over the Superstition Mountains as we drove.  We also got there before all the tubers and so we got to see lots of the wild horses that live around the Salt River.  We saw around 40 horses spaced out in small groups.  There were 5 little colts too.  They were cute.   After kayaking Karalee, Tilly and I went to Karalee’s friend, Jocelyn Moody’s, baptism.  Then we had a birthday party for Bryant from 1:30-4:30.  We took a few of his friends to the Freestone Rec. center.  Then Chad and I went on a 2^nd date for the day with our Gilbert Chowhounds group.  We try out a new restaurant each month.  It’s fun.  Last night we ate at The Hub.  It’s located on Sossaman and Baseline.  It was SO good.  Since yesterday was such a full day and we had woken up early we came home and went to bed early.

The Rudd's and me with some horses in the background

Bryant almost to the top of the rock wall at the Freestone Rec. Center.

Spencer climbing

I love this picture of Spencer swinging down.

Marlee loved climbing!  Tilly is too young to try and Karalee didn't want to climb at all.

The girls had fun hitting racquetballs with their Daddy.

Today I had meetings all morning and then spoke in sacrament meeting.  For some reason I got really tired during church and I almost fell asleep during Sunday school.  Luckily I was able to come home and take a short nap. 

My quote for today will just be the talk I gave in Sacrament meeting.

Love,

Mindy

Spiritually Prepared

August 16, 2015 Talk in Church

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.  And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:  But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.  And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.  Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.  But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.  Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.  But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.  Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25: 1-13).

Of this parable, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, “This parable contrasts the circumstances of the five foolish and the five wise virgins. All ten were invited to the wedding feast, but only half of them were prepared with oil in their lamps when the bridegroom came.  The arithmetic of this parable is chilling. The ten virgins obviously represent members of Christ’s Church, for all were invited to the wedding feast and all knew what was required to be admitted when the bridegroom came. But only half were ready when he came” (Dallin H. Oaks, Preparation for the Second Coming).  The parable of the 10 virgins is about us, members of Christ’s Church.  Christ taught that half of us will be wise enough to be prepared, but half of us will foolishly not prepare.  That is chilling.  I don’t think any of us want to be caught unprepared when the Lord comes again.   

How do we spiritually prepare?  Pres. Packer said of preparing, “Curiosity is not a preparation.  Deep interest itself is not a preparation.  Preparation …includes preliminary steps: faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation, worthiness, … maturity and dignity…” (Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple).  So faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation and worthily enduring are how we spiritually prepare.  That is the doctrine of Christ. 

When should we prepare?  Elder Eyring answers that question for us.  He said, “That preparation must be started far in advance because it takes time. What we will need then can’t be bought. It can’t be borrowed. It doesn’t store well. And it has to have been used regularly and recently.  What we will need in our day of testing is a spiritual preparation. It is to have developed faith in Jesus Christ so powerful that we can pass the test of life upon which everything for us in eternity depends. That test is part of the purpose God had for us in the Creation” (Henry B. Eyring, Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady).  So, the time to prepare is regularly, at all times.  We need to continually be increasing our faith in Jesus Christ by obedience to his commandments.  Elder Eyring goes on to say, “However much faith to obey God we now have, we will need to strengthen it continually and keep it refreshed constantly. We can do that by deciding now to be more quick to obey and more determined to endure. Learning to start early and to be steady are the keys to spiritual preparation. Procrastination and inconsistency are its mortal enemies.”  From that we learn that diligence, steadiness and consistency are the keys to spiritual preparedness.

We not only need to exercise our faith so we will spiritually prepared for when the Savior comes again, but we also need to exercise our faith so we’ll be prepared for the tests, trials, and storms of life that come our way.  Elder Eyring says we need “many experiences of stretching [our] faith to be obedient. … So [our] faith will be strengthened. … Decisions now to exercise faith and be steady in obedience will in time produce great faith and assurance. That is the spiritual preparedness we all will need.

But we must decide to obey and then do it. We build the faith to pass the tests of obedience over time and through our daily choices. We can decide now to do quickly whatever God asks of us. And we can decide to be steady in the small tests of obedience which build the faith to carry us through the great tests, which will surely come.”   

Last Tuesday night we had a big storm.  The morning after the storm as I walked through the neighborhood I made several observations.  There were several trees that fell over in the storm.  Some of the trees were ripped out of the ground clear down to the roots.  Others had strong enough roots but were snapped in half at the trunk and the whole top part of the tree blew away.  However most of the trees stood tall and strong and were fine.  What was the difference?  The trees that had strong roots and that had been pruned were able to weather the storm.

I pondered a lot about those trees.  The ones that were too full and had too many branches were destroyed.  They were not balanced.  Do we have balance?  Do we carry too heavy a load?  Do we not have enough of a load?  Do we have too many things that are unimportant eternally that get our time and attention?  Do we need to lop off a few branches so we are not carrying a dangerously heavy load?   

As we go about pruning our lives it is important that we don’t lop off the things that matter most.  Partaking of the sacrament each week, prayer, scripture study, family home evening, accepting and fulling callings and regular temple attendance are things that should not be lopped off.  They are the main branches that supply our roots with enough nourishment to help us stand strong and to be firmly anchored to Christ.  They are the things that allow us to exercise our faith.  I know that if we go to the Master Gardener, our Heavenly Father, He will direct us to the things that need to be trimmed out of our lives, whether it is sin, or whether we are just trying to decide between what is good, what is better, and what is best.  It is important that we do not judge other people and say, they could do more or they should be doing less.  We cannot see the roots they have.  They may be doing all that their roots can support, or maybe their roots are strong enough to carry the big branches that they carry.

After the storm, one particular tree, the big tree that was uprooted in the blue park, really taught me a lesson.  That tree was one of the biggest trees in the neighborhood.  It had withstood storms for years and years, yet it was uprooted and fell over.  Why couldn’t it withstand this storm?   It couldn’t withstand the storm because it was not prepared during the storm.  It was prepared in the past, but preparedness doesn’t last forever.  It has to be ongoing.  Elder Eyring said, “We can choose to sigh with relief and say to ourselves: “I have built a great reservoir of faith by … being steady in obedience. I will store it away against the times when I will be tested in storms.” There is a better way to prepare, because great faith has a short shelf life. We could decide to persist in studying the words of Christ in the scriptures and the teachings of living prophets. (Henry B. Eyring, Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady).  So because spiritual preparedness has a short shelf life, we can’t “retire” and say I’ve done enough.  At one point, all of our lamps once burning brightly, are they still burning brightly now?  Do we have a reservoir of oil that we are continually using and replacing?

Another lesson I learned about spiritual preparedness from Tuesday’s storm is the importance of good influences in our life.  Chad and I drove to a church building to play volleyball while the storm was raging.  The winds were blowing so strong when we got to the building, that it took two people pushing with all their might from inside the church building to be able to open the doors to get us safely inside.  I think that image will stay will me for a while.  We have friends, family, and a ward family who can help us stay spiritually secure.  They can safely help us reach shelter from the storm.  Being part of a family and a community of saints is a wonderful blessing.  It gives us the chance to serve and be served, to love and to be loved, to lift burdens and to have our burdens lifted, to be taught and to teach… to have backup.

One more thing that will help us to be spiritually prepared is to keep the standards in the For the Strength of Youth Booklet.  Pres. Uchtdorf says, “Some of the most important guidelines for your life are found in the pamphlet For the Strength of Youth. The physical appearance of this little paper booklet would qualify it for the scriptural description “Out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33). The pamphlet itself has little material value, perhaps just a few cents. But the doctrine and principles it presents are an invaluable treasure. You … who are already 18 or older, if you don’t have this booklet anymore, make sure to get one, keep it, and use it. This little booklet is a gem for any age group. It contains standards which are sacred symbols representing our membership in the Church” (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, See the End from the Beginning).  We never graduate from the standards listed in the For the Strength of Youth booklet.  The standards contained in it will help us prepare for the Second coming of the Savior.  If followed, they will help us feel confident and comfortable in His presence.  We know “neither the day nor the hour” when the Savior will return but if we follow the standards the Lord has set in this pamphlet we will be ready.  We will not be watching something inappropriate; we will not be wearing something inappropriate; we will be grateful, repentant, virtuous, honest, and have clean, kind language.

I know that as we spiritually prepare ourselves for the Savior’s return and for the storms of life, the Lord will prepare for us.  “Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father” (Enos 1:27).

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.