Forgiveness Flour

Is there any principle of the gospel more difficult to live than that of forgiveness? I am intrigued by the relationship between love and forgiveness. I think the extent to which we forgive others is a good indication of our love for them. I don’t think it is possible to really love someone while simultaneously harboring a grudge against them.

I also think that we are most prone to be hurt, offended, or disappointed by those closest to us that we love the most. Perhaps this is why the family is the laboratory for learning and living gospel principles. It is the family where our ability to love and forgive is most tested.

I still remember when my stake president- a man I admire and that I had the good fortune of working with- read this poem at least 15 years ago. It is written by Marguerite Stewart:

Forgiveness Flour

When I went to the door, at the whisper of knocking,
I saw Simeon Gantner’s daughter, Kathleen, standing
There, in her shawl and her shame, sent to ask
“Forgiveness Flour” for her bread. “Forgiveness Flour,”
We call it in our corner. If one has erred, one
Is sent to ask for flour of his neighbors. If they loan it
To him, that means he can stay, but if they refuse, he had
Best take himself off. I looked at Kathleen . . .
What a jewel of a daughter, though not much like her
Father, more’s the pity. “I’ll give you flour,” I
Said, and went to measure it. Measuring was the rub.
If I gave too much, neighbors would think I made sin
Easy, but if I gave too little, they would label me
“Close.” While I stood measuring, Joel, my husband
Came in from the mill, a great bag of flour on his
Shoulder, and seeing her there, shrinking in the
Doorway, he tossed the bag at her feet. “Here, take
All of it.” And so she had flour for many loaves,
While I stood measuring.

This talk on forgiveness is also excellent. I hope that I can learn to be more loving and forgiving.

Taking Things for Granted

No wonder the scriptures constantly admonish us to “remember.” Here are just a few examples:

-remember the captivity of the fathers and that God delivered them (Alma 36:2)
-remember that we can be saved only through Jesus Christ (Helaman 5)

To remember must be one of the most frequent admonishments in scripture.

The opposite of remembering is forgetting. Too often we are prone to forget the most basic blessings that we have until they are jeopardized. We tend to forget what a great blessing health is until we are ill or injured, or we probably forget how fortunate we are to have a car that runs until it needs repairs, or worse, until it simply won’t work and we then have to find another way to go places. Have you ever had a power outage and out of habit tried to turn on lights? It is enlightening to remember how fortunate we are to have electricity and the many, many blessings that we often take for granted.

I was made painfully aware of the need to remember the blessing of a good, strong back this weekend. After moving some furniture into our basement on Saturday, I have been in fairly constant pain. Walking hurts. Sitting hurts. I can hardly dress myself or do the most simple tasks without experiencing pain. I realize that many people live with much more serious pains and illnesses than I have, but I long for the day when I will be pain-free again.

The moral is to cherish all of the good things that we normally take for granted. If you can walk without pain, be grateful. Try to think (and even write down) all of the blessings that you have that you may not normally even think of. “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Christmas Music

Christmas is past, obviously, but I still wanted to post some favorite Christmas music.

I really like “In the Bleak Midwinter,” which apparently is very popular in England.  This performance is by Dame Kiri De Kanawa and I chose this particular video because it includes the lyrics which I always find is a nice addition.

Another that I quite enjoy is “El Nino Querido” or “The Beloved Child.” I believe that it originated in Catalonia in Spain. This version is performed by The King’s Singers in Spanish, but I believe the Tabernacle Choir has performed a version in English. Maybe I’ll find and post that one for next Christmas.

Finally, here is a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir of “Whence is That Goodly Fragrance Flowing,” a 17th century French carol.

Who says you can’t enjoy Christmas’ beautiful music all year long?

Handel’s Messiah

I have been enjoying Handel’s Messiah during my commute for the past few weeks.  I’ve always loved the “Hallelujah Chorus,” but prior to this year had not paid much attention to the many other beautiful songs that are part of Messiah.

One of my favorites is “Rejoice Greatly.”  Here’s a performance I found on youtube (there are several to choose from):

I liked the Spanish subtitles.  I couldn’t find one on youtube with English subtitles.

The text is taken from Zacharias 9:9-10.  Here are the words:  “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.  Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He is the righteous Saviour, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen.”

I was not aware until recently that the text for Messiah was written by Charles Jenner (and not Handel).  I believe most if not all of the text is taken from biblical passages.

I’ll add more links to other favorite Christmas music in the next few days.

Invictus and Willpower

I was able to see an early screening of Invictus on Monday night with my family.  Invictus is the story of Nelson Mandela’s becoming president of South Africa and his efforts to unite a country divided by many years of apartheid.  President Mandela is an amazing man, and I am impressed with his leadership, his ability to forgive, his work ethic, and the kindness that he appeared showed to everyone.  Check out the movie and let me know what you think.

Coincidentally, I have been reading a book called Willpower Is Not Enough:  Why We Don’t Succeed at Change by Dr. A. Dean Byrd and Dr. Mark Chamberlain.  The first chapter of this book quotes the poem Invictus that is written by William Ernest Henley.  In the movie, the poem is a source of inspiration for Nelson Mandela; however, in the book about willpower, the authors cite the poem to illustrate that often our efforts to change ourselves require more than just being the “captain of [our] soul” as the poem suggests.

There are many valuable insights in this little book (181 pages including the index).  This is one of my favorite quotes:  “When it comes to changing our lives, our energy is often better spent in setting the sail than in rowing the boat.”

I can relate well to this image of myself in a small boat, vigorously rowing through the challenges of life, trying by my own measely effort to change myself into the person that I want to be.  Navigating this course by sheer willpower is not enough.  Instead of trying to control every aspect of our lives, the authors suggest that we are often much better off if we ”set the sail to pick up the winds of God’s power.”  We access God’s power in our lives by first seeking to learn his will and then striving to be submissive to it.

I have not yet finished the book but have found many worthwhile insights.  I highly recommend this book for anyone that has struggled to achieve the lasting change in their life that they desire.

Self-esteem (continued)

Despite my desire to convey all of the wonderful things that I learn from Confronting the Myth of Self-esteem:  Twelve Keys to Finding Peace, I am realizing that it isn’t realistic for me to attempt to do so.  I will attempt here to select a few of the book’s powerful concepts, but anyone interested really should get the book and read the whole thing. 

I wrote previously here about “love and long-handled spoons.”  I realize that this story is not unique to this book, but nonetheless it teaches very clearly the synergistic relationship between generously giving of ourselves to others and then joyously receiving others’ love (especially Heavenly Father’s) for us.

Rasband describes two self-defeating pursuits.  The first is what she calls the “shortcut seeker.”  We tend to forget the law of the harvest- that you reap what you sow.  We have the tendency to want and even to expect celestial-level results while making only telestial-level efforts.  Her main point here, I believe, is that we forget that this life is a process of learning and growing and we instead impatiently want the results now.

The second mistake that we sometimes make is what the author calls “the checklister.”  In this scenario, we mistakenly think that we can of ourselves earn peace.  We mentally make note of all the wonderful things that we do, all the while thinking that surely we have done enough.  But instead of finding peace, we find that we are exhausted and frustrated.  The problem is in the measuring of our efforts, because the lasting peace we seek only comes through wholehearted, unmeasured devotion.

Throughout the book, Rasband refers often to scriptural examples that support her insights about losing oneself to find peace.  I have barely scratched the surface of what is covered in this wonderful little book.  I highly recommend it and would gladly loan you my copy if you promise to give it back!

Book Review- Part I: Confronting the Myth of Self-Esteem

A few years ago I noticed this book on display at our local library.  It was short (130 pages) and seemed interesting, so I checked it out.  It has become one of my favorite books.

The full title of the book is Confronting the Myth of Self-Esteem:  Twelve Keys to Finding Peace, and its author is Ester Rasband.  It teaches truths about finding peace through developing humility, patience, love, unity, and gratitude.  As the title suggests, it also exposes myths to which we often succumb as we mistakenly search for self-esteem.

This little book is full of wisdom.  I have already quoted from this book in at least one other post at this blog, but I would like to do a series of shorter posts to share more of the insights offered by Ester Rasband.

In its introduction, Rasband explains that the purpose of the book is to highlight the difference between the world’s concept of self-esteem and God’s concept of confidence.

“It is perfect irony that that which our worldly self would prize most highly- feeling good about ourselves- can only be achieved by facing that which our worldly self would tell us that we must never face:  our nothingness.”

The first chapter teaches of the importance of accepting God’s word.  We have to overcome the tendency of choosing worldly philosophy over scripture.  In referring to the popularity of self-help books, she says, “How quick we are to try to give one another ‘peace made simple’ and ‘peace without pain.’…Oh, how important it is to look beyond the first glance- to look to the scriptures, which are the Lord’s instruction manual, and find not peace made simple, but peace made possible- not peace without pain but peace that overcomes pain.”

More from the book in a future post….

Thoughts from Conference

There were so many great talks from conference.  It is hard to pick just a few to highlight.  Here are a few of the main themes that seemed to be repeated by multiple speakers:

• the need to practice the process of receiving revelation
• the importance of living the gospel within our own homes and families
• the significance of love- God’s love for us as well as our love for Him and for others; service
• the gospel’s invitation for us to continually improve and to follow the Savior

I look forward to reading and studying the talks in greater depth.  The real challenge though is not to just hear the words but to live them.  I hope to write down two or three things to focus on during the next few months.

What were your impressions and/or favorite talks from conference?

C.S. Lewis Quote: Rats in the Cellar

I love this quote from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity about the process of becoming true Christians:

“We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is  some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed.  And the excuse  that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself.  Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular  acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated.  On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.  But the suddenness does not create the rats:  it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man:  it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.  The rats are  always there  in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”

Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon

I first heard about chiasmus in the Book of Mormon as a student at BYU.

For those unfamiliar with the term, chiasmus is an ancient literary device that has been found in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew writings. It is basically inverted parallelism where words, phrases, or concepts are introduced in ascending order and then repeated in descending order. You can find a better description of chiasmus here.

If you haven’t done this before, try looking for the chiasmus pattern in Alma 36. Read verse one, then look for a similar idea (or ideas) to be repeated near the end of the chapter. Note that the repetition is not necessarily verse by verse. Continue this process through the whole chapter and see how many ideas or concepts you can find that are repeated in reverse order through the chapter.

The central element of this chiasmus (verses 17-18) highlights to me what Alma most wanted to convey (paraphrasing):
     I remembered the prophecy of Jesus Christ, Son of God, coming to atone for the sins of the world;
     I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me

It is interesting to me that Alma first remembered his father’s prophecy about Jesus Christ, and then “[his] mind caught hold upon this thought….” Jesus Christ became real and personal to him- He was not just an idea but a Savior. I believe this is key for all of us.

You can read more about chiasmus in the Book of Mormon at Jeff Lindsay’s excellent site here. He also diagrams the chiasmus in Alma 36 as well as other chiasms found in the Book of Mormon.

I began reading the Book of Mormon as a child and have read it several times. Although I cannot point to any singular event by which I received a witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, very often as I read and ponder I feel the quiet, peaceful confirmation that comes from the Holy Ghost. From these numerous experiences throughout my life, I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God written by His ancient prophets and translated by His modern prophet, Joseph Smith.

Although my testimony of the Book of Mormon is not based on the finding of chiasms, their presence does offer some evidence to me of the writing’s ancient origins.