Have you decided if you will watch a movie this weekend? If you were at our house, we’d at least discuss watching Star Wars again.
Here are some Star Wars scenes. Can you identify the films? Mark hasn’t seen all of the Star Wars movies, but he plays Lego Star Wars on the Wii each Saturday.
This may not resonate with anyone but me, but this is what I have observed: when I’m faced with a big idea or task, the tiny actions of the day can take on more meaning. Menial tasks somehow create a focus to help me face the bigger dilemma. My unhurried mind, taking a break during the task, more easily comes up with solutions.
I recently reread a book about feminine psychology as it is expressed in mythology. One of the lessons from the myth of Psyche was that sorting objects is one of the best strategies that women can employ when they are faced with a challenge.
Maybe there is a link between sorting objects and sorting ideas. One can’t find meaning for either if they are done independently. Our minds must work, but so must our bodies because we are dual beings, spirit and body.
I’m focusing on my homemaking tasks and grading papers. I am taking moments here and there to study and pray. It’s a good process for me and I count it as one of my greatest blessings that I have the freedom to do it. I am grateful to Richard for providing me with a lifestyle that allows for my creativity, education, personal advancement and fulfillment. My life includes long days of sorting socks, organizing closets, and building machines for my children to experience physics while I think about things.
I hope your sorting of ideas and objects helps you find meaning today.
Last week one of my boys had a worksheet in his math book which asked him to write his teacher’s last name. As I was correcting the paper, I discovered that he listed my last name as Sanchez.
I was really surprised, but enjoyed the little thought journey that it inspired. I will always be a Sanchez with the Sanchez quirks and characteristics. Here are just a few:
Looking for a little entertainment? Here are the songs from the ensemble concert.
The first piece is Timothy’s Amen! and Kumbaya.
Next, we have Daniel’s Guantanamera. You’ll want to dance to this one.
And now here is Paige’s piece, Slavonic Dance. Yes, she really plays that fast.
Mark’s journal exercise today was some copy work about a certain important event in his life. He has adorable handwriting.
Last night we ate dinner in 5 shifts. Although I prepared a hearty white chicken chili and cornbread, this is what the family ate between trips to ballet and the ball park:
5:00:
5:30:
6:15:
7:30:
9:30:
We do a little better in the nutrition department when we eat together.
This is what our house looked like last night. I invited the young women and their mothers to come for dinner and an evening of family history research and assistance. We’re getting ready to go to the temple next month and we are trying to prepare some of our ancestors’ names for temple ordinances.
The sister on the right was very helpful and so generous to give up an evening with her family to help us. The young woman is showing an ordinance sheet which she prepared during the evening. The names on the paper are ready for temple work.
As for our family’s work, we found the names we were looking for on census records from 1920 and 1930. Along with an obituary, we have information to lead us to many more of Cerie’s family members. We were so excited that we had Daniel join us and help us to enter some names.
I am learning how much the youth love family history and temple work.
Last night I drove six young women to the church cannery to fulfill a food bank assignment where we packaged beans. It was a 30 minute drive each way and this meant that the girls became well acquainted with my van.
I did ask my kids to clean up the van and I hastily stuffed some papers in the trash bag before the girls jumped in. However, it didn’t take long for the girls to begin discovering treasures.
“Sister Ross, why is there a toothbrush on the floor of your van?”
“Sister Ross, is that a 3-foot stick by the driver’s side?”
“Why do you have a food scale in your van?”
I was a little bit mortified, but then I turned it into a game. Which girl could discover the strangest thing in my van?
Would it be the 7 pairs of shoes? Would it be the Lightning McQueen socks? A half-eaten chicken nugget? I listened for more discoveries.
As we pulled into the cannery, I heard a voice in the back say,
“I think I found Narnia in this little compartment!”
And I proclaimed her the winner.
Integrity is living the same way no matter what. It involves not just choices about honesty; it involves every choice that we make. Will I be a better person if I read this? Does this entertainment feed the better part of my nature? Do I react with patience to my family, just as I try to react with my other associates?
I don’t have time to read or watch rubbish. If I had to prepare separately for each of my roles, I would never have time. My literature and media choices fill my mind with the ideas that I will use in church lessons, school lessons, and nurturing relationships. I can’t live in the silly, shallow world and still expect to have the time to seek to be worthy of the Spirit.
In church responsibilities, if I’ve been wise in my literature choices and scripture study, these are resources which I can draw upon, adorning my lessons with greater insights than I can come up with on my own.
It’s a relief to realize that our responsibilities as a child of God, a family member, and church member dovetail in their required preparations. Our character, developed through acts of integrity, will be a consistent and dynamic factor in our success as we try to fill many roles.
A life of integrity streamlines and simplifies the to-do lists. I am learning that integrity is one of the solutions to the problem of being too busy.
I’ve been reading about unreasonable expectations. These are the kind of expectations which can carry a person to extremes in their ideology, drain a person of energy, and create an idea of futility.
I felt my patience and endurance spiral into a nosedive of misspoken words and crash on my bedroom chair at 10:00 at night with the thought, “I’m not succeeding.”
I went to bed. Today I understand better what I let myself do. In my good intentions, my desire to be exact, I marched after the banner of a person instead of the quiet voice that whispers, “Take My yoke upon you.”
Someday when all my thoughts, actions, and intentions are sifted and sorted, it will only matter how often I acted on God’s expectations. I just need to stay focused on what He expects of me, and not take so much upon myself, even if the words of others apparently have some power over my heart.
I didn’t think that I was one of those people who sought the approval of others, but I think that I am, and this is the source of my problem.
Here’s a quote I read in a Conference talk that I found applied to my situation:
“There are so many ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ that merely keeping track of them can be a challenge. Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles–many coming from uninspired sources–complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea–something that may work for him or her–takes root and becomes an expectation. And gradually, eternal principles can get lost within the labyrinth of ‘good ideas’
“This was one of the Savior’s criticisms of the religious ‘experts’ of His day, whom He chastised for attending to the hundreds of minor details of the law while neglecting the weightier matters.
“So how how do we stay aligned with those weightier matters?
“…When asked to name the greatest commandment, He did not hesitate. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,’ He said. ‘This is the first and great commandment.’ Coupled with the second great commandment–to love our neighbor as ourselves–we have a compass that provides direction for not only for our lives but also for the Lord’s Church on both sides of the veil.”
(By President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, of course, Ensign, November 2009)