Category: Life according to Angela

The Lord’s wisdom is greater

I taught my gospel doctrine lesson on Sunday. I think the discussion was good, but I was prepared to discuss more. This calling at church requires me to let go of plans because class members are so eager to contribute ideas that we don’t have time to talk about every principle in the reading. It’s a good problem to have, right?

Here are a couple of concepts that we didn’t have time to discuss.

First, Satan’s tactics:

Cunning: the use of artifice to accomplish a purpose, rather than open, candid, or direct means; fraudulent skill or dexterity.

Flatter: to soothe by praise; to gratify self-love by praise…or by anything that exalts him in his own estimation or confirms his good opinion of himself.

Stir: to agitate, bring to debate; to instigate by inflaming passions.

-Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

And, God’s wisdom:

I really wanted to talk about the ways the Lord’s wisdom has blessed the lives of our class members. For me, His wisdom is most evident in His timing of friendships, knowledge, and experiences. How has the Lord’s wisdom been evident in your life?

Hand out of water

A friend asked me recently if I am keeping busy these days. She said that it’s funny how you can be so busy raising children, and just like lifting a hand from a bucket of water, immediately the gap gets filled when they are gone.

It was a good analogy, a hand lifted from water. Things just slide in to take over the days. This is not to say that the transition is easy or without complexity, and I think the process has aged me. The process is also transforming me. There are many things to do in life, and they come rushing at me each morning in ripples of ideas and possibilities. So, I keep sloshing along, not in a hurry, but finding meaning in a few new things. Fluid is my favorite metaphor for life right now.

Best in Show

The youth activity this week was a baking challenge. Each group was given a mango and told to make something with it, and they raced off to leaders’ homes to bake.

Richard’s group made mango tarts with a baked graham cracker crust, cream cheese filling, and piped cream. I am glad that we just happened to have graham crackers, cream cheese, and heavy whipping cream in our house. We had to adapt the recipe a little for the things we didn’t have, but that was fun, and each kid was invested in the project. The tarts really tasted good, and they looked amazing.

They won Best in Show.

Gallery wall someday

Working on a gallery wall arrangement means that I am taking lots of photos of different art configurations.

My decluttering project last week was to get rid of unwanted picture frames and to frame some treasures in the basement. I matched art to frames and collected a big box of frames for donation. I completed my goal to declutter, but the basement floor is covered in art, so it’s hard to tell.

Delayed.

A winter storm in the South has caused a delay in my parents’ departure to Puerto Rico. Richard and I picked them up from the airport after a rough start to their journey and they are staying with us for a couple of days. This unexpected visit has been wonderful for me, a tender mercy from Heavenly Father, who knows my heart. My parents are anxious to be in their assigned mission, but they have taken some needed rest here before their big adventure continues.

Composer, musician, instrument

I liked studying the Restoration proclamation in my personal study. I colored the words about Heavenly Father in one color, Jesus Christ in another, angels, the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith, etc all in their own colors. Jesus Christ had the most words about him, but the Father is the driving force, the planner, the initiator of all that Jesus does. Joseph Smith gets a very modest amount of attention, which is appropriate.

When a masterful musician plays, the instrument is important, but not as important as the musician. And there would be nothing without the composer.

I see Heavenly Father as the composer of the plan to save His children, and Jesus Christ as the masterful musician who carries out that plan. I think of Joseph Smith as an instrument who proclaimed the restored truth of Heavenly Father’s plan.

Permission

Sometimes I wait for permission to do something that would make me happy. Here is a superficial example. My favorite color is red, and I love interior design, but red has been “out of style” for a long time. So, dutifully, after Christmas, I have ushered out most of the red from my house. This year, someone gave me permission to keep some red things on the shelves in January. Four red plates and my seasonal red seat cushions are all it took to make me smile at my January kitchen.

The trends are mainly fueled by consumerism, so here is permission, if you need it, to put whatever you love on your shelves. To ignore the trends. To ignore the noise that tells us we are not stylish enough, sophisticated enough, or tidy enough.

On another level, here is permission to ignore some of the calls to listen to podcasts rather than seek our own revelation from God about life, faith, and joy. Our time is limited. Do we want a life diluted by noise?

There is a universe of possibilities within each of us. It’s a shame when we allow the world to dictate to us that we are inferior and the answer is to chase after relentlessly changing trends. Here is permission to follow the simpler and better way.

My plea to you this morning is to find rest from the intensity, uncertainty, and anguish of this world by overcoming the world through your covenants with God. Let him know through your prayers and your actions that you are serious about overcoming the world. Ask him to enlighten your mind and send the help you need. Each day, record the thoughts that come to you as you pray, and follow through diligently. Spend more time in the temple and seek to understand how the temple teaches you to rise above this fallen world.

Russell M. Nelson