Parenting Tip - Our One Body

I wish everyone was as smart as I am.  And as wise.  And have had the experiences I have had so you would stop making those crazy decisions you're making.

Ha, ha, sorry about that.  I meant to only think those thoughts, not actually write and publish them....

I have some concerns about how the world is going, so I'm just going to spill it out and be frank in this post.

Last week I was at the gym walking on the treadmill listening to podcasts and couldn't help but see the advertising on the TVs because at first I couldn't figure out what the advertising was about.

It turns out it was a razor for women to use on their faces to get rid of peach fuzz.  Yes, peach fuzz. 

What?  Now I have to add ridding myself of my nonexistent or hardly seen peach fuzz to my daily make up regime?  I would have just ignored the advertisement, but it was on 5 of the TVs and it kept repeating the advertisement over and over and over again.  Every day.

Do you see what is happening?  As women, we are so obsessed with our looks and having to be in style that we are spending money and time on the silliest things...peach fuzz razors!  Our eyebrows have to be big and distinctive, our teeth have to be the brightest and whitest, our nails have to be polished, our wrinkles need to disappear and we have to decide between highlights or streaks in our hair.  Not to mention we have to be skinny.

Is Satan distracting us from what is important?  Is Satan trying to get us to compare ourselves with each other so we are miserable?  Satan doesn't have a body, so he is encouraging us to ruin our body.  He wants our bodies to be billboards, playgrounds, and sources of discontent.

Time is short.  We have one body.  We have this one life to live on earth.  Let's encourage each other to use our bodies to learn, grow, serve, and become more like Christ. Our bodies house our spirits. They are temples.  Let us protect our bodies.  Let us enjoy our bodies and use them to the fullest we can.  As in the parable of the talents, let us return to our Heavenly Father with our bodies physically healthy in the best condition we can take care of them.  Let us show our Father how we have used the gift he gave us in service to others with purity in thought and mind.

Thanks for letting me rant,

Cathy

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If you have commented in the past, I found out I haven't been receiving them.  I'm not expecting you to comment, but if you do, try leaving them with the google account to see if that works.

Parenting Tip - Turning Frustration Around

Life is frustrating at times.  Lots of times.  Every day in fact, there are frustrating things that happen.  Frustrating things caused by others to you, by them not understanding what you said, by them doing their own thing instead of what you asked them to do, by them……well, you know what I mean.   Then, just as you’re judging someone else about their deficiencies, muttering under your breath about them, and rolling your eyes at what they did or say, you turn around a commit a major faux pas (an embarrassing or tactless act ) yourself. 

Ah….pride goeth before the fall!

Here are my recent situations:

1.  My hair cut.  A friend cuts my hair and I love the way she cuts it.  At my last hair cut she told me her secret of never getting “butchered” or getting her hair cut too short.  She said, “I say I just want a nip off the ends.”  That means no length is cut, just a little evening out. 

So 10 days ago I went to her to get my hair cut.  I told her I wanted what she had said to do, just a nip off my sides---it was the back at the neck that needed the trimming.  45 minutes later I walked out with one inch cut off the sides and the back of the neck super short.

Frustration!  I hated my hair and I do NOT LIKE it to be that short.   It ruined my whole week and I grumbled every morning when I fixed my hair or looked in the mirror.

2.  The Bishop asked to talk to me, initiated by me, because I felt my service missionary work was overwhelming me and my ability to do my other ward calling.  I explained the amount of time I invest each week in my service as a missionary.  We talked for quite some time and he agreed that if I was overwhelmed, I would be released.  Finally at the end of the conversation, I said something again about being a service missionary, and he replied, “Doesn’t your service missionary work just take an hour a week?”  I replied in unbelief, “NO! It takes Tues and Thurs morning plus hours during the week preparing file folders of lesson plans for the other tutors to use.”  I had explained that 3 times in those same words during our conversation but he hadn’t understood.  I sometimes spend 6-8 hours a week and he thought I was only spending one.  I wondered how I could have explained my situation any differently.

Now for my Pride Fall.  Yesterday I realized I had forgotten to mail and text my really good friend a Happy Birthday.  Then, when I got home from Church and looked at the calendar, to my horror, I had forgotten to wish my out-of-state grandson happy birthday 3 days ago!  I have tried so hard this year to be better at sending birthday cards on time and singing Happy Birthday on my ukulele on Marco Polo.  And here I had forgotten twice!!

The lesson I am constantly relearning is this: no one is perfect.  We will all make mistakes.  Sometimes it will necessitate me forgiving someone, and sometimes it will be necessary for someone else to forgive me. And especially hard to do: I have to forgive myself as well. 

So today I’m laughing at myself.  It’s so easy for me to judge others and their shortcomings when I am just as bad!

Funny, funny Cathy!

And the good news is:  my hair has grown a tiny bit, I was released from my other calling and had it reaffirmed to me that the Bishop is interested in my life and is led by the Spirit.  I texted my friend yesterday and sang to my grandson belatedly an hour ago. 

Things are normal.  And good.  And that’s what life is all about!

Thanks for reading,

Cathy

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