Waiting

May 29, 2021                        

I went bike riding today and as I rode up to an intersection, I had to push the walk button and wait for the walk sign before I could cross.  I HATE waiting.  Sometimes I have to wait for a whole minute (poor me)!  As I waited today, I thought about the word “wait” and what it means.  Waiting implies doing nothing.  It suggests something better is coming but is not here yet.  You are in limbo—not in the present—but looking forward to (or fearing) the future.  

When I am waiting, I get impatient.  I’m not happy.  I’m bored, fearful, excited, stressed, hopeful—all sorts of emotions.

                      

Some mornings when I’m walking instead of riding my bike, and I have to wait at the intersection for the light to change, I jog in place so I can keep my heart rate up.  I’m not going forward across the street, but I’m not just idly standing there either and becoming impatient. I’m doing something.  That made me start to ponder about different things I could do or should do while I am waiting in life for a future event to happen.

While I was waiting for the pandemic to be over, what was I doing?  I knew at the time that I would not want to look back on this novel year and feel like I had wasted it.  So I waited actively by spending a lot more time reading and pondering my scriptures, listening to Come Follow Me podcasts, walking and hiking, practicing my banjo and ukulele a lot, reading a ton of books and learning how to “artfully doodle” (art journaling).  Sometimes I felt like I was just jogging up and down, not really going anywhere, just trying to keep my skills up but other times I felt like I was progressing and moving forward.

The word “waitress” has wait as it’s root word.  A waitress serves her customers.  She asks what they need, how she can help them, and then she tries to quickly fulfill their requests.  She is hoping for a nice tip.

In Isaiah 40:31 it says, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” This certainly does not sound like a passive way of waiting.  If we are waiting on the Lord we are seeking to find out what His will is and how we can help.  By reading our scriptures we can hear Him as He asks us to find His lost sheep and bring souls to Him.  And what will our tip be?  Renewed strength, wings to fly, running without being weary and walking and not fainting.  Wow, what a tip!

Now I’m beginning to rethink my definition of the word--wait. It means I am active while looking forward to an upcoming event or season of life, or an upcoming journey or accomplishment.  It is not passive like I used to think.  I use to tie it to the phrase, “endure to the end”.  But waiting and enduring should imply faithfully DOING.  It means actively BECOMING.  And when it is coupled with a cheerful and grateful heart, it will propel me—a better me--toward a beautiful future.

Thanks for reading,

Cathy

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Enjoy Life

My Dad is 98 years old and has gradually been getting more and more helpless and is finally bedfast. He has dementia and can't remember things, but is totally coherent about things in the "right now in front of his face".  Sadly he can't remember anything that has happened even 5 minutes ago.  My Mother, who is almost 92 years old takes care of him in the house they have lived in all their married life.  My brother has the beginning of alzheimers.  He was an accountant and business man but can't even add simple numbers together like 2+2.  He knows he is losing his memory and very aware of his circumstances and future.   My daughter-in-law who lives with me has cancer.  She had the Whipple surgery (most people used to die from it) and is going through chemo.   Seeing these love ones and the trials they are going through has made me fearful of the future.  I worry about what my future looks like.  Will I become a burden on my children?  If I travel to see my family, will I be in an accident and paralyzed the rest of my life?  What bad thing is looming on my horizon?

So for my May goal, I took PresNelson’s invitation to heart—to seek to increase my faith.  He also asked us to get rid of our personal debris and repent.  I decided I needed to rid myself of fear of the future and worry over it, and to instead increase my faith--somehow. 

I understand the principle that if we have fear, we don't have faith.   “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”2 Timothy 1:7

I prayed to know what to do to increase my faith and was impressed that I should “enjoy life”.  That is the action part or the works part of faith—enjoy my life and enjoy the activities I spend my time doing, like in reading books, gardening, and in learning and playing music and instruments.  I should enjoy new things I can do during the summer instead of hating the heat and being miserable.  I should enjoy traveling to visit my family instead of being fearful of accidents that could happen.  The thought came to me that enjoying my life shows gratitude to Heavenly Father for giving me such a wonderful life.  And I am indeed, very grateful for the life I have.

Tonight I decided to enjoy life by reading my book on the patio and enjoy the last of the cool evenings we will have in May.  I had bought a metal candle holder a few days ago at DI and today I bought a battery operated candle to put in it.  When I turned on the candle and put it in the metal candle holder, I was surprised to see the words on the side.  Another reminder from God, another personal revelation message—just for me.

Thanks for reading,

Cathy

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 2021 Mother’s Day Advice

Help your family accept each other’s differences and see the value in people being different.

There is so much discord in the world today. We saw it through the recent election, through the racial tension, and through the pandemic. We still see it with judging others for not wearing a mask, or for wearing a mask, for not liking or liking Biden, or for getting the vaccine or not getting it.

We can also see discord in our family members. Just because you are born in the same family doesn’t mean you like or dislike the same things. Your children have different personalities, likes and dislikes and tastes. But kids rarely give their siblings the freedom to be different from themselves or even see the VALUE of being different.

On Saturday morning, President Nelson said that as he has watched the ongoing renovation of the Salt Lake Temple from his office window, he has thought about “the need for each of us to remove, with the Savior’s help, the old debris in our lives.” He said doing this will enable us to become more worthy and help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord.

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of repentance,” he said. “Because of the Savior’s Atonement, His gospel provides an invitation to keep changing, growing and becoming more pure. It is a gospel of hope, of healing and of progress. Thus, the gospel is a message of joy! Our spirits rejoice with every small step forward we take.” (Church Newsroom)

I took this challenge to remove debris in my life and decided to repent of “judging others and to accept their differences”. Of course I’ve been trying to do that my whole life!! In his Sunday morning talk Pres. Nelson also asked us to “increase our faith”. I decided that one way to increase my faith was to add works—faith without works is dead. So in adding works to my faith that I could repent of the debris of judging others, I decided to think of a positive attribute about the thing or person I was judging.

For example, when I was judging a person for being so interested in politics-- that’s all they listened to or talked about, instead of judging them of being obsessed with politics, I thought instead how thankful I was that there were people who were interested in politics so they could be the watch dogs to protect our freedom.

It has been a game changer for me—adding the positive twist of seeing something good so I can accept others’ differences instead of judging them.

I hope you will accept my advice and perhaps have a family home evening lesson about accepting others, speaking specifically about accepting the people in YOUR family who are different from you.

Quiz

Give the following quiz and ask family members which of the things below they like to eat or like to do:

• Chocolate
• Cream cheese
• Guacamole
• Cheese
• Peas
• Get up early
• Stay up late
• Read books
• Write stories
• Play the piano
• Play the guitar
• Hike
• Watch movies
• Play video games
• Have a clean bedroom
• Doesn’t even see the clutter in a room
• Likes to garden
• Likes to ride bikes
• Good at art and likes to draw
• Interested in politics
• Run marathons and ironmans
• Interested in health
• Notices birds and listens to them sing
• Notices other people’s feelings
• Likes to be around people, have lots of friends
• Likes to do things by themselves or with 1-2 friends
• Likes pets
• Doesn’t want a pet

Object Lesson

You could have an object lesson on how people like different things and that’s okay. Suggestions for object lesson:

Buy different flavors of Oreo cookies and taste them to see which ones you like the best.

Terry recently bought several different Oreos and she loves the hazelnut ones the most. I don’t like the taste of hazelnut that much so I didn’t like those Oreos. We’re different but can still get along and love each other.

Buy vanilla ice cream and assorted add ons. Notice how family members choose different ones or different quantities of the add ons according to their tastes.

Buy different flavors of M&Ms.

I like the pretzel ones the best. Which ones do you like?

Chant

Remember: Fair’s not there, so STOP looking for it!

How about saying (in the same sing-songy rhythm):

We are all different and that it okay!

I love you! Mom

Thanks for reading, 

Cathy

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