This
Week in Review
We’ve
had a stray cat wandering our neighborhood ever since we moved in to our
house. It appears that it recently had
kittens and our neighbors to the back have kindly taken them in. We know about them because they are curious
about all the noise we make when come out to play. They have apparently been using one of the
fence posts as a scratching post and managed between scratching and digging underneath
to create a hole big enough for them to come through it.
Bekah
Mae has informed us, “I just love them.”
She does have one major concern that she frequently asks, “Where are the
Mommy and Daddy cat?”
I’m
not a cat person, but I don’t mind too much that the kittens make the occasional
visit. They’re curious about the kids,
but a bit nervous so they never get too close and it makes the kids happy to
see them.
Zachary’s
walking is continuing to improve every day.
Bekah Mae had fun playing with her Minnie Mouse dolls, she has been
having them going to parties and it’s been fun watching her imagination work. Ben is still excited about playing
Batman. He has a shirt with a cape and
enjoys trying to watch it fly when he’s running and swinging. I try to remind him it’s best to look in the
direction he’s running instead of behind him because he does have a tendency to
run into things.
Our
Cute Kids
Ben
has been really good this week at reminding us to read scriptures and then he
is the first to volunteer to say family prayers.
We’ve
added another big box to our cardboard box town and Ben and Bekah go from
playing in the Batcave, to an elevator and a house.
Zachary
has done his best to wake up from his nap as soon as the older ones to go sleep
and he and I have had some enjoyable one on one time this week. He’s got so much personality. Though I’ll probably regret this statement
later, I do love the face he makes when he gets frustrated that I’m not doing
exactly what he wants when he wants, he’s so dramatic.
Thoughts
For
Family Home Evening we talked about the pioneers and how the children listen to
their parents to stay safe and how the pioneers listened to the Lord and then
how important listening is in everything we do.
I
remember when I was younger the wards used to have Pioneer Day
celebrations. I remember dressing up in
a bonnet and participating in a talent show and another year pulling taffy. Now it just seems like it’s simply a day that
goes without recognition except for maybe singing a few pioneer songs during
the Sundays surrounding it.
Both
sides of our family have pioneers who crossed the plains and I know and have
heard some of the stories many times, but like we have been told frequently in
General Conference, pioneers aren’t only those who crossed the plains, but
those valiantly stand up for Jesus Christ no matter the year of their birth.
So
this Pioneer Day, my thoughts went to my Grandma Lynch (my dad’s mom). At a young age, she was encouraged to marry
who was less than pleasant and made great sacrifices to take care of her three
young children. After she divorced him,
she met my Grandpa Bergquist, had my dad and his younger brother and when my
dad was two, they were introduced to the missionaries and he joined the
church. Due to some of my grandpa’s poor
choices, she found herself once again divorced.
She later met Stan Lynch and shortly after they started seeing each
other informed him that they would not be able to continue their relationship
unless he joined the church.
I
feel like it is that situation that makes her a great pioneer example. The question we each have to ask ourselves
is, how important is the church to us?
What are we willing to sacrifice to sacrifice to remain true to our
covenants? There are so many things in
the world that can pull us away from our knowledge of the true and everlasting
gospel of Jesus Christ. In a CES
Broadcast several years ago, Elder David A Bednar spoke about the iron and the
different groups of people who held onto it as they moved towards the Tree of
Life. He says that the final group,
those who were continually holding fast to the rod, made it to the tree and
never fell away.
In his words, “In verse 30
we read about a third group of people who pressed forward “continually holding
fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the
fruit of the tree.” The key phrase in this verse is continually holding fast to
the rod of iron.
The third group also pressed forward with faith
and conviction; however, there is no indication that they wandered off, fell
into forbidden paths, or were lost. Perhaps this third group of people consistently
read and studied and searched the scriptures. Perhaps it was diligence and
devotion to a seemingly “small and simple [thing]” (Alma 37:6)
that saved the third group from perishing. Perhaps it was “the knowledge of the
Lord” and “the knowledge of the truth” (Alma 23:5, 6)
obtained through faithful study of the scriptures that yielded the spiritual
gift of humility—such that this group of
people “fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree” (1 Nephi 8:30; emphasis added). Perhaps it
was the spiritual nourishment and strength provided by continually “feasting
upon the word of Christ” (2 Nephi 31:20) that enabled this group to
heed not the scorning and mocking of the people in the great and spacious
building (see 1 Nephi 8:33). This is the group you and I
should strive to join.
Nephi’s brothers asked, “What meaneth the rod of
iron which our father saw, that led to the tree?
“And [Nephi] said unto them that it was the word
of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto
it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts
of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to
destruction” (1 Nephi 15:23–24; emphasis added).
What, then, is the difference between clinging
and holding fast to the rod of iron? Let me suggest that holding fast to the iron
rod entails, in large measure, the prayerful, consistent, and earnest use of
the holy scriptures as a sure source of revealed truth and as a reliable guide
for the journey along the strait and narrow path to the tree of life—even to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod
of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the
fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life” (1 Nephi 11:25).
To
conclude my story, my Grandpa Lynch met with the missionaries and soon after
joined the church. Several years later,
before my dad left on his mission, they and their family were sealed in the
temple and they still serve faithfully in the Lord’s church. So thank you Grandma for the example you’ve
set.