Carpe Diem

A short collection of inspirational quotes from those much wiser than I am...

"Act now, 

so that a thousand years from now, 

when you look back at this moment, 

you can say this was a moment that mattered--

this was a day of determination." 

                                       - Neal A. Maxwell

"Some day, in the years to come, you will be                           in that day of your supreme sorrow or temptation,

wrestling with the great temptation,                                           you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer.

or trembling under the great sorrow of your life.                  Character cannot be made except

But the real struggle is here, now...                                       by a steady, long continued process."

Now it is being decided whether,

-Phillip Brooks, American Episcopal Bishop of Trinity Church in Boston, MA

                                               Lyricist of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” 

“Opportunity is missed by most people 

because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas Edison

 

“It all matters… That someone turns out the lamp, 

                                picks up the wind-blown wrapper, 

says hello to the invalid,                          pays at the unattended lot, 

             listens to the repeated tale, 

                                                     folds the abandoned laundry, 

       plays the game fairly, 

                             tells the story honestly… 

goes first,                         goes last,                         chooses the small portion, 

             teaches the child,           tends to the dying, 

                            comforts the grieving, 

                                                           removes the splinter, 

wipes the tear,                directs the lost, 

                  touches the lonely, 

                                                                  is the whole thing.   

What is most beautiful is least acknowledged.   

                          What is worth dying for is barely noticed.”   

                                                       - Laura McBride from We Are Called to Rise

 

                                                

Office Chair Redo

A few days ago, I decided to move an office chair down to my son's bedroom  for use at his desk down there.  Since his bedroom is in the basement, I decided that the current black color of the chair was too dark for his room.  So, I concluded that I should recover the seat and spray paint the plastic back to make it a lighter color.

 In college, I worked in an upholstery shop on the campus of my university.  We recovered a lot of office chairs from offices and computer labs around campus, and I had a chance to personally do a few while I was there.  So I was fairly confident that I could be successful recovering a chair for my son.  Recovering an office chair is easier than you might think.  You just need to know a couple of things and to have the right tools.

The first thing I did was to gather a few tools.  To take apart the chair, I used a hex key for the bolts (sometimes all you need is a screwdriver) as well as a flathead screwdriver and a pair of pliers to take out the staples.  Instead of a flathead screwdriver, you can use a specialized upholstery staple remover tool.  It is definitely easier than using a screwdriver, and probably fewer staples will fly across the room when you pry them up.  However, I don't have a specialized tool and didn't want to buy one since I don't know how soon I will ever need one again.

So the first step to take apart the chair was to turn it over and take the bottom and back off by unscrewing the bolts with the hex key.  On this particular chair, I was left with three separate pieces: the base, the back, and the seat of the chair.  I carefully saved the bolts and hex key in a safe place so they would be there when I put the chair back together.  There are few things as frustrating as being almost finished with a project and not being able to find the pieces you need to put the thing back together.

Once the seat was apart from the rest of the chair, I started taking out the staples.  I used the head of my screwdriver to pry up the staples, and I usually had to pull them the rest of the way out with my pliers.

The first piece of fabric I removed was the black piece that basically serves to cover the raw ends of the upholstery fabric.  I intended to reuse this fabric, so I put it aside to save.  In the upholstery shop where I worked, we usually saved this piece for reuse.  On my chair, there were holes already in the fabric where the bolts went through the fabric.  If I wanted to put another piece of fabric for the bottom, I would have saved the piece any way as a template of where to put the holes.

The next step was to take the upholstery fabric off the seat.  I once again pried the staples up and pulled them out.  Now I had all the fabric taken off my seat piece.

Now I was ready to cut a piece of fabric to recover the seat.  For the last part of the project, the tools I used were a pencil, a pair of fabric scissors, a staple gun ( you can use a power one, but I didn't), a hammer, and the hex key to put the bolts back in. 

I used the old piece of fabric as a rough template.  I just drew around the old piece of fabric, making my new piece of fabric a bit bigger than the old one.  For an office chair, I have learned that you usually want to cut a bigger piece of fabric than you will need.  It is always pretty easy to cut off excess fabric.  Adding more fabric if you need it is pretty much  impossible.  (For some other upholstery projects, you need to cut the exact shape and size of fabric you need because you will have to sew it to other pieces.  But with office chairs, there is usually only one piece, so if you cut extra, you will be better off.)

Sometimes at the upholstery shop, we would add some batting to the chair at this stage.  The padding on this particular chair wasn't very worn down, so I didn't do that for this project.  So, at this point, I began to staple the fabric to the chair.  When you staple fabric you want to be sure to pull the fabric fairly tight.  Fabric stretches over time, so you want to pull it kind of tight---not so tight that the staples will tear the fabric when you sit down, but tight enough to account for the fabric stretching so that you don't get sagging and folds in your chair seat down the road. 

So, I first put in two staples to anchor the fabric from front to back on the seat.  On this chair, I used a striped fabric.  It was important to make sure the stripes were running straight down the seat, so I marked the middle of the wood and made sure the same stripe ran all the way from one mark to the other.  You also want to be aware which side of the fabric is up.  Most fabrics have a right side and a wrong side, and sometimes when someone wasn't paying attention, they put quite a few staples in for realizing the fabric was going to end up inside out.

The next thing to do was to put in two more staples to anchor each of the sides where they should be.  At this point, my fabric was anchored in place, and I began to staple it on.  I was taught to start from the staples you have already put in and work toward a corner.  That way, since the corner is rounded, you can gently pull the fabric into the place you need it be to make sure you don't have a giant fold at the corner.  It's usually not possible to eliminate every fold, but you want to keep it fold-free as much as possible.  So I worked towards each corner from each of the sides until I finally had my fabric secured to my seat.  (Another quick note: you want to leave room for the staples you'll put in the other piece of fabric between your staples on this piece of fabric and the edge of the wood.) 

I had a lot of extra fabric, so I trimmed about a half an inch away from the staples.  It turned out looking pretty good.

The next step was to put my black piece of fabric with the bolt holes in it back on the bottom of the seat.  I basically used the same process as before, anchoring it in place on all four sides first before putting the rest of the staples in.  You want to cover all the raw edges and all your previous staples.  This time, I didn't necessarily have to work toward each corner.  So now, my seat was completely recovered.

I decided to spray paint the back of the chair to make it match the new fabric better.  Then, I put the back and base back onto the seats.  (How glad am I that I put all the bolts and the hex key in a safe place?)

And my chair was done and ready for its photo shoot.

I hope this gives you the confidence to go recover your own chair if you want!

A Closer Look

  A Closer Look

             

             My personal scripture study recently has focused primarily on following the topical guide to scriptures about Jesus Christ. I started off well and really enjoyed the first week or so of study, but I have to admit that after a few weeks I started asking myself questions like, “Well isn’t everything in the scriptures about Jesus Christ in one way or another? Maybe I’ll just switch back to my old habit of just reading through. No need to search by topic.” I decided to ride it out though, and this week I have felt happy as I continue to study different aspects of our Savior’s character, life, and mission.

            I think we can become accustomed to thinking about the Savior in a very certain way: as the One who rescues us from sin, or the Perfect Example.

 The topical guide holds more than fifteen pages of scriptural references to the name Jesus Christ, including such subheadings as Davidic Descent of; Only Begotten Son; Power of; and Teaching, Mode of. Having the topical guide as a resource is helpful to me.

Called to Serve

“…he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” Matt. 23:11

I suppose I should count the actual number of times this counsel appears in scripture, but suffice it to say, it is a lot.  I wonder if, not only is something very important (obviously) that is repeated in scripture, but it is also one of those lessons that bears repeating because our understanding of it will grow each time. Each time we read and ponder it, each time we strive to apply it.

I love this counsel, and I think, I hope, I’ve made great strides in applying it in my own life, but I think there are still those times, and probably will be many more to come, when this counsel will continue to unfold before me line upon line, and precept upon precept; here a little and there a little.  One of those times happened just this morning.

The Freckled Canvas

We held our little ward troop’s pinewood derby this past Tuesday.  It was the last one I’ll be involved in as a parent. As we prepared for the pinewood derby, I thought about how I could serve the little scouts.  It became apparent in my ponderings that I wanted to be sure each scout felt the joy of accomplishment at the derby, so I began to work on an idea to honor each scout and their hard work on their cars no matter their speed.

I found an idea on pinterest of making “medals” from wood.  We just happened to have some large branches left in our backyard from a dead birch tree and I figured this would be perfect.  My husband used his chop saw to cut little discs from a perfectly sized branch and then suggested I attached ribbons with his staple gun, a suggestion that proved much quicker and easier than hot glue.  We attached some blue and gold ribbon, and I found that writing on them with first a blue marker and then a finer tipped gold marker produced a beautiful result. 

 

I wish I would have thought to take a picture of all the finished medals, but you get the idea.  We waited until the event so we could make the awards fun and based on the cars the boys brought.  We gave out "Wildest" to a car painted with tiger stripes, "Most Invisible" to an impossibly skinny car painted a sleek black, "Most Heroic" to a police car.  You get the idea.

The medals were a hit.  The boys seemed to love them, and well, you might think my example and story end here…patting myself on the back.  Yep, I admit it, I was patting myself on the back for a job well done and service faithfully rendered.  And I guess probably a little of that might even be warranted.  I don’t want to take away from this idea, or suggest I shouldn’t have been hoping to give each boy a special night.  I still think it was a great idea.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to let each boy know his work and creativity was recognized.

But this morning as I was thinking about what I should blog about and wondering if these pinewood derby medals that turned out so well would be a good idea, the thought came into my head, “Do you think you are the only one who rendered service that night?  Do you think you were the greatest because of the particular service rendered that night?”  And I realized that although I started out well, I was in danger of finishing poorly. It took me until this morning to really begin to realize that although it was a good service, I was not really recognizing in my heart all those who gave of themselves that night.  Not that I was ungrateful, just taking it all for granted.  And as I realized that, I began to see other opportunities for service that had presented themselves to me that night that I had missed.

So this morning I am more grateful for the lady who took the time to post this idea on pinterest, for my husband’s help in making the medals, for the beautiful ladies who helped me decide what would make a good title for each award—couldn’t have done it without several creative voices that night, for the lovely woman who helped me write the words on each medal, for the cubmaster who keeps coming to help out even though he is actually not the cubmaster anymore (we don’t currently have one), for the committee chairwoman for scheduling and planning so many details of the night and for her husband for donating the track as well as coming to set it up and take it down, for the den leaders who do so much every week and came early to decorate, and the committee member who went above the call of duty to make sure the decorating went off successfully.  I am correcting my omission by thanking them today. 

As for the service opportunities, what were they you may ask.  Well, they were all small.  Sincerely thanking these individuals that night would have been a good start and taken only a few seconds each.  If I had been less self aware and more aware of others, I may have remembered that one boy had brought an extra car for a friend that never showed, and one had come without a car because he thought he wouldn’t have fun building or racing it but was regretting that decision by the end of the night.  I would have thought to ask about a missing leader and let her know I was thinking of her right then, yet another thing I am correcting later.  The list goes on, but you get the idea.

I guess my lesson was not that my service wasn’t grand or special enough, nor that I should constantly beat myself up for missed opportunities.  Instead, I am more grateful for the opportunity I had to give love to others to begin with, and likewise, I am grateful for the loving counsel of my Heavenly Father, though the promptings of the Holy Ghost this morning to continue in the path I chose.  The counsel to realize that if I have stopped along that path of service at some point to congratulate myself on a job well done and to think I am indeed rising to greatness, well it is in that moment that I am probably missing some of those blessed, joyful opportunities to serve more, to love more, and to have my heart filled more completely and more abundantly with love. 

An Oasis in the Desert

My husband and I live in the desert.  For a long time we thought we would be blessed to move to somewhere green, beautiful, somewhat more wet, as my husband says "somewhere better than here". For at least the time being though, that is not the Lord's plan for us and so we have been striving to create our own little oasis in the desert.  Just as a disclaimer, pretty much the only thing that I have kept alive in my entire life are my children, everything else dies under my care or has to be given away (short stints with animals).  I simply forget to water everything...but over the last year since we bought our house, my husband has been teaching me (and doing most of the watering) how to keep plants alive. Last year we moved into our house, and this is the loveliness that we started out with.  I wish I could find the rest of the pictures that I took because it would give you a true picture of what we were working with, but this will at least give a vague idea of what our backyard looked like.  Basically this, but more and everywhere....

It's hard to make out, but that is a strange patch of bamboo in the back in the planter that we transplanted and while we were transplanting that, we found green onions mixed in with the bamboo.  Strange, but true.  But other than that, there was a lemon tree, a jujube tree, and weeds in our backyard.  So over the last year we weeded, transplanted both the jujube tree and all the bamboo, as well as transplanting grass from a friend's yard (they put rock in) into our backyard. We also planted some climbing jasmine (which I didn't take pictures of because this post will already have a kind of picture overload).

In the shade of the lemon tree we planted a grape vine last year that looks like it will be giving us grapes this year if we can figure out how to keep bugs and birds from eating all of them once they start to get bigger.  The instructions for planting the grape vine said full sunlight, but I was skeptical that was true of Vegas so I planted it so that it gets afternoon shade.  This is a picture of the beginnings of some clusters that we started seeing about a week ago.

We also planted strawberries in the shade of the lemon tree which have had many flowers over the last year, but that we have only gotten to one strawberry before the bugs or birds ate them.  The strawberries have been really tiny though.  We also planted this watermelon plant last year (accidental dropping of seeds by my kids that I covered with dirt and thought oh well if it works it works) and we got one small watermelon off of that big, long vine..  This year we planted a couple of watermelon plants and a couple of pumpkin plants in the same spot.  We're excited to see whether they grow or not.  We also plan on doing a fall planting of both to see which fares better in our weather.

Next to the jujube tree we planted a raspberry bush...plant? and are excited to see how that fares, although I am very positive we won't see any fruit until at least next year.

And on the opposite side of the jujube we planted another grape vine which is actually in full afternoon sun so we will see which one of the two grape vines fares better, full afternoon sun or no afternoon sun.  We also planted onions, beans, and peas in the shade of the jujube tree.

In these cool bucket planters we tried some summer squash, broccoli, cilantro, and green onions.  So far we have had summer squash and broccoli show up.  Although I have to admit that if I had planted broccoli in the big backyard garden I would have thought they were weeds instead of plants and pulled them out.  

And finally, this is what our bougainvillea looked like in our front yard, but it didn't work where we had put it so we transplanted it to the backyard while it still looked dead after winter killed off all of the leaves.  I will keep you posted on whether it actually lives through the transplantation.  

Basically this is our test year, see what grows and what doesn't, what works and what doesn't.  I will keep you posted on how our little oasis is doing and if everything actually pokes its head up out of the ground or if there are some things that we never end up seeing at all.  

The Gift of Not Knowing It All

The Gift of Not Knowing It All
written by Jeanette Flake

There is a gift inherent in experiencing life in this world.  It is a beautiful gift. 

But like most beautiful gifts, family or marriage or even personal freedom, we sometimes take it for granted or even resent it and wish we could be free from its constraints. 

Before this life, we had progressed as far as we could in our premortal circumstances.  We lived with Our Heavenly Father and knew for certain of his reality.  We had been taught the truths of eternity, and in that existence, with our Father looking over our shoulders, we chose according to the eternal truths he had taught us.  But like any good father, He knew that this existence could only take us so far.  We needed to learn eternal truth, not just in theory with Him overseeing all of our choices.  We needed to learn it all in a way that we could appreciate those truths for themselves and not just because this Most Powerful and Most Wise Being in the Universe had told us to live by them.

In essence, like a university student studying science, we had completed our "lecture" class and were entering the "lab" phase of learning.  But unlike lab classes in universities, Our Father gave us the incomparable gift of the veil.  As we entered our lab class, we would pass through a veil and forget Our Father and our previous existence and the great power He possesses.  He knew that if we entered our lab class with all the answers, we could never grow to appreciate those truths in the same way we could if we were free to experience things for the "first time" as it were and form our own conclusions.  We would experience life free of all the implications of prior knowledge and eternal justice.  Part of the gift of agency was Father letting us forget and have to relearn for ourselves what he had already taught us in theory.

We had completed our lecture class and were entering the lab phase of learning.

Every day, we are observers
of the effects of the different ways to live.

Whether we would choose to commit sin ourselves or not (and we inevitably will), we have been given the gift of living in a world where people choose to commit sins.  Every day, we are observers of the effects of the different ways to live.  We see what happens when people are selfish and seek for power through oppression of others.  We see the effects of addictions and poverty and ignorance.  As we see these scenes played out before us, and through the gift of forgetting, we are able to come to conclusions about what is the right without any preconceived prejudices.  We begin to appreciate the commandments for their own inherent value and not just in terms of obeying because we know how powerful God is and that we face eternal punishment if we don't live right.  The fact that we don't and can't know everything right now is a great gift.  It is what allows us to actually become a good person, rather than just acting the part because God is right there waiting to mete out eternal punishment if we don't.  By discovering for ourselves, the eternal truths and principles actually become part of ourselves instead of just being an "I do this because God told me to" type of a thing.

The fact that we don't and can't know everything right now is a great gift.  It is what allows us to actually become a good person,
rather than just acting the part.

Because of this gift of allowing us to learn for ourselves, not everything will make sense all at once.  Learning anything worthwhile is a process that takes time, and if God simply handed us all the answers, we would not be able to go through the process of discovery that changes our very beings into what He is.  It's not that he never wants us to know the answers, it's that he knows that telling us everything right now will take away the very experiences that exalt and change us into the type of Celestial Beings that he is.

So, that's why sometimes things don't make sense.  He doesn't prove archaeologists wrong when they dispute details of the Book of Mormon.  He doesn't give us a list all the reasons we were given our trials and what he wants us to learn from them.  He doesn't even explain all his commandments right away.  If he spoon-fed us the answers to all of our questions and doubts, it would eliminate the need to question, wonder, learn, discover, and ultimately become better.  We were already good enough to choose good when all the answers were given to us.  We have to now become something more.

If he spoon-fed us the answers, it would eliminate the need to question, wonder, learn, discover, and ultimately become better.

When we're frustrated with the things we feel we need answers to, I see Him as being in the position I was in while I was teaching my second son to read.  As a 2-year-old, this precocious son would come to me in tears over the fact that he couldn't read.  Like any good parent, I started to teach him.  For a while he was patient as he repeated the names of letters and their sounds.  At some point in the whole process, he became discouraged and reiterated to me the fact that he wanted to learn to read not to recite letter sounds. Although I sympathized with his impatience, I tried over and over again to explain that I was teaching him to read, that this was the process by which he would learn.  He wanted me to teach him words when I knew that he would never be very good at reading words if he had to memorize each and every word instead of learning the principles of phonics so that he would have the skills to read more than just the several words he had memorized.  I was teaching him to read as fast as I could to have it be really effective.

I see Heavenly Father as being in the same position.  I think He fully appreciates that sometimes we are frustrated by the limited amount of our own knowledge about things we would like to know.  I think He hurts for us when we want to know more and when we get impatient that more knowledge is slow in coming at times.  I think He weeps for our tears over the gap between what we now know and what we would like to know.  But like parents taking their child to get immunizations, He knows that what will hurt us in this moment is less painful than the alternative. 

Like parents taking their child to get immunizations, He knows that what will hurt us in this moment is less painful than the alternative. 

At my own moments of frustration at the slowness of the learning process, when I am ready to quit and thinking how easy and comfortable it would be if I could just not have to live by restrictive commandments when I'm not 100% sure that I'm even heading in the right direction, I feel Him telling me, "I'm teaching you just as fast as I can.  I can't teach you this so that you really, truly KNOW it any faster than this."

I still have those times where I'm discouraged and thinking how much easier it would be to just scrap it all.  But I have come to appreciate the gift of learning and discovering things on my own.  And I have faith that the process produces desirable results.  I may not know everything yet.  But I know enough to discern light from darkness, clarity from confusion, and lies from truth.  I know the Gospel is true, not because I have all the answers, but because I can't discount all the things I do know.  One of the most important of these is that living the principles makes me happier than not living them.  I recognize their value, and I can't discount that without lying.  I don't know everything.  But I know enough.

I can't discount all the things
I do know. . .  Living the principles
of the gospel makes me happier
than not living them. . . I recognize their value.

I don't know everything.  

But I know enough.

What You See is What You Get! See Perspective

           

            A few years ago, Norm and I went hiking together. We wanted our picture taken on the trail, and an obliging tourist stopped and snapped this photo of us. I have since thought about this picture on a few different occasions, and the insight that it gives to me. I am fascinated that photography, which subjects the artist to only using true objects in its surroundings (barring the use of photo editing software, which this picture does NOT have), can make a subject appear to be something inaccurate. (If you’ve never seen me before, how tall would you guess that I am. How tall is my husband?) I find it interesting that even with the most accurate tools, sometimes things can be portrayed according to what the artist wants us to see. I did not think about the very nice camera hanging around the neck of this foreign tourist until later, and still do not know to whom I am indebted for this picture that has caused me such reflection, but I have come to the conclusion that he was no amateur and his rendering was no accident. I am thankful that this picture came with no conclusions attached because it is a picture of me. What a blessing it is to interact with a stranger on the trail, and see what he sees for a moment in time.

"A Bumper Crop"

"Even if you cannot always see that silver lining on your clouds, God can, for He is the very source of the light you seek. He does love you, and He knows your fears. He hears your prayers. He is your Heavenly Father, and surely He matches with His own the tears His children shed." - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

A memory from my aunt about my grandpa.  I weep every time I read this.  My grandpa was/is one of the great ones.  These are her words:

"I was raised in a pristine little valley nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  My father was a farmer who raised alfalfa and wheat... and kids!  There were 5 of us.  Even as little children we knew certain things about farmers and farms.  We knew farmers were strong, and handsome, and could make their kids laugh with pure glee, and that they were very good dancers, because my dad was all those things.  We also knew farmers had a love of the earth that was deep and respectful, and a connection to it that not everyone had, a connection that was deeply spiritual.

"At an early age we knew a couple of other 'farm facts.'  We knew that a 'bumper crop' was the kind of crop that farmers pray for and work for every season, but that rarely comes along.  But one summer, when I was still quite young, the talk around the table among the adults of the family all started to center around 'Bill's bumper crop of wheat.'  It was tall and golden and thick.  Even as a child I was enchanted with the beauty of this field of gold, swaying in the summer breeze.  We children would run up to the field bare-foot and just stand and watch it sway, with the comfort of our dad's tractor motor off in the distance.

"That summer my mother was working on her degree at Brigham Young University in Provo.  So while Daddy worked in the fields, we would clean the house, play every kind of outdoor game 5 energetic children could come up with, run up to the field to catch a glimpse of Daddy, run back to the house, make a batch of fudge (whose consistent results is yet another story!!!) and clean the house again before evening came and Daddy came in from the fields.  It was a good summer.  One filled with contentment and so much pleasure, part of it because we knew our hard-working dad's efforts were paying off, and that Heavenly Father was seeing to it that he was getting a true bumper crop.

"But there is another 'farm fact' that farmers' children learn very early, the danger of big, billowing, black clouds that form in a late summer sky and rumble toward the valley from a southwestern direction toward the north.  They only hold one thing: hail.

"It was getting late one afternoon in mid-August when one of us happened to look toward the southwest and saw the clouds.  Soon all of us had stopped our play and stood like little statues in the front yard, praying those clouds away from our dad's crop.  But they were moving fast and in just a few minutes they were right over head.  We had run into the safety of the house, and climbed on anything we could to watch the storm from the safety of the kitchen window.  Five little noses pressed against the windowpanes as they started to fog up, the air had gotten so cold outside.  We stood in silent disbelief as we watched huge hailstones pound across the ground in their fury, and soon everything was white.  None of us dared move to the windows in the back of the house to see what had happened in the field.  In a matter of minutes the storm had wreaked its havoc and had moved on toward the north.  And still we stood in open-mouthed disbelief.  In just a moment we saw our dad's truck pull into the driveway, covered with inches of white hailstones.  We saw him climb out of the cab, glance up at the window and see his five little kids with their noses plastered to the glass.  He ran his hand along the cab of the truck, formed a 'snowball' and tossed it gently at the window and beckoned us outside to play with him.  With the naive innocence of little children, we scampered out and threw a few snowballs back and forth at him and each other.  After a time he looked at us, heaved a sigh, and said, 'Well, there's not much work to do around here for the next few days.  How would you like to go to Provo H. Utah and visit your mother?' (I guess the 'H.' stood for Hunter!)  Childish shouts of joy at the promise of an adventure gave him our answer but as we followed him into the house and filed into our bedroom, through his closed bedroom door we heard our dad break down and cry.

"Kids have lots of experiences growing up, but only a few experiences carry with them lessons that shape them with eternal depth.  This is one for me... for 4 other kids, in fact.  My dad taught me truths about godly characteristics from which, even now, I am still learning.  As I look at my brother and sisters, our children, and our children's children, I find myself hoping that Daddy knows that he really did grow a bumper crop that year.  Because of his deeply profound example, we five children hope that we are passing the same seeds on to our children, and they to theirs."

"The history of the Church in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, is replete with the experiences of those who have struggled and yet who have remained steadfast and of good cheer as they have made the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of their lives. This attitude is what will pull us through whatever comes our way. It will not remove our troubles from us but rather will enable us to face our challenges, to meet them head on, and to emerge victorious." - Pres. Thomas S. Monson