Long-Handled Spoons

As illustrated by the following tale, we all sit by a “pot of stew.” A man sought out a respected old sage and said, “O wise one, I would like to know what heaven and hell are like.”

The sage led the man to two doors. He opened one of the doors, and the man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the man’s mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms. Each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The wise man said, “You have seen hell.”

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew that made the man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons strapped to their arms, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The man said, “I don’t understand!”

“It is simple,” said his venerable guide. “It requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves” (author unknown).

Taken from:  Spiritual Nourishment and Long-Handled Spoons

We all have long-handled spoons to deal with in our lives.  They may come in the form of a physical illness or in the silent suffering of emotional illness.  Maybe the heartache of loss makes it difficult to give ourselves the strength to go on, and so we need others with long-handled spoons to feed our aching souls.  Whatever our troubles may be, we have something to offer.  In serving others, we will find ourselves again.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will save his life for my sake shall find it (Matthew 16:25).

Ice Cream Pickle Cake

Today's conversation with my 3-year-old grandson Cohen went something like this:

• Me:  Cohen what do you want for your birthday?
• Cohen:  I want a super hero party.
• Me:  I know, your mama's going to throw you a super hero party isn't she? What super hero are you going to be?
• Cohen:  Well, I like spiders, so I'm going to be spider man.
• Me (clarifying my first question):  What do you want Grandma to get you for your birthday?
• Cohen:  Well . . . I want cake and ice cream.
• Me:  Really, you just want cake and ice cream?
• Cohen:  Yes, that would be good.
• Me:  What kind of cake should Grandma make for you?
• Cohen (very sure of himself):  I think I would like ice cream pickle cake.

This little conversation stuck with me all day.  There is something profound about talking to a very articulate 3-year-old.  Not only did his answers delight me and fill a few minutes of my life with innocent humor, I also recognized that guileless little children have figured out a mantra to live by that most adults have forgotten:  "Keep it simple.  Make it fun."  I think it's we adults that complicate their lives and lead them to believe that everything has to be bigger and better than it was yesterday or the day before or last year.  Think about the memories you have as a child.  The ones I remember most vividly are simple times spent with my family at home--doing the Charleston with my mom or the polka with my dad, lip syncing to the Chipmunks, going on a bear hunt on Thanksgiving, or just watching the Disney movie every Sunday night while Dad pops his family famous popcorn upstairs.

I recently went on a fantastic trip to Disneyland with my sister and her three girls.  I am a self-professed Disneyland fanatic and felt sure my expertise in all things Disneyland would make this the most memorable trip ever for the girls.  I asked one of my nieces what her favorite thing about the trip was, and guess what was number one on her list--swimming in the pool. Amazing!  It's the simple things that make the best memories.  Sometimes we offer Disneyland when they would be satisfied with a swim in the pool!  (This is figurative of course.  Despite this discovery, Disneyland is still my happy place.)

The media is filling our minds with an explosion of new technology, the latest and greatest expensive toys, and Pinterest ideas that will knock your socks off, and out of love and devotion, we make every exhausted effort to give our kids what we think they want.  Sometimes we even feel like we just aren't good enough.  But take it from a wise three-year-old--sometimes a simple super hero party and an ice cream pickle cake will do just fine, because let's be honest, all our family and friends really want and need is for us to put down our own technology and give them our time, attention, and love.  

Now if I can just find a recipe for ice cream pickle cake . . . . . 

Here's the link to a great video:

You Never Know How Much Good You Do

Cohen and Grandma

For the Broken-Hearted

Enough Said

I love this church that I belong to and the comforting, eternal principles I learn from the scriptures and from living prophets.  What would I do without them?!  The following words of inspiration from Thomas S. Monson, a prophet of God and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came over Instagram today just when I needed it most.  Amazing how that happens!  A good reminder that God is mindful of me.  I am so grateful to be able to listen to more words like these on Saturday and Sunday during the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
There are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits.  However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us and to become something different from what we were--better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before.  This should be our purpose--to persevere and endure, yes, but also to become more spiritually refined as we make our way through sunshine and sorrow.  Were it not for challenges to overcome and problems to solve, we would remain much as we are, with little or no progress toward our goal of eternal life.
Enough said.  

Below is a link to one of my new favorite short inspirational videos:
A Shower of Heavenly Blessings

"Believest thou this?"

I am the resurrection, and the life:  he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.  Believest thou this? (John 11:25-26)

What a question!  It is a question I should be asking myself everyday as I wake up to try to "resurrect" all that is good and set aside all that is bad in my life.  Do I believe in the power that Christ has to give me life, not just after I die, but everyday as I live?  Not only will He resurrect us physically, but he can and will resurrect us spiritually if we chose to let Him.  Do I believe it?  Absolutely!  Do I live like I believe it?  Maybe not so absolutely.  It's easy for me to assert to others that Christ has the ability to change hearts that are hardened, to ease life's heavy burdens, and to light darkened souls.  However, there have been times in my life when death is knocking at the door of someone's soul--someone that I care deeply about--and I have to say, I have felt hope's bright flame start to flicker and die out.  At these times, even when all creation around me testifies of the bright hope of spring and the sunlight of a new day, I choose to shroud myself with helplessness.  Why?  Because I am subject to the pain that this life often presses upon us, as if daring us to believe in one man's power to save us.  In those times, I have a choice to make and a question to answer:  Do I believe Christ or not?  In His own words rings a challenge to us all, If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. (John10:37).  No one who has read about His "works" can call into question any of His actions.  He led a life that we should not be ashamed to follow and He gave us hope that we should not be afraid to grasp.

He and His Father have left obvious clues that all will be made right in the world, that "no matter how dark and cold the winters of our lives, spring will always come."  We never question whether or not the daffodils and tulips of spring will pop their heads out of the dry ground each year.  We may not know spring's timetable, but we know it will come.  We see a dry, once over-flowing river bed and do not wonder that one day it will be filled again.  So it is that our hearts, our souls, and our bodies will be renewed because Christ stood up to all that was evil on our behalf and then was resurrected as the glorified Son of God.  We may not know when the hope that we have will be rewarded.  We may not know when we will see our departed loved ones again, but we should not, we cannot, question the inevitability of these blessings.  Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend (Mosiah 4:9, The Book of Mormon).

I echo the words of President Gordon B. Hinckley:  When all is said and done, when all of history is examined, when the deepest depths of the human mind have been explored, nothing is so wonderful, so majestic, so tremendous as this act of grace when the Son of the Almighty, the Prince of His Father's royal household, He who had once spoken as Jehovah, He who had condescended to come to earth as a babe born in Bethlehem, gave His life in ignominy and pain so that all of the sons and daughters of God of all generations of time, every one of whom must die, might walk again and live eternally.  He did for us what none of us could do for ourselves.


Please take time to read the following articles that relate to this topic and that I have quoted from above:

Spring Will Come

The Wondrous and True Story of Christmas

Forgiveness Flour

I heard an amazing talk on Sunday about judging and forgiving.  Too often, we give into our human nature and place one-word labels on the people in our lives--those we know and those we don't.  We label them as "depressed," "anxious," "angry," "selfish," and the list goes on.  The problem with this is that humans are complex beings with a slew of emotional ups and downs, and we might catch them at a bad moment and make a snap, one-word judgment about them.  The fact is that this emotion is only one piece of the puzzle that forms the tapestry of their lives.  Rather than assuming we have all the facts because of the one piece we happen to notice, we should assume the missing pieces.  Only when we know what makes a person tick, can we see them the way that Christ sees them.  Only when we show them His love, His kindness, and His forgiveness, can we feel completely whole and forgiven ourselves.

I am one who has made the mistake of assuming something about a person without seeing the big picture, not just once, but many times, and almost 100% of the time, I find out I am way off base.  I have wasted a lot of time and negative emotion making judgments and then having to backtrack and ask for forgiveness.  I am also guilty of being a grudge-holder.  I hang on to grudges like a security blanket--afraid to let go lest I leave myself vulnerable.  I unfairly place full blame for the dark, begrudging cloud that hangs over my head on the person whom I think put it there, afraid to look at the big picture and realize that I am more to blame for not letting go of its unbearable weight.  I love the following poem about both judgment and forgiveness called "Forgiveness Flour," by Marguerite Stewart.  The poem, along with its beginning and ending explanations, are quoted from a BYU speech called "On Measuring Flour and Forgiveness," by Madison U. Sowell:

The poem, written in the first person, features an unnamed wife who answers her door to find a young woman in shame and seeking flour, which symbolizes forgiveness, to make bread. The poem reads:

When I went to the door, at the whisper of knocking,
I saw Simeon Gantner’s daughter, Kathleen, standing
There, in her shawl and her shame, sent to ask
“Forgiveness Flour” for her bread. “Forgiveness Flour,”
We call it in our corner. If one has erred, one
Is sent to ask for flour of his neighbors. If they loan it
To him, that means he can stay, but if they refuse, he had
Best take himself off. I looked at Kathleen . . .
What a jewel of a daughter, though not much like her
Father, more’s the pity. “I’ll give you flour,” I
Said, and went to measure it. Measuring was the rub.
If I gave too much, neighbors would think I made sin
Easy, but if I gave too little, they would label me
“Close.” While I stood measuring, Joel, my husband
Came in from the mill, a great bag of flour on his
Shoulder, and seeing her there, shrinking in the
Doorway, he tossed the bag at her feet. “Here, take
All of it.” And so she had flour for many loaves,
While I stood measuring.
[Marguerite Stewart, “Forgiveness Flour,” Religious Studies Center Newsletter 7, no. 3 (May 1993): 1]

The phrase “While I stood measuring” characterizes too many of us too much of the time. We metaphorically “measure flour” in an attempt not to be overgenerous in our mercy. At the same time we pray that God will throw a bag of flour at our feet—that is, that he will be boundless in his mercy toward us.

Links on this topic:

On Measuring Flour and Forgiveness

Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light

#Hallelujah—An Easter Message about Jesus Christ