Our Family Christmas Party 2009

Friday, December 18 was the night of the family Christmas party. We ordered a 6' sub from Ned's, and met at 5:00 at the northeast corner of the Phoenix Zoo parking lot. We easily located a picnic pavillion (the park was empty) and set up for dinner. Everyone was there except Emily's family who had to spend Christmas in Utah this year. After we had all eaten, we walked over to the Zoo Lights show. It was beautiful, and the kids really loved it, especially the talking giraffe. Almost all the children rode the carousel before we left the zoo, then we went to Cynthia's. We had Owen and Adam in the back seat of our car on the way back to Mesa. Owen said, excitedly, "Adam! Wasn't that fun? The zoo was so cool! But now we're going to the funnest part - eating donuts!" Owen told a story about two little boys named Owen and Adam who were best buddies who played together and had sword fights.

We all gathered together at Chris and Cynthia's place for hot chocolate and donuts. We passed out the Christmas presents and visited. It was a low-key evening; no schedule to adhere to, no sky-high expectations, just being around the people I love the best in the world. What more could I want for Christmas?

How's that again?

I recently was a judge in the annual VFW Patriot's Pen essay contest for grades 6-8. This year the topic was "Honoring our Heroes." Here are some sentences that I really got a kick out of.

"If stuff was mandatory everyone would do it so that's another way we can but its not all about fun stuff because I am sure that the war wasn't fun for our courage's men that fought there I think that everyone should have a flag in the yard."

"I don't know about this holiday (July 4th) but every time it comes around I feel really happy."

"One of them is the days that we have parades for the 4th of July. It gives thanks for the winning of the Civil War."

"Guns and mustaches do not make up a hero."

"When they come home is the best time to honor them would be when they come home."

"They (veterans) are the freedom fighters and fight for us. They are the bravest in the whole world, the whole universe, the whole galaxy. They will keep on fighting until death, until the end of the human race."

And my favorite:
"There sacrifice not to be in vane. Supporting our troop, the sacrifice not to be chosen. It's a duty and they gladly serve are country. They are ones who leave a reality stable and good society, to go to the farthest outreached of the world."

Come again? Last year one of the kids wrote that his grandfather had been "a tailgater on an air plan."

But I WANT it!

I have been thinking a lot recently about a story told by Elder D. Todd Christofferson at October conference.

An incredulous female friend asked a young adult woman, committed to living the law of chastity, how it was possible that she had never “slept with anybody.” “Don’t you want to?” the friend asked. The young woman thought: “The question intrigued me, because it was so utterly beside the point. . . . Mere wanting is hardly a proper guide for moral conduct.”

As we look around at the world today, how many troubles do we see that are the result of people expecting to get what they want? The recent news reports of the world's greatest golfer are a good example of people not knowing how to deny themselves of what they want. In my work, I deal every day with people who demand that the Town buy something we cannot afford, simply because those people want it. But wanting something does not mean you should get it.

I believe that one of the worst things parents can do for their children's moral development is to give them whatever they want. Those children will grow up believing that they are entitled to have whatever they want, simply because they want it. At the same time, they do not value what they receive, because they did not have to earn it. They never learn to tell themselves, "No. I can't have it. I can't afford it." As parents, we want to give our children what we didn't have when we were growing up, but we need to be careful to give them what we did have, too.

Our whole society is groaning under the weight of people who think they should have whatever they want, and they think other people owe it to them. Look at all the people who bought way more home than they could afford, because they wanted a spacious home - because everyone else had one. Living beyond your means is a sign of moral failure.

I am sure this posting will raise some eyebrows, but that is ok. Raising eyebrows lets more light in when we are examining ourselves.

On My Honor...

I received some very exciting news this week. I am being awarded the Silver Beaver by the Grand Canyon Council of the Boy Scouts of America. This is the highest award a Council can give, and I can hardly believe I was nominated, much less chosen! I will actually be presented the award in January, but they let me know now. When I think of the Silver Beavers I know, including my father-in-law, I am humbled to think I have been admitted to this club.

I love the Boy Scouts of America. It has been an honor for me to work with them in shaping the lives of young men. This is the last remaining organization I can think of, outside the church, that stresses personal character and integrity, and that teaches young men to make moral decisions.

I wasn't much of a Scout when I was a Scout. I was scrawny and didn't really have the vision of the whole thing. I never made Eagle (I had to settle for eternal Life!), but I have been a dedicated Scouter ever since catching the vision at Woodbadge in 1998. That experience, along with all the other Scouting experiences I have had as an adult (Woodbadge staff, Philmont, Order of the Arrow), changed my life for the better, and hopefully for good. It is easy to be of service to a cause you really believe in. Thank you, Boy Scouts of America, for what you have done for America's youth for the last 100 years, and for this old man in the last 12!

Hold on!

This morning our Stake President drew this exponential curve on the blackboard in our Priesthood leadership meeting. He asked us where we thought we were on that curve, and most of us said we were somewhere around the area I have circled below:

I agree. The rate of the growth of evil in this world is increasing, and Satan is parading things around as "normal" that were not even talked about in polite company just a couple of years ago. Little children are being exposed to evil in ways my generation can hardly comprehend.

When we visited Emily and the kids last September, we spent one morning at the park. They have a merry-go-round there. I have always enjoyed those things.

On a merry-go-round, if you are out at the edge of the toy while it is spinning around, you are going to feel a LOT of centrifugal force, trying to push you off. The only safe place to stand on that toy while it is spinning is right in the center. Any distance from the center increases the force pushing you off.

That is how it is in the world today. If we are not centered, we will not be able to stand the forces that are coming. The center is Christ, and the best place to stand to stay close to Him is the Temple. We simply must spend more time there if we and our family are going to stand. We need to make our homes like the temple - free of the noise and confusion and distraction of the world, free of the influences of evil. So much is at stake. I hope everyone in my family will renew their efforts to hold to the Center (Christ) for safety.

We want the spirit in our home...

We had a wonderful adult session of our Stake conference this afternoon. Pres. Milt Jensen told a story about how his wife disciplined their children that I thought was just too good to forget. I wanted to pass it along.

When their children would misbehave, instead of grounding them for life, Sis. Jensen would say, "You know, we want the spirit in our home. It wouldn't be right to invite people into our home to visit or play if we didn't have the spirit in our home. So it is important that you learn how to play together (or whatever it was) so that the spirit can be in our home again." I thought that was really a great thing to say. Teach the little ones that the things they do influence the spirit in their home, and make friend visits contingent on the spirit being in the home.

Ours was not a perfect family; there were many times I dropped the ball in our family having prayer together, or reading the scriptures together. But we succeeded more often than we failed, I believe. I believe that every generation tries to give their children a better life than they had; to give their children what they didn't have. It is really important, however, that parents give their children what they DID have - a home with the spirit of God in it. Reading the scriptures together every day, praying together every day - these are vital factors in building a family that lasts. We want our family, all of it, to be together forever. That is how it is done.

Another Friend Found!

This picture was taken in August, 1970 when I was in the Language Training Mission (LTM) in Provo. The Stuttgart District was a unified group of guys, half going to Munich, half going to Berlin, working hard to learn German.

Last Saturday we were in Albuquerque for a wedding when I noticed a man in the group that looked really familiar to me. I couldn't think of where I knew him from, but I thought his name was Rod. I asked Jan if she knew him, and she said she had never seen him before. I was really puzzled.

After the wedding, I walked up to him and asked him if I looked familiar. He said no. I told him my name, and he said the name was familiar to him. His name was Rod Williamson. We talked for a couple of minutes before we figured out where we knew each other from. We were both in the Stuttgart District in the LTM 39 years ago! Neither of us had even thought of the other one in all that time. He is the third missionary from the left; I am the fourth one from the right. He went to Berlin.

We had a good time talking to each other after the wedding. He is a retired scientist from Sandia Labs in New Mexico. I invited him to stay with us if we are ever in town; he said we would always have a place to stay when we are in Albuquerque. I was amazed that I could remember his face after all this time. I showed the picture to Jan, and she couldn't pick out which one he was.

Life is pretty amazing sometimes. How fun to reconnect with old friends.