#Instascript

Church yesterday was inspiring. For the third hour of church, (Church is three hours split into three different courses of fun:), I’ve been able to attend Relief Society, another gospel doctrine class which is all the women.

It’s this class where I sit and listen to these spiritual goddesses all around me. I’m completely inspired and humbled by the teacher and women’s comments. I sit quietly sometimes, and try to listen to what the spirit is teaching me. Hard thing to master, and I’m far from there, but it’s an eternal quest to learn how to hear and follow the spirit.

The lesson was on a talk from Ann M. Dibb, called “I know it. I live it. I love it.” You can read it here. Fabulous read. We talked about what ways we could share the gospel with our friends, in simple and non pushy actions. One comment was to not use ‘church slang’ and acronyms in your Facebook status that only LDS members could understand, which made complete sense to me. Instead of ‘ I went to a great fireside this week’, which some people might think ‘roasting marshmallows by a camp fire?’, you could say ‘ Listened to a great church speaker, Sunday devotional’, or something like that, you know?

I remember serving a mission in Florida for the LDS church, and people thought that our Stake Conference was something where we go to eat a lot of steak. See what I mean? So, it’s better when talking about church topics, use simple terms that everyone could understand. 

My friends spoke up about a neat way they are using Instagram for sharing the gospel. On their phones, they will take a screen shot of a passage of sciptures they are reading, or a church talk, and share it, labeling it with the hashtag ‘Instascipt’. I thought to myself, “Not just for missionary purposes, but what a simple way to share a little spiritual sunshine with anyone who needs help to feel closer to the Savior that day.’ They said that anyone is welcome to start sharing their ‘instascript’ pics, and add to the growing collection on Instagram. I quietly thought to myself, “Well, I can do that, and that’s what I’ll start doing.”

I just learned what a hashtag is. It’s basically used in Twitter and Instagram. For Instagram, it’s a way to label your pictures. That way, when people search for something, they can find all the pictures labeled with ‘Instascript’ and other labels. I might start labeling all my food pics I share on there with the hashtag ‘real food’ or something.

So, if you’re on Instagram, or even if you’re not yet, get an Instagram account, and share a picture of something you read in your personal studies. Come join us! Think of it was little drops of goodness, ‘drops of awesome’, and remember that image of a water drop hitting the flat water surface, and the ripples going out to help someone out there.

Here’s my instascript for today. Some beautiful words from Richard G. Scott, a living apostle and very humble man.

A really good story

Here’s a very heartwarming story that I’ve waited a year to share with you all. I started to tell this story, and left it told halfway. I now can continue it for you:)

Let me take you back. Last year, around Christmas, our world came crashing down when Shaun lost his job. This is a trial that I know many others have been through, and I don’t wish this trial on anyone. It’s so hard to see your dear companion, who works hard and is emotionally vested in taking care of his family, lose his job and become very worrisome. Being the mother, I cannot fully understand the husband and provider role as he can, but I can tell it can be stressful to not know how exactly we’re going to pay the bills, house payment, etc. Such a load our husbands bear.

After the income stopped, we had some good lessons to learn. We learned to cut back, to accept help from kind friends and family, and to have faith. That’s the thing you always hear in trials; have faith in the Lord and things will work out. Bottom line is this; you’re still scared. You try to be strong and believing that everything will be okay, but when you can’t see the end of your trial, sometimes it can be extremely worrisome.

Well, the time came to give up our Nissan Armada. Great car, but too costly to own anymore. The day came when the tow truck guy came to repossess it. Emotional day. I calmed Shaun down, and gently said something to the effect of “It’s ok. Let’s let it go”. I told the guy to give us a few minutes to clean it out, and he patiently waited. I tried not to think of the trips we took this good car on, and the good times it provided. The boys were outside playing.

The guy hooked up the car, while the boys watched. Shaun and I tried not to cry as it was slowly raised onto the tow truck. I tried to explain to Ethan that we didn’t need that car anymore, and that we would be okay with a new car.

Ethan rode on his bike in the culdesac following the tow truck for a bit, then stopped and watched it go. I can’t ever forget that picture of him, sitting on his bike, in the street watching. So very hard. I went back to Shaun in the garage and hugged him as hard as I could.

That’s where I left off in that blog post a year ago. Now, here’s the rest of the story.

After the tow truck left, it was not more than one minute when another truck showed up. This time, it was the mail truck, with a letter that needed signing to get. I thought, “Great. Another letter from the bank telling us how behind we are in our house payments.” Yet, when I looked at the letter, it wasn’t a bank letter, but it was written in handwriting. From someone.

I opened it up with Shaun, and it was a card, with a bank envelope inside. We were still trying to dry our eyes from the car repossession crappy experience, when we read the card that said something like ‘Hope this helps, from a friend’. We opened the envelope to find cash. I won’t say exactly how much it was, but it was cash, and a lot of it. As we kept counting out more bills, we were shocked, overcome with gratefulness, and a fresh set of tears.

I remember both of us dropping to our knees in the garage, completely overcome, and offered a prayer of incredible thanks. We also tried to backtrack and think. Now listen up, this is where (when it’s appropriate) it’s a blessing to share your trials openly with others, because you give someone the chance to serve, and they will be incredibly blessed for their service. The Savior has important lessons to teach us on earth, and we have to be willing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable for a moment, to accept help, and for others to reach out and help, learning their own wonderful lessons in the process. I gained a huge testimony of that from this experience.

I want to say it was on a Wednesday that I wrote on Facebook, ‘Shaun lost his job. Heaven help us’. Some dear, wonderful Christ like soul read my status, and acted fast, and their card arrived Saturday. Writing this down tonight makes me so emotional, thinking about the kindness and generosity of that friend. I love not knowing who it is, because that just makes it more magical, you know?

PS: If that wonderful person is reading this now, isn’t this fun for you to read? You get to hear the inside story of your incredibly thoughtful act of service! I just think that’s really neat:)

The money was a soft cushion for us to fall on, as we were trying to get on our feet for the next 4 months of Shaun job hunting. It truly helped. We talked about how much we wanted to be in a financial position to do that for someone, someday. When someone does something so kind for you, it just makes you want to continue that circle of sweet service. We’ll never forget that day when the card arrived.

This last year has been an amazing one. Shaun finally got another job, in a much better workplace for him. The nurses love him there, and he works so hard, always going the extra mile. He always inspires me to do better. Shaun also started school, doing his pre-requisites for nursing. Finally, we started school! So wonderful.

I was blessed with a flexible part time job of working for my friend’s jewelry business, taking pictures of their rings. I have the best bosses in the world, and it’s not much time away from home. When I’m there, I get to listen to my podcasts and online classes, and learn tons while I work. Huge blessing.

When you’re out of work for a bit, you do one thing for a long time; catch up. Constantly trying to get caught up on the bills. Hard. No summer vacation last year, which can be very emotional taxing on one’s soul, when it seems that everyone else gets a fun trip with the family. Last fall, I watched an online class that was streamed live on Creative live. It was Ramit Sethi, some smart, fast talking financial guy. He taught very important and common sense stuff about finances. It sparked something in me. Best thing I learned from that class was automation; having some money automatically taken from your account and transferred to a savings account, each month.

I know, duh, probably a tip that most others know about, but for me, it helped. I thought, ‘next year, we are going on a vacation!’ Yet, it won’t happen if we don’t plan wisely for it. So, I got started with a savings account, and I’m doing the best I can to build our vacation fund. I told myself that whining sucks, and getting cracking into action works. I have to give myself these little pep talks from time to time. Go, me!

So, this is my little warm fuzzy story I’ve waited so long to share. I hope you enjoyed it. Please know that whatever service you do for someone, it blesses their lives tremendously, be it a small or large service act. The Savior wants to mold us and help us become the best we can be, and that requires moving our feet, and thinking of others. I’m so very thankful for that friend who thought of us, and for all the help we received during that hard unemployment trial. I will never forget the things I learned, and hope that this year will be another great year of lessons for us:)

He cares

I had a neat, little lesson learning experience this weekend. I was going by myself to the Post office to deliver photo orders. As I got out of the car, I had the distinct prompting to ‘check for keys’. Like an idiot, I assumed that I had them in my purse, and that there was nothing to worry about. I locked the car, shut the door, and promptly locked my keys in the car.

I realized this as I was inside paying for my packages. As I dug around in my purse searching for keys, I thought to myself, ‘Oh, man, that was the spirit prompting me. Why didn’t I listen?’ I laughed at myself going back to the car, peering in the window, and seeing the keys inside.

I called Shaun, and started walking towards the library. It was a beautiful day, and I really didn’t have far to walk. I looked at the trees, and the gorgeous clouds surrounding the brown mountains that are growing on me. (Not a fan of desert beauty, but it’s fun to find beauty in everything. At least, I’m trying:)

I was so thankful that my legs worked, I could walk far, and my body was in amazing shape to do so. For that short walk, I had time to reflect on how many things I was blessed with.

I though about Heavenly Father, and how He cares so much about his children. He cares about the little things in our lives, and wants to help us always. Even something as small as locking your keys in the car. I mean, that’s not a huge thing in the eternal perspective, but it matters to Him. It’s so neat to be reminded about that.

Lesson I learned; when the spirit prompts you to do something, for heaven’s sake, don’t assume you’re smart and know all;  just act on the dang prompting!