Peace

I have been accused of not knowing what makes people happy. I have been told that happiness is relative and what makes one person happy doesn’t necessarily make another happy. I absolutely believe that true happiness only comes through living the gospel and keeping the commandments. Over the course of my life (a very long one according to my children), I’ve learned a simple truth: keeping the commandments makes me happy and breaking the commandments makes me sad. I’ve experimented enough to know this is true.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that happiness is relative. After all, Satan is the great imitator and perhaps he can mimic happiness so effectively that it’s difficult to discern that some “happy” feelings are actually coming from Satan in his attempt to mislead us.

How do we know if we’re truly happy or merely lulled into thinking so? Perhaps, we need to consider our happiness as it relates to peace. In 1 Nephi 20:22 it says, “ . . . there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” I think that sums it up.
Peace cannot come to those who are breaking the commandments. Maybe they are “happy” in their own definition of the term, but peace escapes those who choose to defy God and his laws.

A difference exists between satisfaction/pleasure/enjoyment and joy/peace. Imagine an enormous hot fudge sundae. Several of your favorite ice cream scoops swim in decadent hot fudge topped with whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. As each bite glides across your tongue and slides down your throat your pleasure and enjoyment increase.

Now compare that to walking into the temple. As soon as you enter the front door, you can feel the peace. Sitting in the celestial room, you feel wrapped in love. Joy washes over you like a gentle wave while a calm that’s hard to duplicate outside of the temple settles on you. Do you feel the same way you did when you ate the hot fudge sundae?

One brings you pleasure and satisfaction, both superficial feelings. The other brings you a deep, soul-satisfying, spirit-quenching peace—a feeling that Satan cannot duplicate.

I’ve been asked if I’m always happy. Truthfully, I’ve experienced trials in my life, as has everyone. And, yes, I felt sadness when my sister-in-law passed away from cancer last year. However, through all the trials, I have still felt peace. I have felt that though the grief was immeasurable at times I’d get through it because the peace of the gospel never left me.

So, perhaps, I am wrong in my assessment of what determines happiness, but I am certain I’m not wrong when it comes to feeling the kind of peace that only the Savior can give us. Not the peace of the world, but the peace of God. And with that peace comes a happiness that cannot be replicated by Satan or any other worldly source. It is a peace that ignites my spirit and lights my soul. It’s the peace that comes from the gospel and a peace that I strive to have in my life, even during times of trial. It is a peace that’s worth every effort to obtain.

Return to the neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to our fantastic newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, our newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world—all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

Neighborhood Newsletter Subscriptions are FREE, and joining is easy.

Recovering Charles by Jason Wright

I'm not a fast reader and I tend to feel guilty if I'm reading more than I'm writing in the little snatchets of time I have between poopy diapers, laundry mountains, and, lately, barfing kids.

I was up at our elementary school waiting for kids to finish basketball practice the other day when I wandered into the library that also serves as a branch of the public library. I browsed through the books and spotted Recovering Charles by Jason Wright. I thumbed through the pages and decided to check it out.

I finished it, through tears, this morning. Recovering Charles is about a young man, Luke Millward, in search of his father during the aftermath of Katrina. He and his father are estranged for many reasons and when his father goes missing he decides to make the three-day long trip from New York down to New Orleans in hopes of not only finding his dad, but also finding his way back to his alcoholic father who he's all but given up on. He finds much more than that.

Wright does a fantastic job of pulling the reader into the story. I found that I read many more pages than I planned to read at each sitting. He also does a great job of making you feel like you're experiencing the horrific scenes of death and destruction that Katrina left in her wake. I knew it was a horrible disaster, but Wright made me see it through different eyes. I felt like I was living it along with the main character.

Wright throws in a twist. I didn't expect it, but it made sense and made the story much deeper.

Like I said, I'm not a fast reader, but I read Recovering Charles quickly because I wanted to know how it ended. I recommend it--just make sure you have some Kleenex nearby.

The Sears Saga Continues . . .

This is a follow-up to my Warning About Sears.

If you read that post, you know I haven't been thrilled with Sears. I've been trying to get our rototiller fixed so we'll be able to use it to get our garden spot ready.

We took the rototiller in for repair in November and were told that it'd be ready in December. MY husband checked in December--not ready. I called in January to check on it and was told the transmission was faulty and a new one had been ordered, twice. I was assured a technician would call with details. Good thing I didn't hold my breath . . . I'd be dead.

After going in circles through the automated phone system and calling the local repair center several times, including two days ago, I was finally contacted by a repairman today, after I called again.

The repairman goes on to tell me that he can't fix my rototiller because he's in one state and I live in a different state that's contracted by another repairman.

Tangent: My sister has had to deal with the other repairman. She had an upright freezer go out twice during the warranty period and now has a washer that has a faulty motor. The repairman has been rude to her, not shown up for appointments, hasn't called her, and has left her without her washer for a month (she has 10 kids so, luckily, they borrowed another washer because you can't go for a month without a washer with that many kids). She is flabbergasted with the way this repairman has acted and, as a result, I'm not at all interested in working with him.

Back to my story: So I told this repairman I wouldn't work with the other one contracted in my area and besides, the tiller is actually in the state where he's contracted. He then told me that a repair order hadn't even been activated on my rototiller. Excuse me? It's been sitting in the store since November, I've called several times and now there's no repair order?

Ridiculous.

So, again, beware of Sears. I, for one, will never purchase another item from Sears. I can't believe what we've had to go through to get this tiller fixed. And, somehow, it doesn't seem right that Sears not only has my money, it also has my tiller with no repair date in sight. Doesn't it seem like I should either have my money back or my rototiller?

Credibility in Writing

This is a rant of sorts. I was watching a TV show on USA called, Psych. It's about a guy who pretends to be psychic and works with the police. He actually has a photographic memory and amazing observation skills, but uses the psychic thing as his cover.

The premise doesn't bother me--it's the setting. The show is supposedly set in Santa Barbara, CA. A city with which I'm intimately familiar because I grew up there and return to visit every year. When Psych shows the police station, for example, it is definitely not the Santa Barbara Police Station. No, I've never been arrested or spent time in the police station, but my best friend's father's law office is a block away from the police station and I used to spend time with my friend at her dad's office.

The city streets shown on Psych are not the city streets of Santa Barbara. Nor are the beach scenes. Santa Barbara has a very distinctive style.

On an episode yesterday, one of the characters was telling the police he'd eaten at a restaurant on On-new-paw-moo. The name of the street is actually Anapamu, pronounced Anna-pu-moo. See the difference? If they're going to pepper the show with the names of actual streets in Santa Barbara they should at least get the pronunciation correct.

On another episode a character is tossed into Cachuma Lake, except not. The lake they used wasn't even close to Cachuma--I know I spent several summers attending camp at Cachuma Lake.

Turns out the show isn't even filmed in the US. Now most people wouldn't notice the discrepancies. But, for me, it completely loses credibility because I know what it's showing is false. They should've set the show in a fictitious city.

My point? When writing fiction, it's important to have facts straight to have the credibility factor. Not all readers would pick up on a discrepancy in setting, but for those who do, you'll lose them as readers. So, for me, I need to get my facts right when I set a story in a real town.

As for Psych? The discrepancies about the setting bug me enough that I'm not interested in watching it again. See how that works?

No Murmuring

Nephi was commanded by the Lord to build a ship. Though he didn’t know how, he willingly worked to build the boat. After Nephi constructed the ship, amid his brothers’ mocking and ridicule, the family boarded it to make their journey across the ocean. While at sea, some of the family members made “merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness, yea even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness” (1 Nephi 18:9).

When Nephi attempted to speak to his family in soberness they became angry with him. So angry that Laman and Lemuel took Nephi and bound him with cords. They bound him so tightly it caused his wrists and ankles to swell. Once Nephi was bound, the liahona stopped working and a great storm developed insomuch that it beat back the ship for three days.

Nephi witnessed all of this, but was powerless because he was bound. Yet, he said, “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Nephi 18:16). This statement illustrates the character of the prophet Nephi.

As I read this account, I realized how applicable that statement is to my own life. How have I reacted to afflictions? Have I kept my faith in God?

When one of my daughters was born, we had to return to the hospital the day after we brought her home because she had a fever. While we drove to the ER I desperately prayed that she’d be okay and we’d be able to go right back home. As soon as the ER doctors heard she had a fever we were rushed back to a room and she was immediately hooked up to an IV. An ER doctor asked permission to give her a spinal tap because he believed she had meningitis. During the procedure, I prayed the doctor would be able to find what he needed. He didn’t. He couldn’t extract any fluid.

I prayed she wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital. She did.

I prayed the doctors would know what was wrong. They didn’t.

I prayed she wouldn’t need any more antibiotics. She did.

I prayed the nurses could find a vein for her IV so she wouldn’t need a pick line in her neck. They couldn’t.

When the doctor came to tell us she’d have to be life-flighted to another hospital, I felt broken. I was afraid to pray because up to that point, the opposite of what I prayed for seemed to be what happened. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I had a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

The pediatrician who had unsuccessfully tried to do a second spinal tap on her asked for permission to try a third time. He told us that if we could extract enough spinal fluid and it was clear we could rule out meningitis and we wouldn’t have to fly her to the other hospital. I was at a crossroads. I knew, deep down, that Heavenly Father answered prayers and couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to hear mine. I had to decide if I was going to murmur because of my afflictions or put my faith in prayer.

I decided to pray. Moments after we finished kneeling on the hospital room floor, the doctor entered with a big smile. He’d extracted three vials worth of fluid and it was clear. She did not have to be air-lifted and the next day we discovered she had a urinary tract infection and could be treated with a simple antibiotic by mouth.

Unfortunately, I have murmured at other times. I’ve complained, usually about insignificant things, about things that don’t matter. I need to be like Nephi. I want to be like Nephi. I want to have that complete faith that when afflictions arise, and they most certainly will, I will, “ . . . look unto my God, and . . . praise him all the day long; and . . . not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Nephi 18:16).

Return to the neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to our fantastic newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, our newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world—all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

Neighborhood Newsletter Subscriptions are FREE, and joining is easy.

American Idol Favorites

Here's my update on American Idol. After listening to all of the contestants last night I voted for:

Michael Sarver--I just like him. I didn't like his song choice and I wasn't crazy about his performance, but I just like him and want him to go on in the competition.

Danny Gokey--Love this guy. I love his voice and his style. And, of course, his personal story is so compelling, I just want him to do well. But, I think he has a great chance of winning the whole competition because he has such incredible talent. He's awesome.

Ricky Braddy--What a fantastic performance last night. He's had no press up to this point and when he sang, wow, he was amazing. He definitely deserves to move on. He was in a different class than most of the other contestants.

I was not impressed with any of the girls. I think that Tatiana's behavior totally detracts from her singing. Watching her exhausts me. And that goes for the young man that's the drama king. Too much drama for me. Just sing and showcase your talent, don't do the drama thing.

It'll be interesting to see the results show.

How Did You Celebrate?

It was wonderful having a long weekend. A break from school, seminary, fixing sack lunches, and trying to beat the school bus to the end of my driveway is always a welcome relief.

Since it was the end of the trimester (yes, we have trimesters. Why? Couldn't tell you, but it makes for much confusion when transferring credits from college-level classes at the high school over to a college on the semester system) on Thursday, we also had Friday off. After doing chores, of course, some of my kids went to their cousin's to celebrate birthdays. My husband and I went to the temple (which is in another state) and attended an endowment session. The cool thing (well, it's always great to go to the temple) is that we had family names. The person for whom I was a proxy was not a direct ancestor, but I knew her and I could see her face throughout the session. This is when genealogy work really feels personal. Afterwards, my honey and I had a nice dinner for our Valentine's date.

Saturday involved basketball games and a Valentine's celebration. My younger girls and I put on facials. I think the boys all wondered why green-faced women were walking around the house. We then all made pizza and watched a family movie. My son wanted to watch a "boy" movie, but I insisted we watch something Valentineish so it was, "Sabrina," with Harrison Ford. A very romantic movie.

Yesterday I tossed my pride aside, donned a bathing suit, and we all went swimming at our public pool. We had a a great time. Though I wished I looked better in a swimsuit, sometimes it's just more important to please the kids than myself.

All in all, a fun weekend. The only downside? We all had to go back to work, seminary, school, fixing sack lunches, laundry, and cleaning today. How long until spring break?