What Goes Around, Comes Around

I'm a firm believer that what goes around, comes around.

Last fall, after my son's soccer game, we found a cell phone in the grass. My husband picked it up and called the last phone number to see if he could locate its owner. After several attempts, and more than half an hour, we found the owner and returned his cell phone.

We then went to Walmart to pick up a few treats since my son scored a goal in the soccer game. While I was taking my daughter to the bathroom, I noticed a Blackberry cell phone resting on top of the toilet paper dispenser. I picked it up and took it to the service desk to see if anyone had lost a phone. No one had so I brought it out to my husband, whose phone is a Blackberry, to see if he could access the last phone number. I was afraid if we left it at Walmart the owner might never recover it unless she specifically remembered being at Walmart.

We called several phone numbers and finally talked to someone who knew the owner. Turns out the owner lived in another town, but worked in the same town as my husband. We ended up tracking down where she worked and dropping off the phone there (it was her work phone). All in all, it took us a few days to return her phone.

Last night, my husband misplaced his phone while we were swimming at the recreation center. He uses his phone for business and was worried the company couldn't reach him. Though we'd checked a few times, we decided to check once more before leaving. Someone had turned in his phone to the front desk. An employee had called a contact number on my husband's phone, which turned out to be me, so even if we hadn't stopped to ask, I would've discovered his phone had been turned in as soon as I got to our car and checked my phone messages.

What goes around, comes around.

Honest, True, Chaste

The 13th Article of Faith is quite long so I’m going to explain it over several posts. The beginning states, “We believe in being honest, true, chaste . . . .”

Honesty encompasses many aspects from telling the truth to keeping vows and covenants to sins of omission. Being honest establishes trust. Dishonesty breaks that trust. Many years ago, a woman in my ward approached me and asked if her daughter could do some service for me since I was a young mother. She suggested that her daughter could babysit each week while I ran errands.

I allowed the young woman to babysit and I used the time to go grocery shopping and do other errands. After a few weeks, I noticed that a bottle of my perfume was missing. I figured one of my kids had moved it somewhere. The next week, I noticed that my walkman was gone. Again, I figured my kids were the culprits and I’d find it eventually. After I returned home the third week, I discovered that my bathing suit had disappeared. It finally hit me. My babysitter had been stealing from me. I was shocked, but promptly ended her service and never again allowed her to babysit. She lost my trust.

Some years back, members of my community started a rumor about me. The rumor had no basis and since I tend to confront issues head-on, I went to the sources of the rumor. Of course, the people denied any involvement, but I knew without any doubt, that not only had they been involved, but were in fact lying to me at that time as well. They lost my trust.

Honesty is the basis of trust. Once that trust has been destroyed, it’s very difficult to rebuild it. We must be honest in all of our dealings. If we’ve been dishonest, we should rectify the situation as best we can as soon as we can, but understand that it may take a long time to re-establish trust.
We must also be true to our covenants and vows. We must be true to our word. When we say we are going to do something, we need to do it. We must be true to our family and friends so that they know they can always depend on us and trust us.

The Lord delights in the chastity of women. Our society has denigrated to the point that chastity is no longer respected and in many instances is ridiculed. When I was in high school, an adult in a position of trust constantly belittled my desire to remain chaste. He told me that I was missing out on life by being such a prude. He said life was meant to be experienced and I was limiting my experiences. As I look back now, I’m so grateful I did not give in or listen to this individual because the decision that I made to be chaste before marriage has brought me great comfort.

Adherence to the Law of Chastity provides physical and spiritual protection that is so important today. Our society calls for sex education in our schools to teach our youth to be “safe.” What this education fails to teach the youth is the damage that premarital sex does to their spirits. The ability to create human life is sacred and belongs only within the bounds of marriage. When this procreative power is used under any other circumstance besides between husband and wife, catastrophic results occur. One only needs to look at the broken homes, teenagers having babies, rate of abortion, drug use, alcohol use, and divorce rate to see the effects of a society that promotes immoral behavior.

One of the greatest ills of our society today is its lack of respect for the proper place for sexual relationships. Our society’s disrespect for the sacred power of procreation will eventually lead to its downfall.

Return to the neighborhood.

What You See is What You Get

Two of my daughters have expressed an interest in joining the Debate Team at our high school. The older of the two has already taken a debate class and the younger one is now enrolled in that class. Today they will meet with the teacher that sponsors the team and will decide if they want to pursue joining.

This has brought up some interesting subjects as my younger daughter has been relating the subjects that students are interested in debating. Some of those subjects include the shortened lunch hour, the open campus policy, and other school related issues. General subjects have included abortion, same-sex marriage, the war in Iraq, and current Presidential candidates.

Last night my daughter and I discussed Mitt Romney. She commented that people won't vote for him simply based on his religion. People claim that his religion will influence his decisions and that his private life will most defintely affect his ability to effectively serve in our country's highest office. I find this position so interesting because 8-10 years ago, these same people vehemently defended the then current president's right to do whatever he wanted in his private life (even when it included immoral activities in the Oval Office) and claimed that his private life had absolutely nothing to do with his public life or his ability to stand as head of our country. Hmmm. Interesting how people will flip-flop depending on how it suits them.

Does someone's private acts affect his/her public acts? Should we, as voters, be concerned with what a candidate does in his/her private time? I must answer: Absolutely. What we do in private, especially when we think no one is watching, shows who we are at our very core. Someone who conducts himself or herself differently in private than in public, is not an honest person and does not have integrity. Only when our behavior is consistent, privately and publicly, can we be considered to have integrity.

I do not want my elected officials to be one kind of person in private and a different kind of person in public. I much prefer people who are "what you see is what you get" kind of people, even if I disagree with them, because I know they are consistent and I know what to expect.

I remember girls in high school who would act like they were your best friend to your face and as soon as you turned your back, they'd shred you to bits. I much prefer people to be honest and upfront. I can agree to disagree, but it's difficult to know where I stand with someone who isn't honestly portraying himself/herself.

Wouldn't it be nice if all of our candidates for the upcoming Presidential election would just be honest? We could vote for who we feel best represents our views and know that "what we see is what we'll get."