Donna's Journey

“May I suggest that in our family night gatherings we make it a project to memorize one scripture citation a week pertinent to this work. At the conclusion of a year our children will have on their lips a fund of scripture which will remain with them throughout their lives.”
Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, April 1959 General Conference

This was given in April 1959, which was 49 years ago. Have we heeded the challenge? We are entering the Jubilee year of that challenge. What a great blessing this would be to our families if we would but heed it. What a jubilee year it would be! School of Abraham has some wonderful section on Scripture Memorization for Children and Adults.. I have explored the resources listed here and learned a lot about the blessings of memorizing.

I have a living example, in my new son-in-law Alan, of what memorizing can do. I have listened as he has set him self to memorize the standard works, and the depth of understanding and connections it brings to him. I watch as it carries over into other areas of his life as well.

I ponder on the story of Laddie: A True Blue Story and how memorization was used there in both learning scripture and lessons for school. This goes beyond the supposed memorize and regurgitate idea of modern schooling. Today children simply memorize patterns. In Laddie, they were actually memorizing original sources verbatim, and they were thinking on them and reflecting and coming to deeper understanding.

I think of President Thomas S. Monson. Speaking at the Orem Utah South Regional Conference 2 June 2002 (held at BYU), President Thomas S. Monson spoke about Doctrine and Covenants 88:119. In addressing; building a house of learning, he quoted freely from his favorite (after the scriptures) book, “The Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. He went on to share ideas from his favorite writers and inspiring lines from musicals. He said that when he went to a play or musical that he went with pencil in hand. He would look for the “one line that made the ticket worth it.” In listening to him, it is obvious that he has also memorized the “one line[s] that made the ticket worth it.”

I would start with scripture and build on that. Scripture stories are awesome when memorized word for word. Having a family recital on Sunday evenings (or any other evening for that matter), is a great time for family members to share what they are memorizing.

So, are you ready for the jubilee year of this challenge and the life changing effects it can have in your life and family?

I had my second harp lesson today. I love the harp! I do most of my lesson on the large pedal harp, but yesterday I did some on the smaller folk harp. Mary went with me. My next lesson is Friday! I wanted to continue lessons after we move, but it is over five hours to Salt Lake City from Monticello. She laughed and said I would find someone closer. I laughed and reminded her that Monticello has less than 2,000 people. Then she told me I could teach myself as Harpo Marx did. i will continue with her as long as I can. I find the harp very soothing. I told her I would keep my harp in my bedroom.

I had a delightful afternoon. After I vacuumed, cleaned mirrors, packed another box, juggled some laundry, weeded the dandelions, read all but two chapter of Pollyanna (I finished the last two chapters after i got home), and popped dinner into the oven, I went to Carolyn’s house. Carolyn is our Sunday School teacher and she plays and teaches pedal harp. She sang and played the harp in church on Sunday. Mary went with me today. Carolyn taught us proper form and let us play on her full-size pedal harp and her smaller folk harp. We spent an hour and it was fun. Mary played too and loves it. She said we can come back tomorrow. They move to Salt Lake on the first.

She has set our hearts on afire. I see a harp in our future. Julia has wanted to play the harp for years. I had her take piano and violin first. If she had been able to walk, she would have gone with us today. She wants me to get a harp. Oh, course, Jeremy reminds me that he gets his bagpipes first.

I think my family will like this kind of harping!

Mary and I just finished reading Pollyanna together. I asked if we could get the Disney movie. She said she did not like to watch movies made on books.. She said that I have my imagination and the people in the movies never look like she imagined and then all she can remember is the person in the movie and not what she had imagined. She also did not like that movies change the story too. She loved the story.

Pollyanna’s glad game has hit this home. Julia being laid up with a foot in a boot cast has had plenty of time to think about what she is glad for.

I am looking up and memorizing the rejoicing or glad texts in the scriptures. So now, I am wanting to keep a glad book journal of 100 days…or maybe a day for each scripture I locate.

I was pondering while I was doing a few minutes of weeding, literally less than 10 minutes to tame the dandelions!

Why do so many young parents have trouble with navigating the core phase? They really do not have any idea how it can look. Then I realized that young parents today are from the post babyboomer generation, and according to the Fourth Turning they have a generational consciousness as nomads, Generation X. Many of this generation were in daycare, nursery school, and basically tended by others.

This is a generation that was raised for a career world, by parents who were also raised for careers. These two generations were raised with a plethora of household servants (dishwashers, washing machines, dryers) and much entertainment distraction. Basically, parents trusted professionals to know how to raise their kids.

The work of running a home together, became hijacked. Instead of building the next generation through shared work, work was treated as a duty, chores were doled out, efficiency became the focus, so they could get on to “real life” of entertainment and leisure. So, the work of running a home became divided and individualized. Turning mom and dad into managers, rather than parents.

Children did school. Then they came home and did homework, not to learn but to get it out of the way so they could play. They did chores in isolation, not to serve, or think, or bond, but to get it out of the way too. When something is done just to get it done, it soon loses its power. Quality slides and everything soon becomes “good enough.” Society and relationships grow casual and detached.

When parents who only did school, got chores out of the way, and were entertained, more than they played, become parents, what happens. Some continue the cycle. Others make different choices. When these parents come to the homeschool front, their homes have usually already been filled with mind candy entertainment distractions, and hold over paradigms of their own childhood. So, when I talk about delaying the focus of academics, they give me a blank stare. They have no idea what to do in its stead. After all, if it is not school and it is not entertainment, what else is there? Many of the parents never worked along side their parents, chatting and learning as they went. Many have no idea how to manage a home, much less work with children. They somehow how have the childish notion that childhood should be an endless Romper Room or Barney, endless entertainment and self indulgence. Many are simply family life challenged. No wonder their friends stare in disbelief when these parents choose to homeschool.

Ah, but the skills can be learned. Paradigms can be changed. We can be weaned off distractions, and really learn how to work, play, learn, explore, worship, serve, and more, and we can learn to do it together. When parents make the sacrifice to learn, they find life is less stressful, and even cheaper to live, leaving more time for real living and family.

I read the title of an article the other day called Finding One’s Self, it was on a long list of articles for women. I thought it odd. A little thought proceeded…

I do not need to find myself. It is clear to me who I am. I am my Father’s daughter. I have discovered that the door to my Father’s study is always open. There are so many good things there. It takes quiet listening to hear what He needs me to hear, to know what He wants me to know, and do what He wants me to do, at the time He needs me to do it. Arising early affords me the opportunity to discover the abundance he has for me today, before the clatter and chatter of the day approaches and vies for my attention. Sure there are things I want to do and explore. However, I know that if I will seek Him first, I will have peace and contentment, and will have time. If I take the time first, I never seem to have enough. Oh, Father is sooooo wise!

Just as order gave life and beauty to the earth when it was dark and void, so it does to us.

James E. Faust

I was in the garden and the yard for an hour on Saturday. I pulled dandelions, trimmed rose bushes, and planted sugar snap peas. I ran my fingers through the freshly loosened soil. Then last night I found this quote in my desk, I probably saved it for a cross stitch, as I am not a scrap booker. I like to have writing on the wall to turn my thoughts.

Take some dirt, add some seeds,
Pour on water, pull the weeds,
Rest a minute, work for hours,
Then wait … and smell the flowers.

I found this orange index card in my desk and thought it so appropriate at this time, as I evaluate what to hold on to as I pack.

We peck ourselves apart my friend, for self improvement there is no end.
Am I watchful of the Time I spend or am I careless of the time I tend?
Do I eat the things I should, would I be healthier if I did?
Is my house clean and neat, or do my closets reveal deceit?
Are the resources with which I am blessed a cause to rejoice or a caused to be vexed?
Do I speak when silence is best or am I silent and pass the test?
The answer I think is loud and clear, there is much room for improvement needed here.

While cleaning my desk I found this scripture.

“Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee…” I Chronicles 28:20