August 18

August 18, 2014

Well, folks... 

          Kind of a slow week. I was sick last weekend (missed church), and from Wednesday on this last week. It was just gnarly, y'all. One day I was puking, then I had bowel issues, the next I was fevered, then I was plugged up, some days it was any combination of the four. I lost 7 pounds, and I'm still trying to get re-hydrated from last week. Needless to say, we weren't able to do a whole lot.

          There was some time for lots of study, and when I went to church yesterday, there were a few really sweet things that were said. I'm going to muse on those for a bit, to make this email seem not quite so lame :) haha

          During gospel doctrine, the teacher said one of those classic one-liners that really struck me. He said (quoting somebody), "The standard works of the church aren't my standard works, until I use them as a standard for my works." It's really just a different way of saying that we should change ourselves and apply what we learn from the scriptures, but it's a glaringly inflexive, thought-provoking statement. I liked it :) haha

          One of the speakers told us a story that (paraphrased) goes something like this: there were two young siblings-a boy and a girl-who were taken into foster care and adopted by a family. The 4-year old boy seemed to be quite the problem-causer. Every morning, the 2-year-old sister was covered in food scraps and trash. The little boy admitted to doing it, and disciplinary measures were taken to get him to stop. Yet night after night, the same antics happened. No amount of yelling or privilege-taking or spankings seemed to help. It was so troubling to the parents that they wanted to give the children back to the foster system. Their social worker discouraged them from doing that, and they decided to work through their social worker, and a psychologist to figure out why their new son acted this way. The social worker looked up all the information he could find about the childrens' previous home, and he discovered a lot. The boy was only allowed to eat from a dog bowl on the back porch, which was rarely filled. In order to survive, he would sneak out in the middle of the night and dig through the trash, looking for food. When he had eaten, he would take more scraps and put them in the crib of his baby sister. The psychologist explained that this boy was trying to take care of his baby sister, the only way that he knew how. He didn't like to be hungry, and he wanted to make sure that his sister was never hungry, either. In lights of this new information, the adoptive parents changed their approach to the situation. They let their 4-year old son help feed his baby sister, so he knew she was getting fed. There was also a loaf of bread that was made available to him, so that if he ever felt his sister needed food, he could give her a piece of bread. Satisfied that his sister's needs were being met, the little boy stopped putting trash in his sister's bed within a week.

Speaking of the bondage that we can incur in our own lives through not knowing enough about situations Jeffrey R. Holland speaks of, "what seems to [be] the supreme bond at this level, and that is simply not to know enough." He goes on: "There are little clichés that we learn early in our lives. Most of them I hate; some of them I really hate. I think number one on my list is 'Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.' I hate that. I’ll take sticks and stones any day. But second to that are the clichés 'Ignorance is bliss' and 'What I don’t know won’t hurt me.' Let me say to you with all of the intensity that I have that nothing will hurt you more than what you don’t know!" ("Borne Upon Eagles' Wings," Jeffrey R. Holland) Just a little bit of teamwork, effective communication, and empathy were all that was really needed to cure the problem the parents had with their child. With an increased understanding of the child's past and intentions, they were able to correct the problem quickly and constructively. I have about a million musings on this one, so I'll just stop there so I don't bore all of you. 

Hope all is well on the home front! Love ya!

-"Eldah" Boone