Day 11 of 365 days of Solace: St. Patrick's Day reflections

My son and I go each week to a care center to do crafts,
music, exercise, or other fun activities.
Service keeps us happy!

Before I begin, I want you to know I have some fun St. Patricks day photos...but I had class tonight, and am unable to edit them. I will make that a goal for tomorrow.  So, if you wish to see my adorable children, and crazy bearded husband in a leprechaun cap-- come back and check it out. :))

===On a more thoughtful, spritual note...

This song has played into my thoughts lately. I only knew one line, "He is known by oh so many names," but when I read the words I was touched by the message. What a truly beautiful song. I am thankful that when my "crying's done...gives the gifts (I've) never known..." I hope you feel the comfort of these words, as you listen.

There is One who to this garden comes
Like a most unusual rain
Drink it in and never thirst again
Living Water is His name

There is one who comes to find each one
Who has lost their way again
He will lead the way back to the fold
The Good Shepherd is His name

There is one who when your crying’s done
Gives the gifts you’ve never known
He’ll give fruit because He is the Vine
And Life, for He’s the Living Stone

He is known by oh so many names

And will be forever more

Hope comes from the One with many names

And He’s not forgotten yours

No, He’s not forgotten yours.

====Today in my listening of BYU speeches, I ran across a 1989 gem from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. His words are so touching.  And if you've never listened to him (or even if you have!), please listen to him here.... He is a man of compassion, kindness, faith and fervor! His entire talk is amazing-- but here is his closure, which I think sums it all up nicely! 

We think we understand the life we are acting out, and the people that we are interacting with- but only God knows the full truth, because he sees the whole, complete picture.  

Excerpt: 

I close with an adaptation of an account by C. S. Lewis entitled “The World’s Last Night,” which I have commandeered and changed for our purposes here this morning. The metaphor and most of the language is Lewis’s, but the application is my own. 

In King Lear (III, vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not even given him a name: he is simply called “First Servant.” All the characters around him—Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund—have fine long-term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant, however, has no such delusions. He has no notion how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand for it. His sword is out and pointed at his master’s breast in an instant. Then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But, Lewis says, if that were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted. 

The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when Christ will come and the world drama will end. He may appear and the curtain may be rung down at any moment—say, before we have filed out of the devotional this morning. This kind of not knowing seems to some people intolerably frustrating. So many things would be interrupted. Perhaps you were going to get married next month. Perhaps you were to graduate this spring. Perhaps you were thinking of going on a mission or paying your tithing or denying yourself some indulgence. Surely no good and wise God would be so unreasonable as to cut all that short. Not now, of all moments! 

But we think this way because we keep on assuming that we know the play. In fact, we don’t know much of it. We believe we are on in Act II, but we know almost nothing of how Act I went or how Act III will be. We are not even sure we know who the major and who the minor characters are. The Author knows. The audience, to the extent there is an audience of angels filling the loge and the stalls, may have an inkling. But we, never seeing the play from the outside...., and meeting only the tiny minority of characters who are “on” in the same scenes as ourselves, largely ignorant of the future and very imperfectly informed about the past, cannot tell at what moment Christ will come and confront us. We will face him one day, of that we may be sure; but we waste our time in guessing when that will be. That this human drama has a meaning we may be sure, but most of it we cannot yet see. When it is over we will be told. We are led to expect that the Author will have something to say to each of us on the part that each of us has played. Playing it well, then, is what matters most. To be able to say at the final curtain “I have suffered the will of the Father in all things” is our only avenue to an ovation in the end. (See “The World’s Last Night,” in Fern-Seed and Elephants and Other Essays on Christianity by C. S. Lewis, ed. Walter Hooper [Great Britain: Fontana/Collins, 1975], pp. 76–77.) 

The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain to be defeated than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant but still determined to do the Father’s will, look out upon their lives from which it may seem every trace of God has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey. [Paraphrased from C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1961), p. 39] 

That it may be so in your rich and beautiful and blessed.... lives—faithful to the Father in all things and to the very end—I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Jeffrey R. Holland was president of Brigham Young University when this devotional was given on 17 January 1989.

I hope that you will make decisions each day to face the darkness with an effort to overcome!  Today my 8 year old asked me to go on a bike ride with him.  In the past I'd have been tempted to say that I was too tired, or too busy with school work, or _________(fill in the blank).  Today, I agree, and we rode through our community by bike. I was too weak to ride up the hills of our town...so I walked.  I did enjoy the flat areas, and down hill- of course! :))  As I rode I thanked Heavenly Father for helping me to face the dark areas of my life, and filling me with the strength to move forward.  I felt wonderful, but very tired, trying to push myself alone on my bike- but I knew that any effort had the capacity to help me grown stronger...if I keep trying.

I told my "personal trainer" that we could go on a ride each day, but he has to ask me.  He agreed!  he is full of energy, and didn't need to walk up the hills!

I don't know what you are going through. I don't have all the answers--only suggestions to increase your happiness through righteous living, and righteous choices-- but I know that Heavenly Father does.  If you let him help you write a new script of healthy thinking, healthy living, and thankful, service oriented life style, you will find and happiness for your life, he will help you to have an award winning play, when your final curtail is closed!

Through the power of Jesus Christ, all battles can be won! Don't ever give up you hope!

Prayerful Regards,
Christine

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints (Mormons),
we don't drink alcohol-- ever.
So for St. Patty's (Patrick's) day, we had clover shaped
sugar cookies. :)