Determination

This is Spencer eating with a fork.  He started using a fork a couple of months ago when he noticed that everyone else was using a fork and he didn't have one.  He really wanted a fork!  He doesn't always use one but when he does, he really works at getting the food onto the fork and then getting the food into his mouth. 

And now he is learning to walk and boy is he just as determined as ever!  He just keeps trying and trying!  I need to get pictures of it! 

Watching him try so hard and still fall over and over again has made me think of President Uchtdorf's talk in the Priesthood session from this last General Conference.  Specifically this part:

"We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. He takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? We encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step, the child is becoming more like his parents.

 

Now, brethren, compared to the perfection of God, we mortals are scarcely more than awkward, faltering toddlers. But our loving Heavenly Father wants us to become more like Him, and, dear brethren, that should be our eternal goal too. God understands that we get there not in an instant but by taking one step at a time.

 

I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a Heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him. Even when we stumble, He urges us not to be discouraged—never to give up or flee our allotted field of service—but to take courage, find our faith, and keep trying.

 

Our Father in Heaven mentors His children and often sends unseen heavenly help to those who desire to follow the Savior."

 

Personal History

Just a couple of weeks ago James was able to get a book he has been wanting for quite a while. It is called "I've Been Thinking...and other writings of Walter Marion Everton". It is a compilation of articles James' great-great-grandfather, Walter Marion Everton, wrote for the Logan Herald Journal  during the 1940's about family history and a few other things as well. I wanted to share one of those articles here.  I find it very inspiring, and hope that others may as well.

ABOUT WRITING YOUR HISTORY

We assisted in writing a short biography of one of our early settlers a few years ago. Among other things there was a story of how she had worked as a "hired girl" for a number of weeks and had received a nice woolen petticoat as pay for her work. When she took it home she washed it and hung it on the line to dry. A stray calf came along and chewed her petticoat and she was never able to wear it.

As the subject of our sketch listened while we read her own life's story she stopped us to raise objection to this story and a number of similar stories being included in her biography.  "It's not important enough to bother to write it down," she said.

When you write your life story, do not spoil it, I pray you, by leaving out interesting stories because they are not important.  The best parts of the family history that I have been able to gather are the simple little stories which often reveal more to me about the kind of men they were than do the funeral sermons that were preached when they died. 

There is the story of the boy who refused to stay at the saw mill boarding house and instead built a little shack and "batched it".  The big leatherbound history of Thomastown, Maine records th fact that the boys at the mill poked fun at him, saying that he "cooked his doughnuts in a tin lantern".  It is easy to understand why it was that he became president of the bank. 

And then there is the story of the ancestor of mine who could not attend church services for a while because the services were held on the day of the week, and the hour of the day when it was his custom to wind the clock.  Even now, in the sixth generation of this family, there are some who are rather set in their ways.

Write the stories of your childhood though it takes a hundred pages.  Write the adventures of your young manhood or womanhood.  Write of your likes and dislikes.  Write of your faith and your hopes and your joys.  Write of your sweethearts, your wives and your children.  Write of the things you like to do and the things you like to eat.  Write of your ability, your accomplishments and your failures.  While you are writing all these, let your writing abound in human interest stories, little incidents which happened to you, or which you caused to happen. 

But in all your writing, write your life story that the memory of you may not perish from the earth when you are dead.