Spiritual Twinkies

Yesterday my stake had a special stake conference, presided over by a member of the quorum of the seventy, Elder Michael T Ringwood. The day before, President Stewart, our stake president attended a training meeting and was taught by Elder Ringwood, Elder Holland, Elder Renlund, and others.   He shared with us some of the things he learned, and I would like to pass on the lesson of the spiritual Twinkies. I think he said this was taught by Elder Renlund.

Elder Renlund asked for some volunteers to come up and eat a pastry.  President Stewart eagerly volunteered and was selected to come up and receive a Twinkie.  After eating it, he was asked," What percent of the daily recommendation of fiber, vitamin c, and vitamin d can be found in that Twinkie?"

This is what Twinkies do to you

Of course, the answer was none.  Twinkies have no nutritional value beyond empty calories.  

Just as Twinkies offer no nutrition for our bodies, the philosophies of men mixed with some poems and a few quotes are akin to a theological Twinkie. They consist of spiritually empty calories.

Spiritual Twinkies, if they are part of our diet, need to be substituted with the substance of the Gospel.

In our homes and in our teaching responsibilities within the church, do we use spiritual Twinkies rather than relying on the substance of pure doctrine?  Do we rely on cute soundbites and clever memes to try and teach lessons, or do we boldly teach from the lesson manuals, scriptures, and conference talks?  

In order to have the strength we need to survive spiritually in this world, we cannot be offering spiritually empty pastries to our children. They need the substance of true doctrine and principles to strengthen and sustain them.

I loved this analogy and I think it's a great concept to ponder. President Stewart asked us if the words of God's mouthpiece are the most prominent in our lives?  Do we study the words of the prophets?  Do we follow them?  Or are we too "busy" choosing other ways to fill up our time?

So, my challenge today to myself and to anyone who reads this is :

Put down the Twinkie.  Not only are the lacking in nutrition, but they are really gross!
Pick up the scriptures. The longer you study them, the more you will feel like you've been drinking pure goodness, and it won't even make you fat!

Scratch and Sniff Stickers and Pride

Yesterday I had the opportunity to teach Relief Society at church. This is the class held during the 3rd hour of church for adult women.  One of my callings right now is to teach every other month.  We teach lessons compiled from teachings of past prophets. This year we are studying the teachings of Ezra Taft Benson.  He is well known for his teachings about pride and this was the subject for the lesson yesterday.

Pride is enmity toward God or our fellowmen.  It is hatred and opposition.  Pride takes on many forms.

"Pride is essentially competitive in nature.  We pit our will against God’s.  When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.”  

“Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers.  The proud wish God would agree with them.  They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.  

Another major portion of this very prevalent sin is enmity toward our fellowmen. We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them" -Ezra Taft Benson

It is this last form of pride- elevating ourselves above others, that I want to write about today. I shared this story in my lesson, but I want to share it with cyberspace too. It is my story of the scratch and sniff stickers and certificates.

When I was in 3rd grade we received grades every 6 weeks. There were 6 grading periods each year. My teacher, Susan Huntley, held an awards ceremony in our classroom at the end of each 6 week period. Children received certificates for outstanding behavior, perfect attendance, and achieving the highest grade in individual subjects. Unless there was a tie, only one child would get a certificate for each subject. They were Health, Science, Social Studies, Language, Reading, and Math. The most fantastic thing about these certificates was that they often came complete with a scratch and sniff sticker! Oh, how we children in Ms. Huntley's third grade class of 1986-1987 loved scratch and sniff stickers! We had many opportunities to earn the stickers during the year, but of course, these certificates were the ultimate goal for all of the brainy competitive children.

I was a smart child, and also one of the oldest in my class, being born in October. School was easy for me, and so I started to bring home a lot of these coveted certificates.

I felt pretty special.

Partway through the year, I sat in an awards ceremony, antsy on the rug, as my teacher called out the recipients. I received a certificate right at the beginning, and sat eagerly awaiting the rest. Yes, I EXPECTED to get multiple certificates, because that is what had been happening. I grew more and more anxious, annoyed even, as the teacher called OTHER children up to receive awards that I thought should be mine- at least some of them!

At long last, I heard my name called. But, instead of going up and graciously receiving my certificate, I let loose the word that I was thinking.

"FINALLY!"I exclaimed in a long drawn out annoyed little 9 year old raspy voice.

"Becky!" The teacher expressed her disappointment in me. I sheepishly took my certificate and sat down.

This stickers still smells amazing after 30 years!

And, in that one moment, I saw myself for who I was at the time.

And I was so ashamed.

I have never forgotten that moment. I have never forgotten that feeling of realizing that I was putting myself above my fellow students. I was so focused on earning my "deserved" awards, that I never stopped to think about how the other children might be feeling. I never thought about the ones that never earned any of the awards. I never thought about the ones that had fantastic grades, but not high enough to beat me or the other kids who usually took home these certificates. I never thought that while Peter Carlseen and I battled it out for highest Math grade (I only got it once) that there might have been another kid excelling at Math who also really hoped for that honor.

No, I had never thought any of those things because I was far too busy thinking about ME. 

I took home about half of the certificates given out that year. But, what I took home that day meant more to me than my whole book of scratch and sniff stickers. I took home the lesson that wanting to be better or even expecting to be better than other people isn't God's way, and it wasn't His plan for me.

His way is to "choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high or higher than we are." -Ezra Taft Benson

My accidental lesson at that tender age, has stayed with me for nearly 30 years now. It may well have been the impetus for my choice to major in elementary education, and to pursue teaching opportunities whenever they arise. I love to teach other people what I know how to do- whether it is baking bread, playing the piano, embroidery, or an academic subject. I love to see the lights go on in a child's eyes when the information makes sense! I love to lift others up and even watch them ascend higher than I am capable of going at the time. The greatest happiness I can imagine would be seeing my children achieve more than I have achieved- seeing them be more faithful disciples of Christ, more successful in every way. Then, I would know that I had done my work as their mother.

"Thee lift me, and I'll lift thee, and we'll ascend together" -Quaker Proverb