Spiritual Gifts

So, I teach one of the gospel doctrine sunday school classes in my singles ward. This calling terrifies me for many reasons: What if I say something stupid? (I usually do), What if I say something that offends someone?, What if I say something blasphemous and don't realize it?! (EEK!) What if someone asks a question that I don't know the answer to? (Usually I just turn the question back to the class). I still have these fears as I teach but on the bright side it has been a lot of fun to learn so many new things while preparing my lessons and to make myself understand concepts and principals. And luckily it's not too hard for me to get up in front of people... if I feel prepared. (To quite what nerves I may have, I always teach without my shoes on. This may gross some people out, but whatever, that's just going to have to be their problem.)

Lately my lessons have been really intense subjects or at least serious and I was having a hard time enjoying teaching but yesterday my lesson was on Spiritual Gifts and it was such a fun lesson to teach. I think I was so excited to teach it that I may have been a little over the top optimistic and ecstatic during my lesson. (Hopefully I didn't scare away any cute boys)

Anyways, I just wanted to share why I was so excited about this lesson...

I think spiritual gifts are so cool! We each have spiritual gifts and they are there to bless us but even more importantly to bless those around us. D&C Section 46 talks about some specific spiritual gifts but then Elder Marvin J. Ashton said, "some “less-conspicuous gifts” include “the gift of asking; the gift of listening; the gift of hearing and using a still, small voice; … the gift of avoiding contention; the gift of being agreeable; … the gift of seeking that which is righteous; the gift of not passing judgment; the gift of looking to God for guidance; the gift of being a disciple; the gift of caring for others; the gift of being able to ponder; the gift of offering prayer; the gift of bearing a mighty testimony; and the gift of receiving the Holy Ghost”

After reading this quote I had the class tell me all the spiritual gifts and talents they could think of... we FILLED the chalk board before I stopped them and I'm sure they could have kept going. These were some of the chunk... The gift of: Kindness, Happiness, The Ability to Recognize Other's Needs, Including Others, Laughter, Smiling, Service, Organization, Hard work, Ponder, Obedience, The Use of Time Wisely, Showing and Expressing Gratitude, Forgiveness, Repentance, Humility, Listening, Teaching, Recognizing Other's Talents, Generosity, Acting on Promptings, etc.

It was so nice to see this huge list on the board to recognize how many spiritual gifts there are. I had one girl even say that there were things on there that she always knew she had the habit of doing but she never realized it would be considered a spiritual gift and she said it was nice to be able to recognize that it was of s. gift of hers.

So think about the people in your life that you love and admire, and think about their spiritual gifts and how they use them.

I have one friend that has the gift of laughter. She has the ability to laugh things off, laugh at the perfect time when a story is being told to her, etc. and her laugh is extremely uplifting and contacious. All she needs to do when I'm around her is laugh and my mood brightens... even if I was already in a good mood, it just somehow makes you feel warmer inside.

I have another friend who has the gift of avoiding contention. It's amazing, she is not a passive person by any means but she has this incredible ability to take away contention in a room. Her feathers are never ruffled, she constantly finds joy in any circumstance and she's able to radiate this to those around her.

These are such simple gifts but at the same time they are incredibly important. By using these gifts these people are uplifting those around them. And what is so cool is that we can seek out and develop additional talents and gifts and Heavenly Father will help us obtain them if we use them to lift and strengthen others.

What is sad is Satan is going to try to deceive us and discourage us to think we don’t have gifts or that our gifts aren’t of value when compared to those of others. But we can't let him do that. My big push in this lesson was continually saying that all of these gifts are important and we should be excited that we have these gifts because their importance makes each of us important. (Did I say important too many times?) I mean, it's just awesome!

Again, think about those people in your life and their spiritual gifts... tell them that you admire their spiritual gift and how they use it! Help them recognize their gifts/talents and their value.

Another quote I really liked in the lesson was by President George Q. Cannon and he taught: “If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all the gifts of the Gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, ‘Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.’ He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them” (Millennial Star, 23 Apr. 1894, 260).

I liked that he said that, if we are "angry" we need to pray for "charity." I liked this because he's not instructing us to pray to be "less angry" but to pray for a solution that will help cancel out "anger."

In my class we also talked about how we can seek and develop spiritual gifts. First of all, put the gifts  you do have to use. Others will come through life experiences. We can pray to develop some. We can study our patriarchal blessings. One guy even brought up the point that we sometimes have to take ourselves out of our comfort zones to develop gifts... it may be hard but we have to at times.

Anyways! Sorry this was such a preaching post; it was just such a fun lesson and I wanted to share it with you!

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee” 1 Timothy 4:14

Things I Hate

Yeah, that's right... things I hate... haha. Are you shocked that I would write about such a thing.

Last year I went to Maine to visit a friend going to school there. As we were road-tripping around the state we had a lot of fun days of themed conversations: Boys, Education and Teachers who we feel made a difference in our lives, Things we Love, Life, etc., but it all started with "Things We Hate."

We were driving in the car and Melinda offered me some gum. Well very few people know this about me but I hate gum. For some reason it disgusts me and makes me gag. I can't stand when people make bubbles or pull strings of it out of their mouth or chew it like a cow. I especially hate when you step in it! Usually I just turn people down and say, "thank you anyways" (Though sometimes I wonder if my breath stinks and if I need to pop in a mint) and then move on and nobody seems to notice.

Well, Melinda noticed this time and asked, "Do you even like gum?"I then shyly admitted to Melinda (who I've known since 3rd grade) that I hated gum and I had since I was about 5. Surprisingly, Melinda replied and said, "You know! I think it is good to hate some things." And thus started a day of talking about things we hated. Not in a negative kind of way just kind of like things that we disliked that people didn't know about us. The next day we talked about all the things we loved and then every day from that we had a theme to our conversations.

So... here are a few things I hate:

1. Gum... as discussed above.
2. People who say, "That's so gay"
1. Wow, that is a GREAT way to strike a nerve with me. All it tells me about you is that you have no consideration for another's feelings and you don't really understand what you are saying. I mean common, let's be a little more intelligent with your language.
3. People who treat me like I am innocent and naive.
4. Being cold! (Though I do love a white winter/Christmas snow, snowboarding and wrapping up in a really good blanket with a book on a cold raining day)
5. Throwing up! Especially when it comes out of your nose (Ugh, that's an image)
6. People at the airport who wait in their car at the pick-up curb instead of using the park and wait. "Hello Looser! You're the reason the system doesn't work and there's always some type of traffic jam in the pick-up lanes. Yeah! You! Go back to the park and wait and use this magical thing called a cell phone to find out when your traveler is actually coming out to the curb" I've actually never said that aloud; though I'm very "mature" when this happens and have no shame as I stare angrily at these dumb drivers. Beware of the Amy glare.

2013: The Year of Mistakes

I have a friend from college who has decided that 2013 should be about life mistakes. We were talking about how we are still young and hate that we're starting "careers" and getting stuck in a lifestyle pattern that we will be doing until our late 60s and that we are missing the time where we can take random fun jobs and internships and have other experiences that can happen when we are young and single. And the entire discussion started because she wants 2013 to be about life mistakes.

Now when she says life mistakes, it is probably not what you are thinking of; she is thinking more on the lines of taking jobs you've always thought would be fun, not practical and you've talked yourself out of. For example working on a cruise ship or taking a Disney internship or working for an airline or hotel chain for the benefits. I have one friend who has always secretly wanted to be a forest ranger... 2013 is the year to do it! So maybe they're not mistakes... maybe they're experiences.

Goodness knows I've already made my first "life mistake" this year; I quit a perfectly great job. (refer to my post on 3/4/12, "Unemployment") But hey, from that I'm going to spend time with family, travel (well more than I already do), maybe take a fun internship somewhere or just move to Boston because I've always wanted to and find a job there for a few months.

This concept is completely out of my comfort zone. I'm a planner, I like having a plan. So maybe it will be good for me to fly by the seat of my pants (is it seat or seed or neither?). Maybe this is like getting a mid-life crisis out of my system before I have more serious responsibilities in my life.

anyways... Here's to 2013, the year of life mistakes! and really... maybe we should all take "mistakes" every once in awhile... even if they are small.

Making The Best of Things

For the last month of my job I took TRAX to work to save money on gas. TRAX is... well... an experience. There are people from all walks of life on TRAX. Usually I rode on TRAX with the business population and I would just get on, put my headphones in (without music playing) and read my book; nobody would bother me.

One day I had to take a later train into work because of a dentist appointment I had had that morning. TRAX was spacious that morning and filled mostly with college students, moms with little kids, high schoolers sluffing school (those shenanigans), and homeless people. As I picked a seat on an empty bench I noticed a homeless woman across the isle, who was texting on her phone, that only had her thumb and index finger on both hands. I thought to myself, "How sad, but don't stare" and then just sat down and started to read my book.

At a later stop a mom and her son (about 5 or 6 years old) got on the train and sat in a row in front of me. When the train started again the son looking around noticed the homeless woman. He immediately turned to his mom and said, "Mom! What's wrong with that lady's fingers?" The mom just ignored her son, maybe hopping he'd get distracted by something else.... but he didn't. He continued to ask over and over again, and not quietly at all, but the mom continued to ignore him.

Usually it would be natural for me to want to judge the mom for not saying anything to her son but this time I immediately put myself in the homeless woman's shoes and thought to myself, "What would I do in this situation?" and I decided that I would make the best of it and have a lot of fun. I would probably say something like, "My other fingers shriveled up because I didn't eat my vegetables" or "My fingers fell off every time I was disobedient."

It's easy to say that 's what I would do, when it's not really something I have to deal with but it was kind of an eye opener to me to make the best of the things that I have. Not in a settling type of fashion, just be grateful for what I have and continue to make life fun and enjoyable.