Scripture Study: Meekness

Today I decided to study the attribute of meekness.  This particular virtue seems to be very misunderstood in the world today.  In a culture of selfishness and pride, meekness is mocked and thought to be that of weakness.  There is a trend of entitlement, and at the base of entitlement lies the thought of "what's in it for me?".  I found this quote that wraps up the word meek in a nice little package:

"Being meek does not mean weakness, but it does mean behaving with goodness and kindness, showing strength, serenity, healthy self-worth, and self-control. The humble are meek and have the ability to influence others to be the same. God's promise to the humble is that He will lead them by the hand." -Elder Ulisses Soares

I especially like the part about self-control.  It takes more self-control to not have an ego. It takes self-control to respond with love and gentleness.  Meekness is not weakness, it is strength.  It is essential. In an address to BYU in 1983, Neal A. Maxwell says:

"Meekness is not an attribute which is essential only in itself, said Moroni. It is also vital because one cannot develop those other crucial virtues—faith, hope, and charity—without meekness." 

The Greek rendition of the word meek in the New Testament, is “gentle and humble.” Possessing humility allows for us to be able to see our own need for a Savior.  It increases our faith and hope in the Savior's atonement because we desire to perfect ourselves through that atonement.  We recognize our need to be cleansed.  Isn't it interesting that the cleansing process is also a humbling process. The more we strive for perfection (through repentance) the more we see our imperfection.  Thus, we are humbled and cleansed and our faith, hope, and charity is increased.  Neal A. Maxwell goes on to say: 

"Agency is essential to perfectibility, and meekness is essential to the wise use of agency—and to our recovery when we have misused our agency.

God’s refusal to conform mankind by His sheer power reflects not only the gentleness of our Father in Heaven but also His desires to preserve our free agency. Just as agency is essential to perfectibility, so meekness is essential to agency."

Last week, I studied the word obedience.  As I studied meekness, I kept thinking about it in conjunction with obedience. When we are meek and humble, we are more willing to obey. We step out of our own way and see that our Heavenly Father's way is better than our way. Because our faith and our hope has increased, our eyes are opened to the knowledge that our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to obey so that we can blessed.  The meek are teachable.  And through obedience, or the proper use of agency, the mysteries of God are unfolded.   

Sometimes, the reasons for obeying are clear to us.  Sometimes they are not.  And, yet, the meek still obey.  

"Meekness rests on trust and courage. It is reflected in Nephi’s meek acceptance of an assignment, saying, “I will go and do …” (1 Ne. 3:7) without knowing beforehand all the implications of what he was undertaking."

The willingness to "go and do" takes courage, not weakness.  It takes trust in God.  Again, God's promise to the meek is that He will lead them by the hand.

When I am out driving and another driver does something rude, it is easy for me to become angry or annoyed very fast.  I have wondered why it is that way. Jon Mark has said that it is because people don't see the car and the person, they just see the car.  It is easy to be rude behind the wheel or get upset at rudeness because we completely objectify the situation. We live in a world of objectification. Social media makes it easy to objectify people.  A Facebook post or Twitter post is a post. Commentators say vicious words in relation to posts.  Hate and anger run rampant on the internet. People say things in the comment sections to posts that they would never say face to face.  I wonder, sometimes if it is because the virtual world sets the stage for objectification.  What does this have to do with meekness???  Consider these words from Neal A. Maxwell in the same address:

"Meekness permits us to be prompted as to whether to speak out or, as Jesus once did, be silent. But even when the meek speak up, they do so without speaking down."

Sometimes, I don't know when I should speak up (kindly) or remain silent.  For me, knowing what to do is achieved best when I reflect upon my motives behind doing either option. Am I commenting out of selfish desire to be right?  Is my ego getting in my way?  Or, am I commenting out of genuine concern for another, and am I able to do so in a respectful and loving manner?  Am I staying silent out of fear?  Or, am I staying silent because commenting would just stir up feelings of anger and contempt? "But, even when the meek speak up, they do so without speaking down."

One of my favorite hymns is, More Holiness Give Me.  There is a line in that song that says,

More fit for the kingdom,

More used would I be,

More blessed and holy--

More, Savior, like thee.

A meek person desires to be used by our Heavenly Father to further His work.  The meek also recognize that service in the Kingdom of God fits us to be more holy and blessed, and more like our Savior.  We covenant to be like Him.  To take His name upon us.  We covenant that we are willing to give back to the Lord all that we have been blessed with.  

I will conclude this posting with these final words from that address:

"It is meekness, therefore, which helps us to step gratefully forward to place on the altar the talents and time and self with which we are blessed—to be at God’s and His children’s disposal. The offering is of a gentled self, a self concerned with charity—not parity."

A Day At The Park

Joshua has a saying, "No fair! I'm not there!" He says that each time he discovers that we went and did something fun while he was at school.  I wish he was with us all the time, but I cannot stay home and be bored all day every day.  So, we went to the park.  

Here is a good picture of Hannah's pig tails.

Hannah is fearless and climbs anything that her brother climbs.  It kind of stresses me out.

The following pictures were my attempt to get a good picture of Mercedes.  She was being goofy.

Tantrums

This is what it looks like when ALL FOUR kids are having a complete meltdown all at the same exact time.  It was really loud.

Cold Day Pictures

One Sunday, Lindsay and Brian weren't home yet so we entertained ourselves on their trampoline.  I was cold, so I sat in the car.

Picture of the Kiddos

The other day I took my camera out and just took a few pictures of the kids playing.  They look a little unkempt but they are still cute.  Hannah kept saying, "CHEESE!"  Hannah is such a funny little lady, and she has a strong personality.  She reminds me a little of Mercedes at that age.  She has a sweet tooth and has a hard time eating anything that isn't sweet.  While the kids think it is hilarious when she "feeds the floor", I'd rather she feed her belly.  Last night she didn't get any dessert because she didn't eat her dinner and the tantrum carried on for an hour.  She loves her blankie.  She carries it around everywhere with her.  She loves baths and being outside.  She loves doing things to make her siblings laugh, which doesn't take much effort.  She lets me put her hair into pigtails and leaves them in now.  She is great at jumping on the trampoline and at talking.  She repeats everything.  The other day, Papa Haws said hi to Luke and Luke just grunted.  Hannah laughed and said to Papa, "Luke said hmpft." As she mimicked his grunt.  It was cute. 

Luke likes getting his picture taken.  He has a protective and loyal heart.  He would put himself at risk to save another each and every time.  He has some funny prayers.  He always, ALWAYS makes sure to pray that we will get to eat pizza.  He also always prays that mommy and daddy will get married.  I have told him many times that we are married and that we have been married for almost ten years, but he stills prays for it.

Speaking of marriage, the other day Luke, Mercedes, and Hannah and I were waiting in the car for Jon Mark and Joshua at Home Depot.  It was taking them a really long time to come out of the store.  It seemed like an eternity to the kids.  Mercedes finally turned to me and said, "Mom, what if dad got a new wife and forgot all about you?" Jon Mark shortly came out after that comment and she seemed relieved.  I have no idea where she would get such a notion from.  I think some of her friends at school come from divorced families and perhaps they said something to her.  I reassured her that mom and dad would always be married, no matter what.  Divorce is such a sad thing.  The kids really get the short end of the stick. Mercedes has such a big heart and big emotions.  She always seems to feel things 110%.  Whether the emotion is remorse, love, sadness, anger, or happiness.  She feels it all and shows it all 110%.

Joshua is the perfect older brother.  He is responsible and caring.  The other day, Luke had a freak accident at the park and he pooped himself.  I was trying desperately to clean him up (he ended up being pretty much naked because the poopy got everywhere), and Hannah was still running around the park.  It was comforting to see her big brother staying within two feet of her trying to make sure she was safe and sound while I cleaned up Luke.  Joshua is terrified of dogs.  Last week we went to dinner at Mommom and Papa's house.  I was caring the hamper full of food and juggling Hannah's shoes.  He was holding Hannah's hand.  A very big dog came from nowhere and was bolting straight at us.  Joshua let go of Hannah and raced for the house.  I grabbed Hannah and waddled as fast as I could to the house behind him.  I had just enough time to dive into the house and slam the door just as the dog was about to come in after us.  I almost slammed the door on his snout.  Joshua later said that he thought Hannah was safer with me and that he was trying to get us into the house fast by running ahead and opening the door for us.  He was probably right to do so. 

I LOVE this picture of Hannah.  Her big blue eyes and expression shows so much of who she is.

32 weeks Pregnant

Joshua took this picture of me as we were walking out of the door.  It's my 32 week belly and it is what a large baby, but normal fluid levels look like. 

I had a scan done that resulted in some interesting notes.  First, I believe it to be a typo, but there is a chance that baby boy is really baby girl.  I just think that the ultrasound tech hit the wrong key, but she recorded that it was a female.  I guess we will have to wait and see.

Second, my fluid levels are within the normal range.  This is great news.  Last time I had 10 pounds of amniotic fluid and the average person only has 2 pounds.  This pregnancy has been so much more comfortable for me.  That's not to say it is necessarily comfortable, just more so.  

Third, everything looked fine with the baby anatomically. The baby is in the 97% for size, so they think he will be around 9 or 10 pounds at birth.

Fourth, my placenta is in the anterior position at grade 2.  So, basically this could cause a problem with how the doctor performs the c-section.  Because it is in the way of the incision, if it does not move in the next two weeks, I will most likely need a blood transfusion.  My doctor is ordering blood to be sent to the hospital to prepare for it.  There is a chance that if that doesn't work, I will need to have a hysterectomy.  Finally, this is highly unlikely, but there is a chance that they will need to cut me vertically from my rib cage down to my pubic bone.  None of these sound like fun, and I am trying not to worry.  My doctor told me that my uterus has about two or three more weeks to improve the situation.  I said, "Oh, good, then I shouldn't worry."  To which he replied, "well, no, you should definitely be concerned, but you don't need to worry and panic." That doesn't calm a pregnant lady's nerves, however, I am surprisingly calm.  I'm actually not that worried.  I am letting the Lord handle it.  I think it'll all turn out to be okay.

Kid Drawings and A Random Picture of JMM

Here is a random picture of JMM.

 This is a drawing that Luke drew.  It is Elsa the Snow Queen with magic coming out of her hands. Mercedes didn't think that it looked like Elsa, so she scribbled on it.  I told her that wasn't nice.

This is a picture of who-knows-what, but I liked it because Luke tried writing the letters in his name.  You can clearly see the L and U.  I thought it was a good attempt to do all on his own.

Luke drew a spider (I think), maybe having baby spiders or pooping???  Not sure...

This is something that Joshua wrote at school.  

 He has gotten better about not writing some of his letters backwards, which is awesome!

This is something else that Joshua did at school.  I thought it was funny. It says, "Dear Santa, I hope you have had a good year.Could you please bring my mom a music box? Could you please bring my dad a real robot? My brother and sister would like a game. Your Friend, Joshua"

He said that he wanted Jon Mark to have a real robot so that the robot could go to work for him and he could stay home and play with the kids all day.

This is something Mercedes wrote at school.  Her reindeer's name is Luke.  He has a pink nose and is 10 years old.  He eats pancakes, and lives in America, and he likes to eat.

This is a Joshua drawing of hot lava flowing into some very ornate tunnels.

Mercedes drew some girls.  I'm not sure who they are.