...through generations of time.
...through thought paradigms.
...through trends.
I couldn't help but tear up the first time I watched Dodge's 2013 SuperBowl commercial (mind you it was on youTube, we did not watch the game or commercials that night at all. Not really our thing anymore).
Anyone else moved out there, as the truth resonated within?
Regardless of how "forward-thinking" society wants to think we should be in this day & age, the truth is that we rely on the foundation of old fashioned beliefs, work ethic, know-how, dedication, art & skill-sets in order to thrive. Even lazy people couldn't survive if it weren't for the 200% efforts of the industrious.
One of my favorite sayings goes like this: "Did you eat today? Then hug a farmer."
Having grown up in small farming communities of Eastern Washington, running alongside my old step-father, who was a farmhand for many of those years, and claiming many of my childhood friends' fathers my second & third dads, makes me love & appreciate the priceless value agriculture holds in life. I have always & will always hold farmers in higher respect than politicians, multiple-millionaire businessmen, and definitely higher than celebrities.
It's sad to see how many in today's generations who are oblivious to what really keeps us ticking. It is heartbreaking to know they have lost sight of who deserves the credit for keeping possibilities alive, from technological gadgets to fashion to sports to schools to automobiles... and the list goes on & on.
Without farmers there would be no food in the tummies nor fuel for the brains behind the conveniences in life. Therefore I appreciated the sentiments of the commercial on those merits alone.
However, when Dodge chose to pair their beautiful farming images with Paul Harvey's 1978 National FFA Convention address, well they had me before he'd even finished "...and on the eighth day..."
Paul Harvey is one of the greatest voices & minds in radio broadcasting history. Not only did his message bring truth, his voice illustrated the truth with such vivid reality & punctuated it with clarity.
It was a fitting, gratitude promoting tribute. Well done Dodge!
I'm pretty much thinking I can get up in class on Sunday, read the title of the lesson, and that it would be a pretty solid lesson... beginning & end, right there. No need for me to add to it, or derail it since I'm a terrible example.
However, I'm probably wrong. Matter of fact I know I'm wrong, for if that was all it took was a gentle reminder of the value of truth in this life, then our youth wouldn't even need teachers & lessons & classes.
Not to mention the fact that the lesson manual has some pretty in depth resources that go right along with that title. Guess I'll trust the manual and actually teach rather than simply read.
TRUTH. It's sadly a rare virtue these days.
Around every bend there are little white lies to nip at our heals & big ol' doozey lies to jump us down a dark alley. Satan's wily like that. Always the opportunist, he's looking for a way to ensnare us or distract us from our present course for good.
I lied yesterday as a matter of fact. *palm-to-forehead*
Well actually I lied a few years ago, possibly the lie may have started even a few years before a few years ago.
Let it be known that yesterday I didn't just lie, but I also coerced an accomplice to back me up!
This dishonesty wasn't just for Joe Schmoe, no in fact I'm apparently more diabolical than that. It all went down whilst dealing with people who are sworn to uphold laws & keep us accountable. I was at the DMV. (Yep, I'm getting old enough for another renewal - thanks though for thinking it was my first).
So when the guy behind the counter starting verifying that my address hadn't changed, etc etc, he stated my lack of height (which made me cringe) and then asked "Are we still 135 lbs?" I scoffed a little, and remarked that, "Perhaps there might be 20 more lbs on-board now, but between you, me, and that dinky little card? Yeah, I'm still 135 lbs!"
He chuckled, then with a wink said, "Alright, you're 135 lbs. Please sign inside this little yellow box." Presto-change-O, my secret was still safe, and I now have an accomplice. (I wonder if I am obligated to send him a Christmas gift or card to keep him silenced. I'll have to consult my mob-ties for proper etiquette in the matter, I guess.)
But does everybody see what I mean in sharing this embarassing little story with all ya'll? Not that I really am proud of my deceit, but it is THAT easy and THAT acceptable to be sneaky.
Of course no one will lose an arm or an eyeball over my little lie, but where does it leave my integrity? I am sacrificing my integrity everytime I fib a little.
If fibbing or being slightly dishonest was okay, then there would be no guilt. And really, which is worse, the guilt for gluttony or the guilt for sacrificing the truth?
In my head, no one can tell that I've put on weight. But in reality, it's hard to miss... and I know what's being whispered here & there. So lying about my weight is doing nothing but fooling myself, and even then it only fools me a fraction of the time. Therefore I declare that the guilt for dishonesty is WAY worse than the other.
My lies at the DMV are obviously not the same severity as other lies we may tell ourselves or others. And sure, in a few months perhaps my license won't be lying (that is unless this second round of infertility meds goes the way we'd like), because my fat levels do fluctuate or change.
Truth, however, does not change. Period.
I'm always reminding my Beehive girls that Truth = Light = Christ.
Truth illuminates everything, therefore it is of Christ. Christ may be compassionate, and hate the sin but love the sinner, however His doctrines do not change simply because our level of sin has changed.
We can still be made clean through exercising His Atonement & repenting. His Atonement is in place for everyone, yet it doesn't change either. The only thing that changes is how much further sacrifice is required on our part in order to become clean or worthy again.
If we don't want the repentance process to be as difficult, then we must be sure we're not compounding or complicating our lives with sin in the first place. Just as major sins & lies require major repentance, a little sin or lie still requires repentance.
The actual act of lying aside, let's focus on getting back or keeping our lives on-track.
Eliminating sin in our lives is the answer. No one but Christ is perfect, I get that - so did Jesus Christ & our
Heavenly Father. That is why Christ's Atonement was necessary, so we
could repent & return. Due to our human nature, eliminating sin may seem like a daunting task. However it is by clinging to truth that we can accomplish this.
Remember Truth = Light = Christ?
Same goes the other way, Sin = Darkness = Satan.
Much like we would solve an algebraic equation by canceling a negative out with a positive, only light can overpower the darkness. Only the strength we gain through the Lord, Jesus Christ, is enough to overpower the influence of Satan in our lives. It's that simple. Both cannot coexist. When one is present, the other is absent.
We know now the power of truth, and WHY we must cling to it. Yet do we comprehend the HOW, or in other words, the recipe to follow in order to cling to truth?
President Spencer W. Kimball taught us the HOW in 4 simple steps: "The necessary procedure is: study, think, pray, and do.
… The Lord has promised repeatedly that he will give you a knowledge of
spiritual things when you have placed yourself in a proper frame of
mind. … ‘And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.’ (Moroni 10:5.)”
We've got to literally be in our scriptures daily. Not just scanning over them, but INVESTED in them. Gone are the days that we can skate by on basic scriptural understanding or recitation of the stories between the covers. It is time to search out the doctrine & spiritually feast upon it. That's only possible when we're anxiously engaged in our scripture study daily.
Thinking is vital. Not from just a logical 1+1= 2 stand-point. We are divine, spiritual offspring. Our spirits yearn to be at our Heavenly Father's feet gleaning all we can of His understanding. Currently, we may physically be distant from Him, however we can still glean all He will give us as we think & meditate upon His teachings. The Holy Ghost will confirm the truth. He's Heavenly Father's bonus gift to us. Our compass to direct us in the true direction we should go.
Prayer is the glue. Without prayer, the proximity of our relationship to Jesus Christ & Heavenly Father is like that of the fault-line of two tectonic plates, decreasing in stability & increasing in distance. Prayer is what connects our spirits to our God, what enables further learning through study & thinking to transpire. It holds us fast to the Father's will, like mortar secures two bricks together. Our submission to the Father through prayer is the method by which we can be edified, and our mission here on earth can be made crystal clear.
Doing is so much easier said than done. Doing is the follow-through, the verb to this recipe. Heavenly Father's entrusts us with light & knowledge, which come with an expectation that we will righteously act-upon the truth, refine ourselves in our life, and come away from this mortal experience more perfected than had we faced this life independent of He who created us. Doing as Heavenly Father would have us do is what propels us forward along our quest.
Doing the opposite propels us backwards & down instead.
In which direction would you prefer to go?
The 4 steps President Kimball taught about are not ones we take once in our journey.
They are the steps that we must repeat, much like that Christmas special song
"...put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking
'cross the flo-o-or...put one foot in front of the other, and soon
you'll be walking out the door!"
There is a Disney movie that is one of my most favorite, called Sleeping Beauty.
In true Disney fashion there is a beautiful, musically gifted maiden (Princess Aurora), a dashingly handsome fellow (Prince Phillip), adorable woodland creature sidekicks, some good magic (the fairies: Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather), some goons and evil magic (the villain: Malificent; the goons: her pig-dragon things).
Because of one individual’s selfishness, an evil spell is cast that would ensure the death of Princess Aurora. The King & Queen take all protective measures possible, including the elimination of every obvious weapon of their daughter’s demise, and eventually they send their precious infant daughter into hiding with the good fairies so she cannot be found by the bad fairy.
Years pass, and temptation befalls even the good fairies to risk the princess’ & their identities – even for the purest reasons. The evil villain zeroes in on the opportunity this stumble presents, and lures Princess Aurora to a secret threat, by which the original prophecy of her spell would begin to come true.
There is no way the good fairies, the King & Queen, or even the princess herself could have anticipated how cunning the evil fairy would be, nor the means by which the spell would inevitably come to pass.
To protect the princess from death, and to protect the kingdom from heartbreak, the good fairies cast a spell of their own that changes the evil spell's effects from Aurora’s death into instead a deep sleep, that also applies to those in the castle. The spell then of course can only be undone by true love’s kiss.
Enter the handsome Prince Phillip. After an earlier “chance” meeting with the then-disguised singing princess in the forest, he is smitten. He had planned on meeting up with Aurora again, yet fell into Malificent’s trap. At the evil fairy’s enchanted castle he is imprisoned, so as to keep the prince from breaking the spell & setting the kingdom free.
The good fairies, however, are not about to give up the fight, so those magical winged-ladies sneak into the evil one’s castle. There they free the prince & arm him in preparation for the battle of his lifetime. These lines of defense are the only way he can defeat Malificent (who transforms herself into a fierce dragon), flee the enchanted castle, blaze a trail through the deadly forest of thorns & vines between him and his love’s resting place.
When bestowing these items to Prince Phillip, the fairy Flora says:
“…Arm yourself with this enchanted Shield of Virtue, and this mighty Sword of Truth, for these weapons of righteousness will triumph over evil.”
In the end, the prince follows the counsel of the fairies, defeats evil, overcomes the hurdles in his path, climbs the treacherous tower to where Princess Aurora lies in an eternal sleep, kisses her lips, and life is restored to Sleeping Beauty, as well as the kingdom.
Righteousness will always prevail over evil. Virtue & truth are the weapons by which this is accomplished. Use these weapons in your own life, so you too may claim your own happy ending.
----------------------------
And with that, folks, I am at an end of my thoughts. What are yours on this topic?
The handout I prepared for this week is two-sided. It features a quote from that all-time favorite Disney classic of mine, as well as one of my all-time favorite scripture references ( I know we used it last week, but it simply is one of the greatest).
The back features the diagram shown earlier in this post. If you feel one or even both sides can bless you & your family's life, feel free to download the handouts below:
P.S.
Mini-Me is fairing quite well.
Her surgery went beautifully, and the reduction wound up being "closed"(meaning they didn't have to cut her toe open to clean out any calcifications to re-set it). The surgeon was able to manipulate the bone pieces back in place and then surgically place the pin in her toe. He is one talented guy, and has been a great blessing in this whole ordeal.
Before the anesthesiologist entered...
after the anesthesiologist...
Some new jewelry!
It's a little gruesome, but not gory. We lovingly refer to her toe as "Franky" which is short for The Frankenstein Toe. She's handling that in stride alright, as well as the nicknames her friends have dubbed her with, like "Cripps" and "Handi" and "Pogo Girl" and "Hop-Along-Cassidy."
Glad they got it right! ;)
Best. foot-rest. Ever.
Meet Franky!
Mini-Me's only relying on her crutches a little here & there, depending on her energy levels, otherwise she's walking on her heel. She's focusing mostly on her upper body in her weights class. And she's currently taking stats from the bench at her team's volleyball games, so that way once her surgeon releases her she'll be able to get right back into the season & hopefully play in the 4 or 6 remaining games. Thanks for thinking of her & praying for her. ::hugs::
(Seen one of these reflective yard signs? If so, feel pity for the family
who's not being valued, or their interests protected for that matter,
the way they should be.)
Last week, we became another door-to-door security system sales statistic.
The guys in orange showed up, gave us the sounds-too-good-to-be-true pitch, and we took the bait. Me - because there have been several recent thefts & break-ins in our area (we had a couple axles & some tires stolen), and we live so far out that emergency response times on the fast end are about 15 minutes...by then its too late. Mr LKP - because he wanted me to be happy & feel safe.
After a few days, it started to dawn on me that what we'd gotten suckered into was not practical for us. It was more of an inconvenience than anything. I could pour into the PIA details, but I'll save you some time & me some emotional re-stirring. We decided we didn't want the system after all and, since we were still within our 3 business day parameters for cancellation, we called to cancel the service.
It was a RIDICULOUS process that shouldn't have been so difficult.
Let it be known that we do not recommend Vivint, especially after this experience I'm about to relay (if that offends you, sorry - however it is the truth according to how we were dealt with). If you ever do decide to go with Vivint for your security system, we hope that you are happy with it, as the process to exercise your right to cancel within 3 business days is excruciating - and that is not a part of the journey we recommend either.
WEDNESDAY: Called to let Vivint know we were cancelling and that we would mail in the Notice of 3-day Cancellation that night, so it would be postmarked the same day. The guy in the Resolutions department said it would be best if we were to scan that signed slip and instead email it in so it would not get lost in the mail. Made sense. He then proceeded to question why we didn't want the service, and no matter what my answer was he tried to shove more equipment at me to answer each apprehension I had. I finally had to reiterate that the service was NOT PRACTICAL FOR US AND WE DID NOT WANT IT. Only after I got ticked and stated I was immovable did he let off. While on the phone with him I did as he said, and emailed the cancellation slip to support@vivint.com.
Later in the evening, I wanted to confirm that the email had been received, so I called the ROR or 3-Day Department directly to make that confirmation. Once my call was finally answered in that department, the guy there did no checking to confirm if the email had come through or not to the address I'd sent it (lazy!), instead he asked me to forward it to him at his email address there, assuring me that he'd take care of everything. Again I was grilled about why I didn't want the service. This time I wasn't about to mess around, so I calmly but firmly stated that it wasn't practical for us and we didn't want it. He pressed a bit more, wanting to know what else he could give us to keep us. I again stated we did not want it. He said he would proceed with the other items of protocol while we waited for the forward to come through in his inbox. At that point I needed to leave for Mutual, and he stated he needed to finish the call anyhow with Mr LKP, since he was the main account holder. I passed the phone off to Mr LKP, who was up to his eyeballs working on sprinklers and other yard stuff - hence he was a little irritated that he had to get involved with the process at that point in his day.
What's appalling is the fact that the Vivint guy then practically started from the beginning as far as the call was concerned, INCLUDING the grilling & badgering about getting Mr LKP to keep the service. No matter what the guy said, Mr LKP stated he did not want the service. Again the guy would shift another direction, until finally our mostly-mild-mannered Mr LKP had to raise his voice & use some offensive trucker words to get it through to that guy that the service agreement was officially over. The Vivint rep recoiled in shock, then stated he would take care of everything from there.
Late that night I received the forward back as a "failed email." Needless to say, the process was not complete, however I expected our account to be noted extensively. Since it was passed their business hours at that point, I went to bed. THURSDAY: Called in the morning to confirm that our account had been notated, that the original email to support@vivint.com had been received even though the forward to the other rep had come back failed. That call I spoke to NO ONE. Instead I sat on hold in the phone system for over 35 minutes, at which point I had to leave a voice mail. The voice mail was extensive in detail, including rep names & the length of my wait in the phone system, so whoever called back would be on the same page and understand my frustrations.
No returned call came that afternoon.
I called again in the evening, and was patched into the customer service department, where the young lady started in on the questioning of why I didn't want the system. I told her I was tired of being badgered about the question & that we just didn't want it. She stated she would directly connect me with the ROR or 3-Day department and that "it should only be a 10 minute wait." I waited in the phone system this time for over 50 minutes! Again I left a voice mail with all the necessary details, including the now two lengthy times that I sat on hold in their phone system, and I stated that if I had to call back regarding this, I would be contacting the BBB and a lawyer. FRIDAY: No returned call that morning.
Furious, I called again and this time only waited about 15 minutes before I was connected with Andrew Y. Andrew was fantastic! He didn't try to sell me a thing, nor badger the crap outta me for wanting out. He sat, he listened, he went immediately to work in the trenches to do the job others had not been willing to do. He asked I forward the email to him so he could see the time stamp on the original email to support. Within moments he had it pulled up in front of him, stated that we had actually had until 9/6 to cancel since the system had been installed on a non-business day (which was interesting since everyone else had said we only had until 9/5) and from there Andrew took care of EVERYTHING.
At the conversation's end, only thing left to coordinate was the uninstall appointment. Andrew emailed that department for them to contact us, and then Andrew stated that he had thoroughly noted our account - if any further issue came up, we are to ask for him specifically.
SATURDAY: First thing in the morning there was a survey request from Vivint in my inbox, about the experience with Andrew. So I let it ALL out! Andrew got highest marks, Vivint did not.
Like many choices in life, it's just easier to learn from others' examples than to take the hard road yourself.
Know that the camera they offer is crap if you need to video outside (like our pump house which is easily 200-300 feet from our house, and where our stuff was stolen from),
it's wireless and strictly indoor only. Not built for the outdoor
elements or the sun.
You have a monthly upload quota, that if your settings are too sensitive
(which is what you'd want since it's a security system, right??) then
the quota will be gone before even a weekend is over, let alone a month
has passed. If your panel is not near your most frequented door then 60
seconds to
evacuate is true, since after 20-30 seconds the door automatically locks
on ya. If you then unlock the door to get out the system disarms.
When you step out & re-lock it, the system does not automatically
re-arm itself. Stupid. They will try and throw a bunch of key fobs at
you to solve this, but a) aren't all of our key rings these days already
too bulky, and b) why?! Why not fix the issue rather than just slap a
band-aid on?
There it is. No facade fixes underlying problems. Fixing the underlying problems leads to no need of a fancy facade. Trust is key, especially in the business of security.
(Here's the survey. It's sorta lengthy, but my
responses I feel are pretty direct. If you're considering Vivint still,
reading this survey might just be helpful.)
