1 Nephi: Part One of a Series on Likening the Scriptures

One of my Relief Society president's in college once shared how every now and then she gets a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon, writes her question inside and starts praying and fasting and marking it up. And every time the scriptures come to life in a new way for her! So, for my personal scripture study I have been studying how we receive strength beyond our own.

I was also inspired a while back by a visiting general authority and his wife. She had many touching things to say and her testimony was beautiful. She mentioned briefly that she had written a book called The Book of Mormon: A Pattern for Parenting. This may explain in part why all throughout First Nephi I was drawn to ways to better live the gospel as a mother and wife. So here are some insights on a fruitful tangent. (I'm sure if I thought hard enough I could make a nerdy math joke, but I won't.)

Chapter 1: Personal Prayer and Journal Keeping
This may be stating the obvious but I'll go out on a limb here and write it anyway: You can't be a good parent without a whole lot of prayer. And I don't mean the desperate in-the-moment child-abuse-preventing kind, though those may be necessary at times. I'm talking about talking with the Lord in gratitude and with an intent to act upon the answers He sends.

In verses 1-2 and 16-17 we learn about another helpful habit of successful parents: journal keeping. Lehi taught his son Nephi (and probably his other children as well) to read and write. Thus Nephi would be able to read the scriptures taken from Laban in addition to writing a scriptural record of his own. But he also abridged his father's record, or a piece of it anyway. If you're not familiar with why this was a wise use of his writing and family history skills, check out this link to the LDS seminary manual regarding the translation of the first section of the Book of Mormon.

Another wonderful blessing of journal keeping is witnessed in verse one. Nephi writes that despite his life being hard, "nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days." I'm not sure if his keeping a record as commanded by God was what allowed him to come the such a knowledge and testimony, but our latter-day prophets have testified again and again of the importance of keeping a personal record.

President Spencer W. Kimball taught:
         But I promise you that if you will keep your journals and 
         records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to 
         your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and 
         others, on through the generations....
       
        From time immemorial the Lord has counseled us to be a 
        record-keeping people.

Nephi may be writing what we know as the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon in hindsight, but one of my fondest prayers in my choice callings of wife and mother is that I and my children will be able to recognize from our lives the many tender mercies which come from faithful obedience to true principles.

Chapter 2: Sanctifying Obedience
So here's another obvious lesson about good parenting: it involves sacrifice. And I'm talking about true sacrifice where we give up something good for something even better. Because let's face it: giving up whatever we want to do what God wants us to makes us better people period. I firmly believe doing so is one of our main purposes of this mortal probation!

What sort of things might we sacrifice as parents? Sleep, our pride and sometimes our dignity, our sanity, personal dreams, postponed travel plans, time alone, financial security... What can we learn from Lehi about sacrifice? Well, let's ponder his examples of sanctifying obedience. 1) He risk his life to deliver his prophet message or burden as Isaiah sometimes calls it. 2) In order to save his life and because he was commanded of the Lord, he abandoned his way of life and relative comfort for a really long camping trip and boat ride with some less than cooperative children. 3) He was grateful for the warnings of God even if they were hard to follow: so grateful in fact that he built an altar of stones and made an offering! 4) Even in the desert he found ways to fulfill his eternal calling as a father and teach his sons of the Lord's ways.

My parents have always been great example to me. I have memories of learning principles of "faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities" from watching, playing with, and working alongside them. My dad was always inviting us to draw gospel parallels and asking us what we learned. While I didn't always have the best attitude about it growing up, I appreciated it even then, and more so now as I am a parent myself.

Learning from the less-than-teachable attitudes of Laman and Lemuel and recalling that just about everyone in this caravan would have murmuring moments before reaching the Promised Land, I believe it's important to always be aware of your attitude and how it is affecting your current situation. Notice I didn't say how your attitude is affected by your current situation. If you're looking for a way to adjust your attitude for the better? Come to know that dealings of Almighty God. (See verse 12 and recall lessons from the previous chapter of 1 Ne. 1:1.)

I think Lehi did this and his example led Nephi to do so as well. Consider the juxtaposition in verses 14 and 15. Lehi is filled with the power of God to the confounding of his two murderous sons and yet he dwells in a tent. While he would've been justifiably angry, I don't think he could have had so profound an impact in rebuking them if his words were just spoken in rage. It says he was filled with the Spirit of God and that he spoke unto them" until their whole frames did shake before him." The Lord can help us as we seek to teach and discipline our children. Of course He will, I mean they're His children too after all! I am certain Lehi sought the Lord's assistance regularly in prayer and that is part of what prompted his then youngest son Nephi to go to the Lord in prayer and receive a testimony that his father was indeed a prophet called of God.

1 Nephi 15:3-6 Dealing with Challenges
Some things are just hard to understand. Unless you inquire of the Lord.

Sometimes we're discouraged by the actions or lack thereof by those around us. Sometimes we're less than hopefully. When we are already discouraged, Satan will come and try to make it worse. But we can still choose our reactions and we must remember that Christ has descended below ALL things. He has born your grief and experienced YOUR sorrows. We can also receive strength from God.

Once we are strengthened we must forge that strength of character by strengthening and edifying others.

I've Got the Music in Me: How I Write Music

I thought it would be nice to preserve for myself and posterity how it is that I come up with parodies. As my toddler daughter and her friends will readily attest, when Mommy is happy she often sings and dances, especially in the kitchen. When I was younger I would choose a topic and then a song that conveyed the mood I wanted. For an upcoming family reunion the music was chosen for me and is a song I know well: "Follow the Prophet". Each married couple among my grandparents' descendants is to come up with a verse about their small piece of the family tree.

I started by jotting down a few key words and phrases of events or titles I should probably include. While humming the first few lines in my head, those phrases were easily embellished to fit into the meter. Cadences were locked into place once I simultaneously figured out what I wanted to say about these keys phrases and which rhyming words would allow me to string them together in a coherent fashion.

As I went along I came up with three possible verses. There were things I liked and disliked about each one. Then it became a game of English analysis. I wanted to be deliberate in how I presented myself and my family. How did I decide what to include? Read on.

I wanted our verse to show how we view ourselves and to highlight the things that are most important to us. Ironically the draft that did this best did not initially mention physics or music. (Physics is what my husband has studied throughout college and grad school; it represents his love for solving problems and learning how things work. Music represents my expressive nature and my desire to find beauty in everything then share it with those around me. I sang before I could talk.) I swapped out the phrase "high school sweethearts" for singer and physicist, since I felt these labels to be more accurate.

Initially I wanted to possibly mention our waiting for child #2. Instead I chose not to mention our secondary infertility at risk of making people uncomfortable. We're not trying to complain or look for sympathy, but it is so often on our minds. Also, since Greg's little brother married my little sister and they just had their first child, the lines about weaving our two family names into one and having a daughter are not as unique as one might think.

Draft #1

Out in Rexburg, Idaho Greg met Danielle:

Romance quickly followed,

A mission as well.

Now he studies physics out in Illinois,

Victoria, their daughter, is their pride and joy.

Draft #2

Once their was a singer who loved a physics nerd,

Through college and a mission in case you hadn't heard.

Weaving Hart and Eaton into a family,  

We have a sweet daughter: Victoria is she.

Going through all the drafts, the one I like best includes only our starting location. The more I think about it, the more limiting of our future it could be to end the verse with our current location. Obviously Illinois is not an ending in our lives, but ending a verse that way doesn't leave the listener following us into a hopeful future.

Here's the final draft:

A singer and a physicist in Rexburg, Idaho:          
Studying together, our love did grow.                                  
College, mission, more school, a daughter joined our clan!
We're a happy family thanks to God's great plan.

I like how the first few lines don't have an obvious beginning date. Our friendship in high school grew and blossomed into a lovely marriage from subtle beginnings. I like too that the second line is not as specific as it could be, implying how together we study anything. (It's true. From calculus to the scriptures to opera, we enjoy it all.) I love ending with our testimony. God's plan for all His children has been the overarching goal in everything we do. Its doctrines enrich our perspective and color even our day to day actions. And there you have it.

Toddler Talk: Spring Has Arrived!

                                         "Can we go play outside? It's such a lovely day for it?"

In spring we learn how to take care of things.
V: Oh no, the fly died? It was probably just looking for some food. I hope we have another one.
M: Wait you want another fly to come into our house. thinking: I thought you didn't like them. You were afraid of it at first.
V: Yeah. Because I like taking care of things.
M: Aw... Yes and you're very good at it. You take care of that gift God has given you and use it well.

V: It's difficult to take care of two kids. (She has been playing Mom a lot lately)
M: Yeah? Why?
V: Because you can't take care of two kids at the same time...It's really sad.

M: To Toria What's your favorite part about having a garden?
V: Watering the plants.
M: Why do you like watering the plants?
V: Because that's quite fun.

In spring we learn how to dress for the changing weather.
V: My tights make my bloomers look weird. See? Strikes a pose to enhance the largeness of her little bottom.
...assorted comments from mom...
V: Yeah, the first time my skirt didn't fit--
M: Wait, you have your skirt on underneath your bloomers?!
V: excited and clearly proud of her ingenuity Yeah!
M: Why?! That is just so weird and wrong and...ugly.
V: And silly. More big bottom poses eliciting giggles and comments from play date companion and a warning from Mom

In spring we learn how to behave indoors as well as outside.
"Mom, Hobbes is only a little bit bad." Comparing and contrasting Calvin's and Hobbes' misbehavior and considering when Hobbes pushing Calvin into the pond to make their fishing trip more exciting.

View our May album here...

The Merry Month of May: A Perfect Prelude to June

Remembering Elder Perry

As I study Elder L. Tom Perry's obituary on the church's website I am struck by several ways in which I am or can be like him and his family.
             Elder L. Tom Perry was a builder all his life.    
             Sometimes that meant building a chapel out of 
             the rubble, and other times it meant building up a 
             soul or a nation in need of his boundless optimism,              enthusiasm, and spiritual power.

             Wherever he went, Elder Perry left things stronger 
             than they were before he came.

I want to be more of an optimist. I'll start by cultivating hope and Christ and refer to problems only as opportunities, just as he did. I want it to be said of me that I make friends wherever I go! I want to be like his mother, to be known for teaching. I also want it to be obvious to those around me that family is of utmost importance to me.

While I've never considered myself very patriotic, I love that L. Tom Perry's sacrifices to God were motivated by the same values that motivate me. While our country may drift away from these values to the point of dishonoring the sacrifices of its veterans, I still feel his testimony resonate within me:  

            I will teach my firm conviction that the foundation of any righteous government is the law

               that has been received from the Lord to guide and direct man’s efforts. Righteous 

               government receives direction from the Lord.

I also appreciate Elder Quentin L. Cook's summary:

              Through his background as a Marine he was very patriotic. and he saw faith, hope, and 
              family as a heritage of his generation of some of the things they were fighting for, some of 
              the things they were trying to protect. That those were some of the basic values that were 
              really most important.

Elder Perry said, “There is a real satisfaction that comes from finishing a task, especially when it is the best work we know how to do.” (See L. Tom Perry, “The Joy of Honest Labor,” Ensign, Nov. 1986, 62, 64.)

Elder Perry never did anything less. He built, he taught, he served, he testified—all to the best of his ability. He was a true builder of the kingdom. Heaven has gained a great man.

Educational Endeavors
This summer we're doing week long unit studies to introduce Victoria to geography. This week we'll discuss key topics each day so that when we start studying countries she'll understand when we study using newer vocabulary. The library had some wonderfully helpful books to get us started. For example, Greg is in charge of showing her a globe (just bought one of the cheap inflatable ones via Amazon prime tonight!) and other types of maps and their uses. He'll also discuss longitude and latitude to give her practice with numbers and a reference point for the different hemispheres. That's all in a day's lesson.

Next week we'll studying the USA and spend one day on each state in which we have a stronghold of family, starting with IL. The rest of the countries will get one day for general facts and world context, one day on environments (notable climate characteristics and terrain) as well as places to see. Culture will be in over the course of several days: one day on clothes and music, one day on church history, one day on food, and one day on traditions holiday and otherwise. I'm sure many of you have valuable experiences to lend to this endeavor so don't be shy. I am thinking that we'll do this weekly schedule:

• Algeria (because we babysit for an Algerian family), 
• France (Victoria and Greg are studying French and Aunt Lisa nannied there), 
• Brazil (because we'll go visit our cousin Ben for the 4th of July and hear all about his mission), 
• Puerto Rico (Victoria's best friend is 1/4 Puerto Rican & her mom can help teach us)
• Germany (for Opa)
• the Philippines (because we already love adobo and for Uncle Spencer)
• FAMILY REUNION in Utah (maybe I learn a little tennis from Sam and Jonathan?)
• Italy (Toria loves their gymnasts and we've got RM aunties to interview)

Victoria will end up with a nice book this summer. I'm sharing what I've created here for others who may find it helpful. All are welcome to view it and share it. Just don't try to sell it or say you made it, okay?

Delightful Daydreams

Our garden is doing well and the maintenance man in charge of landscaping told me about some lovely purple irises that will grow well in my muddy flower bed out back. One of the best parts is that they're free! Cynthia's idea of a seasonal flower garden sounds particularly admirable. Greg surprised me with fresh flowers and a romantic Italian lunch from scratch this afternoon we included herbs we don't normally buy but happen to be growing: sigh of contentment. (See old but relevant photo below.) That man is golden! Back to the garden harvest...We inherited a plot with asparagus and are still sharing a double plot this year with our dear friends, the Savages. 

So far we've enjoyed asparagus, some sort of lemony lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, and soon green beans carrots, strawberries, raspberries, and garlic. Tomatoes and three kinds of squash will come a bit later in the season.

In addition to dreaming about the various stages of our garden and small yard, Greg and I have been talking more and more about the possibility of an overseas post doc in about 3 years. We still like the idea of going close to my mom's brother in NC to see how southern living treats us. Only time will tell where we'll end up.

Productive Projects
Victoria and I are going to begin a quilt for her soon inspired by Rapunzel and her golden sun. Yellow is one of Victoria's favorite colors. It is fun to have her help with every part of the sewing process. She was so ecstatic to learn how to chain crochet with her own little fingers during stake conference. She was reverent after bedtime for nearly an hour as a result! Sadly, she also enjoys unraveling her work.

Speaking of work, Greg is back in the swing of working for two two separate professors on separate projects with similar methodologies. I myself have been enjoying my scaled back work hours. Babysitting will pick up with the start of summer term and I'm already planning where to tuck the money into our budget.

Lemonade stand: Oh the Difference You Make

After reading about my nephew's "Out of This World" lemonade stand for his school and trying to prepare a family home evening lesson during nap time, I was inspired to revisit this draft of a blog post. Some of my ideas may sound repetitive if you've been following me a while, but I won't apologize. Sometimes it takes a few tries for the lessons God gives me to stick with me enough to change me. And I'm sure I'm not the only one ;-)

"May I point out something obvious? Life rarely goes exactly according to plan for anyone...It is still important to understand and teach the Lord’s pattern and strive for the realization of that pattern the best we can." 1

This lesson has really been brought home to me as of late. I am grateful for supportive friends and family who make such lessons less painful for me to learn. (In case you didn't know, my biggest pet peeve in life is when things don't go according to planned.) Sometimes I think if I can just square my shoulders and think positively I can get through ___. Like a kidney stone, this too shall pass. But as my favorite quote from the movie Letters to Juliet goes, "Life is the messy bits."

About a year ago I was feeling rather frustrated by a recurring problem. I thought was doing everything I could to live my ideals and things just weren't working out. I wanted the Lord's confirmation that I should keep trying, even and especially when what I was doing didn't seem to make a difference. I wanted to be able to better enjoy life's messy bits; I felt inspired to write this poem about a successful attempt of mine to make lemonade out of life's lemons. I don't think I've ever shared it publicly til now.

That sour moment when
Life hands you a lemon.
That tense moment when
You do your best to be nice and just try anyway.

That moment of relief when
A friend pitches in to help.
That satisfying moment when
You realize you've just made
Lemonade.

I leave you with this invitation to choose to turn sour moments sweet. Whether it's choosing not to pass judgement after a brief glimpse at a stranger's worst moment or smiling and making cheerful small talk while you wait in the longest grocery store line of your life, these are some of the small ways that each of us can make a great impact whose far reaching effects may surprise you. "So go and do something today!"

Finding Balance Through Christ's Atonement

Last night I studied Elder L. Whitney Clayton's April 2015 Conference talk, "Choose to Believe", and in it I found reassurance and encouragement as well as solutions to my seemingly unrelated problems. For example, as a parent and babysitter I seek to respect the agency of the young children entrusted to my care; I err on the side of compulsion to do what is right, most especially when it is I who must pay the price for their bad behavior. Due to a recent challenge I find myself reevaluating many things but most especially my parenting methods. I pray I will learn quickly to discipline more like the Lord and not feel conflicted between loving tolerance and a permissive lack of rule enforcement. I am certain that I am not the only one who struggles with this balance and I pray my studies and testimony will encourage more than just myself today. (This conundrum of finding balance between two good ways to follow the Lord which both turn bad when taken too far is beautifully discussed in a book I highly recommend: Extremes: How to Keep Your Virtues From Becoming Vices.)
              "God does not compel us to believe any more than He compels us to keep any commandments,
               despite His perfect desire to bless us. Yet His call to us to believe in Him—to exercise
               that particle of faith and to give place for His words—remains in effect today."

Right and wrong are not negotiable and at some point we will feel the pressing debt to justice of delayed consequences. God's commandments apply equally to everyone. And yet there is the atonement. I'll come back to this thought in a moment.

As I reread passages of this inspired message looking for the quotes I could not mark during my study last night, I was struck by this little sentence: "Sailor could not know at first if what she was doing as she pushed her way through the underbrush would actually work." If you are unfamiliar with the story to which he is referencing, please go read the first part of his talk at least! He continues,"She was lost and injured; it was dark and cold. But she left the crash site and ventured out in hope of rescue, crawling and scraping her way forward until she saw a light in the distance. Once she had seen it, she did her best to move toward it, remembering what she had seen." While most of us will never face such dramatic, traumatic experiences as this little girl, I will still attempt to draw parallels. Think of the last time you felt hopeless and then answer the following questions:

1. Have you ever felt lost and injured, surrounded by darkness and cold? You may have been surrounded by people and yet still been alone in a sense.
2. Have you ever been asked to move on or move forward, to pick yourself up from a hardship and continue on as though you're unhampered by the injuries you've sustained?
3. Have you ever in the midst of trial, discovered glimmers of goodness and glimpses of light, evidences of the love of an ever mindful Father in Heaven? Have you noticed that sometimes such experiences are easily forgotten and swallowed up in our personal anguish if we do not cling to them and seek out the Lord in a desperate plea for more.

Sometimes we may get discouraged by our imperfect attempts to do what is right. To quote a hymn, "the day dawn is breaking, hailing a future of freedom and light."  But sometimes my future doesn't feel very bright. In these moments of painful realization it is easy for me to wonder if what I am doing is actually making a difference. Yet "the Spirit whispers this to me and tells me it is true[:]" just like in the parable of the prodigal son, my stumbling attempts to return home to my Father in Heaven are met with the running footsteps of someone coming to greet me, embrace me, and welcome me home. Because of the eternal sacrifice of my Savior and yours, I can be made whole. I can repent from my mistakes and heal from the mistakes of others. I can find strength to persevere in my enduring to the end. Because I know that my God is waiting to help me cross the finish line. 

Elder Clayton testified that "[s]ometimes progress in spiritual things can seem slow or intermittent. Sometimes we may feel that we have lost ground, that we have made mistakes, or that our best efforts to find the Savior are not working. If you feel this way, please do not give up—ever. Go right on believing in Him and in His gospel and His Church. Align your actions with that belief." I add my witness and that of the Book of Mormon prophet Alma's that "if [we] can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you,even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of [the Savior’s] words.” That is what conversion is. That is how the atonement of Jesus Christ can begin to work in our lives daily, to change us and "to make us new creatures in Christ." 2 Cor. 5:17.

So I will move forward, acknowledging my weakness: "'Twas I, but 'tis not I." I don't have to repeat mistakes, and when I do I don't have to be doomed to continue repeating them and forever be marked as a sinner. I will keep on trying! My character as a daughter of God can be molded into what He wants me to be, through the love and teachings of my family and my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Time for Another Toddler Talk: Sing, Dance, Imagine!

Birthday stats for Mom

• Name and age: Danielle Eaton Hart, 27 years old
• What do you like to do: I am a creator. I am a nurturer of truth and beauty. I maintain a blog, do family history, crochet and sew, make gifts and cards for friends, day dream about interior design projects, and grocery shop.
• What food do you like to eat: My current favorite snack is goat cheese with chopped fresh basil and craisins with maybe a dash of lemon pepper and drizzle of oil, on a slice of  toasted Panera tomato basil bread (not gluten-free.)
• Who are your friends: I have a lot of friends. These days my friends are most easily found in my neighbor and within my church congregation: Suzie as well as the Savages, Packs, Freestones, and Deckers to name a few. 
• Greatest blessing: Aside from my family I'd say financial security.
• Current trials aka blessings in disguise: We have been trying to get pregnant since September 2012.

We sing a lot around here. While we eat...

singing: I'm eating the popsicle. Lemon, lemon, LEMON!

While we build things...

"Don't be afraid. Just say a prayer and God will help you. Don't be afraid. God gave you the power to do almost anything." She also sang about needing to be nice and that we should brush our teeth twice a day.

We also like to dance...

An older example but accurate nonetheless

And imagine...

I'm catching fire. And it doesn't even burn me.
You're catching fire?! With what?
With a stick...spinning and twirling. It (not a typo) was really good with my controlling. Wow, it just flew right on the desk Mom.

We believe in finding truth and beauty and sharing it with others. Victoria likes to bear her testimony at home a lot about the things she is learning, often quoting her parents and the scriptures. Most of the time she keeps those quotes in context as she elaborates upon the doctrines found therein.

Our Schedule

Wake up 7:30 – 8:30 A.M.
Help Mom work out and/or babysit
Lunch around noon
Quiet time followed by more playing and creating
Dinner by 5:45 PM (Toria and I begin to fall apart around 5:00 without food)
Family time, reading and playing games
Bedtime routine starts at 7:00 P.M. (Toria asleep by 9; Mom and Dad by 10.)

Growing Girl—I don't remember the last time Victoria went to the doctor, but that's a good thing at this point. Last time we checked she is still trying to break 30 pounds. She has broken the meter mark for height at least. She wears 2T clothing if it's not too tight or short (she'll tell mommy whether or not something is immodest). She can comfortably wear most of the 3T clothes she has tried on. Her favorite is a hand-me down "ballerina swimsuit" from cousin Emily Hansen. She wears it over other clothes and sometimes by itself but is horrified if you mention using it as a swimsuit. Not all her clothes are pink, but general the pink stuff is her favorite. The only way I can take stuff out of circulation in her closet is if the item is being given away or saved for a future already-loved sibling.

Discipline—Victoria doesn't get in trouble much. We talk about our feelings and try to listen to each other and model good behavior. If Mommy replies with a feeling word that has a corresponding Daniel Tiger song, Victoria will often sing it or a Primary song upon request to help Mommy calm down. We only run into problems when she's like a pixie and too full of one emotion to even think. We've been working on this slowly but surely; role playing and time outs are our most effective ways to discipline. She also knows that she has to earn her TV time. Unfortunately she can be heard to shout about other things she doesn't want to do: "I only have to earn my TV time!" That is more true in her eyes than in her parents'. She is really into discovering her agency and the parameters we have placed upon it. She recently decided to finish potty training because it was finally her idea and not ours to have bowel movements in the toilet only. Praise the Lord! 

Personality—Victoria was blessed by her father shortly after being born "that others will see in [her] a glimpse of Christ." She has always been concerned with the needs of others and how to help them feel better. We've worked to cultivate other spiritual gifts as they come. She loves to clean and sing and create. She has inherited her mother's gift for homemade birthday/thank you/get well cards.