October 9, 2022
Dear Family:
I understand that our Indian Summer is going to last another
10 days or two weeks. I’m missing rain! Can
you believe. No rain around here for so long.
It isn’t quite as hot but today got up to 83.
Birthdays this month; Brad Schnell Oct 22, Glennda Short Field Oct 24, McKay Schnell Oct 23.
Glennda, Scott, their friends The Johnsons, and I had
Thanksgiving Dinner today. Glennda and
Scott worked all day yesterday and before and after church today. It was absolutely delicious. All the good stuff. Glennda discovered the best candied Sweet
Potato Recipe so far. We all agreed it
was even better than all the other’s we’ve tried including our mother’s old
way. So I’ll share.
Yesterday Glennda called me for some homemade roll
advice. Then we talked about what she
would do when I was gone. (You see, we’ve
lost our Judy and sometimes we would like to call her for advice too.)
So today I thought that I would share a talk I gave 11 or 12
years ago when I moved back from Arizona.
Carter was 9. I thought maybe someday my grandchildren and great
grandchildren would like to know what I said in a talk I gave in about
2011.
"I was born in Idaho and I am so fortunate to
have ancestors who joined the church many years ago and crossed the plains with
thousands of other converts to the gospel.
I have 3 children and 9 grandchildren. My patriarchal blessing, says
that my greatest mission in this life would be to be a mother and to prepare me
and my family for exaltation. I loved
raising my children and I absolutely love being a grandmother. Joelle and Brad Schnell and their children
are part of my great love and every minute I spend with them is treasured. (Their family and I were in the same ward
then.)
Topic: Peace a triumph of Principles
April
Conf, Pres Monson.
“The
world around you is not equipped to provide the help you need to make it
through this often-treacherous journey. So
many in our society today seem to have slipped from the moorings of safety and
drifted from the harbor of peace.” What
is this harbor of peace, where is it?
To
illustrate, I am going to tell you a personal story from my childhood while my
family lived in Vale, Oregon. Norma Smirthwaite in our ward, is the only person
I know who is also from Vale.
My grandson
Carter Schnell is 9. When I was about
his age, it was my assignment every day and sometimes twice a day…. to walk down the canal road, cross the canal
bridge and bring the cows back to the barn for my dad to milk them. My dad couldn’t afford a farm hand, so because
I was the oldest, I was his best helper.
On the right
side of this road was a deep canal full of irrigation water. My sisters and I were never allowed in the
water, because my mom had heard somewhere that you could get polio from ditch
water. Polio was a very debilitating disease back in the 50’s. So I never ever
even thought of wading or jumping into that water. On the left of this road was an electric
fence. The purpose of this fence was to
keep the cows out of the fields that we planted with sugar beets, alfalfa and
potatoes. I had been told that if I
touched that fence that I would get shocked.
So to
prepare for this assignment, my Dad spent a couple weeks teaching me to whistle
really loud. I was instructed …..when I got near the cow’s pasture, that if I
whistled, they would line up by the gate and I wouldn’t have to run all over
the pasture driving them back to the barn.
I had my trusty switch (a switch is a stick cut out of a tree that is
bendable and about 3 feet long) in my hand.
I walked behind them, and I could tap the cow on the behind and she
would get back on the path. I repeated this chore hundreds of times.
Now, the
electric fence came to be a great curiosity to me. I had watched my Dad put it up and he placed insulators
on the fence posts so that wouldn’t transfer the electricity down to the
ground, that the wire was connected to each insulator on each fence post with a
metal clamp. I had to have every detail
…..how it was built, where did the electricity come from, how did it go along
the wire, and what happened if you touched it.
I had seen him touch that
electric fence with his switch, so I decided that I could too. I went along for a while thinking I was
pretty smart being able to touch that fence and not get shocked. If the cows brushed up again it, they
immediately danced away from the fence because it shocked them. They never came near it again.
Well, I got
bored with just touching the fence with my switch. After contemplating those insulators for
several weeks, I decided that I would touch them with my switch. No problem.
No shock. Pretty soon, I was
bored again. So I decided that I would try touching one insulator with my bare finger
while I was walking the cows to the milking barn. I was very careful. I looked directly at that white insulator and
no problem, no shock. Pretty soon, I was
touching all the insulators along the road, no shock, no problem. Once day I got careless, and didn’t look
carefully and I got a great big shock.
Boy that was a memorable experience.
My Dad had
built a tall gate that he could drive through.
He was pretty clever. That wire
came along the fence, then he installed 8 – 10 foot tall poles on either side
of the road. He strung the wire up over
poles and down the side. Then he hung
long wires hanging down from the wire going across the top. That way he could drive through (because he
had rubber tires) and the cows couldn’t walk through.
Now that
became a curiosity to me. I had a bike
with rubber tires and I had rubber handle grips. I’ll bet that I could do that. I actually survived without getting shocked. This
story could go on and on, but now we need to see how it applies to our message. There actually is a moral to the story.
To me, the water in the canal represents or
symbolizes things that we are smart enough not to do – in our lives. Over the years, we have learned enough not to
complicate our lives by running in front of trains, or out in the street, or
jumping off cliffs or touching a hot stove. That canal was a total “NO,
NO”. This represents what we stay away
from to keep physically safe.
So, now we move
on to the symbolism in the electric fence.
That fence was a big temptation to me.
The cows were smart enough never to go near it again. But I was just so curious. In our lives,
there are little signs or messages all along that fence. We begin to complicate our lives the moment we
are old enough to make decisions and realize that there are rewards and
consequences to our decisions.
Along this
electric fence , there are “Signs that tempt us ” or decisions we have to
make in life. Such as; who our
friends will be, what we will do when we are with our friends, what kinds of
books we read, what types of entertainment we decide to get involved in, how we
dress, what we do with our time. There are
also little signs on that fence that says, “I can be Lazy”, “Or I can skip
reading my scriptures today”, or “I can try it just this once, the only person
who knows will be me”, “I’m not hurting anyone else”, “I’ll just work a little
longer, the kids won’t notice this once.” “I can afford this one extravagance.” I
can find a lot of little signs along this electric fence that apply to me. Do we cave in to curiosity, are we lazy, do
we decide to touch that electric fence once in a while. We are not always lucky enough to have
insulators.
Elder Marvin J Ashton, said in a
1985 conf talk. “True personal peace comes about through eternal vigilance and
constant righteous efforts. No man can be at peace who is untrue to his better
self. No man can have lasting peace who is living a lie. Peace can never come
to the transgressor of the law. Commitment to God’s laws is the basis for
peace. Peace is something we earn. It is not a gift. Rather, it is a possession
earned by those who love God and work to achieve the blessings of peace. …. It
is something that must come from within.
There are those who dangle false
enticements of peace before us. These are they who are selfish, greedy and
power hungry.
The cows were smart enough to
never go near the electric fence again after one shock. But we, because we are human, continually
have to filter our messages.
Righteous efforts, striving to live the
gospel, this is how we can be spiritually safe
SO
WHERE IS THIS HARBOR OF PEACE.
Now let’s consider the symbolism
in my story of the road that runs in between the canal and the electric fence.
It is my belief, these things
are what we pave our road with….
· after we have made the hard
decisions,
· chosen our lifestyle,
· developed our habits,
· the things we have
learned that make us wiser,
· they are promptings of
the spirit,
· personal revelations
that have come after studying the gospel, searching, pondering,
· seeking answers to our
prayers……
these are the pavers on our road. Those pavers can become our SAFE HARBOR OF
PEACE. Our minds, souls and hearts strive
to be in tune with the Prince of Peace our Savior Jesus Christ.
I would also suggest that we build
these pavers ourselves because;
· We are members of the
church and attend regularly
· We have made commitments
to our Heavenly Father, through baptism and through our promises in the temple
· We search and study our
scriptures
· We pray for answers and
on behalf of our loved ones
· We unselfishly serve others,
and in our callings, and as visiting teachers or home teachers
· We find joy in our
families, no matter what our definition of family is, because not all our
situations are “the perfect model”
· We strive to keep the
commandments
Elder Ashton quotes,…………….It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who
declared the mighty truth, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing
can bring you peace but a triumph of principles.”
What
are our principles? We are such a
fortunate people, because in attending our meetings, we have weekly lessons,
guidance and reminders to help us.
Our
harbor is the gospel. Here we learn
integrity, honesty, obedience, the commandments, service, respect for our
ancestors and our descendants,
Elder Ashton said, “Peace is
not a purchase away. Peace is not when the final installment is paid. Peace is
not when marriage comes, nor when all the children are enrolled in school.
Peace is not when the last child returns from the mission field. Peace is not
when an inheritance is received. Peace is not when the scars of death start to
heal.
True peace must not be dependent
upon conditions or happenings. Peace must stem from an inward contentment built
upon trust, faith, and goodwill toward God, fellowmen, and self. It must be
constantly nurtured by the individual who is soundly anchored to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Only then can a person
realize that the trials and tribulations of daily life are less important than
God’s total goodness.
Lasting peace is an eternal
personal quest. Peace does come from obedience to the law. Peace comes to those
who develop character and trust.
I have a favorite scripture that
seems to be applicable to almost every subject.
I think it is a good road sign to post along our canal road,
D&C 14:7, “And if you keep
my commandments and endure to the end, you shall have eternal life which is the
greatest of all the gifts of God.”
There are many things that will
be hazards all along our “canal” road.
Sometimes we think the stress of our situation is more than we can bear,
sometimes we feel trapped in a situation that seems to have no solution,
sometimes someone else’s free agency has caused unfair things to happen to us; things
we never thought should happen, someone might feel despair because of a loss of
a loved one or because of our health.
Elder
Ashton said, “It is very significant that when Jesus came forth from the tomb
and appeared to his disciples, his first greeting was, “Peace be unto you.” (Luke 24:36.) When sorrow, tragedy, and heartbreaks occur in our lives,
wouldn’t it be comforting …….if when the whisperings of God say, “Do you know
why this has happened to you?” we could have the peace of mind to answer “No,
but you do.”
Certainly
peace is the opposite of fear. Peace is a blessing that comes to those
who trust in God. It is established
through individual righteousness.
This
is our Harbor of Peace.”
This may be way more than some of you want to read. But maybe someday it will help you understand
me just a little more.
I do love each of you very much.
Love Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister and Aunt Suzanne
