Steward our Energy

A friend sent me a link about being an introvert and being a church member (of any church). It was rather interesting to see that a lot of people are spiritually devoted, but sometimes have issues fitting in to congregations of their various religions.

Somehow I followed a list of links and got to this website.

http://www.introvertenergy.com/introvertenergizer/introvertenergizer-02-07.php

The woman writing on this site brought up an interesting term that she attributed to the Dalai Lama.

Basically, it's taking care of ourselves when we need to - get rest when we are tired, walk when we need to think and/or exercise, read a book when we feel the need, etc.

With all the work I've been doing for work, home, church, people, and personal projects I'm realizing that I'm forever being a poor steward of my energy. I've gotten better in the last couple of years, but that is only because I have far less energy than when I was like 28 years old, or 30 years old or even 35 years old.

Anyway, this is one of those little terms that I am going to remember to implement into practice.

So, I'm going to keep writing because it's getting all of this out of my head so I can rest better.

Lessons Learned - teaching 10 year olds

I'm done teaching 10 year olds at church this year, but I do have a couple of lessons learned that I didn't know at the beginning of the year.

Here are a few:

• Chalkboards - they love to write on the board. It didn't matter if it was selecting the person who said prayers, keeping scores on games, filling in blanks, etc.

Getting the chalk from the library - this was a task they looked forward to and often wanted to go get tape, scissors, etc. Maybe they just liked roaming the halls.

Role playing - they liked when they got to act out characters in the Book of Mormon.

Word strips - this was the winner. They loved putting together scripture word strips, matching different words to different categories or whatever. This is the one thing that I did where even the most rebellious kids would say "I love doing this!"

New Calling - Primary Secretary

So, I got a new calling at church on Sunday. A "calling" is an assigned responsibility that usually lasts from 1-3 years and then you get moved into a different responsibility. I have been teaching 10 year olds for one year and before that five year olds. I've had quite a few callings in my 37 years and it is amazing how much of that experience helps in other areas of life. I'm excited for this new responsibility.

P.S. A vent - I do have a comment or two to make about being single in a family ward. Only Mormons will understand this I think....or maybe I'm wrong. For some reason being single makes me seem 1.) younger 2.) inexperienced 3.) not a leader 4.) brainless and 5.) unable to do basic tasks. I never know what to do when I get comments like "oh, now are you going to be ok with just you and the kids?" or "You'll see, over the years you will find yourself in more leadership experiences" or "are you comfortable handling that?" Hmmm. I don't know how to respond to these kinds of comments and so I primarily keep my mouth shut. The oldest child in me struggles not to rear it's face. Now, luckily I got a few "congrats" and "good luck" on this one which is fine by me. In fact most people this week said that it's a really fun calling. I'm just saying that I get these comments ONLY in family wards, and not necessarily in my current ward. I'm making a broad sweeping generalization here- but, it is my blog and I'm allowed to do so.

Surprisingly in my past, I've been in relief society presidencies, young women presidencies, regional institute program leadership, a music chairman, temple worker and a teacher many times over. I was even a ward librarian when I was seventeen. (That was a great calling!) In difficult times it seems like I always end up behind the organ or the piano which is a nice stress relief. Either way, I've been around the block and any shortcomings in accomplishing the calling have nothing to do with ability, but rather with my inability to focus. (I tend to create too many personal to dos)

Ok, that was a random vent. What I'm learning is to never assume people know less than they know. Treat them as if they are brilliant, talented and confident - somehow they will rise to the occasion or they will ask questions or...it will become evident. You may be pleasantly surprised and find out that they are aware of much more than they let on.

For me, I will actually be entering some new territories with this calling. The hardest part is what is always the hardest part for me - making telephone calls. So, perhaps this is my time to overcome the phone phobia. Of course, maybe I'm wrong and will be humbled after making all of these statements about callings. I will find out it is much more than I bargained for and I will begin to keep my mouth shut.

....I do feel a humbling starting to take place the longer I type. Yikes.

The Secret Happenings of Ward Primary Programs

Our church has a "primary program" every year around this time. We had it when I was young and it will most likely continue if it is as spiritual AND entertaining as it has always been.

The children (between 4-11 years old) sit up in front of the congregation and sing all the songs they've learned throughout the year interspersed with little memorized parts that the children created as a response to questions they were asked earlier in the year.

I was one of the adults sitting in the back row of the choir seats - in other words...a prime location to survey the antics. I teach the 10 year olds and so these antics are primarily from them.

• A boy in my class, that doesn't attend church very often, rolled up a piece of little paper and started to pretend he was smoking. Um, we are Mormon. Um, we are sitting in front of 300 people.
• The boy next to the boy "smoking," tried to hold down the hand of the boy so the audience couldn't see it. He tried to give a mini lecture friend to friend. It didn't work until I leaned down, grabbed the fake cigarette and told him how disappointed I was in him. Of course, I was not moving my lips and so I'm sure the audience just saw a ventriloquist mouth.
• Another boy wanted candy from my purse and leaned down, underneath the choir seats, and was loudly saying he deserved the candy right then.
• The little girl next to me (a very proper little girl) had a cold. Apparently, her nose was numb because she wasn't aware of various colors dripping down to her lip. I about gagged, but didn't have any tissue. She even went up and sang with a small group, got some tissue and didn't use it.I finally had to lean over and say - "Um, there is some stuff on your face below your nose."
• Another girl started a small issue because the fake plants behind us kept touching her hair. She got three people in the back row involved until a song finally started and they could stand up and avoid the fake plant.
• Different kids kept thumping their feet on the floor which surprisingly caused the floor to shake a bit. If little bodies could have the effect on our movement, surely I couldn't move a muscle. And, I tried not to.
• The "smoking" boy asked for candy loudly during a baby's blessing.

There was a lot of great singing (yelling from the four year olds) and some cute little moments when kids sang completely wrong words to songs, changed their lines, shared their lines with great feeling or ...just plain refused to say anything.

All in all it was a fun experience - adults smiled and cried and sometimes laughed. The closing song included the entire audience and I haven't felt that strong of a spiritual feeling in a while.

Good stuff and I'm looking forward to the one next year even if I don't get the same prime seating.

Secret Happiness - One

Today I saw a man that has a hard time coming church engaged in deep conversation with a new friend. It was a reminder to me how important we each are in the lives of others. This man just wanted to hide and not be seen. But, others attempted to be a friend. "Others" means two people tried to be friends. As a result, the man that wanted to remain hidden has two friends.

Yet, even more amazing is that he has no idea what a difference he has made in the lives of the two people that be-friended him. They have expressed gratitude for the discovery of such a wonderful, quiet and caring person. They run up to see him after each meeting to find out how he is doing, what new ideas he has and what interesting piece of research about history, politics, technology or space that he has to share. In the process, he is learning from them how to enjoy the lessons and the knowledge that come from participating in the meetings each week.

I enjoy watching from afar. It gives me a secret happiness.

Tributes to President Gordon B. Hinckley

This evening I decided to look up tributes to President Gordon B. Hinckley instead of paint one of my bedrooms. His funeral was today and so I wanted to take some personal time to reflect on his life and how I want to live mine.

It's been wonderful to hear tributes to him on the television news, radio, internet and on friends and families blogs.

Thought I'd share with you a few:

• President Gordon B. Hinckley - a final talk - http://www.respectance.com/GordonBHinckley/videos/CjfYjx00xGGt0PX
• Glen Beck - http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/
• YouTube tribute - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DONH655IR1E
• Aaron Clark - http://forbiddendonut7.blogspot.com/2008/01/passing-of-prophet.html
• Jessica Clark - http://gollyjess.blogspot.com/2008/01/hail-to-prophet.html

President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away - January 27, 2008

I just received an email stating that Gordon B. Hinckley just passed away today.

Here's a link I just found: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ae11627d59eec010VgnVCM1000004e94610aRCRD


He is the president/prophet of my church. I am not sure what to feel or say at the moment. He has been so instrumental in leading our church over the past 13 years. He was spiritually in tune, but also knew how to poke fun at himself and make others laugh. He also devoted his entire life to service in the church and gave up many personal goals and interests for the good of the church membership.

I am grateful for his example and hope that I can take this time to re-align my goals to more meaningful efforts.

Merry late Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's January 4th and I'm barely writing my yearly Christmas letter. It seems that it comes faster every year! But, here it goes...

2007 started out fairly stressful. Work stressed me to the point of my first gray hairs. As a result, I decided to make work a lower priority even though I still go everyday to manage expectations, people and projects. Responsibility isn't all that it is cracked up to be, but we all have to experience the "greener pastures" for at least 5-6 stressful years, aye?

This year I didn't take many trips. Those I did take involved seeing family members. My youngest brother graduated from high school. There's almost an 18 year gap between us! That means that 2009 brings my 20 year high school reunion. Gasp. I'm finally experiencing those weird feelings of being old. However, my first haircoloring erased some of those strange feelings. ..temporarily.


We've had a few family gatherings, but none with everyone. A few of us met up in San Franscisco in the spring to cheer on the BYU Rugby team in a national championship game. BYU came in 2nd place again. All of my brothers (and Mom and some cousins) were there and all participated either as alumni athletes (cheering) or in the game (Craig).



Craig made it to the All American team again and played a great game at West Point in New York. Mr. Adam Brett Clark is making his debut on the team this year and will be the 4th, and last, brother to play on the team. His high school team won the state championship and so hopefully that carries over in Utah. Go BYU Rugby!

The largest event of my year was actually a project that took a few hundred hours out of my life. I converted all of the old family videos onto DVDs so that they could be viewed and shared by all. I had finished the project and backed up on appropriate hard drives only to have two hard drives fried in the same week. Not good. Luckily, the second time around was faster and more efficient with a new round of technology at my disposal. I also compiled all digital photos and videos to date. Let's just say that 10 copies of everything gets old after a while. Costco photo center became a close friend. I got my time back and they got all of my money. (-:

I'm teaching little five year olds at my church. In the past, kindergarten was my least favorite grade, but these little people grew on me. This year I will be teaching 10 year olds. That is typically the age I enjoy working with, but I'm sure my work will be cut out for me.

Other than that, life moves along. I always appreciate interacting with family, friends church members and some co-workers. Thanks to all that stay in touch. I'm a little slow at times. Does everyone get a couple hundred emails a day like me? By the time I get home from work, I'm completely technology weary.

2008 is shaping up to be a great year! Hopefully there will be wonderful news from me and wonderful news to me from you.

Happy New Year and keep in touch, Rebecca

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