So ... we had an interesting conversation in seminary yesterday about one of those traumatic moments from my childhood, and I felt like I wanted to blog about it ... so here goes ...
We are in the middle of studying the chapters of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. This is when the Savior is in the Americas and teaching the people the fullness of His gospel. We talked on Tuesday a little bit about the Sacrament and what it means for us. When we ended the lesson one of the students brought up the verse where the Savior explains the danger in taking the Sacrament unworthily, but like always happens in a 45 minute class, we didn't have enough time to really talk about it.
Well, that day I was thinking and pondering about the lesson I felt as if we really needed to go back and talk about what that means. There is danger that comes about when people misunderstand this principle because they can sometimes feel as if they shouldn't be taking the Sacrament ever if they are doing wrong things. That is not correct. The Sacrament is there precisely because we ALL are doing wrong things and need the opportunity to start anew, to do better, and to recognize that we can do this because of the almost incomprehensible gift of the Savior's atoning sacrifice. As I pondered I felt impressed that I needed to share my childhood nose plug disaster story to help illustrated why the Savior cares so much about whether or not we take the Sacrament worthily.
Here's the story (and stick around for the tie-in to the Sacrament or it will make absolutely no sense to any readers, I'm sure):
When I was in sixth grade I didn't have a lot of extra spending money. I wasn't a wealthy child, but I had enough. I had a friend who lived near me who wasn't a very good swimmer. She always had to plug her nose whenever she went underwater, and keeping your nose plugged with one hand makes swimming pretty difficult. Well, her birthday came around about this time of year, and that year she planned a little party and sleepover for a couple of her friends. She invited me and one other girl who lived nearby also. One day I was in the local hardware store downtown and was browsing in the non-hardware section of the store when I saw the PERFECT present. There were these amazing nose plugs. It would be just perfect for her, allowing her to swim effectively while still preventing the water from entering her nose. Now, these nose plugs were not anything close to the nose plugs picture that I put at the top of this post, but they were pretty cool to my 12 year-old self. I thought long and hard about this gift purchase, and when I paid my hard-earned money for it I was making a bit of a sacrifice. But I did it because I really thought that she would love it. I did.
Well, the day of the party came. It was just a small little affair. But it was nice. I thought it was nice. Things went downhill, though, when the sleepover part of the night happened. We had already opened presents, eaten cake and ice cream, and played the night away. All that was left was the sleeping part. We slept up in my friend's attic bedroom where there was a double bed and a twin bed, enough for all of us to have a spot. I took the twin bed while my two friends took the double. We talked for awhile, but soon the conversation dwindled. I wasn't asleep, but I wasn't saying anything either. Then my two friends started to talk, and my friend who had the birthday told the other girl how much she hated my gift. To this day, I still remember her words, "I know Missy doesn't have a lot of money, but still ... what a dumb present." I was devastated. I had put all of my heart behind the choice of that gift. Yes, it was inexpensive. Yes, it wasn't the most beautiful gift on the planet, but I really, really thought long and hard about a gift that would be meaningful. Obviously, it wasn't. My feelings were crushed, and my sponge-like brain has not been able to expunge that experience from my memories since then.
So what does that have to do with the Sacrament? Not much, really. But I compared the devastation I felt with having my heart-felt gift ridiculed and mocked in front of me to how the Savior must feel when He sees us partake of the symbol of His greatest gift unworthily. How must He feel when He has given us EVERYTHING and sacrificed ALL so that we have the opportunity to return home to live with our Father in Heaven and then watches us mock that gift when we choose to willfully disobey the commandments, have no desire to change, have no appreciation for that gift, and then reach down and partake of the Sacrament that is there to help us remember Him?
I thought the lesson went really, really well. I think everyone got the point, but the reason I had to blog about this today was because of the comment that one of my students made after my heart wrenching nose plug story. I tell a lot of stories in class. I have quite a few experiences to pull from when we are discussing a wide range of gospel principles, and I have some doozy stories from my youth that apply to all sorts of things. Some students have been in my seminary class for two years now, so they've heard them all, and some of them they've heard more than once. Lucky them ... they'll get to hear more since all of them will be back for next year. So anyway, after telling my sob story one of the guys said,
"Wow, Sister Blau. Has anyone else ever had so many bad things happen to them?"
It was meant to be a funny comment. Of course, there are much larger tragedies in the world than having your nose plug gift mocked or any other of my classic and tragic tales from my youth. I am just glad that I have such a range of experiences that are goofy enough to keep my class engaged and happy but relevant enough to help them to relate to sometimes complex gospel ideas. I love teaching the youth. I love their enthusiasm and their humor and their willingness to put aside the things of the world in order to find more.
I had to finish with this AMAZING video that the Church put out this month to spread our love of Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us. It is absolutely wonderful and moving, and it really touched my heart this week. All that I am ... all that I can become ... and all the joy in my life is ...
BECAUSE OF HIM.
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