greaterthansparrows

I thought that I might have something which would arise out of class today as a follow-up to the last post , tying into that marvelous vision, but I got sick last night and was not able to teach today.  Luckily there is another teacher, a brother who does the same lessons for a Thursday evening class, so I called him and asked him to fill in. I would like to come back to section 138 sometime, but it will have to be another day, though I am much improved. Our next course, the Doctrine and Covenants now being done, is the Old Testament.  Sometimes we concentrate on other books of scripture, (any other, help, when confronted with it), but I guess we shouldn't. I get to be challenged too.  Joseph Smith taught us that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is in fact Jesus Christ.  Through all the ages, he has been the intermediary for us.  In church Sunday, one of the speakers said that sometimes we envision the compassionate Jesus with his Father sternly in the backgro...

In the last post, one of the things I looked at as part of the legacy of Joseph Smith was a corrected view of the place of women .  (If you didn't follow its link to the post "Eden's purposes" and my poem about Eve, here's another chance if you want, for a more comprehensive look.) This week is the last lesson for Relief Society Institute on the Doctrine & Covenants.  We are studying  section 138 , which is the vision of the redemption of the dead, which Joseph F. Smith, son of the martyred Hyrum Smith, received near the end of his life. It describes the President reading in I Peter, as follows: [chap.3:] 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins , the just for the unjust , that he might bring us to God , being put to death in the flesh , but quickened by the Spirit : 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison ; 20 Which sometime were disobedient , when once the longsuffering of God waited in ...

Our lesson this week was on the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and Hyrum, his brother.  The Doctrine & Covenants includes   the statement and testimony of John Taylor, one of the apostles, who was present and badly wounded, but survived. (The other man in the cell, Willard Richards, was not hit.) The lesson materials had a long list of things that Joseph had accomplished in his calling to restore the full gospel of Jesus Christ, and how many truths, long lost, were understood through him.  I had marked the overarching things that stood out to me, like the Book of Mormon, the principal of revelation, priesthood authority, and temple work.  I asked for what things struck the sisters personally in their lists. The first comment was that in that First Vision as an answer to his prayer, Joseph knew that God was a Person with a tangible form, who knows us by name and loves us.  That was the idea which had brought her into the Church, that God was her Father wh...

Patti Black 's memorial service was yesterday.  I had missed the one for George because we were in Utah. It was supposed to be in the stake center building, but there was a busted pipe which sent the service over to the Institute building across the parking lot.  The three wards which meet in the stake center were parceled out today, one of them came to have their meetings in our building in the afternoon, another joined up with a ward in the west building (University Place), and the Young Single Adults met in the Institute building because they are a smaller group. The two classrooms in the Institute building have a lounge-ish space between them, and the whole three spaces can be opened up into one long room, which is what they did, and it was full.  I got to see and hear from the oldest daughter, whom I had never met, only heard tales of.  They had the most wonderful (color) picture up of the two of them, and it was included in the program.  I only wish th...

I did not mean to let a whole week go by last week with no posting; I think I was mentally tired.  I was all wrapped up in my head with other stories of   autism , and trying to read an account of a father reaching out to his adult brain-damaged son, but I ended up having to take that back to the library unfinished because other things had to have my attention and it was overdue.  I will return to that at some point.  (I am usually on top of due dates.)  No other subjects satisfied me for a couple of days, and then I kinda went into a state that can best be described as 'bleh.'  Each day I did not get back here for various reasons, and on Saturday, revved up again, when I was home Hubby needed the machine. I have been referred to a new type of specialized therapy for my June injuries, and I see that person tomorrow.  This is another, not familiar to me, avenue to try to make better progress.  After all the years and all the (5) cars that h...

We missed the funeral while we were in Utah December 1st of George Black, who used to be in our ward (1990's) because of boundary changes and then wasn't again because of more boundary changes.  Life in the Church goes that way sometimes...we have been in five units of the Church without ever moving, during the 34 years we have lived in Tacoma. I was just thinking about writing a note to Patti, his wife, this week because I hadn't done it yet.  This morning the bishop announced that she had died last night, and while my eyes pricked with tears suddenly, my heart also was glad.  The bishop said that she had had "her own health problems, which she was not able to overcome" and she is gone.  That's hard for the family, but such a gift for her.  We all worried about how she would manage without him, she loved him and relied on him so much. I knew George mostly as married to Patti.  When that boundary change brought them in, she was called as Relief Society ...

A new book,  Carly's Voice , gives an inside look at what it is like to live with autism from the parent who loves and worries and copes, and from the inside of a non-verbal child who broke through into communication through a computer keyboard, to the utter surprise of those who worked with her. I had seen two segments on ABC News about this child, it was indeed the same person--I checked when it caught my eye at the library.  In a Helen Keller-like moment, she grabbed a computer keyboard and hit keys, one jab at a time, to say *  help  *. Motor control is so difficult for her that she can only use one outstretched pointer finger, wavering, to stab at the keys.  Still, she now writes pages. The family lives in Toronto, and they began using applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy when she was four.  She had already been through trial and error runs regarding diet sensitivities, communication therapy, and she was enrolled in a private school program....