Archive for July, 2009
Return Unto Him as Little Children.
July 28th, 2009 | 
Author: Kids can say the oddest, most inspirational things sometimes. I’ve witnessed it myself and so have so many others. Whether it’s coincidental, or kids are just smarter than we think they are, I don’t know, but nobody can deny that sometimes it can be quite amazing and/or humbling.
My five year old nephew’s Mother (my sister) is a steadfast member of the church, but his Father is a non-member. Both him and his younger brother have been and are going to be raised as members of the church. My nephew is just old enough to begin to understand this situation and a while ago he had the following conversation with his Mother.
Son “Mom, how come if Dad believes in God then he’s not Mormon?”
Mom “Well Daddy doesn’t believe in the Book of Mormon,”
Son “How can he not believe in the Book of Mormon?”
Mom “He just doesn’t think it’s real,”
Son “Oh, well Daddy’s being silly. When we get home I’ll show him it’s real and he’ll stop being silly,”
This made me think of 3 Nephi 9:22 “Whoso…cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive.”. Typically, we think being like a little child is a bad thing, but personally, I think that if we could all be a little more like children, then the human race as a whole would be better.
My nephew believes so strongly that the Book of Mormon is true, that he thinks believing otherwise is to deny that the B.O.M. is a book itself, in the sense that it has a cover, pages and words. I hope that I can one day have such great faith.
My nephew didn’t even hesitate in accepting a missionary opportunity. He had something wonderful in his life which he truly believed in and when he found out that somebody else lacked that, his immediate response was to share his knowledge.
If we could be more like the faithful, humble, obedient (in regards to religion) and innocent children most of us once were, then we’d be making serious progress on our road to perfection.
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FRG needs more writers, regardless of age, who are interested in writing a guest post for us, so if you have a message to share you may submit a sample of your words to us via our web form at http://youth.fairlds.org/contact.php. Chances are good that we’ll like what you have to say and set you up as a guest blogger on our site.
Posted in 
Style Confidence
Today, I decided to get a little more expensive haircut than I normally do. It’s a once in a long while indulgence I take for the sake of exploration. If I let a quality stylist do something and it looks good, I know what to tell cheaper stylists what I want when I let them attack my top.
As I sat in the chair, I noticed a couple things about me. I have very fine, straight hair which means I can’t do very much with it without revealing a whole lot of ugly scalp. In addition to doing nothing with my hair, I can pull off a fauxhawk and a side part. At a forward looking 21, I stay away from the fauxhawk. So as long as I bother to put it in, I have a hairstyle which looks sharp, professional, and probably displays my personality better than other types.
After I noticed my hairstyle, I looked at my neck. I have a long neck, and it used to bother me a lot. I studied how I could minimize it knowing, for better or for worse, I’m stuck with it. With no luck, I had to stop letting it bother me. Eventually, when I started to focus on my bad posture and worked to fix it, I noticed that having better posture made me more satisfied with my neck length, and I avoided years of embarrassment over something that shouldn’t be that embarrassing.
No one is so customizable that they can pull of any look they want. But anyone can take their image and look nice. If we keep confidence in our shape, proportions, and distinctive features, we’ll have confidence that flows into other parts of our lives.
Be proud of who you are, don’t try to fit a mold that isn’t you, and if you are a guy with thin, straight hair, try using a little paste or clay instead of gel.
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FRG needs more writers, regardless of age, who are interested in writing a guest post for us, so if you have a message to share you may submit a sample of your words to us via our web form at http://youth.fairlds.org/contact.php. Chances are good that we’ll like what you have to say and set you up as a guest blogger on our site.
Saltwater Humanitarianism
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| Seal Island Lighthouse Museum in Barrington, Nova Scotia |
Today, I’m going to write about one of my ancestors, as I happen to come from a long line of humanitarians. I also have saltwater in my veins, in that I come from a long line of Bluenosers (a Bluenoser is someone from Nova Scotia, in case you didn’t know).
Nothing’s nicer than the crisp, salty, Atlantic ocean. Unless you’re drowning in it, which many sailors have done over the years. The southern tip of Nova Scotia had a cluster of small, rocky islands near the “Devil’s Current”, which trapped and sunk many ships. The largest of the islands was called Seal Island, and sailors visiting in the spring invariably found dead bodies washed ashore. It was often clear that the men were alive upon reaching the shore only to starve or freeze to death because the island was uninhabited.
Mary Hichens Crowell, my eigthth great grandmother, was greatly troubled by this. It took her a while, but she talked her husband into moving out to Seal Island for the winter to save shipwrecked sailors. He had tried to talk her out of it on numerous occassions, but she reminded him that he had once been shipwrecked himself, although luckily, it was on the mainland so he was rescued. So they braved the first winter in an old fishing shanty, and next year built permanent homes.
Some of Mary’s relatives also moved out to help, forming two small hamlets on the island. Eventually, a lighthouse and foghorn were built, and a flock of sheep kept to provide ample food should a crew of sailors need feeding. Seal Island was granted to the Hichens and Crowells by the King of England, and was passed down through the generations.
Fortunately, technology today prevents shipwrecks from occurring and enables easier rescue by crews on the mainland, although my great aunt still lives there much of the time.
The neat thing about learning one’s family history is that you find out about all the neat people you’re connected to. For me, I found a legacy of humanitarianism, and I hope I’m able to carry on the tradition in whatever way I can, although I haven’t saved any sailors to date.
If you know of anyone, personally or not, living or dead, from near or abroad, let me know about them! I’ll add them to my list of awesome people who I will be highlighting weekly.
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FRG needs more writers, regardless of age, who are interested in writing a guest post for us, so if you have a message to share you may submit a sample of your words to us via our web form at http://youth.fairlds.org/contact.php. Chances are good that we’ll like what you have to say and set you up as a guest blogger on our site.
Tags: Why Should We Forgive?
A while ago we had a lesson on forgiveness in Young Women’s which brought half of us to tears as most our lessons do (we’re a very… spiritual bunch). Partway through our teacher asked us “why should we forgive?”. Of course she answered the question herself (it would have been a gong show if she hadn’t) but being myself I needed to explore the issue further. This blog post is my answer to the question “why should we forgive?”.
1 → Because He said so. God commands us to forgive if we expect to be forgiven. It is not our job to decide who should be wiped clean of their sins and misdeeds because in most situations we could not even hope to understand the emotional standpoint of the transgressor. We have not suffered for their sins and their mistakes as our Lord has and therefore it is simply foolish of us to think we have the authority to judge them. Since we do not understand the person, nor feel their pain nor guilt we cannot decide whether they can be forgiven or not. If it’s justice you’re looking for, believe me when I say that if they are not eligible for forgiveness then Heavenly Father will make sure they get what they deserve.
2 → We should forgive because our Heaven Brother, Jesus Christ has suffered for everybody’s sins, even those of the person who you’re mad at.
3 → We should do it for the person. I know you’re mad at them, but a lot of the time people don’t do mean stuff because they’re horrible people, there’s usually a reason. We must have compassion for the people who offend or hurt us to avoid hurting them back. To me the guilt brought by not being forgiven is greater than the guilt caused by whatever I did that made me feel guilty in the first place. In some cases you’re causing them more emotional discomfort than they caused you, which brings you down to their level and possibly even further. We must truly love our fellow man, we should not wish to cause them more harm in anyway, through not forgiving them or through revenge.
4 → If all else fails, do it for yourself. Referring back to my last post, you have to decide if you want to be known as the moody, emotional person who refuses to forgive people, or do you want to be known as the person who’s man enough to forgive everyone? Also, if you hope to be forgiven you must forgive others (3 Nephi 13:14).
There are plenty of reasons to forgive others; the only question is, have you grasped them all enough for them to outweigh your anger? Hopefully the answer is yes, but if it’s not then I’d suggest prayer and study the Scriptures, because if you honestly knew how important it is to forgive you wouldn’t have a problem doing it.
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FRG needs more writers, regardless of age, who are interested in writing a guest post for us, so if you have a message to share you may submit a sample of your words to us via our web form at http://youth.fairlds.org/contact.php. Chances are good that we’ll like what you have to say and set you up as a guest blogger on our site.
I Envision FRG As a Force of Great Good!
Now it may seem like I am assuming a lot, but if you’re reading our blog then that means you’re as concerned about the youth as we are and ya probably know that every one of our projects at Rising Generation is designed to support the youth.
If you’re not concerned for the youth, then you should be. Life can get rough–rougher sometimes than others–and so many people are struggling just to make ends meet. However, because more and more people are rallying behind good causes, much is being done to relieve the strugglers.
If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, then you’ve read Heidi’s posts about some awesome people who have done or are currently doing amazing things to improve the lives of others. The most recent was about a twelve year old boy from Canada who dreamed that he could help kids living in poverty to get food and shelter. Because that boy pursued his dream, 500 schools were built in 45 different countries and millions of people have been helped to achieve a better life. That said, think about this: what if there were just five more kids like him, this Craig Kielburger? If there were five more Craig Kielburgers then maybe there would be 2,500 more schools built in another 225 countries and millions more young people could be helped.
While I have little hope of comparing to Craig in accomplishment, my own dream is just as sincere. If I can bring even one young man or young woman to understand how important they are to God’s plan and to act upon that knowledge, then my mission will have been a success. Yet I know that FAIR’s Rising Generation has potential to acheive much greater good than only the blessing of one life, for through the internet we can teach and fellowship youth all over the world. Are we a peer support group? Sure! But in this group we don’t just sit around talking about helping youth, we are actively engaging in it! Our projects will teach, uplift, and strengthen them!
Young adults, aka people ranging from 18 to 25, will benefit from our support too…they’re really just big youth anyway.
One of our earliest projects has finally come to fruition as our video productions man has just uploaded a clip on You Tube. The clip delves into one of the most important parts of the lives of youth and young adults: our interactions with the opposite sex during dates. Tommy Lugaresi has put together a brilliantly humorous, but also instructional video about what it means for a guy to ask a girl on a date or visa versa. Check it out now at http://www.youtube.com/user/fairsrg
Readers, my name is Erik Slack, I am seventeen years of age, and I can make a difference in the lives of my peers. So can you. Join me at FRG and show the youth of the world that you care too!
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FRG needs more writers, regardless of age, who are interested in writing a guest post for us, so if you have a message to share you may submit a sample of your words to us via our web form at http://youth.fairlds.org/contact.php. Chances are good that we’ll like what you have to say and set you up as a guest blogger on our site.