FAIR's Rising Generation

Archive for August, 2009

Brrrrr-iiiiingg!! The bell rang, class was officially over and I was racing the other kids out the door. Soon I was at my locker and tossing my English book in with its buddies, Biology and World History. With a slam of the door I was on the move again. I swam up a stream of kids; they were moving toward their next classes, but my only thought was to get out. The halls of my high school were crowded and stuffy, and my body ached for a breath of fresh air. I burst out the school doors with a great big sigh of relief and trekked to the building on the other side of the street where Seminary was held.

As soon as I was through the doors I heard the hearty laugh of my teacher as someone was playing the theme song from Zelda on the piano. I walked into the classroom, set my stuff next to my seat and went to chat with my friends until the class started. It was always clear when class started, because Brother Manwaring would call with his well-projected voice to the stragglers that were still making their way toward the building, “it’s time to start; hurry up!”

I loved seminary. It was like my escape from the world and all its troubles. I really felt like I belonged there because my classmates knew what it was like at school, and they knew how tough it was sometimes to maintain high standards when surrounded by kids who seemed without any at all. They knew me and what made me uncomfortable, and they knew how to make me laugh. Not only were my classmates great, but my teacher was awesome! He always came to class prepared, and he would come up with these crazy ways to teach us a lesson about the Gospel. I learned a lot from him.

One time when my teacher was having trouble keeping the kids focused on the lesson, he–out of the blue–put on the movie Star Wars right at the part where one of the other pilots was telling Luke to “stay on target” before he blew up the Death Star. The class was so stunned by the randomness of it all that they listened carefully to his next words, which were about staying focused on the lesson. From then on, whenever the class got too excited or rowdy, he’d stick out his arms like he was flying a plane and we’d know immediately that he needed us to “stay on target.” It was those little things that made me cherish Seminary so much.

I didn’t always, but eventually I came to love seminary; it’s because I loved it that I was so open to the promptings of the Spirit, aka the Holy Ghost. Oftentimes, as I listened to the words of my teacher, I could feel the Holy Spirit testify the truth of them to my heart. It would come to me as this overwhelming feeling of contentment; that was the Holy Ghost’s way of telling me I was hearing truth. The Holy Ghost loves the truth, and he shares the joy he feels when he hears it to those also seeking the truth. So many times, both him and I listened and rejoiced silently together. It’s an amazing feeling, and, even more importantly, it’s a righteous feeling. Seminary can do that for ya if you let it.

I’m seventeen now, and I’ve graduated with all four years of seminary. I’ve had both early morning and release-time seminary, so I know how much of a sacrifice it takes for students to attend each method. I also know that, no matter what, seminary was an awesome blessing to my life and most definitely worth the cost. Sometimes the cost for Seminary attendance can seem very great, but I believe that the Lord blesses us for our sacrifices. I’ll write more about this topic early next week so please look for my post.

Thanks for reading.

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been trying to make things more meaningful for myself. I’m slowly learning to love and appreciate more aspects of the Gospel, and I’ve found that it’s really worth while. I can’t remember what motivated me to do this (obviously it wasn’t anything too special), but I do remember that one of the first things that popped into my head when I was thinking of things I could appreciate more was the Young Women’s Theme.

In YW’s, when we recite the Theme, we sound like an army of the undead. We speak in perfect unison with the same colorless tone, and I seriously have to wonder if any of us actually get anything out of it.

Back when I was a bright-eyed Beehive learning how to recite the Theme, my only intention was to vocally march in time with the rest of the Young women. I don’t think that (until recently) I’ve ever actually thought about what it was saying. I was either trying to be able to mindlessly quote it, or I could and did without a second thought.

A couple of years ago, I decided that I would always think about what I was saying before I said it. If I was going to call somebody a jerk, I’d have a reason to; if I was going to tell somebody that I liked their shirt, I wouldn’t be lying; and if I was going to state my stance on a political issue, I’d have some awesome reasoning behind my statement. I decided that I was going to understand and mean every word that came out of my mouth, and, if (for some reason) I didn’t, I’d do my best to correct it as soon as I could.

So this, my friends, is what I like to call reparation. I’m splitting this into three parts. The first is this one, which (along with holding my unnecessarily long introduction) will focus on everything that doesn’t have to do with the values, and my next posts will be about the values.

We are

daughters of our Heavenly Father,

who loves us and we love Him.

We will “stand as awitness of God at all time

and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9)

as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:

Faith

Divine Nature

Individual Worth

Knowledge

Choice and Accountability

Good Works

Integrity and

Virtue

We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,

we will be prepared to

strengthen home and family,

make and keep sacred covenants,

receive the ordinaces of the temple,

and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Now, I can’t guarantee that what helped me is going to help everybody. So my advice for you is to think it through yourselves, but to get you started, here are my thoughts on the first and last paragraphs.

The first sentence is probably the most overused, mainly because the message can be found almost anywhere in the Church if you look close enough. Every aspect of life and the Gospel exists because–and is caused by the fact that–our Heavenly Father loves us. He tells us this so much and put it in the YW’s Theme so that we never forget it. Although that doesn’t always work, I think it’s better than Him pretending that he couldn’t care less about us. To say that our Heavenly Father loves us and that we love him is a very important thought which really should be understood and meant when uttered.

And what does it mean to “stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places”? It means if that guy you know who’s anti-Mormon asks you if you’re really a Mormon, you say yes. It means you say no to drugs and alcohol. It means you’ll walk out of a movie if you have to. It means you won’t buy that sleeveless shirt no matter how cute and/or on sale it is. To over-simplify it and make it seem easier than it really is, it means that you’ll follow the standards of the Church and never be afraid to admit it.

Now to skip to the last paragraph. It says to “be prepared to strengthen home and family”, which makes it sound like we’re supposed to focus mainly on our future families, which is true, but don’t let yourself forget about your present family. That is of course, to whatever degree your type of family or situation allows you to. It’s important to develop the skills and spiritual strength that will help you be the kind of wife and mother you’d be proud to be.

The rest of it talks about getting married in the temple and achieving exaltation. Although marriage may seem far off, I think it’s important to be the sort of person that you want to marry. Even though you might not be getting married any time soon, you’ll still be attracting certain crowds. If you want to date and be friends with people who have certain standards, then you have to have those same standards. You’ve probably heard the saying “you marry who you date”, well make the people you date (and the people you hang out with) the kind of people you’d want to spend the rest of your life and eternity with.

So that concludes part one. This is some of what I learned from pondering and praying about the Young Women’s Theme, and I encourage all the Young Women out there to get what they can from my words and to explore the concept further themselves. Also, for the Young Men; I don’t know much about your Theme (actually, I’ve only heard it about five times), but I’m sure you can gain a lot from it, and I also encourage you to seek to understand and mean the words you chant every Sunday.

Part 2 can be found here.
Part 3 can be found here.

Church school is what you make it.

“Dude, I could get a hold of any drug I wanted there. I have friends who’ve gotten kicked out for stuff like that and worse,” was what she told me. I had been at a BYU for a semester and wasn’t even sure where someone could buy alcohol legally in town. It astounded me that my friend could say that, because she went to a BYU, too. Were there kids like that on my campus? At the Lord’s University?

Oh, yes, I’ve since come to find out. There’s no magic escape from sin or transgression in the world, not even at the Lord’s University. You’ll always find what you’re comfortable with.

People don’t go to BYU and become Peter and Molly. They go to BYU and continue doing the same things they did in high school. They find the same friends and uphold the same standards. Where my friend found a lot of the recreational users and less-chaste to hang with, I found mostly church-going, out-of-the-apartment-at-midnight types.

Before I came to BYU, I was sure that everyone would be a straight-A goody-goody who spends all their free time volunteering or doing homework. Sure, there are a few of those, but there were a few of those in the high schools I attended and in every stake I’ve belonged to. There are also people who smoke pot recreationally. I knew several of those personally in my wards and branches back home. But the majority at BYU is exactly like me: usually pretty good, with a few mistakes on their sheet. Some are better at daily scripture reading than I am, some are worse.

Whether or not you’ll like a Church school is completely up to you. College students can act any way they want; they’re famous for being loud about the fact. How you behave and who you choose hang out with makes all the difference in your happiness. If you hate listening to authority figures and you dislike people who respect them, you might have a hard time enjoying Church-run education.

BYU can be a wonderful place. I have had innumerable spiritual experiences, in and out of classrooms, with friends, with church leaders, even with professors. BYU has been great for me, and not just because we’re all expected to be good, rule-following zombies. My friends have personalities, flaws, and quirks. They’re real people, who’ve lived, sinned, repented, and have spent their whole lives being normal people trying to do right by God. You don’t get into BYU because you have no weaknesses. I would’ve failed if that had been the case.

I have had such a fantastic BYU experience because I’ve put in the effort to respect rules like the Honor Code, the Dress and Grooming standards, and Church guidelines. The things that set any BYU apart from secular schools are what have made me love attending a Church school so much. I love the freedom here.

The Scriptures read, *ahem*

“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which The Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).

But guess what? Some parents aren’t very adept when it comes to the whole “raising kids” thing. So how does one honor parents who are themselves dishonorable?

Everybody knows a bad parent, whether it’s yours, a friend’s, or if you’re one of our older readers (ie, the ‘Declining Generation’), …erm…it could be you! These include selfish parents, neglectful parents, authoritarian parents, permissive parents, jealous parents, abusive parents, disabling parents, manipulative parents, etc. In many cases, a lousy parent is no more grown-up than his or her teenage child.

Some youth might say the Commandment to “honor thy Father and thy Mother” is completely unfair because their parents are thoroughly undeserving; they’d rather scream their parents’ sins from the rooftops. However, the Commandment to honor one’s father and mother is even MORE crucial for children of less-than-ideal parents. Yep, you heard right.

When teens rebel, it can be for a number of reasons. For one, it may simply have to do with their innate disposition (think Laman and Lemuel). Then again, it can’t always be ‘cuz the kid’s pure evil (sorry, mom and dad). Rebellion may also be a deliberate attempt to openly and publicly dishonor parents who have failed as caregivers and mentors.

There is healthy rebellion and unhealthy rebellion. Healthy rebellion means rejecting the incorrect notions and practices of the past by laying foundations for something better. Youth have a job to do–to expose error and injustice within the status quo. This is also a responsibility belonging to the Aaronic Priesthood:

“The duties of a Deacon are to warn, expound, exhort, and teach [members of the Church]” (D&C 20:59).

Fascinating!

On the other hand, unhealthy rebellion is self-destructive. Drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, sex–we all know the risks associated with each of these by now. But this is the kick in the pants! To rebel in this self-abortive manner is what everyone expects! and you’ll do more harm to yourself than you possibly could to anybody else. “That your days may be long upon the land” takes on a new depth of meaning here, and it is important to choose carefully which path of rebellion you’ll take.

With that in mind, the best way to rebel against dishonorable parents is to discard the emotional baggage of the past and succeed despite the odds, to surprise the naysayers and scoffers by carving out a happy, rewarding, successful, and fulfilling life. And no, it isn’t about impressing others. It’s about your life and taking control of it.

So how does one go about succeeding despite their parents’ mistakes? One may think it takes a very gifted person–one of Heidi’s awesome people perhaps–but the gifts are freely available to all who seek them. God is also our parent, the ideal parent, and if you turn to him, he will pick up the slack.

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:15).

Note: Compliments to Erik–our esteemed President and likely poet of Deutero-Isaiah–for finding that one.

But seriously, if you submit to your Father in Heaven, he will, like a tender and long-suffering parent, quicken you, nurture you, and teach you sufficient for your needs. God is kind and merciful and forever patient towards those who covenant to be his children. This is my witness to you.

But remember, be charitable towards your parents! Forgive them of their shortcomings. Many of them fail despite their best efforts, and although they may have injured you during that most vulnerable and critical period, part of being a teenager is recognizing that your parents are flawed, scarred, and daily struggling with their own imperfections. Appreciate the obstacles they face, and remember that even bad parents often hope their children will grow up to be better than they are. Learn from their mistakes, and rise above your own upbringing–because it becomes your responsibility to correct the mistakes of the past and make sure they are never repeated and passed on. The time will come when only you can stop the cycle.

I’m pretty excited about today’s Awesome Person, because for the first time, I’m actually highlighting a Mormon teen. An anti-Nazi Mormon teen.

While I was at the FAIR conference a couple weeks ago, I saw a book called Hübener vs Hitler, and was really interested by it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough American cash with me to buy it and they weren’t taking debit or Canadian money, so I bought the less expensive documentary on DVD, called Truth & Conviction. I am ordering the book from the FAIR bookstore soon, because the documentary was so interesting, I just have to know more about Helmuth Hübener!

As I said, Helmuth Hübener was a nazi resistance fighter during the Third Reich. Using a borrowed typewriter and armed with outside information from (then banned) BBC German-language broadcasts, he and two friends produced and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets. Over six months, he compiled more than 20 intelligently-written, informative leaflets, revealing the truth about Hitler’s regime.

Unfortunately, the Gestapo (“Geheime Staatpolizei” or “Secret State Police”) was informed of his activities when he tried to have a friend translate the leaflets into French. He was imprisoned for 9 months before being sentenced to death by guillotine.

I was moved by Helmuth’s motives; he felt it was his Christian obligation to defend the rights of others. He also recognized that while following the laws of the land is important, truth and righteousness do come before loyalty to any political leader. There were members of the Church who were members of the Nazi party, including Helmuth’s branch president. There was a strong pressure to appear as a “good German citizen”, and with religious prejudice abounding, members of the LDS community were definitely afraid for their safety. We can’t judge them, as we don’t know what it was like for them, or how much they were actually aware of (as all legally-available media was Nazi propaganda). What I do know is that Helmuth felt morally compelled to empower his fellow citizens with truthful information. His work was relatively short-lived, but has had a huge impact. He’s truly an inspiration to people all over the world, of any age, living in any time period.

Another interesting thing I found out is that there’s currently a major motion picture in production about the story. It’s called Truth and Treason. Something to watch out for!