Reverents

In the tradition of posting our sacrament talks on this blog I wanted to post the talk that Hulk gave today during our family sacrament. This is the second talk that he's given during this period of social distancing and he's given a handful of talks during Primary over the years. So while this is the first time I have posted one of his talks on the blog this is by no means his first talk.

I am very proud of the responsibility he takes over his talks. When planning church last night I asked if he wanted to give a talk today, he said yes. This morning he picked out his topic and wrote the talk himself with some help from J. When he gave his talk he stood up in front of us, smiling and eager to share what he had written.

I may have cried. (happy tears, of course):

Sunday May 24, 2020

Today I want to talk about how we can be reverent. Reverence is when we be quiet so we can listen to the Spirit. There are several ways we can be Reverent. First, we keep our hands to our self and we fold our arms. We sit quietly and listen to who is talking. We don’t wiggle and for prayers we close our eyes.

In my family we started doing reverence time to practice being more reverent. We use a timer for about one min. when we get older we can be reverent for an hour.

I know when we are reverent we will be blessed.

I know the church is true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

My Commencement Address to 2020

When I graduated from high school it seemed like the common sentiment was, "We did it!"
The feeling behind that sentiment was that we had accomplished something difficult and that this was the greatest thing we had ever done.

Real talk now.

High school is easy. Now, before you start let me clarify: for the GENERAL PUBLIC all you have to do to graduate high school (4.0 GPA aside) is go to class and do the bare minimum of work.
That's it.
Anyone can do it.

Now, I realize that there are students with extenuating circumstances. They are the exception. They deserve the commencement speech by Oprah Winfrey or Malala Yousafzai.

But for everyone else, graduating high school has become some over celebrated and over exaggerated symbol of entrance into adulthood.

If graduating high school is the hardest and greatest thing that you have ever done than you have failed at life.
You peaked in high school.
And that's sad.
No one wants to peak in high school.

There are students who worked hard in high school. There are students who take AP classes, a 5:30am seminary class, run with the track team in the morning, practice with the swim team in the evening, work part time as a life guard, and teach piano lessons in their spare time.

What all of that does is teach you how to work hard because the hardest and greatest thing you do is what you do with your life. You could coast into college or trade jobs thinking that your life is going to get easier from now on. But it doesn't. In some ways it gets a lot harder.

And when you've finished college or training for trade jobs you can think that life is going to get easier now that you'll never have to learn again.

But you'd be wrong. Again.

Our lives are meant to be hard. We grow from challenges.

We learn from challenges. And that is what we are meant to do.

Learn.

Little Viking Girl Gets Her Own Bike

As we were driving around town yesterday we passed a house with a vacuum cleaner, a small kid's bike, and a sign that said "This stuff only free".

I jumped out of the car to look at the bike.
Little Viking Girl has been ready for a bike but:
1. bike's cost money (I did find some for $30-40 on craigslist)
2. we don't give gifts that are unnecessary or that expensive unless it's a birthday or Christmas

We've been biding our time. I think some part of me was hoping that Hulk would out grow his bike so we could give it to her and then buy him a new(ish) one. He's going to outgrow his bike soon and this way we would only have to buy one bike.

Thankfully Corona Claus was watching out for her. The bike chain looked good so we took it home, pumped up the tires, put Hulk's old training wheels on, and took Viking Girl down the street.

She was so excited the whole time. When I brought the bike over to the car her face just lit up and she exclaimed, "My bike!"
She knew.
She has wanted one for a long time.
After we got home, the first thing she wanted to do was ride the bike. When she's excited or wants something done right away she tries to be super helpful.
Which is not helpful.
At all.
(She's only two after all)

But I want her to be helpful so I try to remember to take a deep breath, slowdown, and let her "help".
She took to biking like a natural. She's my athlete.