Let Freedom Ring
After tonight's special treat, THE PIONEER DAY COMMEMORATION CONCERT, I just can't let July slip away without recording some of the overwhelming feelings and thoughts that keep returning to me on the subject of freedom. This month has given me many moments to pause and consider my place and duty in what it means to be blessed by liberty. And how blessed we are!
I taught a lesson on freedom to our young women earlier in the month. With Russell's help, we went about the house and gathered together all of the weapons of war we could find. Play weapons, people! Swords and stuff. Balloon grenades. Nerf guns. We had to stretch some of it a bit, and yes, we allow such toys at our house. Have you not met my husband?
As inconspicuously as possible (NOT possible), I hauled it all to church and promised the many who commented as I passed in the halls that I was teaching their youth all about peace.
The girls were instructed to pretend they were expert strategists of war. They had centuries of experience engaged in a battle where the goal was to take prisoners and keep them captive. "Choose your weapon," they were told. At the very bottom of the pile there was a cell phone, a credit card, a computer mouse, a pill bottle....you get the idea. Let's just say, the REEEAAAAAL bad guy.......he doesn't use the sword. It sounds a little obvious and cliche when spelled out in an object lesson, but it has been a powerful reminder to me of how sneaky Satan can be as he attempts to carefully lead us into captivity (2 Nephi 28:20), to take away our ability to choose, to take away our freedom to progress.
While the Young Women and I mostly discussed topics from FOR THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH (which is amazing by the way), in preparing for this lesson I came across a talk that had many thoughts that I fell in love with. Freedom, in its every form (political, economical, personal), is essential to our progression. I hope this excerpt makes sense when it is isolated from the full talk. Go HERE if you want more:
"Freedom is not just freedom from—freedom from interference, restraint, responsibility—although there certainly are things we want to be free from. But the greatest freedom, the freedom of God, is the freedom to do.
Ask yourself, “What am I free to do?” In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew the freedom from. They were free from every discomfort and mortal pain. But they had to leave that idyllic place and enter the dreary world in order to have freedom to do.
With our many opportunities, we ought to constantly ask ourselves, “What freedom do I have today that I did not have a year ago? What new capacity do I have? Many of us spend our energies escaping freedom rather than embracing it. I would suggest that if you are not more free at the end of this year, if you do not have more capacity, then this year was not worth a great deal to you. What are you becoming free to do? Free to love more fully? To teach more effectively? To talk more clearly? What new choices will be yours? Remember what the Savior said to his disciples about freedom: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32.)
Pretty good stuff, right?! As I read this over again, I can hear Satan's lies that I've entertained in the past that I "can't" love them, or that "I just don't have it" to open my mouth about the gospel to my neighbor, or that it's just "not me" to drop in unannounced on the friend that I've been prompted to check in with. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to be nice to my husband today. I'm SERIOUSLY NOT CAPABLE after he did this, this and............These are things I can practice, and with practice comes capacity, and with capacity comes FREEDOM! The freedom to do and to become. I love it.
And I love America, too! Let success be called nobleness and every gain be called Divine. "America, America, may God thy gold refine." We're the gold, no? Say yes to the refining even when the fire gets real, real hot and Let! Freedom! Ring!
I taught a lesson on freedom to our young women earlier in the month. With Russell's help, we went about the house and gathered together all of the weapons of war we could find. Play weapons, people! Swords and stuff. Balloon grenades. Nerf guns. We had to stretch some of it a bit, and yes, we allow such toys at our house. Have you not met my husband?
As inconspicuously as possible (NOT possible), I hauled it all to church and promised the many who commented as I passed in the halls that I was teaching their youth all about peace.
The girls were instructed to pretend they were expert strategists of war. They had centuries of experience engaged in a battle where the goal was to take prisoners and keep them captive. "Choose your weapon," they were told. At the very bottom of the pile there was a cell phone, a credit card, a computer mouse, a pill bottle....you get the idea. Let's just say, the REEEAAAAAL bad guy.......he doesn't use the sword. It sounds a little obvious and cliche when spelled out in an object lesson, but it has been a powerful reminder to me of how sneaky Satan can be as he attempts to carefully lead us into captivity (2 Nephi 28:20), to take away our ability to choose, to take away our freedom to progress.
While the Young Women and I mostly discussed topics from FOR THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH (which is amazing by the way), in preparing for this lesson I came across a talk that had many thoughts that I fell in love with. Freedom, in its every form (political, economical, personal), is essential to our progression. I hope this excerpt makes sense when it is isolated from the full talk. Go HERE if you want more:
"Freedom is not just freedom from—freedom from interference, restraint, responsibility—although there certainly are things we want to be free from. But the greatest freedom, the freedom of God, is the freedom to do.
Ask yourself, “What am I free to do?” In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew the freedom from. They were free from every discomfort and mortal pain. But they had to leave that idyllic place and enter the dreary world in order to have freedom to do.
With our many opportunities, we ought to constantly ask ourselves, “What freedom do I have today that I did not have a year ago? What new capacity do I have? Many of us spend our energies escaping freedom rather than embracing it. I would suggest that if you are not more free at the end of this year, if you do not have more capacity, then this year was not worth a great deal to you. What are you becoming free to do? Free to love more fully? To teach more effectively? To talk more clearly? What new choices will be yours? Remember what the Savior said to his disciples about freedom: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32.)
Pretty good stuff, right?! As I read this over again, I can hear Satan's lies that I've entertained in the past that I "can't" love them, or that "I just don't have it" to open my mouth about the gospel to my neighbor, or that it's just "not me" to drop in unannounced on the friend that I've been prompted to check in with. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to be nice to my husband today. I'm SERIOUSLY NOT CAPABLE after he did this, this and............These are things I can practice, and with practice comes capacity, and with capacity comes FREEDOM! The freedom to do and to become. I love it.
And I love America, too! Let success be called nobleness and every gain be called Divine. "America, America, may God thy gold refine." We're the gold, no? Say yes to the refining even when the fire gets real, real hot and Let! Freedom! Ring!
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