Activity Days: Courage To Be Kind

I currently work with the girls at church who are 7-11 years old. We meet twice a month. Usually when we meet, we have a lesson, we do a craft and we play a game. For tonight's activity I was in charge of the lesson. I was not able to share my lesson in person tonight due to our entire family being sick, so the other leaders delivered the message I prepared.

Here is my message:

Dear Girls,

I am sorry I cannot be there with you tonight, I am home sick with my family. The message I want to share with you tonight is near and dear to my heart, I hope that you may be able to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost touch your hearts this evening as we talk about the courage to be kind.

Read John 13: 34 

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

Read Mark 12:30-31 

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

Question: What message do these scriptures have in common?

The first great commandment is to love God. The second is to love our neighbors. Everyone is our neighbor, we are all children of God. Regardless of whether or not someone has done bad things, we are supposed to love them. If they look different from us, talk different from us, sin differently than we do or treat us unkindly, we are supposed to love them. Sometimes it is the people who are most unkind to us that are in need of the most love.

“A physician once said, ‘The best medicine for humans is love.’ Someone asked, ‘What if it doesn’t work?’ He smiled and said, ‘Increase the does.’”

I want to share a story with you about my little sister Megan. Megan was the youngest in our family and I am the oldest. Our parents both worked and we were often left to fend for ourselves. I am five years older than Megan and I was oft times her protector.

When Megan was born she was born with a birth defect. I wish I had a picture I could show you to help you understand, but I do not have very many good ones. She had a growth that came out of the top of her head and covered her left eye like an eyelid. This growth was puffy and purple in color—kind of like a bruise. Inside her head Megan had very large veins.

Megan has had about 15 surgeries to help save her life. Most of them occurred when I was in high school and she was in junior high. Megan spent months at a time in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in Seattle, Washington. When she was eventually discharged from the hospital, she was incredibly thin and fail, half of her head had been shaved and she no longer had a left eye. She was very self-conscious about the way she looked.

She wore hats and scarves to school so her classmates would not notice her missing hair. She often wore a patch over her eye so people would not notice she no longer had her eye. She worn long sleeves to hide the skin graft scars on her arms. And she sat in the back of the classroom in hopes that people would not notice her.

One day while she was waiting in line to have her school picture taken a boy who was a member of the church was standing near her. He said loud enough for her to hear, “Who would want a picture of someone with a face like that?”

I cannot tell you how badly that comment hurt my sister. She was crushed. She was devastated and she did not go to school for days.

In time she went back to school. One day she decided to be brave and showed one of her scars to a boy in her class. He thought it was so cool! He had the rest of the class gather round to see how cool it was. This more positive experience was a boost to my sisters self confidence. I am incredibly grateful to this young man who had the courage to be kind.

From Left To Right: Daniel, Hazel, Julie, Megan, Jimmy, Russell & Dad.

Today Megan lives in Connecticut. She was sealed in the Seattle Temple to her husband, Daniel. She has two children of her own, Hazel and Jimmy and a step daughter named Audrey. She graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo with her Bachelors. She graduated high school as Valedictorian at 16 years old. While Megan may not look like everyone else, she has a heart of gold. I am so blessed to call her my sister. And in case you were wondering, she has her drivers license and can safely drive with one eye.

Being kind may not always be the cool thing, or the easy thing. But, I can promise you that it will always be the right thing. As you go throughout your lives, please stop, look around you and seek out those who may be different from you and show them that you care. If you do this, I promise you that the Lord will bless not only their lives but your lives as well. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Update On Bear

About four weeks ago Bear started walking, by walking, I mean walking. He had taken a few steps here and there. But one day, he up and just walked across the room and he hasn't slowed down since. The last few days, he has been trying to run.

Our entire family has been home sick the last several days, so Andy has had a chance to really see the two boys interact. Yesterday, they started playing what looked like tag. Later in the day, Bear grabbed onto the back of Bubba and they walked around the house like a train engine pulling a car-- it was super cute!

Bear has added a few new words/phrases to his vocabulary list this week as well. We've heard him say, "Wow" and "Bye bye."

This little boy has a love for music and likes to bop along to the beat. He currently likes the Piano Guys. He also, really likes animals.

Bear has a love for remotes, mouses, keyboards and cell phones. He likes to take the batteries out of them (yes, he knows how to get them out) and he carries them around like they are prized possessions. We have to keep a super close on him when he does this because he likes to try and put the batteries in his mouth. With his love of electronics, I can't help but wonder if we have a baby nerd in the making.

Perils Of Potty Training

Oh the stories I could tell you about poop and pee. Potty training has been kicking my butt or should I say my house and my patience.

Most of Bubba's friends are potty trained. My mommy friends shared with me a guide to potty train your kids in 3 days. They warned me that it took more like 2 weeks for them and after 2 weeks their kids regressed and they had to push through that.

I read about 20% of the 50 page guide and thought, this seems straight forward lets go for it. Up to this point Bubba was still wearing a diaper but he was keeping it dry the entire day. So we made the switch to underwear-- I made sure they were underwear he liked, Thomas The Train.

The first two weeks he did great! We didn't have any accidents going potty (aka pee) in the toilet. Except for the time we were using a public bathroom/changing room for swim lessons and I didn't hold his penis down and pee shot over the toilet and onto the floor, I got peed on and Bear was making a beeline for the pile of urine on the floor.

Or the time we went to story time and we went to use the bathroom before we headed home. I held his penis down and pee shot through the gap between the top of the toilet and toilet seat soaking Bubba's leg and leaving a pile of pee on the ground and pee on my boots.

Or how about the time he decided he wasn't going to pee in the toilet that day. Instead he peed all over my new living room rug not once, but twice. He peed all over my kitchen chair and pee ran  down the chair like a waterfall collecting in a pile of the floor. And he pooped in my closet-- we are still working on pooping in the toilet. He has only pooped in the toilet once so far. I've got a lot of poop stories but we will save those for another day.

This last day was probably the hardest of them all. I'd ask him to come use the bathroom and he would just pee instantly where he was. I can't tell you how many pairs of underwear we went through. I washed socks, shirts and pants. In addition to scrubbing my floors, chair, rug, etc. All I did was clean up pee the entire day.

I finally told Bubba that if he couldn't stop peeing his clothes that he couldn't wear any clothes. I took all of his clothes away except for his underwear and told him he had to earn them back by going pee in the toilet. When he peed on my kitchen chair, I told him he could sit on the floor to eat. Chairs were a privileged and if he was going to pee on them, he couldn't sit in them. He lost his coveted blanket. Next on the chopping block were his toys.

Bubba spent most of the day in his underwear. Just before nap time he peed in the toilet-- miracle!!! I told him he could have one thing back and I let him pick. He picked his socks. This boy insists on wearing socks all the time. When I went to tuck him in he asked for his blanket. I was firm and I told him he had only earned one thing back and he chose his socks. He started to whine and I offered to trade him. He took his socks off and I gave him his blanket. He napped in underwear and a blanket. Just as bed time approached he earned his last piece of clothing back. He hasn't had an accident since. Knock on wood.

Here's hoping pooping in the toilet gets better.

He does great staying dry and night. And he does get potty treats.