My-space from Days of long past.

To all that follow this awesome blog this is Nate the husband... I think this is the first or maybe second post I have ever done on here. I am not much of a writer and Sharon does such a good job that it is rarely necessary for me to get on and add my thoughts. Anyway David, my brother who lives with us, just got a new I-Pod Touch with the fancy program that talks to you and all that... I don't remember its name off hand... Anywho we were playing around with this new toy and in particular playing with the capabilities of the program and I decided to see what it could find on my dear wife. I was quite surprised to find that Sharon had a My-space account for awhile. I decided I would check it out and I found some very thoughtful posts and thought you as her fans might like a little window into the wonderfully thoughtful and talented woman I married. It never ceases to amaze me how amazing Sharon is. Here is post with a poem she wrote for a friend that was having a hard time:

He knows your pain...He too bleeds.

A poem I wrote a while back for a good friend who was struggling. I'm not that great at poems but it still meant something to me. It's hard to remember these words though when you are the one struggling. It's always easy to tell them to another person rather than take your own words of advice sometimes. Why is it that when it comes to other people we seem to know all the answers and know there is hope for them but when it comes to ourselves our vision becomes clouded and we are blind to any solution or hope. I'm really not sure. When others are down and out we see that the Savior paid the price for them...but when you are the one struggling it's so easy to be mad at God.
Anyways, I don't know...just thoughts I guess but I do hope you all who read this do remember that he knows because he bled too...figuratively and literally. His heart broke and he died for your life. You are worth it.

"I am broken and afraid
Drowning in your hate
This distortion only I can see
And so I cease to be.

Will you try to understand
The smile I hide behind,
The hurt I long to leave;
The reason I need to bleed.

My hope is long since gone
And now I see my fate
A life of desperation told
To those who feel so cold."

But the light in the darkness shines
To that one soul losing hope
"I've traveled down this road
Please know it's you I hold.

I hold you in my heart
And hope that you can see
There's hope in sight for you
I know because I too bleed.

That day in Gethsemane
You must not now forget
No cold or numb relief
But pain enveloped me.

It all was done for you.
That now you see the truth
I bought you with a price
Only I could pay

See the pain for what it is
A miracle in deed
I hold you in my arms
My child when you're in need."



 
Ok so I don't know about you but I thought that was an incredible poem about the savior. I am going to post her other posts as well because I love many of the questions she poses and how thought provoking they are not to mention what the posts show about Sharon. I think they are worth a read. She hasn't updated her My-space in about four years and I don't know how long they are allowed to be inactive without being deleted and I really don't want them lost forever. So I apologize for this being a long post and you don't have to read them all at once but at least they will be available.
 

Questions on Love???

What is being in love? Is it simply a feeling, a desire, a passion, a want, a need, or is it more? How did you capture love in words and how do you understand the reasons? How do you think logically when your mind wont let you? How do you fall in love with a person and how do you know? When you are in love with someone doesn't it mean you give your whole heart over? How can someone be in love with two people then? Is it possible or is it only a desire? When someone is ready to give up all they have for someone, isn't that a sign of being in love? Well, how do you do that when the person is in love with another as well? How do you stop hating yourself for not being enough? Everyone says love is selfless but how can it be selfless when it comes to sharing the one you love. How do you not be selfish in this situation? How can you belong wholy to more than one person? How does one "fall out" of love? If you "fall out" how do you know you really loved them? How does a person know they will never "fall out" of love? Or does one really ever fall out of love? How does a person answer these questions? How do you not give up when the heart you love so belongs to another person too? How do you still believe you are worth loving? Can love really conquer all when everything in the world is pulling the two people apart? Is love perfection? Is it complete, is it whole, without wanting or vanity? Love is the only thing in the world that can give a person completel joy and tear them apart at the same time.
If you have answers then please enlighten me...but does anybody really have the answers to all these questions or even one question? I don't know. Tell me.

 

A Sincere & Genuine Love
So, I have been thinking lately a lot about sincerity and the genuine nature of very few people. It is increasingly hard to find people who sincerely care constantly. Yes, all people are sincere and genuine in certain situations but not many people have devoted this characteristic as a concrete, immovable part of who they are. When someone is passionate about something or someone it is easier to demonsrate sincere care and genuine love for that person. Yes, you could state this as admirable. However, what I find admirable is when this becomes second nature to someone. No one has completely perfected this but I do believe some have become pretty close.
Everyone in life is striving to find themselves, correct!?! While this is sometimes very important it is so easy in the honest efforts of doing this that one can become self-absorbed and insincere and not even recognize it. I, however, believe that it is in loosing ourselves for God and others that we seems to find out who we truly are. I truly believe that the only life worth living is a life lived for others. In the book "A Man's Search for Meaning" Victor Frankl talks about this. When the people of these concentration camps wanted to die and decided they had nothing to live for they might as well already be dead. Those prisoners who were able to find someone or something to live for were those who stayed strong in the midst of terrible circumstances. If one became self-absorbed and decided to focus only on oneself they would usually become extremely depressed and then waited only for the second in which they would die. Even if some did not want to live for themselves anymore, which was very common, if a person loved or truly cared for another person they were willing to dwell in an earthly hell, looking forward to the next day hoping for better times simply for another. This is a genuine devotion to another and this is admirable.
It was indeed second nature to Christ. He was genuine and sincere in all things he did. He treated every person the same with genuine love for who they are, a child of the Almighty, our Father in Heaven, and his brother or sister in Zion. Now, some people think of Zion as a physical location. While it very well can be, Zion is also the pure in heart. The people of God will reach a zion-like state when they learn to live in one heart and one mind with each other and also God. This is sincerity and genuine nature in the very essence.
When this happens one will find themselves forgetting about the mere dissapointements in life and will truly care for another more than themselves. They do not need to justify something to fit their schedule, their preferences, or more. Instead, they take a little time to shut up and listen. They learn to start paying attention to others and they learn to love. They look beyond the normal every day facade on the faces of so many and look deeper to see the true and genuine feelings of another. Children do this all the time!!!
The scriptures encourage us to be more child-like. Why, because it would benefit us greatly if we did. Children, at souch a young age are so much more intelligent than we as adults claim to be. They need to depend on others, they love fearlessly, they live effortlessly, and laugh often. Why can't we seem to do this. I'm not sure but I believe it is important to do. I have so much trouble being child-like while my sister Shanon does it every day. It doesn't seem that hard but all of us have an individual situation and we must all strive individually to improve our own selves. Maybe if we would stop trying to change and improve everyone else and start with oursevles we would see a bit more of a difference and find ourselves becoming a little more selfless, sincere, and genuine in our love.
Hmmm...just some thoughts. I need to work on being a more sincere and genuine person. I am far from the Christ-like attributes than I should be. It is very important to me though and I hope that I have not offended another by treating something or someone insincere. Live, laugh, and love like a child!!! Keep Smiling and Remember life is not all that hard. Just go with it and learn to be happy with where you are at this very moment. Take Victor Frankl's words and live even the most terrible of circumstances to the fullest.


 

The Great Measure of Discipleship

What is the great meausre of our discipleship!?! Well, I believe we can think of many things. However, in a devotional last semester at my school, BYU-Idaho our speaker spoke on something I believe answers this question completely. I listened to the devotional again today as I have a million times before. I pull more from it every time and thought it would be cool to share a little of it and ramble on about how much I agree.
The first time I heard this I, as well as many others students, had a wake-up call. I think the topic he speaks on can hit home for all people on this Earth as none of us are perfect and we are often way to quick to pass judgement.
He says:

Let me say it this precisely, our judgments about, our conclusions concerning, and our actions toward others all grow out of how we view them. If this is the case, then the question becomes, "do we see others as a spirit son or daughter of God, as a person, as a human being, as a soul of infinite worth?" Or do we see them as something less? Or do we fail to see them at all?

Some bad things come of our failure to see others for who they really are. Some of the world's greatest evils can be traced to this failure. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, misogyny, and a whole list of other ills all flow from it. But of course none of us are guilty of those kinds of things, and we are not here today to talk about them.

What I will propose is that (1) the failure to see others properly is widespread. You and I do it all the time. (2) Most of us are not even aware that we do it. And (3) finally, and most importantly, failing to see others for what they truly are makes us less like the Savior.

How does that work? When we see others in the proper way, we cannot help but love and lift them, just as the Savior would. When we fail to see them in the proper way, we almost always devalue and dismiss them, like Christ never would.

This lesson is very simple,yet profound. How often do we judge others the second we see them? Yet, how we view others is not only important in the physical nature, but in a spiritual and mental nature as well.

Brother Southwick goes on to explain five different examples of how we view others unfairly. These are so true and yet we never realize how we do this on a daily basis to those we supposedly love.

He continues by saying:

The first object is a check list—one that you can put on your refrigerator with magnets or that sits on the corner of your desk. Sometimes, instead of seeing another as a person to be served, we see them as a task to be accomplished.

The next object is a bunch of grapes. Sometimes we see others not as an individual, but only as a member of some group. We are unable to distinguish them as an individual person. This is very easy to do when someone has a different skin color than we do, and we succumb to racial stereotypes and prejudices. This also happens frequently when that other person subscribes to a different ideology or worldview than we do. We cannot separate them from the group they belong to, or the ideas they subscribe to.

The third object is a can of mosquito spray. Sometimes we see others not as a person but as a pest or a nuisance, an annoyance to be dealt with, postponed, simply endured, or avoided altogether. Now you are probably thinking to yourself, "Brother Southwick I don't ever do that." Have you ever looked at the caller ID and saw who was calling and thought, "Oh I don't want to talk to them right now." Have you ever been walking on campus by yourself or with friends and changed your route because you saw someone up ahead that you did not want to talk to? I told you some of these were painful.

The next one is a TV remote. I had a hard time coming up with the label for this particular category. But I will tell you the experience that caused me to think of this. Not too long ago, I had come home from work after a rather strenuous day. I had taken my shoes off and loosened my tie and was lying on my bed watching the evening news. My ten-year-old son came into the bedroom with his basketball under his arm and said, "Hey, Dad, you want to shoot some hoops?" I am ashamed to say that sometimes—and I was guilty of it on this occasion—we view others as an interruption. So I paused the news I was watching long enough to go out and play basketball with my son.

This last one really hurts. The last object is a mirror. Sometimes we see others as a mirror. When we do this, what we are most interested in is what is reflected back about us. We treat that person a certain way not because they deserve to be treated that way, but because we want to be known as a person who treats people that way. We are more interested in the other person's opinion of us than we are the other person. Now this one is particularly hazardous because generally we are doing well, our conduct toward them is right and proper, but our motives are all wrong. In addition, there can become a certain hollowness about our actions that often times can be sensed by that other person.

I particularly relate to the last object he mentions; the mirror. I fall into this category all too often sometimes and although I really would like to know the person and understand them I am more concerned about what they think of me that I loose sight of what I can be doing for them. I think we can compare this to charity. Charity is defined as "the pure love of Christ." This love is so pure that we will and can not find ourselves in any of these analogies Brother Southwick mentions simply because we have BECOME the exact oposite. We develop charity when we have no more desire to demean others simply becasue we are too busy, too careless, or too insensitive and not attentive.

I know that attaining charity is an ultimate and life-time pursuit but it's not a bad idea to remind ourselves a little more often of how we view others and how that effect our relationship with the Savior. So often we steryotype individuals on the premise that some are religious and some not. However, I have met many individuals who are faithful members of a religion and many who are faithful Christians not active in a religion. So often, those faithful Christians who are not active in a group or religion can grasp this concept easier. It is common to find them a little more accepting at times of the individuals we are. We could take a good lesson from these accepting people who understand so simply who and what Christ is - Love.

I truly believe there is good in each person that we meet and when we fail to recognize that good we fail to understand someone truly great. We miss out and our self-absorption envelops our lives. However, when we truly recognize each person on this earth as a son or daughter of our one true God, we are all enriched by sharing the blessings of honest, sincere Christ-like love.

Just like the woman of Samaria, when we label others by what we see or hear they start to view themselves the same way. However, like Christ if we treat them as who they truly are, a soul of infinite worth, they can find in themselves something good allowing them to heal.

Who are we? Who are you? Who am I? A soul...a soul of infinite worth. Treat yourselves and others as such and the healing from our Savior can flow into our lives more freely than ever before.

Thank you for being who you are!!! Never be anyone or anything less!!! :o)

Finally I just want to say how much I Love my wife and How much I admire who she is! She is an amazingly dedicate woman that constantly strives to make our home a place of Happiness and Love!!! She is the Most Beautiful, eloquent, and sophisticated woman I know! I Love you Sharon Marie!!!