It is like riding a bike...
My week has been interesting. I continue working on the invitations given to me, but have not had much success. I have however, gotten out and talked to more people. People I know and people I don't know. That part has been good. I will continue the work.
After pondering the different conversations I have had and the studying I have done, my thoughts were opened to a couple different concepts that I probably knew and understood, but have not been very good at applying them.
One of the conversations involved catching up with a fellow co-worker and the Sr. Vice President over my division at work. They were both talking about how hard it has been finding time to sit with their children and help them with homework. Most of the time it has been spent doing math. The way kids are taught to do math is so different than it was when I/they were in school. When I was a youth, they taught us one path, this is the way you do it and doing it any differently is wrong, even if you get the same result. Today, they teach you several different ways to do the same problem and want you to practice doing each way several times. Then, you get to choose the method that is most comfortable for you to help solve future problems. Challenge is, we parents are only familiar with ONE way. Change is not easy. Teach old dogs, though possible, is not always easy.
Any who, in our conversation I mentioned an article I had recently read about an engineer who was now on a motivational speaking circuit. His topic is "Riding a Bike". We have all heard the phase, "It is like riding a bike..." right? Well, he begs to differ, especially in today's world. He talks about a group of welders he was working with a while back that loved to try and prove him wrong. There was always this banter going between them that without him, they would be nothing, or without them, he would be nothing. Then one day they presented him with a challenge that completely blew his thought process. They called it the "Backward Bike" They had completely re-designed and made a functional bike. At the steering column they inserted 2 gears. The idea was that when you turned the handle bars right, the wheel turned left and vice versa. Then they challenged him to ride it, since he was so smart. He couldn't. It required a completely different way of thinking.
He took the bike home and for just over 8 months, spent his evenings practicing with this bike. There were times that he thought it had it figured out, and then his cell phone would ring or someone would call his name and his mind and body went right back to the old way of riding. He would fall, get up, and start working on it again. Then, one day, he climbed on the bike and it just clicked. He could ride this "Backward Bike" without thinking about it.
When he finally got it, he called his family around for celebration. His 3 year old son, who had just recently learned to ride a "Forward Bike" could not understand why his Dad was so excited. It was just a bike. So, his Dad told him if he could ride the "Backward Bike" he would take him to Australia to meet an astronaut. It took his son 2 weeks to learn what it took him over 8 months to learn. This just floored him.
From these two experiences, we decided that it is easier for children to learn this new way of learning, but that if the schools want the parents to be on board with them, they need to spend some time teaching the old dogs how to get on and ride this "Backward Method" of learning.
OK, so now you have some history. Where am I going with this? I was reading this week in Alma 20. Yep, I am a slow reader.
When Ammon and Lamoni meet Lamoni's father on the way to Middoni, there is conflict. Lamoni has just spend the past several days, weeks, or month learning about the gospel. He is excited about it. Before they went to Middoni, Lamoni wanted Ammon to go with him to his father, so his father could learn what he had learned. However, here on the highway, what Lamoni thought would be a joyous reunion filled with the same joy he was and had experienced turned out to be a major conflict. A conflict that came to blows and threatened lives. Why? Because Lamoni's father did not know how to ride the same kind of bike that Ammon and Lamoni had come to love. Does that make sense?
We were reminded this April in conference that the way the Lord teaches his children is the best. First, he presented a plan to us. A plan that would require work, sacrifice, and commitment. He taught us the benefits of such a plan and showed us what we could have if we accepted it. Before he moved forward, he had to know who was willing to accept this plan. One third of his children did not accept the plan. It was not the bike they wanted to ride.
After he had presented the plan and we had accepted, he taught exactly what we needed to do to succeed in our part of the plan, commandments, principles, ordinances, and covenants we needed to make. Then he sent us here to practice. It was different. It was not like the spirit world bike we were riding. There were lots of distractions, name callings, and falling, but not impossible. Some of us learn faster than others. Some of us learn and then want other to jump on and have the same joy they have. This is how it works.
Back to our friends Lamoni and Ammon. They had both learned to ride the bike, but Lamoni's father had not. It was different. It was scary. All of his life, he had been taught a different way to ride. In fact, he was told that someday a Nephite might come and try and trick him into riding a different way. He would do it to make him look like a fool and then steal away all that he had ever known. Lamoni's father was afraid that this different way of riding would take away his son, his people, and his kingdom. He felt threatened.
Have any of you run into that? I have, everyday. But now I understand a little better. I need to start applying it. With my children, I should present the plan, the benefits, and show them how it will benefit them. I need to let them accept it. Then together we can work on making it happen.
Sharing the gospel is the same way. What we are sharing is different. It may feel uncomfortable or threatening to all that one has ever known. Even once they start riding, they may get distracted and fall, we just need to be there to help them get back up, teach them how it is part of the plan, and show them they can make it work.
I hope I can get better at the application.
On with the week.
It has been crazy busy around here. I feel like I missed most of it even though I was only gone a couple of days.
The Queen has done her best to keep best to keep us all on track and getting where we needed to be, when we needed to be, and still juggle all of the things and places she wanted to do and be. She is amazing.
The Professor just keeps getting more invitations. She does not like that part of her calling. She feels obligated to attend each event. First, they are not her favorite types of events and second, there just is not enough hours in the day to attend them all equally. It is a balancing act.
Tall Man continues to raise the bar a work. It is not always fun, but seems to be working. He also borrowed a truck and let us help him move into his new place this weekend. There were some questionable moments as to whether we would get it all in or up the crazy stairway, but he is settling in now. He will have to invite us over in small group. It is not equipped for large family gatherings.
SnackPack was challenged each day to get out of bed and go to school. It has not been easy. Most of his classes are really not doing anything anymore, so he does not see the point. We keep reminding him, that he must endure. Then we spent the weekend watching him and the team participate in State Play offs.
The boys went in as 7th seed and the girls as 3rd seed. The boys came out 6th and the girls 2nd. It was an incredible weekend of tension. My voice is still raspy and my heart still beats a little faster than before.
On the community board of updates.
Jo-Jo from Pocatello recently put a ring on it this weekend. I don't know about dates and such.
Then on Friday night, after a nail biting game, No. 13 called in a gathering of friends to open that big white envelope. He has been called to Majuro Marshall Islands to the region of Kiribati. He will be teaching in Kiribati. He reports in September.
I also think I forgot to mention that the Bearded Wonder from Hunter opened his big white envelope as well. He has been called to Roseville, California. The exact same mission his sister just returned from a couple months ago. He reports in August.
That is all for this week. Hope a good one. Be safe. Make good choices. Find the fun.
After pondering the different conversations I have had and the studying I have done, my thoughts were opened to a couple different concepts that I probably knew and understood, but have not been very good at applying them.
One of the conversations involved catching up with a fellow co-worker and the Sr. Vice President over my division at work. They were both talking about how hard it has been finding time to sit with their children and help them with homework. Most of the time it has been spent doing math. The way kids are taught to do math is so different than it was when I/they were in school. When I was a youth, they taught us one path, this is the way you do it and doing it any differently is wrong, even if you get the same result. Today, they teach you several different ways to do the same problem and want you to practice doing each way several times. Then, you get to choose the method that is most comfortable for you to help solve future problems. Challenge is, we parents are only familiar with ONE way. Change is not easy. Teach old dogs, though possible, is not always easy.
Any who, in our conversation I mentioned an article I had recently read about an engineer who was now on a motivational speaking circuit. His topic is "Riding a Bike". We have all heard the phase, "It is like riding a bike..." right? Well, he begs to differ, especially in today's world. He talks about a group of welders he was working with a while back that loved to try and prove him wrong. There was always this banter going between them that without him, they would be nothing, or without them, he would be nothing. Then one day they presented him with a challenge that completely blew his thought process. They called it the "Backward Bike" They had completely re-designed and made a functional bike. At the steering column they inserted 2 gears. The idea was that when you turned the handle bars right, the wheel turned left and vice versa. Then they challenged him to ride it, since he was so smart. He couldn't. It required a completely different way of thinking.
He took the bike home and for just over 8 months, spent his evenings practicing with this bike. There were times that he thought it had it figured out, and then his cell phone would ring or someone would call his name and his mind and body went right back to the old way of riding. He would fall, get up, and start working on it again. Then, one day, he climbed on the bike and it just clicked. He could ride this "Backward Bike" without thinking about it.
When he finally got it, he called his family around for celebration. His 3 year old son, who had just recently learned to ride a "Forward Bike" could not understand why his Dad was so excited. It was just a bike. So, his Dad told him if he could ride the "Backward Bike" he would take him to Australia to meet an astronaut. It took his son 2 weeks to learn what it took him over 8 months to learn. This just floored him.
From these two experiences, we decided that it is easier for children to learn this new way of learning, but that if the schools want the parents to be on board with them, they need to spend some time teaching the old dogs how to get on and ride this "Backward Method" of learning.
OK, so now you have some history. Where am I going with this? I was reading this week in Alma 20. Yep, I am a slow reader.
When Ammon and Lamoni meet Lamoni's father on the way to Middoni, there is conflict. Lamoni has just spend the past several days, weeks, or month learning about the gospel. He is excited about it. Before they went to Middoni, Lamoni wanted Ammon to go with him to his father, so his father could learn what he had learned. However, here on the highway, what Lamoni thought would be a joyous reunion filled with the same joy he was and had experienced turned out to be a major conflict. A conflict that came to blows and threatened lives. Why? Because Lamoni's father did not know how to ride the same kind of bike that Ammon and Lamoni had come to love. Does that make sense?
We were reminded this April in conference that the way the Lord teaches his children is the best. First, he presented a plan to us. A plan that would require work, sacrifice, and commitment. He taught us the benefits of such a plan and showed us what we could have if we accepted it. Before he moved forward, he had to know who was willing to accept this plan. One third of his children did not accept the plan. It was not the bike they wanted to ride.
After he had presented the plan and we had accepted, he taught exactly what we needed to do to succeed in our part of the plan, commandments, principles, ordinances, and covenants we needed to make. Then he sent us here to practice. It was different. It was not like the spirit world bike we were riding. There were lots of distractions, name callings, and falling, but not impossible. Some of us learn faster than others. Some of us learn and then want other to jump on and have the same joy they have. This is how it works.
Back to our friends Lamoni and Ammon. They had both learned to ride the bike, but Lamoni's father had not. It was different. It was scary. All of his life, he had been taught a different way to ride. In fact, he was told that someday a Nephite might come and try and trick him into riding a different way. He would do it to make him look like a fool and then steal away all that he had ever known. Lamoni's father was afraid that this different way of riding would take away his son, his people, and his kingdom. He felt threatened.
Have any of you run into that? I have, everyday. But now I understand a little better. I need to start applying it. With my children, I should present the plan, the benefits, and show them how it will benefit them. I need to let them accept it. Then together we can work on making it happen.
Sharing the gospel is the same way. What we are sharing is different. It may feel uncomfortable or threatening to all that one has ever known. Even once they start riding, they may get distracted and fall, we just need to be there to help them get back up, teach them how it is part of the plan, and show them they can make it work.
I hope I can get better at the application.
On with the week.
It has been crazy busy around here. I feel like I missed most of it even though I was only gone a couple of days.
The Queen has done her best to keep best to keep us all on track and getting where we needed to be, when we needed to be, and still juggle all of the things and places she wanted to do and be. She is amazing.
The Professor just keeps getting more invitations. She does not like that part of her calling. She feels obligated to attend each event. First, they are not her favorite types of events and second, there just is not enough hours in the day to attend them all equally. It is a balancing act.
Tall Man continues to raise the bar a work. It is not always fun, but seems to be working. He also borrowed a truck and let us help him move into his new place this weekend. There were some questionable moments as to whether we would get it all in or up the crazy stairway, but he is settling in now. He will have to invite us over in small group. It is not equipped for large family gatherings.
SnackPack was challenged each day to get out of bed and go to school. It has not been easy. Most of his classes are really not doing anything anymore, so he does not see the point. We keep reminding him, that he must endure. Then we spent the weekend watching him and the team participate in State Play offs.
The boys went in as 7th seed and the girls as 3rd seed. The boys came out 6th and the girls 2nd. It was an incredible weekend of tension. My voice is still raspy and my heart still beats a little faster than before.
On the community board of updates.
Jo-Jo from Pocatello recently put a ring on it this weekend. I don't know about dates and such.
Then on Friday night, after a nail biting game, No. 13 called in a gathering of friends to open that big white envelope. He has been called to Majuro Marshall Islands to the region of Kiribati. He will be teaching in Kiribati. He reports in September.
I also think I forgot to mention that the Bearded Wonder from Hunter opened his big white envelope as well. He has been called to Roseville, California. The exact same mission his sister just returned from a couple months ago. He reports in August.
That is all for this week. Hope a good one. Be safe. Make good choices. Find the fun.
Comments