I will never forget a sad exchange I had with a third grade student years ago. I was helping her edit her writers journal. The picture she drew above her words was a persons face in the sky above her home. A figure I realized was God as I began to read her short paragraph.
She asked in her journal, "Is God real? Sometimes I think he is but I think people will say I'm foolish. I think He must be watching me but I don't know. I want to ask an adult about Him but I think I will get in trouble."
My heart ached as I read the words aloud. She watched me intently and the expression on her face caused me to fight back a tear. I sensed that she had written the words knowing I would edit her paper and hopeful that I would answer her question.
The very mention of God in the classroom had become so taboo that teachers feared the loss of their jobs if they respond in any way to such questions. Children perceive the fear (or with some teachers, disgust) their teachers have at the mention of God and it confuses them.
I looked at this dear sweet girl and tenderly told her that I believed God is there, that he watches over us all and loves us, and told her that she should never feel foolish to believe in God or be afraid that her questions would get her in trouble.
To those in authority at that school I had probably committed the ultimate crime but the relief and peace in this young child's face reassured me that I had done the right thing!
Today I watched The O'Reilly Factor this evening and heard a story of a young girl who had the report of her Grandfathers prayers in Vietnam censored by educators who believe that any identification of religious thought expressed in public in any way is unconstitutional.
The very mention of God or religion in any school lesson, student report, or student expression is being suppressed. Not only is such interpretation of the constitution ludicrous it sharply weakens our children's education.
The suppression of religious thought in our public schools is devastating to our children's healthy development. A healthy exposure to the foundational principles of society for thousands of years connects them to generations of the past. God is found in every era of history and particularly woven into every step taken by pilgrims feet and pioneers. To teach history, government, and literature with no mention of God or religion and the profound impact it has had on the human history is to teach lies.
Our children know they are being lied to, they know their teachers are hiding important learning from them, and they are hurt and confused by it! They see the fear (or disgust) in their teachers demeanor when a student mentions God in class and the reaction is distressing. Those children who are taught in their homes to believe feel oppressed in this environment and they learn to sensor their thoughts and words.
Is this freedom in education, does this foster the free thought of the student, and the intelligent discussion? No! This is tyranny!
We must jettison this destructive agenda to eliminate God from the classrooms of our nation and rewrite the history of our past. If we are to restore the education that was responsible for the great ages of thought and literature, the ideas that enlightened generations of leaders and freedom fighters, and provided an unwavering moral compass to the greatest generation who liberated the world from tyranny we must rescue our children from the tyranny of those who push "freedom from religion"!
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Moms Minute: Lessons in Faith
My thoughts from today's lesson at church:
Through faith all things are possible... Mountains can be moved... The dead will rise... The lame will walk...
This is what the scriptures teach us about the extraordinary power of faith, but when we misunderstand these scriptures they can lead us to despair in the face of persistent trials and infirmities. We can begin to doubt our faith and the pureness of our hearts and desires. Satan will whisper that we are not good enough, not strong enough, and therefore we cannot overcome our infirmities.
Many of you know that I have struggled in this life to bear children and that it has been a great heartache over the years. One day someone very close to me asked me, "Don't you think if you had enough faith you would have the righteous desires of your heart? Don’t you believe that through faith you can be healed?"
This question would have hurt me if I had not already spent years asking myself the same question. I replied by asking if Abraham had lacked faith to produce a son sooner or Joseph Smith lacked the faith to save his babies from death?
My father added his wisdom to this question by telling me that "Never has anyone at anytime interfered with the will of our Father in Heaven or frustrated the plan of God through faith. Christ faced the agony of the garden by asking, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The real question is not why can’t your faith heal you or save you from heart ache, but rather why is it God's will that I suffer these things? What is this trial meant to teach me? And how will this suffering bring me closer to Him?"
These questions are no less difficult, but they tend to lead us closer to God and not further from him. When we approach the trials of this life in faith we are given power to trust God's will and do all things according to his will.
In addition, this song by Janice Kapp Perry has always been a great comfort in times of trial:
“Tell me friend, why are you blind?
Why doesn't He who worked the miracles
Send light into your eyes?
Tell me friend, if you understand,
Why doesn't He with power to raise the dead
Just make you whole again?
It would be so easy for Him.
I watch you and in sorrow question why . . .
Then you, my friend, in perfect faith reply:
Didn't say He sent us to be tested?
Didn't He say the way would not be sure?
But didn't He say we could live with Him
Forevermore, well and whole,
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial we will be blessed,
But this life is the test.
...
Tell me friend, why must you die?
Why must your loved ones stand with empty arms
And ask the question "why"?
Help me know, so I can go on.
How, when your love and faith sustained me,
Can the precious gift be gone?
From the depths of sorrow I cry,
Though pains of grief within my soul arise . . .
The whisperings of the spirit still my cries:
Didn't He say He sent us to be tested?
Didn't He say the way would not be sure?
But didn't He say we could live with Him forevermore,
Well and whole
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial we will be blessed,
But this life is the test."
Through faith all things are possible... Mountains can be moved... The dead will rise... The lame will walk...
This is what the scriptures teach us about the extraordinary power of faith, but when we misunderstand these scriptures they can lead us to despair in the face of persistent trials and infirmities. We can begin to doubt our faith and the pureness of our hearts and desires. Satan will whisper that we are not good enough, not strong enough, and therefore we cannot overcome our infirmities.
Many of you know that I have struggled in this life to bear children and that it has been a great heartache over the years. One day someone very close to me asked me, "Don't you think if you had enough faith you would have the righteous desires of your heart? Don’t you believe that through faith you can be healed?"
This question would have hurt me if I had not already spent years asking myself the same question. I replied by asking if Abraham had lacked faith to produce a son sooner or Joseph Smith lacked the faith to save his babies from death?
My father added his wisdom to this question by telling me that "Never has anyone at anytime interfered with the will of our Father in Heaven or frustrated the plan of God through faith. Christ faced the agony of the garden by asking, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The real question is not why can’t your faith heal you or save you from heart ache, but rather why is it God's will that I suffer these things? What is this trial meant to teach me? And how will this suffering bring me closer to Him?"
These questions are no less difficult, but they tend to lead us closer to God and not further from him. When we approach the trials of this life in faith we are given power to trust God's will and do all things according to his will.
In addition, this song by Janice Kapp Perry has always been a great comfort in times of trial:
“Tell me friend, why are you blind?
Why doesn't He who worked the miracles
Send light into your eyes?
Tell me friend, if you understand,
Why doesn't He with power to raise the dead
Just make you whole again?
It would be so easy for Him.
I watch you and in sorrow question why . . .
Then you, my friend, in perfect faith reply:
Didn't say He sent us to be tested?
Didn't He say the way would not be sure?
But didn't He say we could live with Him
Forevermore, well and whole,
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial we will be blessed,
But this life is the test.
...
Tell me friend, why must you die?
Why must your loved ones stand with empty arms
And ask the question "why"?
Help me know, so I can go on.
How, when your love and faith sustained me,
Can the precious gift be gone?
From the depths of sorrow I cry,
Though pains of grief within my soul arise . . .
The whisperings of the spirit still my cries:
Didn't He say He sent us to be tested?
Didn't He say the way would not be sure?
But didn't He say we could live with Him forevermore,
Well and whole
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial we will be blessed,
But this life is the test."
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