Unexpected Lessons from a 4th Grade Classroom

Five days after returning home from my mission I began my student teaching in a 4th grade classroom near my home. For my first week I remained mostly an observer; learning the students' names, getting the classroom rules and procedures down, and remembering what it was like to be in a classroom after a year and a half of never stepping inside of one. My mentor teacher gave me "gotchas" which are little slips of paper students get if they are on task or if they do something kind or their homework neatly or what have you. At the end of the day they put their names on it and put it in a bowl that the teacher randomly picks 5 names from and those 5 get a piece of candy. Of course, the more your name is in there the better the chance they have of getting candy so the students love getting those slip of papers. So, seeing them get excited to get them made me excited to give them out. Plus, the more I got to know each student the more I wanted to give them slips because I began to care more and more about them every day. I began to look so hard all over the classroom just for a chance to give someone a paper. It has become one of my favorite parts of teaching.
One afternoon the students were presenting a science project each of them had done. There was a student who was a super good and sharp kid but also very rowdy. He kept leaning back on his chair and messing around and in general just not listening to really anything going on in the science lesson. I went and stood by him which made him stop for awhile, but not long. I asked him to hold still, that I knew it was hard, but that it was the respectful thing to do. I sat back and mentally told myself, "if he makes it 3-4 minutes without doing anything rowdy I am going to give him a gotcha because I know how hard it really is for him to sit still". I sat there, ticking down the time, praying he'd make it, and every time at the last minute or right at the beginning or in the middle of the time frame he'd act out again. I just remember it suddenly being so important to me that he make it. I even began to pray and "will" him with my mind to sit still so I could give him a gotcha. But he never did. Later on he did something else I was able to give him a gotcha for doing but it felt sort of hollow. Though it was "gotcha" worthy, it was well below what I knew he could have done to get one. It was genuinely a sad experience for me that left me reflective for quite some time. And today I realized why it hit me:

How must God feel?

Can you just imagine Him in heaven looking down with His pile of "gotchas"-blessings from on high that we cannot even imagine we are worthy or capable of receiving? He watches, knowing exactly what it is we must do to receive those blessings and WANTS desperately to have us do it so He can give us those things He wants us to have. But He CANNOT unless we are obedient to the things that predicate that blessing. He may be able to give us other blessings later on, but imagine how hollow it must feel to Him after watching us blow off what we really could do and become. It must break His heart. He can plead, He can beg, He can offer us EVERY opportunity and assistance we need, He can prompt, lead, guide, love, succor,- but He cannot force us nor can He bless us unless we are able to do what is asked of Truth and the Laws of the Universe to relieve that blessing; for God will not be mocked. And because He loves us and wants what's best for us how true the statement is:

IF ye love me keep my commandments

So let us forever show our love for Him, as He has shown His love for us to us in every way we can imagine.

It's Far Better to Sail than Row...

I don't know much about sailing, but I imagine it is a lot easier when the wind is blowing. Even if its a bit strong, it certainly means that if you know what you are doing, it will get you where you want to go faster. On the other hand, I don't imagine sailing in no wind is very fun. I personally have tried my hand at rowing once in a small lake in Jackson Hole, I ended up beached several times. We needed rescuing. Rowing just isn't very fun if you have to do it for a long time.

I was thinking about life in this way. When the wind blows, or when we have trials, if we adjust our sails (submit our will to God) than we can go very far in life. Adversely, when we have calm times in our lives, if we choose to progress, the oars must come out. It is much harder to progress in calm. It takes a lot more work, effort, and awareness. And so, God, in His mercy, usually blows us "toward the promised land" (Ether 6:8), for is always better to sail than to row.

God, before he sent each of his children to earth,

gave each of them a very carefully selected package of problems.

These, he promises smiling, are yours and yours alone.

No one else may have the blessings these problems bring you.

And only you have the special talents and abilities that will be needed to make these problems your servants.

Now you go down, to your birth and to your forgetfulness … know that I love you beyond measure.

These problems I give you are a symbol of my love.

The monument that you make of your life …

with the help of your problems …

will be a symbol of your love for me.

Your Father

-poet unknown

The Science of Faith Part 1

The last few months I have been studying faith and how we can build it. As I was studying I began to notice how much science and faith were alike. I have decided to do a couple three blogs on what I have found.

Part One: Precision and Accuracy

My senior year I took a statistics class and was educated in the difference between accuracy and precision. Accuracy is how close you get to somethings true value. Precision is how often you get the same results over a period of time in the same situation. Both are vital to getting valid and useful results.  I was thinking about how this relates to our faith.

The Stripling Warriors-Alma 57:21

In order for our faith to bring us true results we must be both accurate and precise. We must make sure our actions match up perfectly with what we are asked to do; we must be exactly obedient or accurate. We must also place our faith IN Christ and not anything else. Only when we are accurate in our faith can we expect and have an assurance that God will do His part. Like a function or machine what we put into it directly correlates with what we get out of it and thus the more accurate our actions or Faith in Christ become the more we are able to receive the blessings of the Lord (1 Nephi 1:20, Ether 12:6) and feel confident in His presence (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45)

In addition to accuracy we must make our faith precise or in other words consistent. Over time our actions must continue to fall close to the mark or we will never be able to enjoy the long term blessings of faith. When our actions are consistent we reap the results of these actions shaping us to be not just act more like our Savior. In short, when our faith is precise we become precisely what we came here to be-more like our Heavenly Father.

I know that though faith takes self-discipline, hard work, and diligence that if we treat it with the same deliberateness, dedication, and carefulness as scientists do than we will receive powerful life-altering results. Faith really can change our lives if we pay attention to the small details (Alma 37:6-7) that allow us to be both precise and accurate. True faith will always bring us blessings-for we have the greatest scientist telling us so: God.

Additional Scriptures:

Accuracy: Alma 57:21
Precision: 2 Nephi 31:20, Mosiah 2:41
 

He Loved Me Enough to Turn Off the A/C

When we begin to forget God, He will stop the flow of
blessings so that we turn to Him again.

I have always admired my Dad's creative mind-except when he has used it to prove a point. The occasion that I am thinking of is a time when he, my mother, my little sister, and I were all driving to Vegas to see a concert. It was the middle of the summer in the afternoon and it was a scorching hot desert to drive through, but of course, it didn't matter too much due to the wonderful invention of air conditioning. Soon I was so comfortable in my backseat with a pillow against the window and my headphones in that I began to doze off. My poor Dad was driving and soon I wasn't the only one asleep-my mother and sister had succumbed to the comfort of modern travel. Feeling a little lonely I'm sure, he began to try to make small talk with us but his efforts were fruitless. We would each give him a sleepy one word response and fall back asleep. Soon he gave up....or so we thought.

All I remember was that slowly I began to get a tad on the warm side. Being sleepy it didn't seem to register too much. But as time passed I went from discomfort to hot to sweaty and miserable; miserable enough to wake up fully and inquire why it was so hot. I wasn't alone. My mother soon piped in "Hey Mike, why is it so hot in here?" I happened to look up just in time to see my Dad grin like the Cheshire cat in the rear view mirror as he said "Oh, does it seem a little warm in here to you?"

He went on to explain that he had tried to get our attention with the small talk but as none of us seemed to be paying much attention to him he decided to cut off the flow of air, hoping to sweat us out. I believe he also justified this act by mentioning it was also giving us an opportunity to feel like the pioneers must have when they crossed the United States in heat. Really, he told us, it was a blessing in disguise. 

And you know what-it was, because I was able to enjoy the rest of the drive getting to know my Dad better, something I would've lost had the a/c stayed on. This is the same exact way our Heavenly Father looks at things. There is a verse in Helaman 12:3 that says:

"And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence they will not remember him"

God will always wait patiently for us to awake and turn to Him

God knows what makes us most happy. He knows, like my Dad knows, that there a lot of things in life we can try to do to "pass the time" on our journey in life. But just as my Dad knows that falling asleep while listening to an IPod will never bring us as much joy as being able to have meaningful conversation with a loving Father, God knows nothing can replace the relationship we could have with Him. In those times when we seem to get distracted or forget or are too comfortable to talk to God He will withdraw the blessings that flow so easily into our lives. It is not out of punishment or anger but really out of love, for He knows that a little bit of hardship for a time is well worth the prize of remembering to call upon our loving Father-he knows that those blessings are far better than going through life comfortably distracted. And most of all, no matter how far away Heavenly Father gets from our minds, it is a comfort to know that we are never far from His-no matter how long we go without noticing Him. (Mosiah 27:30) He will never forget nor forsake us, and will do anything it takes to help us remember Him, so that we may be truly happy in this life.

Made in....Zion?



Will our stamps say "made in Zion" or "made in Babylon"?

So I read something in Nephi chapter 18 that stood out to me. My old companion had pointed it out to me weeks ago but this time it hit me again really hard. Nephi has been asked by God to build a boat. He's never in his life built so much as a raft and yet he gets to work. His brothers mock him and refuse to help but after some help from the Lord and by bearing testimony to his brothers they decide to help him. What I love though is how Nephi begins to build. It says in 1 Nephi 18:2-3 " Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men. And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things."
What stood out to me in this was that Nephi did not build the boat "after the manner of men" but in the way the Lord showed him. How did he do this? By frequently praying to God for guidance. In our own lives we are not asked to build boats, but we are asked to build our lives. Today there are so many "manuals" available to us on how we can build our lives. Self-help books, T.V. shows from Oprah to Doctor Phil, examples from celebrities, expectations of the world, and so many other sources. The question is who will we look to build our lives after?

When I was in middle school I had a class project. We were put in groups of five or so students and given a certain number of toothpicks. We were asked to build a bridge 6 inches long by tomorrow using just those toothpicks and some glue. Tomorrow the teacher would rest 5 pounds on the bridge and if it held we would pass, if not; we would fail. He then showed us a little video clip of bridges that have been built around the world. The video highlighted the triangle and how it was used often in architecture because it was one of the strongest formations out there. After the video we were set to work. As you can guess pretty much every group began to madly cut up their toothpicks and make them into triangles. Soon there were elaborate schemes and structures being sketched and discussed all about the room. I sat there looking at the scene and wondered; how was our group going to build our bridge. Grades have always been important to me and so I looked around confused and scared-how was I to build my bridge? I quickly said a silent prayer and waited. Suddenly a voice in my head said "don't use the triangle. Set a layer down horizontal then a layer on top going vertical. Do as many layers as you can this way". Immediately I knew that was how to build the bridge. I asked my group for their OK and although a little nervous, they agreed. We were done in minutes and we then had all class period to look out over the rest of the groups. Being finished so soon made us all nervous and as more and more groups finished their bridges we realized how different and odd our bridge looked. We were all nervous, and we all went home wondering; would our bridge hold?
The next day my stomach was in knots. Naturally, our bridge was tested last. We saw some bridges hold and others break and as the hour went on I was sure our bridge would fail. I could imagine how everyone would laugh at our bridge and how mad my group would be for my hair brain idea. Finally the big moment came. Our teacher placed our bridge across a gap made by two textbooks and placed the five pound weight on the bridge. I closed my eyes waiting for the sound of a snap. When I heard none I opened my eyes and saw that our bridge was in tact; strong, firm, and erect. Our teacher smiled and grabbed another weight. Time after time he piled more and more weight on that bridge and it never broke. It got to the point that the surface area was too small to add any more weight and he declared our bridge "unbreakable".

That experience has stood out to me since then. I realized then how God works in our lives. We, like Nephi, have a choice. We can build our lives after the manner of the world or after the manner of God; it just depends on where we go to get our advice and direction. Will we turn to the world or will we turn to God in prayer and study of His word? I often think of toys and how they have stamps on them "made in USA" or "made in Taiwan" or "made in India". The principle is the same in our lives. Every day we make choices that will determine our stamp, and when we are finished will ours say "made in Babylon" or "made in Zion"? It just all depends on who we let manufacture our lives.

Weeds and the Brass Plates

So Saturday mornings at the Green household meant work. Nearly every Saturday we would either wake up to my Father repeatedly using the high pitch call button on our intercome or, even worse, the silent call of his work list on the table waiting patiently for us to discover it. I remember one particular morning we came down and discovered one of these said lists. There was a column for each child with a bullet list of chores. Some chores were to be shared by more than one child, and some chores were for all of us to conquer. The only good thing about it was, if all of us finished our Dad would take us to dinner and the movies. Because of this we usually tried to work together anyways so that all of us would be done in time to enjoy the evening with the family. On that fateful day we all had one shared chore; weed the gap between our yard and the dirt horse road behind our yard. The dirt there was hard as rock and the weeds tall and daunting. We decided to tackle that chore last. Working with speed and frenzy through the rest of the list, we quickly reconvened to tackle the chore of the day; weeding.

I remember getting a good grip on one of the weeds and pulling with all my might near the base of it; my reward was that my hand slid all the way up the weed and took off all of its branches yet, the weed hadn't moved from the dirt an inch. After several attempts of this from all of us we had roughly two of two thousand weeds pulled. Needless to say I was discouraged, and I began to "murmer".

Now I would like to pause here because this story came to mind as I read the account of Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. This was a far more daunting and "unreasonable" task and yet it was required of the Lord. When asked to accomplish the task Nephi's brothers Lamen and Lamuel murmered saying it was "a hard thing" (1 Nephi 3:5). Nephi on the other hand had responded "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7). He led his brothers back to Jerusalem where they drew lots to see who would go and ask Laban, the owner of the plates, if they could have them. The lot fell on Lamen who went as asked and was chased out by guards. Essentially, he ran for his life back to his brothers. Like Lamen we had tried one way to get our job done that was asked of us by our Father, and it had failed miserably. At this point of our journey I, like Lamen and Lamuel, began to murmer. And yet I too had a brother to lead and help me to accomplish my goals and tasks. When Nephi's brothers were upset this is what he told them "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down...until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." (1 Nephi 3:15). He then suggested they go and get all their money to trade Laban for the plates.

As Nephi sought new ways to accomplish, so did my brother Jared. He suggested we water the dirt until it was moist enough to get the roots of the weeds out. Re-energized we went right to work. Soon the whole area was watered down and excitedly I reached to pull out a weed. To my extreme disapointment I discovered that the weeds still wouldn't budge, and now I was all wet and muddy. Just as Nephi's plan to bring their money for trading failed and caused Nephi and his brothers to again run for their lives, this time leaving behind all their possesions, my brother's idea had backfired too. It seemed we were going backwards... At this point in the Nephi account Lamen/Lamuel began to beat him with a rod. Now I didn't go that far, especially since my brother was a lot older than I, but I did start to wonder if we would ever get done. Exasperated I began again to murmer. But my brother did not. He called my Dad to ask for his advice. Luckily my Dad was on his way home and was able to come out and see our progress and provide council. This is exactly what Nephi did, he sought the Lord's council and left for the city being led by the Holy Ghost, "not knowing beforehand what he would do" (1 Nephi 4:6). But he was led, and he was finally able to get the plates because of his Heavenly Father's guidance...

Now if you are wondering if my own weed story has a happy I'm here to tell you it did. After my Dad poked at some weeds for a bit he got the weed wacker and demolished them all in under an hour. We all showered and were able to go to dinner that night with our job completed. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father in my life that works with us in the same way. We are all asked to do hard things. Sometimes we try and we try and we try and things just get worse. But just like Nephi and his brothers, I know if we do all we know how to do and give the job our best effort, the Lord will ALWAYS step in and provide a way for us to finish it. So, let us like Nephi of old and my brother today, stand up and say in our lives "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us." (1 Nephi 3:15). I know if we do we will always finish all that is asked of us, and we will in turn recieve the blessings that come with faith, diligence, and accomplishing all we are asked to accomplish.

Gratitude: A Heart of Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving tomorrow gratitude has been on my mind. Sister John pointed out to me a scripture that has really got me thinking even more about gratitude. It is in Alma 10:5 and it is Amulek speaking of his conversion as a missionary in his home town. This is what he says, "Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had known much of these things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people." What Sister John pointed out to me is that Amulek had had God's hand in his life all along, but he hadn't always noticed it. Looking back now, he sees that the Lord has been there every step of the way in his life. He even sees clear back to his fathers and all that they have been delivered from and how grateful he is for that. In short, he begins to have true gratitude in his heart. My mother has a similar idea that is probably currently sitting in some prominent area of her home. Every November she gets out a fake bonsai apple tree and places a wooden figurine of a hog or pig under neath. She has a quote that says something along the lines of "ingratitude is like a pig eating apples and never looking up to see the tree they come from". As I have thought of these things I realized something; gratitude truly is for us. Like any other commandment from our loving Heavenly Father it is for our benefit. Think of the fruits of gratitude-contentment, selflessness, closeness to God, joy, a feeling of peace with what you have, a heart full of love for those people around you... The list goes on and on. I know when I take a step back and think of everything I have been given and all that I have and all that the Lord has promised we will have as we endure I cannot help but feel overwhelmed by a peace and love for life, my Savior, and my family. In essence, I have found that I am happiest when I am grateful. I am most full of charity when I am grateful. I am more like my Savior when I am grateful. And now, I realize, that it is a commandment with blessings, just like any other commandment we are given. So, though I know that gratitude should come out of sincere love, respect, and awareness of our Heavenly Father, I also know that He has asked to be grateful not really much for His sake, but for ours. I have come to realize it is just another gift from Him for the betterment of our lives. I have come to realize that gratitude is a gift we give ourselves by commandment of our Father above. And so, I have found that I have yet another great thing to be grateful for this Thanksgiving: gratitude. May we all fill our hearts with it so that we can truly enjoy this season of blessings and begin to have the happiness and joy that comes from a heart full of thanksgiving for our God.