In our family we have captured a saying worth repeating here today. It is used when we really want to have that persons' full attention. It is from the movie Knight and Day - when Tom Cruise is speaking to Cameron Diaz, and he asks, "Are you with me? Or without me? With me? Without me?"[1] I hope today that all of you will choose to stay "with me" during our time together at this devotional, and that it will enrich and bless your lives as much as it has mine during the time I have been working on it.
My dear brothers and sisters, I do want you to know, how thankful and honored I am to be able to speak with you today. My heart is full, and my spirit is strong—and to tell you the truth, it has been like this for quite some time. Selfishly, I am grateful for an opportunity that will help me grow. If we look at our challenges, as opportunities, rather than unwanted experiences, then the reward can only be ours—never fear a chance to grow. I hope that what I share today might help you answer a question you have been pondering, or maybe even just give you a different way to look at your own personal situation. I pray that the spirit will be with me and you, in hopes that the intent of this devotional will reach your hearts and your minds.
I want to share a little bit more about myself, just to give you a quick glimpse of what type of person I am. I am a true-blue farmer's daughter, and very proud of it. I was taught that you must earn your respect—it's never just given. Always work hard. There will be someone that learns from you. And make time to play often—life is too short.
It was very important to my father to make sure that all his daughters could drive a potato truck. So at 12 he started teaching, and at 13 I was put in my very own truck. Not only did you have to manage driving your 10-wheel truck underneath a potato combine, but you also had to be able to back the load into the pit by yourself. He had a lot of trust in us. But he was a great teacher. When he taught, it was always without worry. The confidence you felt from him truly made you want to do your very best. He also had us paint mainline, move pipe, weed potato fields really early in the morning. I remember loosing many tennis shoes in the field because the mud would suction them right off of your feet. He wanted his children to know how to work and to work hard.
In my free time, I enjoyed all sports. It didn't matter whether it was tetherball, basketball, softball, volleyball, kickball, dodge ball—as long as there was a ball, I wanted to play, and I wanted to be good. I would keep practicing, and practicing until I felt satisfied with my abilities. I loved, and still do enjoy sports, and just being outside.
I am the type of person that doesn't always get the message the first time through. For instance, I would be the one that if someone said, "do not stick your tongue on a flag pole when it is negative 20 degrees outside" - I may just be curious enough to try it, just to see what would happen. Do you know it really does take a long time for your taste buds to grow back? Some may have a different word for me, I am just going to say it's just curiosity.
So now that you know a little about me, let's begin. I have one question for you to think about, and it happens to be the title of my talk, "Are you ready?" Are you ready for life? Are you ready to graduate? Are you ready to go on a mission? Or, how about marriage? Are you ready to study more and learn about the gospel? Are you ready to meet the Savior?
In John 7:6 Jesus said,
"My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready."[2]
(I want you to keep that in mind, "your time is always ready.") Now I want to take you for a ride and it's going to be the ride of your life! Do you trust me? Remember, I am the curious one. Try and close your eyes and clear your minds. I want you to imagine stepping up to a roller coaster ride. You have been waited for a very long time to take this ride. As you approach the conductor, he motions you to the cart. Your adrenaline begins to accelerate because of the unknown possibilities. You sit down with excitement as you are buckled in, and a bar is placed in front of you. Your anticipation increases as you hear the rest of the bars snapped into place. The coaster begins to pull away from the station and you start the climb. You can hear the clicking of the tracks underneath you while your back starts to press against the seat because of the steep incline. Just as you begin to peak at the top, the coaster hesitates for just a couple of seconds, and then your ride begins. You quickly begin to descend, the speed picks up, and your heart is racing for the unknown. All of a sudden, you slide hard to the left, and then to the right, your speed is increasing. You are trying to keep your eyes open, but the wind is blowing forcefully in your face. You hit a couple of small bumps, that lift you completely out of the chair, but you have the bar, and you grab on.
All of a sudden the coaster slows, and for a half a second you wonder, is it over? But then you start to climb again, this time even higher. You peak once again, with a slight hesitation at the top and then you begin another descent. You take on more curves, and bumps that leave you breathless. All of a sudden your cart is completely upside down as you find yourself in a loop-to-loop. You're thankful for the seatbelt and bar that was given to you for your protection. You wonder how much more you can take. There are a few more turns and curves, and ups and downs, but you can see the end in sight. All of a sudden the brakes are applied, and you feel your speed decrease. It is finally over; it has come to a screeching halt. The smile on your face is priceless as you look into the eyes of the conductor, the one that sent you on your journey, and the only thought that comes to mind, is "Wow! What a ride!" You can open your eyes now if they are still closed, and let's start from the beginning and take this ride again, piece by piece.
This ride represents your life. The Conductor is our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the seatbelt is our Heavenly Father's spirit and love that surrounds each one of us. The bar placed in front of you, is the Word of God. The anticipation is the unknown, but the intent and hope is to always return home. The clicking of the tracks is the angels that surround us—they are always there, even though we can't really see them. The tops of the peaks are decisions you have to make in life. The curves and bumps are the choices and consequences that can lead us astray, and make us loose our grip on the iron rod. The loop-to-loops are the dangerous situations that can leave you hanging, and in total darkness because your mind has not been made up. The screeching halt is that unexpected end that comes, that, hopefully, will lead you back into the arms of our Savior, Jesus Christ—and when you look at him, I hope you will be able to smile and say, "Wow! What a ride?" The journey is yours; will you be ready to meet the Savior?
I am a very visual person, and I learn and understand better when I can liken the topic to something in my life. Hopefully your roller coaster ride today will help you look at things in a different light. In fact, my talk today has a lot of parallels to life. I hope you will be able to see them and apply them for the intent in which they were meant.
I have taught many Relief Society lessons over the years, and one of my most favorite quotes is by Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley:
"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautiful, tailored clothes, my hair expertly done, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors' child.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."[3]
Right behind her quote I want to give you another quote to think about, and it's by President Spencer W Kimball:
"Let us remember, too, that greatness is not always a matter of the scale of one's life, but of the quality of one's life. True greatness is not always tied to the scope of our tasks, but to the quality of how we carry out our tasks whatever they are."[4]
I have thought a lot about how I want to live my life. I do not want to coast, I do not want to just get by, I want to live, and learn, and experience, all that is righteous for me. I have watched some people wait their entire life for that famous saying "I'm going to do it tomorrow" -don't wait. Prepare yourselves now, and get ready!
When I met my husband he already had his pilots' license. He had been flying for almost three years, with over a hundred flight hours underneath his belt. He was licensed as a VFR pilot, which means he was a "visual flight regulation pilot." He could fly by using the ground and landmarks as his map. Now I tell you this part because he loved to fly. I however, was not the best co-pilot. My sense of direction is not so good. I get lost driving in a car with a map in hand, and a GPS going at the same time. So you can image my skills of trying to find the bumps and hills on a navigation map from the air. But I went, because I loved him, and you kind of do those things for the person you are in love with.
Sometime after we were married my brother had asked if my husband and I would be interested in flying my mom and him over to Eureka, California to pick up a new car. Tod, my husband, joyfully said "yes," and my answer was "okay." The plan was to leave Rexburg in a 4-seater Warrior Piper Airplane. My mom and I were scheduled to sit in the back with a whole bunch of magazines and things to help us get through the flight, while Tod and my brother were in the front. Tod could fly just fine, but he needed a co-pilot who could read and navigate the map-obviously I wasn't first pick! The plan was to fly from Rexburg to Winnemucca, Nevada, fuel up there, and continue on until we reached Eureka, California. It was a great plan. My husband had studied the maps and plotted the route we would be taking.
Tod and I have what people call a blended marriage. There was his and mine before we got married. After we were married, they then became all of ours. Our second daughter was only about a year old when we left for this little adventure, and my sister committed to watching our children overnight for us.
We left bright and early on a Friday morning, and landed in Winnemucca to fuel up right on schedule. My brother was starting to feel a little sick, so while we were fueling up, he got a Diet Coke and a candy bar, in hopes that it would help him make it the rest of the way. Shortly after take-off, my brother the navigator could no longer be the co-pilot. He was too sick. That left me and my mom (and no, we did not play rock, paper, and scissors); it was going to take both of us. Just to give you a side note, I think I got my navigational abilities from her. Did you know that it can be totally calm on the ground, but blowing really hard up in the air? With me and my mom's navigational skills, and due to high winds, we landed in Medford, Oregon-not our destination, but close enough. My brother rented a car, and we drove the rest of the way, about 100 more miles to Eureka, California to get the new car. I was never so excited to see the hotel that night.
The next morning they drove us back to Medford to get the airplane and fly home. We were noticing a lot of clouds in the sky, but Tod continued to check the airplane, and get it ready for takeoff. The flight service told us not to worry about the clouds, and that it should clear off, and that travel would be favorable. I remember looking over at my husband and thinking how incredibly confident he looked. I believed in him. He would take care of me no matter what the situation was. We were a team. I am totally sure that he felt the same way about me, with all my map skills and everything. We were young, and ready for the adventure.
In the beginning, the flight was going great. I actually was starting to get the hang of reading the navigation map. I wondered, "could I be his co-pilot?" I was learning what to watch for, and how I could be a help to my partner. He was willing to trust me with the map to get us home. After we had been in the air for a few hours, the clouds really started getting thick, which meant we had to fly lower, in order to see the landmarks. I remember him saying, "I hope these clouds burn off, it's getting harder to see." Pretty soon we were totally consumed in clouds, and were lost. Tod didn't dare fly any lower because we couldn't see how close we were to the ground, yet we couldn't see very far in front of us either. I remember feeling so helpless, Tod must have felt the same way, because at that point he decided that we would have to call in a "Mayday" and possibly make an emergency landing. While he was doing this, I remembered this calm feeling that came over me. I wasn't afraid. I remembered feeling that I was ready! I was with my eternal companion. My life was in order, and I would do whatever our Heavenly Father had intended for us that day.
Now I want to stop this story for just a second, I haven't always felt this way in my life. The start of my freshman year (so I was only fourteen) Heavenly Father decided it was time to bring my own father back home. My father was killed in an Ultra-Light accident. Needless to say, my world fell apart. I remember feeling so sad, and alone. I was angry with our Heavenly Father for taking someone away from me, that I selfishly needed more. Because of those kinds of feelings and that type of attitude I started not caring about the choices I was making. It just didn't matter. I didn't have an opinion on much, and I'm sure that my face and countenance showed it. Because of that, and letting go of the iron rod, my life would take a huge turn. I had many "curves" and "bumps" and "loop to loops" and sometimes it was hard to just see the light. It has taken a humbled heart and many prayers, for me to get through the consequences of my choices and turn my life around with the help of the atonement. What I didn't know then, but I do now, is that you are never alone. He loves you unconditionally, he knows you, and he will never give up on you. Sometimes, you have to hit rock bottom in order to humble yourself enough to feel our Savior's love and see the light again.
So while Tod was calling in a "Mayday," I waited patiently for instruction. There was no yelling or arguing between Tod and I, but you could definitely feel a spirit. We never talked about it then, but later when we did, we both knew my father was in that plane with us that day. We both could feel of his spirit, love, and confidence that he had in us.
Tod made contact with flight service right before we had to cross the Oregon/Idaho Mountains. They told us to look for a place that we could make an emergency landing. Luckily the clouds parted just enough that we were able to fly into a valley where we could keep circling until hopefully the clouds lifted, or worse case, we ran out of fuel and had to land. Although it wasn't looking good for us, we never panicked. Out of complete silence, flight service came back on the radio and said, "We have a military C-141 coming out of Seattle." Someone was coming to find us. They told us to hang on, and look for this plane. With all those clouds, it would be really lucky to even see them before it was too late. We were in that valley for probably an hour, just circling, when I saw a glimpse of an aircraft. I was never so excited to see such a big plane. They hadn't seen us, and Tod hadn't seen them, but I did, and I made sure he used the radio to tell them. We ended up flying on the wing of this aircraft to Burns, Oregon. There we landed safely on the runway. They had us wait until the weather cleared to make a new flight plan. While we were waiting, they told us that we were one of three planes, circling within a seventy-five mile radius of each other. We were all caught in the same storm, yet somehow we never saw or ran into each other. The first plane had already crashed into the mountains and there were no survivors. The second plane had to make an emergency landing, and had minor injuries. We were the only plane that landed on the runway. When the clouds cleared we took off for Boise and then onto Rexburg. It seemed so clear after that, the landmarks were easy to find and the flight home was easily made. The lesson we learned about each other will never be forgotten, nor will the love and the spirit we felt in that plane.
President Thomas S. Monson counseled us by saying, "Learn from the past, prepare for the future, and live in the present.[5] We all know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for by choosing our path, we choose our destination."[6] Letting fear, having no motivation, and not willing to challenge yourself, can only eliminate talents and opportunities that our Heavenly Father has in store for you. No one is ever too old, or too young to learn, be prepared, or to be ready. There is a scripture that comes to my mind often, and I can't wait for the day, if I am worthy to have my Heavenly Father say:
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou in the joy of thy lord."[7]
Those words alone, "well done," what more could you ask for? What more could you strive for from our Heavenly Father? He knows your potential. Seek for his help and guidance to uncover the talents you have been given, and be ready for whatever may come your way.
In a talk given by Sister Mary Ellen Smoot:
"I fully believe that our talents are developed as we are called upon to serve. If we will faithfully accept the call, hidden talents will be discovered, such as love; compassion; discernment; being a good friend, peacemaker, teacher, leader, homemaker, writer, researcher- these are all talents." "If you are to walk in the light of the Lord, discover your individual strengths and develop them. You will find great joy as you unselfishly share all that the Lord has given you."[8]
I understand now why our Heavenly Father helped us land safely that day we were in the airplane. He had one more spirit that he needed to send down to complete our family, which is our youngest son that recently graduated from high school and has accepted a call to serve a mission. I recently visited a local bookstore and had to purchase this plaque with the quote: "missionary, (noun) a person who leaves their family for a while, so others can be with their Families Forever." That description pretty much says it all doesn't it?
Watching our son's spiritual growth over the years from a small boy into a young man has been incredible. I have been so blessed to be a witness to that. The influences of primary teachers, scout leaders, young men leaders, home teachers, seminary teachers, family members, and great church leaders have all made an impact on him, and on us, in preparing him for a mission. It's incredible to see the hand of our Heavenly Father take effect on each of us. We need to trust in Him and let Him lead us in the direction he has in store for each of us. I know that we must also be ready, and worthy for it to work. He will not give us challenges that we cannot handle, but we must trust in him, and humble ourselves to be ready and receive. I pray that your life lessons will be just that—lessons to prepare you to get ready, and to be ready, so that when your time comes, He will welcome you into His arms and say, "well done, my good and faithful servant." And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Knight and Day. 2010
[2] John 7:6
[3] Marjorie Pay Hinckley
[4] Spencer W. Kimball. December 1977
[5] Thomas S. Monson. April 2003, General Conference (emphasis added)
[6] Thomas S. Monson. "The Three Rs of Choice." October 2010, General Conference
[7] Matthew 25:21
[8] Mary Ellen Smoot. "Come, Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord." October 1998, General Conference