Please do the following this week:
1. Write a comment in the comment section below about something you learned on the hike. Feel free to comment on other people's comments.
2. Post your revised papers on the discussion blog and comment on some other people's papers. (At the end of the year, we will put together a yearbook that will contain, with your permission, pictures, some of your favorite quotes, your definitions of happiness, and your goals or happiness plans - so make this writing something you will want to look back on to help you move forward).
3. Make a presentation to inspire others to seek happiness in the ways that really help it grow. You will present this to our families on Friday. I will try to film you for the blog too. This presentation should include:
A) Your testimony about happiness (how you understand it so far and why, as well as your experience with it) and
B) Something you are working on (a talent, a weakness, a goal) that grows your joy and your explanation of why it grows your joy.
4. Optional bonus challenge!!! During testimony meeting, share your testimony about God's Plan of Happiness, His Son's role, and the true nature of happiness as you understand it so far.
Answers to FAQ about presentations:
-Ideas for presentations: A memorized speech, a slide show, a video, a poster, art, poetry, a song, an object lesson, an activity, a game, or anything else that teaches others what you have come to know and experience about true happiness.
-Yes, you may combine A and B if you want to (your testimony with the talent that grows your joy). Please feel free to call me with any other questions!
I loved our hike, but as I tend to do, this morning I was thinking about all the things that went "wrong" on it. I seem to do that after each class, and then I try to learn from what I did wrong so I can improve how I teach, instead of beating myself up about it. But that can be a challenge for me sometimes! One thing I thought about was how we couldn't get a fire started for a few reasons: the kindling was a little damp, it was starting to drizzle, it was windy, we were short on time.
ReplyDeleteThis thought got me thinking about the story Caden brought up in 1 Kings 18, where Elijah drenched an altar with water and asked the Lord to consume it with fire. He did - it consumed everything - even the water.
So I thought about how I often notice the burdens I carry (or my weaknesses) and I try really hard to make them go away (like we were trying to light the fire), but they are still continually with me. And I realized that without those burdens (the wood we carry) there would not even be the possibility of starting a fire. It is those weaknesses I have that keep me going back to the Lord because I have to rely on Him. He knows that if I am sincerely relying on Him, I will be able to toss away my rocks of negative thoughts about how much I lack, and sing "let it go," like Nathan talked of doing, because God can make anything possible despite of me - even "learning math", "getting into college", or doing whatever righteous thing I desire to do in this life. He plants those righteous desires in my heart and He will help me reach them as I seek His guidance and do what He asks. And when I don't - He sent His Son so I could repent and try again.
I can remember that we all have weaknesses and burdens and they give the fire of my faith strength to burn brightly. Those burdens burn away slowly sometimes, thin line upon line, especially the heavy ones, but as they do fire of faith gets bigger and bigger and makes my heart burn with God's love until I can't help but share it.
I think this is why Satan tries so hard to get me to focus on all I do wrong - he wants me to keep carrying that burden in my backpack and take it out to beat myself with it on occasion. He does all He can do to keep me from focusing on God because he knows then Christ will take that burden and light it with His love to keep me (and those around me) warm along the journey.
How about you? Did you learn anything about yourself as you hiked cheerfully, then held a rope as you hiked, as you hiked blindfolded with and without the rope, as you raced to keep up with others, as you walked backwards, as you tugged others and fell, as you helped others stay up, as you noticed the beauty or were so challenged you could only focus on taking the next step, as you voluntarily sung hymns when I tried to bombard you with negative thoughts, as the fire wouldn't start and we were cold, as we were running late and you had to be somewhere? What did any of these things teach you about yourself and your journey through life?
These two scriptures keep coming to my mind so I will share them here:
For as men come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men who humble themselves before me, for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
And my ponderize scripture of the week (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross...
Do any of you have a favorite scripture about burdens?
THANK YOU SISTER BATES!!!! Oh, this makes my day even better! It's so important to realize that we need Heavenly Father. I think something I try to do all the time is to improve things on my own, when really, I can't do anything by myself. I think I sometimes forget all Heavenly Father can do for me...
DeleteI really love Psalms 55:22 - "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Or, of course, Matthew 11:30 -"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." ;)
This hike was amazing, and that's saying something because it wasn't an easy hike. There were a lot of amazing things that happened on this hike that reminded me of life and happiness.
ReplyDeleteAs we were going along the hike I kept thinking to myself that we were experiencing so many hard things while trying to stay positive but none of things things would really happen! But I learned that its not the experiences that prepare us, its the principles.
Today was a really rough day. Rehearsal for my play was hard and I felt like giving up on everyone. I couldn't wait to get home and spend the day with my family, but when I got home there was contention and hard hearts all around. Then I found that the light and ceiling fan fixture in my room had fallen off the ceiling, to the ground. There were cords, glass and messy bedroom everywhere. The day kept getting worse and worse as I tried to fix my messy room, crying family members and deleted school articles. It took me until about 2:30pm to realize that I needed to start thinking positively. Thinking back on the hike really helped me to calm down. I thought about the things I was thinking about and that were discussed yesterday and I decided to share them with my family.
Everything calmed down and the spirit returned. Our house got cleaned, people were forgiven and school assignments were sorted out. The spirit returned to our clean peaceful home and I remembered that the experiences on the hike might not be exact but the lessons the spirit teaches can be applied to any circumstance.
Thank you for sharing this Megan. I am sorry you had such a hard morning, and I am glad you were wise enough to relate those principles to real life. What a beautiful example of applying what you learn and not just keeping it in your head. I would have loved to have heard what you said as you reminded your family those of those true principles :)
DeleteI completely relate to you! I keep realizing that as I learn more and more about happiness and positivity that it'll just keep getting more difficult to be happy. But I think these instances especially help us to be better in future circumstances. :) Thanks Megan!
DeleteAnother powerful lesson for me was when I asked you to walk backwards. Progress was slow and we couldn't really enjoy the beauty around us. It reminded me that when I choose to keep looking back at what I should have done or regretting what I didn't do (refusing to let it go and forgive myself) it is like trying to move forward while looking backwards. It was a relief to turn around and look forward again. I need to remember that.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I think my issue, mostly, though is the other way around. Which I know is a little silly, but I'm always looking so much into the future that I have a hard time enjoying my present situation! It's like if you're always waiting and waiting and waiting for happiness to come later, instead of working for it now. Does that make any sense?
DeleteYes, I do both! Great insight. It is good to look ahead toward your destination, but not be so fixed on it, like you said, that you don't enjoy the leaves and the people :) then you miss the entire point right?
DeleteI really did enjoy the hike! I liked how we were supposed to pick up a rock whenever we had a bad thought. It helped me realize that so many thoughts go through my head but I don't really notice them unless I'm actually watching for them. And I also liked how we did the hike in so many ways. It reminded me of different feelings we have in our life. On the hike we went backwards, forward, blind, holding hands, and lots of other ways. Life is not smooth. Sometimes we slow down or have no view of where we're going. We need to put our trust in the savior as we did in Sister Bates as she had us walk up a mountain blindfolded:D
ReplyDeleteI had lots of fun and I really did feel the spirit!
Thanks so much Sister Bates!
YES!!!! I love your thoughts. Things aren't just going to be easy - they're meant to be difficult. I mean - why else are we supposed to be here?
DeleteThanks Ashley. I am glad you felt the Spirit. I worried it was difficult to do so when we felt rushed and cold, so I am glad you felt those good things anyway, despite the rain and cold. And i'm honored you could put your trust in me to lead you along blindfolded. Compared to that, it should be easy to put your trust in God since He is so much more trustworthy!
DeleteI agree! It also helped me to go through the hike with so many friends. We were all laughing WITH each other and learning new things. There are so many connections!
DeleteThe hike was SO much fun! Sister Bates, you are very creative! I'm very glad I was able to do it.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I noticed the most was how much I was looking at the ground. I know it's a really funny thing to realize, because, really, I look at the ground while I walk A LOT. Which is not necessarily a good thing...
I think what ie going to make us truly happy in this life is noticing what's around us and being grateful for it. Gratitude is the key! I think that's what kept me going on the hike - being grateful for all the people who were helping me along, being grateful it was raining, being grateful that Sister Bates had taken all that time to plan it for all of us.
It was a difficult day for me today. Saturday and today I've had this really tense feeling just settle over me. It wasn't a feeling of unhappiness or anything, it wasn't a feeling of darkness, it was just really tense. I would get so annoyed and frustrated at little things! My sister would grind her teeth or cough in her sleep, and I'd get so tensed up that I'd have to go sleep on the couch. Or my brother was making this super annoying sound with a whiteboard, and I just couldn't handle it without yelling. Another brother would make a small, mean remark, or someone wouldn't listen to what I was saying, and I would just explode!
I went to church today and Sacrament Meeting was rough, but then Sunday School and Young Women's were handleable, but then I come home and a couple of siblings do some annoying things, and I freak out and go take a nap. Ya... this day didn't start out very well... anyway, I got woken up by Ella and Moses screaming at each other (I was babysitting... whoops!), and I come down and just explode at them too. And Moses explodes right on back at me, and I get even more tense than I was before! I realized that I was supposed to be happy cause I was studying happiness, but if I couldn't handle anything, how was I supposed to be happy?
I then realized that I was still fasting - though - not for any particular purpose yet. It was probably important to fast and not just starve myself, so I started thinking about what I should be fasting about. Of course, the first things that rush into my head are completely selfish. I was completely wrapped up in myself in that moment.
After calming down a little bit and saying a little prayer, I realized that what I really needed to do is recognize all of the things I had. So I fasted in thanks. I then calmed down and thought about all of the beautiful blessings I'd had that day, and guess what?! It made me happy again! Dwelling on all of the things I already had made my situation much better. And I'm still feeling a little over-sensitive right now, but as the night goes on and as more and more things keep coming to me, I'm happy!
I've learned that I can't just look at the ground, that in order to be happy, I need to look up and see.
I love how you share your honest struggles and feelings of the day. It made me want to reach across the screen and give you a big hug for being so good and trying so hard when things were so difficult. And then finding some light and sharing what you learned. I really thought a lot today about the importance of gratitude. I wrote about it too on my journal blog. At any moment we can choose gratitude or pride. That choice is always placed before us and the more we get used to choosing gratitude, the easier it becomes as it forms into our nature. Loved your words.
DeleteI loved the hike so much!!! One thing I learned from it was that through all the trials in life, there are two things that make it easier: A path created by experts and a guide who knows the path. We've been given those things in our lives. We have a clearly marked path created by a loving Heavenly Father who knows what will make us happiest. Why would we choose to ignore the path and make things so much harder for ourselves? We've also been given the Holy Ghost. He can guide us through everything; He knows the path and will give us the correct warnings and instructions.
ReplyDeleteI think that sometimes I focus too much on the trial I faced with, when instead I should remember that I simply need to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance to take the most effective path for my life.
Whoops, this is Elisabeth. I accidentally posted on Felicity's account. :D
DeleteI really enjoyed our hike. Mostly because I was able to learn more about myself. I also loved the hike due to the beautiful scenery we were surrounded by, especially the creek and fish. I just gotta say that any nature experience becomes ten times better when there is some influence by a water body. Also, a nature experience because 50 times better when it involves wild animals, especially fish. At least, that is how nature works in my brain. Nature to me, is one of the ways that I feel God's love the most and I almost feel like I am in a temple when I am out in nature. I guess you could say I am a little bit of a nature nerd, but I am proud to be one.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I better start talking about more of the serious stuff that I learned on the hike. What I learned about happiness, well, actually negativity, was that once negativity settles into my mind, it tends to make me even more negative. I become more negative because I get mad at myself for being negative. It is a silly cycle, but it happens and my goal for the rest of the week is to not recycle my negative (trash) thoughts. Because, honestly, some thoughts are just trash.