Pressing On

"Though we have rightly applauded our ancestors for their spiritual achievements, those of us who prevail today will have done 
no small thing."

- Neal A. Maxwell

I'm starting to feel old enough to understand all that the Lord requires of us while we're taking our turn on Earth.

Today is the 16 year anniversary of 9/11.  They call it 'the day the world stood still', and that is exactly what it was.  I was a sophomore in college.  When I arrived at my first class of the day- bowling, of all the silly things- everyone was talking about a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.  No one really knew what exactly that meant or what kind of plane it was (maybe it was an accident?) or what was going to happen next.  I don't remember if classes were officially cancelled, but I do remember huddling with my roommates around our TV watching news reporters that looked exactly like all Americans felt- shocked and enraged and entirely unsure of what exactly was going on.  

I didn't have a cell phone (most people didn't back then!) and I couldn't get a line through to my parents, who had just moved from Virginia to Arkansas.  My Army officer dad had just finished his second round of work in Washington DC, and the office he once worked in in the Pentagon had been hit by another plane.  And the second tower in New York had been hit and there were people jumping out of the buildings and a feeling of sheer panic in the city and across the country.  No one really knew what was going on.  Were we at war?  Was all of America under attack?

Jason was living in Bolivia at the time, serving a two-year mission for our church.  The information he received was entirely incorrect- Bolivian headlines read that 'hundreds of thousands of Americans had been killed'- in truth a total of just under 3,000 people were killed that day.  It was a day that we'll never forget.  

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I'm currently reading a book written by a nanny at age 92.  She was in her early twenties when she started her career, and details World War II and the ways that it impacted her life.  She talks about being a survivor- if she could dodge bombs and comfort children in shelters, then she felt could do anything.  The death toll of the war more than 50 million.  That wasn't even 100 years ago.  My grandparents lived and fought through that war.

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We're almost done reading The Book of Mormon as a family.  The prophet Moroni has taken over writing the history of the Nephites, who have been all but annihilated by the Lamanites.  Just one of many death tolls is over 240,000.  From his perspective life looks incredibly bleak.  From our perspective the Book of Mormon is a miracle- another testament of Jesus Christ available to help us learn more about His love and our eternal destiny. 

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We spent Saturday at Nauvoo, and this picture of the kids standing at the end of Parley Street looking over the Mississippi River is one of my new favorites.  Tens of thousands of Latter-Day Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo- they walked across the plains to Utah between 1847 and 1869, and thousands of them never made it.  I can't image we'll ever know persecution like that in our lifetime.

I asked the kids on our way home if they would rather live back then as a pioneer or live today and be the only member of the church in their school.  Leah answered quickly, "I'd rather live today, because I'm basically already the only member of the church at my school."  (Not entirely true, we are surrounded by wonderful people of many faiths, and there are at least 10 Mormons students and teachers just our elementary school.)

But the fact remains that we are also doing hard things- not in the same way that others have, but we are standing up for what we believe in the best way we can.  We're teaching the kids the 10 Commandments right now, and how to "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy."  We've started soccer practice and had to miss team pictures (on Sunday), opportunities to participate in other sports (on Sunday), and countless birthday party invitations (on Sunday).  We work harder during the week so that we can give the Sabbath Day to the Lord (and allow others to as well, which means no shopping or eating out) and that day of rest always makes all the difference in our entire week.

I really appreciate that our neighborhood respects Sunday as a family day, and that's certainly not to say that we're perfect- we do make occasional exceptions for block parties and neighborhood Super Bowl gatherings.

But keeping the Sabbath Day holy is just one small way that we truly try to live our faith.  Because we may not be called to endure war or persecution or famine or plague, but we were to the Earth today because the Lord sent us here today, and we are doing our best to be His worthy servants however He needs us.  And if we prevail, we will have done no small thing.