Sister at church with baby girl.
Today at work we had a very good spiritual thought that I think deserves repeating. Your children may have already heard the story because it was taken from the March 1997 Friend. It was written by Elder Russell M. Nelson (our favorite apostle at this time).
In June of '72 he and his wife decided to take their family of 9 daughters on a trip down the Colorado River. They were told that the water level was low, so they felt it would be a very safe trip, however, as they started to go over what was called the Horn Creek rapids, they suddenly had a drop in depth of a several story building. By instinct he let go of the rope in the raft and protectively put one arm around his wife and the other around their youngest daughter who was not quite 7 yrs. old.
He was sitting in the back of the boat and was hit by the rapids being thrown into the air and landing in the water. He tried to reach the surface but each time he found himself trapped underneath the raft. His family couldn't see him, but he could hear them shouting, "Daddy! Daddy! Where's Daddy?" He finally came to the surface and his family had to drag him exhausted out of the water.
He said he wanted to go home right then but there was no way to turn back so they had to continue the trip. The next few days were a little calmer until the end of the trip when they approached rapids that were worse than the first that they had encountered. Before they set out they had a family council. They knew they had to have a plan if they were going to live through this experience. He told his family that the only way they could make it was to understand that the raft would make it through no matter what, because it would float, so if they would hold on to the rope on the raft with all their strength, they would make it through the rapids. Even if the raft flipped over, they would make it. He turned to his littlest daughter and told her to hold on to him as tight as she could and not let go. They made it through but they found out later that people had lost their lives in the past on that particular rapid.
He went on to say that the lesson to learn from his experience was that we need to learn as much as we can before we begin any new experiences. If they are dangerous, even life threatening, we should avoid them, if possible, if not possible, we can be sure that we are prepared. The second lesson he learned was that there is a right way and a wrong way to go through the dangerous rapids of life. The wrong way is to react by instinct and do what immediately comes to mind. The right way is for the parents in the home to cling to the iron rod of the gospel, and for the children to cling to their parents and their leadership. Then they'll all make it through the rough water safely.
His last statement was "Cling to the iron rod of the gospel and teach your children to cling to you as parents as they too, learn to hold on to the iron rod. If you will hang on to the gospel and to the counsel of your righteous parents, you will make it through any trouble in life."
I thought that was good counsel for these troubled times. Teach your children to hold on to the iron rod. I have a few pictures that I took in Trier for Rachel so you will have to suffer through if you are not interested in fashion in Germany. Looking forward to General Conference this Sunday. Auf Wiedersehan.
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