Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Being Enough, Knowing Enough, Doing Enough

By Kathy Headlee, CEO of Mothers Without Borders

Mark 5:36
Ask myself what does this have to do with me?

As we make changes in our lives, we can change the world, nothing is the same again.

sometimes we withhold praise, compliments, love - why? Why do we
sometimes give and sometimes withhold?

Satan's plan was a plan of fear, God's plan was a plan of love.

Fear is:
discouragement
despair
anxiety
jealousy
anger
resentment
worry
criticism
hatred
contention
hard hearted
unforgiving
apathy
inaction
selfishness
greed
scarcity

Love is:
hope
joy
kindness
compassion
mercy
laughter
empathy
understanding
forgiveness
patience
courage
insight
enlightenment
wisdom
possibility
peace
humility

When you feel any of these things, you are feeling either fear or love. Contention comes from a fear-based place.

Satan tells us we can do enough, we don’t have enough, we will never be enough - why did we choose this plan anyhow, there is no way you can be enough, no way you can do enough.

Perilous times trigger fear. People who suffer understand the love of god, they live with faith.

d&c 104:14-17 - there is enough and to spare - there is enough love, enough atonement, money, food, we have to believe it and live it. It is our nature to operate from a space of love.

When you get in a place of fear, remember who you are, who they are, whose you are, and remembering will take you to a place of love. Forgetting takes you to fear.

What things can I do in my life that will help me to remember?
Honest prayer, humbly, earnestly.
Reading scriptures.
Serving.

ask where you need to go, direction to whom you can help, it's usually for your benefit.

3 Nephi 27:27, mosiah 3:19 - these divine attributes can't be learned sitting in a classroom, we have to live through them, they can't be developed in a hurry. We need clinical experience - those things through which we are asked to pass. (Maxwell)

how can we be more like god by acting through a position of love?

We have to act patient in order to become patient, act loving to become loving, but the goal is to be that kind of person, loving and patient.

we don't need to feel discouraged that we can't do enough - our feet need to be firmly planted on the path of service (Monson).

Each time we act upon god's love through us, it is transformational to us and to those we act towards.

In serving, comes remembering

remembering who we are and whose we are dispels fear

fear breeds inaction

remember that faith and fear cannot exist in the same mind at the same time

be not afraid, only believe
Isaiah 41:10
2 kings 6:16
2 timothy 1:7
1 john 4:18

Kathy started the group Mothers Without Borders, a charity that goes to third world countries to give aid to mothers and children. I've heard of the group before and have always wished I could join them. I don't know why I feel that way so strongly, but I've always wanted to help in that way. I feel guilty, because certainly there would be plenty of needy children in, for example, America - I don't need to go to some foreign country to help people, and why am I not actively engaged in helping people here? I don't know, but to be honest, there is something about the abject poverty and wretched circumstances that put America's poor to shame.

Anyhow, she told several stories and showed pictures of these women dying of AIDS - one had a little baby who looked just like Darcey's age, who is also dying, and I think I haven't stopped crying yet. I need to be there, I need to help, because there is so much pain there that I just can't fix.

Her message was one of hope and love, that even though we can't fix the world, we can make the world better in our own way, by loving the people we are around and praying to have the Lord direct our actions so we can bless the lives of others. But it was still hard to watch and not have my heart break into a zillion pieces. I want to be there so badly. I want to take my children to see the way millions of people live, to give them some perspective when they say "There's nothing to eat in this house!" It's going to take me a whole day to gear myself up to go back to that class.


Wednesday – Be Hopeful, Be Happy – A Conscious Choice

No place for guilt unless sin involved, go to a place of gratitude instead. Ask if you could be doing more, saying more, if not, be grateful instead and ask the Lord to give you gratitude.

If you chose hope, you are choosing love. It also brings hopefulness into others lives you touch.

Let other people know that they can return to Heavenly Father - have confidence in them, tell them they can do the things they need to do.

Hope - being hopeful and being happy is a conscious choice

Look up scriptures that talk about hope
Ether 12:4 - not just hope for eternal world, but hope for better world today

Heavenly Father sent us here with hope, knowing we were coming to a fear-based world. All things work for good for those who love the lord, and we can have confidence in that.

Maxwell quote: it's okay for us to not know everything (1n11:17) "then as immortals possessed of immortal principles we can overcome the mortal trials and we can put the pressing things of the day in precious perspective."

We shouldn't glibly explain away our problems; admit it's okay to not know the answers to the hard questions. Don't
assume you know, go to the Lord and tell him you don't know; ask for help and for answers.

It's okay for a problem to be too big to handle alone. It's okay for a problem to be serious, the Lord will help us.

Everyone in Africa is either infected or affected by AIDS - and we should be affected too.

Other people's fear can trigger your fear, so be aware when someone else shows fear stay in a place of love.

It's okay for us to have difficult trials because we have hope and faith in Jesus Christ to save us, to help us.

6,000 children a day become orphans in sub-Saharan Africa.

Jesus Christ is where our hope needs to come from. Through him our hearts will be made whole, our suffering will be healed.

My thoughts:

The second day didn’t get any easier. The class ended with a slideshow of photos taken in Africa. The artist Liz Lemon Swindle came to Zambia to paint a picture of Jesus among the children of Africa, and they brought a man who was a model of Jesus Christ. The pictures of this man with these children were exactly what you would picture Christ looking like with these children. He was tender, he was loving, he smiled and laughed and loved them. I was overwhelmed with the thought that these babies are just as precious as my babies. Why would we think that we are any better, any more special than they are? The lord loves those children just as much as my children, and in a way that makes them my children too. I am overwhelmed with love for these children and the desire to do anything I can to help them. The spirit is working on me so hard that it’s difficult to keep coming to this class. I really don't want to come back so that I can stop feeling so much love and pain for them.


Friday: Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

we need to love the people that the Lord has put in your path. Whatever you do and whomever you love, the Lord is pleased, and it is equal in his eyes. All I have to do is walk my path and love who crosses my path.

What are some of the changes you want to see in the world? The world for you might be your home, your community, you marriage, your ward, or a global level. What is the Lord saying to me, where should I focus? D&c 45:26. 88:91, Luke 21:9.

It doesn't matter if it's "the last days" because it's always my last days and I have to live that way.

Matthew the love of many will wax cold and peace will be taken from the earth.

Heavenly father knew that this would be the condition of the world we live in, and sent us here anyway, sent us here on purpose, knowing it would be okay and we would be up to the challenge.

moses 7:41 - Enoch, all eternity shook when he saw our day, bitterness of soul and refused to be comforted. We feel that way when we hear about people suffering. When we open our hearts and eyes to these things, it hurts, but we ask God to guide us. His answer to us would be to love. We can't fix it, but we can be an instrument in his hands.

There is more priesthood and temples than ever in the history of man. The heavens have been opened, there is a lot to rejoicE of. We don't have to be scared because our love is bigger than the bad things we are seeing.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is producing orphans on a scale unrivaled in world history. These children are meant to be raised in families. There is no coincidence that the family proclamation came forth at the same time as this crisis.

Every 14 seconds, a child loses a parent to aids. Today, 6,100 children will become orphans as a result of this holocaust. There are 43 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone. If we were alive during the Jewish holocaust, would we have done anything to stop it? We'd like to think so, but we're in the middle of the greatest holocaust in the history of man, and we are in a position to make a change.

80% of people infected with aids are women and children.

Even if the only thing you can do is pray, that's enough - open your heart to ask for heavenly father to help those of his children who are suffering.

D&c 104:17 - there is enough and to spare. Heavenly father will not direct you to give more than you can handle. You can't give enough love.

Book: end of poverty - there are enough resources in the world to provide for everyone.

Ask heavenly father: is this your job or my job? There is no way to help everyone, so how do you choose? The lord will tell you which people it is our job to help, and which are the Lord's job.

Mourn with those that mourn, but don't question the time of death. He won't take anyone one nanosecond before he's ready to welcome us home. We can't fix everything. The time between birth and death is given to man.

matt 6:8
2 Nephi 9:20
words of Mormon 1:7
Helaman 8:8
Abraham 2:8
things might be a surprise to us, but the lord was expecting it and is ready to direct us.

Elder Holland may 1996 talk - a handful of meal and a little oil.

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