Heftel Family
Boy + Girl = Happiness!

For your Sunday edification, I wanted to post a quote that is often mis-attributed to Mother Teresa. This was mentioned in our church meetings last Sunday and it really struck a chord with me:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,

and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,

it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Thoughts?

Just some thoughts on a Sunday afternoon as I sit here on the couch while Ne’ is resting next to me.  As many or all of you know, I have been working at the LDS Motion Picture Studio and I’ve been working on editing audio from the Seminar for New Mission Presidents.  This is where all the new mission presidents come to the MTC for four days of intense training from General Authorities before they go out to preside over their missions for three years.  It really is an amazing thing – they have only a few marathon twelve-hour days to learn how to do their calling, learning from General Authorities and drinking in their instruction firehose-style, before they are sent out across the world.  The second they arrive in their missions, they are in charge and the current mission president becomes the former mission president.  Usually within a day the former mission president is on a plane headed home.  How’s that for feeling inadequate and having to rely on the spirit?

I just read a blog post by a friend of mine and a former coworker, where he explained that he used to pray as a kid, but God never answered, and now as an adult, he feels it is silly to worry about God and where we come from or where we are going.  I posted the following as a comment on his post, and thought I’d share it with all of you.  Consider it my testimony that God lives and loves us despite all that is wrong with the world:

I believe that there IS a point to life, and that there is a God up there who loves us. Yes, I know that seems contradictory with all of the suffering that happens on this planet on a day-to-day basis. But that doesn’t change my belief that God knows each and every one of us by name, and that he will one day make right all that has been wrong here on earth. We are here to learn to be kind to others even when no one is being kind to us. We are here to learn to do good when there is no immediate reward, or even when we take flak for it. I don’t claim to know why infants die from malnutrition in poorer parts of the world, but I know for sure it’s not because they “deserved” it, and I believe God will make up for their innocent suffering on the other side. God ultimately wants us to be happy, and if we soften our hearts and turn to him in times of distress he will hear us, and if we know how to listen we will hear his response. When it seems like he doesn’t answer our prayers and save us from hard things, it is because there is something for us to learn from it. There is no shortcut or easy way to learn and grow, we must put in the work necessary for such growth to happen. And through it all, the triumphs and the sadness, the thrills and the heartaches, God is there, watching us and rooting for us to succeed, but also allowing us to go through hard times so we may grow.

I just read a very informative article about what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are to do in response to HBO’s portrayal of our sacred temple ordinances, or really in response to any criticism of the Church: nothing.
From the article:

As Catholics, Jews and Muslims have known for centuries, such attention is inevitable once an institution or faith group reaches a size or prominence sufficient to attract notice. Yet Latter-day Saints – sometimes known as Mormons – still wonder whether and how they should respond when news or entertainment media insensitively trivialize or misrepresent sacred beliefs or practices.

This is the problem – what do you do when your beliefs are criticized, put down, or otherwise blown out of proportion, without your consent and without context?

You do what you do when a small child throws a temper tantrum to get negative attention – you ignore it.

From the article:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series. As Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Robert D. Hales of the Council of the Twelve Apostles have both said recently, when expressing themselves in the public arena, Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves with dignity and thoughtfulness . . . There is no need to feel defensive when the Church is moving forward so rapidly. The Church’s strength is in its faithful members in 170-plus countries, and there is no evidence that extreme misrepresentations in the media that appeal only to a narrow audience have any long-term negative effect on the Church.

There have been many criticisms of the Church in the past, and there will continue to be criticisms in the future, but the best course of action for those who truly believe is to let the truth speak for itself. We can defend ourselves and our beliefs without stooping to the level of our attackers.

My favorite quotes from this April’s LDS General Conference:

Elder Uchtdorf:
It’s not merely enough to surround ourselves with symbols of our faith.  Ours is not a second-hand religion.  We cannot receive the benefit of the Gospel by merely observing what others do.  We must get off the couch and practice what we preach.

Be of one heart and one mind in your marriage and family.

Elder Anderson:
God shapes the back to fit the burdens placed upon it.