There was a great video attached to one of my seminary lessons about flecks of gold. In short, there was a man panning for gold who was frustrated that he wasn't finding big hunks of it. Another man told him to check all the small flecks he had gathered and notice how much it added up to. It wasn't a video I ended up using, but it was something that I couldn't get off my mind. I told my partner about it and what I was thinking about doing and we decided to present it to the kids. I'll explain more later, but first let me start here:
We are nearing the end of the school year and so my partner and I have been making the rounds to each of the families of our students. We started the year with a visit and we are ending the year with a visit. We went over our vision scripture again with them along with some other things. The scripture is found in section 18 of the Doctrine and Covenants:
34 These words are not of men nor of man, but of me; wherefore, you shall testify they are of me and not of man;
35 For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you; for they are given by my Spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another; and save it were by my power you could not have them;
We wanted to evaluate how we did. Could the kids say that they had heard the voice of the Lord? We have realized that is the hardest part about teaching. It's not something you can do for someone else. What we could do was start documenting the small miracles (flecks of gold). We could get the kids started by reminding them of some of our personal experiences and encourage them to look for their own. I also started praying to help point them out in their lives- if I knew about any - luckily some were brought to my mind that I was able to remind a couple of the students of.
Instead of putting gold puff balls in a jar or just taping gold pieces of paper to the wall, I felt it was important that we wrote key words that would help remind us of the stories of faith/miracles/voice of the Lord. We like to forget things very quickly and for the power to be there we needed to remember. To know that we didn't just throw a bunch of balls into a jar that we could later convince our selves didn't mean anything.
We started on Monday and we've got 12 flecks so far.
What kind of things made the list? I'll tell you about 3. Two from my partner and one from me. I'll start with my partner.
1st fleck. The Jehovah Witnesses love our neighborhood. They have a building very near us. They really need to widen their tracking circle, but who am I to council them. Instead I usually just give them the look like, "really, again so soon?" My partner usually isn't very nice to them either, but on this day last week she decided to be nice and have a conversation. They were having a very pleasant conversation and then the person started talking about Satan. She was explaining that this was his world and that's why it's so evil etc. Her proof was when Satan was tempting Christ by telling him that he would give him this world. My partner was like "oh wait a min..." She got really nervous because she never has command of her brain when she needs it and forgets everything she ever knew in situations like this. She said a quick prayer that she would be able to testify of truth. She instantly knew what to say about satan being the father of all lies and left the person confounded. She was so excited that the blessing of having your mouth filled when you need it was realized. Prayer answered.
2nd fleck. My partner received a phone call from someone that left her hurt and upset. Her garage door had broken earlier in the day and she now needed to get her car out of the garage. Her middle school aged daughter would be home from school soon but she didn't think she could handle holding the weight of the door long enough to get her car out. She thought about calling me, but didn't because she was too upset about the phone call. Instead she decided to walk to the mailbox to mail something. She needed time to cool off so she walked to the farther mailbox. I was driving home from an appointment when I saw her walking. Usually I would just wave and drive by. Maybe roll down the window and call out, but still keep driving. For whatever (that just means I didn't know why at the time) reason I decided to pull over to say hi. She then asked if I would take her home and hold her garage door open for her. Prayer answered.
3rd fleck. In my non blogging life it's no secret that I'm a prepper. Probably in my blogging life it's easy to tell as well, although I don't talk about it much. I haven't talked about politics much and I haven't talked about how I think we are headed for a total financial crisis and WWIII. I've done a lot of temporal preparedness, but I have switched to spiritual preparedness. It's the only thing that is going to save us. I have a friend that also feels the same. We were talking about possible scenarios for the end of the world as we know it and the second coming. One of the major problems I think we are going to face in the last days is being deceived (pride and hatred are going to be pretty huge as well). I firmly believe that we have the Doctrine and Covenants for a reason and contained within it's revelations to the saints is vital information for us to learn. What happens when we don't follow the council and commandments we are given. What happens when we are prideful. What happens when we don't sustain our leaders. What happens if we aren't unified. Can't forgive. It is warning after warning. It is also full of promises, blessings, and second chances. What I believe is headed our way is going to be tough and try the most faithful among us. After a particular conversation and some advise that I gave I began to wonder about my own ability to keep from being deceived. I was trying to remember what section talked about who can receive revelation for the church and how not to be deceived, but I didn't investigate. The next morning I worked at the temple and as part of that shift I got to sit in the celestial room for 30 minutes of uninterrupted pondering. There were some brand spankin new scriptures sitting on a table that I decided to let fall open wherever they wanted. The problem was that they were new and stiff so falling open wasn't an option. I had to play with the pages and try to get them to flop open. What was the first place that they fell open to? Section 43 of the D and C (I won't go into that section because keeping it a mystery for investigation is more fun). What makes this remarkable to me is that I could have gone and looked up that section myself. It would have given me some confidence, but anytime you get in a debate with someone you both can pull out any number of scriptures to support your belief. I had prayed that very morning about being deceived and then when I let the scriptures fall open wherever they wanted....that's where they landed. That is hearing the voice of the Lord. That is direct communication. When I tried to get them to fall open after that it was always to the break between the BOM and D and C or the index. The way it happened had far more meaning to me than had I have went and found it on my own. It was a miracle. A fleck of gold. Prayer answered.
It is no small coincidence to me that there was much talk last conference about prophets and revelation -btw- do I need to say how excited I am for the upcoming conference? I think a lot about that CES fireside by Elder Holland and one thing specifically that he said about having un-compromised confidence in God, in ourselves and in our students. Not sure if he said that or I heard that, but I think about that a lot. What that means, what it looks like and what I need to be doing.
I have no idea how the events of the next few years are going to play out. All I do know is that our hearts better be ready. We are going to face challenges that we cannot even fathom. We better have a hard focus on the front site (are we in-line with The Savior and the prophets). Whatever happens is going to happen and the specifics don't matter because they are a means to an end. What end? Each of our mortal ends. Where we end up when we are done with this mortal experience. This life is our time to prepare to meet God. We might be meeting him sooner than we are prepared for -whether the world ends tomorrow or if we get hit by a car tomorrow. The time for procrastination is over. I believe the sifting of the wheat and the tares has already begun. We have to have our eyes trained to see the signs of His coming by recognizing the small miracles (flecks of gold) because if we don't, we won't be able to see the big biblical miracles and prophecies being fulfilled (big hunks of gold). All those small fleck add up to un-compromised faith in God, in ourselves, and in those around us- because once we are converted it is our obligation to strengthen those around us.
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. ~ Luke 22
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