Last week I talked about social and emotional health from the point of view of someone who forgot the principals behind it. This week I would like to touch on the other side of social and emotional health and service. We can pretty much break ourselves down into several categories, none are better or worse than the others it is simply who we are.
There are the stiff upper lips who are determined to do it all themselves and do not ask for or like to receive service. These people may go through surgery or some other impediment and not let a soul know because they want to just do it their way and quite frankly just want to be left alone to do it.
Then there are the I’m not asking even if I want it types, who are for some reason or another afraid to ask for help, they feel they would be imposing or putting other people out. So they struggle along until someone notices and offers to serve then they accept with a huge sigh of relief.
Next we have the I want it but you have to do it my way or no way at all person. They will accept help but place many restrictions and conditions on the service and how it is to be done and sometimes may even complain if it is not done to their satisfaction.
Let’s not forget the woeful ones. Who are in need more often then not of service in some form or another, they seem to reel from one mishap to the next, perhaps have an ongoing problem that keeps them from regaining their feet as they wish they could.
And the gladly gladly person who knows when they need help and will ask knowing that if they ask in faith and with real intent then help will come.
Lastly there is the quiet few who simply do it, by the time you find out they need help it is all said and done and they don’t need help anymore.
There are some who fall in between these categories or fit a whole new one I haven’t even mentioned. The point is none of these are right or wrong… well maybe the I want it but you have to do it my way or no way at all person could learn a little gratitude… but generally speaking none of these are entirely correct or entirely wrong, it is simply who we are, the way we interact with the world, how we were raised, or our feelings of self worth.
We as Latter Day Saints are all about service; we are trying to master the Christ like attributes of charity, hope, faith and love. The Pure love of Christ. But we need more than a desire to serve we have to understand the people we are trying to serve. As I have outlined above some people just don’t deal well with having to ask for help. Some have such rigid habits and needs that the thought of someone else doing something for them is too much to cope with. They may desperately want the help but their need for control outweighs their ability to accept service at face value with appreciation and gratitude.
Likewise the woeful ones aren’t perpetually needy, lost causes or unorganised messes, they have needs and they have strengths, it falls to us to remember who they are Children of loving Heavenly Parents who have a need at this time. They are our brothers or sisters. All of these people are our brothers and sisters, we need to address their needs and serve them as best we can overlooking any quirk of personality we may not like or even agree with.
On the other side of the coin we have ourselves. We know ourselves, we need to be honest with ourselves about our needs and most importantly we need to be gentle with ourselves. We need to remember who we are, Sons and Daughters of divine heritage and worth. One thing I say to my children when they get discouraged is this… God doesn’t make junk… sometimes we get so bogged down with how far we fall short of the mark we set for ourselves that we forget to look at how far we have come and more importantly we forget about from whence we came. We were spirit children, valiant spirit children who stood on the side of righteousness with our elder brother, Jesus Christ. We are by our spiritual nature divine; our temporal challenge is to put our spiritual self before our worldly self. Jesus Christ did not come into the world for the perfect he came for the fallen, he came for us, if we were not of great worth to Heavenly Father he would not have sent Jesus Christ. We are loved, we are sought after, and we are wanted. We need to be kinder to ourselves and allow our spiritual selves to shine. How we view ourselves effects how we are viewed by others, it also effects what happens around us and too us. Challenges will come, hardships will test our mettle but when we remember Him whose image we are created in, then how can we fail?
There are at least 11 scriptural references to loving thy neighbour as thyself from Leviticus through to the Doctrine and Covenants. How can you serve your fellow man, how can you love your fellow man if you do not have love for yourself? Not puffed up pride but self worth love.
Know that I love you, I value each of you and am glad that you chose to stand and be counted as one of His flock.
Until next week remember it is good to be a divine Son or Daughter of God, steadfast and strong, nothing wavering, knowing you’re of great worth Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
This past week on one of the currant affair programs they talked about how Australian growers were being squeezed out of the market by cheaper overseas imports and that we cannot be sure what we are getting and how safe it really is for us to eat. They discussed many of the related problems being faced by the growers and the consumers, and as valid and disturbing as these problems are, my mind was focused on the safety and quality of what we buy.
As a natural progression from there my mind wandered to considering the times in which we live, the counsel of our Prophets and the scriptures. 1st Nephi Ch 14 talks about the two churches. The Church of the Lamb of God and the great and abominable Church. Verse 12 talks of how the Saints of God were upon the whole face of the earth but their dominions were small because the of the great wickedness of the other Church. Verse 14 explains that they, the Saints, were armed with righteousness and the power of God in great glory.
Our dominions may be small but we are armed with righteousness and the power of God. How marvellous a blessing it is to know that. In knowing this we need to work at remembering that it is a blessing.
It is too easy for us to get caught up in saying how little we have rather than how much we have. For instance, food storage, instead of lamenting that it is too hard to get started or it is too hard to do this or that. We should stop and look at what we do have. Sometimes the hardest part about getting started is looking at all we need to achieve and thinking our abilities to achieve it is too small or that somehow we are not enough.
We are enough; we have enough to get started. By small things do big things come to pass, line upon line, precept upon precept. These are familiar scriptural lessons but do we really take them for what they are? Permission to start small and build up. Build up our storage, build up our faith, build up our testimony, build up our friendships, build up our skills, and build up ourselves.
Let us not knock ourselves down before we start. Whatever you desire to achieve if you ask in faith it shall be given to you. 1st Nephi 15:11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.
Matthew 21:22
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
John 16:24
…ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
I love that last bit… that your joy may be full.
The list of scriptural references goes on, Mosiah, Alma, 3rd Nephi, Moroni, D&C 8,14, 18,29, 42,49, 50, 66,88, 103,132, Moses. They all say the same thing. Ask and ye shall receive. If we ask for guidance, for faith, for the means to establish our storage it will happen. The Lord cannot lie, so we can trust Him to help us to become prepared for all things.
But getting off my soapbox and back to my initial thought process. We cannot be sure what we are buying anymore. We know not from where it comes, we know not what chemicals are used, what fertilizers are used, whether the produce is rotten to begin with, we know none of these things. But what we can know is this. 1 tomato plant can yield up to and sometimes more than 5 kilo of fruit. If we grow our own fruit and veg as our space allows we can be sure of what we are eating and what we are giving our families. In times past I have suggested gardening with a friend. Seriously. Rather than try and grow all your fruit and veg needs divide it between two households or more and share the bounty. Learn to preserve, freeze, dehydrate etc so that we can have produce on hand year round.
As the means of traveling from one side of the world to the other has gotten faster we have become spoilt. We can buy fruits and veg out of season because they are in season somewhere in the world, in turn this has changed the way we eat. If we were to stop, get off the crazy cycle the world is on and get back to basics we can reap much more than a bumper crop. We can realign our bodies with the natural order of things. There are many health benefits to be gained from eating seasonal produce in its proper growing season. And spiritually it is realigning us with the way the world used to be, in Adam and Eve’s day, in the years before the invention of hot houses, fast means of travel and global gourmet choices.
Being a hippy country girl at heart this is easy to say, but not necessarily easy to do. It takes commitment to grow your own fruit and veg, but it can be done.
In the past I have spoken about growing foods in pots. This year we did it. With mixed results. We found that the pots still need to be deep enough for the roots to spread. We also found that it is best to only have one plant in each pot or box because they then became stunted from trying to complete for root space and did not produce as much fruit as they could have. Neglecting them for even a day during the heat wave meant they also suffered.
We also put in an ‘in the ground’ patch. One of our tomato plants went nuts and is more of a jungle than a plant, the other became stunted as it struggled for sunlight under the spreading branches of the jungle. We moved it and it produced fruit but remained stunted. Likewise the eggplant I planted beside the jungle, we had to lift the branches of the tomato plant off it to get it out into the sunlight. It has taken off quite well now though by no means as lush and full as the other eggplant plants.
We grew cucumber in pots, they didn’t like it too much and only produced one cucumber at a time. The pumpkin in the same size container produced male fruit only, where as the pumpkin we planted into a bigger container (after it looked like it was going roots up in the smaller one) began to thrive and our joy was known to all the neighbors when it finally produced a female flower and we now have a lovely pumpkin growing with the anticipation that more will follow. So from our experience planting in pots is fine, but only one plant per pot unless of course youy are growing carrots or turnips or radishes etc.
We used the white foam boxes you can get from the green grocer. These were good but next season I am going to stack them two high and cut the bottom out of the top one to make it extra deep. We also used a couple of barrels cut in half with holes drilled in the bottom. These have worked really well and will continue to be used. Of course we also lost a bunch of plants to the slugs and other munching pests, so I will be setting up an invention of my Dad’s, which works really well for him. Now don’t laugh. An electric fence to keep out snails and slugs. A simple nine-volt battery attached to two wires set out 1 centimetre apart around the edge of the garden bed. There has to be no way for the snails to get into the garden other than by crossing the wires, they cross the first one easy but as soon as they touch the second one (as they are also still on the first) they get an electric shock, not enough to kill them although the occasional fatality has been known to occur, but it sure is enough to make them think twice about how much they want to get into the garden. Oh on the topic of getting into the garden our way up to Healesville the other weekend we saw the rows of grape vines had strings of metallic strips hanging above the vines. (Yes my mind really does flit around this much, just ask Grant) They rippled and shone in the sunlight, no doubt to discourage birds from feasting on the grapes. Might be something to consider trying in our battles against possums and birds.
Another thing on my list of growing wants is a fruit salad tree. There are several different types available ones that grow up to five different stone fruit, six different citrus and up to five different apples or nashi. They can be grown in pots too, which if you rent or are space challenged is a bonus. Check them out at: http://www.fruitsaladtrees.com
So you see it is not that hard to grow even a little produce and given the price of fruit and veg the savings can be quite dramatic and better off in your pocket. With a little bit of time and commitment we can all grow some healthy fruit and veg and know exactly what we are putting into our bodies as well as learning a valuable skill: gardening. So a quick recap. Grow with a friend or two to make the most of your space and time. Ask with real intent and it shall be given you. Remember the blessing we have of being righteous and having the power of God. And your neighbors may think you are a little crazy getting excited over a single pumpkin, but that is one less pumpkin you had to buy.
Until next week remember it is good to be a faith exploring, righteous dominion holding, garden planting, community minded, not afraid of hard work Latter Day Saint.
Yours in preparedness
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