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Because Sephora Told Me To...

I have a lot of dark spots on my face. If you have met me in person, you have likely noticed them but were kind enough to look past them. In pictures, I tend to Photoshop them away. (Is that vain of me to do? At least I’m open about it and that has to count for something). Unfortunately, I can’t Photoshop them away in real life and I’m not willing to wear foundation. People have always told me that once you start wearing it, you have a hard time going back to bare skin.

Because of my unwillingness to wear foundation, I sought help at Sephora. I’d hoped they would be able to show me the perfect product that would conceal my spots but blend in well. After trying 4-5 different products, the make-up artist threw up his arms and said, “Without foundation to blend, I simply cannot help you.” I pleaded and begged for some wonderful solution. He referred me to the aestatician over in the skincare department. She looked at my spots and declared I needed to get into the dermatologist. She pointed at several of my spots and said that they were just sun/age spots but there was one that was different. (In the picture it is the one closest to my eye).

This happened nearly a year ago. But I kept putting it off.

Last Friday I finally made it in to see the doctor. I wanted to go to one that would care about the cosmetic aspect of it and wouldn’t start cutting away just for the sake of cutting. So I went to the only young female dermatologist I could find. (I confess, I stereotyped).

I was sitting on the examination table in my hospital gown when the doctor walked in. First thing she said to me was “Wow, good thing you came in. That spot on your face is pre-cancerous and we need to get rid of that. You’ll want to watch it carefully and if it comes back you need to come back in.”

For just under a week, I’ve had a lovely scab on my face. Today it came off and now I will keep my fingers crossed that it doesn’t come back.

So, thank you Sephora.

And if you have any spots that look different, from your normal moles or freckles, please get in to your dermatologist. Skin cancer is not something to mess around with, just ask some of my friends who have lost a parent to melanoma.

Alma and Amulek in Prison

Primary 4: Book of Mormon – Lesson 16

Items needed for the lesson-

Jar of water
Ping-pong ball
Rope (a jump rope will work if you don’t have a rope)

Last week I did not prepare the lesson, nor did I attend. My team teacher wasn’t there either. So, for our sakes I will start with a brief refresher on some of the people we will be talking about today.

Alma – Alma was the High Priest and he chose to dedicate his life to missionary work
Amulek – He was a man who lived in Ammonihah where Alma was preaching. Amulek had a vision about Alma and was told to take care of him.
Zeezrom – A citizen of Ammonihah that argued with Alma and Amulek saying that they were liars.

Now on to Lesson 16…

What is faith? How does someone have faith? When and how do you use or exercise your faith?

If you take a glass of water and a ping-pong ball, what will happen when you push the ping-pong ball down and then let go? It will bounce again to the top. Now if we were to poke a hole in the ball and push it down, what would happen?

Faith is like the ping-pong ball. If we have faith, we will bounce back from our trials and we will continue to be lifted up in our trials. But if we let fear and doubt seep in, like a small hole would allow the water to fill the ball, we too will sink.

It is difficult to talk to 8-9 year olds about faith and how to practice it. Difficult, because it is something that I continue to work on and continue to strive for.

Alma and Amulek in Prison is a story all about how bad things can happen but ways that our faith can keep us safe. It is also about how one can gain faith.

_____

Alma and Amulek continued to teach the people of Ammonihah the truth about Jesus Christ and the importance of repentance. During one particular time-sharing the message, Zeezrom was in attendance. While he was standing there listening, he began to have a strong emotion and was astonished by what had been spoken. He was also overcome by the damage he had done by way of his words for the people who were gathered.

What was Zeezrom feeling?

Why would he feel that way?

During our lives, we are going to make choices. Sometimes these choices are made without a full understanding or without knowing who our choice may affect. As we grow, we may learn something new that will suddenly make us realize that what we had done minutes, days, weeks or months before was wrong. We too can have that feeling of guilt come over us.

That is exactly what happened to Zeezrom. For some reason, something that was said that day opened his heart up to feel the spirit and his mind was opened so that he understood the damage he had done. He began to cry out to the people that he was the one that was wrong, not Alma and not Amulek.

What do you think the people did when he cried out that he was wrong?

Rather than taking a moment to listen to him this time, they persecuted him and threw him out of the city.

Why do people persecute those that believe differently than they do?

These people continued to persecute the believers in ways that you and I could not even imagine. Actually in ways that you just don’t see happening today. All of the women and children that believed were thrown into a fire.

From the scriptures, we know that these women and children died in that fire. Even though the persecutors expected Alma and Amulek to save them – if they were telling the truth.

Why did the Lord not let Alma save the women and children? In Alma 14:11 we read the answer.

Taking the time to read this scriptures can help us to understand that bad things do happen to good people. But, we also know that those who die defending the truth are blessed. Alma 60:30

“For the Lord suffereth the righteous to be slain that his justice and judgment may come upon the wicked; therefore ye need not suppose that the righteous are lost because they are slain; but behold, they do enter into the rest of the Lord their God.”

At this point, I would like to share the Book of Mormon video – Chapter 22 Alma’s Mission to Ammonihah. The video will recap to this point and will finish telling the story.

From the video, we learned that Alma and Amulek were thrown into jail and beaten. The chief judge told them that if they had the power to free themselves he would believe.

Was the chief judge showing any faith?

Faith is believing in that not seen.

What is something that you have never seen but you believe?

I have never seen God. But I know because of my faith that He is our Heavenly Father and that He created us and this earth.

Alma and Amulek prayed and asked God to free them.

If you have a piece of rope, try to break it by pulling it apart. Difficult, if not impossible? Now imagine it being wrapped around you and tying you to a pole. Could you do it?

In answer the their prayer, what happened?

Let’s read directly from the scriptures what happened in Alma 14:26-28.

How great was the faith of Alma and Amulek?

Was their faith greater to release them from the ropes or greater to save the women and children? I believe that their faith was the same. The difference was the Lord’s will. Those women and children were taken into the arms of their Father in Heaven. They were saved eternally while the men who did the damage are forever paying for those sins.

This is the part of faith that I think is the hardest part to accept. When I hear that people have lost their faith or that they have no faith, I can see how they could get to that point. But, when we have trials so great as women and children being thrown into a fire, or more relevant for today, a parent with cancer, a child that has been hit by a car, a mother that dies during child-birth – without faith we would sink. Back to the ping-pong ball. No matter how long I hold that ball down, or how far down I am able to hold the ball down, it will ALWAYS bounce back up.

_________

After Alma and Amulek walked from the prison, they went outside the walls of the city to the land of Sidom. Zeezrom was on his death-bed with a high fever in the same city. Alma and Amulek were asked to go to Zeezrom to heal him.

Alma took his hand and asked him if he believed in Christ. When Zeezrom answered yes and that he believed all that Alma and Amulek had taught, Alma responded that if he believed, he could be healed.

Zeezrom was healed from his sickness and forgiven of his sins.

Zeezrom was then baptized and began to preach the gospel.

The fourth article of faith states…

We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

How did Zeezrom achieve each of these four steps?

What about you?

_______

Faith is something that we have to CONSTANTLY work on. It is not something that comes easily nor grows without work. But faith can make us whole. It can make us whole physically and spiritually. I know that Christ is my Savior and that through him, we may be as Zeezrom and forgiven of our sins. I know that the faith of Alma and Amulek is something that I too can have. But I have to remember not to let the weight of my trials to let the fear and doubt seep in. Faith is the only way to bounce back from our trials.

Journal entry:

How can you work to grow your faith?

Bear River Bird Refuge

Have you ever been to a bird refuge?

Has your family walked (or driven) through wetlands while losing count of the beautiful birds you’ve encountered?

How far would you be willing to travel for the opportunity to view a group of pelicans gathering?

On Earth Day, our family was drawn to the bird refuge in hopes of seeing baby birds. We were too early but still managed to see the birds pairing off and preparing nests for their future family.

If you go during the week, you can stop in the visitors center and learn about all of the types of birds you will find out on the loop. They also have signs up throughout the drive to educate you a little more.

Be prepared for gnats galore! Take an allergy pill. Bring you biggest zoom lens. Drive very slowly. And good luck keeping track of the number of birds you will see.

Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah Repent

Primary 4 Lesson 14

During our lives, each of us will sin. We will sin many many times because we are not perfect. Heavenly Father knows that we are not perfect but He does love us.

For my class, I have prepared a backpack filled with bags of rocks. These bags each have a label. Because my class is filled with 8-9 year olds, the sins that I have included are lying, being mean, talking back, gossiping, disobeying, cheating and judging. If I were giving this lesson to teenagers or adults, there would be many other sings that I would add. And the bag would have the potential of being very very heavy.

I will have each of the children lift the backpack and share with the class what it feels like to carry that much weight on their backs.

Sin is just like the backpack. Although you can’t see what is in the backpack, it is obvious that there is something heavy that you are carrying. Because Christ died for us, there is a way to lighten our load and potentially remove the backpack altogether.

As we take each of the bags out of the backpack, I will discuss each sin. Some of the sins cause a lighter load than others. But together they make the burden heavier than we can bare. Each of these sins keep us from drawing closer to our Heavenly Father. Each of these sins keep us from building a strong bond with our families.

How can we remove the burden of these sins? Christ said that He is the light and the way and that only through Him can we return to our Father in Heaven. Only because of Christ can we repent of our sins.

What does it mean to repent? In Alma chapter 36 we can read what we need to do to repent. To summarize, we need to do these following steps…

Recognize sin.
Confess the sin and pray for forgiveness.
Do our best to make up for the wrong.
Forsake the sin.
Obey the commandments and live more like the Savior

The story for today’s lesson helps all of us see that we can repent, even though sometimes it will be hard to literally right the wrong, we can make things better.

Because I like using different media sources for my lesson, I will show the children the Book of Mormon videos. The first is called “Alma the Younger Repents” and the second is called “The Sons of Mosiah become Missionaries”. (I have linked to the PDF version of the children’s Book of Mormon stories).

The story tells us of how Alma’s son, Alma and his friends (who were the sons of King Mosiah) tried to destroy the church despite their fathers’ efforts to build the Kingdom of God. These young men traveled through town tearing down the gospel and professing that it was a bunch of lies. The fathers prayed that their sons would see the truth and that they would quit destroying that which was good.

The sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger were visited by an angel that told them to stop telling lies. Alma fell to the ground and could not speak and became very weak. They took him to his father. Alma knew what had caused his son to become weak and unable to speak. He prayed that his son would be once again strong. After 2 days, Alma awoke and told the people that he had repented and that God had forgiven him.

After that, Alma and the sons of King Mosiah had to right their wrongs so they became missionaries and traveled around sharing the truthfulness of the gospel.

____

For this lesson, in order to get strong participation with the kids, we will play a game. I’ll divide the kids into two teams and will give a point for each team that gets their question correct. So that I don’t have kids yelling out the answers, each team will be given a question. If they can’t answer it, the other team will have a chance to do so. This way I’ll also be able to guide the discussion a little better.

Here’s the list of questions with the discussion point in parenthesis.

Who prayed for Alma and the sons of Mosiah?
What did they pray for? (What do you think your parents pray about when they are praying for you?)
In order to receive answers for their prayers, how did Alma and King Mosiah pray? (Why is faith important when you are praying?)
What happened to Alma the Younger and his friends that showed them the power of God?
After Alma and his friends were visited by an angel, what changed for them? (Why is a change of heart important for repentance?)
Who helped Alma repent? (Why do we need to remember the Savior when we confess and repent of our sins?)
How did Alma and his friends try to right their wrong? (If you hurt someone’s feelings, how can you right the wrong? What about if you steal or lie or gossip?)
Once they had repented, what did these men do? (How can becoming a good example help you achieve forgiveness?)

____

In closing I will show a first aid kit.

What is a first aid kit used for?

If you have a cut that goes uncleaned or untreated, what can happen to it?

How is a cut like a sin?

Some infections can be so bad that they cause sickness in other people.

Just like serious cuts, we have to take care of our sins. If we don’t they will fester and swell and become bigger and harder to take care of.

I know we are all going to sin. I know that I am not perfect. But more importantly, I know that God loves me and that He gave His only Son so that we could once again be clean. Even when we can’t right a wrong or we can’t undo the past, we can turn ourselves around and live more like our Savior. It is a choice. It’s a choice that we have to make every minute of every day. It is a choice that I am grateful that we have.

____

Journal entry:

How has repentance changed your life?

I Heart Faces- Beautiful Black and White

I recently had the opportunity to take some pictures of a group of beautiful girls Each of the girls were sweet, humble, kind and gorgeous. As we were wrapping up the shoot, one of the girls put on this great hat and bright red lipstick to match the ribbon on the hat. I had her stand close to my off camera flash and I stood on a chair so that I was looking at her from above the light. The pictures turned out so fun, but as the rules state, you can only enter one picture. So, I had to narrow it down to this one photo…

Be sure and check out all of the other “Beautiful Black and White” entries at I Heart Faces.

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Because Sephora Told Me To...

Alma and Amulek in Prison

Bear River Bird Refuge

Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah Repent

I Heart Faces- Beautiful Black and White

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