Life Is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Life is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Sing His Praises
  • My Creed
  • Books I Love
  • Christmas Letters

Choose to Remember Him

12/25/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
“…choose to remember Him in the way that best draws your heart to Him,” President Erying said.
 
...in the way that best draws your heart to Him….
 
President Erying’s instruction left me pondering.   What way is that for me?  What can I remember about the Savior that best draws my heart to Him?
 
I can tell you what it is not.
 
It is not remembering Him on the cross.   I hate thinking of His hands and feet and wrist pierced by nails cruelly pounded into His flesh.   I hate thinking of anyone suffering.  Any one.   Suffering is not something I like to dwell on.   And I hate to think of the cruelty that leads to such suffering.   It is unimaginable to me how a human could treat a fellow being with barbarous cruelty ….and I prefer to leave it unimagined.
 
Neither is it remembering Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.   I cannot comprehend how He took upon Himself the sins of all mankind nor can I understand how He endured our collective burdens.   My failure to comprehend hinders my ponderings and therefore is not what best draws my heart to Him.
 
Remembering the feeding of the five thousand draws my heart to Him.  Compassionate—They were hungry and far from home.   Empathetic—He’d been hungry too.   Proactive—He felt their need and filled it. 
 
Remembering Him teaching Peter to walk on water draws my heart to Him.  Teaching—I, too, am a teacher.   He instructed Peter.  “Come,” He said, giving Peter a task that stretched him, made him grow.  Peter walked….and grew.   And when he started to fail, as all learners do at one time or another, “immediately Jesus stretched for his hand and caught him” and instructed him again.   “Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” He said, teaching Peter where he had failed and empowering him to succeed the next time. 
 
Remembering when He calmed the storm draws my heart to Him.  “And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea ‘Peace, be still.’”  Peace be still.   The story reminds me of His power and His peace….and of the many times His Power has brought His peace into my life.
 
Remembering His focus on individuals—His one-on-one conversation with woman at the well, the search for the one lost sheep, the father’s singular interview with his humble, prodigal son and later a one-on-one chat with his non-prodigal, non-humble son, one good Samaritan who helped one beleaguered traveler, the visit when He addressed Joseph Smith by name—REALLY warms my heart to Him.  I know that I am not a member of a multitude to Him; that His love for me is individual. 
 
Perhaps it is this love—personal and powerful— that best draws my heart to Him.  “We love him because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)    He does love us.  He loves us, not as in “us:  a collective group of humanity” but you and me and the neighbor next door who has the annoying barking dog and the refugee in the camp in Syria.  
 
He loves us all and it was His love that drew Him here….to take on a mortal body…. and lie humbly in a manger…. and die ignominiously on a cross…and rise triumphantly from a tomb.  
 
He loves me and remembering this is what best draws my heart to Him.
 
In this Christmas season, and always, let us choose to remember Him.
 
Love,
Teresa
 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

12/18/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Baby, it’s cold outside!!
 
The chickens are standing on one foot (alternately warming one and then the other in their down coats), the sheep are fully encased in their wool coats and my son is cuddling with the dog’s shaggy coat.    I hear “Mom, I’m cold” from Grace as temperatures in the house frequently dip into the 50’s at night and rarely rise into the 70’s during the day.   It may not be as warm in the house as she would like it but it is certainly warmer inside than out.   The temperature reads 18 degrees F when I drive to work and my CNG truck bucks and balks for the commute’s first ten minutes.   (It performs fine when I exercise its gasoline option—who knew CNG was so temperature sensitive?)  Yep, yep, YEP it’s cold outside.
 
Cold hands, warm heart…right?  
 
Here are some stories that have warmed my heart.
 
I received an email from a student just before going to bed.   A large assignment was due the next day and she had a question…and a message.  “Hello Mrs. Hislop! i was wondering if we print our research project and hand it in, in class or if we could just share it with you. Also i wanted to say that I love your class so much! I love how you teach science because you do so many amazing things and i learn so much this year! I love you so much you are such a great teacher!”  Our bedroom is cold—VERY—but chilly was not what I was feeling.
 
Rather reluctantly—we were feeling more than a little chilly—my family followed me to the Weber County Fairgrounds one Monday where we watched a live (outdoor) nativity, complete with angels on high (singing from the roof top), Roman soldiers (clad in helmets and wearing shorts—Burrrr!), shepherds with real sheep (six Suffolk on lead ropes), a couple of llamas (apparently the South American contingent had to be taxed also….), and a camel with three kings (love, LOVE the camel!!!).    Our butt cheeks and face cheeks froze (nothing like sitting on metal bleachers in near-zero temperatures) but our hearts were warm (about 98.6 F, on average).
 
Our hearts warmed further when a gray-haired man pulled Lance from the crowd, saying “You are a Hislop, aren’t you?”  [The Hislop uni-brow is quite distinctive.]   The senior introduced himself as one of Dad Hislop’s former runners.  “Bob Cox,” Lance said.  “I know you.  You ran the high hurdles, right?”  Yes the man said with a smile.  “And your time was 14.4,” Lance continued.   Bob was both very surprised and very pleased that Lance remembered him.    [I was not surprised; Lance is somewhat of a savant when it comes to track and cross country trivia, even when the data is over three decades old.]  As we left Bob expressed interest in getting a copy of Dad Hislop’s book.   He was again surprised (very) and pleased (very, VERY)  when we showed back up at the fairgrounds twenty minutes later with a copy of the book AND with its original author.   Bob and Dad Hislop had a great chat.  Hearts warmed…probably still at 98.6 F literally but certainly glowing figuratively.
 
“Old people are so cute,” Miles said, eyes glowing.   He and another 12 year-old from our congregation took the Sacrament (sacred emblems of bread and water) from room to room to the residents in a local care center on the Sabbath.   “It was like how Jesus serves…going to each individual.”
 
Individually…uniquely….personally.   That is how Christ loves us.    And how I love my family.    
 
Chick and I went to USU for a freshman orientation.  While there we learned that housing for men was scant to non-existent.    Before we went to Logan (which was also before we knew there was a housing shortage for men) Chick received a phone call from a USU student—male—who was looking to sell his contract in the Honors Housing complex.    While in Logan Chick signed the papers necessary to transfer the contract and we both felt grateful that he had housing, knowing that there were others who did not.  Heart warming….whole body warming, for that matter—Logan is very cold in the winter!
 
It is so fun to have Chick home.    While the mission changed him in many ways, somethings have not changed.   “When are you going to get paid?” I asked him.    Six weeks into his job he had not yet received a pay check and had not thought to ask about it.    Last Wednesday I sent Chick to work with my truck instead of driving him to work, dropping him off and returning eight hours later to retrieve him.   When he was done with work he sat for an hour in the lobby waiting for me to pick him up before remembering he’d driven himself there.    When he drove himself to work this week it only took him 15 minutes and a reminder text from me to realize he had to drive himself home.
 
Tanah did not drive herself home but, thanks to roomies and the FrontRunner, she is home.   The noise and drama levels in our home have significantly increased….and we would not have it any other way.   “Mama, I love you so much,” she says repeatedly.
 
Grace also tells me that she loves me—and it is a lot harder for her to love me because she has to live with me….. but still she manages to do it—live with me AND love me.  (Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder and close proximity makes faults and failings harder to ignore.)   I love Grace too, as do the Maylins, a family for whom she regularly babysits.   Last time she was there she convinced the children, ages 7, 4, and 2, to clean the entire house.   Calling themselves the Purple Unicorns, they circled up in the middle of each room, everyone putting one hand in the center, and chanted “Cleaning is fun!” before scattering to gather whatever it was that needed putting away.   At evening’s end the kids begged her to come back soon so they could clean some more.  
 
Cold temperatures aside, it is a season of warmth.    May your hearts be warmer than my hands!
 
Love YOU,
Teresa
​


Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Light Is A Lifting Force

12/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Light shines.
 
A revolutionary concept, I know…..
 
But it is true.   Light shines.    Once lit, light shines.   And shining light lifts. 
 
Isn’t it funny how that happens?   I am not sure how the physics works—I cannot definitively explain the relationship between light and lifting—but I know that it works.   Light is a force; it lifts hearts, lightens loads, and spreads love.
 
Lit by the Light the World Challenge to honor one’s parents, I took my mom shopping for warm winter clothes….something she could have, but never would have, done for herself.    Her heavy sweater lifted my heart.    
 
“Point out a virtue in someone they don’t see in themselves” was another challenge.   Lance saw a list in my hand and feared the worst; “What have I done wrong now?”   The list’s words—loyal, loving, laughter, load lightening—ended up brightening his day…and mine.    I am so grateful for a husband who is loyal to me, who lovingly tells me I am wonderful AND beautiful, who makes me laugh, and whose willingness to listen lightens my load.
 
Prayers lighten loads also.   On the day we prayed as a family for Bash—a  nine month old child whose fused cranial growth plates necessitated brain surgery—he  was released from the hospital and returned, miraculously, to his adoring family.  Our prayers certainly did not cause the miracle but they helped us feel a part of it.
 
“Feeling part of it” is one of the greatest benefits of Church Women United.   Yesterday I attended their Advent Silver Tea Christmas Celebration with Grace, her friend Abbie, and my friend Cyndi.   It is so seriously wonderful to sit with women of other faiths and share sisterhood.  Women really are meant to be sisters; when we get together we share recipes, we tell stories of children and grandchildren, we relate tales of heart and head aches…. and good feelings splash all over the place.
 
Splashing good feelings happen in many places.   I got splashed on when I read my friend Tyson Grover’s Facebook post.  “We changed up the advent calendar this year. Instead of getting little goodies for themselves, the kids have to go out and do good deeds for others every day of December. So far we have added coins to all the prize machines in reams, dropped random gifts on neighbor's door steps, hiked trails and picked up garbage, left snack money with a note in Redbox movies, and more. We have had such a good time but the best thing was when Silas came home yesterday and told us all the good deeds he did for his friends at school all on his own. I am so proud of these boys.”
 
Light spreads love.   Silas’ light was lit at home, he spread that light at his school and his father loved it.  (My guess is that he and his classmates loved it also.)   Lance loved listening to my list and I loved seeing Mom in her new sweater.  Love was “splashing all over the place” at the Church Women United meeting and Bash’s tender reunion with his family—I’m told he cupped his little hands on the face of his siblings and loved on them each individually—was as love-filled as moments on this Earth get.  Light and love intertwine.

AH HA!!!  That is it!   That's the answer!  That explains how light lifts!!   It is the love in light that lifts.   Light is a lifting force because it comes from The Source.    “I am the light of the world” Christ tells us (John 8:12) and John tells us that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)  Christ is the source of both light and love.   They are together in Him.   And as we come together with Him, they flow through us.  Light and love move through us making us instruments in His hands to bless the lives of God’s children.    But it does not stop there.  As His light and love flow through us, they alter us.   Just as rivers modify the valleys through which they flow, His love and light transform us as they flow through us.   They wash away selfishness, cleanse contempt, pound out pride, create pools of compassion, and grace us with gratitude, leaving in their wake a glowing, joyful residue that forever changes who we are.  
 
May the force (and The Source) be with you.
 
Light the world!

Picture
Picture
Picture
Baby Bash
Picture
Brothers Grover
Picture
The Source
Picture
Picture
New sweater (In her text she told me that she is happier than she looks)
0 Comments

    Author

    Teresa Hislop
    thislop@msn.com

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.