Be Still: a Lesson on Reverence

I am teaching sharing time in primary on Sunday and I'm pretty excited.

We are having a lesson on Reverence. 

(Cause we need it. Summer gets a little wild:)!)

To start I am going to tell a very simplified story of

Finding a Treasure:

I have always loved collecting sea shells. 

But the one I found on this particular day is special.

I found it on South Beach in Oregon half tucked in the sand like this one:

 I loved South Beach because you could walk 100 yards into the ocean and the water would barely cover your rain boots.

There were always pieces of sand dollars at this beach, and I really wanted one.

We came alone to the beach. And by alone I mean we were new and alone to Oregon and Ben was working.

He worked 355 days of the 365 days that year - and not 8 to 5 - sun up to after sun down.

Moms of young kids know the feeling of constant chaos and needs of little people and the irony of feeling so isolated when you're constantly surrounded.

And I felt it, even while I loved watching these cute kiddos run around:

To make it more poignant,

While we were there we saw these people on the beach:

Doesn't that look fun?

I wished I could do that.

But they don't let moms with 3 babies go.

Then, I turned around and saw this:

I could see Ben and I doing that. (Except I would look super unskilled.)

But he was working.

At that point, I had a hard time seeing when these circumstances would ever change.

This was heavy on my mind. I prayed for peace while I stood quietly and watched the waves.

After walking just a couple more steps in the water

I stopped and looked down to find my treasure:

Three days before we came here I wrote down my list of goals on my blog and I had listed: find a sand dollar.

I'll be explaining to the kids that this treasure has to be handled carefully and kept in a special place.

How do we treat treasures? How I take care of a treasure is respecting it. In a similar way, we can treat treasures that are Heavenly Father's with respect and care. In places such as the temple, church, or, the scriptures, our family, and even ourselves. This is showing reverence to Him. 

Psalms 46:10 says,

 "Be still, and know that I am God."

If I had been doing this:

I never would have found this:

Finding treasures of knowledge don't always come from fun adventures, they come from quiet moments of reverence and reflection.

And that can bring true happiness.

Wherever you are.

Really, our outside circumstances can be beautiful or holy in and of themselves, but it is what's inside us that determines reverence or holiness to us.

We have been counseled to stand in holy places. Here are some other "holy places" to me:

even though it looked more like this:

“Reverence is an attitude toward Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ... It is something we feel inside our hearts no matter what is going on around us.” L. Tom Perry

In church, keeping our bodies still 

literally helps prepare our hearts and minds to receive inspiration.

And let the spirit teach us about God.

"Be still, and know that I am God."

California does have a lot to do, but I am hoping to find more treasures by finding balance. 

We sure do miss South Beach!!

1. Rev'rence is more than just quietly sitting:
   It's thinking of Father above,
   A feeling I get when I think of his blessings.
   I'm rev'rent, for rev'rence is love.
   When I'm rev'rent, it shows in my words and my deeds.
   The pathway to follow is clear.
   And when I am rev'rent, I know in my heart
   Heav'nly Father and Jesus are near.
   
   Some of the basic ideas aren't mine, they're from a friend from another wards' sharing time, but I heard it was good and she let me use them!

Favorites: Things To Do around Corvallis Oregon - Day 24

**I wish I could squish this little corner of Oregon into the weather here in California. But then, of course, it wouldn't be the same. At. All. ...Sigh. I just love all the things to do in Oregon and hate the rain.
I'm pretty much not an Oregon expert, but this is what we did and loved for the year we were there.

My top five favorite things were: 
1. The Beach
2. Gathering Together Farms
3. Picking Berries
4. Waterfalls
5. Clamming and the Aquarium in Newport

The Coast - Newport, Oregon

**Downtown is just fun to walk through and go into the candy shops and watch the seals.

**Whale Watching - We mostly just did simple trips but once we did go on a whale watching trip and it was awesome to see those whales and even catch and hold some crabs.

**Oregon Coast Aquarium - see the shark tank, feel sea stars and sea urchins, and tons of other ocean life. Much smaller than Seattle's but it definitely holds its own. We loved it and it entertained our kids and us for hours on end.

**South Beach - always a good place to find sand dollars. More quiet than Nye Beach and had awesome camping yurts on one side of the beach that I wished we could have gone to. (That darn working every single day thing for Ben really cramped our style!)

**Nye Beach - Main beach downtown Newport. There is a good foot rinse at the entrance. A great restaurant is the Chowder Bowl (I think better than Mo's). Oregon beaches are beautiful. They have so many seashells and I am a little bit obsessed with seashells.

**Yaquina Head - there is a lighthouse you can go up (babies can't) and a tidepool. Go at low tide to see tons and tons of sea stars and sea urchins.

**Clamming - right under the Newport bridge take a clamming rake and a Big bucket on a negative tide day. Oh, this was so much fun!!
**If I would have had a husband, and not three kids, I probably would have done some glass blowing, gone to some of the artsy stores and tried out more restaurants! In Corvallis the fog and rain clouds can get bogged in, but if you drive over the mountains towards the coast it can be sunny!

The Woods
**Hiking and Waterfalls - Alsea Falls is near Corvallis and beautiful. Bald Hill, Finley Wildlife Refuge and Mary's Peak have hiking and trails (we never did do Mary's Peak)

**Multnomah Falls is a Must See. We went in the winter and I was so sad we didn't make it back in the spring. Green walled cliffs line the drive there. It was the prettiest drive I've ever been on driving there in the moving van in May.

**There are obviously many evergreens...so our 9 foot christmas tree was $5.

**Truffles grow around these parts but they're rare and we never found any in the woods. Not that we would know if we did, but we went looking nonetheless. I am still really curious to know what they taste like.

Corvallis -
**Go to the farmer's market. Bring swimsuits in the summer for the fountain at the end.
**Berry Picking - I think there are a few major places there that have berry picking - Radke's and Blueberry Meadows. We went blueberry picking all the time. We also went strawberry and raspberry picking. Store bought berries are just depressing now compared to berries that fresh. The whole experience just makes me happy.

**Run on one of their million trails. Pretty much the whole city has bike trails or bike lanes on the roads and there are tons of running and hiking trails all over.
**Get custom made shoes at Soft Star Shoes. You would miss the shop if you weren't looking but they measure and trace your foot while you're there and handmake, in the store, your very own pair of comfy real leather shoes. I found out about them from a friend whose little daughter had two adorable shoes custom made, each one a different color!

**Go to Many Hands Trading. They buy handmade items from small tribes and people all over the world.
**Go see some of the covered bridges in the area.

**OSU events

Philomath-
**Gathering Together Farms - a restaurant with fresh ingredients grown right there and expertly cooked. I can't say enough how much I loved this place.

**Go to the secret park river spot by the library:)

Tulip Festival



**Portland is a really long drive but I'm glad we made the trek there a couple times - there's the temple, the zoo, the children's museum, voodoo donuts, the science museum. I don't feel like I really got to see the city that much but it's a cool city that would be fun to explore. Multnomah Falls is up that way too. And about an hour past that is Ape Caves by Mt St Helens, way worth the drive!



List of things I didn't do that I wish I would have done:
1. The treehouse hotels
2. Silver Falls in Silverton
3. Seen more of Portland
4. Multnomah Falls in spring or summer

Ha. Macey seems to be my little model for all the pictures!
Honestly I think it was a blessing to live in such a fun, unique place for us during a really busy time for Ben and a really poor time of life!