Her Dad changed things

She is new in our ward. She and her husband have 5 children. I had never even met her, I still haven't.
But I think I will remember her talk during Sacrament meeting this morning, for a long while.

She talked about her own father. He grew up with an alcoholic Dad and a very depressed Mom, and
lots of abuse. Her Dad grew up never having a birthday gift, never having a Christmas gift. This
surprised me as I have known of many dysfunctional, even abusive families through the years, but all
that I knew of at least celebrated birthdays and Christmas in some way.

When her Dad was 7, his Dad took him to Disneyland. This little 7 year old arrived "bright eyed and
excited." When they got to the gate his Dad asked where he could buy a beer. He was told, "We don't
sell alcohol at Disneyland." So they turned around and left.

If the story wasn't already bad enough, the Disneyland story about did me in.

Yet, her Dad somehow knew there was a better way...Somewhere a long the way he learned about
Jesus Christ. Christ became his model to live by. This one man was able to turn the cycle of abuse in
this family around. It stopped with him. He referred to Christ to teach him how to live.

She said her Dad still struggles every day trying to control his temper, among other struggles. But he
was able to stay focused enough to pattern his life after Christ's and gave his children a much better 
life than he had. His daughter, who gave the talk, has enormous respect for him.

After our ward was over, Den and I were able to attend another service, and hear Amy
speak. She also talked about patterning our lives after Christ's. She so eloquently and sweetly said: "He 
lived to show us the way."

I think one of my favorite parts of her talk was when she turned around and thanked the bishopric for
giving her 2 weeks to prepare. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Amy referred to this very sweet and short video in her talk. If you have not seen it, I promise it's worth
the 2 1/2 minutes of your time.

3 comments:

Scrapally said...

Sounds like a beautiful talk! Wonderful that he made the change. You aren't in Amy's ward now? Bummer...that would have been fun! So are they in the Bishop Brunsvik ward? (Can't remember the name of it)

Grandma Honey said...

No, we aren't in any of our relatives' wards. The ward you are thinking of is Cedarwood, and my Dad and Susan are also in that ward.

The talk was indeed beautiful, and you would have loved it.

Susan Anderson said...

Isn't it a great video? And it sounds like you had a wonderful Sunday attending two good services in a row.

Our Sunday meeting was amazing, too. Three talks, and each one a gem. And we had a musical fireside that evening that was the best I've ever seen.

My Christmas spirit is running pretty high this year.

Merry Christmas to you, Jill!

=)

Look what happened last night

  Just a little pre-graduating gathering for our DIL Amy.... Not everyday a Mom of 7 and a Grandma of 7, graduates from college. It was not ...