Good, Better, Best

When I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Columbus, Ohio, we were encouraged to only listen to uplifting spiritual music. This served several purposes but the most noticeable of these, to me, was so we could feel close to Our Savior which has a very motivating and optimism-promoting effect.

When I came home from my mission, I returned to my music-- country and pop. I'm a background music-listener. I enjoy having music going as I work on homework or housework. Lately, however, I've noticed that the music in my life hasn't been adding anything to it. I decided to do an experiment.

For the last two weeks I have only been listening to church music in the background around my house. I was curious to see if it would help me be more productive and feel better about the things I need to do for school and my family. I had almost forgotten that I was doing this until my husband commented on my music selection a few days ago. When he made this comment, I reflected on the last week and concluded that I had, indeed, been happier and more productive.

Upon thinking about this, I've decided that it isn't that my other music makes me lazy or unhappy-- it just doesn't ADD anything. For me and my music choices, I'm realizing that it's a matter of good, better, and best. Listening to other music which is positive and uplifting is good, but I now know if I want to feel my greatest and be the most productive, for me, I need to listen to music which speaks often about and reminds me of my Savior.    

Lesson learned.

An oldie, but a goodie.. One of my favorites (:

Sports and Sex

So the Super Bowl was this past weekend, but unless one of my teams (Go Cowboys, BYU, Mavericks, and Stars!) is playing, I'm not really one to watch sports. Even then, it's iffy.

Nonetheless, I understand that the Super Bowl is a big deal to many. As such, fans pay inordinately large sums of money to attend the game and cheer on their team, cities bid on hosting the bowl and, in the hopes of raking in the tourist revenue, spend billions to renovate their stadiums and surrounding city. Companies will pay literally millions of dollars for an advertisement that will air for a few seconds, in the hopes of attracting some of the 100+ million viewers to buy their product. The Super bowl may profess to be about two teams duking it out on a field with a ball made from pigskin, but the bowl itself really is all about money.

So, surprisingly, I wasn't too surprised when I read this article, which brings another facet of the Super Bowl to light. It's a darker and uglier side that isn't pleasant to think about— but something is only as strong as its weakest parts, and this makes the Super Bowl a little less 'super', in my opinion.

The article talks about the impact this huge event has on sex trafficking. According to the article, approximately 10,000 women and children were involved in sex-trafficking during the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami. Some were American, and some were foreign. All were victims. In the US, $9/5 billion is annually grossed from the victimization of these women and children— Around large events where there are travelers from far away, there tends to be an influx of people willing to sell themselves or others to make a few bucks. Many reports have confirmed that during these events and "peak-demand times" girls have served as many as 45 clients a day. My heart breaks for these people who are often kidnapped or lured into this life by pimps and massive sex rings. But, as we established earlier: the Super Bowl is all about money, and money talks.

I believe as we become aware of and work to eradicate this immoral and life-shattering practice, we can save lives. A little idealistic? Perhaps. But we have to try.

For more information or ideas about how you can help, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 1-888-373-7888.

Barking Puppies & Sleeping Babies

I have the cutest six-month-old baby girl. As a result of her stage in life, there are several points in our day that look something like this:

I also have the cutest little 1.5-year-old shih tzu. He is handsome and likes to pose for pictures, chew on his ball, and protect his family. We live across the street from another family that has a little chihuahua who does his "business" in the front lawn several times a day. As a result, there are several points in our day that look like this:

When Katie was first born, I would get so annoyed with Charley for barking because not only would I have a barking dog, but also a crying baby. Then one day it dawned on me-- Charley would be a member of our family for the next 10-15 years, and having been a dog owner before, I knew it wasn't likely for his barking self to change. He would always try to protect us from that little dog across the street. Or the mailman. Or the kids who have the audacity to walk to school in front of our house. I could fight it and be in for 10-15 years of frustration, or I could allow my cute Katie to adapt and learn how to sleep through his barking spells. I chose the latter.

Making this choice meant when I was rocking my baby to sleep and Charley began alerting us to the dangers threatening the homestead (those birds on the power line are awfully menacing creatures), I wouldn't jump up and go tell him to be quiet, rather, I would continue rocking and singing as if nothing was wrong. When she was sleeping in her crib, if he barked I didn't immediately grab Charley and put him outside, I would calmly quiet him, and peek in on her to make sure she was still sleeping or settling herself back to sleep.

As I was reflecting on this whole puppy barking/baby crying fiasco that seemed to permeate our lives, I couldn't help but notice the affect my attitude has on the whole ordeal. When I would make a big deal about the barking dog, Katie would wake up and be awake for good. She was fussy. I was annoyed. Nobody won. However, when Katie would see me calmly react, she most often would drift back to sleep. My attitude impacted her nap more than the loud and obnoxious barking.

Upon this realization, I felt the spirit teach me that this is a true principle in most every aspect of parenting. There is so much noise in this world, and there will always be 'barking dogs'.

My daughters ideals and values about things like her worth, modesty, family values, work ethic, and language will be more shaped by my reaction to her questions, the things in the world around us, and the challenges to the principles we believe— whether those challenges come from the 'barking dogs' of media, friends, or personal thoughts. I can spend my time fighting them, or I can spend my time teaching about them.

If I, as a mother, freak out about sex in the media every time we encounter it, I can count on her perception of sex being skewed to one of two extremes. Either she will count me as a religious zealot and ignore everything I say, or she will be fearful of sex and avoid it in all its forms. Neither is healthy.

Rather, I need to take the calmer approach.  I need to help her work through her thoughts, questions, and feelings. As I do this, she will be more able to tune out the noise and focus on what she knows to be true. If she sees me have a healthy approach to sexuality and the media (or whatever the topic may be), she will be more likely to develop a healthy approach of her own.

I wish I could wrap her in a bubble and take her far away to some island, free from all the 'noise' in the world— but the truth of the matter is, we were sent here to be in the world so we could learn and grow and be tested by it. If I don't teach her how to take the test, the media or her peers will. I would much rather be an active parent and help her learn to navigate through life on her own, clinging to what she knows to be true. If she sees that I am calm about it, I know she will be too.