"Filled with..."

In Moses 8:28 & 30 it mentions that at Noah's time before the flood, the earth was "filled with violence."  What a sad thing to look around and see that the earth now is much the same.

I brought up the idea of being "filled with" during family home evening a few weeks ago after Erin led us in talking about Joseph of Egypt.  We made a chart comparing what Joseph was "filled with" vs. his brothers.  Joseph's list had things like love, patience, forgiveness, and faith, and the brothers' list had revenge, anger, and violence.  At one point Melanie mentioned that towards the end of Joseph's story the brothers were filled with repentence.  I really liked that.

In our ward we've had some unexpected happenings recently.  A few weeks ago our neighbors had a fire in their home, and yesterday a different family had their washer flood 2 1/2 rooms in their home.  Ward members reacted quickly, and lots of help was both offered and given in both cases.  On a more personal level, after Isaac was born we got the standard 2 meals set up by the Relief Society, but then over about the next 6 weeks we received a call almost every week from someone saying they were bringing dinner.  What a blessing to closely associate with so many people that are filled with love and service!  In true "pay it forward" fashion, it makes me want to give random service more myself.

A search from this last conference mentions being "filled with the spirit," "filled with faith and hope,"  "filled with people who desire . . . to keep the commandments," "filled with potential and grace," "filled with this love," "filled with gratitude," "filled with love for the Savior and the loving father who sent him," "filled with the rich blessings of priesthood power," and "filled with love and courtesy and the spirit of The Lord."  Wow! The conference before that adds in filled with light, compassion, peace, joy, hope, miracles, courtesy, harmony, emotion, and (ha!) food.  What a great list!  

Besides making me want to be filled with all those things, it makes me think of Matthew 7:16-18, 20, which talks about knowing people by their fruits.  What wonderful fruit this gospel brings!  Gives a deeper meaning to "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteouness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

TED.com - Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things

This set of talks are some of my very favorites. The speakers aren't brainiacs that grew up digging fossils with their parents in Africa. They aren't masterminds of math and science performing experiments that cost millions and millions of dollars. They haven't been taking music lessons since they were 4 years old. They are "ordinary" people doing extraordinary things. They took an idea and ran with it. They saw something that needed to change and worked to make it happen.

Dave Eggers - This talk is absolutely inspiring to me, probably one of my top 3 favorites so far. Eggers saw a need and not only helped to fix it, but he did it in a really cool, really creative way (I had to force myself to not give it away). And he's really fun to watch talk about it. But not only did he help others do the same thing, he started the site OnceUponASchool.org where people can post their ideas to help local public schools, or just read about things others have done already to help. You can also go to the Pirate Supply Store website (though you have to watch to see what that's all about). Do not miss the Gallery of Signs.

Jonathan Harris - We all know that everyone has their own hopes and desires. Harris goes out and finds out what they are, both literally, and computerally (thank you, another word I just invented). This talk makes me want to type "I feel..." in every post now, but I would feel like a fame seeker or something if I did that. Watch the talk to see why, then visit WeFeelFine.com.

Rick Smolan telling the story of Natasha, an Amerasian from Korea. Just beautiful.

I'll keep adding...

Our 100 Year of Scouting Adventure

Happy 100 Years of Scouting today! Well yesterday, August 1st.

In our BSA council they've been advertising today as World-Wide Do a Good Turn Day. There is a group of scoutss that camped on Brownsea Island that as the sun rose this morning, renewed their committment to scouting and did a good turn.

Being the good scout that I AM, I rounded up the two cub scouts that live in my house (Adam and Sammy), and my three little girl cub scout wanna-be's (Melanie, Carolyn, and of course Erin) to go do a good turn. But I cannot stop there, as it is born within me to want to help other people have great scouting experiences as well. I called Adam's friend (Jason) and Sammy's friend (Cody) to see if they wanted to come along. Jason did, Cody didn't, but Cody's sister, Elizabeth, who is Adam's age, did want to. I knew it would be a bit of a challenge to keep everyone together and 'friendly,' but with promised rewards I knew we could do it.

We wanted to go clean up along a path near our neighborhood that I've heard is pretty trash-filled. It used to be a train track, but it hasn't been used as such for years so last year the city paved a nice walking/bike path with dirt along each side. We set out with lots of bags and water. Not very far into it, we realized some other good turners had been along not necessarily today but at some point previous to us, as there really wasn't that much to be found. Still, there were things here and there and it was a nice walk. Sammy even found an old railroad spike.

The kids kept telling me there were swampy areas ahead with lots of junk in them, and when we made it to them, yah, lots of pop cans and water bottles tossed in. The other good turners must have seen the swampyness as a challenge, but not us! We found some big sticks and went fishing. At least the swamps weren't too big - at the widest point maybe 4 feet wide, and a foot deep tops and overgrown with trees and bushes around. For quite a while the swamp runs along both sides of the path, with the path raised above it about a foot. Carolyn found a little toy frog at one point she wanted to toss in the trash, but I told her it was okay to leave it since some little kid probably left it there as a friend for the frogs that live there. As she was replacing it I heard a soft kind of, "Uh...!" I didn't turn at first, until my brain registered a half-panickyishness (did you know I like to make up words?) to it. I was surprised to see Melanie's bike tire laying down and sticking out of part of the swamp and overgrowth - can't see Melanie, and no more noises. I quickly got over to it, and could see that somehow Melanie had driven off the path and her bike took her right down into the slime. She still wasn't saying anything, but was struggling on top of the bike to get up and out of the mess. Thank goodness she was okay, but pretty covered in mud and other yummy stuff. I am still amazed that there were no tears involved.

After rounding up Adam and Jason, who had of course chosen right then to ride way ahead of us all, I got all the good turners turned back around for an immediate trek home and a big clean up.

So there's our Scouting Commemoration Adventure. Yes, I took pictures after we got home.