Sunday, November 16, 2008

"You Gotta Have Faith"

Our church meetings end around noon on Sundays. We have the whole rest of the afternoon to play together and be. Today Zach made a lofty goal to read 100 pages in the Book Of Mormon, so that he could cut down on the pages he will need to read daily in order to finish the book before his birthday. He perched himself in the middle of the mess (Sam, Abbie, and Millie had already been hard at work creating sheriff badges and tickets for their upcoming "show" --a regular Sunday feature. The characters change, the mess indicates the genre, but a Sunday show is fairly consistent). The Sheriff, Clerk and Cowboy headed out West (the playroom) and just Max and I were left making lip-smacking noises as we sampled a Winter Squash and Oatmeal Entree.



Suddenly Zach says, "My whole quorum doesn't have any faith, Mom."

"What? What do you mean?" I ask with some concern.

He responds very seriously, "None of them think we have a chance."

"Zach, what are you talking about?"

"They all think that BYU doesn't have a chance against the U this weekend."

I realize that he is genuinely upset about this.

"Is the U a good team this year?"I try and match his level of solemnity.

"Well, they are 11 to 0, so they're undefeated," he states as if EVERYONE should know that.

"Well I guess then that it's possible," I answer.



My nearly thirteen year old looks back down at his scriptures. "We've all just got to have faith, Mom. We can all make it happen if we all have faith."


.

Jonny Harline making the winning catch of the BYU vs Utah 2006 (History)

What important words of wisdom will you be inspired with when you read your scriptures tonight? (He finished by the way -- 100 pages of a great book on a golden autumn afternoon.)

Should we be paying closer attention to our children's examples of simple faith?


Always

5 comments:

Terry said...

Tell Zach... I have faith.. and we will cheer them on! Great job on reading 100 pages Zach! You are amazing! Love you!

Greg Wells said...

It's important to remember that faith is a hope for something which may not be seen, but is TRUE. And here's the thing: BYU is TRUE. And a win for BYU will bring more people eternal happiness, right? So we can have absolute confidence that we will powder those Utes.

Besides since Papa is in Africa, and he'll be asleep during the game, he has no chance to jinx the Cougs.

So, no worries Zach....
(Knock on wood)....You might try a little salt over the shoulder, just in case. I think it's over the left shoulder (devil sits on the left and blinding him is the aim). Oh, and don't forget to spit first. And...be vigilant about not opening any umbrellas inside... that'll curse you for 21 full days.

And, not to get onto too touchy a subject here, but...you may want to ban familial communications with the Leas and the Hiatts for this week. Professed loyalties aside, the bloodline HAS been tainted.

Man that photo!

Stefanie said...

Yeah --it's a good photo... Zach wandered in and saw my topic he was really excited. I suggested we might want to post some sort of BYU photo or logo. He bumped me off the computer and said, "Oh I have just the one. You know the 'FAITH catch' from 2006? It was the last minute of the game, we were down"...etc. and told me all the details and stats. I can't figure out how or when he keeps track of all of this, but he knows his cougar football and is proud of it.

I expect he'll be willing to try any and all of those tricks. He already knocks on wood for everything.

You're funny Greg.

Stefanie said...

Terry --If YOUR faith is on board ... Wow! We'll smoke those Utes. Not that I really know anything. I overheard Zach say to Star last night, "Dad, Mom knows nothing about football. She can't understand it all."

So..I guess my attempts at being interested in his interests and asking thoughful questions didn't get me as far as I thought they would.

Stefanie said...

Greg your hilarious.
Rise and shout the Cougars are out and I'll be there the entire time cheering them on.
I have faith

Terry I love you too!

-- Zach