Conference and Father Bafoonery

I was SO excited in conference about when Elder Christopherson talked about fathers!  He mentioned how in the media father figures often look like bafoons, incompetent, and unimportant.  His talk was about helping understand how much we need men in our lives and the effect of good fathers.

Please watch if you missed it!

How can we support the father's divine role?

He is Risen.

Yesterday was Easter.  The most important holiday the whole year long... (and yet we treat it as if it's just any other holiday, except every other holiday gets at least one day off of school and we don't get school off for good Friday... even though we go to a Christian school... ok sorry tangent that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.)

On my mission, occasionally we would share Mormon messages to investigators or members.  Easter reminds me of my favorite Mormon message ever that I shared constantly.  I still have every word memorized.

This message portrayed in this video makes me feel love, gratitude, joy, sadness, hope, and awe.  I'm grateful for good people that use media to promote good.  

Happy Easter, everyone!  Christ is not here: for He has RISEN.     

Leon and I.

This past week, I got to portray Leon Wiley in a mock trial about video games and violence- about the first amendment and protection of minors.  

As I was reading up on Leon Wiley, it made me realize how sad some people live.  Playing video games all day and then committing similar crimes at night?  What a sad life.  My initial reaction to the court case was that it is NOT the government's role to regulate video games- that's what parents are for.  I still stand by that statement.  It is the job of a parent to parent their child.  In a perfect world, this is all the regulation that we need.  I'm starting to realize that the close-to-ideal lifestyle (two loving parents, home centered on Christ and his teachings, high standards and respect for one another, etc.) that I grew up in is not even close to accurate for other people- for most people.

I cannot change the fact that there will be abuse in the world, that there will be parents that don't care, parent, or love their children, and that some people will grow up to be like Leon Wiley despite proper parenting.  However, I can choose to stay close to the principles of the gospel, love my spouse and my children, and work the hardest to make wise decisions on how I parent my children and what to regulate.

Thanks Leon.  I learned a lot from portraying you for a couple of hours.


 

Toddler and Ammo

Yesterday, I was skyping my brother, sister in law, and their 3 girls.  Oh  how I LOVE THEM.  Look at how precious they are?  

As we were chatting away, Ella (the one pictures above in the red American flag shirt) came up to me with the x-box controller and said, "let's play the x-box".  I laughed as she pretended to play.  Mara, her mom, told me in a half concerned, half amused voice that at Ella's play group the other day, all the kids played x-box, but that the little boys had to help her out because she had never played previously.  Ohhhh dear.  It seems that even when you try your hardest to keep your children away from differing types of media... they always seem to get their hands on it.  What are we to do?  Of course, media is not bad... but I hope that when my baby girl is going over to her friend's house, I won't have to constantly be worried about what they are getting their hands into!

Suggestions?

SWEATIN' at the gym

This morning, I was sweating it up at the gym with one of my friends.  While I was doing my warm-up run, I had lots of time to sit and check out all the hottie boys at the gym (*whistle).  I got to thinking about what we talked about last week about the media making girls want to be skinnier and guys wanting to be jacked and how terrible it was.  What is my motivation?  Yes, I want to be thin, but more than that I want to be healthy and strong!


I have a friend that is recovering from an eating disorder.  She wanted control in her life, so she stopped eating appropriate portions- because she could control what she eats.  It hurt me to see her get skinnier and skinnier.  However, she is doing SO much better.  I would hate the media to have this affect on other people, to make them quit eating so that they can become model skinny.  However, I also know people that are morbidly obese.  Should these people be encouraged, potentially by the media to lose weight and feel better about themselves?  I guess the main point is, the desire to work out and be strong should come from a desire to be healthy.  We need to be proud of our bodies, as long as we are doing what is required to be healthy.  If you are eating poorly consistently and not having any form of exercise in your life... of course you're going to feel badly about your body and maybe that self-conscientiousness is exactly what is necessary to motivate you to change.




All bodies are temples of God and deserve respect by others and by yourself.  They should not be objectified, but the Lord has asked us to obey the word of wisdom (in my opinion you aren't obeying this law if you're obese or anorexic) and to take care of this precious gift.

What is your goal to take care of this gift?  

Creepy Witches 'n Such

"Faith and fear cannot coexist", right?

It's a great saying and I believe it... however I still have fears.  I guess I'm still working on creating perfect faith in my life!  As we age, our fears change and take differing forms.  

Those ages two through seven typically fear things such as monsters in the closet or the dark.  When I was about 6 years old, I was terrified of the wicked witch in the Disney movie, Snow White.  At night time, I would hide under my covers in my bed because I was afraid that she'd come and pull down the covers and get me! Look how creepy she is....  

It was traumatic... still makes me shudder! :0 

When I was a little bit older, my parents loved watching old Alfred Hitchcock movies.  They were suspenseful and almost always involved a murder.  I still remember some of them.  I lived on a small farm growing up, so a lot of times I would have to go feed the horses in the dark.  My imagination would do the craziest things to me.  I remember begging and pleading for someone to come with me to feed the animals because I was scared but they said that I was just being lazy and wanted help.  So I'd run out there as fast as I could and pray and I was running back that I would out run any scary men that were chasing me and wanted to kill me.  

Ok... I may not have passed through this developmental trend... I still get scared of getting murdered when I was home late from campus or scary creatures chasing me... However, I do get scared of much deeper things... not being able to fall in love, schooling, failure, Hilary Clinton becoming President, and losing someone.  

Wow, now you all know a deeper side to Crystal 0:).  Let's increase our faith that although the world can be a scary place with people that act like witches, people that aren't nice and hurt people, and Hilary Clinton has a lot of supporters... that we have an all-powerful Father who will take care of us. 

    

Life Without IT

At the beginning of the semester, I was challenged to go a complete day without technology.  I happened to attempt this feat on what was seemingly the most technologically used day of the entire year.  I figured I was smarter than everyone and tried to do it on a Sunday- the fabulous day of rest.  However, I used a powerpoint presentation in my Sunday School lesson, there was a Young Adults Devotional, and my parents were trying to get a hold of me.  Yikes.

During the long weekend, some of my friends and I went to Enterprise, Utah- a small farming town in Southern Utah.  Because I had T-Mobile (love the provider except when I try going anywhere 5 minutes out of town...), service was spotty for most of the weekend and we were going on adventures where I didn't really want to risk losing or breaking my phone.  For the majority of each day, I didn't really use my phone and OH what a fun time I had.  Instead of mindlessly scrolling through news feeds, I found cool new things to do.  This weekend, I felt rejuvenated, happy, carefree, and ready to take on the world.  I found that I had greater confidence and less stress.  I realize that the wonderful weather, happy friends, and exciting adventures helped with all of these things; however think of the displacement theory.  What are we giving up by mindlessly scrolling?

Life is good in the hood.  Put down the phone and try to LIVE instead of scroll.

  

$30,200,000,000

^That's a heck of a lot of money.  Gee whiz. $30,200,000,000.  Look at all those digits.  

Every couple of days, I see on the news the new amount that the new Star Wars movie has made.  The number previously mentioned is the total Star Wars Franchise Revenue!  Yikes! Am I right?!

Harrison Ford made a grand total of $10,000 in the first produced Star Wars film.  

  

Decades later he is estimated to make upwards of $35,000,000 for the new movie!  

                              

If an actor is SO well off, why do they continue to act?  Especially at their age?  Is there no such thing as actor retirement?  Do they do it for the money?  The recognition?  To make the fans happy?  Do they love it?

What do you think?  

Oldies but GOODIES

This past week, I sang to the old folks at the "old folks' home" with a couple of my friends.  At first, we started singing hymns and song from the Children's songbook.  These sacred hymns, do something good for the soul.  It moved me to reflect on my testimony of Christ.  My favorite of all was "How Great Thou Art".  In my head, we sounded as heavenly as this beautiful angelic choir that we're all so familiar with.

After a few songs, some cute and totally sassy lady said, do you sing any oldies?!  In my Adult Development class we learned even when people with dementia listen to songs from their youth, they will start to remember specific experiences that they had when they were at that age.  Crazy, right? Music is SO powerful.  It just got me to think, when I'm 99 years old sitting in an old folks home, will I really get nostalgic listening to Kesha, Beyonce, One Direction, Pink, etc?  probably not.... so which songs will I still love and remember?  Probably the classic songs that have been around for decades, the songs I grew up with, the songs that never got old or overplayed- songs that I will ALWAYs love, especially these ones 0:) .....ENJOY.  

What songs will you really remember?

The Man of My Dreams? or Evil Villain?

This was definitely a "chick flick" type weekend.  I get into these moods occasionally, where you just want to ditch all the guys and watch the "real men" in my favorite type of chick flicks!  Give me some Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte and I'm one happy girl.

Two of my favorite movies are "Pride and Prejudice" (I'm a fan of both versions!) and "The Young Victoria".  Hehe, I watched them both this week. 0:)  First, my friends and I watched "The Young Victoria".  I sat and swooned at Prince Albert and wondered how on earth I could get such a man in my life.  Just look at him..... Not only is he super attractive, but his character is soft, caring, and loyal. It's impossible NOT to fall in love with him.
                    .   
A couple of days later, we put on Pride and Prejudice (the Kierra Knightly version).  I found myself despising the manipulative and slimy Mr. Wickham.  What an absolute jerk... Look how slimy he is...
                                             
About half way through, I remembered that these two characters were played by the SAME actor.  Strange isn't it?  The media has the masterful ability of making you feel and think certain ways about people, situations, values, etc.  How can they make you love the first and hate the second when it's the same person?  

How else is the media shaping how we think?

Oldies? Why watch it?

On the first day of class, Dr. Coyne asked us what our favorite TV show was and why!  As I contemplated all of my favorites:  The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched. I seemed to notice a theme... these are all of the classic oldies!

Why do I choose to watch old movies?  Let me tell ya:
1.  In this day and age of crude and cheap humor, it's so relaxing and comforting to watch something that doesn't require a single cringe or awkward laugh.  Classic humor takes brains and creative acting.
2.  It's quality entertainment.  Not only am I being entertained, but I'm learning life lessons and good morals.
3.  Old fashioned shows are just nostalgic for me.  My parents were born in the 50s, so they grew up with these shows and passed on the love for these classic shows to me as well.  It is also a way for important interaction with my family since we all love these same shows.

Media is important and I love that there are shows that really connect to me.

-Crystal