The Flake Family

This is from a book I am reading, "Fine Old High Priest" (it's a short (140 pages) fiction novel)....I accidentally read it's sequel first, "A Wise Blue Autumn"....which I thought was fantastic....heart warming....comforting and just a good book. The author is Donald S. Smurthwaite. ANYHOW...I am really enjoying this book and would share so many parts of it if I thought I could do that legally without being blamed for plagiarism (sp?).....but I will share this part....

...these are just some thoughts that the character Marcus has while sitting in sacrament meeting.

"We make an error when we compare ourselves to others, and we make an error when we think about the idyllic lives others seem to lead......We all have problems, we all have challenges, and because we are reminded so much to be perfect, some families try hard to construct a facade that perfection has been achieved within the walls of their home. I think that perfection in this life means that you are a complete person, one who tries hard, endures, repents, forgives, doesn't fudge on tithing, doesn't knowingly do very wrong things, and is nice almost all of the time, and is a good home teacher or visiting teacher to boot."

True? It is to me. I need to be reminded often about not comparing myself; looks, abilities, the way my kids behave, etc.... to other people. This is not good...it doesn't bring out good feelings...no matter if we think we are better or worse off than someone...neither of those feelings are good....but it's so hard to NOT do! And another hard thing is to give yourself credit for what you do that IS good.

Okay...but let me mention this....since it just proves that you can "win" at something while having fun and without trying. We had a ward party last night....adults only....we ate Mexican food, listened to Mexican music, talked, laughed and played! YUP...we played! We were assigned groups and we went around to different rooms and played musical chairs (yes, adults did...some of which are older than my parents...and still, they have very good musical chair skills....) we played a game...I don't know what it is called....I will call it "Retreat"....but I will not explain it because it would take too long, but I will know what I am talking about years from now when I read this (if the Lord grants me such a memory...Alzheimer's runs in my family...no joke....), and we played that game where you have to close your eyes and pick tiny safety pins out of a bowl of rice...(It's dang hard.....Uncle Dean...who was probably the oldest guy there, has a patch on one eye and doesn't have all of his fingers did the best at this game!) Then we had to write as many words as we could from a phrase that was written on the chalk board. The phrase was "I love to party". After this we added up our points. The person with the most points won...and YOUR'S TRULY had 78 which made me the winner and granted me and my group first dibs on dessert!

So....is there only one way to "win"? And forget about games, I am talking about life. Is there only one way to be a good friend? parent? spouse?...a good anything? NO! If we all tried to be just like who/what we thought was best...we'd just make ourselves nuts. Sometimes we think we are going to go nuts trying to figure out who we are and what we are good at...and to feel good about that even if nobody else is patting you on the back telling you that what you are doing is the best they have ever seen...or even close it mediocre. Do we need praise from our peers? No. It's nice...but whose praise should we really want?

ANYHOW....I think I am bored and trying to avoid fixing dinner and Brandon is napping and the kids are doing who knows what and so I am rambling on here like I know what I am talking about. It's one thing to say something but another thing to do it! Right?

What do you all think?