Ted has been having a good week. This was the first week that he was out of training and officially out on the floor. His mentor, Elder Smith, had him shadow him to show him how to do some of the computer stuff that they need to do. The older folks there are great at the genealogy portion of the program but the young guys do the work on the website and stuff. Other than the Arizona(too hot)weather, Ted has been quite cheerful about the longer hours. I am really proud of him.
The other boys spent 3 days at youth conference. I have to say that I was nervous about Daniel going. He turned 14 on Wednesday, just in time to go. This was his first experience with church dances. He had a great time. He did just fine. Stephen had a good time too, and they had great spiritual experiences. But I still have mixed feelings about church dances. They are so hard on some of the kids. Stephen said he had a friend there that didn't dance at all because he had been turned down by 13 different girls. Now, unless he is a proven abuser, I feel like there is no call for that. I remember being around 12 or 13, and going to a mandatory school dance in Jr. High. I remember one boy who was very socially awkward. Maybe it's because my home is inhabited by the socially awkward, I am more sensitive to this phenomena. Maybe it is because I was somewhat social awkward myself, and still have that sad little wallflower lurking inside. Anyhow, I remember this boy trying so desperately to get girls to dance with him. Not just any girls, either, but the popular ones. He would try dragging them to the floor. No one would dance with him. They probably felt very justified. He was kind of creepy, and extremely embarrassing to them by the way he tried to yank them out to dance. But on the other hand, it would have taken only 5 minutes (at the most) of their time to show kindness to one of Heavenly Father's children. I also remember at that same dance there was a certain "usher" Ushers in my Jr. High were the personification of cool. They had to be in 9th grade (the oldest). To me they were all good looking. One of them asked me to dance. I will NEVER FORGET IT. If at some point in a future here unknown he needed someone to stand up for his character, I WOULD STAND FOR HIM. He didn't have to dance with a geeky wallflower. He could have asked any of the popular girls and they would have been glad to dance with him. He took 5 minutes out of his life to show kindness to an awkward girl.
So I guess, in my rambling way, my question of the day is this: Do we have the right to reject one of Heavenly Father's children just to be one of the cool kids? Or are the cool kids really those who can show kindness and not worry about how cool they appear?
When I was in the youth I never ever once turned down a guy who asked me dance. I remember even dancing with a guy that was sweating so much I had to towel off afterwards. Not that I got asked to dance very much. There were some dances that left me depressed because no one ever asked me to dance.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm glad I'm done with those youth dances. Give your boys my pity.