Not much happened today. Mary made it through twenty minutes of nursery unattended, but for the rest of the time Abe and I traded off being there. In Sunday School we talked about the Exodus and the Passover, although the discussion turned into the whys and hows of suffering.
When I was trying to teach Lydia the 23rd Psalm, I looked up a discourse on youtube given by a Jewish rabbi explaining his interpretation of the psalm. He pointed out that the rod and the staff have different meanings; the rod is a correcter and the staff is a comforter, and yet both are said to “comfort me” in the psalm. I had always glossed over that line thinking that the rod and staff were just synonyms and the repetition was poetic. Anyway, ever since I watched that video, I have adopted the verse, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me” as a mantra whenever I’m feeling upset by a given situation. It helps a lot, and that line came to mine when we were discussing the hows of suffering.
Abe taught a wonderful lesson on the Sacrament today, although I wasn’t there to witness it. He loves the new teaching style and says the trick is this: the less the teacher talks, the greater everyone seems to think the lesson went. When I passed by his room on my way to Relief Society, Abe was standing at the front silently while the class broke up into pairs to discuss a question he asked them. It sounded like a lot of active discussions were taking place, and that always spurs learning. The only thing I don’t like about Abe being an Elder’s Quorum teacher is that I never get to hear his lessons. I wish I could.
Our new home teachers came over to visit us after church, and it was great getting to know them better. One of them is a professional down tester. He says most of the down he tests is good quality, but he’s found sticks, cigarette butts, beaks, and bird feet in the down before. Yikes! Makes me want to buy synthetic pillows…
Then I made rolls and we went to Tom and Suzanne’s for dinner. I took a lot of pictures while we were there:
And then these two that Abe took a couple days ago that I didn’t see until just now:
