Dodge-ball, Animal Crackers, & Economy

I have had an eventful couple of weeks. For about the past month, I have been playing dodge-ball with some guys from our ward. Oscar Williamson and Justin Bledsoe organized a stake dodge-ball tournament and the final tournament was last Thursday night. We had official dodge-ball rules and balls and we all had a great time getting ready for and playing in the tournament. Oscar even had special team shirts made for our team. I have to admit though, it was the most painful sport I’ve played. Every time I played I would ache for days, and toward the end, I ached for an entire week after the games. I got tennis elbow every time and it would often wake me up in the middle of the night from the pain. I’m still not fully recovered, but I’m glad its over so I don’t damage it any more.

My team won the tournament, we had about 15 teams of 6 and played in brackets, playing the best out of 7 games for each team we played. I was one of the slowest on the team, but I still enjoyed it and felt like I at least contributed to most of the winning games. While most of the people we played against and who cheered from the sides were respectful, I was extremely disappointed in a few individuals who obviously could not handle the competition. At one point one man on another team not only became angry about certain calls, but proceeded to make fun of others right in front of his two teenage boys. Another man came into the gym wearing a suit during the final championship games and began yelling and screaming about calls that he felt should have been made against our team. It disappointed me to later learn that this first man was the Stake Sunday School President and the second was a current Bishop. I believe that how you deal with an intense or challenging situation is a major indication of who you are. If that is all it takes to get us angry and to degrade others, Satan has an arsenal of tools to bring on these emotions. Despite the occasional disappointment, I think the tournament was a major success and I am excited for next year.

I need to write about another experience that happened during the tournament. Amy had something she needed to go to that evening, so she took the two youngest kids and I took the two oldest. We brought toys, games, and crayons to keep them entertained on the sidelines, but that wasn’t enough to keep them in the gym. While playing the championship round, Baily came running on to the court urging me to come see what Bethy had done. After the game finished I hurried down the hall to find Bethy and Brianna in the nursery room. They had found a huge jar of animal crackers, dumped them on the floor and then stepped on them. Every inch of the floor was covered in crumbs, cookies, and toys. When Amy and I got in to bed that night, we found that earlier in the day Bethy had drawn on our bed sheets and on every blank page in Amy’s diary and some that weren’t blank. The next day we had her help us clean the entire house as part of her consequences and she did it with very little complaining. Sometimes I feel like there is really no effective way to discipline a four year old! Nothing seems to stick!

After thinking back on that day, I realized that similar things happened in both the dodge-ball tournament and in my relationship with my own child. Although I didn’t use degrading words, in an intense situation (when I found the pen marks everywhere) I lost my temper and shouted at Bethy. When will I ever learn to just stay composed when I discipline? I’ve renewed a goal every day since to not raise my voice the entire day. While I did slip once, I have done much better since. I find that when I’m in control, even though the situation around me may not be, life challenges becomes more manageable and negative feelings don’t smother all the positive.

To another topic, we are currently experiencing one of the worst economic crises since the depression. Several banks have failed, others have been bought out to save them, AIG insurance was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, followed by a bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now Pres. Bush and the Federal Reserve are proposing a $700 billion bailout to save all these Wall Street Financial companies who are now failing because of bad investments and the foreclosure of so many bad loans. Whether it is the right thing to do or not, the majority of the citizens of the U.S. see this bailout as helping out the people who got the country into this economic crisis in the first place and doing nothing to help the regular citizen. Other arguments are against government involvement in the market, and others argue against putting the burden of our bad decisions on the backs of future generations of tax payers. On one side, I agree with all the arguments, and on the other, I see the need for something to be done. There is a lot of fear and families are really struggling all around us. I read an article in the Ensign for October that basically agreed that the wickedness and instability we are seeing in the world is a sign that the Lord’s coming is not far away. This General Authority said we should not be surprised when we see this uncertainty and instability, because it follows what Prophets have foretold since Old Testament times. Whether the end will come in my life time, or when I’ve passed, this has been a good reminder to me to ensure I am prepared and that I increase my faith in the Plan of Happiness. I know these trials the world faces are necessary to humble us and increase our faith.