Sharing What You Know

Sharing. I'm the oldest of Five kids. You might say I know how to share. I'm also the Mother of Seven children. Because of environment alone, there's not room for selfishness, generally. I share 99% of everything I own or have access to. It comes with the Choices I've made.




I'm also teaching my kiddos to share. They all have their "own" things that they are encouraged to share at their own discretion, but for the most part, everything is counted as "community property" in our home. We rarely sit down to dinner with just our family.


There's usually someone else or a few someone else's to share our meals with--and that's fine with me. The kids will "ask" if their friends can join us to make sure--some nights I may not have made enough to share--but more often than not, there is plenty to go around. It's what we do. As the Caboose said months ago, "We are the Andersons and we are Powerful!"
I still love that she thinks that way. It'll probably change once she is 14, but I'll take it for now.



Along with our food, folks and fun (*wasn't that from a Mickey D's commercial?), we also share our hearts. We mourn with those that mourn, and try to share our joy with others' joy too. We're not perfect at this, but we do love our friends. We live so far away from extended family that our friends ARE our Family.

One more thing we share is our Faith.

My husband and I are both converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I joined when I was 16 and he joined at 22.

We believe, and have taught our children that sharing our testimonies should come as a natural consequence of our friendships with others. We don't have to do anything more than to be true friends.

That being said, we have had the great privilege of claiming a beautiful young gal as a friend, nay, another daughter and sister to our family. We've know Taylow (nickname) since she was in 2nd grade with Nana. Her parents divorced the previous year, and neither chose to be "available" to her--in jest, I always says they got divorced and we got custody. She spent almost all of her weekends with us, and nearly every day after school. She just did whatever we were doing: going to mid-week activities with my kids whether it was for school or church, camping trips, grocery shopping, and to Church dances when she turned 14, Family home evening, family prayer, missionary farewells--you name it, she was there! When she was 14, she started telling everyone she was "Mormon"--at that point, I invited her and her mom to have the missionary discussions. She wanted to be baptized THEN, but her father said she had to wait until she was 18.

Last month, she joined us on our trek to Salt Lake City, Utah for the wedding and sealing of our oldest daughter, Dani in the Salt lake Temple. She will never be the same after that trip. She came home determined to be baptized. She said she realized what made our family so "good" (her words, not mine!) was our religion. She said she's never felt so happy as she felt while she was on Temple Square, and every "Mormon" she met was happy too. She wants "a Mormon boy to take her to the Temple" (specifically, the Laie Hawaii temple). She wants a Forever Family.

With her permission, we invited the missionaries over Monday night. We'd met with the elders previously and told them all about Taylow, and we also told them that we support her in whatever she decides to do. We love her regardless of her choice of faith. So, they came over and we played the game "Curses"--so fun! Then, they changed the mood, with Taylow's permission and spoke to her about the Gospel. The Spirit of the Lord was upon us and E. Gulbrandsen asked Taylow if she felt like she would pray about being baptized January 17th.

Soon! She smiled and said she would. My heart was full then, as it is now. After careful consideration and prayer, she IS getting baptized on January 17th. She is 18 now.

I share this because of the many misconceptions non-LDS have about our beautiful loving faith. We do not need to coerce, connive, oppress, or convince others of the truthfulness of our beliefs.

They speak for themselves. We Are our Faith. If my choices in life do not reflect my faith, then what good does it do me at all? Or those around my sphere of influence? We each have many gifts we can go out into the world and share...but I suggest there is nothing more fulfilling than sharing what is most precious to us...our faith. What gives us courage and peace to face this world with an upheld head and an open heart? It is our faith. How you express your faith is how a person knows what is important to you, is it not? And because I am keenly aware that I cannot and will not dictate what my older children express their faith, I do encourage them to find out for themselves. When my eldest son was 16 years old, we had a very short conversation:

DS: Um, I don't think I wanna be Mormon anymore, Mom.

Momza: Yeah? What do you think you wanna be?

DS: I'm thinkin I'd like to be a Taoist.

Momza: Taoist? What's a "Taoist"? What do they believe in?

DS: Well I've been reading alot on it and they believe that everything has a spirit and you have to be really good and loving.

Momza: Hmmm...well, where do they meet?

DS: I don't know.

At this point, I pull out the Yellow Pages, find a listing for a Taoist temple, call the number and listen to a pre-recorded message.

Momza: Well, they meet at midnight on Saturday nights, downtown off Tejon. So, we'll go.

DS: Yeah, right. Like you're gonna let me. Whatever.

Momza: Hey, if that's what you choose to be accountable to, you're going to be the best Taoist in all of Colorado Springs. So we'll go.

He smiled without saying another word. Ever. About becoming a Taoist. Ever.

Years later, as he was leaving to serve his mission in the Canada Montreal mission, I asked him about that day. He said, "Oh yeah, I was just trying to push your buttons."

I often have wondered if I had dug in my heels and strongly opposed his desire to inquire about another faith, what the outcome would've been? How one expresses their faith in God is so personal, we as parents must be sure to allow questions and support our children as they find the answers they need.

I like that poem by Edgar Guest, "I'd rather see a sermon, than hear one any day.

Wow. long post today. I need an editor.