Lo Dawn: A Matter of a Few Degrees

This morning, I was in the basement with the kids and for some reason I started playing the piano. I can't play that well, but I do know how to play a little bit. I was playing some of the songs from the Hymns Made Easy book. I started playing We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet and P started singing it with me. When we got to the end of the third verse, these lines stuck out to me...

While they who reject this glad message

Shall never such happiness know.

I started teaching to the kids about what it means to "reject the glad message" of the gospel and how when we reject the gospel (or pieces of the gospel), we aren't truly happy. But then I taught them about how that doesn't mean that it's over or that we can never get that happiness. We can change and decide to accept the gospel. We can have our hearts changed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. That made me remember about a couple of verses from the Book of Mormon that I read during my scripture study this morning...

Mosiah 27:

25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.

I taught the kids about what this verse means. I first asked them about what happens to our bodies when we die. They said that it gets buried in the ground. Then I taught them about what will happen when all of those people are resurrected - they will rise from their graves and come up out of the ground. Their physical bodies will be re-born. I demonstrated this with one of E's baby dolls. We pretended that the doll died, and we "buried" it under a pillow. And then we pretended that the doll was resurrected so it came up out of the ground. I then demonstrated the motion (with the doll) of laying down and then rising back up. I asked the boys what this motion reminded them of. P said "baptism!" He was correct. I told the kids about how baptism is symbolic of death and re-birth.

I have been learning about Kundalini Yoga lately and one of the meditations that I have learned is the Kirtan Kriya. In this meditation, you just recite Sa, Ta, Na, Ma over and over again. It means "birth, life, death/change, re-birth." So I have been teaching the kids about this meditation and the gospel principles that it teaches, over the past few days.

So after talking about the symbolism of baptism, I started talking about how right after we are baptized, we are completely clean - we are perfect. But, that doesn't last long. In fact, for me, I remember being so excited after I was baptized. I told myself that I wasn't going to make any more mistakes, I was just going to stay clean and perfect. Unfortunately, a few minutes after getting home from my baptism, my brother did something that I didn't like so I hit him. I was so sad that I had ruined my purity already. :(

Something that I have been so grateful to learn (in more depth at least) since my baptism day 21 years ago is that if we make mistakes we aren't doomed forever. It's not the end. Change is possible. And that change is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I then started teaching the kids about how changing just a few degrees makes a big difference in the end - for good or for bad.

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I remembered a story that President Dieter F. Utchdorf shared during his talk in the April 2008 General Conference.

"In 1979 a large passenger jet with 257 people on board left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back. Unknown to the pilots, however, someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees. This error placed the aircraft 28 miles (45 km) to the east of where the pilots assumed they were. As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better look at the landscape. Although both were experienced pilots, neither had made this particular flight before, and they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

As the pilots flew onward, the white of the snow and ice covering the volcano blended with the white of the clouds above, making it appear as though they were flying over flat ground. By the time the instruments sounded the warning that the ground was rising fast toward them, it was too late. The airplane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.

It was a terrible tragedy brought on by a minor error—a matter of only a few degrees.

Through years of serving the Lord and in countless interviews, I have learned that the difference between happiness and misery in individuals, in marriages, and families often comes down to an error of only a few degrees."

After telling the kids about this story, and how important it is for airplanes to have their coordinates accurate, I decided to demonstrate this principle using a couple toys that were laying on the floor next to me. I first used the pretend slice of cake to symbolize an airplane and the pretend tomato to symbolize the destination. I showed how the airplane would arrive at the destination if it was pointed in that direction and went straight there. Then I demonstrated how if the airplane turned a few degrees, ever so slightly, then it wouldn't reach it's destination. It would miss the mark.

After demonstrating this using the airplane analogy, I made it more personal. I told the kids that the piece of cake now symbolized each of us and the tomato (which we ended up switching to a plastic toy man) symbolized Heavenly Father. I showed how, if we made mistakes, it turns us a degree (or more, depending on how big the mistake is), a little bit away from Heavenly Father. If we keep making mistakes, and we don't repent, then our path keeps getting further and further away from Heavenly Father. But, if we make a mistake and decide to repent, we are able to turn back towards Heavenly Father. Little choices really do make a big difference in the end.