May Day! May Day!

Ok, so there is really no need for an SOS or help of any kind. It was just a fun title. May is the month of May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Proms and Mother's Day, all flowery kinds of things. Here in Utah, it is also a month of graduations, and the beginning of BYU Spring term. The beginning of May is also the beginning of a new year for me, with my birthday falling in the last week of April. I'm still startled to find myself over 50, with no sign of letting up. I took inventory last week, and counted my blessings. I am amazed at the things that have occurred for me. Having been born of goodly parents, I learned to keep on keeping on. From my point of view, at least, part of the legacy from both the Oakley and Elliott people is that quitting is never an option. It's a two-edged sword. It has, at times, been hard to know when to cut my losses. But it has also kept me persevering when things were simply hard. I think about my Grandma Oakley and Grandma Elliott. Both born in the late 1890s, they got through a number of hard things, including disappointments, deaths of loved ones too soon, not to mention 2 world wars, a flu pandemic, and the Depression. I realized this week that the Lord has put people in my life who have shaped me, and continue to shape me. He's trying to make me in to something useable for Him!
I've been teaching Sunday School for adults, and we've been studying the Old Testament. Most recently we studied about Moses and the Israelites. Their "wandering" in the wilderness for 40 years was both necessary and un-necessary. Un-necessary if they would have been quicker to develop the skills to be faithful that the Lord expected and needed his people to be. Necessary in that in order to be prepared for the experiences in Canaan, they needed certain capacities built, and the Lord tutored them with loving kindness during the 40 years. He was trying to prepare a people useable for Him --a people filled with faith, and an understanding of the Plan of Happiness, willing to serve each other, and love one another. In some respects, my last 35 years or so have been like that. My combination of stick-to-it-iveness and the flip side of bull-headedness, my family legacy, have been given to me to refine. It has been quite a process of coming to trust that God knows what will bring me the greatest joy, and to seek His direction instead of having my own head. I have had much more success as I continue to fine tune the seeking, listening, and hearing. And part of learning has been being associated with outstanding people, including my family, my co-workers, my cohort, my professors, my neighbors, and my Ward members.