(photo taken by Sally DeFord)
I. Many of you know that I lived in San Francisco for a good number of years. I went there for Latin Ballroom dance auditions after college and ended up staying. I had to get a solid 9-5 job to pay for my dresses and coaches and worked downtown. Joe and I met at the San Francisco airport after 5 years of me living in San Francisco. We conversed on the plane on our way out of town (40A&40B) and we both lived in the city not more than 15 minutes away from each other. We were sealed in the Oakland temple and we lived in San Francisco after we were married. After buying a house here in Grand Junction, Joe had work in South Africa, and then a contract back in the Bay Area. Phoenix was born in the East Bay.
So the Bay Area is dear to my heart. I love San Francisco. Why am I telling you this.? With all the arts, culture and delicious food of the Bay Area, there are also the negatives--in every place there are positives and negatives. One of those negatives is as Bishop Dean Davies talked about in this past April General Conf (2013). I’ll read:
“On October 17, 1989, while driving home after work, I was approaching a stop light at the intersection of Market and Beale Streets in San Francisco, California. At that moment I felt the car shake and thought, “I must have a flat tire.” As the car continued to shake, I noticed a bus quite close to me and thought, “That bus just hit me!” Then the car shook more and more, and I thought, “I must have four flat tires!” But it wasn’t flat tires or the bus—it was a powerful earthquake! As I stopped at the red light, there were ripples in the pavement like waves of the sea rolling down Market Street. In front of me a tall office building was swaying from side to side, and bricks began falling from an older building to my left as the earth continued to shake.
The Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area at 5:04 p.m. that day and left as many as 12,000 people homeless.
The earthquake caused severe damage in the San Francisco Bay Area, most notably on unstable soil in San Francisco and Oakland. In San Francisco, the Marina District had been “built on a landfill made of a mixture of sand, dirt, rubble, … and other materials containing a high percentage of groundwater. Some of the fill was rubble dumped into San Francisco Bay after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.”1
Bishop Davies continues,"In about 1915, apartment buildings were erected on the landfill. In the 1989 earthquake, the water-saturated unconsolidated mud, sand, and rubble converted to a liquid-like mass, causing the buildings to collapse. The buildings were not built on a sure foundation.”
I felt a small earthquake while living in San Francisco but nothing like this earthquake. And a little more about the Marina district. While I was a young professional living and working in San Francisco, the Marina district’s Safeway was voted as a top spot for singles/ a dating pick up hot spot. Its ironic to me that this district is likely still foundationally weak because the rents and properties there were very expensive (I don't know that much other than structural reinforcement was done after the 1989 earthquake). I would guess that properties and rentals are still very expensive in the Marina district eventhough the soil and land is of questionable integrity.
Bishop Davies continues and talks about Helamen...
“The Nephite prophet Helaman gave unmistakable clarity to the importance of building our lives on a sure foundation, even the foundation of Jesus Christ: “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Helaman 5:12).”
Contrast the Marina district to the Oakland Temple in the East Bay. Oakland has some rough parts but lets talk about the temple and where temples are built:
Bishop Davies states, “In the development of modern-day temples, careful attention is given to the design, engineering, and use of building materials. Thorough testing of the soils and geology takes place on the site where a temple will be built. Studies of wind, rain, and changes in the weather for the area are considered so that the completed temple can withstand not only storms and climate common to an area, but the temple is designed and positioned to withstand the unexpected earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and other natural calamities that may occur. In many temples, concrete or steel piles are driven deep into the earth to anchor the temple foundation.”
Bishop Davies says, “Brothers and sisters, none of us would knowingly construct our homes, places of work, or sacred houses of worship on sand or rubble or without appropriate plans and materials. Let us accept the Savior’s invitation to come unto Him. Let us build our lives upon a safe and a sure foundation. “
II. Discussion:
How do we anchor our lives to the sure foundation of our Savior and His Atonement?
Bishop Davies gives some great insight into prayer, scripture study and the importance of the sacrament as an ordinance in our lives in the above referenced April 2013 Conference address. He also references the Sermon on the Mount and the wise man who built his house upon a rock. (Matthew 7:22-27).
III. Now another layer...
What are the benefits of anchoring our lives to the foundation of Christ and his Atonement?
Lesson #9 from Teachings of Lorenzo Snow: Sacred Family Relationships.
Why is family important? What are our connections to each other? are they trivial or otherwise?
From President Lorenzo Snow:
1. "The Lord] has shown us that if we are faithful we will associate with each other in an immortal and glorious state; that those connections formed here, that are of the most enduring character, shall exist in eternity.5The associations that are formed here, will be possessed by [us] in the eternal worlds.". President Snow further talks of the following:
- The importance of the family, and our connections to each other (here's my plug for visiting teaching...a carry over from Sally Deford's last week lesson; )).
- He encourages us to honor our marriages-- nurture a oneness of feeling which encourages love and kindness in our home.
- He addresses that if you haven’t met your match or don’t have the children in the numbers you now desire that it will be made up to you in the next life. He cites the example of his sister Eliza Snow:
“My sister Eliza R. Snow, I believe, was just as good a woman as any Latter-day Saint woman that ever lived, and she lived in an unmarried state until she was beyond the condition of raising a family. … I cannot for one moment imagine that she will lose a single thing on that account. It will be made up to her in the other life...”
- President Snow says that children learn best from good examples and when parents seek inspiration. Rhetorical question here: Anchoring our lives to a sure foundation can help us in our homes.
2. “See that the little, trifling misunderstandings in domestic concerns do not poison your happiness.” (page 131)
? How do we avoid poison/ offense? How do you reconcile it?
For me it takes lots of prayer, seeking personal revelation, and pondering the Savior’s life, teachings and atonement and then I need the balm of time.
3. "The same forms of relationship here will still exist beyond the veil; the ties here formed will grow stronger in the other life which is to come. And the Latter-day Saints feel an assurance, because God has given it unto them.6"
See also, one of my personal faves-- Doc& Cov 130:2: “And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.”
How can we be examples and prepare to associate with each other in eternity? What will you do? What can you share?
IV. Conclusion: I think how we treat each other in our own homes, what we build and how our foundations are built is key. What’s the ending to our individual stories? I don’t know. I always hope for a happy ending when I’m reading. I hope we can always improve upon ourselves and grow in love and service. I’ll cling to that and to the Doctrine and Covenants 130:2. I also strongly believe that if we fortify our foundation on Christ and his atonement, then we will have the personal revelation needed in our lives to help those that we love-- our families and each other.
Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Christy Huffaker-Bernat
