Is Cinderella a Christian?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qzskrx58froA4k0Nd4h3ZPziUMi23NlJKgZ8QKEqcPOwlZXmIMBfyzvxxfh5Ze7TjChA93QjzzZMeXAAnVA8fGvZJi5iOvX40DQB3M-EFSZgcpdOOAsbH3rL-MkUTYoIXtj7_m9T-EY/s1600/cinerella2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qzskrx58froA4k0Nd4h3ZPziUMi23NlJKgZ8QKEqcPOwlZXmIMBfyzvxxfh5Ze7TjChA93QjzzZMeXAAnVA8fGvZJi5iOvX40DQB3M-EFSZgcpdOOAsbH3rL-MkUTYoIXtj7_m9T-EY/s1600/cinerella2.jpg" /></a></div>As a kid I asked <i>way</i> to many questions for Sista Sheen (nope, that's not her real name), the youth Sunday school teacher at Greater Victory Church of God & Christ. My Uncle (who adored me) was the pastor of the church, and thanks to my questioning ways, I usually ended up in his office or as the only child in adult Sunday school.<br /><br />I remember being very frustrated with Sista Sheen because she couldn't tell me whether or not Cinderella was a Christian. I don't know why it was so important to me at the time, but it was, and in my mind, the fact that Sista Sheen couldn't tell me Cinderella's religious preference meant that she wasn't at all as spiritual as she professed to be.<br /><br />My obsession with fictional characters didn't stop at Cinderella, nor did I have the good sense to stop trying to create conversations that would prove that my Sunday school leader was either kicked or had flunked out of divinity school. I was convinced it was the latter.<br /><br />One Sunday evening during youth group Sista Sheen asked, "Is Cinderella a Christian?" If it were possible, my head would have done the full on exorcist spin! Everyone looked right at me, and I nearly froze. This was my chance, my chance to make everybody see right through Sista Sheen.<br /><br /><b>Me:</b> Yes, Cinderella is a Christian.<br /><br /><b>Other Kids:</b> How do you know?<br /><br /><b>Me:</b> Because she was a servant and Jesus was a servant.<br /><br /><b>Other Kids:</b> That doesn't mean she was a Christian.<br /><br /><b>Me:</b> Yes it does. She served with a humble, but happy heart and sang uplifting songs.<br /><br /><b>Other Kids:</b> That's stupid and doesn't prove anything! Gargamel sings songs that are uplifting to him, but he's still evil to the Smurfs.<br /><br /><b>Me:</b> It's not stupid! Plus we believe that cleanliness is next to Godliness and she was very clean and is therefore a Christian!<br /><br />Sista Sheen having heard enough, brought it all to an end. "<span style="background-color: white;">Cinderella isn't a Christian and Gargamel isn't evil! They are both figments of a creators imagination, they are drawn pieces of art, they don't exist! They aren't real! I wanted to have this discussion so that Sista Beehive would stop these nonsense questions, but it seems that you are all CRAZY! You all need to focus</span><span style="background-color: white;"> more on the individuals in the Bible and how you can avoid becoming like the ones who are evil, and be more like those who followed Christ our Lord and Savior!"</span><br /><br />Years later, I feel that Sista Sheen missed an opportunity to engage her Sunday school class in a deeper conversation. Back then our young brains hadn't yet made a connection with the people in the Bible. We didn't see them as actual people, the weren't our everyday heroes, we didn't watch them on tv on Saturday mornings, and they sure didn't come as prizes in our favorite boxes of cereal.<br /><br />Now that I am a volunteer Sunday educator (ya'll know what I mean), I have much more appreciation for Sista Sheen. And because I had so many experiences as a youth where my questions went unanswered or my very active imagination was treated with disdain, I also have an appreciation for my students who are of a more inquisitive and creative nature.<br /><br />Go With God,<br />Sista Beehive

Is Cinderella a Christian?

As a kid I asked way to many questions for Sista Sheen (nope, that's not her real name), the youth Sunday school teacher at Greater Vic...

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Mahana You Ugly!

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPMPc0h39D2s7IJxtSim2K_ISn2SmD2XQX0I1p8jPC_oj0nUGRxPHrQZdo8TKKxnYqWVvocrrKqQw-xUZKR2a2_r22p-W4SqrY4pnVO6OHIEwoAEYqHYElfUW6azMUB0L6L6GKdIm4OI/s1600-h/1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430792008255720034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPMPc0h39D2s7IJxtSim2K_ISn2SmD2XQX0I1p8jPC_oj0nUGRxPHrQZdo8TKKxnYqWVvocrrKqQw-xUZKR2a2_r22p-W4SqrY4pnVO6OHIEwoAEYqHYElfUW6azMUB0L6L6GKdIm4OI/s320/1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 183px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 154px;" /></a>"Mahana You Ugly!" The first time someone said that to me, I was not laughing. In fact, I was preparing to open up a can of whoop-fast. Luckily just before his face hit the pavement, someone mentioned something about a movie (assault charge averted). The first time someone called me an 8-cow woman, they had 8 seconds to explain to me why they had just called me a heifer. Something was said about "Johnny Lingo" and I think they took off running. About 5 years ago I finally saw the movie Johnny Lingo, and that person had it twisted, I am a million-cow woman! For all of you who learned the hard way that not everyone has seen this movie, I feel for you. For those of you out there who have never seen this movie, please know that if you ever find yourself trying to figure out if a Mormon has just referred to you as an ugly cow, they may have actually been trying to give you a compliment.<br /><br />Johnny Lingo is a 1969 LDS film. In Johnny Lingo, Mahana is a young woman who is constantly told she is ugly, she believes she is ugly and she appears to be ugly. Once her suitor is willing to pay an unprecedented 8 cows for her to become his bride, she becomes beautiful in appearance.<br /><br />The argument has been made that the story of Johnny Lingo focuses on physical beauty and the idea that a woman can only see herself as a beautiful woman once a man finds her attractive. I often think of self-worth as something that you define for yourself, people shouldn’t need to tell you that you’re amazing, you should already know and believe that you are. However, as I contemplate the story of Johnny Lingo, I actually find a message of power. The power we have to change attitudes, responses, how others feel about us, and yes, how others may feel about themselves.<br /><br />One school year my Mother had the ludicrous idea to send us to our non-uniform wearing public school in uniforms. She sewed us 4 hideous uniforms. One for each day of the week and then we could repeat one on Fridays. Most of the Uniforms were skirts, which we wore knickers under so we could go to P.E. and not have to the change. (If you don’t know what knickers are don’t feel bad, I think only my family and pioneers do.) The collection wasn’t even cohesive (I've been watching too much Project Runway). There was a pink and black polka-dotted skirt, which was just a poodle shy of needing saddle shoes to go with it. I don’t know what "General Store" my Mother found the fabric for the other uniforms in, but if you ever catch a rerun of Little House on the Prairie, you’ll see Laura Ingalls Wilder wearing the jumper-dress she sewed us. Oh, and yes, of course mine and my sister’s uniforms were matching, what’s that you ask, are we twins? Nope! My sister and I were seriously traumatized!<br /><br />The first week of school our classmates just thought that we were shopping at the ugly store, but by the third week of school they began to see a pattern. I didn’t attend one of those schools where the other kids whispered and made fun of you behind your back. I attended the kind of school where kids just shouted at you from across a crowded lunchroom, “Girl, why you wearing the same ooglay (worse than ugly, so ugly it’s ooglay) outfit every day.” Although I felt like someone should report my Mother to Child Protective Services, I had made up my mind that I was going to own those ooglay uniforms. “Why you wearing that same ooglay face every day,” I replied. I wasn't being mean, that’s just how you nip it in the bud where I come from.<br /><br />I told my friends that I was wearing uniforms this year because I didn’t want to take the time to pick out something new every day. Plus, I got way more sleep since I didn’t need to wake up and pick something to wear. “It was my idea but, you know the lil’ Sis has to copy everything I do. Told my Mom not to make us the same uniforms, but the lil’ Sis was buggin, so I was like, it’s cool.” Of course my BFF knew what was up and she had my back. She’d say, “Girl that skirt is bomb, where’d you buy that, I need to get me one.” I would say, “Thanks girl, my Mama made it, it’s an original, you can’t just get this off the rack.” She bought a plaid skirt and she would wear hers to school. Of course hers was name brand, short and cute, but I really appreciated it.<br /><br />So although I still can’t believe my Mother did that to me, the school year didn’t turn out to be a complete disaster because I realized that I GOT THE POWER! So the next time you’re in a situation where you can effect positive change in your attitude, the attitude of others, how someone else perceives themself or how others perceive you, do it, cause YOU GOT THE POWER!<br /><br />For those of you who have never seen Johnny Lingo, here you go!<br /><br />God is Love,<br />Sista Laurel<br /><div align="center"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x-PLyy0XM3Y&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/x-PLyy0XM3Y&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><div align="center"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4KDi4Oii0Es&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4KDi4Oii0Es&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><div align="center"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BuyBwR7p-iY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BuyBwR7p-iY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><br /><div align="left"><a href="http://www.myfreecopyright.com/registered_mcn/BT8QW_3GY41_YKT8E" title="MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected"><img alt="MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected" border="0" height="38" src="http://storage.myfreecopyright.com/mfc_protected.png" title="MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected" width="145" /></a></div>

Mahana You Ugly!

"Mahana You Ugly!" The first time someone said that to me, I was not laughing. In fact, I was preparing to open up a can of whoop-...

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Warm Fuzzies vs. Cold Pricklies

<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; CLEAR: both" class="separator" align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir4RBQI883P1za87yr5Ot6a8t8Y193tz2MUllEqem0gLpNqZ3PokVJmZ4vSaO2sAZHP4IJCKEmNw1XrOGm30sLJpVjuA2-RnbaJTnyw2bOGpKjz50bSFG_cVvjNRT8wWw8URCWjIuAC7y3/s1600-h/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em; cssfloat: left"><img border="0" sr="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir4RBQI883P1za87yr5Ot6a8t8Y193tz2MUllEqem0gLpNqZ3PokVJmZ4vSaO2sAZHP4IJCKEmNw1XrOGm30sLJpVjuA2-RnbaJTnyw2bOGpKjz50bSFG_cVvjNRT8wWw8URCWjIuAC7y3/s320/1.jpg" /></a>When my husband and I were living in the ward he attended as a child, he received a <a href="http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/glossary/glossary-definition/calling">calling</a> to teach Sunday school for the youth ages 12 and 13, a class that happened to be dominated by rowdy boys. After the <a href="http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/glossary/glossary-definition/sacrament-meeting">Sacrament meeting</a> in which his calling had been announced a Sister in the ward came up to me and told me that when she heard what my husband’s calling was she was overjoyed and knew that God was a just God. She had been a <a href="http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/glossary/glossary-definition/primary">Primary </a>President while he was a child, although he seemed to have turned out quite nicely, in his Primary of around 30 boys he had been an awful little instigator who had sometimes left her and his other teachers in tears. I may have imagined it, but I think I saw a slight smirk on her face as she asked me to wish him good luck.<br /></div><p align="left"></p><p align="left"></p><p align="left"></p><p align="left"></p><p align="left"><br />Often when you find yourself in or teaching a Sunday school or Primary class dominated by boys, it can be a nightmare, but every once in a while you learn something you never would have expected. In class we were discussing service and the <a href="http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1117-27,00.html">story</a> which <a href="http://www.thomassmonson.org/">President Monson</a> relayed during <a href="http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/glossary/glossary-definition/conference-general">Conference</a> of the Primary who had sent him a jar of warm fuzzies, with each warm fuzzy representing an act of service that a child had done for someone else. Of course the boys being boys had no interest in anything warm or fuzzy and one boy said what if instead of warm fuzzies he got a jar of cold pricklies. Other than the desire to send President Monson a jar of cold pricklies, I actually found the remark to be quite clever and began to think about what a cold prickly might look like. I did what every person with a church inspired question does, I searched…Google. To my surprise when I typed in warm fuzzies, cold pricklies also came up. I don’t know if the boy had heard this before and was referring to it, but his smart aleck response led me to this great story.<br /><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white;color:#666666;" ><br />"Once upon a time, there was a tiny village nestled between two mountains. Each person in the village was very happy because he was given a bag of Warm Fuzzies at birth. You could reach into your bag and pull out a Warm Fuzzy whenever you wanted, and everybody wanted to all the time. Warm Fuzzies were given to other people on the street, at home, everywhere. Warm Fuzzies made you feel just like they sound - warm, happy and content. Everyone in the village was happy, everyone but the bad witch. Now we all know that bad witches are growly. They like us to be unhappy, sad. The bad witch in this village was no exception. She tried and tried to make the people stop giving away Warm Fuzzies. One day she whispered in the ear of little Johnny Brown, "If you keep giving away all of your Warm Fuzzies you won't have any left for yourself." Johnny didn't listen at first, because everyone always had lots of Warm Fuzzies. The more you gave away, the more you got.</span><br /><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white;color:#666666;" ></span><br /><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white;color:#666666;" >Then the witch said to Johnny, "If you give COLD PRICKLIES you will be able to keep all of your Warm Fuzzies." Well, Johnny got to thinking about this, and noticed that his mother was always giving away Warm Fuzzies. So were his father and his sister. Soon he thought they would have no more for him. So Johnny started saving his Warm Fuzzies and started giving COLD PRICKLIES. Soon the whole village was giving COLD PRICKLIES. Everyone was gloomy and sad and very grouchy. The village was no longer happy, and there wasn't a Warm Fuzzy to be found!</span><br /><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white;color:#666666;" ></span><br /><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: white;color:#666666;" >This had been going on for years and years, and the wicked witch was very happy. One day an old man came to visit the village. When he spoke to anyone they frowned at him and turned their backs, often walked away. The old man continued to be friendly, polite, pleasant, and one day a very young boy smiled back at the old man. It made him feel good - so good that he patted his dog, and the dog didn't bite him! This was the first Warm Fuzzy given in some time, and the little boy dug into his bag of Warm Fuzzies, as they were much nicer than the COLD PRICKLIES, and he started giving them away. The townspeople grumbled and growled for a while, but soon they felt like giving Warm Fuzzies. One by one people went home to find their Warm Fuzzies and soon everyone was again giving Warm Fuzzies. The bad witch was so upset and disgusted that she left the village and took her COLD PRICKLIES. After all, they didn't stand a chance against Warm Fuzzies.</span><br /><span style="color:#666666;">To this day that village is happy and content. Maybe, just maybe, if we give enough Warm Fuzzies our world can be as happy and pleasant as that village."</span><br /><br />Have you ever learned something great from the mouth of babes?<br /><br />Sista Laurel<br /><br /><a href="http://www.myfreecopyright.com/registered_mcn/BT8QW_3GY41_YKT8E" title="MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected"><img alt="MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected" border="0" height="38" src="http://storage.myfreecopyright.com/mfc_protected.png" title="MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected" width="145" /></a> </p>

Warm Fuzzies vs. Cold Pricklies

When my husband and I were living in the ward he attended as a child, he received a calling to teach Sunday school for the youth ages 12 an...

Read more »