As I drove towards our church parking lot this morning, I thought, “Has our women’s study group really gotten this out of hand?” There were four police cars surrounding the building and another blocking the street. I hesitantly pulled in and found my friend Lise looking slightly concerned, although maybe it was more of a look of annoyance that she had worked so hard on her lesson and the cops wouldn’t let us into the building.
I rolled down the window and she said, “I don’t really know any details, but some kid got beat up and the police won’t let us go in there because they’re worried the bad guy will go in. So class is canceled.”
I dramatically widened my eyes and acted like I was just going to roll my window back up and drive away. She laughed. I asked her, “What was your lesson on?”
“Giving service to each other.”
“Oh, I hate that subject. I’m glad it’s canceled.”
“Yeah, something about us all being beggars …”
“Well I’m not a beggar!”
Ok, truthfully that’s one of my favorite subjects! I just can’t pass up an opportunity to tease her. I’m guessing that whatever happened was more serious than a fistfight and the police were sugarcoating it to avoid panicking anyone. Maybe the news will give some info about it today, but I kind of doubt it because they didn’t even do a segment on the Bartell’s worker in town who got backed over while trying to stop a shoplifter. I certainly thought it was news worthy and being in a very pregnant state, I even found it worth it to waddle over and find out what happened. I was shopping next door at the moment.
So I’m a little disappointed that I dragged myself out of the house with my newborn baby girl and my four-year-old for some spiritual nourishment to find that I did so for nothing. Last year my ward started our Book of Mormon women’s study group. Many moms find it difficult to do scripture study during the week (I’m sure dads do too) and our Relief Society presidency thought this would be helpful. It has been refreshing as we discuss how we can apply the principles of the scriptures to our lives. For instance, the story of Nephi building a ship becomes much more than that. As a mom, I sometimes feel like I have to take on challenges that seem impossible, but like Nephi, I can do so with the Lord’s help. Whatever He asks me to do, I can have faith that it is possible because He wouldn’t ask me to do something that wasn’t. In the past, a war story was just a war story to me. Now as I read about a protective barrier being placed around a fortress, I am suddenly struck by how this can be compared to how hard we have to work to fortify our homes and keep evil influences out of it.
We learn a lot from each other, and especially from our instructors who have previously been seminary teachers. Lise gave us a wonderful lesson on Jacob 5 and was knowledgeable about how grafting tree branches is done. Now that analogy makes much more sense to me. I love to hear the other women share the insights they receive while studying the lessons at home. It is something I always look forward to and I found it kind of comical as I imagined why the cops would be there, and after only 5 minutes. (Yes, I was late. I have a baby. I don’t know what my excuse was before, but right now I blame my tardiness on my constantly hungry/pooping baby. When she is no longer a baby, I’m sure I will come up with some other excuse for my problem with punctuality. Ah yes, before it was my son who hates all of his shoes and socks with a passion.) I’ve been amusing myself with thoughts of what could possibly happen at a Book of Mormon study group that would require police intervention. Perhaps some violent hair pulling after a heated debate about the best verse in Alma? In all seriousness, I hope the victim of whatever crime happened today will be OK.
I’m looking forward to sharing next week’s lesson on service and hope nothing unusual will happen to prevent us from hearing it.
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