Considering ... Repetition, Sun/Mon 10/16-17/2016

I think we may have discussed this topic before but an LDS Living article about it caught my attention. Here are some excerpts:

You’ve probably been in a Church meeting when someone starts sharing a story that you’ve already heard quite a few times. Maybe it feels like a few hundred times. There are probably a few stories you could even recite.

I remember hearing one such story when I was a young man. It was about President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985), and I had heard it so many times that I figured I could probably tell it in my sleep.
One stormy night, President Kimball saw a pregnant young mother and her two-year-old daughter in an airport. The mother couldn’t pick up her child because of the threat of miscarriage, so she scooted the sobbing child along with her foot.

Grumpy passengers looked at her judgmentally and said unkind things under their breath, but President Kimball immediately offered to help.

With the mother’s permission, he picked up and consoled the child and gave the girl a piece of gum. Then he kindly spoke to those in line and asked if the young mother could move to the front. The once-grumbling passengers immediately agreed. He spoke with the clerk and got them on the next available flight, ensuring them a safe and much faster trip home.

It wasn’t until years later that I learned one reason why the Lord wanted me to know this story by heart.

I was living in Tokyo, Japan, with my wife and one-year-old daughter. One cold, stormy day, I walked to the train station to catch a train. I pushed through the masses of people and umbrellas, and I made my way down the flight of stairs where I saw a young woman holding a screaming baby. Tears streamed down the mother’s exhausted face, but the people passing them only walked on, muttering about the pair.

Immediately I remembered the story of President Kimball. The memory came to me with such force that I immediately stopped and asked if I could help. Once I assured her of my sincerity, she let me hold her baby and told me her story.

She was waiting for her husband to return from making a phone call about a possible job offer. He had been out of work for months, and they were homeless and living in a park.

Just then, her husband returned. Once his wife and I explained who I was, he slumped against the wall. The phone call had been fruitless. He was still jobless, and they were still homeless.

I didn’t have a stick of gum to offer anybody, but I wanted to help. Knowing that Church leaders can sometimes help in these situations, I called my stake president and asked if he could meet with them. He quickly agreed to see us that evening. After I hung up, I gave them what money I had and instructed them to buy food and to meet me later. None of them had eaten in over 24 hours.

Later that night, we walked to the stake center, where the stake president warmly greeted them and ushered us into his office.

As we talked, the father told us that after months of living in hunger and desperation, he and his wife decided that if he didn’t get a job that day, they would leave the baby at a police station and take their own lives.

As I listened, I felt a wave of gratitude for the example and teachings of prophets. I silently thanked Heavenly Father for stories that I had once found boring and repetitive. Without that repetition, I doubt the story of President Kimball would have come to me with enough force to guide my own actions that night.

This couple eventually joined the LDS church and were able to get back on their feet with the help of church members.

Today's q/q: How does repetition help you in your spiritual path?

My favorite latter-day prophet was President Spencer W. Kimball. He was raised right here in the Gila Valley, Arizona about 3 miles from where I live. I have heard the airport story many times during my membership in the church and it is one of my favorite stories. I have often said here that we are not a ritualistic church, that we do most things from the heart and not from repetition, but I may be wrong about that assertion. Words from our prophets and other leaders in conferences, etc. are repeated many times in our meetings in order to bring home the message. We humans have a relatively short attention span and we need repetition to keep important messages close to our heart. We use the scriptures in our meetings all the time, but there are favorite passages that tend to get quoted more often than others because they have such a powerful and pertinent meaning in our lives. We repeat our study of the standard works (scriptures) in our Sunday School classes every 4 years. This year we are completing a study of the Book of Mormon. Next year, starting in January, we will be studying the Doctrine & Covenants - a book of modern revelation - along with a study of LDS church history. In 2018 we will be studying the Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price which contains additional writings of Abraham and Moses among other things. In 2019 we will study the New Testament and life of Jesus Christ. In 2020 we will return to an emphasis on the Book of Mormon again, full circle. By the time we come back to the Book of Mormon it will be "new" to us again.

Gary, I was going to ask you something. The synagogue where I teach on Sunday afternoons is located diagonally across the street from a Mormon church. When I left this evening, people from the LDS church were parking on the street in front of the synagogue, and as I passed the church, I looked at the parking lot: it was full. People were dressed very nicely and I saw quite a few walking into the church.

So my question is: was this evening something special for LDS? Or perhaps it was maybe like a wedding or something, that is, local in nature? Thanks for any light you can shed on my observations.