Hope is the thing with...wings.

One of my very dear friends at law school has a blog that she has named "Hope is the thing with feathers." I don't know what it means exactly, but I sure like it, and for whatever reason, in my mind it always computes to the above phrase.

That is important for my thoughts in this post. I don't know how many of you are current with the news, but I sure try not to be. I hate finding out about the miserable things people do to each other; however, it is nigh impossible to escape in law school, and the BIG, I mean HUGE story this week has been the terrible story about Penn State. I hesitate to post a link, but I will because it is the news, and you would probably find out one way or another. We will name this link the unfortunate and altogether stupid choices of Joe Paterno head coach of the Penn State football team. In a few words, one of the assistant coaches had been molesting children who came to sports camps but now it appears that maybe he was pimping these children out too. Anyway, when this came to the attention of Joe Paterno, he told the Athletic Director who in turn told the Vice President, and everyone just kept it a secret...all for football or embarrassment or something, dunno, but every time I think about this, it just puts a pit in my stomach. So, I try to avoid thinking about it not because I think we should ignore this issue. NOT AT ALL, I just find myself too often trying to find the rationale or logic behind such acts, and it just weighs me down deep. It's pretty difficult to avoid this at school though.

Not only is EVERYONE talking about this story, but the whole first year class is currently working on a paper with the same topic: child pornography. So, as you can imagine, there has been numerous parallels drawn between this recent new story and the nasty fact situation for our papers. The majority of these are done indelicately too. I don't blame them all for talking so harshly about all of these issues, they are terrible, but it is difficult to hear that kind of crap all day long too.

Anyway, I was sure feeling low, and then as I was cooking dinner, my very loving Father-in-Law sent me another news story. This time it was about a magazine salesman who accosted a woman, sexually abused her, broke her face, nearly strangled her. I appreciate him for sending this, because I know that he sent it as a watch out reminder, and it makes me feel so glad to have people in my life who care enough to send something like this, but coupled with all the other events of the day and week and previous few weeks, I just felt so very sad. My heart hurt for all of these people. My mind raced about how Parker and I would ever be able to keep our children safe in this increasingly wicked world.

And then my mind struck upon a thought...read the Book of Mormon. Most of you know that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe in the Bible so long as it has been translated correctly, but we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. We are taught to live according the precepts and teaching found in both of these books. The Book of Mormon contains an account of Christ's teachings to the peoples living in the Americas as we believe that he visited here. If you have more questions about this you could always ask me or go here .

But I followed this thought, and I instantly knew where I wanted to read. At the very end of the Book of Mormon which is about 400-421 A.D. the abridger of the Book of Mormon, a prophet named Mormon writes an epistle to his son Moroni. I know this is a lot of set up, but I think that it will mean more with this history.

This is the final letter that Mormon writes to his Son. The world has fallen into wickedness, the two big groups of people in their society, the Lamanites and the Nephites are both incredibly wicked. The atrocities described in this chapter (Chapter 9 of the Book of Moroni) are so grave that my eyes cease to read them without tears a plenty pouring down my cheeks. I feel this so deeply because I believe that these events truly happened; in fact, I know that they did. So, today, as I sat reading, my heart crumbled as I saw the incredibly bad choices the people were making and how that affected those around them. The descriptions continue and all the while, I was thinking, WHAT IS MORMON DOING HERE? This is probably his last letter that he will ever write to his son, why, oh why would he spend so many words describing the dire situation? Moroni is living it too just in a different part of the country.

And when my heart reached almost its breaking point, Mormon said this, "My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."

And this is why I know that this is from God and why my faith continues despite this wicked world and why hope is the thing with wings, because when I hope is Christ, I am carried by angels.