From Coach Oly:
I didn't get a chance to talk to you at the banquet. But just wanted to let you know that Bucky had my vote for the most improved award. He had a fantastic year he's got to work on his leg strength his core to get to the next level. But overall fantastic year from a fantastic kid! He actually came over to me and spoke to me first time all season and said thank you for everything. Ha ha!! Hope he has a good summer training and I can't wait to coach him next year.
In my experience, most of the time I'm simply trying to do my best to raise my boys in a beautiful world full of imperfect people. I applaud families that find productive ways to work through divorce and single parents who work so hard for their children.
My reasons for doing so are varied but they all come down to helping every member of our family thrive. There were some wonderful messages in conference last week about the things that make a diverse set of families work, as a spiritually mature adult it is my responsibility to sift through and find the messages that are positive and uplifting for me. I accept that responsibility.
I wish there was more love and less fear over family structure. As Elder Uchtdorf said to resist the temptation to judge families by the boxes they can check with their outward appearances and instead focus on their desire to love and serve one another.
There is so much the gospel can give us in supporting the family in ways that are difficult to see.
The gospel teaches us to be kind, to forgive, to serve and to love.
At the end of the day it is more important to all families of all kinds to do these things rather than to "look right."
Markus told me about Elder Uchtdorf's talk from Priesthood session so I looked it up. I believe it is one of the best conference talks of the conference. Maybe ever.
The pressure to keep up appearances at church is very strong. The white shirt and suits every Sunday. Max told me tonight that he needed a new one since his is too small and he can't pass the sacrament in any other color is just one example.
I poignantly remember a few years ago one Sunday that one of the apostles was walking out of our nice, urban stake center where he had come to attend Stake Conference with three of his daughters who live in our stake. I overheard him talking to one of his daughters as they walked down the hall of the building to the parking lot, "Some day when I get my act together, I am going to be better about..." But he's an apostle! I thought as I left to go home with my family. The fact that a modern apostle didn't think he had his act together seems to say that Mormonism is a place where appearances seem to matter, even more than in most places. Elder U. called it as eloquently as anyone I can remember.
