M Makes a Stand

Well, M went to a football game night before last with her friend. Her friend's Dad drove them there and we picked up. On the way to the game M starts talking about how she was going to marry an African American and adopt children from Africa. (Now I do not know exactly where she came up with this idea, and I am not necessarily apposed to this, but the way she says it tends to take you off guard especially if you haven't heard it before.) This time she said that both she and her friend were going to do this.

Well the father all but stopped the car. He told M and her friend that HIS daughter is not allowed to date black people. That if she ever brought a black guy home to meet him for a date he would ground her from dating at all. When M responded that it sounded a little prejudicial. He said yes it was and so was the religion that she belonged to. Then he proceeded to tell her that if she married a black man she would never reach the celestial kingdom. That God forbid interracial marriages. Now to the average person this would sound a little harsh. But to M, granddaughter of a Mexican and Caucasian marriage, she was fuming. She told him that marriage is between God, and the husband and the wife. Then she told him that she would reconcile her worthiness with her Heavenly Father.

He told her that just like with murder, she could not choose or change the consequences of the decisions she made. He also threw in that she was not following the prophet, and that the church had many statements published against this. Then he told her he would send her the articles and talks to read. Marissa told him that she knew he was wrong and that she didn't want to talk to him anymore. That if she had questions about the church she would ask her own parents.

When Shawn brought her home after, she came into the house, and the story unraveled. We cleared up where he was mistaken (Oh yea, the whole thing!), and discussed that while his intentions were good, he was misinformed, and well, he has no authority to direct her actions. I suggested that she asked the Bishop directly, who in addition to her parents has the authority to teach spiritual principles to her. She decided to ask her seminary teacher yesterday who confirmed that the official church policy is that interracial marriages are treated exactly the same way as any other marriage in the church. But cautioned her that the direction from the First Presidency was that you find someone to marry that has as many things in common as you do to avoid any excess difficulty you can. (Which is a principle i tried to share with her as well.) To which she said, "I can do things that are hard. Bring it on." Which let's face it, is very M.

Laundry Exposed

So, when the interns from China left, J was able to move back into her room. She (and M too) was very happy to have her own space again, When I asked her when she wanted to put her King size bed back in her room (we had put 2 twins in for the interns.) she told me she'd let me know. About a week ago I asked her to bring up her sheets so I could wash them. This was our conversation.
"Go get your sheets so I can wash them."
"Which ones?"
"The ones on your bed."
"Which bed?"
"The one you sleep in."
"Well do you want the one from the dirty bed or the clean bed?"
"Ummm, the dirty bed? I am guessing the clean one doesn't need to be washed. Right J?" (I said thinking I was teaching her deductive reasoning.)
"The dirty one isn't necessarily dirty."
"What? You realize you just contradicted yourself right?"
"Well... one of the beds is for me to sleep in only if I shower before bed. No one can it on it when they are in my room, and no unclean thing gets set on it. This therefore it is the clean bed. The other bed I put my school books on, set laundry on, guests can sit on it and when I want a nap in the middle of the day or I come in late from a dance and I don't want to shower I sleep in this bed. Thus calling it the dirty bed."
"(laughing) Okay then with out classifying according to names, will you please bring me up any sheets that are actually dirty!"

As she is telling me I am remembering the 6 year old who took the cereal box off the grocery shelf with her elbows so she didn't dirty her hands, and the 11 year old who carried antibacterial gel with her in her backpack. Yes this was defiantly J. A Good Clean Plan!