Randal Inspiring Stories

 As I mentioned, I am reading Make Every Day Meaningful.  Randal Wright includes a lot of stories and personal experiences.  I found two that he shared to be especially powerful right now for me.

Sinai You Qualify

The first story he entitled "Sinai You Qualify" and he wrote it next to Exodus 16.  In 1998, he and his wife took a tour of the Middle East.  They were scheduled to stop in Egypt but there had been a terrorist attack there in November 1997 and tour companies removed Egypt from their itineraries.  This lack of tourism caused serious harm to Egypt's economy. SO Egypt promised the tour company that they would be protected and Egypt was added back into their itinerary. When they arrived, they were taken to a 5 star hotel. They had armed guards to protect them. They had huge buffets filled with delicious food. They absolutely loved their time in Cairo.   

Then they traveled by bus to Mount Sinai, a harsh desert region.  They were in a 1/2 star hotel and the food looked like it had been prepared days earlier.  That evening they had a "brief" meeting in preparation for them to hike Mount Sinai at 2 AM the next morning.  It was hot and there was nowhere to sit. The tour guide launched into Old Testament history and the meeting was anything but short.  It was uncomfortable and people began to grumble. He found himself wishing he were back in Egypt.  As he was standing there, two words popped into his mind...you qualify.

Here's what he wrote:  "Qualify for what?  Then the little voice said, 'You qualify.  You could have easily been one of the murmuring children of Israel with Moses in the wilderness of Sinai.'  Like them, I wanted to go back to Cairo.  Here I was, about to enjoy and unforgettable spiritual experience climbing the mountain where it is believed God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and all I could do was complain about the accommodations."

This especially struck me when I read it yesterday, because we ended up being without power for 8 hours.  But we had food to eat and we were safe and unlike many areas of Salt Lake we didn't have any destruction of our property, we didn't lose any trees, etc.   We were fine.  A sweet neighbor, Aly, even brought us ice to help protect our food.  And yet we all did a bit of complaining.  Sinai---I qualify!!

Bradford 200 copies

The second story took place in college.  In a sociology class, their professor Reed Bradford gave them an assignment to find a story that taught a valuable moral lesson and summarize it in 2-4 pages.  Then they were to make 200 copies of the story.  Many students grumbled as it would be expensive to make that many copies.  On the day the assignments were due, he asked each student to place their stack of copies in the hallway.  At the end of class, he had each student take one copy from each pile..and now they had 200 stories that taught a principle...each person had put in very little effort and gained so much.

He then spoke of the law of consecration.  If we each do our part, everyone becomes "rich" in the process.  In 4 Nephi 1:23, we read that the people weren't poor but "had become exceedingly rich" as they lived the law.  Brother Wright pointed out that we pay tithing and then receive such great blessings.  We have beautiful chapels across the world and the chapels are the same design in poor neighborhoods as in affluent ones.  We have temples, ward activities, camps, hymnals, and so many other blessings that come to us as we pay tithing.   Most of us could never afford all that we receive on our own (I certainly couldn't afford temples or church buildings!) and so he reminds us that "Sharing with others usually brings greater prosperity instead of less."