TEACHING AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS....

I had all kinds of plans for my time when I finally retired.  But life doesn't always turn out the way you think it is going to.  I had projects.  I was going to go visit my kids, my extended family, my friends who have retired and moved away from Colorado.  And, we never got to go to Nova Scotia for our anniversary like we had planned.  

In addition to that, I had been praying for some time to be able to improve in certain areas of my relationships with other people, and frankly I was struggling.  I would do pretty well for awhile :being nice", then "fall off the wagon" again.  Time after time after time when situations arose that were difficult to deal with, I would find my default was to be upset.

So, what happened?  In the blink of an eye, my prayer to be a better person was answered and my life changed--but not in the way I had imagined.  As always, I think it's going to be a straight-forward fix.  It wasn't.  It was an invitation to teach early morning Seminary at our chapel for the freshmen and sophomores in the two congregations in our building.  

And the first thing I had to do was get rid of contention.  There is no way I could teach the principles of the gospel when I was "on the prod" all the time.  (That was a phrase my sister used when her husband was contentious.  It pretty much described me.)  So, pretty much cold turkey, I had to turn over a new leaf.  The many, many prayers for help in this new endeavor, and studying the doctrines and principles of the gospel every day have had a calming influence on my tendency to fly off the handle.  I'm not there yet...this change is going to take a long, long time to move over to the permanent side of pleasant, but I'm on the road.

Now about the old dog/new tricks.  I was so relieved when COVID-19 put us all into the "stay at home" orders situation, and I didn't have to worry about teaching my kids online or tuning into ZOOM meetings.  My work didn't require that.  We still had to be there in person.  

But NOW with Seminary, and the schools still operating in hybrid situations, I am being forced to teach in ZOOM conferences, learn all my material through computer-based technology, even keeping the role, etc with electronic devices.  This old dog is having a hard time keeping up.  But I'll get there.  I still know how to lead the lesson discussion and let the Spirit do the teaching.  

Will let you know how this old dog handles it all.....