“What did you do at school today?”
When I taught 6th grade, I would tell my students to imagine their parent had just asked them that question.
How would they respond?
My 6th graders ALWAYS said their most common response to that question was: “Nothing”. ????
We would use this as a springboard to talk about plots in stories. We never hear a story where there was no problem, or other kind of “inciting” event. That’s why kids say “nothing” happened at school – because they can’t think of anything “story-worthy” to share.
No problems = no stories.
But if the fire alarm went off and you lost your shoe and you had to pick up trash at lunch…
Then we have a story to tell – because there was a problem.
Our brains are wired to crave stories, though! That’s why we love reading and watching shows. That’s why scriptures are so effective at teaching doctrine, and not just bullet point lists of what we believe. That’s why we get together with friends and end up talking about the crazy things that are happening.
But sometimes, we just get to enjoy peace. Continual peace.
Those times feel a little weird to us. There aren’t as many crazy stories to share with our friends or our spouse.
In fact, these are the most “boring” parts of the Book of Mormon – where all we read about is that there was “continual peace” for a certain number of years.
No problems? No stories.
And so when my life is just the normal grind, instead of wishing there was something exciting or something different, I’m working on just enjoying the peace.
Showing extreme gratitude, and enjoying the continual peace.
Those boring sentences in the Book of Mormon that talk about “continual peace”, are talking about real people, real civilizations, real families who had no major story-worthy problems for years.
Isn’t that amazing?!
All contained in that little sentence Mormon wrote that basically amounts to a sixth grader saying nothing happened at school today.
I’m working on finding more gratitude and joy in the “nothing”. And I’m working on feeling awe when my life can be summed up as, “And there was continual peace.”
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
2 Responses
Loved this — And I’m working on feeling awe when my life can be summed up as, “And there was continual peace.”
Me, too!
One of the things I appreciated most during lockdown recently was the peace….and the quiet….and as the world goes back to what it considers normal… I miss that. Thanks Cali.