The Lord in the Vineyard Check-In
Cydni: [00:00:00] this is
Sher: Cydni and I'm Sher.
Here we are again with another challenge check in where Cydni is reminding me why I left middle school. Hear, hear. , so Don, get us started.
Don: Welcome to Cydni's Wandering Minds Weekly. Our first category is " Lessons Learned From our Childhood."
Cydni: In this category, we will share a lesson we learned from our childhood. It's funny because he said it, but I'm combating him.
Sher: Again, this is me back in middle school.
Cydni: I will not let this power go.
Sher: Okay, the lesson I learned when I was a teenager, is my mom one day said, Sher. We're gonna get you a bank account and I'm gonna start putting money in it and give you an allowance I was a Freshman in high school and it was the greatest day ever because I'd never had an allowance and I was so excited and we went To the bank we opened up an account and she said I'm gonna put money in it every month But with this money You have to buy your own school lunch.
buy your own clothes, all your high school [00:01:00] activities, anything like that. It's all going to come out of this account. And I was like, okay, cool. so the first month I had so much fun with the money in my bank account. Then there was a week left in the month and I ran out of money. And so I went to my mom because certainly, my mom would help me with lunch because she didn't want me to starve to death. so I asked my mom, Hey, mom, can you loan me some money? Because I need to eat school lunch. And she said, I gave you money at the first of the month. And I said, I know, but I spent it all. She goes, well, I guess you're going to be hungry.
So I learned.
Cydni: Oh my gosh,
Sher: that's awesome. I learned how to balance my bank account. Your
Cydni: mom taught you more probably the four years of your next life.
Sher: Yeah. Yes, she did. Yeah.
Cydni: That's amazing.
Sher: The allowance only was during the school year and I did not get it when school was not in session.
I had to have like a real job. Lame.
Cydni: I didn't learn that lesson until I was four years into our marriage, so I think your mom's amazing. . I was like, Ben, I need to borrow [00:02:00] money. He's like, we have a shared account. We're in trouble. I need to teach my kids now. That was a great story.
Way to go, mom. All right. My story is my brother underneath me, Grady and I fought a lot. We would throw punches at each other and occasionally a tree branch or two. We were pretty violent and fought a lot. He's the middle child. I was the only girl. What can you do? One time we were fighting in our suburban, full fist fighting, and I accidentally pushed my foot up against the windshield.
Shattered it. Well, grady was the bigger troublemaker. I was pretty straight arrow. And so my mother assumed it was Grady. And he didn't know. because we were both fighting, but I knew, I knew who did it. And my mom said, Grady, you broke the window.
This is all your fault. You're grounded. And I stood there silent. You are a monster. And he got in trouble. No. And so, the lesson I learned. This is a [00:03:00] terrible lesson. The lesson that I learned at that time was silence means yes. If you don't speak up, you're agreeing to the situation.
Sometimes that's in your favor. In that situation, it was in my favor. Grady got in big trouble. I did not. the other lesson I learned is that it's never too late to apologize. so later in my life, about 15 years later, I confessed to Grady and to my mom that I actually was the one that broke the window. And I found that if you wait to apologize, it's a funnier story.
Sher: Children listening at home, please do not follow Cindy's example.
Cydni: But Grady he never lets it go.
Sher: I wouldn't either. . That's a good one to just hold on to and keep that grudge for a very long time.
Cydni: Yeah. I remember sitting there thinking, should I speak up? No, I shouldn't. He deserves this.
Sher: Let your rotten brother take the fall. Maybe that was okay.
Cydni: Yeah. It was fine. It did stick with me. I've never lied again. Okay. Sometimes I'm quiet when I shouldn't be still. Just kidding. I'm never quiet. All right. That was my [00:04:00] lesson.
Don: Next, welcome to the poetry corner.
Cydni: In this category, we will share a favorite poem. I'm actually going to share two.
One is really short and sweet, but it really stuck out to me in a college classroom once when I opened up the book, not paying attention as usual, and I found my own poem to read in there. It's by Hilary Bellick, I'm Tired of Love. I'm still more tired of rhyme, but money gives me pleasure all of the time.
Sher: That is beautiful. I loved it so much.
Cydni: And my favorite to read was Edgar A. Guest when I was a child. This is what he says about defeat. No one is beat till he quits. No one is through till he stops. No matter how hard failure hits. No matter how often he drops. A fellow's not down till he lies in the dust and refuses to rise. Fate can slam him and bang him around and batter his frame till he's sore, but she never can say that he's down when he bobs up serenely for more. A fellow's not dead till he dies, nor beat till [00:05:00] he no longer tries. I love that poem.
Sher: That is a good poem. That kind of fits in with my favorite poem. When I was growing up, there was one poem that was displayed in our house. My parents had a treat cupboard and , when you opened up the cupboard on the inside of the cupboard door, there was a very beautiful poem that was displayed and I am going to read it for you now. I'm excited.
It's entitled, Buttprints in the Sand. One night I had a wondrous dream. One set of footprints there was seen. The footprints of my precious Lord. But mine were not along the shore. Then some stranger prints appeared. And I asked the Lord, what have we here? Those prints are large and round and neat. But Lord, they are too big for feet.
My child, he said in somber tones, for miles I carried you alone. I challenged you to walk in faith, but you refused and made me wait. You disobeyed, you would not grow, the walk of faith you would not know. So I got tired, I got fed up, and there I dropped you on your butt.
Because in life there comes a time when one must fight and [00:06:00] one must climb, one must rise and take a stand or leave their butt prints in the sand.
Cydni: I love it.
Sher: I think that summarizes my parents right there and how they felt.
Cydni: Mine's titled, A Tantrum in the Sand.
Don: Now it's time to super charge your vocab
Cydni: And now for your word of the week.
Sher: I'm so nervous. Sher's going to use it in a sentence without knowing what it means. The word is farfanoogan. Farfanoogan? Farfanoogan. Alright, Cydni likes to drive her car in a Barfanoogan fashion.
Cydni: Barfanoogan, a person who farts in the bathtub and then bites the bubbles.
Sher: That is so gross.
Cydni: My 11 year old helped me pick this one out. We both laugh so hard.
Sher: That is a good one. I liked farfanoogin everyone use that in a sentence this week.
Cydni: Expand your mind. It's so disgusting. Awful.
Sher: Okay, now let's actually get to our challenge check in.
Cydni: Our challenge this week was to recognize God's hand in your life.
Sher: This one to me was a very [00:07:00] easy one because Having a little health issue a few months ago I have felt God's hand over and over and over again in the healing process.
And I am so grateful for all the tender mercies and the little miracles that God sent my way to help me get through this. continue to improve and to get better.,
Cydni: Since Titus helped me pick out the word of the week, I thought I would use his little story. We just recently had general conference and Titus and I were listening to a talk and I just loved the talk so much. It was really touching my heart. And Titus came over and he said, mom, mom, and I was like, hold on, buddy.
Let's listen to this talk and then you can talk to me. And he's like, it's so important. And I was like, sure it is. But it was, he said, Mom, I prayed last night that there would be a talk that would be for me, that I would know without a doubt. It wasn't a coincidence, but that I was being talked to.
And he said, this is the talk. I know it. I could feel it. And he said, I know he is talking to [00:08:00] me about my personal struggles. I could feel it in my heart. And I was thinking of all the times That I've seen God's hand in my life in the last week as I've been working on this challenge. And there's so many thoughts that came to mind and so many stories I could have shared.
But for me as a mother this week, watching the hand of God work in my son's life was such a beautiful blessing that I'm just so grateful for.
Sher: That was a good one.
Cydni: Thanks.
Sher: Have a good week
Hurrah! Hooray!
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