"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
Years
ago when I was serving as a bishop in the Appleton Second Ward, we
had a Christmas party for the Hmong members of our ward. The Hmong
people in the US came here as refugees after suffering horrific
persecution in Laos at the end of the Vietnam War due to their
valiant but unpublicized (at the time) support of the United States
in the secret war that was being waged in their nation. (I discuss
their history more on my page about the
Hmong people in America.)
Many of these brave, freedom-loving newcomers have struggled
financially in this strange foreign land.
At
our Christmas party in my home, several groups began to leave after
having spent a few afternoon hours with us. The temperature outside
was 1 degree Fahrenheit--bitter cold on any scale. One little non-LDS
girl, about 9 years old, was getting ready to go out the door with
her sisters. I noticed she wasn't wearing a coat, just a light
sweatshirt. I asked about that and she said she didn't have one, and
had been going to school everyday without one. I was worried for her.
What
I didn't know until later was that my wife had already tried to deal
with the problem earlier in the evening. My wife had retrieved an old
coat from our closet that had belonged to one of my sons. It would
have fit, I think, but the Hmong girl shook her head and refused to
try it on. She was poor, but she was still a girl with basic human
sensitivity about how she looked, and she wasn't going to wear an
ugly coat. At that moment I recalled that a kind member of the ward
had just given me two grocery bags filled with clothes in case they
could help someone in need. I brought over a bag that had some coats
in it. At the very top of the bag was a pink coat. I took it out and
noticed that it seemed to be her size. I asked her if she would try
it on, and her face lit up as it fit perfectly and looked beautiful
on her. She was so happy! She looked great in that coat, and left
warmer, but not nearly as warm as I felt at that moment, grateful to
the sweet member who made the donation and so grateful to the Lord
for such a small but memorable Christmas gift.
It
was such a small thing, but one that reminds me of the kindness of
the Lord expressed through simple acts from others. May we all find
and share the pink coats or whatever other resources and talents we
have sitting unused on our shelves.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.
