I wanted this story to share with a girlfriend today, and Mom was kind enough to type it up from her Grandma's (my great-grandma) journal history. This is a story that until today, I didn't know know the full details. How thankful I am for ancestors who wrote down their moments from God in their lives. This was very tender to me to read. So true to life.
Mary Ethel Bean Andrew--taken from her publishing of "Through the Years".
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One time I was called to go over to visit a Relief Society at Montello Branch on the west side of Great Salt Lake. I had to go over the Lucin Cutoff on a train.
On the way home I had a strange experience.
As we were crossing the lake, I noticed an old man with a long white beard watching me from the other end of the car. He reminded me of Lorenzo Snow, but his beard was longer than President Snow’s and he had piercing blue eyes.
Finally he got up and walked slowly down the aisle toward me. He asked, “May I sit down by you, Sister?”
I said, “Certainly,” and moved over. I had a funny feeling when he sat down by me and when he started talking to me I really had a funny feeling.
“I have been watching you since you got on the train,” he said, “and I have something that will help you the rest of your life.”
I looked at him, and for a moment I didn’t know whether to get angry with him or not. Then I answered, “Well, if you have anything that will help me the rest of my life, I’d appreciate it.”
He put his hand in his inside pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He said, “This will help you as long as you live if you heed it. Remember it, and when you think of it, remember me. I want you to have it. I spend my time going around like this, greeting people that I think need this, and I give it to them.”
The train was nearing Ogden and I didn’t see him when he left the car. I didn’t even see him get up and go. When I rushed out to the platform and asked about him, no one had seen him get off this train. The paper he had given me had the following story. . .
THE DEVIL’S AUCTION
The devil at one time had an auction. His tools were getting old and worn and he thought he needed a lot of new ones and he decided to have an auction.
He gathered them all together and put them out—and there was jealousy, greed, hate and envy and all of those—and every one was labeled. And he called the people to come and bid on them.
After awhile, most of them had been bought, but there was one in the back that had never been put out. It was an old, disreputable looking thing but it was still a tool, and one of the buyers walked over and said, “Why isn’t this one on sale?”
And the devil said, “I will never part with that. There isn’t enough money in the world to buy that. It works when nothing else will. If I can only get the little wedge of that tool in a person’s consciousness, the rest is easy. I wouldn’t part with that for all the money in King Solomon’s mines.”
“I notice this hasn’t even a name on it. What’s the name of this tool?”
The devil said, “Discouragement.”
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I told that story in the Assembly Hall at the first general conference I had to speak in after I was called to the Relief Society General Board, and it had such an effect on Mary Grant Judd that she told it to her father, President Heber J. Grant. This was during the time that pres. Grant was ill; and many times after that, Mary told me, when her father was discouraged and down he’d call her to his bedside and say, ‘Mary, I want you to tell me Sister Andrew’s story once again.”
And she said, “Sister Andrew, you have no idea how that affected him. That seemed sometimes to be the only thing that cheered him up a bit when he got helpless and couldn’t do anything.”
Mary Ethel Bean Andrew
– Through the Years –
(Heber J. Grant came to Grampy's mission in Germany. Grampy shot this picture as the prophet departed.)
I shared this with a few friends tonight. One shared the truth that "discouragement is paralyzing". How true. For when we feel it, our faith is broken down and we let the doubt/fears/disbelief creep in. We loose trust and perspective. It is one of Satan's most powerful tools. A selfish being could/would not give up or sell his one favorite device... a device that if allowed to creep in could bring about other harmful D's--despair, depression, doom, disbelief, doubt, darkness, destruction, death(spiritual), disaster.
Thank goodness for the "light" of the gospel/Jesus Christ which brings the happy D's: dedication, direction, determination, discipline, diligence, deliverance, day-light, dawn--into our lives!
Great lesson for me.
THE LINE
Grammy always used to tell tell me about "The Line". It was a tool that she used in her life to help her discover when her mood/attitude was in a place where the spirit could be her constant companion.
Often when we are trying to live right, we know when we have offended the spirit.
Grammy always used to say there is a line in our life. If we dip below the line we are in the negative feelings--these feelings leave us void of having the constant companionship of the spirit. It's okay to dip below the line, we just need to recognize when we do and have a game plan for how to get back above the line.
Grammy was masterful with music and she combined, I think, three different songs to use as her "game plan". When she found herself below the line she would sing 30 secs of these songs and with in moments she would find herself back above the line.
When I find I am below the line I will sing a hymn, read the scriptures, pray, or try to serve. As soon as I do, I find that I have faith and the "Goliath" I am facing is bare-able/do-able. It is above the line when the spirit is our constant guide. I find answers to prayers. And hope.
Brytt used to teach people on the mission about the line. He would come and find families who had put a string up on their wall and had sticky notes reflecting when they felt the spirit above the line, and then other sticky notes marking when they didn't feel the spirit--these sticky notes were below the line.
So when we given into "negative" moments/thoughts/actions in our lives, we must recognize that the spirit can not dwell with us and we must quickly make the changes to get back above the line. I know there are so many more feelings/emotions that can go above or below the line. If we will keep our Father in Heaven close, we need not dwell or live our lives below the line! We can live in the positive! We can find hope. We can have faith!
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