Agency, The Power to Choose
I taught this lesson over the past two sundays. We had to cut it short the first sunday because we spent so much time doing introductions. I have a huge class and wanted to give the new 12 year olds a chance to get to know the older teens. So I had them say their names, where they went to school, and one thing about themselves that no one else knew. Our sacrament meeting had gone over and we only had a few minutes anyway, so the lesson was cut short.
We had a good discussion about Agency again this past sunday. These youth are very smart and know the basic doctrines of the gospel. I focused on the scriptures and had them do scripture chases with each, this is a contest where I call out the scripture and the first to find it stands up and reads. They loved it and it is a great prep for early morning seminary, which will start for some of these teens next year. My own Son Jeff is an 8th grader and he will attend early morning seminary at the church next year as a high school freshman. I told them to work hard on their scripture chase skills because they will do it all the time in Seminary.
Here is the actual text of the lesson from the manual.
President Spencer W. Kimball, twelfth President of the Church, described agency as the “basic gospel law” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 38). So important is this law that Heavenly Father has always protected it. Before we came to this earth he cast Satan out because Satan sought to destroy our agency. Heavenly Father allows us to use our agency in this life even though he knows many of us will use it unwisely. President David O. McKay, ninth President of the Church, said, “Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man” (Gospel Ideals [1953], 299). Help class members understand the importance of this great gift.
Note that although the term “free agency” is often used, the correct, scriptural term is simply “agency” (see D&C 29:36; see also page 11 of this lesson).
Suggested Lesson Development
Agency Is the Power to Choose Good or Evil
Activity
Give class members pens or pencils and paper. Ask them to think of the choices they have made so far today and list as many as they can in one minute. At the end of a minute, invite them to share some of the choices on their lists. Then ask:
• Which of your choices today do you think was the most important?
Have class members circle this item on their list. Invite a few volunteers to tell which choice they circled and why they feel it was most important.
• Where did you get your ability to choose?
Have a class member read aloud Moses 7:32. Suggest that those who are using their own scriptures mark this verse (class members should not mark in library copies or borrowed copies of the scriptures).
Explain that Heavenly Father has given us agency—the power to choose between good and evil. But agency is more than just the ability to do what we want; agency is one of the most basic and important of all gospel laws. Quotation
Have a class member read the following statement from Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
“Your agency, the right to make choices, is not given so that you can get what you want. This divine gift is provided so that you will choose what your Father in Heaven wants for you. That way He can lead you to become all that He intends you to be. That path leads to glorious joy and happiness”
(in Conference Report, Apr. 1996, 33; or Ensign, May 1996, 25). Jenny Hatch
A few days ago I had an email from the mother of a woman who is hospitalized with Post Partum Psychosis right now. She thanked me for the article I wrote a few years back at Compleat Mother and said that it gave her hope for her daughter. Here is a link to that article:
The past day or so I have been thinking about my experience so much. With this recent report out that Pharmaceutical companies fudged the studies on anti-depressants, and the fact that whistleblowers have been screaming for years about the risks of Anti Depressants and Peter Breggin and psychiatrists like him have been writing, testifying, publishing, and educating a mostly disinterested public while mocked and belittled by the media, well, it is all just very unsettling to my mind.
For many years I believed that I needed the drugs I was court ordered to eat. I was given Haldol, Stelazine, Lithium, and later Prozac for the many different symptoms of mental illness I was exhibiting. In May of 1990 I asked my psychiatrist to help me wean off of the meds and thankfully she agreed to help me. We gradually took my Prozac dose down to one pill a day, then one pill a week, and when I finally stoped, I experienced a week of mania and mental overwhelm that really freaked my husband out. I have since learned that this is a normal drug reaction when coming off the meds, and is the cause of many people going back on the drugs, because they just can’t break through those symptoms into a well balanced state of mind.
I made it through the wall of symptoms and spent a year just letting my body balance out after fourteen months of toxic chemicals blasting through my body and mind.
During the intervening Seventeen and a half years I have not taken one psychiatric pill, even though I have had people, mostly professionals, but also some family members, say that they thought I should have been medicated all of these years. During each of my four pregnancies since the psychosis, I had so much fear and panic thrust in my direction from well meaning friends and family each time we announced that we were expecting again. They were so alarmed that I was planning to have another baby, so afraid that I would lose my mind again, and how could I possibly give birth and then take good care of my baby without being medicated???
The whole Brooke Shields/Tom Cruise anti depressant fight was such a big deal to me, as the two sides battled it out in the public airwaves. I spent some quality time on the New York Times Discussion board after Brooke wrote her op-ed.
As I was sharing my story on that site a female psychiatrist called me a “dangerous anecdote”. These past two years since that online debate I have chuckled to myself, “Jen, you are a “dangerous anecdote”, unlike the scientific professionals out there in psycho land who double blind study everything so methodically. Well, you know what? They don’t know their asses from their elbows, and the recent stories in the media are further proof of that fact.
Its a topsy turvey world.
I guess the main thing I would like to share in this post is that I give my Heavenly Father all of the credit for helping me through these past two decades. It would have been easy for us to justify to ourselves that I was just not healthy enough to be a mother to a large family, and to stop having babies after our first daughter was born. It would have been so simple to just keep taking whatever med my psychiatrist had prescribed for whatever symptom I had at the time and accept my fate as a mentally ill person. It would have been easy and smooth and I would have received so much sympathy and empathy from my family, friends, and peers who were also being medicated out the yin yang for post partum mental illness.
But I have a soul. I have a spirit. I have a heart filled with passion and hope and love. My eternal soul wanted to fly free, filled with hope and claiming all of the rights and joys of motherhood that were available if Paul and I could only conquer our fear and take a flying Faith Leap into the unknown. The unknown, marked by briars, and pit falls, and scorn, and terror. When Andrea Yates murdered her five children while on a full dose of effexor, I can honestly say that was the low point for me these past 20 years. We had been talking about having a fifth baby, and I felt like my life was really coming together. That story ripped open the scab, and the festering wound of our past came bubbling up, overwhelming both Paul and I.
We did conceive Ben a few months after that story hit the airwaves, and thankfully I was not disabled emotionally by all of the rhetoric being flung around by the news media. They were all obssesed with her husband, blaming him for her psychosis and the deaths of the children. Very, very few people, even now, blame her violent murders on the drugs.
I finally turned off the television and stopped reading the news on the internet during my pregnancy and just sheltered myself from the rage that was spewing. It was a difficult time.
But now that the truth is more fully being exposed about the psychiatric profession and the bogus studies on their dope, my heart just bleeds for the unnecesary pain of so many families. When I think about the individuals who have been court ordered to eat these drugs for the “mood disorders” and the wall of pain that has resulted in death, divorce, disability, and long term emotional pain, I just want to scream.
All of you lawyers, judges, doctors, social workers, “Professionals” who made sure that millions of Americans were doped to death in the various mental hospitals and prisons. The school children who have been killed by classmates high on drugs, the children in foster care who have been overwhelmingly doped, the mothers and father suffering from birth trauma who lost their minds while sleep deprived and suffering from post traumatic stress during medicalized birth, who then turned to psychiatric drugs to fix everything and then found themselves inside of a nightmare that never stopped. The whole big picture just makes me want to vomit.
I wrote my book, A Mothers Journey to share the tips and practices that helped me PREVENT post partum emotional illness these past four pregnancies. The number one preventive measure is to focus everything you have on making sure Momma SLEEPS. My rule for myself is to get one three hour chunk of deep REM sleep during a 24 hour period. I know that if I can get that sleep I will not lose touch with reality.
I also have many other tips and insights in the book, it is available on my web site here.
Anti depressants double the level of cortisol in the blood with just one DOSE, this high level of cortisol leads to a condition called REM Sleep Disorder. High Levels of Cortisol in the blood make it more difficult to achieve REM sleep. SO, taking anti-depressants is the absolute WORST thing you can take if you are a new mother getting very little sleep. Side effects of cortisol: As you read these side effects, think about how horrifying it would be to take care of a new born babe while feeling these feelings:
“A single, 30 mg dose of Prozac — that’s a pill and a half — given to someone who has never taken the drug before, and who never takes it again, will double his or her cortisol levels. Why is this significant? Research indicates that high cortisol levels cause: Brain damage. Cushing’s Syndrome, characterized by a hump at the top of the spine, rounded body with smaller arms and legs, round face, like you would see with Down’s Syndrome, and emotional instability. Moods can fluctuate from degrees of euphoria or mania, and full psychosis, to the depths of depression. Other problems associated with Cushing’s Syndrome include:
Irritability.
Decreased ability to handle stress.
Decreased glucose tolerance, which often develops into hypoglycemia and diabetes.
Muscle weakness, brought on by potassium loss and / or the actual metabolism — or wasting — of muscle mass, capillary weakness, brought on by protein loss, and poor wound healing.
Bone demineralization and susceptibility to fractures, due to decreased bone mineral, and calcium in the urine.
Retarded bone growth in children, probably for the same reasons.
Edema, renal disorders, fluid retention around the face and eyes. Hypertension, from sodium and water retention.
Protruding abdominal cavity, which is why both men and women begin to look pregnant after using these drugs for a while.
Girdle obesity.
Increased production of androgen steroids, resulting in abnormal mammary gland function in men, even to the point of producing milk, and masculinizing of features in women, including excess hair growth on their face, neck, chest, abdomen and thighs.
Acne.
Peptic ulcers.
Decreased or depressed immune system, and suppressed inflammation response, which can mask some very serious infections.
These are just a few of the things that can happen as a result of the increase of cortisol from these drugs.
When you’re literally doubling your cortisol levels on a daily basis, your body is completely deteriorating. I can’t think of anything more damaging to the body — or the brain — than that huge increase of cortisol.”
Jenny Hatch
Here are links to a couple of web sites devoted to mothers who have died, mostly suicides, while psychotic or depressed. In remembrance: Mothers and Babies who have died while Mom was psychotic Melanie’s Battle Beth, A Story of Post Partum Psychosis
This morning I received an Email from Ann Blake Tracy at the Center for Drug Awareness. She told me about this new Fox News report by Douglas Kennedy.
Here is a link to the article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned in the piece.
Then later in the morning I was flipping channels and watched this scientology hit job on EXTRA, can’t find the video yet, but I have watched so many of these the past few years, you know the sort, using every television trick possible to make Scientology and anyone who believes in it to be a nut job or worse. It always cracks me up to watch these shows and then see the commercials come on….the little Zoloft bubble, etc…They should just say at the beginning of the show, This segment brought to you by Eli Lily.
Anyway, here is a video of Cruise talking to Matt Lauer about Psychiatry. I completely endorse and applaud him for his education, passion, and willingness to take on this most powerful entity.
My regular readers know that I suffered a post partum psychosis after the birth of my first baby and then was hospitalized for six weeks. I was court ordered to eat psychiatric meds for fourteen months, and in the past 18 years I have given birth to four additional children and have not taken one pill for mental illness. Alternative healing restored my brain and has given me a measure of wellness that I once believed would be impossible to achieve.
Here is a link to an article I wrote a couple of years ago about Alternative remedies for Post Partum Depression and Psychosis. Jenny Hatch Tom Cruise is right about Psychiatry:
Although psychiatry is the smallest faction within the health care industry, authorities have estimated that psychiatric fraud accounts for 20 percent of fraudulent health care claims paid annually. This places the annual cost of psychiatric fraud in the tens of billions, ranging up to $40 billion per year, as described at the start of this article.
Investigators routinely find psychiatrists responsible for a disproportionate share of the fraud and corruption within the health care industry.
As far back as 1985, a U.S. Justice Department probe found that while psychiatrists represented only 8 percent of the physicians in the country, they accounted for 18 percent of the crooked doctors suspended from Medicaid programs over a 15-year period — the worst performance of any group in the medical field.
Crimes included charging for therapy when they had only doled out drugs; billing for patients who did not exist; falsely billing for up to 24 hours of therapy per day; and having sex with patients and billing the government for their lust.
Florida Medicare investigators found that 40 percent of all mental health outpatient service billings in 1994 were fraudulent.
And if fines collected by the federal government are an index, psychiatry is responsible for nearly 90 percent of the health care fraud in the United States. Of the $411 million paid in health-care-related fines in 1994, $379 million were paid by psychiatric hospitals.
The Brewer Pregnancy Diet Web Site!
Joy Jones has put together an excellent site to teach families how to use the Brewer Diet Properly. Please, if you do nothing else during your pregnancy, learn this diet, put it into practice, and then stand back and watch your body do the amazing work of building your healthy child!
Click on the image to learn more about Joy M. Jones RN It was during my three years in New York that I met Tom and Gail Brewer. Janice was a friend of Gail’s, and I believe that they were both active in the Childbirth Education Association of Metropolitan New York (CEAMNY). In any case, Tom and Gail were invited to present a weekend-long workshop about the Brewer Diet, sponsored by the CEAMNY, and I decided to attend. I don’t remember how it was that Tom and I started talking about the design for a poster of how his diet works in preventing problems in pregnancy, but I do remember how impressed I was with the validity of the science behind the simplicity of his diet plan. During the process of designing the poster*, and later that of writing a pamphlet for use as a simple handout, I came to understand the diet better, and develop a kind of friendship with the man. In later years, I appreciated his readiness to answer my questions, and how available he was by phone. Occasionally, I would receive letters from him in the mail–xeroxed copies of whatever pregnancy and nutrition development was in the news, and happened to be on his mind at the time. In the margins, he would write copious notes all about studies that contradicted whatever was written in the article. I felt for him in his frustration that a solution as simple as eating could be so hard to accept, for many of his peers and others in the health field.
Since then, I’ve had two babies of my own and have done many other things in the field of pregnancy and childbirth. But throughout it all, I’ve continued to reach out to pregnant women with the Brewer Diet, and have felt the gratification of seeing them turn their complications around with something as simple as eating. Jenny Hatch
A Few weeks ago I was released from my Ward Welfare Specialist Calling and then I was asked to teach the 12 and 13 year old Sunday School Class. With the start of a new year, we have a new course of study and I thought I would share these lessons. The Topic for the Youth for the year is Preparing for Exaltation.
I am also serving as Visiting Teacher and lead the singing in Sacrament Meeting. Paul and I sing with our ward choir and we love being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!
Jenny Hatch
To read all of the text from this lesson, please click here.
A Loving Father—An Eternal Plan
Our Earth Experience Is Part of the Plan of Salvation
Story and discussion
Read the following story told by Bishop H. Burke Peterson, who was a member of the Presiding Bishopric:
“My parents and grandparents were born and raised in Utah. However, my mother and father began their married life in Phoenix, Arizona. That is where my three brothers and I were raised. Almost every summer my father and mother would take all of us to Utah … to enjoy the association with our cousins and other relatives.
“… One spring before school was out I asked my father if I could go to Salt Lake City to work and then return to Phoenix at the end of the summer to be with my family and begin school again. After thinking it over, my parents decided it would be fine. When school was out in May, Dad took me with him to the [bus station] and, since I had no money of my own as yet, bought me a ticket to Salt Lake City. I was somewhat taken back when I found out that he had purchased for me a one-way ticket instead of a round trip. He said he would take the responsibility to see that I arrived in Salt Lake City but it would be up to me to do what was necessary while I was there to purchase the ticket for a return home to Phoenix at the end of the summer. As you can imagine, I was most anxious to come back home after my work experience as I had burning in my memory the happy experiences we had always enjoyed in our home. I enjoyed the association with and loved my three brothers and was most happy and comfortable being with my parents.
“When I arrived in Salt Lake City I immediately set about to find work. This I was able to accomplish, and as soon as my first paycheck was given to me, guess what I did. First I paid my tithing, and then I took the rest of the money to the bus depot downtown in Salt Lake City and purchased a return trip ticket to Phoenix. I wanted to be sure that when summer was over there would be nothing to stand in the way of my returning home. I loved my home very much. For the rest of the summer I was particularly mindful of taking good care of myself and doing everything necessary to insure my return home to Phoenix. More than anything else I wanted to enjoy again the experience of being with my family.”
• Have you ever had an experience where you were away from your family and home and were anxious to return?
Give class members a few moments to comment, and then read Bishop Peterson’s comments on the story:
“We all had an experience similar to this long ago before we came to this earth. We were in a gathering where we were being instructed by our Father in heaven concerning the earth he had prepared for us. … He let us know that the decision to come here would be ours, and if this was our wish, he would see to it that we arrived into this mortal experience safely. Like the experience I had in Phoenix as a boy, our Father in heaven would provide a one-way ticket for us. Whether or not we returned again to him at the end of our mortal experience on earth would depend upon the things we did while we were here” (“Return Trip Ticket Home,” New Era, Apr. 1974, 5).
Explain that this year in Sunday School, class members will learn about Heavenly Father’s plan for us, Jesus Christ’s role in that plan, and what we must do to return to them when our earth life is over.
• What do these boxes and circles represent?
If class members do not immediately realize that the drawing represents the plan of salvation, label one or two of the boxes or circles. Then ask class members to fill in the rest of the chart, helping them as needed. Explain that this diagram answers three universal questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going after this life?
• Which box or circle represents where we are right now? (The circle labeled “mortality.”)
Point out that our earth life is only part of our eternal existence. We lived before we came to earth, and we will live after we die. Briefly review the plan of salvation as illustrated on the chart, and tell class members that they will be learning about it throughout the year.
Scripture discussion
Have class members turn to Moses 1:39. Ask one of them to read the verse aloud.
• What does God tell us his work is?
Point out that the scripture names two things as God’s work—to bring to pass immortality and eternal life. Explain that these two words do not refer to the same thing. Immortality is a state of being resurrected, of being free from physical death. This blessing will come to all people. Eternal life is living with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the celestial kingdom. This blessing—which is also called exaltation—comes only to those who keep the commandments and make the necessary covenants. (You may want to point out that the title of this course of study is “Preparing for Exaltation.” The lessons that will be taught in Sunday School this year focus on how we can prepare to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again.)
• How does it make you feel to know that Heavenly Father’s most important work is helping you return to live with him again? (Invite class members to answer this question to themselves if they do not wish to share their feelings with the class.)
Explain that Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation provides a way for us to gain a body, learn by experience, show that we will obey his commandments, and return to him stronger and wiser. Emphasize that this plan is given because of Heavenly Father’s great love for us.
Knowing the Plan Helps Us Make Wise Decisions
Activity
Give each class member or pair of class members a pen or pencil and a copy of the “Mortality Maze” (or have all class members work together on a large copy of the maze). Explain that the objective is to draw a continuous line from “Birth” to “Death,” passing through the center (“Fulfill the purpose of life”).
When class members finish the maze, explain that in life, as in this maze, we must make many decisions about which way we should go. However, when we understand that life on earth has a purpose and is part of Heavenly Father’s plan, we can begin to make correct decisions. (You may want to point out that there is a second path from “Birth” to “Death,” but this path does not go through the center. Likewise, some people finish their earth life without understanding or fulfilling its purpose.)
Stories and discussion
Read or have a class member read the following stories. Discuss with class members how being aware of God’s plan could influence the decisions of the person in each story. Help class members see how a knowledge of God’s plan can help them better understand themselves and the decisions they will have to make in life.
Paul
All his life, Paul had planned to go on a mission. From the time he was very young, his parents had taught him the importance of serving the Lord in this way. He had built a substantial savings account, which he called his “mission money.” It had never occurred to him that he might do anything else.
As Paul grew older, however, it became harder for him to save money for a mission. Any money he earned seemed to be spent before he got around to putting any in his savings account. In addition, he saw many expensive things he wanted to have. Paul began to doubt whether he wanted to spend so much money and time on a mission.
• What does God expect of Paul?
• How could understanding the plan of salvation help Paul make a correct decision about serving a mission?
• What difference will this decision make in Paul’s progress toward eternal life?
Note to the teacher
Good questions cause class members to think. Avoid asking questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” (See Teaching—No Greater Call, 105–6.)
Melissa
Melissa had many friends in her ward until she began attending a new school. She made new friends at the school, and soon her new friends became very important to her. She saw her old friends in the ward less and less, and she began to feel that she had outgrown them. Her new friends seemed more exciting and mature and seemed to be doing adventurous things she had never done before.
One day Melissa attended a party at the home of one of her new friends. Everyone she thought was important was there. As the party progressed, the activities became much different from what Melissa was accustomed to. Even people she would never have expected such conduct from were drinking, and some were using drugs. Melissa wanted to have fun and be accepted by these people who were so important to her, but she was very uncomfortable. When one of her friends offered her an alcoholic drink, she thought maybe it wouldn’t hurt to drink just one.
• What do you think Melissa should do? Why?
• How could understanding the plan of salvation help Melissa make the right choice?
• If you were to talk to Melissa privately, what might you say to her to help her make the right decision?
Carl
Carl played basketball and played it well. But he did not do as well in schoolwork. Because of his interest in basketball, he devoted little time to studying for his classes. Carl’s parents told him that if his grades were poor, he would no longer be able to play on the basketball team. Carl didn’t know what to do. Then a possible solution appeared. Mike, a member of Carl’s basketball team, mentioned that the same thing had happened to him. He solved his problem by cheating on tests. He was able to get good grades without studying. Mike suggested that Carl do the same thing. Carl knew it was dishonest, but it seemed like such a simple solution to his problem.
• What could Carl do to solve his problem without cheating?
• How could a testimony of the plan of salvation help Carl decide what to do? Understanding the Plan of Salvation Makes a Difference
Discussion
Ask class members to think about some of the decisions they face each day.
• How can understanding and having a testimony of the plan of salvation help you with your daily decisions?
Invite class members to explain how understanding that Heavenly Father has a plan for them could help them with a decision they have faced or are facing. If appropriate, share an experience in which knowing the plan of salvation helped you make a good decision in a difficult situation.
Testimony
Testify that because Heavenly Father loves us, he has given us a plan to help us return to live with him. Knowing this plan can help us make wise decisions. Explain that the best way to make a decision is to think of the eternal consequences of each choice and choose that which will lead back to Heavenly Father.
Encourage class members to keep in mind the plan of salvation when making choices.
Enrichment Activities
You may want to use one or more of these activities during the lesson.
1. If it is available, show “Man’s Search for Happiness,” a thirteen-minute segment of the Come unto Me videocassette (53146), to explain the plan of salvation.
2. Display a road map.
• What is this? Why would someone use this?
Explain that life is like a journey. Heavenly Father knew that we would need directions to help us find our way back to him, so he provided the plan of salvation as a kind of map for us to follow.
• How can we “read” this map and know what we must do to reach our destination of living with Heavenly Father again? (Answers may include by studying the scriptures, following the prophets, and listening to our teachers and parents as they teach us about the gospel.)
• How would our lives be different if we did not have this map, or plan?
3. Invite a recently returned missionary to come to class and share an experience he or she had with teaching the plan of salvation in the mission field.
4. Sing with class members “I Am a Child of God” (Hymns,no. 301; or Children’s Songbook,2).
More Here: Heavenly Fathers Plan of Salvation
