Stories in this episode: The sudden loss of his corporate job throws Dave into a new and sometimes confusing role at home; Jenny's once-thriving life is upended by an unwelcome diagnosis that offers her a powerful connection to some of her Church History idols. Get more info and shownotes at LDSLiving.com/thisisthegospel or find us on instagram and facebook @thisisthegospel_podcast TRANSCRIPT KaRyn 0:03 Welcome to "This Is the Gospel," a LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith everyday. I'm your host, KaRyn Lay. When my town experienced a hurricane-level windstorm this past fall, it uprooted century-old trees and it knocked down power lines. And I learned two things very quickly: First, that I take my easy, daily, access to electricity totally for granted. And second, that I am only partially prepared for the loss of that daily access. We were without power at our house for over five days. And honestly, if it wasn't for our camping gear and a very long extension cord that our neighbor Steve generously draped over the back fence that allowed us to share his generator, I mean, we totally would have survived, but the contents of our freezer wouldn't have and we wouldn't have had access to our cell phones. Now listen, I know there are many people in other parts of the country and the world who have faced even more perilous natural events than our tiny little windstorm. And I don't want my experience to diminish those struggles. Those are really hard things. But for me, this was a particularly important reminder to think about preparation with just a little more urgency. The word preparation comes from the Latin root for "Prae," which means before and "Parare" I don't think I'm saying that right, "to make ready." And I love that idea of "to make ready" because isn't that exactly what this earth life is all about? It's getting our hearts and our minds and our bodies ready for whatever comes next. But President Nelson reminded us in his general conference talk, "Embrace the Future with Faith" that it's not just about making ready for the life after this. If we want to be of good courage and find peace right here, right now, during this most remarkable dispensation, being temporally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared is the key. We have to make ready before the windstorms and the tumults and the ocean waves come for us. And what that looks like in practice, to make ourselves ready as disciples in our world of disruption, probably doesn't include my most recent plan to hoard Slim Jims and get a longer extension cord. So today, we're gonna explore the many sides of preparation with two very different stories from people who learned how preparation opens the door to opportunity and growth. Our first story comes from Dave. Dave 2:28 I was working at my day job for a luxury hotel and it was 9:15 on an idle Tuesday and I was called into the general manager's office. And they said that across several of their hotels, they were dissolving my position. Effective immediately, I would be released, and "Here's a severance," and "We're so sorry, and it's not your performance. It's not anything you, it's just we dissolved the position. Let us know if there's anything we could do." My mind is spinning. Well, what's next? You know, will we stay in the valley? Will we need to sell our house and move? Like, you can imagine the tornado of thoughts and ideas. But as that kind of settled in, I was also quickly reminded, wait a second, like my wife, she's an entrepreneur and her business is really picking up right now. And wait a minute, this coaching program that I'm in has really become my passion project. And I realized that, you know . . . and other people's stories of getting laid off or losing their jobs like that is really stressful, and that they might not have backup options. But in this case, it was so clear that Heavenly Father had prepared us with these other business endeavors to allow us to take that initial hit, and run with it. And now we had the time and the space to dedicate to these other causes that really fulfilled us and really excited us to share more of who we are and to build other people and in lines of work that are sharing light, and love and strength. My wife and I are both entrepreneurs and her business was growing and is growing and so she had great momentum as Rio's business was in a great place to then take off even more and she now had time. Now I'm an at-home-dad trying to grow his business. I had this lull. I had random coaching calls here and there so it was this almost awkward time of being being dad while still coaching. I think the hardest part for me in this new role as a stay-at-home dad at first was, that was a role I never thought I'd be in. Like all growing up I thought I'd be the breadwinner, I'd be the one going to work from you know eight to five and that was what I always thought so then boom, here I am with the kids. Here I am changing diapers and making macaroni and it's like wow! There was like weird feelings of like guilt or like embarrassment, or, you know, in those social gatherings, people would ask, "Oh, how's the coaching going?" and it was going, it was growing, but most of my day was spent stay-at-home dad. And so it was . . . you're just in between worlds, I feel like. Where in social gatherings you're different, and in business gatherings, you're different, as I'm like, at the park with other moms, and like, I'm the only dad there. So it was, at times, I'd say, just funky feelings. All the while being encouraging and supportive of my wife who I was very proud of. And the work she's doing and like, "Heck yes!" like, "Go for it, ride this momentum that you have." And so that was just an interesting psyche feeling that, and . . . even last night, right? Like Tuesday's aren't my professional work days, and so I had a full day with the kids. And it was beautiful, and I loved it. But I found myself at the end of the day, like having feelings of, "Well, Dave, you didn't grow your business," and "You didn't talk to this person and you didn't–" and it was like, wow, just beating myself up about what I didn't do. And like society, I feel like puts that pressure on business and growth. And I was so quickly then–it was just a beautiful feeling, where my heart was just immediately filled with gratitude. And the specific faces of my kids at lunchtime when their faces are messy, but we're all sitting around the table just having lunch together. And it was like, wow, like what a gift. What a gift. What a special sacred time. And I don't ever want to bemoan my kids for keeping me from my professional development. And that's what it's like, what do you really want here? Like, if you had to give up anything for something, what would it be? And it's like, hands down, I'd give it all up for my kids. There's nothing that's more important than family. When I think about it and I dial in, I know God has been preparing and helping me to learn things that he needed me to learn. And experiences I needed to have to be here now as a stay-at-home dad several days a week, to trust that a bummer today is still an opportunity to learn and to grow and to become stronger and wiser because of it. And in those moments of when it's awkward, or when it's you know, I'm not relating to all the other dads in the same way. It's, it's again, a peace of mind because I've received my answer that is unique to me, that this is where I need to be. This is what I'm to be doing. And in moving forward, that that peace of mind can put me in any awkward situation and I know who I am, I know where I stand. I feel like God is preparing me now, in this experience we're talking about to really dial in and help me learn personal revelation. I think I've . . . it's safe to say I have sought more personal revelation in the past year and a half than I have in my entire life combined, with leading my business, with leading my family, with being a partner with my wife, and in so many ways, and the more I can understand how the Spirit communicates to me, the more I can navigate future challenges and future opportunities, and that seems to be maybe the biggest takeaway for me. KaRyn 8:39 That was Dave. Dave and his wife, Rio, are both engaged in work that is all about preparation. In addition to his personal coaching business, they are the founders of Work + Wonder, which is a design company that makes these beautiful guided workbooks that help you get prepared so that you can get more from general conference. We just knew that they would have something cool to share with us about this principle that they have dedicated so much of their life to. And I think it's really interesting that Dave pointed to their temporal preparation is the thing that saved them at first. But it became really clear throughout his story that without the spiritual preparation of honing his ability to receive revelation, the peace about his current situation would have been far more elusive than it is. In that same general conference talk that I mentioned in the intro, "Embrace the Future with Faith," President Nelson invites us to learn and apply three principles of preparation from the life of Captain Moroni. He said quote, "First he helped them create areas where they would be safe. "Places of security" he called them. Second, he prepared the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord. And third, he never stopped preparing his people physically or spiritually," end quote. I can see all three of these preparation principles in Dave's story as he leans into this unique opportunity to actively create emotional and physical security for his children. And as he practices receiving revelation that will anchor him in his faith, and give him continual courage to show up boldly, as himself, wherever he goes.
