HUMILITY
Friday, June 10, 2016
FREEDOM
The value of Freedom is a huge blessing to my family and I. Sometimes, we take it for granted because it is a value that we had when we were born and it is a value that we continue to have. We've never gone without it. At times, it's hard to value something as much if you've never lost it or fought for it. I feel that is how the younger generation feels and acts. I feel that the younger generation says that they have so many rules and restrictions and they try to push their limits. Rules, laws, commandments actually help us actually achieve freedom. It's through being obedient to the laws and commandments that allow us to have more freedom. If we don't obey the laws of the land, we become subject to the consequences of our behavior. I wish more people understood that.
There have been several people sacrifice for the sake of freedom. They fully understand and realize what freedom means. Freedom is a gift, and those of us who enjoy it must protect it. It gives us certain rights to live as we choose. These certain rights are blessings and allow us to grow and develop as good people. Some of those rights are:
1. Freedom to choose any religion we choose.
2. Freedom of women to vote, drive, and work.
3. Freedom to choose who we marry.
4. Freedom to decide what to wear, read, and think.
5. Freedom to protest decisions we think are unjust.
The Bill of Rights which has the first ten amendments to the Constitution says that there is freedom of speech, press, religion, petition, and assembly, as well as protection against cruel and unusual punishment, unreasonable search and seizure, and other due process rights.
The Founding Fathers approached the task of guaranteeing liberty by limiting government. They learned a few things from the British. That was one of them. I feel that the founding fathers were inspired and had divine intervention to help them establish an amazing country.
I want to take a moment and thank the men and women who serve our country and pay the price of freedom. These men and women of the armed forces are amazing and I give my gratitude and praise to them. It is because of them that we have the rights and privileges that we do.
In Tonga, the people are ruled by a King (Monarchy). Their rights and freedoms are different than ours. There are a number of issues concerning protection of civil and political rights particularly freedom of expression, and rights to political participation. Tongans have some of the same rights that we have, but not to the same level. Part of it is due to the government being controlled by the nobility of the Tongan people. For example, they have the freedom of expression, but its not always protected in practice. Women's rights are not equal to the men of Tonga. Women are unable to own land like the men. This is a significant barrier to the economic empowerment of the women in Tonga. It will be interesting to see the differences that they have compared to America.
We are truly blessed to live in the USA where we can enjoy so many Freedoms.
Let Freedom Ring!
FAMILY
This value is of course near and dear to my heart. Family is EVERYTHING! This is why we do what we do. I remember when I was in UnderGrad & Dental School and it was so difficult. We had little babies who would cry throughout the night, I was working full time, and taking 20 credits in UnderGrad. Heidi was working full time and trying to be a brand new mother. We kept on telling ourselves that we are doing this (working our tails off) now for our kids and our family. We knew that we wanted Heidi to stay home with the kids in the future, we knew we wanted to have a good career where we could help people, and we knew we wanted to teach our kids good values. For our family, Dentistry was the vehicle we chose to help get us there. It felt like it was a hard road while we were going through it, but we look back and realize what we learned through the process was so worth it. We now have this great opportunity to serve in Tonga as a FAMILY. We have been blessed as family. With those blessings, it is our responsibility to help others.
The family unit is the fundamental unit of society. If you look back in history, if the family unit is in tact, the father and mother are leading their family and teaching correct principles, society flourishes and thrives. We need good Fathers and good Mothers to raise a great generation to carry on the legacy that we are trying to leave. Our future generation (our posterity) and their success depends on how well we do with teaching, loving, supporting, and raising our children. They of course have their own choice to do what they want when they are older, but we need to do all we can to teach good principles and allow them to make their own choices.
I love my family so much! We like to work hard, but we like to play hard too. In fact, our family motto is "WORK HARD, PLAY HARD". In Tonga, we plan to work and serve hard, and then have some time to play hard.
Remember, FAMILY is EVERYTHING. Your family and your memories are the only thing you can take with you when you leave this life. SO........ Work hard, Play hard, and make some memories!
FAITH
Faith - I think one of the best definitions of faith that I've come across is it's an action of showing our hope for something that we cannot yet see. Like the picture above, sometimes, we have to take a "leap of faith" with whatever it is, and we are not sure whether or not we are going to land on our feet. Right? We can do a lot of research and due diligence before we act, but sometimes, it takes that initial step of faith to put us into action. It's through that action on faith that it becomes knowledge. When you have faith to leap, and you land on your feet, your faith increases.
I know in life, there are so many times that we put our trust or confidence in a person or thing with the hope that good things will come. There is one thing that I know is constant with faith. When we put our trust and "faith" in Jesus Christ, you will always come out on top. Our religion is a big part of who we are and has taught us to be the people that we strive to be. That is to follow Jesus Christ, live his teachings, and try to serve others as he served.
Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot see yet. Having faith means to rely on Jesus Christ, trusting in his infinite power, love, and intelligence. When we exercise faith in him, we believe his teachings and we act on those teachings. The other saying that I love is "faith without works is dead". You can have faith, but unless you take action, it's no good.
When we made this goal to go to Tonga, we had faith that the Lord would help us get there. We planned this trip back in 2010 and picked 2016 for the time to go serve in Tonga. We try to serve the people around here locally as much as we can, but we wanted to go to a different culture, different people, different country to serve and experience something unique as a family. This trip has taken a lot of preparation, sacrifice, time, and effort. But, we had faith and took action. I've had a lot of people say, "Oh, it would be so cool if we could do something like that." The reality is that you can! Whether on a small scale or a large scale. Whatever it is, if you want it bad enough, you can do it. The DESIRE and the ACTION has to be there. It's taken 6 years to be able to do this. Heidi is a big reason we're able to go and serve. She is so frugal and works so hard. That's why I love her so much.
Personal Experience - We have had a number of obstacles lately that we feel have been hurdles to overcome in going on this trip. We had to have faith that everything would work out. But, more importantly, it took action.
1. One big hurdle is that our practice's insurance clearing house went out of business about a month and half ago. They gave us no warning, just a certified letter stating that they were closing the doors and could no longer serve the Dental community. What this did to our finances was it delayed payments by about a month and a half. I did not want to leave with our finances in distress. We had to quickly find another company and resubmit all the insurance claims. Our office manager worked crazy hours to get it done and we got it all caught up.
2. We had one of key employees abruptly quite on us two months before we were to leave. We had planned on her training her replacement, but she came in one day and said she was done. In 12 years of doing Dentistry, I've never had someone do that. It was a big surprise! We wish her the best, but it didn't put us in the best of circumstances. We eventually found someone that we had to spend extra time to train and be able to help our patients.
3. The last month, we have had a lot of our Dental equipment break down and we have had to get it fixed. Extra expenses and time were not planned for, but we have an awesome team that got on it and took care of it.
4. We have an "adopted" family member who has had some severe health issues and has been in the hospital for the last 5 weeks.
5. We had a Dr. to cover me for the summer, but that fell through in November of 2015. We then had to find someone else and have them be a part of our practice when I come back. Blessing in disguise.
The reason I share this is not to get too personal, but to show that with faith, determination, and action, GOOD things will happen. We have caught up on all the insurances, we have found someone that is great for the front, we have fixed what we need to fix, our family member is stable and trying to recover, and we have a great Dr. that is covering for me and will eventually become partner in the practice. Faith and good works - that's the key!
I know in life, there are so many times that we put our trust or confidence in a person or thing with the hope that good things will come. There is one thing that I know is constant with faith. When we put our trust and "faith" in Jesus Christ, you will always come out on top. Our religion is a big part of who we are and has taught us to be the people that we strive to be. That is to follow Jesus Christ, live his teachings, and try to serve others as he served.
Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot see yet. Having faith means to rely on Jesus Christ, trusting in his infinite power, love, and intelligence. When we exercise faith in him, we believe his teachings and we act on those teachings. The other saying that I love is "faith without works is dead". You can have faith, but unless you take action, it's no good.
When we made this goal to go to Tonga, we had faith that the Lord would help us get there. We planned this trip back in 2010 and picked 2016 for the time to go serve in Tonga. We try to serve the people around here locally as much as we can, but we wanted to go to a different culture, different people, different country to serve and experience something unique as a family. This trip has taken a lot of preparation, sacrifice, time, and effort. But, we had faith and took action. I've had a lot of people say, "Oh, it would be so cool if we could do something like that." The reality is that you can! Whether on a small scale or a large scale. Whatever it is, if you want it bad enough, you can do it. The DESIRE and the ACTION has to be there. It's taken 6 years to be able to do this. Heidi is a big reason we're able to go and serve. She is so frugal and works so hard. That's why I love her so much.
Personal Experience - We have had a number of obstacles lately that we feel have been hurdles to overcome in going on this trip. We had to have faith that everything would work out. But, more importantly, it took action.
1. One big hurdle is that our practice's insurance clearing house went out of business about a month and half ago. They gave us no warning, just a certified letter stating that they were closing the doors and could no longer serve the Dental community. What this did to our finances was it delayed payments by about a month and a half. I did not want to leave with our finances in distress. We had to quickly find another company and resubmit all the insurance claims. Our office manager worked crazy hours to get it done and we got it all caught up.
2. We had one of key employees abruptly quite on us two months before we were to leave. We had planned on her training her replacement, but she came in one day and said she was done. In 12 years of doing Dentistry, I've never had someone do that. It was a big surprise! We wish her the best, but it didn't put us in the best of circumstances. We eventually found someone that we had to spend extra time to train and be able to help our patients.
3. The last month, we have had a lot of our Dental equipment break down and we have had to get it fixed. Extra expenses and time were not planned for, but we have an awesome team that got on it and took care of it.
4. We have an "adopted" family member who has had some severe health issues and has been in the hospital for the last 5 weeks.
5. We had a Dr. to cover me for the summer, but that fell through in November of 2015. We then had to find someone else and have them be a part of our practice when I come back. Blessing in disguise.
The reason I share this is not to get too personal, but to show that with faith, determination, and action, GOOD things will happen. We have caught up on all the insurances, we have found someone that is great for the front, we have fixed what we need to fix, our family member is stable and trying to recover, and we have a great Dr. that is covering for me and will eventually become partner in the practice. Faith and good works - that's the key!
EMPATHY
Empathy - What a great value! Seeing the world through someone else's eyes so that you can understand their situation and what they are going through. One of the purposes we are serving this "mini-mission" trip to Tonga is to teach our children and ourselves a little more empathy. I think when you immerse yourself into their culture, live like them, live with them, and understand why they are who they are, you can better show empathy. I love how the scriptures teach us that when you lose yourself in the service of others, you actually find yourself. That is so true. You find out exactly who you are and what is most important when you forget yourself and go to work helping others. You realize that you have more blessings to be grateful for than what most people have.
Why do we practice empathy? It can help us forget ourselves and focus on serving others. There are a number of factors where empathy and the practice of it will help us. You lose interest in yourself and take interest in the well being of others. It helps to reduce prejudice and racism. Empathy is good for your marriage. Understanding your spouse's feelings deepens your relationship. Empathy promotes heroic acts, it fights inequality, it's good for the office, and it's good for health care.
When a Doctor can show empathy for a patient and show understanding of their situation, the trust is built, the anxiety goes down, and the treatment is able to be given. I love the quote from Steven R. Covey that says, "Seek first to understand, then be understood." When we take the time in any situation to try to understand first rather than having others understand us, things get resolved faster. All too often people are only concerned about themselves and say, "well, they just don't understand." If that's the attitude, it needs to be adjusted. What we need to ask ourselves is, "what do I need to understand?" Then, after you've done your due diligence, you've taken the "high road", you will be the one that is understood.
Personal Experience -
October 2007 – “A Bridge and Steak"
Why do we practice empathy? It can help us forget ourselves and focus on serving others. There are a number of factors where empathy and the practice of it will help us. You lose interest in yourself and take interest in the well being of others. It helps to reduce prejudice and racism. Empathy is good for your marriage. Understanding your spouse's feelings deepens your relationship. Empathy promotes heroic acts, it fights inequality, it's good for the office, and it's good for health care.
When a Doctor can show empathy for a patient and show understanding of their situation, the trust is built, the anxiety goes down, and the treatment is able to be given. I love the quote from Steven R. Covey that says, "Seek first to understand, then be understood." When we take the time in any situation to try to understand first rather than having others understand us, things get resolved faster. All too often people are only concerned about themselves and say, "well, they just don't understand." If that's the attitude, it needs to be adjusted. What we need to ask ourselves is, "what do I need to understand?" Then, after you've done your due diligence, you've taken the "high road", you will be the one that is understood.
Personal Experience -
October 2007 – “A Bridge and Steak"
When we first started the practice, we were in an Endodontic office and we were renting space there for a year while our office was being built. I remember one of our first patients that came in. He was a retired helicopter pilot that flew in World War 2 and had all sorts of amazing experiences. He came into the office having pain on the upper left side. We made some radiographs and I saw that there were two teeth that were unrestorable and some abcessing that was happening. I told him that the teeth were going to have to come out. You would think that I cut off his right hand. He told me that all he wants is to be able to eat steak. I took some time to listen to him and tried as best as I could to show empathy. He said that was his good chewing side. We talked about what it was that he "wanted". I gave him the option of extracting those teeth and doing a bridge to restore function. He committed to the treatment and we did it for him. We had taken time to listen to him and what his wants and desires were. When we seated the final bridge, we had bought two huge, juicy STEAKS for him. You would think that we gave his right hand back to him along with another right hand. Ha, ha. He started to tear up and said that no one had ever done something that nice for him. Here was a seventy-five year old man that was tough as nails breaking down in our dental chair full of gratitude. It was a humbling experience. He was SO grateful for what we did. Later that night when I called to check up on him, he said he was cooking up the steaks and was so excited to be eating them. What a simple gift, but what a huge blessing for him. It’s wonderful to have brightened his day. When we show empathy, listen, and make it about "them", wonderful miracles can happen.
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