Life's Lessons: Jonah vs. Charity

(Part 3)

My “Things I Learned from a 4-year-old Princess” posts are rather slim. (She’s 5 now, by the way.) But I am regrettably now hundreds of miles away from her; so, unfortunately, the additions to that series will be slow to fewer and farther between (even more so than before, if you dedicated bloggers can believe that).

But here’s a new series: “Life’s Lessons”. Maybe I’ll come up with a more creative title soon. Maybe, “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” or “If Wise People Learn from Other’s Mistakes, then I’m a Master Teacher!” or “You’d Think I Would Have Figured That Out By Now” or “Lori Dawn, Don’t You Ever Learn?”. Any ideas?

As I look at who I have become, I often look back to see how I came to be who I am. There are several defining moments in my life, several experiences or lessons or realizations that have truly shaped me into who I am more than any others. Hopefully I’ll get more on here eventually. But today’s is from my freshman year at college and my good friend, Anneli.

Anneli was a year ahead of me at school, but we instantly bonded with our love for music, musicals, and our dramatic personalities. We would often see each other at the institute and tell each other all about our dramatic days. Someone we always seemed to understand one another when no one else fully did.

One afternoon, after a particularly brutal “Jonah Day” (watch Anne of Green Gables for the full effect of that phrase—or better yet, read the Book of Jonah), I was relieved as I walked into the LDS Institute building on campus to find Anneli. As I dramatically expressed the downward spiral of my day, she echoed the exact sentiments back—she’d had one as well! I know I could count on her to commiserate with me! I was so grateful for a friend like her, with whom I could go drown my sorrows in an old movie or a big bowl of ice cream or something equally self-indulgent and self-centered. I opened my mouth to suggest just such a thing, and said, “I know! Let’s go—“ but before I could suggest some fattening, sugary way to cauterize the effects of our days , she replied: “SERVE!”

It was one of those moments when you have no idea what expression is on your face. All you know is that when you finally process what was said, several seconds have passed, and you realize that your mouth is still open and you have no idea what to say next. “Service” was certainly not the message I had intended on conveying to her!

But what did we do? We went to her house, made cookies, and secretly delivered them to several people in our church congregation. And I went home that night feeling so good—I had completely forgotten that I’d ever had a Jonah Day.



President Gordon B. Hinckley learned this principle first-hand and put it so simply when he said, “Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause.” (Preach My Gospel, Ch. 9, pg, 168). That’s a life’s lesson to live by.