Stars & Sushi: Part 2

 

This year it is was easy to be overwhelmed by the beautiful parts of the country that we come from. But these simply pale in comparison to the beauty that’s you. The world we live in does take my breath away, but there is nothing that leaves me more in awe than people.

Oh, how this family makes my heart smile. This year our team had the chance to travel to Japan, and this was my host family while we were there. While in Japan we learned how to introduce ourselves in Japanese "Watashi no nama awah Bethany Bohnenblust des," experienced the Asian culture, ate lots and lots of sushi, and had the thrill of riding on the subway and having no idea what anyone else was saying. One afternoon we had the chance to go and actually hang out with a FFJ chapter, Future Farmers of Japan. We listened as they welcomed us in and taught us the FFJ dance-it was hecka sweet!

The day's festivities concluded with meeting our host families. I went home with this fabulous family, with huge smiles, lots of questions, and not a word of spoken English. The first night I cried myself to sleep as I just wanted to be with my own family. I wanted a hot shower, to sleep in a warm bed, wear clean clothes, and to eat something that wasn't raw. The next day I was straight up miserable, thinking only of what I wanted. I wanted to get back to my own home and was desperate to be back around people like who I could understand.

The second night Tomanai, my host sister, had invited a couple of her friends over for a slumber party. Using a Japanese/English dictionary, I asked if I could help make dinner-sushi of course. As I began to learn from these girls how to take an ordinary bowl of rice and turn it into an extraordinarily beautiful meal of sushi, I looked up and realized how selfish I had been. I was speechless.

No, they weren't like my family and I wasn't in my own home-but they had gone our of their way to make me feel special. They made me 'American' coffee for breakfast-a sure way to my heart, the sister had moved our of her room to give me her bed, the grandfather and mother made me handmade gifts, and the dad gave me a hand-written note saying his family was forever my family.

Once I quit thinking about me and let myself see how amazing these people were, I fell in love with them. It wasn't them who needed to change; I needed to shift my perspective.

When has your selfishness been a hindrance? When you weren't selected the MVP of your sport team? When someone took your vied for parking spot? When your alarm went off a little early this morning? Or what about when you became the jealous boyfriend or girlfriend? We all definitely have our moments, but what could happen if we were willing to shift our perspective?

When I chose to set aside my selfish thinking we had a slumber party not soon to be forgotten full of lots of pictures, origami lessons, and me sharing with those girls American pop music and high fives.

Speaking of high-fives, check this out: hold out your hand as if to give a high five. In one human hand there are 29 bones, 34 muscles, and 48 nerves. On square inch of skin about the size of your thumbnail has over 19,000 skin cells in it.

Yeah, that's pretty deep science lesson, but if I would have been viewing my host family as this unbelievable creation of science and beauty the entire time, I wouldn't have been viewing them in anything but awe.

People don't leave us in awe just because of their scientific backing but because of the great things you do in this world. I keep a little red book. This book was started in Tennessee last January. In it I capture down people who are living our their passions and the purpose they were created for.

Here are a few of people I met: 

• I'm in awe of the work ethic I witnessed in brothers Dalton and Austin from Housatonic Valley, Connecticut. They work harder on their family's dairy than anyone else their age I've ever met. They have already invested more in their family business in hours and resources than more businessmen ever will.
• I'm in awe of the hearts for service I observed. Kendall, a state officer from Georgia, has created a Facebook page as part of her service project at WLC to remind girls how beautiful they are. Check it out on Facebook 'Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.'
• And I'm in awe of the attitudes I saw. The Michigan State Officer team has found an incredible way to serve this year. On member shared with me how to live with KIP. K-I-P, standing for keep it positive. How awesome is that!

Living in awe doesn't stop at just seeing this amazingness around you. It's about respecting these people more. Showing the same respect to the 6.8 billion other people that we share this world with that we ourselves want. It means going up to a competitor and congratulating them even when they beat you. It means respecting our parents and guardians even when we don't feel like it. It means saying thank you to the FFA advisors and sponsors who brought us to National convention this week.

When we're focused on everyone else around us, we're not thinking about ourselves. Eating sushi with my host family taught me to live in awe of others. This world it's not about me and you.

The reality of how much more beautiful and pleasing life is when we're not on the throne, but instead humbled before it has forever changed my life.

My relationships have different intentions, actions are strategic, a purpose reigns, and my person top priority-God-never wavers.

Every single day I wake up in awe at what we get to experience, where we call home in this country, in awe of the difference you make in your communities, but most importantly this last year I've been left in awe of you. Friends, you have blessed me. You have taught me about what joy there is in being small.

A person who lives in awe knows we can never have too much humility, too much faith, too much belief in a greater purpose, to much clarity, or too much zeal in doing good to others. So let us continuously be laying our own plans aside and being pushed forth to other.

A movie about this world wouldn't have anything to do with you and me. We simply get to be supporting actors and extras to the real glory to be given.

Stars and sushi have taught me about my rightful position on this earth. Where have you placed yourself?

I'm not asking any of us to be perfect at this. We can't be. I am asking for us to think beyond ourselves to commit tonight to seeing beyond this world of population one. As you leave Conseco Fieldhouse look up at the night sky and be reminded of how small we are. Start a conversation with the person next to you and be left in awe of their gifts.

It is promise that favor will be shown to the humble. If not the here-and-now it's guaranteed in the next.

By living in awe we see the universe and its people in an entirely new way. We can be humbled at what we get to be a part of. Be a part of the bigger picture. Go live in awe!

Stars & Sushi: Part 1

This is part 1 of 2 of my retiring address at National FFA Convention.

 Growing up dress-up clothes was the attire, make believe was the game, and a box office hit coming from two young film producers, my brother and i, was on the line. From cowboys and Indians, to K-State football player and cheerleader, to a princess being saved by her prince charming, we had BIG ideas, BIG imaginations, and one BIG star of the show....ME! 

I mean, I was the oldest, I was the girl, and I had watched my fair share of Disney movies to know what I was doing.

Seriously though, my poor brother. I always insisted on being the star. Truth was I was selfish. Somehow I thought that I deserved to be up here on the throne, to be in the limelight. Fail.

There is nothing pleasing about being prideful, boastful, or arrogant about one’s self. Let's be honest to any of us really enjoy spending time with someone who can think only about themselves. We've been taught from a young age that favor will be shown to the humble. So why aren't we reaching for it?

I definitely don't have this idea of humility figured out, but it's something that I'm striving for. This year I have learned that humility starts with not thinking about me all the time. It's not that we need to degrade and devalue ourselves as people, but it does mean thinking about me less. I believe there is a way to view this world that can help us see where we fit into the big scheme of things. When we see this world as more than population one we live in awe.

The word awe means 'having a feeling of wonder, amazement, respect, and reverence.' Check out Urban Dictionary: 'a moment of awe is a moment without words.'

Two things taught me to live in awe this year: a starry night and a lesson in sushi making. In order to truly see ourselves as we should we must live in awe of two things: Live in awe of the universe and live in awe of others.

Where are my friends who are from the south? Where are my friends who are starting to talk like they're from the south? Last summer as part of a campus ministry, I lived in the great southern state of Florida. One of the greatest memories was on the final night that we were there. It was everything this Kansas girl could have asked for, an open fire on the beach and conversation with some of my greatest friends. As the star tipping and volleyball games began to slow down my friend Cindy and I slipped off.

We walked up and down the coastline for what seemed like hours. We reminisced about the summer, wondered what our futures held for us, and then sometimes we just stood in awe of our surroundings.

We eventually got a distance from everyone else and just laid down on the sand and gazed up at the stars. How small a night sky pierced by millions of twinkling lights can make us feel? We can never fully take in the night sky; our minds simply can't comprehend how far the stars stretch. Our eyes feast on meteor showers and our minds wonder just what else is out there. It was in those moments staring up at the never-ending sky that my thoughts were a million miles away from my own needs.

Have you ever had one of these moments? When you get goosebumps-it's a staggering powerful reality of how small we are. Our thoughts have completely left ourselves and are looming in awe of what we see. I never feel as close to my Creator as when I'm gazing up at a night sky.

What if we lived each moment like we do when we're gazing at the stars? With the perspective that we're not the center of the universe. We all know someone else who thinks the world revolves around them. Truth is each of us has our moments too.

But how can we even begin to think that this life is about us? Right now, we are in the city of Indianapolis. Indianapolis is one city, in the state of Indiana, which is one state in the United States which is only one country in North America, which is but one continent on planet Earth. This is basic, we all know this stuff.

But this is when we are about to be speechless. Planet Earth is one of eight planets in our solar system. Our solar system; however, is only one of about 70 in our galaxy. And our Milky Way galaxy is only one of what could be 80 billion in our universe.   

 

Still following...that little dot is our sun. every human being that has ever lived has lived under the sunlight of that dot.

It that doesn't take your breath away, if that doesn't leave you in awe, I'm not sure what does. Haven't we all be guilty of thinking that the world revolves around us? We think we deserve the big diesel truck, the new iPhone, to have gotten that college scholarship, or to get anything we ask for.

Humility begins when we have a proper view of ourselves-we set aside our own plans and see the big picture. When we're caught up in our own little world we miss out on everything else that's going on. But when we choose to be overwhelmed by the beauty that we live in, we can see a bigger picture and a purpose that we get to be a part of.

For me it took nothing more than getting outside and seeing the stars. Take a walk at night. Get up early for the sunrise. Maybe even get up at 3 o'clock in the morning to see a meteor shower.

It's a conscience decision that we must make to live in awe. Each morning, I take time and choose to be overwhelmed by my Creator. Maybe for you it means looking at biology or geography as more than a class but the world we live in, volunteer at your local arboretum or park and truly appreciate nature, and definitely check out the YouTube video 'Indescribable.'

When we're thinking of what's out there, we're not thinking about ourselves. Stars, they taught me how to live in awe of the universe.

This world it's not about me and you.