A desk of my own ... shaping our destiny

This year I received one of my favorite and most used gifts ever for my birthday... a tablet.  I loved marking scriptures on it, videotaping piano students and exploring the new youth curriculum as a basis for my gospel study.  But this only lasted a few short months when my daughter decided to put it in the bathtub.  Jared offered to go buy me another one, soon after this happened, but the frugal part of me wants to wait until I can afford to upgrade to an ipad w/ the capability for more music apps. So I've gone back to doing everything old school.  Tonight I revisited the youth curriculum after a long hiatus and read an article "Two Principles for Any Economy" by Elder Uchtdorf that I love!

One of my aspirations is to instill in my children a love of learning, as my mother did for me.  I remember thinking it was so exciting to borrow the neighbors encyclopedia for a report and being able to skim through articles on a variety of topics before returning it.  And even now, as I rediscover things about the Renaissance, Exploration, American History, Light, The Solar System, etc. with Daniel during homeschool I find so many things captivating.  So this quote by Elder Uchtdorf really touched me as he described some of the destitute circumstances of his childhood that later improved with hard work and patience.

He said, "It seemed to me that having a desk of my own would be the most wonderful thing in the world." I had to wait a long time before that wish was fulfilled. Years later, I got a job at a research institution that had a large library. I remember spending much of my free time in that library. There I could finally sit at a desk—by myself—and drink in the information and knowledge that books provide. How I loved to read and learn! In those days I understood firsthand the words of an old saying: Education is not so much the filling of a bucket as the lighting of a fire."

I'm finding this is easier said than done.  It is so easy for my children to be lured into the world of entertainment  and excitement of sports, Studio C, Youtube videos, etc. that aren't necessarily bad, just not as "educational" as I 'd like, but I'm grateful that, even though I don't have a tablet... I have a desk of my own to constantly discover new inspiring and educational things each day.
A final favorite quote from Elder Uchtdorf,
"I know this for a certainty: it is often in the trial of adversity that we learn those most critical lessons that form our character and shape our destiny."