PREACHY: So don't read if you don't want to be preached to (You've been warned)

Mormon Gossip is the funniest. I guess if you take any small slice of society you can find their curlture or their gossip to be humorous to another small segmant of society. Like if you look at mormons we don't really gossip about who's having affairs with other people (a la Desperate Houswives) or how much money people make we gossip about who's gonna be the next Bishop or who's pregnant with the 8th kid or who is moving or who is speaking in church on Sunday "and are they really a good choice?" I had to laugh becuase I wonder if you dropped a non-member (meaning a person not of the LDS faith) into a LDS gossipy conversation what would think:
Member 1: So did you hear that the Bishop is moving?
Member 2: No, he is?
Member 1: Yeah, like in a month
Member 2: Wow, I wonder who will be the next Bishop? (always first thought/question)
(not "where are they moving?", not "Why are the moving?")
Non-Member: What's a Bishop?

It's not bad. I'm not condemming it. Don't get me wrong I'm as guilty as anyone. I just got a different perspective lately and felt like commenting on it. In fact I'm pretty sure that everyone tries to guess who will be the next whatever in the church becuase it is a mystry to us. In reality it doesn't matter who we think should be or will be becuase The Lord chooses who he will and we are left to pray for a testimony about the truthfulness of their calling. I've been dead wrong on some of my "guesses" and right on on some of them in my life. But you know what? It didn't matter because its the person what who the Lord Called not who I guessed (or even secretly wanted).

Now there are some bad gossip in the church that we should stay away from. Like if somebody blesses the sacrament or something and you comment later about their worthiness. This is wrong. This can lead to some major hurt feelings. Also it is a sin. I'll tell you my opinion on this. If I bless the sacrament unworthily does it make the ordinance invalid? NO. It does bring condemnation to me, but not to those that partake of the sacrament on that particular day. So as we've been counciled many times ("let he who's without sin cast the first stone" "Remove the pillar from thine own eye..." and "Judge not lest you be judged by the same judgement...") What do you Care? I mean really are you trying to make yourself feel better by pointing out someone elses sins? Are you trying to condemn someone? Now ok maybe .01% of the time when WE do this (caps becuase I'm a guilty sinner too) we are really trying to help the person becuase we love them, but I don't think that is often the case.

Gossip is like when we have a good joke to tell. You are so excited to tell it. You practice it in your head, you may even tell one person just to kind of test drive the joke. Then when you tell it to a big group and they laugh really loud and long you feel so proud. Like everyone must really like "me" because of that great joke. When in reality it may be just a good joke and you are just the messenger. What if no one laughs (i know this all too well), and your joke bombs. Well you feel embarrassed and dumb and very disapointed. But really it has nothing to do with you, you are just a messenger and its that joke that is bad. Now you may have wished you hadn't told it, but it doesn't make you bad. Gossip is like that but where it does make you bad. Meaning that the story that you told really does reflect on you. The story may be true and it may be really good story but it's still gossip and its really going to reflect on your character.

I think a good rule is to ask yourself these questions:
1. Would I tell this story in front of the person(s) it is about? (NO)
2. Wouldn't it be better if the person that this is about got to tell the story instead of me? (YES)
3. Can anyone have their feelings hurt by me telling this story? (YES)
4. Am I telling this story because I'm trying to make myself look better? (YES)
5. Does the person(s) I'm telling the story to need to know this information? (NO)

If the answer to the questions are what I put in the parentasis then you should stop. Really just stop. I know once I was telling a story about someone that I shouldn't have. About half way through I realized it and felt terrible. I stopped and "pretended" I couldn't rememeber it. I should have said "this is really gossip so I should stop" but I didn't. It's something that is a hard one to overcome. The key is really #4 question above. We really have to be honest with ourselves as to why we want to tell the story or the info. It's so hard to be honest about that one, because we don't want to admit to ourselves our own selfish desire to be liked or to feel important.

Remember I'm not judging, condemning or referring to anyone. I didn't have a experiance recently or have a particular issue in mind that inspired this blog entry. Just sometimes I want to preach (why? idk) and this is my outlet. So if you are offended or concerned about my preaching then accept my apology and delete my blog from your favorites (bookmarks, does anyone use that term anymore?) and surf away.

Johnson Family Blog dedicated to camping

We like to camp. We being Stacy and me. I know some of the kids like it too, or have liked it here and there in the past. But we like it. Last year I started a blog for camping or hiking for a specific trip that we took. I've now changed the blog and just will put "camping" or "hiking" related posts on it. Check it out at Johnson Family Camping Adventures!

Sorry Smurf Turf yous ain't the bomb

Boise State University won the fiesta bowl the other night... YEA! (I guess). But all the talk about the PAC10 expanding and taking Boise St. is nuts. Here's why: They suck! That's right I said it. they have a little tiny stadium (seats 32,000), it has blue turf, the have lower academic entry standards then ASU (if thats possible) and they haven't had a conf. championship in another sport besides football in forever...! They don't even have a baseball team, they don't have a womens sport to hang their hat on and they don't have a natural rival to travel with (this is very important to the PAC 10...). Now that's just whats wrong with the school. Here is why it won't happen even if all of the above reasons don't make sense: SMALL MARKET. Why would the PAC10 want to expand? Only for more $$$$ right? Well the biggest money maker is TV money. Do you think that Boise and Idaho really are going to drive change for $$? NOPE. The population of Boise is 205,000. doh! Phoenix has 3 or 4 suburbs bigger then that. The State of Idaho only has 1.2 million in the whole state! not like it's really a booming TV market. The school only has 18,000 students. ASU and 54,000+ students! There is no way that Boise St. will ever be in the PAC10. This talk is just non-sense. What they should do is join the MWC and increase the MWC's football since that is their one sport. But that wouldn't help the MWC in other sports at all. In fact in Basketball and women's sports it would hurt the MWC. I think that Boise is a fine football team. Chris Peterson is the man and is like Mark Few from Gonzaga Basketball. They are both in great situations winning is expected. But if they were to ever leave their current schools, so would the success of that school's program! Just like Brian Kelly and Cincy's football team, Calapari and UMASS and Rick Patino at Seton Hall (until recent years). If the PAC 10 ever does expand it should take BYU and Utah. Much better in all areas than Boise St and anyone! The repeated excellence in many sports, the natural rivalry, travel partner they bring, excellence in many women's sports and the size of Utah (more then double the size of Idaho) and the two schools (BYU 34,000+, Utah 28,000 + students) is a much better sell then Boise State.

A few posts ago I explained why it doesn't matter if PAC 10 expands or not. So all of this is moot. However some ignorant "fans" still think that only football matters, which sometimes is true, but not to screw up our PAC10.

New arrival

We've got a newby at our house. Derek William Johnson was born the day after Christmas. He's a great lookin' kid (what would you expect, you've seen me). So we are all very excited. If you want to see pictures cruise over to Stacy's Blog (link on the side bar). What I'd like to blog about today is how blessed I am to now have 8 kids (yep 8) and how ignorant and silly people are that give me crap about having 8 kids... Just for the record we now have 4 boys and 4 girls.

First let me tell you how it works. Your little jokes about "don't you know what causes that?" and "get cable" and "you know there is a way to avoid that" are really funny ha ha ha! I know where baby's come from, I do have cable (satellite actually), and I do know ho contraception works. Here's the thing. I wanted kids. I didn't predict 8 but I'm good with whatever Stacy and I decide. Let me list some things that you "childless" or 1 or 2 child families are missing out on.

(note: If you want kids but just can't have them for one reason or another I'm not speaking to you. So don't be offended when none is intended see this LINK for what I mean by that)

1) You don't get to hear jokes like "What are you going for a football team?" and "Don't you know what causes that"?

2) You don't get to sit at Denny's and have an old lady come up to your wife and say "Are these all yours?" with a half scared/disgusted look on her face.

but

3) When you go on a trip not everyone has someone to be buddies with (and it changes throughout)

4) When you go to church you don't get your own bench

5) When you get home at night from work, there isn't always someone there for you to see

6) When you go on a family picnic your possibilities are limited. Ours are limitless we can do any activity big or small because we have then numbers to do it.

There a bunch of other nice things. We are always busy, don't sit around and do nothing and enjoy sacrificing for each other. I understand people just like to mock things that they don't understand or don't agree with. I had a coworker once say "how can you bring kids into this awful world?" I thought that was very sad and just said that they needed to get help to try to see some positive things in their life. I've also had people praise us for having the "courage" to have so many kids. Courage to have some kids that's nuts! I think it's great. It gives us activities, it gives us love in our home and in our community. It helps us influence and serve others as we can teach our kids to be a positive influence in their lives. I can't imagine not having a house full of kids.

So if you have a large family and are sick of the teasing and mocking attitudes or the "real world" then take solace and know that I hear it too. I think it's silly and ignorant for people to give me a hard time. I hope that people see that and understand that it's our choice and I could give them crap about their choices too. "What do you hate kids?"...

Just kidding I wouldn't do that but I may want too.