Rabbi and the Soap Maker

This story is from the 2017 Ensign magazine. It is part of the First Presidency Message.
 I put the story here to help spread the Word about God's Love...and how He cares for us and that we can turn to Him in times of great or small trials.
Feel free to use the coloring page of the story in spreading the Word yourself.  

Rabbi and the Soap Maker 

The Rabbi and the Soap Maker

There is an old Jewish tale about a soap maker who did not believe in God. One day as he was walking with a rabbi, he said, “There is something I cannot understand. We have had religion for thousands of years. But everywhere you look there is evil, corruption, dishonesty, injustice, pain, hunger, and violence. It appears that religion has not improved the world at all. So I ask you, what good is it?”

The rabbi did not answer for a time but continued walking with the soap maker. Eventually they approached a playground where children, covered in dust, were playing in the dirt.

“There is something I don’t understand,” the rabbi said. “Look at those children. We have had soap for thousands of years, and yet those children are filthy. What good is soap?”

The soap maker replied, “But rabbi, it isn’t fair to blame soap for these dirty children. Soap has to be used before it can accomplish its purpose.”

The rabbi smiled and said, “Exactly.”

     -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 

Learn to turn your troubles over to Jesus and He will help you.  

Now my commentary on it:   The moral of the story is that Heavenly Father knows that bad things happen in the world because He gave us our free agency.    But remember that Heavenly Father is in charge and we know HE will win in the end.  Also, we all have trials in life can, but because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be comforted and we also can receive guidance on how to handle our problems.  This life is a test.  Do we keep God’s commandments or do we not?  And when we DO have things go wrong…do we get mad at God or do we turn to him for support and help?  We will have trials either way, so to me it makes sense to reach out to God for his support.  The atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible to let him take away our pain and emotional turmoil.  OR He helps us to be able to bear that pain... he strengthens us beyond our own capacity.  So in both cases we get help and some relief.  On the other hand, if we get mad at Him because life is so unfair, we deny ourselves the opportunity to turn to Him and get that relief and comfort.   I know what I am talking about here.  I have experienced years of failed health and it DOES seem so unfair.  But I am learning to turn to our Lord to get comfort.  I have had to read my scriptures more, counsel with my wife, and even seek some professional help.  When you are constantly wondering (like I have...for the last 11 years)  if this is your last day on Earth it can take its toll on you.   But now I am truly doing better, not really a lot better health-wise, but way better emotionally and Spiritually.   Starting this blog of free coloring pages is one way I can still serve others.  This helps me take my mind off of my own troubles.  I hope my coloring pages help you feel some added happiness in your life.  .   . or the lives of the kids you work with, or care for etc.   Remember that we have to get out of the mud of our problems and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Like soap, our religion does us no good if we don't apply it to ourselves.  So my advice to all is to take care of yourself, and to keep busy, serve others as you can, and turn to the Savior... and He will take care of you. 

   -Robin Andrew Lyman

Deer Family of North America

Drawings are of a Whitetail Deer, a Mule Deer, an Elk and a Moose.  All drawings are of males.  I have not included a reindeer or caribou nor a red deer or a pronghorn antelope...yet.  I'll do some of them for a later post.  There are actually many members of the deer family.  

Mule Deer

Mule deer are our native deer here in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.  They weigh up to 300 pounds and they are up to 7 feet long.  The males, if you count their antlers, can be over 5 feet tall. Mule deer are named for their long mule-like ears.  They are twice the size of their smaller whitetail deer cousins.  Mule deer have a white tail that has a black tip.  Mule deer antlers branch or in a two tonged fork pattern.  

Whitetail Deer

Whitetail deer are smaller.  They only weigh up to 150 pounds.  They have a tail that is brown on the back but the underside is bright white.  They lift it to warn other deer in the herd of danger.   Whitetail deer are found mostly east of the Rocky Mountains.... They are very common east of the Mississippi River.  Whitetail deer have a black tips on the end of their ears.  Whitetail deer antlers branch by smaller points come off of one main branch.

Bull Elk calling for a Mate

Elk are a larger member of the deer family.  They are native to our rocky mountains.  They have loud horn like sound when the males are calling for females.  Male or bull elk are over 700 pounds and are over seven feet tall…if you count the antlers. 

Bull Moose eating Lily Pads

The Moose is the largest member of the deer family.  It can be over 9 feet tall (if you count the antlers)  and weigh 1600 pounds.  Moose love to eat lily pads while they wade in ponds…during the summer.  I once got too close to a mother moose and her calf in Yellowstone National Park.  She charged me and I dived into a small thicket of trees so she could not get at me to stomp me.  She was only defending her baby…but all I had was a camera.   In fact, you can’t even hunt in Yellowstone National Park.   Still, I learned my lesson about getting too close to wildlife.   ESPECIALLY a mother who feels she is defending her young!

Paint Ponies and Unicorn

A Paint horse is a specific breed that has the outstanding characteristic of dual colors or spots.  So today we have a paint pony and posterity... (posterity means children or grandchildren etc.).  We also have a paint unicorn with a rodent friend.  Rodents are usually small mammals that have teeth up front that continue to grow throughout their life.  Rodents include mice, rats, guinea pigs, chipmunks, beavers, and of course squirrels.  A foal is a young or baby horse under a year old.  A filly is a female foal.  By the way, a colt is a male foal.

Paint Horse and Filly

Well, if there can be paint horses and ponies then I figure there can be paint unicorns too.  The traditional unicorn is white with goat hooves, but I always picture the unicorns as a wide variety, just like horses come in many sizes and breeds.  

Paint Unicorn and Rodent Friend

  

Animal Behavior

T. rex, Triceratops, and Pteranodon Friends

I know that is is improbable that a young T. rex would be friends with a Triceratops and a Pteranodon.  But in nature strange things can happen.  There is a dinosaur track site in Northern Wyoming (called Red Gulch Dinosaur Track Site) and another track site in Southern Utah (Near St. George).  These two sites have hundreds of tracks that show mixed herds may have existed.  We can infer this because there are several species of dinosaurs represented by the tracks.  .   . and it appears that they were possibly traveling or migrating together.    

Cretaceous Dinosaurs in a Mixed Herd

Animals of different species will sometimes work together for their mutual benefit.  Birds eating bugs off of rhinos and elephants, cleaner fish grooming a shark's mouth, etc.  Then of course there is the wolf raven connection... Did you know that Ravens are friends with wolves.  Ravens show them where they have seen injured prey animals and the ravens lead the wolf pack to their meal.  Then the ravens get the leftovers.  Ravens have even been seen and filmed playing with the wolves.  So maybe some species of dinos working together is not so far fetched.  I highly recommend the movie, Land Before Time.  It was one of the first movies to show dinosaurs migrating in a mixed herd, caring for their young, and being more than a dumb lizard.  

Raven with Wolf Cub or Pup

Modern animals, like birds, often chew up the food to barf back for their babies to eat.  In the very good movie, Walking With Dinosaurs 3D the young Ceratopsian says something like, "MMMMMM Mom's cooking!"  There is lots of fossil evidence that Ceratopsians laid eggs and cared for their eggs and then cared for their young as well.  In fact most of the dino groups DID lay and guard their eggs and care for their young after they hatched.  

Triceratops Mother feeding the Kids

.  The only known exception to egg laying dinos caring for their young is the Sauropods.  It appears that they laid many many eggs and abandoned them to their fate...kind of like sea turtles do.  There is a Sauropod nesting site that goes on for miles in Argentina, It appears that a flooding river buried the site in silt and sand so the eggs became fossilized and were preserved for us. It is thought that a herd of Argentinosaurus migrated into the area, laid their eggs, covered them in leaves and abandoned the nests and their young to their fate.  It is thought that only one in a hundred would have survived to also one day reproduce.  By the way, Argentinosaurs is the largest known dinosaur yet.  It was 115 ft (35 m) long.  It possibly weighed around 110 tons.  That is 220,000 lbs. (99,790 kg)!!   WOW!  I'd love to see one of those!  

Argentinosaurus gathering Cycad leaves to place upon newly laid Eggs

NOTE:  All drawings and content are Copyright 2017 by Robin Andrew Lyman unless otherwise noted.  Permission IS granted to print coloring pages for kids or adults to color. 

Young Jesus Teaching at the Temple in Jerusalem

Young Jesus at the Temple

I always thought Jesus, being a Nazarene, would have had long hair by the time he was 12.  Remember that Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem with His parents.   When they were a day or two on their return journey His parents found that he was not with a relative.  It was common for kids to travel in the large group and be with relatives, cousins, aunt and uncle etc.  So Jesus' parents, well, his step father, Joseph and his mother Mary, were assuming that He was with extended family.  Then, to their surprise, He was not.  So, they traveled back to Jerusalem and found him after a few days.  He was in the Temple teaching the learned men.  HE knew more than they did and they were amazed at His knowledge.  When reprimanded He said, "I must be about my Father's business."  (He was not referring to carpentry.)

Penguins

Today was Penguin Day at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.  #LLPAPenguinRecord

We participated in setting a world record for the most people doing a penguin call at the same time.  There were 350 people doing the call.   We also went to see the Gentoo Penguin exhibit and took the below  photo.  The male penguins pick up hundreds of rocks, one rock at a time, to impress the females.  They both use the rocks to make a nest with like 1500 rocks.

 Two Gentoo Penguins at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

So, I drew these penguins for you to color!  I left the head white for you to color.  Of course it should be black if you are going for realism.  But, it is yours to color so you could make them purple... or one pink one blue, for female and male.., etc.  Have fun!

Penguins - Gentoo Penguins to color

Auburn Fairy and a robin

Auburn Fairy

This photo is of a fairy figurine we bought for our garden.  She has auburn hair.  Auburn is a brownish red color of hair.  I call our fairy the Auburn Fairy.  Fairies are mythological beings from European folklore.  They have magical powers.  Some stories report that they are noble but rather vain.  They are almost always beautiful.  They are said to be caretakers of the land.  The leprechaun is actually a type of fairy.

Feel free to to color this drawing as you see fit.  Or you can try your hand at coloring her from the photo I took of her in the corner of our  garden.  However, since my name is Robin, I drew the coloring page with the Auburn Fairy holding a robin.

The coloring page of this, our Auburn Fairy, is available for you to print by clicking on the above link that says "Free Printable Downloads".  You will need to scroll down to this most recent drawing.

Auburn Fairy

If you want to color the robin realistically I have included a photo for you to use.  The male robin has a black head and a bright red-orange breast.  Robins are sometimes called "Robin Redbreast".  They are a migratory bird, flying south for the winter.  Often a first sighting of a robin in the spring is considered the first sign of spring.  Although most fly south in the fall, some robins, if there is enough food available, will stick around in northern locations throughout the winter.  

American Robin, Scientific Name: Turdus migratorius

American Robin drawing