Our Great Falls Trip: Preserving our Homes

Great Falls National Park is 1.25 square miles in the middle of the D.C. area—an area that is the country's 8th most densely populated region. People have been coming to see the whitewater spectacle since 1906, when the first trolley brought viewers up. 

Now, over 100 years later, I'm surprised that the Falls are still a retreat for visitors. How can the nation protect this environment, making it seem untouched, when it's only stepping stones from the nation's capital?

The visitors need to do their part. They ask us, the visitors, to pick up trash and to be smart. The nation is very conscientious about preserving the environment, and we have to be conscientious about preserving our retreats as well.

The retreat I'm thinking about is . . . the home. This is our space, and we can keep the world from influencing it. Mormon.org addressed this exact issue when they asked the audience "What have you done to successfully shield your family from unwanted influences?"  Camille, a member of the church, wrote that

"Several months ago I had a very vivid dream. In this dream, I packed my three young children into a cardboard box and put them into the back of my car as if I were going to drop them off at the nearest thrift store. Days passed by, and I forgot about the box in the back of my car. When I finally remembered it, I rushed to open it. The children had miraculously lived, but were terribly weak, and I'll never forget the look in their eyes as they stared up at me from the inside of that cramped box . . . The impressions that came to me related my dream-box to the use of media in our home. I realized that I had been using the television to babysit my children for hours every day so that I could 'get something done.'"

There are many things (like this television) that do not nourish our homes. Before my mission, I watched too much television, and it did not help my spirit. Other things are less obvious; I regret not doing more with my siblings, investing more in extracurricular activities, studying more for exams, and the biggest one--genuinely feasting on the scriptures.

We all have our own list of destructive influences (and influences that, if left unchecked, become destructive). The easiest way to combat these influences is with the Sunday school answers: reading scriptures, praying, and coming to church.

Now, I don't know anything about preserving a national park; I'm sure pollution laws, labor laws, and many other laws go into managing Great Falls. However, I do know that the simple things we visitors do make a difference; they expect us to pick up the trash on the trails (or not carry bring it in at all!) and the Lord expects us to clean up our homes, too.