2017 十月教會演講 October Church Talk

全家演講
蕎可分享了大衛和巨人的故事
弟弟分享了尼腓造船故事
我的演講主題：上癮,習慣,以及奇蹟

Sacrament 10/15

Leia

Meek

Introduction of our family 

Brother and sister NiHao and Aloha, before I start, I would like to introduce about myself and my little family,

I’m sister Lin, or you can call me Wei, the guy there that is my husband, Han. We met at BYUH in 2009, We were married in 2012 and just a year after we had our first born, Leia. the next year we had meek, now Leia is 4 and half, she loves counting, learning sight words and complex word, and dancing ballet. She said she wants to be a vet when she grows up, and you know how it goes, the kids change career every year.

our baby boy, Meek is 3 and 5 months, he is currently learning phonics and now he can blend words, the sound C-A-T make?  he will tell you is cat..! He also loves Kung Fu, but sometimes too much kicking and showing off his fists.

I’m a homeschool mom, as for now, and also I have a part time job teaching Chinese. 

Han is an accountant, we are very blessed to have his company located on the west side of the island, we used to live in a small townhouse and live a no-frills life. But two months ago, we decided to move forward, we are now living in another beautiful home with a big yard that our rascals to run around. We love this beautiful neighborhood, Ewa Beach and I’m so glad to meet wonderful sisters in this ward. Thank you RS Deliza and my visiting teachers—- 

So now, you must be tired of listening about our family, let’s get straight to my talk now.

My topic today is Addiction, Habits, and Miracles. 

Let me ask you folks, 

Raise your hand if you think… 

Drinking coffee every morning is an addition ? It’s a habit?

Exercising everyday before work is an addiction? it’s a habit?

pornography watching is an addiction? It’s a habit? 

For a person who is always playing the phone is an addiction? It’s a habit?

Eating disorder is addiction? It’s a habit? 

According to the book- Habit, I quote: “The line separating habits and addictions is often difficult to measure. for instance, the american society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as” a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry…Addiction is characterized by impairment in behavior control, craving, inability to consistently abstain, and diminished relationships. “

By that definition, some people find it difficult to determine why spending fifty dollars a week on cocaine is bad, but fifty dollars a week on coffee or sweets is okay. Someone who craves for certain foods may seem clinically addicted to an observer who thinks five dollars for coffee demonstrates an “impairment in behavioral control.” Is someone who would prefer running to having breakfast with his kids addicted to exercise?

Although addiction is complicated and still poorly understood, many of the behaviors that we associate with it are often driven by habit. 

Habits, scientist say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort. Left to its own devices, the brain make almost any routine into a habit, because habits allow our minds to ramp down more often. This effort-saving instinct is a huge advantage. The process of habit comes down to a three-step loop, first, there’s a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. finally, theres a reward,, which helps you figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. 

For example, when we think of Sunday, we go to church, sunday- church. that’s the cue, and routine it’s we make our way to church, as a reward/result, we are spiritually fed. We go to church because we want to feel we are part of God’s plan, we go to church because we want to hear the word of God, we want to be spiritual. 

Bad habit can also be easily form, 

So my sister-in-law just came visit last month, they have a loving son named Blake and he is slightly younger than Leia. I remember seeing an interesting pattern whenever we have meals together. Whenever we are on the table ready to eat, he always ask for juice. and it doesn't matter if it’s bearkfast, lunch, or dinner time , he asks for it every time, every meal.

Later I found out that blake’s parent has a habit of drinking juice with their meal. You now see the three step loop here, blake sees the juice on the table every meal(cue), he asks for it and parents offer it to him (routine), he drinks it and is satisfied (reward)   

Those are habits, but addiction takes habit to another level. 

not too long ago I met with a friend who I haven’t see for quite a long time. I felt prompt to meet her and once we did, she told me she is getting divorce. this is her second marriage, and that is the husband’s 3rd marriage. She devastated told me that she tried her best to maintain the relationship but the husband couldn't get rid of his bad habit, and this bad habit eventually become an addiction.  My heart sank as I heard her talking, he and she are such a nice couple, but addiction is so destructive that gradually ruin his life. 

Although the husband had gone through habit replacement, but for him until the stresses of life- such as finding his marriage is coming apart or lacking enough money to support the family- got too high, at which point he fell off the wagon. 

 Whether is alcohol, overeating, gambling, sex, self-multilation, video game addictions, or emotional dependency, there’s hope. 

and that hope is GOD. 

The secret for breaking addiction and bad habits is GOD.

Now, let me tell you, researchers hated that explanation, God and spiritually are not testable hypotheses. Take alcoholics as an example, some churches are filled with drunks who continue drinking despite a pious faith. In 2005, a group of scientist affiliated with UC Berkeley, brown university, and the national institutes of health, began asking alcoholics about all kinds of religious and spiritual topics. then they see a pattern.

Alcoholics who practiced the technique of habit replacement could often stay sober until there was a stressful event in their lives-at which point, a certain number started drinking again, no matter how many new routines they had embraced. 

However, those alcoholics who believed, that some high power had entered their lives were more likely to make it through the stressful periods with their sobriety intact. 

Also, the national geographic, in last month’s issue there’s an article on addition talks about researchers at the university of Washington showed that programs based on mindfulness were more effective, In fact, the mindfulness training was twice as effective as the gold-standard behavior program.

Another example on alcoholic is Alcoholic Anonymous program. AA had almost no grounding in science or most accepted therapeutic methods. But yet AA is the largest, most well-known and successful habit changing of the world. Their way of approaching to addiction is to attack the habits that surround alcohol use. and most importantly, they believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Today, church also has an addiction recovery program available for members and non members. The central of the program is to trust in God and turn your will and your life over to the care of God the eternal father and his son, Jesus christ. 

You see the pattern now, It was belief itself that made a difference. It is why AA and church’s addiction program is working because when people start to believe, they change. Belief was the ingredient that made reworked habit loop into a permanent behavior.   

If you start believing, you can perform miracles. 

Last, I want to share what I learned from October general conference , the talk “Has the days of miracles ceased?” by Elder Donald L. Hailstorm of the seventy, he said “A critical question to ponder is “Where do we place our faith?” Is our faith focused on simply wanting to be relieved of pain and suffering, or is it firmly centered on God the Father and His holy plan and in Jesus the Christ and His Atonement? I think it could be both. 

Elder Hailstorm continue: Moroni taught, “Neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith.”3 Ammon proclaimed, “God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles.”4 The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith, “For I am God, … and I will show miracles … unto all those who believe on my name.”5

I have gone through many spiritual journey trying to find God, trying to use science to prove that God’s existence is void. But at the end of the tunnel, I found that science does not and cannot answer every question, science even changes over times, but God is eternal, and he is never changing. 

Today,I believe God lives, and he is my Savior, I believe that you can  

 perform miracles, and if you can do your best,I’m sure God will do the rest. 

Whether you are struggle with addiction, obesity, or bad habits, tell yourself, you are much stronger than you think. 

Don’t give in. you can break the bad habit or addiction loop, 

I would like to end with the bible Verse: 2 Chronicles 15:2

The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

This is my talk, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen