Mind-Blowing...or Eye-Ball Blowing???

The kids in my class know I don't smoke, don't drink (not even coffee), or cuss. They also know I go to church, but like a good 1st ammendment-abiding citizen, I don't expound on my personal theological views in my state-funded classroom. When I occasionally do get asked what church I go to, I tell them the Mormon church. Then I just get the same confused look I get whenever I introduce a word they have never heard before. So it was fun to witness someone's very candid reaction to first learning of the First Vision not realizing that I do know something about this event.

The other day a girl noticed a book in ourclassroom library all about Utah. She was excited because she knew that this is where I grew up. She was enthralled with the pictures of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. "Utah is beautiful, Ms. Chilz!", she blurted out while everyone was supposed to be quietly reading to themselves. I agreed with her, then reminded her that she needed to read without disturbing everyone around her. A few minutes later she interrupted the silence in the room when she began reading aloud from the book: "Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees in New York". It was a very weird two-worlds-colliding type moment. I was not expecting to hear a bit of Church History being shared in the middle of class. Then she continued, "Ms. Chilz, that is ridiculous. A person can't just see God. He's too powerful. That would burn your eyeballs out!".

It took everything in me not to start laughing, or sharing my testimony on the Restoration of the Gospel. My simple answer would have to suffice. "The great thing about our country is that people have the freedom to believe what they want".

She obviously was not paying too much attention to what I said; she was still worried about Joseph's eyeballs.