Meet L'Athena McKnight

Sister Spotlight

L'Athena McKnight

 L'Athena's mother, Julie Thompson, L'Athena, and her grandmother Nancy Baker

Trip to Disneyland for her grandmother's 75th birthday

Origins

L’Athena, the youngest of four children, was born in Albany, Oregon. As a child, she liked to do dishes and clean house so much that she was nicknamed “the maid.” She has spent most of her life in the Albany area and loves the greenery, the plentiful rain, and the location. It’s about an hour to the coast and about an hour to the mountains. Farming is abundant in the area, so there are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Her father lwas not in the picture, so her mom worked a lot to support the family. She spent much of her summers biking to neighboring towns for swim team and to visit her mom at work. She loved to watch Armageddon (at least 150 times) although Liar, Liar is currently her favorite movie.

L'Athena, brother Leon, sister Mylena, and oldest sister Gillian.

L’Athena’s name is unique. When her biological father left before she was born her mom seriously considered giving her up for adoption because she wasn’t sure she could adequately care for her. She wrote L’Athena a letter explaining that she wanted to name her L’Athena after the Goddess of Love to let her know that she was loved (Oops! She later realized Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom). L’Athena’s mom decided to keep her, but showed her the letter. L’Athena went by Tia.

To High School and Beyond

L'Athena participated in the high school swim team and track and field (shot put and discus) and trained to be a member of Search and Rescue. She worked as a babysitter and cleaned houses and worked at the school cafeteria all four years of high school in addition to being a barrista at the school coffee cart.he

L’Athena graduated from Linn-Benton CC with an associate’s degree in the Applied Science of Culinary Arts. She plans to continue her education to be a Career and Technology teacher at UVU when she gets residency, which would be her dream job. She hopes to be able to enjoy the summers traveling. She currently works at Kneaders as the Pastry Assistant.

Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

In her discretionary time, she likes to nap, bike, run, swim, and talk with her niece. When she really needs to relax, she goes swimming. When she was young, she loved camping at Little Nustecka, a free campground with a river where she would walk and see the fish. It was shallow enough that her mom let her roam the river as long as she never left it.

      L’Athena has a dog, Sasha, that she dearly loves. She is a malamute/German shepherd mix and is currently living with her sister and nieces. She describes herself as a loner and likes to spend time with her dog, but also likes to hang out with her friends and talk, watch television, and do random stuff like baking cookies, making pies, doing arts and crafts, or organizing. If she could go to lunch with anyone that is not LDS, it would be Emeril Lagasse. She likes how influential he has been in earning money and then taking that money and putting it back into schools. She would want to pick his brain to find out how he thinks and what he thought he could have done better so that she could apply his strategies.

    She is not a big fan of reading, but did like reading Comfort me with Apples, a book by a food journalist and The Miracle of Forgiveness. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare was her favorite, though, and she currently has a signed copy of Aim High on her bed stand.

Overcoming Challenges

       
      One of the biggest challenges of her life was growing up without a father. Besides recognizing that her 

mom did the best she could, she looked to other men, like her swim team coach and a group she dubs “The Three Wisemen,” her bishopric while she was in high school. She loved swimming, and her swim team coach believed in her and supported her. He

The Three Wise Men, aka "The Wise Guys"
Burl Smith, Fred Dunmire, and Phillip Chapman

encouraged her to join a more advanced swim team and helped her get the opportunity to give a speech in front of about 50 people at a YMCA conference about her dream and goal of becoming an Olympic swimmer. 

        The Three Wise Men also had a big impact in her life. The bishop frequently told her that he loved her and respected her and called her a princess. The first counselor trusted in her and confided in her, and the second counselor always checked in on her to find out how things were going. Both the second counselor and his wife (her young women’s teacher who made perfect cookies) were very influential. Later, that second counselor became her home teacher when she was inactive. He would randomly stop by and help her move and do things around the house. And when the time came, his wife helped her fill out her divorce papers. She could always rely on them, and she called them her “church parents.” There were always there when she needed them, and when she started to come back to church she had the missionary lessons in their home.

Kris & Burl smith, Linda & Fred Dunmire, and Leslie & Philip Chapman

Strength in Christ

Although L’Athena was born in the church, attendance as a child was often spotty because her mom often had to work weekends. Her mom also didn’t want any of her children to be baptized until they were 12, an age when she felt they could more fully appreciate the commitment they were making. They also had to have read all the scriptures. At age 12, L’Athena decided to get baptized because she felt the scriptures were true.

       However, her real conversion came as her testimony was strengthened after her divorce. She felt the peace and happiness that the gospel brought into her life as she started to come back to church and took the missionary lessons. She learned that the only person required in your life to bring you happiness is the Savior. During that time, the words of John 3:15 were put into her mind during the hardest part of her divorce as an answer to prayer: “That whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” She also relies on Ecclesiastes 3:1-12: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” This scripture reminds her that there is a reason that everything happens, that noting is random. God always has a plan and something that is supposed to happen for you. We need to trust in Him and look at the bigger picture. L’Athena put her trust in God when she moved to Provo in an act of faith on the advice of her bishop. The area is unfamiliar to her and she didn’t have any friends or family here.

     She particularly likes the quote from Ezra Taft Benson’s address in 1989, “Born of God,” and appreciates the hope it offers in Christ.  

The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.