Heavenly Father Loves His Children

I have to share this story, even though it didn't happen to me, it is such a beautiful story from my dear neighbor Lavon. She is one of the best Primary teachers I have ever seen. She loves those kids so much and thinks about them all the time. She puts so much into her calling because of her great love for the kids. Every few months our teachers are asked to present a Sharing Time lesson for the whole group and this is the part that usually gets Lavon a little worked up. She does such a good job, but she really lets herself get nervous about the whole thing. She usually starts preparing a few months in advance. That is what made this experience so special.

Lavon was given the topic of the Sacrament. She immediately remembered a lesson her father had given years ago in one of his church callings. Her mother had made beautiful visual aides to go along with the lesson and she was so excited to recreate all of that for the primary children. The lesson was on how to take the sacrament, especially focusing on what hand to use and why we do that. So Lavon started researching and couldn't find any information from a prophet or the scriptures or even in the Bishop's Handbook about how to take the sacrament. This put her in a stupor of thought. This stupor was so strong that she actually lost all her desire to do this lesson. Then she called the bishop to ask him what he knew about that. He said something that turned everything around for her. He said something to the effect of, "The Lord isn't as concerned about HOW you take the sacrament as He is with WHY you are taking the sacrament."

Lavon quickly figured out that this was the lesson she needed to prepare for the lesson- focusing on why we do this each week and what it means to us. As soon as she figured this out, the inspiration for her lesson came pouring in. She knew how much the Lord loved His children. He was very specific with her as to what lesson she should share, she could feel His inspiration and love as she put everything together for the children.

She prepared a beautiful lesson, it covered such basic, but essential facts about the sacrament and she was so excited to share it. Unfortunately, her husband is ill and she needs to stay home with him, so she has asked me to share the lesson for her. I am hoping the Lord's blessings will be with me and I can do half as good as Lavon would have done. Her spirit is so full after this experience and I am so grateful she shared this with me. The Lord wanted the children to learn what was most important and He let her know that very personally. And she listened to that council. What a wonderful neighbor. How lucky I am to have been given the chance to share in this wonderful experience.

I Love a Wedding

Saturday was wonderful - we attended the wedding of Phil and Janel in the Bountiful Temple. I have known Phil his entire life - I remember when Wendy was expecting. It was such an exciting time. And then he arrived and we all adored him! We continued adoring him and now he is all grown up and MARRIED! I guess we should leave all of the adoring to the Happy Couple from now on.

The ceremony was wonderful and I am so grateful I was there. It seems that every wedding I attend grants me the opportunity to reflect on my own life and marriage and make improvements. The gentleman performing the ceremony was so funny, and despite his humor, I was able to get a lot out of the experience. He reminded us that if we love each other, we will hold on to each other. This happened as he was talking to my sweet husband who was sitting next to me. The Sealer looked at him and then pointed to me and asked, "Is this your wife?" He answered, "Yes she is." The Sealer asked, "How do you two get along?" and he answered, "Pretty good." Then The Sealer asked, "Well, why aren't you holding her hand?" He had a fun and entertaining way of voicing simple, yet important, truths.

He also spent some time reminding us of what it really means to consecrate ourselves. It's a committment we all make, however, sometimes we forget. I have promised to serve my Father in Heaven with all that He has given me. So, no more grumbling or eye rolling when needs arise and I am the solution. I will see my role as a wife and mother and daughter and sister and friend and ward member with the light the Heavenly Father would like me to see it in. I have been incredibly blessed and focusing on that will only be of benefit to me and my family.

Thanks to Phil and Janel for providing and wonderful learning opportunity for me. And, congratulations to them for making this wonderful committment to each other and the Lord. We send all our wishes for a happy eternity.

Called to Serve

I love to notice all the little miracles in each day. I love when someone says, "Oh that will take a miracle" because in my heart I affirm, "Great, because I believe in miracles." There are so many instances where we can see these instances of God's love, it makes me wonder how many we don't see. Thankfully, we are aware of some of these, and I hope that if I will live my life more in tune with the spirit, Iwill be made aware of others.

This past Sunday, I was able to see another little miracle, thanks to our lovely Music Leader in Primary. She was working with the big kids and spent some time on a song we have been learning, "Called to Serve". It is such a great missionary song, and to hear the kids sing it is just wonderful. She ended up spending more time on it than she realized and soon her time was up. They had only practiced two songs that day, not getting to several of the ones she had planned on going over.

Then came Sacrament Meeting, this was the same meeting previously mentioned where a wonderful missionary from our ward reported on his experiences. At the end, the Stake President got up to make a few comments (as mentioned in an earlier post). He ended up doing something most of us out there have probably never seen - releasing the missionary from his mission right there. He shared that moment with all of us, it was beautiful. And yes, I cried for that, too.

As he was finishing up his comments he turned to the organist and asked if it was okay to change the closing hymn to "Called to Serve". All over the chapel you could see little eyes and ears perk up and they prepared themselves to join in the singing. I could see the music leader just filled with the spirit, now she knew why so much time was spent on that song today - they needed to know it really well to be able to feel and enjoy the spirit that had been invited into that meeting. My kids were so happy and they sang their little hearts out, as did the other children I could see sitting nearby.

This sweet music leader was so touched, her testimony was beaming, her face was glowing. It was a very simle little thing that showed so magnificently our Heavenly Father's love for us all.

A Glimpse of Heaven

The other day I had on the Olympics. I have never actually watched a marathon and that day they were broadcasting the women's marathon. I started watching, thinking they would mostly focus on other events and then come back to the marathon to check in. I thought the event would take so long that there was really no way to stay with them for very long before taking a break and coming back later. I just thought that a marathon took many, many hours to complete (as it would take me a few days, I am pretty sure). Imagine my surprise when I realized that for these trained, physically fit athletes, a marathon can be run in just a few hours. WOW! Sorry for my ignorance, but there it is. So, I watched in awe as they followed these ladies. They kept ticking down the miles, and my eyes opened wider and my jaw dropped lower. I was amazed. Finally, the end was in sight and a runner from Romania was far ahead of the rest. She was going to win. She approached the "Bird's Nest" (the nickname given to the stadium in Beijing) and upon entering was greeted with cheers from the crowd. The stadium was FULL - people were there just to welcome in the marathon runners. WOW! That is when I had my glimpse into heaven.

Here we are running our own marathons of life. Each step we take hopefully taking us closer to our goal, each step closer to our Father in Heaven. As we stay on track and keep running, there is a stadium full of people waiting to cheer for us. I am left with the image that when we get to make that trek into our Father's Heaven, we will be met by more people than we can imagine. They will be congratulating us on our work, shouting "Hoorays" and "Congratulations". What's great is that people enter in their own time, just like the marathon, and each is a success. People in that stadium were there to cheer on the first runner and the last. Although only a few received a tangible reward, everyone was met with love and support beyond measure. And that is how heaven is in my eyes - love and support beyond measure.

This was made manifest to me years ago upon returning home from my mission. I attended the temple and realized one of my former mission companions was there. Although I couldn't get to her directly, I was finally able to catch up to her and embrace her and share my love for her. That was another glimpse of heaven, there will be those special friends waiting with all the love in their hearts to embrace us again. The excitement I had in my heart for seeing a dear friend in a beautiful and sacred place was a powerful glance into heaven. I am so grateful for the moments we have that show us a bit more than what we see in our regular lives. I am grateful for a Father in Heaven who opens those views to us, giving our spirits opportunities to be strengthened and to grow. And I love that it can happen from something as simple as watching a marathon.

Darn Power Outages

I love the MANY opportunities we are given to see our Heavenly Father's hand in our lives. The other night, in the middle of the night, the power went out. This always wakes me up because our Carbon Monoxide detector likes to squeal with every power change it experiences. Anyhow, the house was DARK. And due to the antics of our wonderful 3 year old, I can never keep track of flashlights (I am buying one today and keeping it under my bed, where no one knows, from now on). So I just lay in my bed that night wondering how I was going to take care of my baby when he woke up and needed to eat. We sleep in the basement and, really, it is pitch black in the middle of the night. I was really stressed about the situation and found that I was getting worked up and unable to sleep. I let myself do that for a while before I finally humbled myself and turned to my Father in Heaven. I explained how stressful this was to me and that I needed to be able to feed my baby and I also needed to be able to relax and go back to sleep. I begged for his help. I don't remember how long it took, but it wasn't long before I was back to sleep. Heavenly Father had answered my prayer. And then I was woken up to the familiar little squeal again and knew that the power was back on. The baby hadn't woken up yet to eat, so all was well. Soon enough the baby woke up and I was able to take care of him and attend to his needs. What a sweet answer to my prayer, my heart was FULL of gratitude.

The wonderful part of this story is that is doesn't end there. In Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, a young man was giving a talk. He was telling about how he likes to play computer games at night and was doing so the other night. His father came in and invited him to study scriptures. He said that he would be there in a little while (he was still busy with his game). His father checked with him several times and finally the spirit spoke to him and he knew he needed to get off the computer and go to his father. Guess what happened just then, the power went out! Guess what that did to the computer? (hee hee) Guess what that young man then did with his father. I love how the Lord works in our lives, I love that that young man had just really come to understand how important it was to go study, and I love that Lord allowed him that time he needed to come to that decision on his own.

The Lord loves us more than we can understand. He knows it is best for us if we can come to these understandings on our own, so He will grant us every opportunity to do that. Sometimes we don't ever come to those understandings on our own and we need more intervention - referred to as "being compelled to be humbled". It is so much better for all of us if we can come to Him on our own, with our own desire to be closer to Him and more obedient to His commandments. I am so grateful for His patience in allowing us to do just that.

18 years, 10 months and 16 days ... but who's counting?

I think our Stake President said the absolute worst thing he could have said to me in my fairly post partum state. We had the priviledge of hearing the mission report for a young man from our ward who served an excellent mission. We have been in this ward for 9 and a half years, so he was just starting Young Men's when we first met him. He is a great kid from a great family and even though it was a little bit rocky, he travelled the road less travelled and served a mission for the LDS Church. He shared some wonderful experiences and the spirit was strong. Having served a mission myself, every time I hear a missionary report, I just am drawn back into those wonderful memories (ok - maybe they aren't ALL memorable - but the experience itself was life changing and I would go back in a flash if I had it all to do over again). After this young man finished his talk, the Stake President took a few moments to talk about the experiences he is having as a Stake President working with these missionaries as they come and go. It is one of his favorite responsibilities, and who can blame him. The spirit a missionary carries with him or her is strong and can be felt by anyone in their presence - they are set apart to be the Lord's representatives and that mantle is very real. The Stake President went on in his comments to let us know that missions are absolutely divinely appointed. He explained that just as these boys are getting to the point where, as parents, we just don't know what to do with them, the Lord tells us that we can send them to Him. He will take them for the next two years and use them to do His work. He will mold them and shape them and turn them into the strong, diligent men they are meant to be. So, as I sat in that meeting, tears rolling from my eyes, drenched in the overwhelming peace and beauty of the spirit, I looked down at my lovely little baby, cuddled in my arms and sleeping so peacefully. Really? Someday I will be sending him out into the world, completely trusting in the Lord and His work? That brought more tears, but they were accompanied by the peace the spirit brings when a truth is being taught directly to your heart. I know I can send him, I've been there and I wouldn't ever want to deny him that growth and that opportunity to find his spiritual brothers and sisters. So, as of today, only 18 years, 10 months and 16 days until that blessed 19th birthday. I'm not really keeping track, but I will start saving up now and, more importantly, doing everything I can to help him be prepared to accept that calling from the Lord.

Now, as for his older brother, of course all of this applies to him, too. In fact, his countdown is 15 years, 9 months and 2 days. Although I was cuddling my little newborn at the time (the three year old was in fits with his daddy), my thoughts were turned to both of them, they are my sweet hearts and my love for them is stronger than I can even describe.