We had an amazing lesson in Young Womens on Sunday. First, back up....I must say that my Laurel Adviser is one of the sweetest, coolest, most creative women I have met. She has so many talents I wish I had. So many things that seem to just come so easy to her. Sometimes she shares with me her insecurities of teaching or the struggles she faces in life and I am always a bit shocked because she is just so together all the time! I love her. She exemplifies Christ in her life at all times. If you ever need anything done, she and her husband do it. They just do...no questions asked, they just do it.
So on Sunday, we had a lesson on Writing it down...keeping our records, our personal histories, our stories. About half way through the lesson, Meghan ( my Laurel Adviser) got very quiet and then told the girls she was going to shift gears, take a left turn in the lesson and then she proceeded to tell a really cool, very amazing story about a time in her life when she needed an answer to prayer, an answer to something she was struggling with and the answer came in a really cool way for her. But she realized she had never written the story down, something very powerful happened in her life, but she had yet to record it. How often does this happen? What stories are we writing down for our posterity? For those future generations to come? How often have you read the scriptures and thought "Wow, that is so applicable to me today" ? Did those who lived so long ago know that their words would have such a powerful effect in a world so completely different than theirs? And are we really that different? Sure, the set has changed, more things are going on, but really the story is very similar between our day and those days of our forefathers in the scriptures. Where would we be without their stories? Without their words and their conversion stories? Did they ever know that their experiences would touch generations?
Our stories will touch generations. The things I go through and write down will no doubt, help someone in my posterity. So, knowing that, It is time to TAKE TIME to record my story more thoroughly and to write down the details of what is going on in my life. The spiritual ah ha moments, the things I am trying to work though as a mom and the wonders of our family life.
Today, today was an interesting day. Just a normal Monday. Get up, take the kids to seminary, start the laundry, take Kris to work, come home, shower, get ready to go Visiting Teaching. Thats where I will start today. Visiting teaching. I have really come to love it. I have loved my partner these past 9 months? Wow..that long. She is amazing. Always willing to go, to schedule to teach. She comes with a positive outlook, a kind heart and a sweet smile. There family has been here less than a year and now they are moving. (sounds familiar) We have one more sister to visit this month and that is the last of our time together.
I will miss her. Good visiting teaching partners are sometimes a rare thing. At least in my experience. And speaking of visiting teaching... I LONG to have a visiting teacher who wants to come and visit me and talk. Someone who will bring my a lesson and want to know what is going on in my life. Im in a really good place, but there are times when my cup is low and it would be so nice to have someone around who wanted to visit me.
Ok, back to my day. Our first stop was a lady in our ward who has such a big heart. She wants to be loved, understood and appreciated (don't we all) It is so nice to visit her and listen to her. She does good work and does good with her family. Our lesson was great, Elder Cooks talk from conference. We listened to that and then left. We met up at 1 to visit teach a younger sister who has 2 younger kids. She is creative and kind. Her kids are adorable!! It is fun to go there!
Then I got home. Nick was home from school. He had a huge persuasive essay due today in English and he thinks he nailed it. Good topic too. The use of genetic seeds to grow plants with vaccines already in them...good or bad? He seemed really happy until it was time to fix dinner. Each of my kids is taking a day each week to cook dinner. Tonight Nick picked Salmon and artichokes. He got it all ready and it wasn't quite done when he called everyone to eat. I checked it and told him it wasn't quite ready and he just got so mad. Nick has a really hard time when things don't go his way. He worries that everyone will be mad, or laugh, or make fun of him. I don't know how to convey that we love him and that we want to support him and help him. I have learned however, over the past 2 years, when to shut my mouth and let things be. I so desperately want to FIX my kids, but I just need to let them learn and grow and that is tough as the parent. Heavenly Father is teaching me to let my kids grow. They have to go through these experiences and figure their way through them. After dinner Nick came back down and is doing better. Sometimes it is like that in life, we have to muddle through the muck, figure it out. Get to higher ground, keep breathing and trust in the Lord.
Lately, I have been wondering what it is going to take for Nate to be humbled and to figure out that God is real. It worries me as the mom that he is going to have to have some humbling in his life. That is what happens when the Lord needs you back on his team. I have read to other blogs today, both of families that have lost children and I sat and cried. One, my friend Brittney had linked back to her mom. A young man named Tyler who died this week from a battle with liver cancer and another of a family whos little girl, Preslee drowned in a canal in 2010. But what I took from these stories was the great love each of these families had in the Savior and in the gospel They had learned to turn their will over, to allow God to be in charge and even though that meant a painful loss in their families, they learned something about giving back to God the only thing we can give and that is our free will. I remember when Nate stopped breathing in 2002 and ended up in the hospital. That night I told Heavenly Father I did not want to have my son die, but that I was willing to submit and leave it in his hands. If it was time for Nate to return to his Heavenly home then I would be OK with that. It was not Nates time, Nate still has much to learn and a great work to do and I know that and so does Heavenly Father.
I am hoping my blogs will become much more personal and that you will share with me in my struggles and in my joys and in my growth. Perhaps my story can have an impact on yours. I am grateful for all the stories that impact mine!
