Sleep in Heavenly Peace

I've noticed in my life that there is something about the turning of a new year that somehow puts the kibosh on Christmas messages. Not that it's necessarily a conscious decision people make, just that the new year lends itself to 'life' starting again full tilt. The decorations come down, we go back to work and school, we make New Years' resolutions, our insurance deductibles reset - things like that. There's paper work to do and we have to do it (at least in my house). Also, I do think that for some people it IS a conscious decision because they are bored with Christmas music and other assorted aspects of the season. So I wanted to take a second to remember that Christmas was only a couple of weeks ago and we don't have to forget about it through the year: in fact, it's best that we don't forget.

I absolutely loved the First Presidency Christmas Devotional that the LDS Church broadcast about a month ago. The most memorable part for me was when they shared clips from the new Life of Jesus Christ: Bible Videos the church has commissioned. The videos and accompanying pictures are a free gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the world. You can download and share them as you see fit. (Which of course I looooove.) Anyway, my favorite shot from the clips was this one...

It's kind of hard to see it the picture, they show it better in the video, but Mary is sleeping next to the Baby on the straw. This touched me deeply when I saw the clip. Since I've had children I've always wondered a little when I look at Nativity scenes that Mary seems so fresh and is generally kneeling or even standing. I wonder because in my heart of hearts, I hope that the Mother of our Lord got rest soon after the Birth. (I also hope she was one of those people who have reeeally quick easy labors, not like myself.) I know after the birth of both of my sons, people told me over and over, "You sleep when the baby sleeps," and I've come to recognize that axiom as wisdom of the highest order. Of course I'm sure the Baby Jesus was the Perfect Baby, but He still had physical needs that His Mama would have to meet.

So that's why I love this video so much. It's a little thing, and maybe only I noticed it (although I very much doubt that). It shows the very real nature of the people involved. Mother and Child zonked out cold while Joseph guards them closely, a watchman for his brand-new family. I see so much more of my own family in this version and I treasure it dearly. So, if you haven't already, and even if you have, please watch and enjoy...

A Gift to the World

Kevin and I gave talks in Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday so I wanted to take a minute for a little journaling about that.

We were asked to watch General Conference (Oct. 1st and 2nd) and come up with our own topic based on a talk that stood out to us. We both really liked the very first talk of the Saturday morning session. It was about using the scriptures. Not just reading, but studying and even memorizing our favorite verses.

As Kevin called me out when his talk began, I "cheated" and used two other talks in mine as well. In the end I decided on these three -

The Power of Scripture
RICHARD G. SCOTT
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

A Witness
HENRY B. EYRING
First Counselor in the First Presidency

The Book of Mormon—a Book from God
TAD R. CALLISTER
Of the Presidency of the Seventy

Elder Scott talks about the complete standard works and about his love for the Old and New Testaments in addition to the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. President Eyring tells a story about how even as an apostle he needs the remarkable example shown by different people in the Book of Mormon. President Callister's talk is about the Book of Mormon as well and receiving a basic testimony of its truth.

I jumped around a lot in my own talk and gave a couple of personal examples, like when I took Moroni's challenge myself and how hard it is for me to be consistent with reading my scriptures every day.  A couple of my favorite quotes from the Conference talks are -

"Great power can come from memorizing scriptures. To memorize a scripture is to forge a new friendship. It is like discovering a new individual who can help in time of need, give inspiration and comfort, and be a source of motivation for needed change. For example, committing to memory this psalm has been for me a source of power and understanding" - Elder Scott

"Pondering a passage of scripture can be a key to unlock revelation and the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope, and a restoration of confidence in one’s ability to overcome the challenges of life. They have potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior. They can accelerate physical healing." Elder Scott

"Would you like to have emblazoned on your soul an undeniable witness that the Savior descended beneath your sins and that there is no sin, no mortal plight outside the merciful reach of His Atonement—that for each of your struggles He has a remedy of superior healing power? Then read the Book of Mormon." - President Callister

"Your copy of the Book of Mormon may be hidden from your view by cares and attention to all you have accumulated in your journey. I plead with you to drink deeply and often from its pages. It has in it the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the only way home to God." - President Eyring

There was no coordination between us but it turned out that Kevin and I picked completely different quotes to use from Elder Scott's talk, so there wasn't really any overlap in ours talks when we gave them. I spoke for most of the time and only gave Kevin about 8 minutes for his talk but he had said that would be ok. He really enjoyed the second half of Elder Scott's talk because he basically just gave references for some of his personal favorite scriptures and talked about what they meant to him. So that's what Kevin ended up doing with his 8 minutes. The scriptures he talked about were -

Matthew 5:44
Mosiah 2:41
2 Nephi 25:26

The 2nd counselor in the stake presidency, President Jones, was visiting our ward that Sunday so he was there for our talks, too. He found Kevin and me individually after sacrament meeting to tell us he liked our talks. I thought it was funny because he told me I was "lively". I guess that means he wasn't bored :-). I hope everyone else in the congregation felt the same way even though I talked so long. He also asked me where I was from and when I said "mostly Kansas," he said "Well, welcome to the south." I always really enjoy President Jones' talks in stake conference so I appreciated his compliments even extra.

I hope everyone else enjoyed General Conference as much as I did. I actually enjoyed having to go back and study so soon afterwards so I could prepare a talk. Now I just need to follow my own advice and get back to reading like I should.

Something I was thinking about today

It is not a mother’s job to see her children the way the world sees them. No matter the reasons, there will be tens, hundreds, THOUSANDS of people out there who will be more than willing to tell our precious babies that they are not good enough: not talented enough, not outspoken enough, not calm enough, not quick enough. A entire horde of influences will do all within their power to lead them to believe that they don’t fit the ideal and they need to be different, bigger, better, stronger, smarter, faster. There will be plenty of that, so a mother need not fill the role. A mother’s job is to turn her back on all that nonsense. Her job is to teach her children what it is to love and be loved. It’s to embrace the truth that a mother’s love is blind. To start at day one and then continue to kiss, and hug, and gush over her children long after she has become an embarrassment to them. To make such a habit out of adoring and appreciating her children that they know to expect nothing else.  Of course, she should strive to help them to grow and, yes, to be better. But not for the sake of the world that would “fix” them or break them.  A mother’s job is to see her children as what they are, angels with the potential to be gods.

Mothers' Day Song

My husband has a long time good friend who, every Mothers' Day since I met him 5 years ago, never fails to mention his frustration at the hymns chosen for church that day.

It's not that he dislikes the songs that are chosen, he just gets a little irritated that one particular song is not chosen.

I think that most likely the title itself takes it out of the running for any chorister who maybe doesn't know the lyrics. However, he firmly believes there is no better song to sing on Mothers' Day because it is the one and only hymn that mentions Heavenly Mother.

So, to perhaps put his mind at ease (probably not though) for this one Mothers' Day, the hymn -

O My Father

O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood
Was I nurtured near thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But, until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heav'ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.

Text: Eliza R. Snow
(Emphasis added)

Temple Observation

I found this sweet blog post through the Atlanta Temple's facebook page. It's written by a woman of the Catholic faith who went on the Temple tour a couple of weeks ago. I love how respectful and appreciative she is. It made me think of the experience I had as a tour guide and how special that was for me. It was so sweet to have the opportunity to welcome people to the Lord's house on His behalf. I really felt like my job was to say a few words and then get out of the way so they could just soak up as much of the Temple beauty and spirit as possible. I was nervous but I knew the more I just relaxed and let the Spirit do His thing, the better the tour would be. This song sums up that feeling nicely I think:

Invitation!

I just completed my tour guide training last night and I'm so excited! If you're interested in coming on the day I'm going to be giving tours, let me know and I'll get you the info for my times. 

Just so you know, you don't even really need a ticket to come, but they're easy to download and I think having a reservation is always nice.

Come see the Temple! A great family experience!

Get your ticket/reservation here

Find out more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our Temples

Family Time Saturday

This past Saturday my family and I had the sweet opportunity to go our nephew's baptism. About 30 minutes before we had to leave our house to go to the church, Kevin mentioned that he wished he had thought ahead and got something to give "T", like scripture marking pencils or something. A little fast thinking and I had it, "I can make him a bookmark!" I finished getting myself ready and left Kevin to dress the boys while I hopped online for a quick google search. I would have liked to design something myself and make it really personal, but at that point I had about 15 minutes before we needed to be on the road.

I found this Armour of God one first but I have this thing about printing only one small picture on a full piece of card stock so I pulled up a couple more (Scripture Hero and Book of Mormon) to make it a set of three. I threw them into my Corel program and did a little cropping and arranging and resizing to get them to fit.

Then I hit print. Then I did a little freaking out when it started coming out of the printer in grayscale, so I did a little "argh"ing and a little printer-settings-examining and a little stupid-grayscale-box-unchecking and hit print again. It came out right that time and I ran downstairs to my trusty roll of clear contact paper to laminate them. (If you've never laminated anything with contact paper, come back tomorrow and I'll have a full tutorial with pictures on how to do it.)

I didn't notice until we got to the church that the scripture at the bottom of the Armour of God bookmark didn't import and therefore didn't print. So I ended up borrowing a pen and writing the reference on the back of the book mark. (And I just barely now noticed that the "Book of Mormon" part on the Book Mormon book mark didn't import either, oh well.) It ended up being kind of neat because the Bishop shared the exact quote from the introduction to the Book of Mormon that is on the second book mark. After the service was over, Kevin and I offered to let "T" ride back to Grandma and Grandpa's house with us. We presented him with our little gift on the way and he told us all about how he needed one for his Bible and he was surprised that he got to keep all three book marks.

We all went to Chic-fil-A for dinner and then to Kevin's brother's house ("T"s house) for cake and ice cream. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house first, though, so we could take family pictures while everyone was still dressed up. So here's my little family in our most recent family shot. (Also, it's finally a picture of me modeling the finds I shared here and here.)

Congratulations again "T" on your baptism! Uncle Kevin and I still owe you a special day with us. Your choice! Love you!

("Aunt")

TOFW

I had the awesome opportunity over this past weekend to go to Time Out for Women in Nashville, TN. My friend Anna and I drove up there Friday afternoon and attended the Friday evening event and then stayed overnight and went to the big Saturday session as well. I'd never been to a Time Out before and I was amazed at the quality of the presentations. I spent about 70% of my time there crying (in a good way) because the Spirit was so strong. I missed Kevin and the boys but it was so nice to get spend time with Anna and have a little vacation.

Our trip was also extraordinarily special because Anna got a call a few weeks ago asking if she was interested in going to this Time Out and if she would be willing to give one of the presenters a ride from Nashville to see her family in Atlanta. The lady said that if we could do that, the presenter would provide two free tickets for us at will call. So Anna called me to make sure I could commit to go and we jumped on the opportunity. 

What we didn't realize was that the presenter was actually giving us her "Guest" tickets. Which meant when we got to the Convention Center we were escorted through the audience to reserved seats...in the SECOND ROW! We were sitting with the presenters and their families and friends! On Saturday we got to eat lunch with them and to kind of formally meet everyone. So fun! Then of course we got to road trip it up with the lady we were taking to see her family. Her stories are so amazing; some tragic, some inspirational, some HILARIOUS! It was awesome to get to talk with her with Anna.

Anyway, if you've never been to a Time Out for Women, Oh oh oh, you should go! Even if you left our "Guest" experiences out of the equation, the time and money were SO worth it. There are still a bunch of stops on the 2011 tour. Go to the site and check it out. I definitely would love to go again one day.

To The Rescue

~ *Note* This is not a happily-go-lucky "look what I just put up on my wall to make it prettier" post. It's a personal gospel insight post that may or may not lead members of my church to take action in their own lives. If you don't know anything about the church I belong to, a lot of my references won't make sense. Feel free to leave me a comment if you want clarification or visit Mormon.org for more information. ~ 

I'm the 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency in our ward and lately I've really enjoyed having the opportunity to go to several leadership training meetings. At almost every one the theme seems to have been "Rescue".

At least three different speakers used this painting in one way or another in their presentations. The painting is called: *deep breath* 

Lifeboat and Manby Apparatus going off to a stranded vessel making signal blue lights of distress

Apparently, Joseph Mallord William Turner didn't understand back in 1831 that a picture is worth a thousand words and he didn't have to put those thousand words in the title. But me calling someone wordy would be the pot calling the kettle black and besides that's not really the point. The point is President Monson spoke about this painting in a general priesthood session back in 2001 and I'm told he has a copy of it hanging in his office today. You can read the whole talk here.  He "abbreviated the name of the painting in his mind" and refers to it as To The Rescue.

All the leaders who shared this painting talked about how he compared the people in the stranded boat to people struggling in the gospel, either because of sin or for any other reason. They talked about the men in the lifeboat as being members of the church who go out of their way to reach out and help those people back into activity. And the woman and children on the shore are those who are desperately praying for their family members to be brought home safely.

The most impressing note I remember was when Elder Duncan of the seventy spoke at our Stake Conference over the weekend. He talked about how he served many years in Chile and how when the earthquake struck there a few days ago, every missionary that he had served with there and that had since returned home, called his cell phone and practically begged for ways to help. They talked about leaving school and work and going to Chile to do what ever was necessary to rescue as many people as they could. Elder Duncan went on to say how he was impressed at the time with the thought that, as wonderful as it is that people are willing to sacrifice and travel immense distances to help others in times of natural disaster or other physical hardship, how many more people are there immediately around us that need all the spiritual help they can get. The love of Christ is universal and it's a basic commandment to assist the poor and needy, but temporal items are of little importance compared to lifting a downtrodden soul. 

His point really struck me. As I thought about it, it occurred to me that maybe part of why we like jumping to the rescue when physical disaster strikes is because we're not really putting much on the line then. Anyone can see the need, we don't have to explain ourselves, and we can pretty much expect our help to be welcomed because the recipient is humbled and out of options. On the other hand, when we see someone who is lost spiritually, we have a tendency to hesitate. "What if they are offended because they think I'm judging them?" "What if I don't know what to say and they ask questions I can't answer?" "What if it's hard for them to change something in their lives to follow a commandment?" "What if they get mad at me?" "What if they're just not interested?" 

"I might get embarrassed."

It's a difficult pill to swallow but I think if we really step back and compare our reactions to a regional natural disaster and a personal spiritual disaster we might have our priorities a bit skewed. I am not AT ALL saying that we should be less concerned and helpful when an earthquake or fire or hurricane hits, but just that we need to be that much more concerned about relieving spiritual anguish. This mortal life is fleeting, and as Elder Duncan pointed out, the resurrection is going to take care in the end of all the physical saving we'll need. But God wants more for his children than that. He wants us to come home and go into the family business. He wants us to grow and become all that He is. He wants us to be HAPPY. And he weeps as He looks upon his children and knows even better than we do how unhappy we are as we walk around ignoring one another. 

I feel that I'm the worst offender of all when it comes to this; getting caught up in myself and putting my comfort before the needs of others. I wouldn't have shared any of it if it didn't apply to me first and foremost. In my most honest moments I wonder if I'm really shy or just a snob. And my most frequently used excuse is that I can't presume to know what's best for other people and telling them the church is true would be stepping on their toes. The problem with that is, the church IS true and denying it won't do any good. God himself has shown the way and calls it the only way. He doesn't want me to just blow off people's true feelings but when it comes to sharing the gospel, his message is universally one of help; and making up excuses just to save myself face is pretty ludicrous. How can I expect to grow up to be just like my All-Knowing Father if I can't be bothered for the time of day to learn a person's name? Or to be like my All-Powerful Father if I can't speak with boldness as I testify of the truthful necessity of the principles and ordinances of the gospel? And how can I possibly hope to be anything like my Ever-Merciful Father if I can't look at a "less active" member of the church and forget all my stupid pride so I can fall down on my knees and beg them to allow me to wash their feet?

I might be wrong, but I don't think "I never got embarrassed" is going to be the password to get in at the "pearly gates" of the Celestial Kingdom. If it is, I definitely won't be getting in anyway.

Easter Design

My craft group got together for its first craft night over the weekend and I’d have to say it was a general success. There was a couple of snags with getting the contact paper to adhere snuggly enough to a curved surface and I learned never to rush a glass etching project to catch up with the rest of the group. (Eek!) But even though my nice glass trifle/candy dishes ended up looking like something I’ll only be able to pull out for Halloween, I got to show off my Silhouette machine and have a good girls’ night in.

As the group was getting ready to leave we started talking about what our next project will be and we decided to do some sort of something to display for Easter. So this morning I hopped on google and some of my favorite blogs and started hunting for a really awesome Easter project. And while I didn’t come up completely empty handed I couldn’t help but notice that there just aren’t as many fantabulous Easter ideas out there as there are for a lot of the other holidays. So I decided to play around and see if I could come up with something shareable to throw into the void. This quote by President Hinckley is one that has stuck with me for a long time and I wanted to see what I could do with it.

 

 

My initial idea was to put something together to cut out in vinyl and put on a vintage window pane or picture frame but then while I was working I thought these might be nice just printed out as well. So if you like my idea please use one (or all). Just click on the image to open it larger in a new tab/screen and print from your browser. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to share files like this for printing so if the resolution isn’t good enough let me know and I’ll email you a pdf. I sized these to be 5x7 so if you want bigger you should definitely have me send you the pdf. Or you can always take the idea and play around with fonts and designs of your own. The free fonts and wingdings I used are as follows: Calamity Jane, Miama, wmtrees1, Nymphette, Scrapicons, freaking stars, lpflowers2. All of them except Calamity Jane I got from www.dafont.com. I got Calamity Jane from www.1001freefonts.com. The quote is from this phenomenal article by President Hinckley in the May 2007 Liahona.

And just so you know, comment luv and new followers totally rock my world (everybody loves a compliment right?) So pleeeeease let me know if you like this printable. I'm just getting started with this kind of thing and I'd like to know if I'm doing a good job. :-)

Enjoy!

Read the Scriptures!

Thanks to my sister-in-law Katie for sharing this awesome scripture study help on her blog! The site www.readthescriptures.com offers preplanned or personalized scripture reading schedules. You pick one or many and they will email you your selection(s). I love this idea because I'm currently working in Primary (with the little kids) at church and since that means I don't get to go to Sunday School myself, I chose to have the preset weekly lesson scriptures sent to me so I can keep up with the grownup class. I've been wanting to get back in the habit of daily reading and this seems like the perfect thing to give me a little push. The site also has a bunch of other extra features like highlighting and stuff I haven't tried yet but it looks like they thought of everything. It also lets you form teams to be kind of a study group for discussions and stuff. Oh, and did I mention this service is totally free? Yay for free! So now I'm going to post this and go read my first day's selection. Let the spiritual nourishment begin!

A pseudo-tutorial (ish) ...thing

One of the goals our stake presidency set for us last year was to have every family hang a copy of "The Living Christ" document in their home. So, a few months ago we had a Relief Society activity to make nice collage frame mats to hang with them. They supplied 11x14 (inner space 8x10) mat boards and Ensign magazines so we could cut out pictures of Christ to frame the document.

Well, some of the ladies put theirs together; I cut out a few pictures and then decided I would finish mine at home. Fast forward to this morning (as I said, months later) and after my tiny success with the vinyl yesterday, I found myself motivated to finally finish the frame project. 

Part of the reason I didn't finish at the activity was that I wasn't in love with enough of the pictures they had available. So I pulled out my huge stack of church pamphlets.

There are only 3 different titles in that pile; I ordered them in bulk the first year Kevin and I were married. I was jazzed but of course Kevin laughed at me. Because you can get these for free from the missionaries if you have a friend to give them to and he knew I'd never know enough people to give them all away in a million years. (And since I've given out about 4 total in the past 4 years, I guess he was right.) But now that I've found this new use for them I'll definitely be getting some more mileage out of my purchase.

I also got out my fabulously multi-functional Del Parson calendars.

I love Del Parson's artwork but since really nice art is also really expensive, I like to buy the calendars and cut out and frame the pictures. And for this project some of the little sample pictures on the back pages were a perfect fit.

After a lot of cutting and experimenting and then re-cutting new pictures (good thing I had plenty of copies) I got everything laid out the way I wanted it. Then, I busted out my spiffy orange glue stick and went to town. Took a drop of brain power to make sure everything went back in the same spot once I picked up the pictures to put glue on the back, but in the end it turned out just right.

I had actually finished the first one and put it in a frame before I realized I wanted to post pictures and then I thought it would be nice to have an extra to give as a gift, so I went ahead and made the second one.

Now I just have to figure out where in the world I'm going to hang this thing...

Long weekend

This weekend has been cuh-rAY-zee but the main message I got from General Conference is less is more. I'm still going to try to work on special goals but time with my husband and kids is the most important thing.

Uplifting Weekend

I received lots of spiritual nourishment over this past weekend. Sunday was just pretty good all around but Saturday we had a women's conference at church (Stake Relief Society workshop and broadcast) and it was awesome. The workshop was from 10-1 and it was called Becoming an Elect Lady of the Lord. My first class was about the temple and cleaving to our covenants. Second one was about the definition of virtue. Virtue = Power. They challenged us to complete the Young Women's Value Virtue. Third was a discussion on charity. And fourth was a class on establishing a Gospel centered home. I really liked the handout for that one because it gave me a list of goals and you know how I like lists:

Gospel centered home handout (the links are my own additions based on my impressions and the notes I took)

Then that night I got to watch the General Conference Relief Society broadcast at a friend's house. It rocked. The main message I found was that nobody on this earth is perfect and we shouldn't be judgemental. We shouldn't even judge ourselves unrighteously. We should just try to be the best we can and not compare ourselves to other people. That lesson went along very well with my favorite note from the class about charity. It was that the assignments we are given by the Lord are not the tape measure for how "perfect" we are. They are just the gifts God has given us to use to change ourselves. Good stuff.

President Monson told a great story (like he always does) which I would share here but I don't think I'll tell it as well as he did. So, if you didn't get to see the broadcast, you should definitely watch it or read it online or when it comes out in next month's Ensign.

All of Saturday was such a big boost in motivation for me. I would really recommend clicking the links I've shared and being uplifted yourself.

End Goal

Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.
Alma 48:17

"Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, 'Oh, crap she's up!'"
- Unknown

Rising Generation

We hold in our arms the rising generation. They come to this earth with important responsibilities and great spiritual capacities. We cannot be casual in how we prepare them. Our challenge as parents and teachers is not to create a spiritual core in their souls but rather to fan the flame of their spiritual core already aglow with the fire of their premortal faith.
~ Elder Neil L. Andersen

From: Tell Me the Stories of Jesus

Good stuff :-)

SPF 50

For Labor Day weekend we went with another family and took our boys to Tybee Island (our closest beach). Monday morning, after I slathered my kids with SPF 50 from head to toe, I had some sunscreen left over on my hands, so I rubbed it on my face. I covered my nose and ears really well and then smoothed the rest over my cheeks, forehead, chin. Then we got our stuff loaded in the cars and headed to the beach. We had a lovely time. Three hours of pretty perfect, not-too-hot-not-to-cool weather. The wind kicked up a little for a minute and we thought we might get rained on but then it passed and we went back to playing in the water and relaxing on the sand.

It wasn't until around hour 2.5 that I remembered I hadn't put on sunscreen anywhere else but my face. Oops. I figured I wouldn't burn too badly, though. We went in the morning, we were about to leave soon and the September sun didn't feel that hot.

Boy was I wrong. My husband (who didn't use any sunscreen) and I both had turned a very painful shade of fuchsia by the time we pulled into our driveway that night. But the SPF 50 had done its work for our sons. And for my face. My freckles weren't even any darker. So even though my back and shoulders are just now (four days later) starting to feel better, I was spared the agony of a pealing nose.

So...

I told you that story to tell you this one...

The past couple of weeks the hubby and I have finally started trying to get the little man to sit still for family scripture reading and prayers. Now, daily prayer and scripture study is a habit that I have always struggled to maintain. I'll finally get in a groove where I'm doing it every night and then I'll miss just one night, the habit is broken, and it'll be weeks or even months before I get my feet under me again.

But, with our son, it's different. I know it's only been a couple of weeks but I can just tell that this is a habit that I'm going to keep. Knowing that I'm responsible for another person's eternal progression is a strong motivator. And even though you would think that wrestling with a toddler would make the acts of reading a book without pictures and kneeling down to pray a lot more difficult, I've found that it's actually soooo much easier to remember to do it when it's part of his bedtime routine. So it's great. Because reading scriptures to him means I'm reading scriptures. And praying with him means I'm praying.

And I've discovered this beautiful thing about being a mother.

You can't give someone else something good without getting a little on yourself.

FHE

I finally have one thing I can put a check mark next to on my To-Do list here. We did Family Home Evening tonight. Ta-Da! I know it's just one week but I feel the need to celebrate it. It's a big deal for me! It's a big deal because it's the first FHE we've actually done with our 2 year old son. And this is why I have this list. I need to get on the ball here! My kid is two and I'm just now starting to do these things. But this list is helping me remember. Which is good. :-)

Mothers Who Know

This talk was given in the October General Conference of 2007. I wasn't even pregnant with my first child yet but I still felt inspired by Sister Beck's powerful declaration. No beating around the bush with this one. She sets forth several high standards but also emphasizes (over and over) the power and influence we can have as women of God.

Proverbs 31:10-31

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

A lot to live up to.