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.

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")

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!

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

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.

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.