Monthly Archives: April 2009

Getting it right

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Alright, there are plenty of things I mess up.  I’m not the most patient mother in the world, I’m always running late and forgetting things, and even Matt admits I’m no laundry maven, and well, let’s face it, that list could go on and on.  But I would like to focus on the positive here and publicly declare that there is one thing I do right:

Books.

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I read to my kids.  A lot.  It’s the one area I spoil them in and don’t feel guilt about it.  Holiday gifts always include books.  I’m also a sucker for book orders from school.  I love that their rooms have shelves full of books that are theirs to keep and read whenever they want.  We go to the library (almost) every Monday and they check out more books.  (Due to my skill of running late and forgetting things, I also pay enough fines every few months to keep most of the library workers employed.)

And you know what?  My kids love to read now.  Grant has started trying to read chapter books, and Clark reads so well that, despite being 4 1/2, he helps Grant with the hard words like “information,” “Philistines,” and “chrysanthemum.”  Even Natalie prefers to read books on her own than be read to.  She’ll sit down, turn the pages, look at the pictures, and narrate the story by herself, making it up as she goes along.  And if I try to get them to go to bed without reading them a scripture story, they won’t let me get away with it.

I don’t usually brag.  Hopefully my readers know that.  But this is one thing I’ve done right.  And I would now like to confess that my motivation is mostly selfish.  Consider the following:

  1. When my kids are out-of-control hyper, I know I can settle them down if I offer to read them stories.  They cuddle and listen quietly.
  2. The library is a free outing that also requires a certain level of quiet.
  3. They almost always bring a book with them when we go anywhere in the car.  Translation:  quiet.
  4. Now that they are “independent” readers, I start getting them ready an hour before bedtime and then let them have reading time until lights out.  Again, extra quiet time for me.  Books are awesome.

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So I’m curious, what’s something you do right?  Give yourself a little credit.

And p.s.  I am loving the General Conference book club.  You guys have made the greatest comments already and it’s not even halfway through the week.  Remember that you can click on the reply button under any comment if you want to respond directly to someone else’s comment.  And though many people have written long, awesome commentaries, yours can be as “small and simple” as you want.  There are no rules and I love just knowing that people are reading.  It seriously made me feel connected to a bunch of strangers to know that we’re all studying the same thing together and collectively getting inspired and motivated.  Awesome, ladies, keep it up!

My life was an inspirational movie, for about 12 seconds

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Life as a mother of young children usually bounces back and forth between chaotic and monotonous, but there are occasionally profound moments that remind you of the power and importance behind what you’re doing, and without sounding overdramatic, your place in the universe. And so it was yesterday. We had a nice quiet Easter morning. The Easter Bunny came on Saturday, thus making it possible to have a nice, quiet Easter morning. The kids got dressed and we headed off to Church. By the time we got home, it was actually bordering warm outside, so they were anxious to play outside. Matt took them out to play while I stayed in and worked on getting Easter dinner ready.

I pulled my grandmother’s tablecloth out of the linen closet, and thought of her for a moment as I spread it across the table. I put the Easter lily in the center of the table, the one a checker lady at the grocery store gave us for free the other day because she said she “was just waiting for someone cute to come along.” (It had been partially broken earlier in the day, and the cute person she was waiting for was Natalie.) I couldn’t help but think it miraculous that it had held tight to its buds for several days and then chosen Easter morning to burst into bloom:
dscf2007As I wandered into the kitchen, I stood at the window and watched my children at play.  The ham was in the oven.  The potatoes were in the crock pot.  The song “Lead Kindly Light” was playing from my iPod, and there was sunshine coming in through the window.  I watched Clark precariously balanced on the monkey bars at the top of the swing set.  He was determined to get from one side to the other, but the distance between each rung was more than his arms and balance could reach.  I saw him slowly and deliberately sit on one rung at a time, lean to balance on his arms, and pull up one knee until his foot could reach over the rung.  He would transfer the foot to the next bar and then pull all his body weight across the gap, teetering while his trembling arms balanced his weight.  I felt anxious, half wanting to run out and save him from a 6-foot fall and a trip to the E.R., and half cheering him on.  He made it across, lowered himself down onto the slide, and grinned proudly as he propelled himself back to the ground.

The thought occurred to me that this was symbolic of our parent-child relationship.  As he grows older and becomes more and more independent, I will watch him through the figurative window.  I’ll worry when he seems close to danger, and I’ll celebrate as I see him triumph.  And then, with the leftovers of Easter lessons and thoughts floating around in my mind, I realized it was a symbol of the relationship I have with Jesus Christ.  I try to be so independent, and sometimes I am clumsy.  He could come rescue me each time I struggle, but He lets me work through things.  He helps me develop the skills and confidence I need to face the next round of challenges.  If I do fall, He always catches me and heals me.  And He cheers me on all along the way as I try and try again.

I snapped out of my thoughtful trance and as my eyes refocused, I noticed for the very first time that buds had begun to grow on the tree outside my kitchen window.  After a long and dreadful winter, and the thoughts I just had about my Savior, it was a miracle.  That tree was the first real sign of Spring that I had seen, and a reminder of the power of Easter and the promise of renewal.

budding-leavesAnd all that happened in about 12 seconds or so.  It really felt like a magical, transcendent moment with a soundtrack and everything, and then it was over.  Natalie needed a diaper change, the table had to be set, and I found a rotten sippy cup that needed to be cleaned.  But it was nice while it lasted, and it was a poignant Easter moment.

(This post was entered in the April Write-away Contest at Scribbit.)

General Conference Book Club Week 1: Elder Holland

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04_05_hollaHappy Easter!  And welcome to the General Conference Book Club– Week 1.  It seemed fitting today to start off our study of all of the General Conference talks with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s poignant sermon about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His unique power to help anyone who ever feels alone.  The goal is to read one General Conference talk a week and discuss it together as an on-line “book club.”  A new talk will be posted each Sunday.

Click here to find the talk entitled “None Were with Him” by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

I realized that it’s not necessary for me to write up any post about my thoughts on the talk of the week.  All of us (including me) can just come to the Sunday post (this one) at anytime during the week and share thoughts, findings, favorite quotes, applications, even questions from this talk. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to subscribe to comments from the post so that we can read each other’s insights and have a “real book club” conversation.  (There are two ways to do this:  1. Below this post click on “Comments RSS” below the “Actions” list to subscribe to an RSS feed for comments, or 2. click the little box under the “Submit Comment” button so that comments are emailed to you.)

My own plan for this week, and for every week of book club, is to let the talk guide my personal scripture study throughout the week.  First I’ll read the talk all the way through, then look up and read all the scripture references he quoted, and then break the talk down into segments to study them carefully and try to find other related scriptures that help me understand it better.  Feel free to share any ideas of how you plan to study or apply the talks we read.  (You’re allowed to do this however you want.  You can have a goal to simply read the talk before the week is over, and that’s good, too.)

Here’s a little button you can put on your own blog if you’d like to.  Feel free to invite friends (the real kind and bloggy kind as well) to participate.  The more the merrier.  You can link it directly to the GCBC page (https://diapersanddivinity.com/gcbc/) since it has all the instructions for the Book Club challenge, plus I’ll put a link there each week to keep track of the talks we have covered.

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And try to comment when you’ve read each article, even something as simple as “I did it.”  Then we have a certain motivation/accountability to each other to meet our goal of reading all the talks from the previous General Conference. The objective is to read the words of the living prophets and learn from them.  Our book club community is for sharing and encouraging, but please don’t feel pressure that you have to come around and make profound insights or write eloquent summaries.  Just show up and be counted!

Here’s a recent video that the Church posted on YouTube as a summary of the main points of Elder Holland’s talk.  It’s beautiful and will get you in the mood to read it:

“Don’t cry over spilt milk.” Seriously?

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

(This post was originally published on August 20, 2008.  I’m trying to recreate my lost archives.)

dscf1430Maybe your children are cleaner than mine, but I honestly think that we average about 5 spills a day at my house.  Milk, cereal bowls, yogurt, toothpaste, boxes of anything small and impossible to pick up, the list goes on and on. Here is a picture taken just today of a routine cereal box tumble.  Is this kind of clumsiness really necessary?  I’ve thought about this long and hard because it boggles my mind about why God would want this spill routine to be a part of my daily experience.  And, let’s be honest; He probably doesn’t want it to be, but He allows it to be.  That usually means there’s a lesson to be learned.

  1. We have to clean up our own messes. I think it’s important that my children know that whether we were careless or intentional, we need to make it better.  Let’s work together and clean up.  I know a few adults (and I’m sure you do too) that don’t accept responsibility for their mistakes and then leave all the fixing to someone else.  I believe that our Heavenly Father looks at our mistakes with mercy, but He wants us to be accountable for them and do all in our power to make it better.  And just like a mom will be by your side to help you pick up the pieces when you spill, He will be by our side picking up the pieces of our own mistakes if we turn to Him for help.
  2. Maybe my plans aren’t that important. A big part of the frustration for me is that every time there’s another spill I have to spend 10-15 minutes cleaning it up instead of doing something else I think I should be doing.  Is it possible that Heavenly Father is giving me a gentle reminder over and over again that what I think I have to do doesn’t matter that much?  I doubt he considers cleaning up the spill a monumental task with eternal consequences, but why are my own plans any more important?  So maybe each spill is just a little “get over your own agenda” reminder.
  3. Be patient. I mean, seriously, if mushy cereal on my kitchen floor is among the greatest trials in my life, I really need to put a smile back on my face and move on with my day.  Remember how the scripture says “charity is kind, patient, long-suffering, etc.”?; I’m sure there’s a footnote in there somewhere that says, “and charity wipes up spills with a smile.”  Ugh.  I’ll work on that.  I’m sure I’ll have the chance again tomorrow.

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Happy Easter, everyone.  Check back on Sunday (probably evening) for Round 1 of General Conference Book Club.

Pondering the Passover

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passoverToday marks the celebration of the Passover.  In the Christian faith, this tradition draws upon two significant events:  The protection of the Israelites from the final Egyptian plague, and the last supper that Christ held with his disciples before he surrendered to Gethsemane and Calvary.

I remember reading someone’s story recently where they defended their faith in prophets to a skeptic listener.  The friend asked, “So if your prophet told everybody they should wear blue shirts, would you do it?”  The woman thought for a moment and then responded.  “Yes, I probably would.”  The friend sneered, “Don’t you think it would be a little strange?,” to which she replied, “The Israelites probably thought it was a little strange when Moses told them to put blood on their doors, but I bet they were glad they did.”  I loved that, and I’ve thought of it many times since.

And then a couple weeks ago, I studied this story with my own children in scripture study.  And it struck me how such a simple act, when followed, literally saved the lives of God’s people.  Similar, too was the story of the fiery serpents killing off folks in the wilderness, and when they just looked at the brazen serpent up on a rod, they would be healed.  Life literally preserved because of one simple act of faith.  So then I began to think about how many “passover commandments” exist that hold that same kind of power and promise of protection.  A couple came instantly to mind and I’ve tried to research out a few more.

Now, at my house, there are definitely some passover commandments– simple rules to live by that will save your life.  Here are a few no-brainers:

  • Thou shalt not wake up thy mother by opening her eyelids with thy fingers and shining a flashlight directly into her cornea.
  • Thou shalt not leave gross, sticky or wet things on the floor and forget to warn daddy when he walks through the room in his socks.
  • Thou shalt not lift up the covers and let thy children crawl into bed next to thy wife in the middle of the night; She careth not how “asleep” thou claimest to be when it happeneth.
  • If thou art above the age of three and still weareth night-time diapers, thou shalt diligently throw them away in the garage, and hide them not where thou thinkest thy mother will find them not.  For behold she shall, and great shall be her wrath.
  • Thou shalt not make vain repetitions to thy mother of the same pathetic request over and over, especially if thy voice is a whining siren.

Those are just some examples of life-preserving counsel in our home that I can think of off the top of my head.  But seriously, I’ve been very impressed at the many times and ways that our Heavenly Father offers all of us full protection for simple obedience, even against great adversity.  Take for example this scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 10:5-6:

Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.    Behold, they have sought to destroy you…

How about tithing?  Check out Malachi 3: 10-11:

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy…

The Armor of God scriptures in Ephesians 6 remind us to arm ourselves with faith, the word of God and other Christlike attributes, and then makes a promise that seems to follow this same passover pattern:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

One of the more obvious ones, because of its particular phrasing, is the Word of Wisdom found in Doctrine and Covenants 89.  Here is what Elder Russell M. Nelson said about it:

“The final verse of that revelation forges another link back to ancient Israel: “And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them” (D&C 89:21). This reference to the Passover shows that the Lord wanted obedient Saints of modern Israel to receive physical and spiritual protection just as He had provided for His faithful followers centuries before.”

del_parson_last_supper_400Anyway, I could go on and on because there are probably many more examples of passover commandments, but I don’t want to bore you (more).  I just think it’s fascinating that a historical event we see as such a poignant miracle is still in effect today as we keep God’s commandments.  Our lives and souls are protected.  Even at Jesus Christ’s last supper, as He and his dear friends celebrated Passover together, He reminded them of the power of the destroyer: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. (Luke 22:31)”  He taught them that He had power over Satan.  This power is accessible to us when coupled with our faith in Christ.  I doubt it’s a coincidence that he made this statement immediately after introducing the ordinance of the Sacrament.  The power comes from keeping covenants.  As we take the sacrament each week, we renew a passover covenant so to speak.  And essentially, this is exactly what the children of Israel did on that first Passover long ago.  God asked them to do something.  They obeyed.  And they were preserved.

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I think these verses in Isaiah wrap it up so nicely:

For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.  . . . No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

I just really love the messages of Easter time, don’t you?

(Sorry this is so long.  I just told Matt that this was more of an Ensign article than a post, and he assured me that no one will read it.  If you made it this far, you deserve a treat.  You have my blessing.)