The spiritual side of motherhood.
If Simon Cowell watched this, I’m pretty sure he’d say it was “indulgent” and “absolutely horrible.”
Oh well.
Don’t worry, I didn’t sing or anything. And I got cut off somehow right as I said the punchline of my story, but you’ll get the drift.
Try to have a good day anyway.
Did you know that I used to live in China? I did. (See the lovely Great Wall behind us?) Matt and I spent one summer in Beijing when we were still newlyweds. He had an internship at a software company, and I taught English classes at a small Canadian university. It was certainly all an adventure, but this was before we ever had children, so I was a little naive about what “adventure” really meant. (You’ve never had a real adventure unless you’ve tried to go somewhere with 3 small children in tow.) 🙂 Anyway, one of the most popular historical/tourist spots in Beijing is the Forbidden City:
“The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.” (Thanks, Wikipedia.)
Here I am at the Forbidden City. I’ll have you know that my denim overalls and cassette walkman were very fashionable at the time. (The walkman thing was actually rented for an audio tour.)
At the main entrance to the Forbidden City, this is what you see. It is called the Gate of Supreme Harmony:
According to this travel website,
The gate is guarded by a couple of bronze lions which aimed to show imperial dignity. The west one is male, with its front right paw resting on a ball, symbolizing imperial power extended worldwide.
The lioness on the east side has its front left paw on a lion cub, indicating a prosperously growing family and the never-ending secession of the imperial lineage.
Cool, huh?
Wait. This gets cooler.
At the last Women’s Conference, Sister Julie Beck gave an amazing talk. This is what she said:
“I have said lately that women are like lionesses at the gate of the home. Whatever happens in that home and family happens because she cares about it and it matters to her. She guards that gate, and things matter to that family if they matter to her. For example, if the lioness at the gate believes in the law of tithing, tithing will be paid in that family. If that family has a humble little portion of ten pesos coming in, that lioness will safeguard the one peso if tithing is important to her. If that lioness at the gate knows about renewing her baptismal covenants with God, she will be in sacrament meeting on Sunday, and she will prepare her children to be there. They will be washed, cleaned, combed, and taught about that meeting and what happens there. It isn’t a casual event, but it is serious to her, and it will be serious to them. The lioness at the gate ensures that temple worship is taken care of in the family. She encourages that participation. She cares about seeking after her ancestors. If the lioness at the gate knows about and understands missions, missionaries, and the mission of the house of Israel, she will prepare future missionaries to go out from that home. It is very difficult to get a lion cub away from a lioness who doesn’t believe in missions, but if the lioness believes in a mission, she will devote her life to preparing the cub to go out and serve the Lord. That’s how important she is. Service happens if she cares about it.
Sisters, you are each like the lioness at the gate. This means that there has to be some prioritizing. I was taught years ago that when our priorities are out of order, we lose power. If we need power and influence to carry out our mission, then our priorities have to be straight.”
She then goes on to suggest ways to establish those priorities and protect our families as we should. I love the concept. I want to get statues like that for my front door just to remind me. Motherhood? That, my friends, is dignity, power, lineage, and prosperity. And let’s not forget adventure.
I can totally make that face. Just ask my kids.
p.s. I’m guest posting over here today about (gasp!) family planning. Check it out, and enter in the giveaways there while you’re at it.
We moved two weeks ago. Two weeks seems like nothing and forever at the same time. Matt is at his new job; he likes it. My boys will be home from school soon. Natalie is watching Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (it’s a preschool cartoon), and I’ve been hanging out at the computer desk for longer than I should have today. The last 12 days or so have been a frenzy of unpacking boxes and putting every thing in its new place. Somehow during this same time, the boys convinced Matt that they needed to buy some guinea pigs since they had to leave their beloved fish, Colors, behind in Minnesota. Don’t ask me how I feel about the new pets.
My bedroom is the last room to unpack, except for some “storage” boxes in the basement. I can’t bring myself to do it; I’ve been avoiding those last dozen boxes or so for about 3 days. At first I thought it was because I was just feeling tired and a little bit lazy, and who likes to organize a closet anyway? (I know some of you might actually like that kind of thing, and all I can say about that is: How much do you charge?) However, after a little bit of gloom today and a little bit of reflection, it dawned on me:
I don’t want to finish unpacking because then I live here. Really live here.
And then I realized that the thought terrifies me a little bit. That seems ridiculous because, hello, I’m already here, but everything happened so fast. I’m not sure I ever really got a chance to process it all. I think I might be afraid. Continue reading
It might be time to get off the computer and love somebody in the next room. I’m on my way.
I made it.
I am alive. And I finally have Internet access.
Here is a little time-line to point out the whirlwind the last two months have been (and to record this insanity for my posterity):
June 21: Matt gets his new job offer. We negotiate and ponder for a few days and decide to accept it, contingent upon selling our home in Minnesota. I begrudgingly accept the possibility of moving to Utah, but only if our house is sold first.
Beginning of July: Contacted by relocation team with realtors, inspectors, movers, etc. All a little overwhelming, but things get rolling. We work like crazy to get our house in great shape to go on the market, including painting, packing, garage sales, storage unit, landscaping, small repairs throughout, etc.
July 16: FOR SALE sign goes up and house is officially on the market. I take the kids over to my mother-in-law’s house to sleep (so our house stays CLEAN).
July 17: Drove two 11-hour days to get to Atlanta (where my parents live) so that we could spend time with them and the house would stay clean for showings. Matt drove with us, we got a flat tire and had to replace all our tires. He flew back to return to work (which he was not allowed to quit until our house sold).
July 23: Our house sold. What?!! The first people that came through for a showing put in an offer. Negotiations made and accepted by both parties. I was shocked. I probably need not describe the current market conditions and what a miracle it was. This is the part where I realized that God was totally in charge, and He had plans completely independent of mine.
July 28: I leave the children with my parents and fly to Utah to house hunt. I look for 3 days and then Matt joins me. We find a house in an area I had not considered at all. (Matt found it online and I finally consented to go see it after crossing it off the list several times and being annoyed at his lack of focus in the housing search.)
July 31: Put an offer on the house. A few days of negotiations, then accepted by both parties. We feel really blessed that we were able to find something we both liked at a really great deal. I went back to Atlanta, and Matt went back to Minnesota.
Week of August 1: House inspections, mortgage initiation, lots of paperwork, more negotiations, hundreds of cell phone minutes logged. Matt puts in his notice at work.
August 6: Matt flies to Atlanta, and we all begin the drive back to Minnesota. Two more long days in the car.
August 11: Moving company arrives and packing begins. (Yes, that quickly. And no, I could not have done it without packers. Thank heavens.)
August 13: Moving company loads up the van with all our items. The house is left empty, and we head out of town by 8 pm.
August 16: We finally roll into the Salt Lake Valley after 4 days of travel that included all of the following: 3 children, two cars, a trailer in tow, 3 nights in hotels, thousands of Sturgis bikers on the roads and in the hotels, loading and unloading all the contents of our 2 vehicles every night (except for Matt’s toolbox which I accidentally left in the hotel closet in Rapid City, SD), altitude sickness at the Continental Divide and pulling over several times because I thought I was going to faint, children with short tempers and leg cramps and even some fever, and finally, an overheated truck resulting in 2 hours at a truck stop and the rest of the journey with no air conditioning. Bet you wish you could have joined us. Next two nights spent sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags at our new house waiting for our stuff to arrive. I also registered the kids for school.
August 18: Moving truck arrives with our stuff. Hallelujah. Next few days spent unpacking box after box after box.
Today: Still unpacking, starting to feel settled in the house. Haven’t ventured out much yet because there’s still so much to do here. The children are all irritable and naughty, which given the circumstances is no big surprise. I’ve been pretty darn irritable and tired myself. Matt starts work next week and the boys start school. Hopefully we’ll fall into a nice routine soon. And hopefully that routine involves naps for me.
Lessons learned: Even in a world full of billions of people and turmoil and mind-numbing events, Heavenly Father is still aware of us as individuals and families, and somehow manages to find the time to put His hand in the details of our simple lives and make things as they should be. And though insignificant by comparison, He lifts us through our trials and struggles and helps us survive them all. Maybe even better off than we were before, but that remains to be seen. Trusting Him goes a long way.
(I’ll slowly fall back into the blogging routine, maybe at a new pace. I’m so sorry about the neglected GCBC; I’ll try to pick up where I left off soon.)
Diapers and Divinity 