In the Come Follow Me lesson this week there is a section about the Ten Lepers that focuses on gratitude. I REALLY loved it! And really loved the talk they referenced. It was President Eyring from 2007. He talks about how he started a journal of the blessings the Lord provided him or his family with and that he was able to keep a constant daily record of these things. I remember this talk and I remember it pushing me towards keeping my blog going and deciding to make it into a book. I think there have been times when I've been better at keeping records of the spiritual happenings and I think that you can see it is spread throughout and I'm glad I did, but I am making a goal to be better at it. I'd like to try to get on here every day- morning or night, not sure which will happen more likely, but I want to ponder the question he did, "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" I want to grow my testimony and be better at recognizing the Lord's hand in our lives. So here we go!
My first entry for this purpose is yesterday's. I was making a video for Kelly's Lacrosse banquet and had only given myself a few days to work on it. I had stressed about it enough over the past month and a half (maybe longer, since I had kind of committed in my head to do it at last year's banquet) to last me a lifetime, and was still getting my little panicky feelings anytime I thought about it. But anyway- Kelly and I had put HOURS into it, making just right. I had done five by myself yesterday, while she was at school and just needed her final approval to get it solidified and then saved onto YouTube. Well, of course- because this program is so stupid (so regretting not downloading a new program like I feel I was prompted to do)- I couldn't get get it to save. I was panicking a little, praying a lot, and then the Spirit came and whispered in the back of my head that I could probably use the preview mode and just cast it from there. It's not ideal and the resolution stinks, but I was grateful there was a back up option. I continued to try, up until the last minute before needing to be at the banquet, nothing worked, but I was confident that the preview mode would work. It was SUCH A BLESSING!!! And what was even more- was that it actually worked! Kelly's coach, Paul, was in charge of the projector and screen and he had his stuff all ready to go, so I had wanted to test mine out, but he said it would be fine. Luckily, and as NEVER has happened before, I plugged my laptop in and sure enough- it worked! On the first try!! I was shocked, but so grateful! I know that was my Heavenly Father! No tinkering involved is something that only could have been a miracle. So that was the Lord's hand in my day yesterday. I hope to keep this up. I want to see what will happen with my life if I can focus more on these positive things.
And actually, while I'm thinking about it- on Sunday, before I even realized it, my friend and minister, Christie May came up to me and said, "I need a hug." and gave me a big hug! I think she squeezed a few tears out because I then realized how much I needed that hug too! It was a blessing and I believe the hand of the Lord. I wish I'd been more in tune to ask her how she was doing and what I could do to help her, but I was sure grateful for a surprise hug. Much needed. 5-7-19
A cool analogy I thought of on the way home from dropping kids off the other day:
I looked over at the ponds and thought how pretty everything looked the way the sky was and the sunlight, and then as I went around the little bend, I looked over again and on the pond were a handful of really pretty white geese. They made the scene 10 times more beautiful! Geese! Who woulda thought. I mean, they're pretty ordinary. The white ones are usually the least enjoyable when we go feed the ducks, but from there, and that morning, they made the picture I was looking at, that much more beautiful. I thought about how we are like the geese. Just going on about our lives, just doing what we do, and sometimes we are able to make the picture look more beautiful to someone else. Just by being us. We don't have to do anything huge or spectacular, just by being who we are and who Heavenly Father intended for us to be, in the role he put us in. I liked it. 5-7-19
And another cool analogy from a few days later:
Over the course of the school year, driving the older girls to school every morning, I've discovered that as I am trying to turn left, out of the school drop off, and onto Main street, it can be really congested and pretty difficult. For a long time I would get really irritated at other drivers and at the whole situation, knowing there were littles at home who needed me waking them up, feeding them breakfast... you know, morning stuff to do! Well somehow I had the sense of mind to look at the clock when it did clear up and I was able to turn. I looked at the clock a few times, noticing that each time, it happened it was 8:25! This became something I was able to anticipate. I would get to that intersection at 8:23 and patiently wait, almost not even noticing whether there was room to turn or not, but waiting for my cue and then sure enough, just like the sun rising, it would hit 8:25, the path would clear and I could confidently turn left onto Main St. It was kind of cool and while I don't love to wait for things, I am surprisingly patient and able to just kind of relax, knowing there will be a break in the traffic. I realized that this is how faith is supposed to feel. We know that the Lord is in charge. We know that things will all work out in the end. We know that 8:25 will come and be clear. So we should be able to relax and have faith in the Lord's timing and in his plan. This would make life so much more enjoyable. I feel like if I could develop this kind of faith, I would be a much happier person. I am going to strive to create this kind of confidence in the Lord's timing. 5-7-19
Just had to put this one on here- as we were driving to Manti, my phone had as the quicker route to get there as NOT going through the canyon and since then I've realized that that may have been a blessing in disguise considering how sick I felt when we got there, I may have actually thrown up or something if we had had to go through the windy canyon and stuff! I'm thanking Heavenly Father for that one. 6-14-19
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