We are living an exciting and sometimes scary part of our lives right now. As I've mentioned before, we have many unknowns this year. We are working hard to find our place as Jonathan gets ready to graduate from BYU again and we're moving forward into the unknown with only faith and the support of our loving families. I've been prompted since finding out we were expecting 2 delightful babies to search for more spiritual strength. I know I need to be on guard at all times to be able to raise my children so that they'll be safe and successful and happy in this troubled world. How can I teach my children to pray and read their scriptures if I'm not able to do the most basic of commandments myself?
I've been reading my scriptures more fervently and seeking for answers to questions and pondering the words of the prophets. I've been drinking in the words of those in the Ensign and have been finding exactly what I need to hear.
A few weeks ago, I was able to attend Relief Society for the first time in almost a year. Jon and I spend every Sunday in Primary with our callings as singing time leaders. The lesson was given by our Relief Society president and it was called, "Take Time to Be Holy".
She talked about the importance of receiving personal revelation and prioritizing our lives so that we could be spiritually fed by the scriptures and prayer, etc. Then she played this arrangement of "Take Time to Be Holy" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the moment the music began, I couldn't stop crying. I bawled (sometimes audibly) through the entire song and the rest of the lesson. It was as if that lesson had been prepared just for me.
Then just last week we had a Stake Relief Society Conference where the guest speaker was a woman who has taught in the CES Institute program for years. Although the average age of the congregation was over 50, she spoke about the importance of family and bearing children. She gave examples of the women in the scriptures such as Tabitha (Acts 9) and Rebekah (Genesis 24 and 25) and others who desired to have children and waited patiently until that day--sometimes years and years later--would come. I loved her message of how the world would have us believe that having a family and bearing children is an outdated and irrelevant practice but that the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth is still valid and we still have a sacred obligation to build and strengthen our families.
This morning I opened the March 2011 Ensign and read an article by the General Relief Society President, Julie Beck. It was called Teaching the Doctrine of the Family. She discussed the same issues that our children and youth are bombarded with ideas that the family is less important, less stable, and non-essential to our day. The focus is on individuals and self--self-improvement, self-image, etc. Something she said brought me peace, "Live and teach with so much clarity that what you teach will cut through all the noise youth are hearing and so that it will pierce their hearts and touch them." She then quoted President Kimball, "The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us...."
So in the midst of our unknown future there is one thing we do know: that we are doing the Lord's work by having a family and raising our children in the knowledge of our Savior and His Atonement and that the "family is ordained of God."-- The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
I've been reading my scriptures more fervently and seeking for answers to questions and pondering the words of the prophets. I've been drinking in the words of those in the Ensign and have been finding exactly what I need to hear.
A few weeks ago, I was able to attend Relief Society for the first time in almost a year. Jon and I spend every Sunday in Primary with our callings as singing time leaders. The lesson was given by our Relief Society president and it was called, "Take Time to Be Holy".
She talked about the importance of receiving personal revelation and prioritizing our lives so that we could be spiritually fed by the scriptures and prayer, etc. Then she played this arrangement of "Take Time to Be Holy" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the moment the music began, I couldn't stop crying. I bawled (sometimes audibly) through the entire song and the rest of the lesson. It was as if that lesson had been prepared just for me.
Then just last week we had a Stake Relief Society Conference where the guest speaker was a woman who has taught in the CES Institute program for years. Although the average age of the congregation was over 50, she spoke about the importance of family and bearing children. She gave examples of the women in the scriptures such as Tabitha (Acts 9) and Rebekah (Genesis 24 and 25) and others who desired to have children and waited patiently until that day--sometimes years and years later--would come. I loved her message of how the world would have us believe that having a family and bearing children is an outdated and irrelevant practice but that the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth is still valid and we still have a sacred obligation to build and strengthen our families.
This morning I opened the March 2011 Ensign and read an article by the General Relief Society President, Julie Beck. It was called Teaching the Doctrine of the Family. She discussed the same issues that our children and youth are bombarded with ideas that the family is less important, less stable, and non-essential to our day. The focus is on individuals and self--self-improvement, self-image, etc. Something she said brought me peace, "Live and teach with so much clarity that what you teach will cut through all the noise youth are hearing and so that it will pierce their hearts and touch them." She then quoted President Kimball, "The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us...."
So in the midst of our unknown future there is one thing we do know: that we are doing the Lord's work by having a family and raising our children in the knowledge of our Savior and His Atonement and that the "family is ordained of God."-- The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
