Today we went to listen to the daughter and the son in law speak in their sacrament meeting. They are actually in the same stake as we are, but the demographics of their ward is a little different than ours. I think almost every family there had a baby under a year old and I bet their nursery is LOTS bigger than ours. It was fun to see so many new families and remember going to the BYU Lamanite Married Ward when we were in that phase of our lives. The nice thing about that ward was that we met in an old church building in Provo that came complete with a cry room at the back of the chapel, where you could sit with your loud infant or toddler and still see and hear what was going on in Sacrament meeting without them hearing you. Evergreen Ward could use one of those. There was a dad who got up to take his toddler daughter out of the chapel. He got about 10 steps from his seat when his son (who looked about 3) started screaming "DADDY! DADDY!" and burst into tears. The dad motioned for him to come with him, but he just stood there screaming while the other son, about 4, mowed him over and took off down the aisle to the dad. By this time the dad had started back for the screaming son and the older son passed him by and then started crying too because his dad was going the wrong way. Dad grabbed the 3 year old and the 4 year old and finally made it out the door with the toddler who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying all the attention. The entire congregation was momentarily distracted from the son in law's amazing talk, but just momentarily. I think I am glad that I am past that phase of my life.
They both gave very good talks. She talked about Sharing the Gospel by doing good and focused on service and standing up for what you believe is right. He spoke about testimony and what a testimony is and how we can share testimony through music. I enjoyed both messages a lot. Unfortunately this daughter inherited the Cheever women tear ducts and got a little emotional when she was talking about one of her friends from college. Of course there were no tissues on the pulpit. She is going to have to start carrying her own or checking and requesting them ahead of time. That is what I always do now. I have learned my lesson. I firmly believe there is nothing wrong with being tender-hearted though, as long as you are equipped with lots of Kleenex. It's just the way some of us are made.
Our home teachers came to visit today and shared with us a story from this month's Ensign that really touched me. It was called something like "Lessons Learned From a Milk Jug". The woman in the story had found out that her husband was involved in Pornography and she just couldn't seem to forgive him and deal with all the emotions she had. She was embarrassed to ask for help and just kept trudging along but was not sure she could keep it up much longer. One day she and her 3 year old went to the store and when they got home the little girl was helping carry the groceries inside an item at a time. She did OK with the bread and the eggs but when she tried to move the gallon of milk,once she got it out of the car, it was just too heavy. The mom offered to help, but the typical toddler insisted on doing it herself. Finally she gave up and told her mom it was just too hard. She couldn't do it alone. When she said that, the mom thought how much she was like her stubborn little girl. Unwilling to ask her Heavenly Father for help when her burdens became to heavy to carry alone. The daughter asked the mom to carry her while she carried the milk.
So often I stubbornly refuse to accept Jesus Christ's atonement in my life and just try to struggle along, dragging my heavy, heavy burden behind me instead of admitting I need help and accepting what he has already done for me. We can all learn a lot from these noisy, stubborn little children in our lives if we just take the time to look for the lessons.
Today I am thankful for
A daughter and son in law who have testimonies and are able to share them with others.
Dedicated Home Teachers - who come every month even though they don't always get the warmest welcome from out youngest.
Kleenex - for the obvious reasons.
A funny Kleenex story - today one of the little girls in nursery needed a tissue, so I gave her one and then went back to picking up the toys. All of the sudden, something came flying at me. It was the dirty tissue delivered by the little girl who then turned her back and walked across the room. I called her name. She ignored me. I called her name again. She ignored me again. This is the same little girl who recently can't be more than 3 inches away from me without calling for me to sit by her. She continued to ignore me a few more times until finally she looked up and I asked her to come and throw the tissue away. She looked at me and at it and then went right back to ignoring me. I called her one more time and she stomped over and took the offensive item between the tips of her fingers and threw it away before running back to sit in my lap. What a stinker! Speaking of stinkers, we had 3 dirty diapers in nursery today. We haven't even had one before today. What's with that?
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