I've been sick for a while . . . so getting back into the routine of exercising and making my bed and getting ready for the day just seemed daunting. But today I got up - and despite being extra tired, I just DID IT all. And you know, after I did . . . I felt better and realized it's just not as hard as we make it out to be.
* I can keep the baby out of the kitchen!
Yeah - what? you say??? What's the big ah ha moment w/ that? This is a silly one, but still very monumental to me. Well, after the little munch-kin mastered the stairs we didn't see a real big need for the safety gate, but after he got into our huge interactive pantry for the FIFTH time today (shaking a damaged oatmeal container all over the living room and dragging the huge tub of olive oil through the front room), I decided enough is enough! I put up the gate and blocked the door that would lead to the kitchen from the Front Room via the Dining Room with his own lock-into-place highchair! Now not only will I avoid finding dented bean cans in the bathroom, but every time I hear silence I won't have to assume my little love bug is into the dish soap under the sink - in an un-kid-proof-able cupboard.
* While reading a little book during my treadmill re-acquaintance session this morning, I was really struck by a couple things. It's called, "When Your Prayers Seem Unanswered" by S. Michael Wilcox. It's a quick read, but it made me look deep into myself and my prayers. I've been feeling disappointed in myself lately. I've told Dan I'm not the strong person I feel like I used to be. I'm not happy with myself. I'm not feeling spiritually rich lately. It was a very nice reassuring book about how the Lord answers prayers - and that EVERY prayer will be answered. He IS watching over us and he IS going to answer. It just gave me a little perspective on it all. The epiphany was striking when he was talking about the parable of the vineyard. There are those vines which are planted in good soil, and in not so good soil, and in bad soil. The vines were all nourished - the ones in bad soil brought forth good fruit and the ones in not so great soil brought forth good fruit but not all those in the good soil did what everyone would expect they'd do - they didn't all bring forth fruit and some of the fruit the did produce was bad.
I've been planted my whole life in great, fabulous, rich soil. I've been blessed with a family growing up that through all tough times and strain, has come together and never broken. I was taught Christlike principles and loved and taken care of. After getting married, my soil has been nothing but rich. I have a loving, wonderful, forgiving, trustworthy husband who has done everything to help nourish me and our family. But lately, I've not been producing favorable fruit. It's not that I've been growing the wild, not so good fruit - but I've not been growing anything terribly desirable. So I've decided I need to stop worrying about my soil and my nourishment - Soil obviously doesn't matter - fruit can be grown anywhere! Nourishment is available everywhere. We have a loving, all-knowing Father who will nourish us with what we need, when we need it, even if we don't know we need it. So - the only variable is obviously the vine . . . are we going to produce fruit? and what kind of fruit are we going to produce? It's been a good day so far!
~ So tomorrow, the over 13 million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have the opportunity to watch or listen to the leaders of our worldwide church. It's one of the things I absolutely love the most about the church. We have ONE group of leaders, ONE prophet/president of the church who leads us - no matter where we are in the world. And twice a year, we hear from the leaders. Both men and women. And I'm very much looking forward to this weekend. There are sessions on Saturday and Sunday . . . check here if you're interested in hearing these amazing, uplifting, and inspiring people. And you will probably learn a little bit more about your Mormon friends if you do.
It'll be some of that nourishment I was talking about. Good timing for me and my epiphanies. Well - I guess not the keeping my baby out of the kitchen, that's irrelevant. Maybe it's not: Love the baby, not the actions, right?
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