Answered Prayer

This afternoon I was feeling kind of sad, and therefore very tired. I like to give my time to God, as he sees fit, so I pray through out the day for special direction on how to better use my time. 

I especially needed direction because my mood was low. So I knelt in the quiet of my room, by my bedside, and I asked if He'd be alright with one of my three choices. 

1. Go play the piano at the church. 

2. Write a letter to my sick niece 

3. Take a nap!  

I immediately heard "family time." I softly chuckled because of my tired brain had not considering the fact that I'd presented God with 3 options, but He presented me a fourth!

I finished my prayer and sat on my bed. (It hurt to much to kneel any longer). I am sure God gave me the idea because my 16 year old daughter came into my room and laid on my bed and asked if Brady Bunch was an alright Sunday activity. I said it might be alright to watch, but that I wanted to play family games. 

We went down and sat in the front room and I asked Briant (my husband) what game we could play. He's a teacher, loves game playing, and is very creative-- so he always has some idea to pass the time. He started out with a word game, "Hangman." Then he said "Pictionary." (I was so tired I was laying on the couch acting out "the queen" and "Sunny (rhymes with bunny)" (That's the name of one of our dog's!) 

Everyone really had fun and got into this. A few examples: My 10 year old acted out our wild dog "Sunny" (so the answer was the same 2 times in a row-since he followed me. My 16 year old acted out "Lettuce Party" Who's ever heard of one of those??!!! My 18 year old refused to join us. He just got home from a pioneer trek yesterday and was down in his room writing about it in his journal. (Okay, a worthy goal, so I didn't push his family presence. But I missed him!)

Following that my husband began the "Guess who this scripture person is." A few of his questions were, "Who slayed Goliath? (David)" "Who had a coat of many colors? (Joseph)" We also did people from the Book of Mormon, as well as the bible. We had a lot of fun with that game, and it was a great time for teaching. 

After this game my husband switched to playing a "Guess which child this is?" We asked such questions as: 

• "Which child was on Oxygen as a baby?" 
• "Which child got left at the church after the family baptism?" 
• "Which preschooler destroyed the rabbit/pigeon hutch?"
• "Which child weighed the most at birth, weighing 9.8 pounds?"
• "Which child was the littlest at birth, weighing only 7 pounds?"
• "Which child always pooped in the bathtub, EVERTIME they were given a bath?"
• "Which child has silver teeth? (acid reflux)"
• "Which child would have gone swimming in baptismal font, if we'd said it was alright?!"
• "Who was the only child to sleep in a crib as a baby?"
• "Which child learned to talk the soonest?"
• "Which child walked the latest?"
• "Which child learn to ride a bike first?"
• "Which child likes to draw for hours on end?"
• "Which child doesn't like bones (in meat..or pretty much anywhere!! She doesn't like Halloween!?"
• "Which child likes to fill in the cracks when they sleep?"
• "Which child makes up crazy animal/frog names?" (Hannah! Such as Korea the frog. Nanny Goat Sniffer--a dog we had!)
• "Which child threw up in Daddy's mouth?"
• "Who went on wild, crazy adventures with Musubi? What was their secret weapon?"
• "Who uses up all the tape in our house?"
• "Who loved the Wiggles?"
• "Who got on the internet twice, by themselve, before the age of 1 year old!" 
• "Who was born on a cold, foggy, winter day?"
• "Who was born on a warm winter day?"
• "On which child did Mom's water break?"

And on we went as a family, playing happy Sabbath style games, and uniting as a family. My heart felt happier, and I knew I'd done the right thing.  I am certain it helped make happy memories for our children.

After we played that we read scriptures and listened to two songs (in honor of our dogs!! "Ebony and Ivory" and "Sunny days, chasing the clouds away..."(Sesame Street theme song), and have knelt to say the end of our day prayers. 

I feel so thankful that Heavenly Father "knows better than I." I'm thankful I could hear the voice of His Spirit giving me a better choice. I still felt tired as we played, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this cherished family time together. 

Book of Mormon Scripture

And while not all the concerns of my heart are settled, I certainly feel happier. I'm thankful that we aren't alone on this journey of life, and that our God is there to hear and answer---we just need to ask!

Always be praying, 

Christine

The Maze of Life

I'm so happy to be back.  It's been a long month or so.  I've been working so hard around our house to finish my long to-do list that I shared with you a post or two ago.  I've also been without a computer for weeks now.  That was hard, because I love to express myself through writing!  But, I'm back, so let me share some of my reminders of Heavenly Father's awareness of his children.

I woke up hearing this song into my thoughts.  As with many songs, I do not feel it is coincidence.  I knew it was a message about my life (each of our lives)!  The way we spend our time.  The places we make effort and hard work.  The pruning and refining of beautiful roses and pesterous moles and weeds.  But in the end we have a sublime experience in the garden of our lives!!

1. Definition of sublime (adj)

   • sub·lime
   • [ sə blī́m ]
   1. beautiful: so awe-inspiringly beautiful as to seem almost heavenly
   2. morally worthy: of the highest moral or spiritual value
   3. complete: complete or utter
   synonyms: beautiful · inspiring · inspirational · uplifting · awe-inspiring · moving

( See if you can read into it the meaning I did.)

Plant a hedge, cut it back
Dig a hole try to fill it
Plant a rose, tie it back
Find a mole, try to kill it

It's a maze this garden, it's a maze of ways
Any man can spend his day
It's a maze, this garden, it's a maze of paths
But a soul can find the way

For an old man knows how a year it goes
How the cold hard ground in the spring comes 'round
How the seeds take hold and the birds unfold
How an English garden grows

Skip, skipped the ladies to the master's gate
Sip, sipped the ladies while the master ate
Tiptoed the chambermaids and stole their pearls
Snip, snipped the gardener and cut off their curls

Come along, love, come fly away, fly along
Come along, fly away home
Come along, love, you've come a long way
You've flown all the day, fly away home

Miss a step, trip and fall
Miss the path, meet the wall
Miss the way, miss a turn
Getting lost is how you learn

It's a maze, this garden, it's a maze of paths
Meant to lead a man astray
Take a left and then, turning left again
How a soul can find the way

For an old man knows how a year it goes
How the cold hard ground in the spring comes 'round
How in time it shows how a garden grows
How an English garden grows

How the roses climb
How sublime the time
When an English garden grows

=================================

With all but one of my 5 children back in school all day, I am going to try even harder to improve the hours I've been allotted.

My new prayers are filled with fervor to grow in my love and gratitude for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.

I am also praying to REMEMBER. I am praying to remember special memories of family and friends, in hopes that I can find some healing to things that cause my heart to hurt.  If we can remember the past---especially thinking with gratitude upon those touching, beautiful moments of loving emotion--- I believe we can be healed of the numbing effects of forgetfulness.

I'm praying with renewed fervor to have charity as a blessing from Heavenly Father.  I need that charity, compassion, empathy.  I need that love, more than anything, to help me accept others as they are, and are capable of becoming.  (Not how I feel they SHOULD be now!)  

Heavenly Father has been patient with me in my learning.  I owe the same to my children, family, and all I associate with.  I may not always agree with them, but I need to love them despite my (hopefully silent) disagreements.

 9 Only take ^aheed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou ^bforget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but ^cteach them thy^dsons, and thy sons’ sons;"   

Deuteronomy 4:9

I hope you, my readers are well.  Keep the faith, even when it feels like things could not get better.  Our loving creator has your best interest in mind and heart.
Christine.

Fast Sunday Football

This past Sunday, 2 March 2014, I ended up staying late and visiting with a friend, Joanne, in the church parking lot.  My husband had taken the rest of the children home in his car, but I had my 6 year old waiting with me.  He waited in the car for a little while, but got restless, and came to ask if he could play in the large green grassy church field right by where I was parked and visiting with Joanne.  I had no idea what he'd do on an empty field, but it was a warm winter day (of about 50 degrees! :) and the snow had finally all melted, so I encouraged him to go entertain himself, so I could keep visiting.

My friend and I finally parted ways, and I went to get little S to come get in the van, but with excitement he showed me a football someone had left on the field.  I made my way down the little steep of grassy hillside and decided to toss around the ball with him a few minutes.  I wanted to show him how to throw it, catch it, and kick it.  We don't actually own a football, so this was a good opportunity.  

Imagine it.  There I was a middle aged chubby woman, running around in my skirt and pointed heels!  I was running and catching the football, or clumsily kicking around the ball.   I also tried to teach him how to steady himself on slightly bent knee while he kicked the football with his other foot.  And just like in the charlie brown shows that I grew up watching, I kept letting go of the ball before he actually kicked it!! :P  I'm a great football coach! ;) 

He has a short attention span so he frequently wanted to change up our impromptu play time together.  So then, there we were, Mom and 6 year old son, facing each other, hand in hand, and spinning in circles until we were dizzy and falling over!!  And when he got tired out (Surprisingly!  That's an uncommon occurrence for him!) he laid on the ground to rest, and he had fun counting how many times I could throw the football high up into the air and catch it. (You can bet I successfully caught it every time! ;)  

I have little doubt it was a very crazy sight to any onlookers, but to my son and I, I KNOW it felt like a few sunny minutes in Heaven.  There was a happiness and joy that accompanied our time together.  I felt a certain exhilaration and love that is hard to explain.  

S didn't want to go home, because I'm sure he felt what I was feeling.  Very happy and loved. But, alas, we couldn't play forever--and besides I was "plum tuckered out"!  I played a little game of "Let's see who can spin all the way to the van without falling over."  He won!!  (And don't worry we left the ball where we found it. :)

I don't plan to make a rousing game of football a Sunday tradition, because it doesn't quite fall into my definition of Sabbath day observance, but because of the feeling of that experience I will work harder to have more effective family time with my children.  

I felt so thankful as drove home with my song.  I felt so truly thankful to have that little time alone to just enjoy him for who he is. These little ones grow up so fast and it's easy to fall prey to other distraction around us than our valuable time with family.  We need to relish the opportunities we have with them, while we can!

I hope you create special memories with your loved ones by sharing your time with them.  We not only learn to love by giving of ourselves, but we also help the receiver of our time to feel our love.

Christine

P.S.  A little more details about Fasting and Sundays from the Mormon viewpoint.

SABBATH:

Members of the "Mormon" church (The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.  Also known as LDS) believe in strict Sabbath observance.  The active members of our church try to avoid shopping on Sunday (except in special cases, such as getting medicine for a sick family member)or attending sporting events, plays, and other such recreational activities like boating and river rafting.

Sundays are a day we are encouraged to write letters, visit the sick and the needy, attend firesides, and refrain from work (I really like this one!! ;) , etc. How the day is spent by each family is determined by them--but the goal is to make it a day of peace, reverence, and to help refocus on the priorities of our lives.  See Exodus 20:8-11  (Old Testament)

This specific

Sabbath Day experience doesn't follow my standard tradition, but I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

• You can learn more about keeping the Sabbath day holy here at these scriptures: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/sabbath-day

• Or at this easy to follow short lesson: https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-24-the-sabbath-day?lang=eng&query=sabbath+day

FASTING: 

We "Mormons" (The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints) fast on the first Sunday of the month.  It's kind of like a day we come together as a family and unite in the power of a fast.  We can also fast on any day we need personal help, direction, or strength from God.  Sometimes as individual family units or groups of friends, we will fast over a crisis or special need that we are concerned about.

Those who want to participate join from wherever they are in the world, and while they give up 2 meals they also offer up special prayers to Heavenly Father for special blessings.  It's an amazing things, and miracles are seen, and unity felt from fasting.

My Miracle:

When I was around 18 my church ward fasted for me, and I was healed by the time I went into the hospital.  The surgeon thinking he would have to remove my ovary because of the tumor on it, found only a "straw-like foreign substance" in place of where the tumor had been.  Because of the power of that fast, I had miraculously been healed, and my ability to bear children was not removed.  How thankful I am for not only that miracle, but my 5 miracle babies that have since been born to me! 

• You can read more about fasting here: https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-25-fasting?lang=eng

Lost in an Amusement park

ME (Christine), when I was obviously feeling happy! Not upset.

There I was, walking aimlessly through through the swirling hoards of people at a large amusement park.  A young man, a "Carney" from a game booth calling out over his microphone to me, "Are you having fun?!" Feeling forlorn, lost, and upset I kept my glance downward and with my wide-brimmed hat  concealing part of my face I shook my head, "no" and I kept on walking.  In the nearby distance that seemed to engulf me like a black hole, he called back, "Aw come on!"  Unresponsive to his urging, I walked on.  He quickly turned his attention to a happy group of people behind me who replied to his question of whether they were having fun with a "Whoo-yeah!"  All I could feel was deeply unhappy.  A thick cloud of negativity and self induced misery hung around me.

It has been a long time since I've felt such negative and depressing emotions, but that's exactly how I felt this past Friday night, while at Lagoon (in Utah).  My husband and I had planned it all out, he would drive down with our four youngest children, and I would bring my son in the afternoon,when he was done with his summer sprinkling system job.  (A momentous occasion because it's his first ever job!:)

When I arrived though,  I learned that my husband had been alone for most of that day, and no one knew where he was, as he doesn't have a cell phone.  I was very upset by this, because I wanted my husband to have time with his siblings from all over the united states.  I wanted them to delight in each others company.  Instead, I felt upset and angry that they'd alienate him (or so I viewed it, initially).

Having such strong emotions I allowed my negative thoughts and worries to consume my perspectives and views.  The "old Christine" easily fell prey to such negative concepts.  But the "new Christine" rarely feels such strong negative emotions.  And because of that very reason, I felt sick at feeling such ugliness in myself. I found myself thinking how I wasn't worth much, nor could I ever be.  And why?  Because I felt exactly the way I believe a good Christian woman should never feel.  And in feeling this way,  it shows that I can't really be someone truly good or someone worth being loved.  Or so I told myself.  Talk about "all or nothing" thinking!

I wanted to feel differently.  I prayed frequently, but although I prayed and felt I was heard, I still couldn't, or perhaps, wouldn't shake the way I felt. I only wanted my husband and children.  I wanted to have my husband hug me and hold me close and reassure me that he was alright, and that I was alright.  I knew I should be smiling at people, but I didn't feel like it.  I knew I'd feel better if I tried to strike up conversations with people, and see how I could help them, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.  So there I was, not smiling.  Rarely looking into anyone's eyes, and feeling mad at my husband's siblings for letting him and my 3 youngest children, stay all by himself, without adult and sibling friendship.

At one point, I walked past a man sitting down leaning forward with his hands to his face, and his wife (or girlfriend) who was rubbing his shoulders.  They looked like a bigger picture of sadness than I felt.   I quietly prayed for them as I walked on.  But, there must be some human decency in me, because ended up walking back to them and asking if he was alright.  It turns out he was "fine" but that he had a neck cramp.  I suggested getting some pain medicine from first aide.  Then  I walked on.  Feeling a certain sense of relief for a few seconds, I still remained fairly apathetic.

In the end of that experience things looked up.  I found my daughter and some cousins, who could show me where to meet.  As all the family started to gather for dinner, I expressed my disappointment of having searched unsuccessfully for so long.  My husbands sisters each took different directions of the park and set out to find him. I made no attempt, I didn't know the park like they did.  Within about 20 minutes they'd found him, and brought him to family.  What relief.  I rushed up to him, and melted my head against his heart, and expressed my relief for him to be found and no longer alone!  And guess what?!  He didn't care.  He was fine, and didn't feel an ounce of irritation. (Yep, he's usually much lower key than I am!)

After our dinner of Pizza, fruit, and "Capri Suns," the family made sure that no one was separated.  We formed groups relating to interests of rides, and each group had a person with at least one cell phone.  Greater care was taken so that no one was lost.  It proved to be a much more enjoyable evening that I could have expected from that earlier time when I was very unreasonable in my emotions.

So you may wonder my point, after my LONG story!  Well, I have a few ;)

1.  Feeling negative emotions doesn't make us a bad or unlovable person, it just means we are human.  We need to always work against such overwhelming negativity within our thoughts though, or it will destroy our happiness in life,  and our relationships.   But, no matter how low we go, we can improve, and we are worthy of being loved.  That's God's glorious plan, to repent and improve, and feel joy, and learn how to give and receive love!


2.  Our families should be a priority.  In this world of distraction and chaos, family can be easy to lose sight of.  We must try each and every day to put our focus on our family.  And, on the days we fall short, we need to pray for God's direction and seek to do better the next day.  My husbands family tweaked the situation, and because of it there was a greater sense of unity.  We need to ask ourselves where we feel we are succeeding, and where we can improve within our individual and unique family circles.  Pray for direction, but also get feedback from family and friends on what they'd like to see improve,  or what works for them.  The ultimate goal should be that we are giving and receiving love, and making  happy and productive memories together. (And no---- television and video games and electronics should play only a very small roll in memory makers.)


3.  Keep Trying!  Don't give up on yourself or others.  Trust me, I know all about difficult people.(Heck, I'm apparently one of "them" sometimes!;)  But we need to remember, God never never gives up on us.  And if we are all his children, that makes us each heavenly brothers and sisters.  So whether those difficult people are in our immediate family, or extended earthly family, we need to keep working to have patience, kindness, and love for each other.
 





































Here's a little word art I put together.  It is particularly significant to me, because a friend of mine, while visiting with my husband and I, pointed out that Charity is a gift from God.  It is where the power and grace of the Savior's atonement is at work.  His grace is an enabling power, that gives us the strength to do things, that we ourselves could not do on our own strength.  Sheer will doesn't give us the power we need. 

I now pray for charity each day, and plead that God will help teach my spirit to love and accept others with the love and patience that I hope they will give to me!

I hope you will pray for charity too.  It's a miraculous gift
that can help heal struggling relationships.
Christine