I'm Giving God 20

When Timothy was two years old I was called to be in Young Women’s. I was excited to work with the leaders and the girls. I was thrilled to be back where my tender testimony was born. But as I happily accepted the Bishop’s call, the spirit quietly said to me- “If you accept this, you will go to girl’s camp.”

I can honestly say my excitement faltered… just for a moment. I had never left my little boy. I was as attached to him as he was to me. I didn’t go out with my friends unless it was a mommy/child thing, I didn’t work outside my home, and Jeff and I rarely ever went on dates—not something I recommend. The point is, I never left the kid. So, the thought of leaving him for four nights and five days made my stomach churn. But camp was months away and I really did feel like it was where Heavenly Father wanted me, so I took the call.

And I loved it as much as I thought I would. Until camp came. My nerves were on edge, my emotions like a roller coaster. How could I leave this little man who so greatly depended on me? The few times I had left he’d been a wreck. How could I leave him now for days? –dramatic right? Some of you are totally rolling your eyes at my mommy-freakout and that’s okay. It was fairly dramatic, but that’s sincerely how it went down.

The day of camp came and I left strong, only a lump in my throat. I held the tears back and immersed myself in the girls and activities. It was good. I thought of my Timmy at home with his daddy and missed him dearly. I made him a pillow case with a dinosaur on it and stashed other fun treats and trinkets for him. 

When it was time to come home I was beyond ready. We pulled up to the church, in town, just blocks away from my baby, but with an hour of work to do—getting the girls their bags, waiting for parents to pickup, cleaning the trailer, however, Elaine Huntsman being the most beautiful woman on the planet, and knowing that my heart was ripping to shreds with the separation, told me to head home. She didn’t have to offer twice. I couldn’t speed away fast enough. 

When I got home, my house was empty. Empty! I was so angry and then my anger turned to sobs. My husband and son returned home an hour later (they were out buying me a welcome home present J). Still, as I showered the weeks’ worth of dirt off of my body I cried my stinking eyes out. (Seriously… my poor sweet husband!)

It had not been an easy week, to say the least. But I did it because I love God. I love my Savior. And I loved his daughters and wanted to serve and influence their lives too.

Fast forward 17 years and that little two year old boy who loved his momma more than anyone in the world is now 19 and preparing to leave me, our family, his friends, school, and work for two whole years.

I have 10 days… and then for a time he’ll belong to Sacramento. He won’t see his family, friends, so forth. And we won’t see him.

In a weird way this is just as difficult as it was when I left him all those years ago. I know it’ll be harder, but right now, that time is one of the things I think about, that’s how it feels. I keep reminding myself why we’re doing this. Why we want to do this! --Because our loving Heavenly Father has blessed us with more than we could ever have hoped or asked for. Because we want Tim to experience selfless love and service. Because we love the Book of Mormon and know how it changes lives and makes them so much more worthwhile. Because the good news of the Gospel is for all. 

And I know, I know! when Tim comes back to us, he will just be a better version of his already pretty great self. You can never give to God without Him giving back to you ten-fold. I know Tim will be blessed, we’ll all be blessed. I’m honestly excited (and terrified and distraught—all at the same time) for this fabulous change in our lives. So many wonderful lessons to learn, so many blessed experiences waiting for us all. It’s going to be good, people. It’s going to be tough. And it’s going to be worth it.

He’ll leave at 19, he’ll come home at 21. I’m giving God 20. It’s the least I can do after all He’s given me.

Why don't members of the LDS church display crosses?

When I was a teenager I had a testimony of the Gospel, but I was definitely learning—line upon line. {Uhh—I still am!!} One day in these teen years of mine, my brother in law asked me why we didn’t “like” crosses. I had a testimony of the way the church handled crosses—but it was solely on my faith.

 Yes, we know Christ died on the cross—we would never deny that saving grace. Still, I didn’t have a great answer for him.

I gave him someone else’s answer. It wasn’t a bad one, but it wasn’t mine. I mumbled something about—if someone you loved was in a car accident, would you wear a car around your neck? He wasn’t impressed. He was much older and more experienced than me and he squashed my teenage answer like a bug.

But I can honestly say I am so grateful for that experience. I knew the next time someone asked me that question I wanted a good answer. I still had faith in the Church’s stance, but like all things, I needed to figure out why it is that way for myself.

So, I continued to study my scriptures—like I had been. I continued to pray—like always. But this time I did those things, while pondering this question in my heart.

And I got my answer.

We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, know that Christ died for us. It was, and is, and always will be the greatest gift given to the world—to all of the world. It was the most unselfish, loving act from the only perfect being there will ever be. Nothing will ever compare.

I am so grateful for Him, my Savior. I love Him. I worship Him. I thank Him on a daily basis. 

But I cannot find joy or comfort or peace in the TOOL they used to kill him. 

I know he gave His life willingly. He loves us that much. And I find so much peace and joy and love in HIM. 

Something you may not have known about us "Mormons"...

Fact:

Faith Without

Works

is Dead.

Hmm... I'm guessing you already knew that one...

But did you know that we also believe:

That by HIS Grace and only through that Grace, we are Saved.

Some don't understand that we still whole-heartily believe in 

GRACE. 

We know that we cannot save ourselves. We know that without HIM we are nothing. We know we could do every work known to man and it still would not be enough without 

JESUS CHRIST.

But we still try. We still give it our all.

Because we love Him.

And we want to be like Him.

And because our Heavenly Father has given us multiple God given Gifts and it would be wrong not to use them.

So: 

Women who understand...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints know that they, as women are honored and loved. They are respected and heard and given an abundance of opportunities and leadership roles. God made us different, men and women, He did that on purpose. Different gifts, different pieces to one puzzle, both given heavenly gifts and necessary to complete that puzzle.

The gift of motherhood, know how precious it is. Sheri L. Dew explained: “Motherhood is not what was left over after our Father blessed His sons with priesthood ordination. It was the most ennobling endowment He could give His daughters, a sacred trust that gave women an unparalleled role in helping His children…”

Their influence and responsibilities, take great care in what they do, as women and as mothers. D. Todd Christopherson taught: “A women’s moral influence is nowhere more powerfully felt or more beneficially employed than in the home. There is no better setting for rearing the rising generation than the traditional famiy, where a father and a mother work in harmony to provide for, teach and nurture their children.”

Don’t wish for a different role. They love and cherish the value of being a woman and a mother. They work hard, develop their talents, all while taking care of their homes and families. They value the priesthood, just as men should value the God given gifts of womanhood.

Elder Matthew Cowley taught that “men have to have something given to them [in mortality] to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. [They] are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls … and the regenerating force in the lives of God’s children.” 

Have hard times too. But they are strong, strong because of their gifts from a loving Heavenly Father. The preserver and make it work when no one else can, because they’re women—and that’s what we do.

Thou shalt love thy spouse :)

Isn't that why we marry them??

To love em'!

And yet, there are days, for everyone that's it's difficult.
I found this fantastic article by Heather Hale:
The 10 Marriage Commandments
I love it all, but here's one of my favorite "commandments"-

 

3. Thou shalt communicate. Your spouse has a lot of wonderful qualities, but he or she has never been and will never be a mind reader. Chances are, your spouse wants to give you the world, but you'll have to tell him or her what you need. Own your feelings and be honest about emotions.

 

Seriously, go read it and then give your spouse a smooch.

Be happy to be in love!

 

Also, this is just another reason I love my church so dearly.

So often fingers are pointed, doom and gloom is predicted and preached, but not in my church.

Always, always are we taught: forgive, love, be grateful, be happy, be hopeful. There's so much to live for and so much more goodness than evil.

And one of those {huge} good things is marriage.

It's beautiful.

It's difficult.

But nothing worth while is easy.

And marriage is most certainly worth while.

It's the most Wonderful time of the year...

Okay... the {other} most wonderful time of the year...

not Christmas {yet!}

It's GENERAL CONFERENCE time!

If you are LDS this is a special time of year.

We get to hear from our Prophet and it's always pretty amazing!

If you aren't LDS then you should take 5 minutes and listen to KSL or the BYU channel or lds.org.

I am always awed and inspired by what these men and women of God have to say, to teach and to guide.

And I would bet that you would be too!

 

The trick is getting my kids to feel awwed and inspired....

Er... or to listen at all!!

Some years are better than others.

We've done conference packets, conference bingo, and a few other dozen ideas. Some have worked and some... well, haven't.

Our oldest is old enough now to just listen, but the littles need some incentive. So this year, we are gonna try this:

Any other fabulous ideas that I should know about?



Where are you Jill Love?

Have you heard Brad Paisley's song "Then"

{Yes, more about Brad... I promise I'm not obsessed}

It's "our" song, mine and the hubby's.

I love it.

And I'll admit when he sang it at his concert, I teared up.

 

When Jeff and I were engaged his lovely mom said to him:

You think you love Jen now, but just wait. In 20 years you're going to love her so much more.

 

Well, it's only been 15 years, but she was right. I knew she was right after only a couple years though. Every year I'm surprised that I love him even more than I did the year before.

 

Okay, so now let me explain my title. When Jeff and I were first married I had this college friend, Jill Love. We were both education majors and had a couple classes together. She was a newly wed as well. I think we were married a week apart or something like that.

 

Sweet Jill was having a hard time and she would ask me how Jeff and I were doing so well. We had our troubles too. I don't really know any newly weds who don't. {Why don't people ever mention that??} We always talk about the wonderful times and forget to mention that it's A-OK to have hard times too. Marriage is hard! And the first year? Well, for a lot of people it's the hardest... it was for us. Good, but not easy.

 

Anyway, Jill didn't see our hard times, she just saw us... happy.

So, when she asked me. I told her the truth. It wasn't always easy, but we, Jeff and I, had one great thing in common, one thing that kept us on the same train track.

Our Faith.

I shared a Book of Mormon with her a week or two later.

Then I got pregnant with my oldest and didn't go back for my senior year of college.

Jill and I lost touch and I often wonder: What happen to my friend Jill Love?

I hope she's happy. I hope she's in love. I hope she and her husband made it through those hard times, finding their path.

I hope they can say, "And I thought I loved you then."

Chances are you've met one of us...

Although, really and truly your chances shouldn't be that good.

You see

Sorry, about that. Years ago my mother-in-law gave me a cassette tape that my husband used to listen to as a kid. It had all kinds of funny cheese ball songs on it--that I loved, as cheese ball as they were. And one of those songs sang the above quote.

 

Anyway--

It seems everyone on this earth can say they've met a "Mormon", aka a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Even though of the 7 billion people on this earth our church members make up 14.1 million, which means we only account for .02% of the world.

(Are you impressed with my math skills??) 

 

Still, you've probably met one, right?

 

And that impression often makes people's impression for the whole church. But really, we're just people. Happy people, sad people. People who make mistakes. People trying to do their best.

We're all different with one great big thing in common.

And it's a good thing.

Still, deciding how you feel about a community, about14.1 million people based on one person's impression doesn't seem to work all the time.

 

There's a lot to know. A lot to learn. And if you want the low down--the real low down, not what your neighbor's, cousin's, dog walker thinks about the LDS church click here: Mormonism, for pressure free info :)