March 2022, Week 4

*Today in church Caytie gave a talk during Sacrament Meeting.  It is not something she likes to do, but she did it anyway, and did a great job.  She talked about building spiritual foundations.  She mentioned that she feels she got much of her foundation from her time in Primary, which meant a lot to me, since I was the Primary President during much of her time there.  Scott's friend also spoke today, as he is leaving soon on his mission.  He also talked about the foundation he built during his youth, and the importance of the church.  The other adult speaker spoke about teaching her children small things each day, and how they add up and matter when the big things come up.  Then in Relief Society, we talked about Elder Dunn's conference talk about improving 1% at a time.  I didn't put it all together until now, but all of these things circle together-- do the small things every day.  Look for something that needs maybe even 1% more effort or improvement, and do it.  All of these cumulative increases will bring great rewards, and our foundation will be strong.  It is so important and so worth it.

March 2022, Week 3

*Today at church I was able to substitute for our organist.  After the sacrament hymn, the chorister leaned over to me and said, "I wish you could see how Ben looks at you when you're not looking."  That was about the sweetest thing I've heard.  I do have a pretty amazing husband, and I'm grateful he likes me, too.

*Today in Sunday School we talked about Joseph and his brothers, which has been a favorite story since childhood, when we'd watch a Bible video about it on Sunday afternoons.  I hadn't before noticed how much of a type of Christ that Joseph was in so many ways, but also his brother Judah, who offered himself as a sacrifice for his brother Benjamin.  I am not always quick to pick out the references to Christ in the Old Testament, but He is evident in every story.  I'm grateful for the study helps and wise people who teach me better things.

(This was actually the 1st time I attended Sunday School this year, due to substituting in Primary in various ways.  There were SIX babies under a year in there!  They are so cute.  I am, however, grateful to be past that phase of life.)

March 2022, Week 2

 Today I watched church at home with my youngest (now almost 10 years old) since we both have bad colds.  We're in the end stages (we hope) of the COVID 19 pandemic, so Sacrament Meeting is still being broadcast for those medically fragile and those who are sick.  I'm grateful today for the option, but really, really prefer to be in church in person, since the audio quality of the broadcast was pretty terrible.

Actually, I wasn't going to be able to attend church at all today.  I was supposed to be on an 8:05 am flight to Denver, to go to my niece's wedding this afternoon (beginning 30 minutes from now).  But my flight was canceled by text at 3:45 am this morning.  There's no reason that I can see for the cancelation.  They offered me a 10 pm flight instead, but that obviously wouldn't work for me.  I am really sad to have to miss the wedding.  In the end, though, I am sicker than I thought, so it's probably a good thing that I'm not traveling or associating with lots of people.

Life is good.  The day is definitely not how I planned it, but I can find sparks of delight this Sabbath.  It is a day of rest.

March 2022, Week 1

*Today for church we had Stake Conference.  For the adult session last night and again today, the visiting General Authority (Elder Broc Hiatt) invited people up to bear their testimonies.  I am always so impressed when people can speak so eloquently extemporaneous.  If they're anything like me, they probably are going back in their minds thinking about what else they could have said or another way to phrase things, but I think they did such a beautiful job bringing the Spirit.  They talked of the power of daily prayer, of the "Come, Follow Me" studies they do, of finding God in their daily, mundane events of life, of our God who promises and our Savior who hears and heals.  Then Elder Hiatt said, "I've been learning about who you are here in the Richardson Stake.  Would you like to know who you are?"  And then he quoted parts of everyone's testimonies, and it was beautiful.

It was a delight.