Another Thought:
I am so grateful for my two sweet babies. They add more joy and sunshine to my life than I can possibly articulate. They are all I ever wanted, and more. I am so blessed to say that I am a mother. I am even more blessed to be able to say I get to stay home with my children. If you've read some things I've posted as of late on the World Wide Web, perhaps you've picked up on the fact that I've had (MANY) moments lately of being seriously overwhelmed and feeling inadequate and less than the mom I always dreamed I would be. But lately I have felt things have begun to look up. I'm sure they'll go back down again...and then back up, and then down, and so on...I think perhaps one of the hardest parts of dealing with these feelings of inadequacy was just how unprepared I was to feel that way. Everything was going so perfectly since he was born...seriously, he was the easiest baby ever! But...then he started to grow and test and experiment...as Stace & I's friend Walmir put it: "The problem with Julian is that he was just too perfect to begin with, so when he started acting like a normal toddler, it really threw you for a loop!" He hit the nail on the head! ha!
But like I said, I feel things have begun to look up...
On Monday night I finished reading a parenting book which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Stace and I have both been amazed at how much the techniques we have learned from this book have helped us tame temper tantrums and truly helped Julian understand good choices vs. bad choices and to think things through for himself to make good decisions. Before we ever read the book, or had even heard of the book, we had a Family Home Evening lesson on good decisions and bad decisions, and followed up that lesson quite literally everyday with the question "is that a good decision or a bad decision?" I think that was a good precursor for the learning that has ensued.
Of course, we all have a long way to go around here, but we have already seen the positive effects from the tools we've learned from this book, and I tell you what, I am a LOVE AND LOGIC BELIEVA'!
I hope my check from the authors comes soon...
ha! I kid:)
Also, I was reading an article last week by one of the 12 Apostles the Lord has called on the earth today. His name is Elder David A. Bednar. His article was entitled "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality."
This article could potentially provide comfort to everyone who reads it on so many different topics. For me personally, it spoke to my heart on mothering. As I read this article, I knew that as a mother to two of God's precious children, I had been a beneficiary as of late of the enabling power of the Atonement. Certain words and phrases I read touched my spirit. I learned a lot from this article, and I realized even more how much the Savior loves me, and each of us, and how he is always there, standing ready to help us in our moments and days and weeks of need. I do not feel nearly worthy enough for such love and devotion from him, but I am nevertheless so grateful to know that I can always count on him to love me, to understand me, to help me, and to believe in me as I believe and trust in him. I imagine right now what it will be like to see his face one day...to fall at his feet, to feel his love emanating so purely. I hope one day I am called back into his presence with my family. I am so grateful to know he cares about my family, and that he wants us to return to live with him and His Father...our Father...for eternity. He will help me. He will help you. In our day-to-day battles and our all-consuming ones, too, he stands ready. All we need to do is invite him to help us.
Here are some of my favorite parts of Elder Bednar's address:
Side Note: For those who may be unfamiliar with the word "Atonement": The word atone means to reconcile, or to restore to harmony. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be reconciled to our Heavenly Father. We can ultimately dwell in His presence forever, having been “made perfect through Jesus". He was foreordained to carry out the Atonement—to come to the earth, suffer the penalty for our sins, die on the cross, and be resurrected. The Atonement is the supreme expression of our Heavenly Father’s love for us (see John 3:16). It is also the greatest expression of the Savior’s love for the Father and for us. (John 14: 28-31). -Bible Dictionary
"I suspect that many...are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming and cleansing power of the Atonement than they are with the strengthening and enabling power. It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us—that is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us—not only to direct us but also to empower us.
The gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. Help from the Savior is available for the entire journey of mortality—from bad to good to better and to change our very nature."
He goes on to quote from the Bible Dictionary on the topic of Grace:
"It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life. It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.
Grace is the divine assistance or heavenly help each of us desperately needs...Thus, the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and to serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity."
Elder Bednar continues:
"The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, “No one understands. No one knows.” No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying upon only our own power."
And I will end the bearing of my soul by sharing with you this blog post I found today that also lifted my Mommy spirits! (Can you tell Julian has been gone this week with Grandmommy and Pop Pop?! I've had so much time to read blogs! haha!)
Over and out:)
