"I know this church is true"

This boy, still three months away from his third birthday, decided he wanted to get up in front of the entire congregation at church and tell them how he felt. David went up with him and Carter. Carter was super excited “Is this the Sunday we get to go up and talk?” he asked in the very beginning. When it was his turn, David helped him climb the stool. “Brothers and sisters,” he began. Then he turned to David, gave him a little shove and said “I do it mine self!” He turned back and said “Brothers and sisters, I know this church is true. Name of Jesus Christ. Amen” and he got down. So confident. He may very well be the youngest member of our congregation to get up and bear his testimony.

In our church, we get the opportunity to express our belief in Jesus Christ every month. For me, it really helps us all to see that we are not perfect. We all struggle with things. Sometimes we forget that. We look at everyone around us, dressed in nice clean clothes, with their hair and makeup done, and we think we’re the only one whose kid chose to wear mismatched socks and backwards pants. We think our son is the only one who snuck a marker into church and colored a mustache on his face. We think our kids are fighting talking the loudest. We do not realize that everyone around us is feeling the same. Everyone is feeling inadequate. We are all in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

“The Church is not an automobile showroom—a place to put ourselves on display so that others can admire our spirituality, capacity, or prosperity. It is more like a service center, where vehicles in need of repair come for maintenance and rehabilitation.

“And are we not, all of us, in need of repair, maintenance, and rehabilitation? We come to church not to hide our problems but to heal them.”

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

101

Flashcards aren’t my thing. I want to encourage learning through experience, not memorization. Now that Carter is in school, I realize a lot of things we know – we know because of memorization. Like “Sight Words”, those are words he needs to have memorized.

Someone gave us a pack of flashcards a while back. They are sight words, shapes, and colors. They are pretty cool. Carter lays them all out and pretends they are playing football. They each represent a person in the game or in the stands. Today, I picked them up off the floor and decided to see what he knew. 101 out of 108! I was not prepared for that, since we have not really talked about sight words yet.

As usual, I am realizing he is ready for things, after he is already there. I guess that just means we won’t frustrate each other by trying things he’s not ready for.

Happy Birthday

We didn’t do an official birthday party for Roslyn. She has some friends from church about her age, but we couldn’t get together with them in June or July because of all the craziness with older siblings and school. Carter thought it was a mortal sin not to have a birthday party for your birthday. So, even though it was a month and a half late, he took it upon himself to make her a cake and plan her a party.

I was getting her up for the morning, and when I came out to the kitchen, he had pulled out: 8 packages of Rice Krispy Treats (his favorite number), blue raspberry frosting, some green candles, and a knife. He had already arranged it and started frosting.

 

 After dinner, he sprinkled it with green sprinkles, and we settled on two candles – one for him to show her how to blow, and the other for her to do herself.

 She was not so sure of it, but when we tried to take her piece away, she freaked out. Eventually, she had her fill, and threw what was left on the floor.

I am so grateful for boys who love their sister, and a little sister who is willing to put up with them.

Speaking In Church and the Post Pregnancy Brain

Last week I was approached by a guy at church. He is in charge of assigning talks to the congregation, amongst other things. 

He handed me a talk:

The talk is titled "Choose to Believe" by Elder L. Whitney Clayton. I was supposed to speak on how we choose to believe  in Christ, rather than being forced into belief. I could take any quotes from the talk, insights I had, scriptures, or stories that followed my theme.

I told him "No Problem" and stuck it in my bag. It was a crazy day. Carter gave a talk to all the children, I lead the music to the congregation, and I taught a class.

Today, another man at church came over and said "I noticed you are speaking today." What? Me? You're talking to me? He shows me the program. I thought it was a joke. He mentioned that the man who asked me was out of town (which I knew ahead of time) and they thought he asked everyone ahead of time. I reached into my bag and pulled out the untouched talk. Yes, he did ask me. I will have something ready. 

On the top of the talk, there was a hand written time frame: "8 - 10 minutes". I was hoping to make it to 5! 5 minutes of my rambling on and on would suffice right? They would be tapping me on the shoulder and asking me to sit down before I ever got to 8 minutes right?

My first instinct was to run out of the chapel, find a quiet classroom and plan something in the 15 minutes I had. However, I lead the music. I was able to read ONE paragraph and up on the stand I went (Thank goodness we were there early!!). After I led two songs, I ran back to sit with David so he didn't have to keep the kids quiet on his own the entire time. Also, I didn't want to miss Beckett's first time taking the Sacrament. 

There was a 13 year old young man who gave a talk, 6 or 7 minutes long, then it was my turn. I completely winged it. I have never done that. I used two quotes from the paragraph that I had read, some stories from my life that applied, and I sat down. I spoke for 7 minutes and 55 seconds. . Whew. I did it.

I walked from the podium, to the organ. I grabbed my book, and led another song. I sat down with my family. I listened to the last speaker fill the rest of the time nicely - even cut some out of what he had originally intended to say - then I got up and led the last song. I went from there to teach my class.

What a crazy whirlwind of a day!!

My brain just does not work like it used to! Babies really sucked the brain cells out of me. 

After I have had time to think, I realized something. I was super stressed out for about 20 minutes today. However, had I remembered, I would have been stressed out for 7 days. I stressed out over Carter's talk, and I wasn't even able to be there!! This would have put my stomach in knots all week! What a blessing!

Sacrament

As my long time readers know, I feel partaking of the Sacrament is a sacred ordinance that should not be so robotic that it has no meaning. I feel like we forget the importance of it. I mentioned before that we started to practice the Sacrament with Beckett and it didn’t go well. This week, Beckett started to introduce it to us. I would act up, and he would tell me “No, you need to be reverent” or “No play with toys, read your scriptures.” He asked me to read him the Sacrament prayer so he could memorize it. He had a pretty good handle on it before I even started. This video is him before I read him the prayer. You can find it highlighted here near the bottom, and follow along with him (Since he can be rather unintelligible sometimes.). This version is completely from listening to the boys pray on Sundays. We have not practiced at all since our last attempt.

So today, on his first day partaking the Sacrament he was so proud of himself. He was so reverent. I could tell it really meant something special. It may not have meant the same to me or someone else who needed the gift of the atonement. However, it was special to him just the same.

Everest: Conquering Challenges with God's Mighty Power

This week Carter learned about how to do hard things, knowing that God is there to help. When we do all that we can, He provides the rest. When we are sad, feeling that we cannot go any further, He will comfort us. He will heal our heart and even our bodies. When we make mistakes, he has the power to forgive. He loves us.

Beckett didn't get to participate. He was too young. However, he still learned the songs. I am pretty sure this song was one he learned last year at Vacation Bible School. They just made a new video to make it apply to the new theme.

Service

This summer, we have a long list of parts of the yard and house to reclaim. One day, I was feeling very overwhelmed at the task. These two young men approached me and asked if they could do any service for me. I brushed them off because they are 18 or 19 year old boys wearing nice clothes. I told them that I didn't want to see them get their nice clothes dirty. They said it was no trouble at all, but I didn't really believe them. Finally, after a couple months - I told them we really did need help and I would love to take them up on their offer. They showed up in work clothes, brought a couple friends, and really took care of things. I feel so much better about the list because we made so much progress today.

This has happened once before - last summer. I was pregnant and trying to get the blackberry vines out of our bushes by myself. These two young men in white shirts and ties walk by and ask if they could help. No thank you, I only have one pair of gloves, and you are not dressed for the work. "Not a problem" they say and they get to work - pulling vines with their bare hands. I went to the garage and dug out two more pairs of gloves. They got all of those vines out of the bushes on our hill. I was so grateful. 

Service really is amazing.

4th of July

To the Edge: Encounter the God of the Universe

Carter LOVES Vacation Bible School. I told him it was summer camp, where you got to sleep at home each night. This week, he wore the astronaut costume my mother bought him, and shot off into space. They learned about how God is over all, that He cares about each of them, knows them personally, offers forgiveness of sins, wants to lead us in the right direction, and wants us to serve others to show our love and devotion for Him.

They memorized Bible verses, learned scripture stories, and made friends of other churches and cultures. Carter had a blast (pun intended). 

The church he went to sponsors missionaries in Africa. On the last day, the kids all got to Skype with the missionary dad himself and see what it is like in Africa. Although we did not agree on all of the theology, the message we left with was "It is never too early to commit yourself to serving a mission for God."

The church offers points to kids who bring their Bible, friends, and pennies to support the missionaries. They also get points for the Bible verses they memorize. On the second day of school, Carter won the most points in his age group - 110,000. His age group consisted of 19 -23 boys between the ages of 4 to just completed Kindergarten. I asked the pastor about his points. He told me that he memorized a lot of verses in order to get that many. He got to pick a box of candy. 

On the last day, they awarded the student with the most points in their age group. To my surprise, Cater won. He had earned 441,000 points. I talked to his teacher. She said that out of all her students (19 - 23 boys ages 4 to 7), he was the best behaved and the most eager to learn. He was very disappointed that they didn't do the Bible story worksheet on the last day. The teacher said she could not reign the class in - they were too unruly. She said Carter was the only student who had asked for it, and he was the only one who seemed to be looking forward to learning the scriptures. I have to admit, I was a little stunned. He had been so out of control at home, I couldn't believe he was well behaved for them.  

I had a friend of another faith also attending the same program ask me why I choose to send my children to other churches when we believe different things. I explained to her that we all worship Jesus, we just do it differently. Some people worship in a foreign tongue and say the same routing prayers over and over again. Some worship with vibrant music that urges you to stand up and shout. Some show their devotion to God by keeping their heads covered, or wearing skirts. Some show their faith by wearing sacred clothing outside, or underneath their clothes. We are all showing our reverence for our Father in Heaven and His son. I want my son to see that we express our worship differently, but we are all children of the same heavenly parents. 

Bad Hair Day

What's a girl to do when you have a bad hair day??

Smile, of course!