Day 13 - Written Word

Anybody who knows me well, knows that I love to read.
Right now, I am reading two books. The first is this:

It's good so far. Nothing amazing... yet.

The second is this: My good friend lent it to me and it is a book that I want to add to our home library. Dan and I are reading it together and we are loving it so far. The second chapter was about how in the scriptures, children are always and only seen as blessings. They are always cause for rejoicing and never cause for sadness or regret. Sadly, some days, I need to remember that....

Last week I had the opportunity to chat with quite a few of my friends about motherhood and different issues concerning our kids and how parenting is so hard. One friend and I always joke about "how we like to talk about being great mothers more than we actually do it". It's easy to get caught up in different ways to parent. It seems there is always a "new idea" on how to be a better parent. I do believe that it is always good to be learning and trying and re-evaluating our situations on our parenting journey. I also think sometimes things get too over-analyzed and we forget that every single child and experience is totally different and something that might work for one mom or child might not work for another.

In this book I read:

"Remember, Naaman had to bathe seven times in the river. Why seven times? Why not only once? How many home evening lessons do we teach before the gospel sinks into a child's heart? How many family prayers? How many vacations do we share, how many moments in quiet conversation before love is solidified? How often do we search a scripture narrative? how frequently do we bear testimony, or visit the temple, or sing in church, or walk in nature, or help with an assignment, or read a story, or relate a tale from our own lives before the rod of character grows strong in a child's soul? These are all simple things, but when repeated over time, with love, the blessing descends and joy results."

I love reading over that list and realizing that I do those things. They are simple things but matched together with day-to-day tasks and stresses sometimes they seem harder and more complex than they need be. But if we do all the things we do anyway, but do them with love... the blessings descend. And for that - I am grateful.

********

Two things I heard today that I wanted to record before I forget:

1. Discouragement leads to distraction. .... how true. I need to not let that happen!

2. Trying is never a waste!