Some weeks I just live for the 3rd hour of church.

Summer is to the year, as Saturday is to the week. 
Busy. Full of expectations. Lots to do, and fun to be had, and your exhausted by the end, even though it's suppose to be your "break".
Cram it all in!


I keep telling people, I went out the door to go to the Canada day Parade and the next time I turned around July was half over!
Our summer thus far has been a bit of a whirlwind.


Week in Idaho (pictures to come). 
Wicked in Calgary. 
Baby shower for my sister and cousin (more pictures to come).
Teach Relief Society. 


Off to Washngton DC next week. A mission companion of mine, who I adore,  is geting married.  My mom served her mission there, so we always said we'd go together. And we actually are! ( I'm pretty good at just imagining trips and thinking how nice they'd be but not actually going, so I'm proud of myself). I've never been and she hasn't been back in over 40 years. Obviously, more pictures to come with that too.


I miss writing. 
I guess if a picture is worth a thousand words, I've written tons!
No I miss writing, writing. 


I've been thinking lots. Listening to lots of conference and BYU stuff while I traveled. Probably could have wrote hundred posts...instead I was too busy procrastinating laundry! (traveling is hard work for moms!)


I love teaching. I love preparing. I end up drowning in quotes and talks and ideas and experiences on whatever topic I'm teaching and then I just pray like the dickens that it'll somehow make sense and that I'll use the right pieces to make the Spirit strong.


Today's lesson was on Family Responsibilities. I know, whopper of a subject right!!!!


I really wanted to emphasize that we are all part of God's family and that the goal in any family role is to try and be like our Heavenly Father. 


Elder Ballard put it so well when he said,  "A mother's nurturing love arouses in children, from their earliest days on earth, an awakening of the memories of of love and goodness they experienced in their premortal existence. Because our mothers love us, we learn, or more accurately remember, that God loves us." (link to whole talk)


God knows what it's like to love His family and watch them decrease their own potential for peace and happiness through their agency.


As I tried to piece together the lesson two scriptural examples came to mind. 


First, Jacob 5, which we often relate to missionary work. I thought about Heavenly Father pruning and digging and dunning (yup parenting can have a lot of dun in it) doing everything He could for His vineyard ie the house of Israel, ie His Family. And then I thought how after all His efforts, He stands back and says, "What could I have done more?" (Granted, neurotic mothers could come up with lots more "I could haves"). But in a sense He's saying. I did my job. Did I save the whole vineyard no, but I did all that I could. Elder Ballard said "Be of good cheer. God did not place you on earth to fail, and your efforts as parents will not be counted as failures unless you give up."


I thought next of the Savior's voice to the Nephites. (3 Nephi 10)


How oft HAVE I gathered you?


How oft WOULD I have gathered you?


How oft WILL I gather you?


I thought how right now my little ones are in my arms all the time. How I HAVE them.
How one day they be teenagers, and even if I WOULD love to hug em all the time, they're gonna want space. And then I thought how parenting never ends and that I WILL always want to gather them to me and to the Lord.


The Lord will never stop wanting and trying to draw us to Him. 


I realize over and over again THAT is all I want. I want to love and be like the Lord, adn I want the people I love to love and be like Him too.


A work of salvation. 


We participate in God's work. 

We know that we are involved in God’s work every day, and that changes everything. It changes the way we think. It changes our decisions. It changes the way we dress. It changes the way we talk. It changes the way we live. We have the responsibility and the challenge from the prophet to believe deeply and actively in the family. We will need to do that in order to preserve our families. That means we have to be intentional about everything we do. Our life is not just happenstance. We know where we are going and what we have to do.

GO listen to this AMAZING talk by Sister Beck, I go back to it again and again!

I love the part where she's talks about problems facing the family, pornography etc and she says with so much emotion and pleading, "The powerful feeling that has been coming over me is,
"Sisters fight--fight sisters."

We fight by teaching and loving and serving. And NEVER giving up.

Connecting ourselves to the Lord and then pointing those we love to Him also.

I think that is why I love Relief Society so much. We connect to one another as we share how we have connected to and relied upon our Savior,  Jesus Christ.

Near the end of the lesson, it said

"A loving and happy family does not happen by accident"

Pres. Kimball prophesied (as quoted by Julie B beck in that talk you better listen to!)

"The time will come when only those who believe deeply and activity in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of gathering evil around us."

I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and the way it's doctrines and many resources support me in my efforts to purposefully raise my family in truth and light...and LOVE.

PS I'm also grateful for clear drying glue, as this morning McKye smeared my whole lesson with a purple glue stick, which I was really frustrated with, until a sister in the mother's lounge shared with me how their 3 year old dumped a Costco-sized bottle of nesquik on their carpet before church.