Relax and Be

Thunder and lightning surrounded my small tent, rain pelted down like rocks on tin. I lay huddled with my sleeping bag pulled up around my head and all my little worries tucked neatly around me, safe and sound. I hold them close, they make up who I am, (or do they?). As I lay there unable to sleep I started thinking about the worries I kept so close to me, protecting and feeding them as if their very existence depended solely on me and kept us all alive and of worth. How simple it would be if I could place the worries of being a Mom, wife, employee, friend, controller of all things outside of my control, outside the tent just for awhile and just carry one title, Daughter of God. Completely dependent on his love, care and protection. Completely surrounded by his love, uninhibited by the shields of self inadequacy and self imposed unworthiness that I stubbornly hold in place. Just be. Be loved, be cared for, be tended after. The realization that I could indeed be just that brought me so much joy and peace that I could hardly stay still. Truly that is what I am, a daughter of a Heavenly Father that loves me. In this moment, all is right in the world because a loving Heavenly Father and his tender mercies are blessing it and me. Slowly my worries made their way back into my tent and found their comfy places in my heart and mind. But I learned in that one sacred moment that I can have joy and peace and security anytime I want it. All I have to do is stop, feel and BE!

Parable of the Water Filled Goggles

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Most of us were watching and holding our breath when Michael Phelps won the 200m Butterfly during the 2008 Olympics. When he pulled up his goggles and water fell from them, unbelief filled the air. I am not a swimmer but I know the effects of water filled goggles. Right then I knew I had to know more about this incredible swimmer and athlete.
Michael met his Coach, Bob Bowman, at age 11. Coach Bowman knew he had someone special from the get-go. In his wisdom he knew he needed to stretch and test Michael to help him reach his full potential. In 2003 at the Melbourne World Cup, Bowman purposely stepped on Michael's only pair of goggles. Just before the race Michael told him that someone had broke his goggles, Bowman's reply, "You're just gonna have to go without them". Michael could have been mad, he could have ranted and raved and refused to swim, but he didn't. He swam and he gained the confidence to know he could swim without goggles. How did this coach know that during the 2008 Olympics Michael's goggles would fill with water? He didn't, but he did know that Michael needed to be prepared for anything and that it was his job to prepare him.
How similar this is to our Heavenly Father. He knows our potential and is preparing us daily to win our race and return to live with Him. Do we realize the trials that are placed before us are to prepare us? Do we take the attitude Michael did and do our best or do we complain and whine that it is too hard. I can name many times when it felt like my goggles had been stepped on. What if we saw how carefully planned out our life was, by a loving Heavenly Father that only wants us to win, so that He can hold us in His arms again?
In an interview with Craig Lord*, Bowman said this about Michael, "He always had a very good sense of finding where he wants to go and how to go there." In an interview with David Walsh*, Michael stated, "When I'm focused, there's not one single thing that can stand in my way. Never has been. If I want something bad enough, then I'm gonna get there. That's how I have always been." What a blessing this determination could be in our own lives. With an eye single to returning to our Heavenly Father (3 Nephi 13:22, http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/13/22c ). Could we ask for a better coach?!
As I look back on those moments when it seemed my goggles lay broken beyond repair, I can now see the loving work of my Heavenly Father. With His tender mercies I was brought thru it and taught: Yes, you can live thru even that. Now is the time to determine that we will face adversity with the same courage and submissiveness as Michael Phelps so that we can reach out and touch that finish line and win the race, even if our goggles are filled with water!
*The Times, Craig Lord 8/22/08
*The Sunday Times, David Walsh, 8/17/08
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Value of Cracked Porcelain

Many years ago I was sitting in a friends living room, I noticed a beautiful porcelain figurine sitting on her fireplace. I mentioned to her how much I liked it. She sat up and said, "That has an interesting story behind it! When my children were little they were in this very room playing, I was in the kitchen or busy somewhere when I heard a loud bang and the sound of breaking glass. I ran in to find my little boy huddled over the broken figurine, already crying and trying to pick up the pieces."

Of course I thought the next words out of her mouth would be the scolding she gave him as she sent him off to his room so that she could repair the beloved figurine. But instead one of the greatest lessons I ever learned was given to me. She said when she saw her little boy, in his heartbroken state, she scooped him up and wiped way his tears. Telling him that the figurine meant nothing to her, just something to keep dust off that spot on the mantle. She asked him if he would like to help her try to repair it. Together they pieced the priceless figurine back together and the next day placed it back to continue it's duty of keeping that spot on the mantle dust free. But she vowed in her heart at the very moment she saw the tears on her most priceless gift, her son, that she would never have anything in her home that held more value than her children. I got up to look at the figurine more closely, the cracks were clearly visible, but they were not sad for her, they brought her joy as they reminded her of what was important. I love you Sister Saunders!
Sunday, September 7, 2008