Keep the faith

One thing that amazed me about Heavenly Father is how aware He is of each of us and places so many opportunities and people in our past to help us be the people he needs us to be.  Often I have found it a struggle in some of the relationships I have been having and at times I feel so discouraged.  When I was young I often thought of the day where I would be old and have a family and live a very happy life with no fights with my husband and best friends with my in-laws but that doesn't seem to always be the case.  But something miraculous has happened with this disappointment in my life because the spirit has filled me with the opportunities to learn.  On Saturday I was feeling overly discouraged at some of the relationships that seemed to be failing and straying from how I had expected them to be.  

So in my heartbroken state I marched Jessa and myself off to the Relief Society broadcast.  I got there and something amazing happened.  Jessa was babbling too much for anyone to hear anything and so I left the meeting at the beginning to take her into the mother's lounge.  There I met another mother nursing her baby boy a day younger than Jessa and twice as big.  But she said to me, "sometimes I think to myself what was the point to even come?"  and I felt myself agreeing.  I could have stayed home and watched the conference later but as Jessa finally settled and quieted and I was able to walk back in the meeting for the last ten minutes of President. Eyering's talk.  Heavenly Father filled me with the lesson that I needed to hear so that I could continue on.  It was such a simple message in my midst of heartache.  "Keep the faith."  President. Eyering continued on to say, 

"With all your differences in personal circumstances and past experiences, I can tell you something of what lies ahead for you. As you keep the faith, you will find yourself invited by the Lord often to serve someone in need when it will not seem convenient. It may appear to be an unpleasant and perhaps even impossible task. When the call comes, it may seem you are not needed or that someone else could easily give the succor.

Remember that when the Lord lets us encounter someone in distress, we honor the good Samaritan for what he did not do as much as for what he did. He did not pass by on the other side even though the beaten traveler on the road was a stranger and perhaps an enemy. He did what he could for the beaten man and then put in place a specific plan for others to do more. He did that because he understood that helping may require more than what one person can do.

Lessons in that story can guide you in whatever your future holds. Those same lessons were available in your own childhood and recent experiences."

And this quote has encouraged me ever since.  Keep the faith it sounds like something so simple and yet the meaning of the words is so profound and important.  I realized that as I walked into the door of my home that night I knew how to be a better wife and mother and the lessons Heavenly Father has taught me are such simple ones.  "Just love them" and "remember, she is a daughter of God.  She is a daughter of a king."  

So many times when I don't know how to stop Jessa's inconsolable crying I just remember that she needs love and patience because she is a daughter of a king.  It has helped me to keep my cool when I feel panicked inside and upset when Jessa bites me repeatedly that day when she nurses.  Or chomps down and pulls back with laughter in her eyes thinking it is a game to see mommy make a mad face but then as I feel a wave of anger wash over me.  I remember to keep the faith.  Remember to keep calm and know who is in charge and there for me always.  

And still the lesson does not stop there.  On Sunday, the bishop said a comment that hit home to me as if he had dropped a ton of bricks in my lap.  The dream is to have a white picket fence, with a mom and a dad, a wife who stays home while the father works and children running around the yard chasing after the fun loving puppy.  That my friends, he stated, is a dream not a reality.  Admist the dreams we have families who have only one parent, couples who are not able to have children grace their home, families who need both parents to work to make ends meet and we have been counselled to keep the faith and endure to the end.  We must find joy in the journey.  It has been an interesting week as I have pondered on this lesson.  

My blessings after these simple lessons have become unfathomable; for I realize that I have that dream.  I have a hard working husband and a beautiful baby who I love and adore with all my heart.  He allows me to stay home and care for my little one and teach her in the ways that we find are in favour with God.  What an absolute joy and blessing it is to be a part of that and to know that Heavenly Father is so ever aware of our presence.  So my dear children who will read this in the future remember to keep the faith.