A Great Day!

I wrote this a few days ago, finally finished:

I first want to thank each of you that commented on my blog yesterday!  All of you said words that validated my feelings, which made me feel better.  There were also words of encouragement, which helped me tremendously, so thank you! 

Morgan sent me a text message yesterday afternoon.  It read, "Hey Mom, guess what?  English went great today!"  I was so happy to see those words!  We still haven't heard back from the teacher, but tomorrow night there's an open house where we'll get the chance to meet all of his teachers. We'll probably try to get a feel from there, to see if we need to make an appointment to talk with her.  She accepted Morgan's late paper, which is a good sign!  He'll still need to use one of his coupons, but that's better than a zero.

You know the phrase, "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven" from the Hymn Praise to the Man.  Well, that phrase came to my mind this morning.  The definition of sacrifice is, "the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else more important or worthy."  That definition describes exactly how I've felt this week as I've woken up at 4:45 AM to feed the baby, get dressed, and drive Morgan and his two friends to seminary.  Even though this has been a hard transition for me, many blessings have come my way.

1. I now have a great start on my day!  I'm up before my kids, and ready to face each day bright and early.
2. I have an hour of alone time, which you know is very precious for a mother of seven.
3. During this alone time, I have decided to read my scriptures or jog.  I usually alternate the two.

On Wednesday, I went jogging and managed to read a little from my scriptures as well.  It was great!  As I was jogging, I thought about the different struggles I have in my life.  I prayed, trying to make sense of things.  When I got back to the car, and opened my scriptures, I felt the spirit.  I felt so refreshed, like I could tackle anything that came my way.

Then it was time to drive them to school.  The two boys that ride with Morgan in the morning, just moved here from New York.  The are very well mannered and seem like great kids.  I asked them if they had early morning seminary back East, and I don't remember their response, but something from our conversation did stand out.  One of the boys asked me if I had noticed that there seemed to be less passion for the gospel here in Tucson, than back East.  He said that the members hardly sing the Hymns here, and barely voice "amen" at the end of the prayers.  He said he was embarrassed at first, because he felt so loud compared to everyone else.  I told him, "whatever you do, don't you ever loose your passion for the gospel!"

I can't begin to describe the effect this question had on me.  I started contemplating, wondering just how passionate was I for the gospel of Jesus Christ?  I thought of the many passionate leaders I had as a youth, and their strong testimonies.  Those leaders were filled with passion when they bore their testimonies, which had a great impact on me.  Their passion-filled testimonies were catalysts for me gaining a strong desire to find my own testimony.  I have since yearned to be just as passionate about the gospel.

I came home and typed the words  "zeal for the gospel" in the search field on lds.org.  I found another great talk Preserving A Heart's Mighty Change by Elder Dale G. Renlund.  From that talk I gained insight for my life, things just started making sense.  All of the confusion that I had previously spent time trying to sort out, was gone, and I saw the big picture.  What a blessing!  That phrase in the song, Praise to the Man, had new meaning for me.  "Sacrifice," truly does "bring forth the blessings of heaven!"