When Your Babies have Babies

It has truly been an exciting few months.  One missionary daughter returned from her mission and another one just left.  One son had his first baby and another daughter just had her fifth.  Two other daughters are expecting before the year's end and we have learned that one is having a boy and the other a girl.   My year of teaching Youth in Custody at a local high school ended and I am gearing up to be the Youth in Custody teacher at a residential center.  I have been taking history graduate courses, as well as preparing to apply to graduate school.  We are anxiously anticipating the return of our son and his family from Italy where he has been serving in the JAG Corps.  They are going to be living with us initially.   I have found that one of the few constants in my life is change. 

 

 

Baby Lisbon gets to meet Finn.

When I was younger, I think I had a vision of what I thought my life would be like at this time.  I recalled growing up with older parents who nightly settled in front of the television and had a single  drink to relax before dinner.    I remember doing a lot of fishing with my father and shopping with my mother.  The pace was relaxed and unhurried.  They spent a lot of time on the patio and talked and reminisced.

Life has literally flown by.  To this point, I have enjoyed every age and every stage.  I have become a crier however.   I cry every time I hear a patriotic song.  I cry at baby blessings, marriages and baptisms.  I cry when I consider my blessings and I cry when I consider how much I still need to overcome. 

I worry about trends in America.  I worry that with some there is an inordinate preoccupation with fitness.   Paul warned against that 1Timothy 4:8.   I worry that children are being raised by day care workers.  I worry about the impact of social media and that we have forgotten that manners matter.  I feel sad that the government is trying to be all things to all people, instead of extended families taking care of the needy in their own families.     I think hope, faith, brotherly kindness and morality are being replaced by fear, greed, entitlement and pleasure seeking.  They have forgotten the security that comes from fidelity, the wonder that is present with the birth of a new baby, the confidence that comes from being morally clean, the joy that comes in small acts of service, and the character that comes from enduring difficult situations.

For me that time when I meet my maker is getting closer.  I am in the last quarter of my life.  I turned 61 last week.

  Alyse, my youngest, Shanelle, Bryan, me and Aunt Rochelle holding baby Finn on my birthday.

I love life and I love learning.  I love children.  I love the challenges and opportunities that life affords me.  I believe with all of my heart that we will have to make an accounting of our life before our maker when we die and we will respond to the great question: What have you done with you life?  I believe it was President Kimball who taught that we will need to make an accounting of how we used our time in mortality and John the Beloved taught that we will give an accounting of every idle word.    Hopefully we will have more than the following types of responses:

I watched 59,000 hours of reality television.

I hit a golf ball 30,000 times. 

I checked Facebook at least three times a day.

I ran 8,000.00 miles.

I spent 46,000 hours playing video games.

How nice it would be to say:

I read scriptures to my children each day of their lives.

I forgave others who trespassed against me.

I never gave up.

Any way, you get the idea. 

We do need to spend our time on those things that matter most.  We need inspiration to know what those things are before that great and dreadful day.  We also need time for fun, talking and sharing.

The truly good news is that it is never to late to get an A on this test.  The parable of the laborers should give everyone hope and yet . . . it is very possible to procrastinate the day of our repentance until it is everlastingly too late.  I have loved the book, Return from Tomorrow by George Ritchie.  When he was clinically dead, he had an experience where he met his maker and was asked that all important question of what he had done with his life to show the Savior the kind of love he had extended toward him.  George almost became indignant when he realized he hadn't lived the kind of life that would please his savior.  He felt he had come to a final exam and had never been told what to study.  George Ritchie then wrote what the Savior lovingly explained to him, "I told you by the life I lived. I told you by the death I died.  Look to me and learn more."  (This is paraphrased as I loaned out my book and it wasn't returned.)

Our thoughts aren't always consistent with God's thoughts and our ways, His ways.  But, we can look to Him and learn what really matters.  Few people understand the meaning of the scripture in Matthew, "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life.  They are they which testify of me."    This wasn't just a plea for those present to search the scriptures, but rather a chastisement.   Some whom the Savior sought to reach literally carried their scriptures on their bodies wherever they went.  While they read and studied scriptures, those amazing principles somehow didn't penetrate their souls and change them.  They were busy keeping the letter of the law and somehow didn't come to know Him, the lawgiver.  The Joseph Smith Version of Matthew 7:32-33 reads, "And many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name; and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I say, Ye never knew me; depart from me ye that work iniquity."    We can be very busy and still not know Him.  We can very old and still not know Him.

We do need to search the scriptures prayerfully and daily.  We need to extrapolate those principles by which the ancients approached and communicated with the Father.  We need a two way communication with heaven, otherwise we become a blind guide.  We need to repent, which is more than just avoiding serious sin.  It is to make better choices of our time and energies and judge the way the Savior judged.  This is an impossible task without His input and guidance. 

My young daughter leaves the country next Monday and flies to Argentina.   I will miss her so much.  The only reason I can let her go, is that she knows in whom she can rely.  She knows what it feels like to have the Spirit of God with her and she knows what it feels like to have it leave and knows how to get it back.  She is going to share that message.   I wrote the following to her today: 

"Audrie, I love you and I will pray for you daily.  Though this will be a difficult experience for you, you will have an opportunity to know your Savior more than you have ever known him because the greatest truths are mined in the "field of adversity".  You will have higher highs than you have yet experienced because there is nothing like bringing others to the source of truth.  I will do my best to progress and be a fit companion while you are gone, because if I am not going forward, I will be going backward.  It is an eternal law.  We can never stop improving and learning.  You have already touched so many lives by this decision.  I love you more than words can say!!!"

Love forever, Mom