Sunday, January 16, 2011

welcome, welcome, sabbath morning.

oh, church.
I do love going to church.
The last few months have been a battle though.
Carly is energetic.
She will have a blast in nursery, I think.
We are less than a month away.
I love my girl.
But her energy makes it hard to get much out of church.
We survive Sacrament meeting, squeeze through Sunday School, then implode in Relief Society.
The last few weeks I've been taking Carly to Chris for the last 20 minutes when things slow down a bit in the Bishop's office.
Its been nice to have a few quiet moments in Relief Society, and get a little spiritual lift.
Today, the final 20 minutes were just what I needed to hear.
~
The lesson was about sacrifice.
One quote she shared was wonderful:

"It is not a sacrifice to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is never a sacrifice when you get back more than you give. It is an investment. And the living of the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a greater investment than any of which we know because its dividends are eternal and everlasting"
 -Gordon B. Hinckley

It got me thinking.
Last night I wrote out our tithing check.
Every time I do that I think its a little crazy.
I mean, think what we could do with that money.
How many diapers would it buy?
How many bills would it pay?
So I thought of it as a sacrifice.
But its not really.
Because we have faith in the blessings of tithing.
We have been recipients of these blessings.
We don't make much money.
Chris is a student and I stay home.
But we always have enough for our needs.
And that in and of itself is a miracle.
We get back so much more than we give.
~
The same can be said for motherhood.
It is hard.
You sacrifice comfort, ease, sleep, time.
Your abs.
Your sanity.
Sometimes it feels like so much.
But you get back more than you give.
You get first smiles and first giggles.
First steps.
First words.
You get slobbery kisses and tiny hugs.
And this is only the beginning.

I love being Carly's mom.
Sometimes you just need a reminder of how good things are.
Which is why you go to church.

Welcome, welcome, sabbath morning.
I needed you today.

3 comments:

Taryn said...

I also loved the lesson on sacrifice today! And I am totally starting to feel your pain...Stella is getting more than restless! Carly is beautiful!

The Apron Gal said...

Why are you such a good writer? I am very jealous. All of your posts make me almost cry. Keep on keeping on. You are great :)

Cami and Juan said...

I can't even imagine having a 17 month old in church. Amelia just started crawling so we have to build this 'playpen' for her in sunday school to block her in, ha ha. It's amazing how we can still get something out of church, even if it's only a snippet here and there. Like you said it, that snippet is just enough.